Emissions Testing

[encantotom]

hi all,

i just went to have my annual emissions testing done yesterday for the newell. it is required annually here in maricopa county arizona (not all counties in az require it for diesels).

this is the 4th time i have had it done....kinda.

the emissions testing facilities are run by a third party company in arizona. the facilities are very compact. the one near my house is where i took it when i first got it 4 years ago. once i got inside the driveway i knew i was in trouble. the turn to get out of the garage once done is so tight i was sure i was going to have to leave her there....ha. it took quite some time of going back and forth to just get out of the building. if i would have had a bigger coach than my 38' i would not have been able to get out.

that first year they actually checked the emissions. the test is quite disconcerting. they put a probe and a collector on the exhaust. then have you put it in neutral and they have a monitor pointed towards you. it tells you to floor it and keep it floored for about 15 seconds, then let up and repeat 5 times. sounds like the engine is going to fly apart, but the governor kicks in. (btw, i have to do this with my ford f350 powerstroke each year too).

the next year i went to a different facility a bit farther away that i had scoped out the driveway and it was bigger so i could get out easier. i waited in line and then they came to inspect and do the emissions. at that point in the newell i had the interior totally gutted and it was bare plywood walls and floor and i was driving it with a green folding lawn chair. when they said they needed to come inside i kinda gulped and when they walked in they saw me sitting behind the steering wheel in the lawn chair i just turned and waived and said hi and they just shook their heads and walked back out. they never said a word to me about it....

they kept looking under the coach with an inspection mirror on wheels. they would go get more people and they all were walking around with inspection mirrors on wheels looking underneath. then they asked me where the exhaust tailpipe was. i was like, huh? they were sure the genny tailpipe was the engine one.

ends up what was the problem was my custom rectangular tailpipe exhaust that exits at the rear on the drivers side at the back. this crew said they had never seen anything like it and couldnt test it with that. so i thought i was hosed.

they told me to pull through and go into the office. then they gave me what they called a "directors certificate" after quite a long wait. it says basically because they couldnt figure out how to test it, they would waive it. they had to get permissions from a bunch of levels of their management but finally they gave it to me. cost me $9.50 rather than the ~$30 to do the real test.

now each year i just take it to the place near my house, park out front, take in the previous years waiver and they just waiver it again. 3 years in a row now.

however last year, the facility manager wanted to see my VIN plate. mine was paper and on the wallpaper up by the driver originally and there was not one in the engine compartment like many others i have seen. so it is now in my users book after the remodel inside. so for some reason, he wouldnt accept a VIN plate in a book that was actually a paper laminated sticker. i had newell make me a new plastic engraved VIN plate a few years ago i had loose in a drawer in the coach so i got it out and handed it to him. he looked at me like i was crazy and said it has to be permanently mounted. so he went back inside and i taped it to the inside of the kitchen cabinet. then i had him come back out and he was fine with that. they were all very nice an polite about things, just following the guidelines by the letter.

those are my stories on emission testing.

tom