CA Smog - CATs not ready

[Nate047]

If you live in the city, this is a big pain in the ass. I had to putt along the right lane of the 10 at like 2am on a weekday, still nearly getting killed like 30 times

[zzyzx85]

If you live in the city, this is a big pain in the ass. I had to putt along the right lane of the 10 at like 2am on a weekday, still nearly getting killed like 30 times

drunk drivers, bad drivers, or drive by's? 🤣

[I M Legend]

Can't you just like, drive the thing for a couple of days? What's the rush?

If only it was that easy....

[Nate047]

drunk drivers, bad drivers, or drive by's? 🤣

Honestly just try to drive 55 and not get rear ended every 15 seconds 😂

[I M Legend]

I've been infuriated with this so many times but have a thing that works every time now.

1. Start car and head to the freeway (do not go past 3K rpm)
2. Set cruise control to 59 MPH for 15 min or about 10 miles or so. Do this at night time when roads are empty. Do not break cruise control/stop for the duration of the run. Do not exceed 3K rpm.
3. Pull over and check status of smog readiness
4. Repeat step 2 if needed.

The standard drive readiness cycle is pretty much impossible to do. This has worked for me every time and setting cruise control is the key to getting the cats ready for smog.

Update: Finally cats ready!

Steps I did:
1. First thing in the morning I started the car with AC and fan off. Drove straight to freeway doing my best to keep RPM under 3K and staying under 50mph. Unfortunately it's a few miles until I reach the freeway so I did have a few stop lights and it took about 5 full minutes maybe more before I reached the entrance.
2. Accelerate slowly on to freeway and set cruise control to 55mph in 6th gear. RPMs never went above 3K and settled around 2.25K during the drive. I drove for about 15 miles then exited the freeway and pulled over and checked the status. NOT READY!
3. I turned the engine off, removed the key, opened the door to simulate me leaving, closed the door and waited about a minute before starting the engine again.
4. I immediately jumped back on the freeway. Again not going above 3K RPM on my way to the freeway. This time it was less than a minute and I just had one light.
5. Drove home again using cruise control set at 55mph. Get home, check status. Cats Ready!

[WOLFN8TR]

Bingo… 👍

[simon_c]

Update: Finally cats ready!

Steps I did:
1. First thing in the morning I started the car with AC and fan off. Drove straight to freeway doing my best to keep RPM under 3K and staying under 50mph. Unfortunately it's a few miles until I reach the freeway so I did have a few stop lights and it took about 5 full minutes maybe more before I reached the entrance.
2. Accelerate slowly on to freeway and set cruise control to 55mph in 6th gear. RPMs never went above 3K and settled around 2.25K during the drive. I drove for about 15 miles then exited the freeway and pulled over and checked the status. NOT READY!
3. I turned the engine off, removed the key, opened the door to simulate me leaving, closed the door and waited about a minute before starting the engine again.
4. I immediately jumped back on the freeway. Again not going above 3K RPM on my way to the freeway. This time it was less than a minute and I just had one light.
5. Drove home again using cruise control set at 55mph. Get home, check status. Cats Ready!

Setting the cruise control is the key! Glad you got it done and likely the first go wasn’t successful cause you went past 3K rpms but sometimes its just hard to do.

[I M Legend]

Setting the cruise control is the key! Glad you got it done and likely the first go wasn’t successful cause you went past 3K rpms but sometimes its just hard to do.

Yeah either went over 3K and didn't notice or there was "a large fluctuation in the throttle angle". I suspect the latter as it's fairly common with a manual transmission going through city streets.

[L0okitzRaj]

Depending on what monitors you were waiting on, you could have also just coded the rear o2 sensors using Martyn's tool. It sets them to instantly ready. I passed smog last year like that.

[ridebikes]

Update: Finally cats ready!

Steps I did:
1. First thing in the morning I started the car with AC and fan off. Drove straight to freeway doing my best to keep RPM under 3K and staying under 50mph. Unfortunately it's a few miles until I reach the freeway so I did have a few stop lights and it took about 5 full minutes maybe more before I reached the entrance.
2. Accelerate slowly on to freeway and set cruise control to 55mph in 6th gear. RPMs never went above 3K and settled around 2.25K during the drive. I drove for about 15 miles then exited the freeway and pulled over and checked the status. NOT READY!
3. I turned the engine off, removed the key, opened the door to simulate me leaving, closed the door and waited about a minute before starting the engine again.
4. I immediately jumped back on the freeway. Again not going above 3K RPM on my way to the freeway. This time it was less than a minute and I just had one light.
5. Drove home again using cruise control set at 55mph. Get home, check status. Cats Ready!

I had to run the drive cycle test twice in succession recently and this list of steps was right on the money.

I don't know why, but after 20 minutes of 55 mph at under 3k, my CAT was still reading INCOMPLETE. I had babied the car to the freeway, no sharp throttle or above 3k.

Pulled over, fully turned the car off, opened and shut the door. Restarted the car, sub 3k at 55mph. CAT was OK in less than 5 minutes!

This exact sequence worked for me twice in as many weeks. I don't know if the door thing is just random or what, but taking two passes at the 55mph period seemed to do it

I hope this is useful for anyone as frustrated as I was with this whole process.

[ugaexploder]

I had to run the drive cycle test twice in succession recently and this list of steps was right on the money.

I don't know why, but after 20 minutes of 55 mph at under 3k, my CAT was still reading INCOMPLETE. I had babied the car to the freeway, no sharp throttle or above 3k.

Pulled over, fully turned the car off, opened and shut the door. Restarted the car, sub 3k at 55mph. CAT was OK in less than 5 minutes!

This exact sequence worked for me twice in as many weeks. I don't know if the door thing is just random or what, but taking two passes at the 55mph period seemed to do it

I hope this is useful for anyone as frustrated as I was with this whole process.

going through this right now...going to try this later tonight

[I M Legend]

I had to run the drive cycle test twice in succession recently and this list of steps was right on the money.

I don't know why, but after 20 minutes of 55 mph at under 3k, my CAT was still reading INCOMPLETE. I had babied the car to the freeway, no sharp throttle or above 3k.

Pulled over, fully turned the car off, opened and shut the door. Restarted the car, sub 3k at 55mph. CAT was OK in less than 5 minutes!

This exact sequence worked for me twice in as many weeks. I don't know if the door thing is just random or what, but taking two passes at the 55mph period seemed to do it

I hope this is useful for anyone as frustrated as I was with this whole process.

I'm absolutely convinced that turning the ignition off, removing the key, and opening the door is critical as it makes the car think you're starting a new "warm" cycle when you start to drive to back. I followed this procedure again earlier this year to get the cats ready for smog and it worked.

[heinzboehmer]

I don't think the DME will care about the door, but IIRC, the DME relay stays on for ~10s after the ignition is turned off. If you're in a quiet garage you can hear it clicking off. Wouldn't be surprised if the tests don't rerun until the DME is fully powered off and back on.

Also SMG cars might be different cause those do have triggers (pump priming and maybe other things?) based on opening a door.