Author Topic: Air Care Passing? vancouver.... Passed! (Read 6731 times)

Chestrockwell · « **on:** September 11, 2006, 10:01:07 pm »

Now that I live in Vancouver (from Victoria) I need to get my car air cared appearantly. I've searched the forum and browsed quite a bit and found nothing. Car's got a 1.9 with t3 and Giles pump, straight exhaust, oh and it's '97 jetta. I think it would fail before any testing at all due to "tampering".... that's f'ing weak... catalytic converters are a croc of ***e. Anyways, anyone in lower mainland running a modified diesel through the air care without any problems? Any help would be much appreciated. Oh, and I'm not going to lie to my Victoria insurance agent about where I live; that would leave me screwed in the event of a crash.
peace,

Chester.

malone · « **Reply #1 on:** September 12, 2006, 12:50:43 am »

I live near Vancouver and I got my IDI Aircared in Abbotsford. They did check to see if I have a catalytic converter. For diesel vehicles Aircare only tests the exhaust opacity, i.e. visible smoke. If you exceed 30% exhaust opacity, then you fail. During the test they'll either rev your engine in neutral or they'll drive your car on rollers, alternating engine RPM & load. They did the neutral revving thing in my car because the car was too low for the rollers.

The average exhaust opacity of passing diesels is 6.0-6.8% if I remember correctly. My IDI had more modifications than you have and I got around 40% the first time and finally 2 to 3% on the second try a few months later. The 40% was due to my brand new engine not being broken in yet.

Just adjust your LDA and fuel screw until you don't smoke much, if at all. It doesn't matter if it's slow, as long you pass. It's not really that hard. If you don't have a cat, then you might be rejected.

Seeing as you have a Giles pump your car should still perform well with the LDA totally disconnected, so I'd unplug the LDA hose and see if your smoke is eliminated at all throttle & RPM ranges.

edit: Stop at Autogas near Alex Fraser Bridge in Delta (10128 Nordel Court) and fill up your car with B20 or B40. Biodiesel will reduce visible smoke. Note: I would try B40 only once unless your fuel lines and seals in the injection pump are replaced with bio-diesel resistant material.

LeeG · « **Reply #2 on:** September 12, 2006, 02:07:41 am »

Make sure its nice and hot when you take it there. My 1.6 chugs back a good 2 litres of lube oil per 1000km and it has yet to fail. All I do is take it for testing after the commute home.

Last time around they were poking under the car with lights and mirrors and I asked what she were looking for. 'catalytic converter' was the answer. When I told her it didnt have one she said it was an automatic failure. I told her it was a diesel and didnt need one and she looked embarrased, then went ahead and tested it, didnt go check to see if it came with one or not.
YMMV. The side pipe may make them over enthusiastic. But if it has something that looks like a cat, they probably wont even comment on the rest of it. You can probably find a empty cat shell cheap at any number of exhaust shops and it looks like you already know how to weld!

My car does smoke less on the B20/B40.

Dont de-power it too much. That same test as above, first time she ran it on the dyno it failed as 'underpowered'. But the girl was too short to get the gas pedal to the floor and too clueless to figure out how to move the seat. She redid the test almost lying down, cranening her head up to see the computer and managed a decent score: 14/30

commuter boy · « **Reply #3 on:** September 12, 2006, 09:55:07 am »

Consider getting a test pipe/cat converter setup. Swap in the cat for testing, bolt back the test pipe when done.

Magnaflow makes universal 2 stage diesel cats in all sizes, about a hundred bucks.

Other than that, run bio, turn down the smoke screw, and you should be fine, except for your blood pressure spiking as you watch the Aircare jockeys abuse your car on the rolling platform

935racer · « **Reply #4 on:** September 12, 2006, 11:05:28 am »

(Cough) I know a guy who just welds on cat heat shields to the exhaust to make it appear that there is a cat there on lowered diesel cars(cough)

RabbitJockey · « **Reply #5 on:** September 12, 2006, 02:50:50 pm »

in pennsylvania diesel don't need emissions haha, my inspection costs 12.50 each year, hahahaha. but my buddys dad owns a shop :roll:

SMOKEYDUB · « **Reply #6 on:** September 12, 2006, 06:46:15 pm »

it cost me close to 35 bucks every 2 yrs to get mine tested. and the only thing they did was pop the hood to make sure it was a diesel and wrote a pass. in ontario its just an idle test and they dont use test equipment they just look for smoke. i freaked out on the guy when he poped my hood ( he was pokin around in there. :?

MacGyver · « **Reply #7 on:** September 12, 2006, 09:22:20 pm »

That's about right for Ontario. My first test on my 97 was done from the guy's chair. He leaned over & looked out the door @ my running car.
"Volkswagen ,eh?"
Me:"Yep."
"Diesel, eh?"
Me: "Yep."
"Exhaust tight on that thing?"
Me:"Yep."
"$35 please."
Me :roll:

Next time another place, they put a kid on it, he actually did the full 5 minute test. Car passed with straight exhaust, studded tires, CEL on, and EGR disconnected

For BC Aircare, I like the welding idea mentioned above, and see if you can find out which testing stations might be a bit more lax than others. For the visual stuff, just a matter of finding the lazy guy that won't check close

commuter boy · « **Reply #8 on:** September 12, 2006, 10:48:05 pm »

The BC Aircare staff are generally overpaid idjits. I'm sure there's a few competent ones there, but I've had a lot of bad experiences.

Once a guy, and his supervisor, were adamant that my VW Fox's round shaped cat wasn't a cat, but that I had replaced it with a second resonator to "save money".

Never mind that the entire exhaust system was in the same rusty state, or that the car PASSED the emissions test first go round with flying colours.

I finally had to get a printout from Etka to show them that indeed, it did have a round shaped cat.

A fookin day of my life wasted to those guys......

coke · « **Reply #9 on:** September 13, 2006, 11:08:25 pm »

They sound like lazy undereducated slobs.

935racer · « **Reply #10 on:** September 14, 2006, 01:18:02 am »

BC aircare is a joke. Thats why "this guy" I know tucks his exhaust into the tunnel so that all you can see is the CAT heat shield... which of course is just welded to a straight pipe :lol:

One of the few exceptions where I love union bumbs.

zagarus · « **Reply #11 on:** September 14, 2006, 02:16:11 am »

im just gonna stay up in kamloops where there is no air care...We smoke till the sun don't shine! :lol: :lol:

coke · « **Reply #12 on:** September 14, 2006, 02:17:59 am »

Yes. Live in the land of Big Smoke.

zagarus · « **Reply #13 on:** September 14, 2006, 02:20:31 am »

hope aircare doesn't migrate up here in the future.

935racer · « **Reply #14 on:** September 14, 2006, 10:02:54 am »

I had a customer drop off his NA 1.6 caddy about a year ago to get a turbo conversion, full exhaust, oil cooler etc. There was no insurance on the truck, when he cam to pick it up he drove it straight to kamloops from my shop (about 3 hours) and registered the truck there for cheaper insurance and no aircare, in his friends name, who lives in a psych ward in kamloops....

Talk about a series of bad ideas :?

Author Topic: Air Care Passing? vancouver.... Passed! (Read 6731 times)

935racer

935racer

935racer