Air Care in Greater Vancouver Area?

[Smokey Eddy]

I looked on the air care site and this is all it said
http://www.aircare.ca/inspinfo-stds-d147.php?MY=1990&V=P&F=D


Does that mean i don't need a cat or muffler ... OR is our "catalytic converter" not actually a cat and it's just a resonator. Because i didn't know that you could have cats on diesels....?

This is an obscure question for the forum i know and i apologize but it will determine what i have to do with my exhaust.

stupid emission control. I burn 1/2 as much fuel as a gasser. that should be emission control damn well enough!

[Clintwalker85]

in bc it is great because if you have to get "air care" testing it don't matter if you have a cat or resonator just as long as it passes the test....here in ontario you need it all...me i just gutted my cat converter so its just for show...because if the MTO seen i dident have a cat....the plates would be pulled...dam ontario..most strict place for Saftey and emmision inspections....

[8v-of-fury]

in bc it is great because if you have to get "air care" testing it don't matter if you have a cat or resonator just as long as it passes the test....here in ontario you need it all...me i just gutted my cat converter so its just for show...because if the MTO seen i dident have a cat....the plates would be pulled...dam ontario..most strict place for Saftey and emmision inspections....

Unless your cars over 20. Boo yah lol pass the safety and its free game from there! LOL but yeah for cars under 20 Bc seems ideal

[Rich_91]

Depends where in Ontario you live. Up in Thunder Bay (NW Ontario), we have no emissions testing at all. Get your car safetied and drive it till the wheels fall off!  

[vanbcguy]

I think it really depends on the year of the car.  According to the AirCare web site it looks like any car newer than 1988 needs to have a cat no matter what.  However everything else mentioned in the same documentation is all talking about gas cars, not diesel.

Looks kind of ambiguous to me.  I want to do my exhaust but I'm worried about getting through AirCare without a cat... But if some A3 people out there have been through without one I'd like to hear about it!

[Smokey Eddy]

dang it! conflicting posts!

Do you or do you not need a cat?

I think im just going to try without ANYTHING just a straight pipe. Turn the fuel screw ALL the way out. put the boost pin where it gives the least fueling under boost and see how that goes.

If they drove it "hard" the way it is right now i THINK the boostlines would blow off again... but they never floor it right?


I wonder how often they break peoples cars driving them.

[vanbcguy]

I HAVE taken cars without a cat through AirCare before, and had it noted on my test, but those were all pre-1988.

From the AirCare web site:

Is my vehicle required to have a catalytic converter?

    If your vehicle was manufactured with a catalytic converter, it means it was a necessary component for the vehicle to comply with the new vehicle standards for that model year. Catalytic converters have been used on some vehicles since the mid-1970s. By 1988, all light-duty vehicles manufactured for sale in Canada were equipped with three-way catalytic converters (TWC).

    To find out whether your vehicle was originally equipped with a catalytic converter you should check with the vehicle manufacturer.

    You may be able to determine whether your vehicle was originally equipped with a catalytic converter by referring to the underhood emissions label. On the underhood emissions label, the acronyms OC, ORC, and TWC all refer to types of catalytic converters. Some labels may say "CATALYST" in large type.

.......

    A catalytic converter is necessary for all 1988 and newer vehicles to pass an AirCare inspection. Older vehicles may be able to pass inspection without a catalytic converter.

A good question would be "Did Diesel VW's in 1988 and newer all come stock with catalytic converters in Canada?"  Anyone out there with a Canadian original '88 - '92 want to chime in on that?

[Clintwalker85]

Depends where in Ontario you live. Up in Thunder Bay (NW Ontario), we have no emissions testing at all. Get your car safetied and drive it till the wheels fall off!  

i wouldent say that......mto spot checks all last summer were testing emissions..

[Smokey Eddy]

I was under the impression that it was a resonator and had nothing to do with emission control...

I have the "cat" sitting in my garage right now but it doesn't look like a gasser cat and where in diesel's combustion equation does the presence of a cat continue combustion?

It works with a gasser because the exhaust can still sometimes be on fire but with our diesels i don't believe that EVER happens...

im sure im wrong, someone please educate me.

Catalytic converters continue the combustion of the fuel to remove certain hydrocarbons from the exhaust. I'm pretty sure that in the combustion of diesel said hydrocarbons aren't even present...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catalytic_converter#Diesel_engines

I guess that's my answer  :?  but that thing in my garage just looks like a muffler on the inside...

[commuter boy]

in bc it is great because if you have to get "air care" testing it don't matter if you have a cat or resonator just as long as it passes the test.

Wrongo.  They do a visual inspection underneath the car with a mirror to check for a cat.  If it's not there, even if you still pass the opacity test you fail automatically, assuming it came with a stock cat.  Check the sticker under the hood, it'll say if it was stock.

I've even had them fail it on a VW Fox because they assumed the smallish round cat on it looks like a resonator.  Took three visits, some ETKA printouts and a letter for a VW dealer to get it to pass.

They'll also fail you for a leaking gas cap seal, and as well if you turn the fuel screw down too much so that it can't accelerate fast enough on the rollers to meet their program.

That's why I put a swappable cat/test pipe setup on my Passat, 10 minutes under the car and I've got a cat, 10 minutes after and I don't.

[handedyourhat]

Can someone please answer me this "WHY DO YOU GO TO AIRCARE" I think the last time I went was  the second year the aircare stations opened , That was the last time they saw any of my $ . Here is a little hint for ya. There are no aircare police that will come knockin on your door and force you to go........

[Smokey Eddy]

Can someone please answer me this "WHY DO YOU GO TO AIRCARE" I think the last time I went was  the second year the aircare stations opened , That was the last time they saw any of my $ . Here is a little hint for ya. There are no aircare police that will come knockin on your door and force you to go........

Uh....


To maybe get insurance... license plates... you know that kind wish wash stuff that, i know, isn't REALLY nessisary. But i'd rather not drive with cardboard fake plates.

in BC the gov't has a monopoly on the auto insurance. It's called ICBC and it IS the anti-christ. And in the "Greater Vancouver Area" which streches all the way out to Abbotsford (for some reason?) it's required to pass air care before they will let you insure the car.

It's a total load of sh!t because you can just have 1 engine for all your cars that passes air car and then when you're through the booth swap your racing engine in it. It's a really stupid system that they additted was pointless, it's supposed to be removed in the next couple years.

In California, i heard a story of cops having some sort of scoops on their cruisers that would roughly read the emissions of the car in front of them and they could pull them over for emission suspicion and require them to go get tested again.

[commuter boy]

Can someone please answer me this "WHY DO YOU GO TO AIRCARE"

Alright, I'm curious, how do you get around it if you live in the GVRD, aside from registering your vehicle out in Hope or somesuch?

[Smokey Eddy]

well the limit is 30% opacity and i passed air care a year ago with a 12.0% on a dismal engine.

in order to fail you would need to have like max fueling and a very small tail pipe. A big pipe really eff's their system because its an opacity check so the larger the area it's flowing through the less opaque it is.

I'm just going to make half of my exhaust, ram the old cat in there, add a tail pipe sloppily. Get the stupid piece of paper. Rip it out again and replace it with just straight pipe or my dual idea and get insurance.

THAT is how you pass air care. But if ICBC asks, you didn't hear it from me!


Edit: wait, does handedyourhat live in the GVRD?

[handedyourhat]

No that is not how you do it, and yes I live about 7 minutes from you Ed...so that would place me into the catagory that I must take my car to a Airscare station to have it tested to see if it meets their requirement so I am allowed to purchase insurance for my $300 VW  "Ya right". You are very close to the answer when you stated about using a Hope address....keep guessin  :lol:  :lol:  :lol:

D