The day that I feared for so long, has finally arrived!
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| The bad news is highlighted in yellow. |
One of my cars, the 1996 Mustang, has failed the smog test!
What am I going to do?
It wasn't that the check engine light came on, and the car threw a code. Instead the car failed the tail pipe test, obviously exhaust emissions are too high. But why?
I had the car smogged last April, when I was going to try to sell it. It passed, but I thought that the margins might be getting slimmer.
There are a lot of miles on the engine, the compression has been deteriorating a bit as the rings and valves are not sealing as well as they once did. That can be attributed to normal wear.
I've always felt that a point would come where it is not a failure of a system or part, but just the general entrophy of the motor itself. I see a lot of vehicles with the 4.6 motor with extremely high mileage. Just look at all those livery service Town Cars. 250K and higher miles is not uncommon and those cars are sold with clear smog tests. At least I think that they are.
To be honest, 217,000 miles is a lot of miles, of course the engine is worn. But is it worn out?
So what should I do? Rebuilding or replacing an engine is an expensive fix.
The important thing is to slow down, and take a breath!
Getting started, I will compare the results of the last test with this one. I need to determine how slim the passing margins actually were, and compare them with my current test.
The technician did not offer any suggestions, but that really isn't his job, it is a test only center. He tried to console me by reminding me that a second test is free, within 90 days. When I asked him what he thought that it could be, he just replied, "Old cars are funny, sometimes they will pass, when on another day they will fail." I wasn't going to give him a hard time about it, but I can understand that he isn't going to try to diagnose the problem.
I copied the following segment from my post on the AACA forum, that's why the font is different.
I have the two prior smog tests to compare my results with the latest test.
On 12/07/20 at 214,204 miles I had it smogged for '21 registration. Passed.
On 04/20/22 at 216,278 miles I had it smogged for potential sale. Passed.
On 1/17/23 at 217,513 miles I had it smogged for the '23 registration. Failed. By one point in max H/C @15 mph.
Prior to the April/22 test I had replaced the plug wires, coils, spark plugs, and air filter. On the current test it failed the roller h/c check. I'll address those margins. The max permitted at 15 mph. is 50 PPM, at 25 mph the max is 34 PPM
On Dec '20 the measured results were: 15 mph. 35 PPM, 25 mph. 14 PPM Passed by margins 15 &20 PPM
On April '22 the measured results were: 15 mph. 31 PPM, 25 mph. 14 PPM Passed by margins of 19 &20 PPM.
On Jan '23 the measured results were: 15 mph. 51 PPM 25 mph. 25 PPM It failed by exceeding the max reading @ 15 mph. by 1 PPM. It passed with a margin of 9 PPM @25 mph.
Accumulated mileage since 12/20 was only 3,300 miles. Over the years, I have been monitoring the margins for passing the test. Looking at the '20 and '22 test, I felt that I still had plenty of room for success. Since the car is now used entirely as a hobby car, it will accumulate mileage even slower in the coming years. I bought my '06 Mustang to use as a driver and figured that I could still own the '96 for many years without having to rebuild or replace the motor.
As I mentioned earlier, the car has been sitting in the garage since Sept. with only an 1/8th of a tank of gas. I'm wondering if due to the cold and the extreme rain, maybe there was a lot of condensation in the tank, I didn't even add any new fuel before the test. The battery had also gotten so weak that it couldn't start the car. I jumped it and let it run for about a half hour before taking it to the test center which is ten miles away. It didn't have any problem starting the car when I restarted it before leaving. Usually I will add at least a half tank of fresh gas and use the car everyday for a few days before taking it in for smog. I would aim for at least fifty miles of use before the test date. The low voltage might have had a bad effect also. I had a ton of problems with my '07 Mustang when the battery went bad on me!
After failing the test I added a half tank of new gas, and half a bottle of Techron additive. After I use that up, I'll add another half tank of the good stuff, Chevron, and the rest of the bottle of Techron, and drive some more. I've got 90 days for a free re-test. If it doesn't pass, then I'll have to consider checking the catalysts and other things.
I had been looking into remanufactured motors last year. A new long block would solve a worn engine problem, and truthfully, an engine swap is easier to do than a transmission swap.
The car wasn't worth a lot of money before this happened, and now the value has dropped down to the scrap level.
The strange thing is that the car runs great, doesn't smoke, and idles smoothly.
I received some suggestions from my AACA forum members. Someone recommended checking the EGR system, another told me that O2 sensors can go gradually bad without throwing a code. Maybe, my first job will be to clean the MAF sensor, I've already put a couple of hundred miles down, using up the old gas, and added another half tank of gas, plus Techron.
While I am quite concerned, it's not the end of the world. I really don't need this car to be in service, so there isn't any real pressure to come up with a solution. That means that I don't have to immediately spend any money on it. It can wait, I can take a careful, measured approach, and the car can sit in the garage while I decide what to do.
This is the first time that this has happened to me. I have owned this car longer than any other before, and it has the highest mileage. That's not completely true, my '97 Explorer was bought with over 235K, with a clean smog certificate. It was smogged two years later for the registration renewal. Not to say that I wasn't sweating that one out. I'm sure that many other enthusiasts have been in this same spot. That's why most car guys will choose a '75 or earlier car, that is not subject to smog testing in California.
Updates will follow.
This is a black cloud hanging over my head, but I'll deal with it as the situation develops. I've got other projects that I'll be working on in the meantime.
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