I hope your right. Still waiting for the readiness tests to finish. I know I asked you already and you already said yes but is it actually possible for me to go from 150% of the maximum emissions in all 3 categories just because of a dirty MAF? The average scores for similar vehicles (whatever that means) is about 1/5 the limit meaning I am currently about 8-10X "normal".

Either way .... once the cycle finishes, I will reset, drive for a couple weeks, and if no new codes go for a re-test.

For anyone curious, I found a post somewhere (don't know if it is true or not) about what you need to do to compelte the readiness tests - will do this tonight when the roads are clear and see if it works:

 

I hope so ... but not holding my breath yet ... Everytime I thought I was there something else came up.

Thanks for the vote of confidence

 

Yes that is the drive cycle, once should do it.
The other way is just to plain old drive it for a few hundred miles, but I understand you cannot do that because you are not cleared for the road yet.
I am SOOOO glad there are no inspections where I live.

 

Yes. It sucks. I have no problem with the standards as I don't want my vehicles running poorly but the whole system is setup to provide huge incentives to pay a lot of money to get work done at a special list of shops which I don't think makes sense. I think that if you do your work yourself, have receipts and drop your admissions you should be given the same conditional pass as someone that goes to a shop.

That being said - I was able to make a special request with the government to give me a special 3 month exemption and now got insurance for 3 months. This was based on the fact that the PO had failed and I bought the truck in non-working order and they figured it was fair that I got some road time to try to fix. Luckily I managed to get ahold of someone that wanted to be nice.

So I have until August 15 to get this resolved and get insured and registered the normal way.

Worst case - if I can't pass on my own by August 1, I will goto a shop. Best case they fix it. Worst case I spend the required $600 and get a conditional pass and a list of further problems I can resolve on my own.

 

Went for a long drove today with all the procedures noted. Also figured I would try and find a large hill, open rad cap and put an end to the gurgling noise under my dash.

Got home and cat sensors still not ready/complete their testing and now I have 3 codes instead of my previous 1...

P1179 as before + P0300 + P0138.

Also git excited when we started revving and the bubbles started coming up in the expansion tank, but after 5 minutes they were still coming at a reasonable rate. Head gasket? On the other hand compression is okay, don't see any water in the oil, no smoke, and no overheating since replacing the rad.

Misfire and 02 codes now.....

 

$50 or so chemical test from parts store will confirm if exhaust gas is in coolant.

Some have had to reverse the heater core connections to flush out stubborn trapped bubbles. Or you could have an undiscovered external leak (water goes out, air comes in).

Certainly misfires can be caused by coolant leaks. O2 sensor bank1 rear has high volts out of specification range (P0138). Random / multiple misfires (P0300).

Since rad is good, might consider a head gasket stop leak like KSeal or BG44 as a bandaid.

 

0138 oxs fault bank 1 downstream high voltage.
1179 the same ox sensor is not switching lean to rich
Replace the bank 1 (drivers side) downstream ox sensor to start.
The others should be replaced, but start with the one thats setting the code.

For your hot restart issue, check your fuel pressure, it should be 38 psi
and not drop off when you shut the engine off.

The readiness tests for the ox sensors will not complete until the ECU sees them
switching correctly.

 

The readiness test not complete is for the Cats, not the O2 sensors, apparently. Don't know if these are related.

My understanding is that the downstream O2 sensor does little other than work as a tool to test cat efficiency and also act as a backup if the front one fails. Is this correct?

I would order 2 X O2 sensors for bank 1 (as I haven't had any bank 2 codes since I got the truck) but just want to make sure I am not reverse diagnosing (i.e. the O2 codes are being cuases by misfires vs the bad mixture from the O2 causing misfires).

First and foremost though I need to establish if my head gasket is broken. If so, replace. If not, get the damn air out of there. #1 - I'm sure air in the system would affect NOX. #2 the water under the dash noise is driving me crazy.

 

If it is indeed a head gasket issue, I thought those stop leak compounds tend to clog up the rad? I don't want to kill a new rad so I think if its a head gasket issue, I will consider replacing the head gasket ... just hope it isn't in need of a new head gasket + new O2s = $$$$.

 

Was just going through and trying to find the idle control value unit to clean and noticed - there is a hose going from my brake booster that connects to the drivers' side front of the top of the engine (front drivers' side of plenum/intake unit). I would assume this would be a vaccumm hose but the weird thing is that the end that goes into the engine has a metal piece on the end with a clip like fitting instead of a normal vaccum hose connection ...

Anyway it is just hanging there ... i can hold the cable and move it in and out without any resistance.

How is this supposto connect on?

Could this be causing issues - i.e. vac leak making rich = failed emissions and spit codes?