1988 190E A smog failure
 

:eek:

:eek:

:eek:

This car starts, runs, stops...perfect.

went to the state smog station here in Arizona and it failed...miserably!

hydrocarbons (HC) in grams / mile 3.00 standard 1.60

carbon monoxide (CO) in grams /mile 23.82 standard 15.00

oxides of nitrogen (NOX) grams/mile 3.21 standard 2.50



I just found out that my son has been puting regular unleaded gas. Although I do not think that is a very huge deal.

Any thoughts on where to begin?

Thanks guys!

Drain all the regular out and put premium in. You should not be running regular. That is contributing to the problem, but not the entire issue.

You have quite high HC's...When was the last tune up done? Plugs, wires, rotor and cap? Last fuel filter? Oil change? Hows fuel economy?

You don't need to drain the tank but as a first step you should run at least 91 octane for the smog test. There is clearly something else wrong and high octane won't fix it. Start with O2 sensor.

Those figs sound like hot & rich. Is the EGR working? O2 sensor would be the next thing to look at. Best to do plugs & leads & get tuned before getting test done.

These were the smog test results last week.

hydrocarbons (HC) in grams / mile 3.00 standard 1.60

carbon monoxide (CO) in grams /mile 23.82 standard 15.00

oxides of nitrogen (NOX) grams/mile 3.21 standard 2.50

After much wrenching, were I replaced spark plugs, wires, cap, rotor, tensioner,( bolt was broken), air filter, oil, oil filter, this car ran even better...hoever...it failed again, only worse!

HC 3.36

CO 28.43

NOX 3.45

Along the way I found the parkplug gap was set at .50 and the plugs shipped to me via Phil at Fastlane (along with all the other parts) were set at .28

Oh yeah...we've been burning premium unleaded.

Bummed in Arizona

:confused: