My car failed the California smog test today. The car passed the comprehensive and the emissions test, but failed the functional test. The part that it failed was the MIL/Check Engine Light test, due to 3 monitors that were "NOT READY". The three monitors that read not ready were the catalyst, evap, and 02 sensor. The guy at the shop told me to drive on the freeway for 40 miles or so. I did and when they plugged the OB2 plug back in, the same monitors still said NOT READY. I do not have a check engine light, I triggered one a while back when I did not plug in my ECTS plug. I plugged in the ECTS harness to the sensor and cleared my codes, but like I said this was a while back. The guys at the shop told me to just keep driving the car and that those monitors should be ready in a couple of days or so.

This is frustrating, especially since I passed the only part that I was a little worried about, the emissions test (not by a lot but enough to pass). The only reason I was worried was due to my combination of my y-pipe and original 02 sensors. I know that the y-pipe alone would not stop me from passing, but I was not sure about the combination of the y-pipe and my old 02 sensors.


I will report back in a few days. Hopefully someone here can guide me as how to get these monitors ready.

 

gd man, more and more and more cali residents are failing the smog, im beginning to worry. god i hate cali smog laws

 

I called the dealer and told them of my problem, and about the code that I set off and cleared almost a couple of months back. The guy told me that when I cleared the ECU it would have to readjust and at that point none of the monitors would be ready. The guy said that by now with all of the driving that I have done that all of the monitors should say ready, unless I disconnected the battery, which I did not. The guy at Nissan told that when I go back to the smog shop to bring the car in to check the ECU if the 3 monitors still say they are not ready. I am just hoping for 2 monitors to say they are not ready, they will let 2 slide, but 3 is no good.

I also read up that sometimes there may be some sensor that may be malfuntioning that would affect the ECU in this way, I guess the dealer would be able to help me with this. I hope that it is one of the 02 sensors and not my ECU.

I just put over 1400 miles on my car over the last 12 days, and more since I cleared the code, so I think that driving it a little more is not going to get these monitors ready . Just in case I will go to the smog shop tomorrow.

 

Well here's the deal. I had a Knock Sensor Code (P0325). I bought a new knock sensor yesterday along with the sub-harness. I installed them yesterday and disconnected the battery for 15 minutes.

I then drove the car to my friends house about 8 miles away. We hooked up his OBDII Laptop Scanner and pulled codes. Code P0325 was there, so we cleared the code. I drove home.

This morning I drove 5 miles to Smog-N-Go and had them smog the car. It passed, no problems.

I'd suggest that you pull your own codes from the ECM and see if you have any. If it flashes LONG/LONG/LONG/LONG/LONG - SHORT/SHORT/SHORT/SHORT/SHORT (0505), then you have no stored codes. If it flashed anything else, then you've got other problems. OBDII along with OBDI have different levels of codes. Some are silent and won't trip the MIL, while others will set the MIL on all the time until the ECM is ran through enough cycles to verify the sensor is working within spec again.

Good site for getting the codes: http://vbxmaxima.8m.com/ecu.html

 

Actually the last time I ran my codes I got an 0505. I was the one that set the code last time by forgetting to plug in the engine coolant temperature sensor. I cleared it and checked it later and had 0505.

Thanks for the input. If the monitors are not ready tomorrow I will then check the ECM for codes, and see what is going on. I just do not want to mess with it the night before I get the car checked again.

 

I went to the smog shop 2 days ago. Same thing, OBD monitors still said not ready. The guy checked for codes and found none. His computer said NO DTC's found. I cheked my ECM just a few minutes ago, and got an 0505. I reset the ECM, now all of the monitors are not ready, but hopefully driving around for a week and resetting the ECM will do the trick. If this does not work, off to the dealer I go. I will take off my WSP y-pipe, put the OEM on back on, just so they don't get the idea of telling me that it is causing the problem (that way they actually have to find out what is wrong with the car).

This SUCKS!

Has anyone encountered this problem before, and if so how did you get it fixed?

 

daymn that sux

 

My car finally passed the California smog test ! I took it to the smog shop yesterday after work and had them hook it up to their computer. I told them I did not have time to run the actual smog test, but would bring it in first thing this morning if the monitors were ready. The WSP Y-pipe is still on the car and I wanted to get the cat nice and hot before the retest(if your car fails they have to do the whole test all over again, even if it passed the emissions part as mine had done). One of my monitors kicked in, it was the evap one. I think resetting the ECM a couple of weeks ago helped, but the ones for the O2 sensors and Catalyst (the O2 sensor that is in the cat is for monitoring the catalyst) were still not ready. Weird since I just put all brand new O2 sensors. Maybe I did not drive with the new sensors long enough, I just put them in last week. Some of my emissions went down considerably but not the HC's. I also have not yet seen a big increase in my MPG with the new sensors.

Here are the numbers for the HC's and the NO, the other readings were already pretty low so I will not post those numbers:

HC (PPM) @15MPH - Max is 54 my car put out 53 (the original test hit 47 with the old sensors, kind of weird)
HC (PPM) @25MPH - Max is 37 my car put out 33 (same as the original test)

I would have thought that the new O2 sensors would have helped here, but the guy was kind of taking his time. In the mean while the Cat was getting nice and cold, but I could not tell him to hurry.

NO (PPM) @15MPH - Max is 430 my car put out 222 (422 after the original test)
NO (PPM) @25MPH - Mas is 717 my car put out 172 (433 after the original test)

This is where the new O2 sensor really helped out. I may have to change out the WSP Y-pipe for the OEM one the next time the tests comes around due to the high readings for the HC's. At this point I do not really care, as this headache is gone for a while. I may go to the shop later just to see if my other 2 monitors have kicked in.

 

The MIL light of my 96 GLE with 43k miles lit up a couple of weeks ago. I took it to the dealer and they told me that they changed the 02 sensors and some hoses and canisters for free, but they would have to charge me $350 for the evap purge valve since the valve is not part of the recall/campaign. I was thankful for work they did, but the MIL light is still lit and they told me that my car would fail the emissions test. I wonder why Nissan did not make the valve part of the recall/campaign, as I knew several TSBs were issued for that part and other related equipment.

BTW, how long does Nissan warranty OEM emissions related parts? Is it 8 yrs or 80k miles?

 

this's making me worried now, and i only have 2 weeks left to take that dumb cali smog check, need to get my *** to one of those shops, hopefuly it passes

 

You are right about the warranty on emission components. Ther is more information here http://www.epa.gov/otaq/consumer/warr95fs.txt there tell you what components are covered. On the evap valve, I think a few people here have cleaned theirs out. It is located behind the rear wheel on the driver's side in the quarter panel towards the bottom.
Do a search for the evap valve to make sure tough, as I may be mistaken.

Your car sure has very low miles for being a 96. I remember those good old days.



bigx323 good luck on your test .

 

I replaced my O2's and cat....and my o2 and cat always say not ready for some reason....I just think it's b/c it's an aftermarket cat or something...but I have no codes...and I think my evap says okay...can't remember

 

Weird huh? I did not have any codes either. Did your car pass the test?

 

I don't have any codes...but I don't have a smog test due for another 8 months or so...

 

there are always 3 or 4 sensors not reading correctly on my car, according to my obd2 scanner. i dunno why they're giving you a hard time. find another max owner to go with you, and ask them to check your friend's max. Want proof? I'll go take a digivid if u want. find me on IM

Jae

 

Thank you 1996 blackmax for your useful link. I will read it carefully and see if I may have a cause to take this up with corporate Nissan or the dealer.

 

No problem .

 

It's much simpler in PA starting in 2004. Check engine lamp = automatic fail. To me it makes sense, because our inspections are a rip-off, without coupon around $68 (with coupon the cheapest I've seen is $34.95). So why go there, knowing something is up, pay $68, and have your valid stickers removed?? This way you know the lamp is on you don't go until you know the problem was corrected. I don't know your car so the below may not apply, but it seems to be the case with many 4th gens.

I know that with the airbag I keep tricking the computer because I know there is an intermittent problem. But with the EVAP it is a total part failure that happens in the 50's to 60's. The motor does not start the same way anymore especially when hot--that tells much more than a MIL. I really didn't think the people who said to remove the boost sensor and cannister and try to clean them were giving good advice, because a cleaning does not fix a leak, and it was very time consuming. And the states don't want to pass the car if there is a leak. Just my .02

 

I am hving the same problem trying to pass the smog test. Mechanic tells me to drive the car more, but I am runnning out of time.

 

My son’s Maxima had the same issue as mine, monitors not being ready. He had a 5th gen. Spoke with my friend who was a Nissan mechanic at the time. Drove like 30 miles out on the highway, then back. Tried to maintain a speed of 60mph. That helped the monitors kick in.

 

Dude, just pay your registration fees so you don't get hit with penalties. Then carry on trying to get it to pass smog. I wouldn't sweat getting pulled over, cops usually let registration stickers slide a month or two, unless they have another reason to pull you over, like speeding, running lights, or California rolling through stop signs...