I have a 88 Maxima GXE with 96000 miles. Well the CO standard is 15.0 I got 13.7. I passed that part, but the Hydrocarbon standard is .8 the car got 3.15, obviously failed. Here's the graph they gave me:
http://slider-gta.members.easyspace....s/emission.jpg

Have no idea what to do next except check the codes, and if nothing comes up go to a repair shop.

-Mike

 

You know, I should probably act like the guys at the third gen forum and yell at you to use the search feature. Since I don't want to be a total ***** about it, I would say that your on the right track. Pull the codes if any from the ECU. Then I would also look into checking your O2 sensors. I would also check to see if your AIV Valve is functioning appropriately. That usually can cause that issue, but also it can destroy your MAF sensor. A good way to check is to open the airbox and see if you got water at that bottom. Let us know what you find.

S

 

Here are 3 pages from the service manual with steps you can do to see what causes the problem. cut and paste the links or click and save as.

http://www.geocities.com/nismo87se/Idleset.jpg
http://www.geocities.com/nismo87se/Idleset2.jpg
http://www.geocities.com/nismo87se/MAFtune.jpg

 

Well I changed the rotor and cap, and the mechanic told me to get a new cat and I should pass. $140 with installation, got that done on Saturday, they welded the cat on. The car sounds worse with it, but oh well. I'm going in for a retest probably tommorow or Wednesday. The guy at the place told me to put in a couple bottles of injector and drive around for a while, but I don't see the point since I got new injector thanks to the recall less than 500 miles ago. Well I hope I pass this time.

 

That sucks but there is some good cleaner system I believe that guarantees you will pass smog. I used it, I forgot the name already, but it worked great. Or you can have a mechanic work around that *wink wink*.

-A

 

Went today and passed.

 

Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that on the Hydrocarbons part I got 0.978 (grams) and the standard is 0.983 so I was pretty close up there, not sure if this is normal since I have a brand new cat. The CO was good though at 16.907(grams) as the standard I got 4.918. I think something might be not right, but I'm not knowleadgeble in this area. What exactly are hydrocarbons?

This time I drove straight off the road for the test and there was no lines, so there was no wait time if that matters, last time I waited 30+minutes idling and the rotor and cap was old and crappy. Bah sorry for typying and taking up time, but I'm not sure if I should be worried about this hydrocarbon level, and if it's bad for the car. Well at least the next test is 2 years away.

-Mike

 

Don't worry, you shouldn't be doing any major damage to your car (though it may harm the catalytic converter) but you are definitely doing damage to the environment. High hydrocarbon levels are what creates smog, and that's one of the reason's why California's emissions (especially hyrdocarbon levels) are a lot stricter there.

The primary cause of high hydrocarbon levels is the result of unburnt fuel. A basic tune up with new wires, plugs, cap and rotor, air and fuel filters should clear things up for you.

You may also want to check your ECU to make sure you don't have any faulty sensors and to make sure your fuel/air ratio is correct. Also make sure your ignition timing is set properly, a retarded ignition timing not only decreases performance and fuel mileage, but it may not be burning all of the fuel that the engine is receiving. If you advance it too far though, you're going to have to run high octane fuel to make sure you don't have detonation problems.

-C-

 

Hmmm, new fuel filter not too long ago, air filter changed like 2 months ago, cap + rotor a week ago. and I got new plugs a month ago(NGK). The previous owner replaced the wires with Bosch not that long ago. So I'm gonna check the ECU, not confident with the timing, don't wanna screw anything up.