Originally Posted by Duke2.6

Oh, that's certainly worth something. In CA the only "conditioning" is the tire dry test if it's wet. Conditioning is a HUGE DEAL that the CA test authorities don't want to address. At lot of cars fail simply because of how they are conditioned, which is not uniform. There is no conditioning standard, and this makes it easier for unscrupulous operators to commit fraud by testing a clean car whose catalyst is too cold.

IMO all cars should be reasonably conditioned as part of the test so there's some basis for comparing results.

Our Mercs tend to be high on HC, and the limit keeps tightening even as the cars get older and should have more wear allowance. They can also be very low on CO and NOx. You can have very low CO and NOx, but if only 1 PPM above the HC limit, you FAIL. That's why I don't feel any guilt if I have to diddle my timing map a little to get more margin.

The government has run amuck. When are people going to stand up and say ENOUGH!?

Duke