Here's the story, I took my car in to a smog check place (I live in California) and I failed. The guy said it was very unusual because my car passed both the visual and exhaust parts of the test, but because they do some type of "rediness checks" w/the ECU and my car didn't pass enough of them. He said the only situations where cars fail this part of the test is when the battery or ECU have recently been reset and the car hasn't run though all of its cycles enough times to become "ready," and it fails. However, since I haven't unplugged my battery or ECU for about a month I think this is highly unlikely. This leads me to think it has to be related to the fact that I have a JWT upgraded ECU. I called Jim Wolf and I'm waiting to hear back from him, does anyone have any suggestions? I'm thinking of trying to find someone with a stock ECU I could use for a day just to pass.

 

Some states don't do tailpipe test only and also do OBDII scans. If you have any emissions related codes, you will fail. That said, do you have any hard codes that don't elicit the CEL? I get a EGR solenoid code that JWT says is logged but the EGR system is fully intact. It doesn't light up the CEL but will be pulled when the ecu is scanned or by bringing up the codes. Otherwise, I believe the JWT collects and saves data just like stock.

So they don't tell you what exactly are the "checks" you failed? SEems to me you would need that to correct the problem. Maybe pull codes to see if you get any.

 

Well I heard back from JWT and on monday they'll check out my ECU (thank god I live in San Diego), so hopefully we'll be able to figure out whats wrong.

Has anyone else ran into a problem like this before?

 

I have the JWT and I have gone thru smog with it and it passed. I live in Cali too. However, I didn't have to do the dyno smog test because I live in rural area. I just had to do the old sensor in the tailpipe test. Maybe that is why I passed?

 

Yup, I was told that the test my car failed was only a test that they started doing recently and my car passed on everything else (tailpipe and visual)

 

How recently did they start doing this test? I had mine smogged 2 months ago in a Smog Check II area of Cali and passed no problem and they did nothing with the ECU. I wouldn't see how the JWT ECU would do anything smog related as they only test at idle, and about 2.5K RPM at most (I forget the actual speeds).

 

Well I just got back from JWT, it seems like they realized that their upgrade is probably the cause of my smog failure since they gave me a stock ECU to drive around with for a few days while they check things out. If their upgraded ECU's cause california cars to fail the new smog tests, JWT could run into some serious problems. From what I could understand out of the whole situation (since I'm not very mechanically inclined, especially with anything having to do with the ECU) is that the car produces several 'readiness codes' (about 11) related to things like the catalytic convertor, Engine misfire, O2 sensors, etc. Of those codes, your car (in a Cali smog test) is allowed to fail 3..mine failed 4. Well I go back to JWT in a few days so I'll keep you guys posted.

 

Option #1
Since JWT gave you a stock ECM for a few days you can use that ECM to do your re-test in the hopes that JWT will correct the problem for the next time you have to do a smog test

Option #2
Wait until JWT "thinks" they corrected your problem then do your re-test to see if they got it. This option will also benefit JWT because they will know for sure if they corrected the problem or not (for other customers) But if they didn't get it correct it's more hassle for you going back and forth.

What do you think?

 

Hmm was your CEL on? Technically you could hook up a code reader to your car and it would tell you what is causing a DTC to be stored.

 

I'm definitely doing option #1...there's no sense for me to take any chances (plus an extra drive all the way over to where JWT is) even if they can modify my ECU that they have now.

However, since they know exactly what rediness codes its throwing and can easily identify everything with the tools they have, they'll be able to tell when they fix the problem.

Also, no my car didn't have a check engine light on, I'm pretty sure that if JWT thought that there was a problem with my car and not with their software, they wouldn't have just let me use a stock ECU.

 

Well I got the smog test with the stock ECU and I passed with no problem. I go back into JWT on tuesday to get my modified ECU back....so if you have to face a cali smog test, it seems that you'd be much better off getting a spare ECU from a junkyard to either be modified for your car or to keep around for when you get tested.

 

Did JWT give you any explanation as to why your ECM failed the smog test. The only thing is, you will not know if they corrected the problem until your next test in 2 yrs.

 

What year ECU was the stock one from? I ask because can't they only check the ECU's that are OBD-II? In Illinois, they could not check my ECU either, So they just did the sniff test and I passed just fine.

 

I'm pretty sure both of the ECU's were from a 96. When I go back to JWT on tuesday I'll let them know what happened and see if they have any solution, to be honest I'll probably only have this car for another 3 years or so, so I'll only really need to deal with this one more time.

 

Well, even though my car is a 96 the production date is 95 and the emsissions test on the ECU does not work. I bet they could not read it because the ECU is not OBD-II, even though the 96 is supposed to be.