Aircare Question...FAIL HC
 

I know this has been asked and I have read a bunch of threads about it first but I just want to know what the logical/cheapest order of fixing things would be to get my car to pass.

So I have a 97 Toyota Mark II which I recently imported, 1JZGTE, and it has a cat back, apex'i power intake and that's it in terms of engine related mods.

I went for aircare today and and I passed the CO and NOx tests with flying colours but I failed HC with 0.8980 and allowable is 0.5. From what I've read, this is due to un-burnt fuel....so what should I replace first?

Should I replace the spark plugs? Maybe install the stock intake back into the car?

Thanks for any help!

PS: Oil/filter was changed 4000kms ago with fully synthetic 10w30, spark plugs were changed around the same time, coils I believe are factory, original ones from JDMland, and I drove the car for about 1hr prior to the test, using Shell 91.

O2 sensor? or just add enough methyl hydrate and call it a day?

what gas are you running, premium is harder to burn, so maybe go a cheaper gas, retard your timing a bit, throw a little methyl hydrate in the tank, it burns hot, fast and clean, i have heard that people pull an injector in a cylinder so instead of sending burned exhaust thru that valve its just air

Ha ha... fooling Aircare. Good memories there...

You need to start with "taking your car to someone who can tune it". Replacing your plugs or changing your intake isn't going to fix it.. but if you want to waste some time and money, go for it!

A good tuner will know what to do.

Could you elaborate on this? Could shed some light for those who are wondering and even help the OP.

loosen exhaust bolts at the various flanges, return for re-test, pass, profit.

Thanks for the help guys!

This Methyl Hydrate, does it have any negative effects on the engine or turbo? Also how much should I put in? I have half a tank of premium Shell gas in the car, car is used to running higher octane in Japan so should I even go lower than premium?

GabAlmighty: I like the way you think, how loose? Basically just let the gasses escape before they get to the test hose thing? Will they notice? haha

Also I ran the test with a silencer in my exhaust, I thought a silencer would have no effect but just throwing it out there!

i would suggest 91, dont put too much methyl in, cuz it burns really hot, put 1 L bottle to your half tank gas, and see about timing the dissy back

First of all, the most important part of passing aircare would be having your vehicle tuned correctly, if it's not running right it's gonna have a bad time.

For instance, my Jetta never came with an o2 sensor or cat, but it's passed all but once, when I owned it. I checked the timing, and sure enough it was way off, correcting it improved everything. Delving a little deeper into the finer mechanical aspects of your vehicle can pay off.

Pretty much, i've heard people say that aircare won't test your vehicle is it's too loud (ie they deem there to be too many leaks). Just make it loose enough that some air gets out but it doesn't sound like you're running an open down pipe.

^ If the computer detects an excess amount of O2 it'll return a sample dilution error and the test won't go through. They are required to test your vehicle regardless of whether it's "too loud", unless of course there's a giant hole in the exhaust piping that's easily visible when they check with the mirror under the car
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Methylhydrate is bad. Dont use it its damaging to your fuel system and should only ever be used to aid in getting carburated cars thru aircare. Put a new cat in and an O2 sensor.

there is no too loud of too low or w/e, they are there to test exhaust fumes, they are not doing vehicle inspections, i air cared yesterday and had to do an idle test cuz my car is too low for rollers and had to back out of the shop cuz i couldn't get over speed bumps, also they had to get one of the skinnier guys to do it cuz my seat is very tight fit

If you are "throwing silencer out there!" I would suggest you just take it to any of the board sponsors and let them pull some codes first. Too much HC can be fuel, oil from seals etc.

It really depends on how long you want to keep the car for.

I have no idea how to tune his car... so I'm not going to be able to make any specific recommendations. My personal expertise in 'passing' ;) Aircare has to do with GM 3800 engines. I have something called Powrtuner which plugs into the PCM and can disable codes, change timing, etc.. so the fact that I have a gutted cat, no rear O2 sensor, non-functioning EGR, etc... all things that should cause it to throw codes and instantly fail Aircare... well, they're no longer active and therefore not an issue. I re-flash the PCM to a stock ('ish) program to pass Aircare, which cranks back the timing, makes the car run like shit, etc but it works. The rest of the time, I run my regular tune.

Frankly, it sounds like the OP doesn't really understand why his car failed (hydrocarbon count almost twice the maximum allowable), so without a proper understanding of the problem, band-aids such as throwing methyl hydrate in there, new plugs (which were just changed), or a stock intake... or an exhaust silencer?!?.. I really don't have much faith in the OP's mechanical ability (sorry OP!). He's looking for some sort of quick fix. If I were to suggest pulling timing by cranking back the timing in the ECM, I don't think that he would have the necessary equipment or knowledge to do so. A local tuner shop would, however. There are some great tuners that are RS.net sponsors... go there.

Thanks for that.

I was thinking along the lines of what you were suggesting to do and that was to change settings with the ECU. Unfortunately, I don't think you can do that with his particular make/model of car.

No problem.. sorry to the OP, I'm not really trying to hurt your feelings or anything (I know.. so unusual for an e-thug like me..), but the reality is, there are few "quick fix" solutions out there for fixing Aircare issues like nearly 2x the HC emissions. If you were closer with your levels, eg. you were just barely above the pass mark, then I'd suggest something like the methyl hydrate or swap out a sensor for a new one. But if you have no check engine light, therefore no codes set (not to say there aren't pending codes.. but most pending codes will come up when Aircare scans your OBD2 port)... there isn't much to be gained by throwing a quick fix at it. You have some sort of more serious issue as to why the hydrocarbons are so high.

OP, how much did you drive the car before taking it to aircare? your vehicle should have been running for atleast 30-45 minutes and up to operating temp.

you want the lean the car out for lower HC.

first, replace your coolant temp sensor just for regular maintenance, its cheap and can be affective. Unless you want to actually go through testing and dianostics. It could be a possible o2 sensor malfunction too. Regular gas, 2L of methyl will bring your HC's lower. Enough to pass? well you're going to have to try and see.

Good luck.

No worries jlenko, my feelings aren't hurt that easily. You are right, I have no idea how to tune the ecm nor is it easy to get to in this car. Since its a 97 there is no obd2 port so they did the drive test. The way I tested for codes is by shorting two pins of the diagnostics in the engine bay and counting cel flashes, as per the jzx100 forums.

Also from my reading on the same forums spark plugs for this car/engine should be changed if the regular ngk's are used, every 5000ish kms. Apparently this is only the case for the regular plugs, the ones with only one little side sticking up, platinums last longer. So the reason i mentioned the plugs is because when I got the car I checked them, and they're not platinums, but they looked new, with no corrosion or anything so I left them, and now its been ~4000kms so maybe I should go platinum? Since the issue with hydrocarbon can be linked to unburned fuel, I thought maybe it had to do with the spark plugs not igniting properly?

Also just to clarify, I didn't think the silencer would help, I just mentioned that it was inthe exhaust at the time of the test in and effort to give as much detail as I could :)

I'm not looking for a quick fix but I would rather fix things like spark plugs on my own rather than paying a shop to do it, if that could be the issue. I drove the car for about an hr or and waited on the lineup for about 10minutes.
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If there is unburnt fuel, it will show up by inspecting the spark plugs.. but by themselves shouldn't double your HC count over average (without you noticing when you drive)! Also I won't vary the spark plug away from the factory recommendation.

Consider your opportunity cost, I assume you don't have a gas meter, ramp, spare sensors you can swap out and ECU schematics etc handy.. While it is nice to be able to diagnose and fix things yourself; sometimes it is just more cost effective to take it to a shop that knows what they are doing.. If you get paid $40/hour and say your first trip to the Aircare station is a 2 hour diagnostic to figure out HC is high, that's nearly an hour of shop time. Support Revscene and go to a sponsor like Phil or Racing Greed etc. Oh don't pay cash, get a receipt if it is a new shop that you have never been, so at least you get a paper trail.

do you know if the cars ever passed aircare before? i find most people who fail automatically look for a way to "cheat" aircare whether its methyl hydrate, raising idle, retard timing or lowering fuel pressure. i actually really like the idea of aircare because for a completely stock car to fail, it shows that you're car isnt running to its fullest optimum performance. either too rich or too lean or even misfiring but we just dont notice as the driver because its happened so gradually.

i would definitely check out the spark plugs first and rule out methyl hydrate as a fix at all unless you really want to put a band aid on internal bleeding. if you really wanted to cheat aircare, buy a fuel pressure regulator and turn it down 4 - 8 psi. ive basically failed on the driving and idle test, turned the car around and came back and passed with flying colors (yeah i know im a hypocrite but my motors from a 96 levin and its running opened stacks without a cat. its too far from stock to pass the way its is)

Nope, never passed aircare, I imported the car in October so I am the first owner in Canada. Kinda sucks because I had a 380,000km Civic before and passed with flying colours every single time haha, and the only things changed on it were the timing belt/water pump, radiator, and regular oil changes lol. Now this thing has 100,000kms and failed :(. I guess its good that I know something is wrong so I can fix it before it causes more damage.

I'll probably take it to ForceFed sometime next week to see what's up and I'll let you guys know what the issue was haha. Sorry I'm not taking it to a sponsor shop but I always go to Marko when it comes to my 1JZ :p

This post isn't meant to belittle you or to make you feel stupid so don't take it the wrong way.

The most obvious part is that your Civic has 380,000km on it. What does this mean? It means that the car was driven regularly. This is a good thing. Cars are meant to be driven. And by maintaining the vehicle regularly, you essentially prolong the lifespan of the vehicle. 380,000km is a lot of mileage if you ask me. Not only that, your Civic is a simple vehicle. Good, honest, Japanese engineering and manufacturing.

Here's the lesson: Just because a car has lower mileage doesn't mean it will always be better (in this case, JDM cars.) It is normal for JDM cars to come over into North America with low mileage. Some people report of no problems (or don't have the balls to) while people like yourself will fully admit and inquire about a problem such as failing emissions.

The likelihood of this car not passing Aircare is not surprising. The car sat for so long. When a car just sits, unattended and uncared for, seals start to rot and age and then oils start seeping through and of course a whole whack of other problems arise. It's possible the catalytic converters in your car weren't utilized amongs other reasons resulting in failing Aircare. This is just a small list of what caused the failure but I'm sure there are tonnes of other possibilities others may be able to list. Old car + low mileage usually equates to problems (not always but most of the time.)

Take it as a lesson learned. Again, I'm not trying to scorn you. Live and learn.

loosening flanges etc and having an exhaust leak won't work. they'll reject the car. ask me how i know. and i didn't even do it to cheat aircare, i was just too cheap to fix my rusty exhaust

Walker Cat /Thread.

Aircare doesn't care if you have a proper exhaust on the car. As long as it has a cat, they'll run your car without any issues.

My MR2 has minor bolt ons, and all I did to pass airecare, was a simple tune up, Stock BPV + a Walker Cat. I didn't even do anything to make it look stock. Cut a flange at work, guesstimated the angle, welded it on. Brought it to a friends place to install, and I was at aircare the next morning. Passed with flying colours. It bolted on after the Midpipe in the Muffler section

Previous attempt with just stock BPV + tune up got a fail, and 3S's are apparently easy to pass.

All said and done, It only cost me $80. Not including all the fluids and misc work I had to do after purchase.

Stock Cat/Test pipe?
Cut up some flanges, stick a Walker in there. Get that fucker HOT before even getting in line for aircare. Keep it hot.

BOV?
Either recirc it, or stick the stock one back on.

And as for plugs, get coppers! They're $2 a pop. Cheap, fresh, disposable.