Adding US emissions readiness to CSL Software

[jbfrancis3]

Does this group think that anyone will ever tackle adding emissions readiness (via OBD) to the CSL software? I'm curious if its a matter of adding code or if its much more technically prohibitive, and/or if there's simple explanation of why it will never happen.

For several states, they recognize the E46 M3 model as being OBD-certified for US vehicles, so they simply say emissions testing should be validated through OBD. They are validating the ability of the vehicle to do an emissions self-check at every start up. They do no accept alternative means of testing, like tailpipe sniffers, for certified vehicles because of 1) its a snapshot in time, and not as effective emissions compliance as the ongoing OBD monitoring, making it possible to be tampered with after the tailpipe test, 2) it wouldn't test PCV, tank emissions, etc. 3) its more time&effort for tail-pipe sniffing vs. plugging in OBD.

[sc_tr0jan_m3]

The Terra file posted in the other thread in this forum passes state inspection. I just had my car pass TX inspection yesterday. I had one sensor that was incomplete, but we're allowed one.

[jbfrancis3]

Passing in a given state does not necessarily mean there is emissions readiness. For example, in PA where Kassel Performance is located and who has performed a decent number of conversions lately, there is no problem passing emissions and Jim will tell you so. Sounds like TX is similar based on your comments. In CA and VA, its a different story.

I'm looking for confirmation from someone like Terra who I recall mentioning either in this forum, or the old forum, that the CSL software was never provisioned with the US emissions stuff but that it could theoretically be added.

[sc_tr0jan_m3]

perhaps someone more informed could chime in... to me a pass is a pass. that's all i'm lookin for!

[benzthis]

for me and others it's not if it will pass emissions but if the state's computers can communicate with the car.if it can't it obviously won't pass.

[skristedja]

I would love if this could happen. I haven't had a smog guy open the hood in years, but if it doesn't pass on the OBD, then no pass.

[jbfrancis3]

terra would know the answer right off the top of his head.

[terra]

So the deal is the CSL software was never subject to the emissions recall that the standard M3 was since the CSL was never sold in the US. This means OBDII communications sometimes don't work properly with some emissions computers. It's not a guaranteed fail - it took BMW 8 years to end up doing the recall, so really it does work most of the time. Apparently some emissions testing equipment is more sensitive than others.

As for whether or not it's possible for us to implement the fixes ourselves - it is theoretically possible, but it's not trivial. You need to identify the changes made for the emissions recall, and port those to the CSL software, and that's not nearly as easy as I make it sound when we're talking about editing assembly code by hand.

To my knowledge, no one has done a proper fix yet. My county doesn't do OBDII testing, so it hasn't been an issue for me. I probably would have done it by now if I did live somewhere where I needed to reliably pass OBDII checks... but I don't.

[jbfrancis3]

Grateful for the reminder of the details, terra.

I look forward to the day you move to Virginia and this becomes a more pressing issue for you

[2004LSB]

I've mentioned it in another thread fairly recently, but just to throw it out there -- the CSL software on my car could not communicate with Kaaaalifornia state emissions computers. The tech tried for 15 minutes and it just cannot establish communication.

So long story short for the California members running the CSL airbox and software - - you'll have to spend the hour swapping everything back to stock for the test.

[Amalgam]

Can emissions readiness still be set when running an alpha n tune?

Outside of the visual, what if you flashed a standard (non-CSL) BIN / alpha n tune and used that to communicate with the emissions computer and then re-flash the map based CSL tune?

[repoman89]

I've mentioned it in another thread fairly recently, but just to throw it out there -- the CSL software on my car could not communicate with Kaaaalifornia state emissions computers. The tech tried for 15 minutes and it just cannot establish communication.

So long story short for the California members running the CSL airbox and software - - you'll have to spend the hour swapping everything back to stock for the test.

Or flash to a regular US Alpha-N tune with whatever modifications you need to pass. The US firmware can be modified to run on the CSL boot loader in the same way that the CSL software runs on the US boot loader in the MSSflasher mod file. I haven’t done it yet but that’s my plan if my car won’t pass in MA.

[tone]

Really glad I came across this post.

Until I source the parts to do a 6MT conversion, I wanted to put the CSL SMG software on my car. It never occurred to me that this might mess with CA smog!

Given that I have smog this year, should I just apply the inertia fix and rev matching with Ecuworx and skip flashing the CSL software? Or is it easy enough to go back? Do I just need a BMWFlash backup to get back to stock?

[heinzboehmer]

Really glad I came across this post.

Until I source the parts to do a 6MT conversion, I wanted to put the CSL SMG software on my car. It never occurred to me that this might mess with CA smog!

Given that I have smog this year, should I just apply the inertia fix and rev matching with Ecuworx and skip flashing the CSL software? Or is it easy enough to go back? Do I just need a BMWFlash backup to get back to stock?

Flashing your SMG ECU will have no effect on your car being able to communicate with the emission computers. This is only affected if you go to CSL software on your DME (which you probably will only do if you have a CSL airbox).

[tone]

Flashing your SMG ECU will have no effect on your car being able to communicate with the emission computers. This is only affected if you go to CSL software on your DME (which you probably will only do if you have a CSL airbox).

Hahaha. So I was right to think the SMG flash wouldn't have any impact on emissions -- sweet!