Jim_K

Well I've had my 96 C2 6spd coupe now for about 9 days. I picked it up in Boston and drove it home to Atlanta 2 weekends ago. The car is great and the drive was great (i'll post more about that later).

I took Friday off to have a few things done to the car.....new rear tire, alignment, emissions and was going to get it registered in GA. Everything went well with my alignment and tire but when I went to the Emissions station, it failed right away due to the OBDII readiness codes not being set. The previous owner had put in a new battery for me about 2-3 weeks ago. Even though I drove it about 1400 miles since picking it up, the codes weren't "reset".

Well I came home and did a search on "smog" and "emissions" and followed the steps to the letter. I ran through it both on Saturday morning and then again on Sunday morning for good measure. Stopped by the emissions station on the way home tonight and it passed with flying colors. I was extremely happy to say the least.

If anyone runs into this problem, follow the steps. It worked like a charm for me.

Thanks to Rennlist and the others who posted the procedure, I was saved from having to take my car to my local independant and paying for a couple of hours of labor to have it sorted out.

I'm going to renew my membership shortly and I LOVE THIS CAR.

Jim

ca993twin

Jim,

Nice going with the readiness codes. Congrats on your new car. Lets see some pictures and hear some details about the road trip.

jford

Jim..Congratulations on the new car. I'm not sure if we've heard from you since you boarded that early flight to Boston, hopefully you had a blast driving the new ride down to Atlanta.

You're post could not have come at a better time for me as I am having the same readiness issue with my OBDII. In my case I reset the CEL and did not realise that it would cause the not ready issue. Of course I did not pass emissions and have the nasty red "reject" sticker on the windshield. Been driving for about 2 weeks since and still not ready so looks like I will need to go through the reset process. I did the search for "smog" and "emissions" but got a little confused as there were a couple of different posted procedures. Could you tell me which one you did? If you could tell me the name of the thread (or post the link, which I can never seem to do) and which posted procedure you followed that would be great. TIA

Jamie

kevin993c4

I also changed my battery before registration. It's now two months past my renewal date. I tried following the procedures but there are just too many stop signs where I live. It is just impossible for me to cruise for the number of minutes at different speed as suggested without interruption. Can this be done with interruptions? If not, any suggestions?

Jim_K

Here is the procedure I followed (posted by ecobb993 on 10/18/03) under subject "failed california emissions".

Kary,

That was my entry in response to jstahmann's need to run through the "readiness cycle". Our ever diligent fed & state smog patrol made sure that their evil constituents don't try to fool them by reseting the emissions trouble codes and dashing to the inspection station for a quick read before they trigger again.

At the same time the OBDII cpu codes are reset, the "readiness codes" are also reset. The readiness code indicates whether each of the 8 system sensors have completed it's diagnostic check. So the inspection station doesn't see a trouble code but also sees that the readiness code is off (actually it reads more than "0").

Once the CE light is cleared the following readiness cycle can be followed to reset the code or you could drive the car for a while in a variety of situations that would allow each system to do it's thing:

Start engine, idle cold for approx. 2 min, 10 secs.

Accelerate to 20-30 MPH, Maintain steady speed for approx 3 min, 15 secs.

Accelerate to 40-60 MPH, Maintain steady speed for approx 15 mins.

Decelerate and come to a stop. Idle in gear for approx 5 mins.



Following the start engine phase the sequence of test conditions may interchange.

routine will be discontinued whenever:


Engine speed exceeds 3000 RPM
Large fluctuations in throttle angle
Road speed exceeds 60 MPH


Hope this helps y'all.

The route that I took did have some starts and stops in it, but as long as you follow the instructions not to exceed 3k rpm, don't make large throttle fluctuations and don't exceed 60 mph until complete, it worked (as least for me).

Good luck and let me know if there are any other questions.

I'll post some pics and details of my drive from BOS to ATL ASAP.

Regards.

Jim

DC from Cape Cod

Will the ECU reset in time WITHOUT following these instructions?

Jim_K

I don't know the answer to that question. But after driving 1400 miles in all conditions: highway, stop and go, city/surface streets etc, and my computer still hadn't reset, I would think it would take the "perfect" conditions to set the readiness codes.

Just trying to keep the car under 3000 rpm and 60 MPH would rule it out for me! Also idling from cold for 2 minutes and sitting in gear idling for 5 minutes aren't something I do if I wasn't trying to.

The routine seems to work though......give it a try if you've got the problem

Regards

Jim

DC from Cape Cod

Can a Porsche dealer reset it?

Jim_K

After talking with my independant mechanic about the problem before I ran through the procedure myself, he had said to bring it in and they would hook it up to a computer and run it through cycles to get them reset. Probably the same thing or similar thing as using this procedure.

I don't know for sure, but I know I would of probably been charged for at least a couple hours labor!

jford

Jim,
Thanks, I will run through the reset steps tommorow and hopefully rid myself of the embaressing sticker on Thursday. Can't show up for the Baltimore meet and drive with a red "rejected" sticker on the windshield now can I?

Jamie

cfdarch

so simple minded me wonders...surely they don't expect to idle in gear with clutch depressed.....do they???

My annual sniff check is near and I have that certain orange light aglow.

Thanks in advance.

MarkD

No, I recently went through this and did not idle in gear with clutch depressed. Sat in neutral waiting... checking for reset with my OBDII reader. It also didn't take the full amount of time listed but neither did the 40-60mph part.
I would guess this matters on an auto since putting the car in park or neutral has a different effect.
Also, I think the time listed in the sequence are max times required that ensure the specified sensors reset, not minimum.

cfdarch

thanks mark

cfdarch

......well I slinked through my emissions test once again This board is an amazing resource. cheers

993inNC

I just spent two w/e's beating the hell out of my car between Carolina Motorsports Park and Daytona Int. Raceway. Put about 400 track miles on the car, when I got back, all but 2 codes were set!!! Don't know how or care........inspection passed, 'nuther year down