Coastal
Post Online
January,
2004
Changes In Bay Area Smog Laws Are Drastic
By Einar Dale
The Bay Area is undergoing some drastic changes in its smog
regulations. It is becoming an enhanced smog area, like Los Angeles and
Sacramento. The air quality here is actually better than other enhanced areas,
not because our cars are cleaner, but because we have less of the air inversion
that plagues other locations in California. The California Assembly mandated
the changes because people in the Central Valley have complained and filed
lawsuits arguing, with some justification, that fumes from the Bay Area
substantially contribute to Central Valley smog problems. Eastern Marin County
is becoming an enhanced smog area. The following locations will retain their
basic smog area status: Bolinas, Dillon Beach, Forest Knolls, Inverness,
Lagunitas, Marshall, Nicasio, Olema, Pt. Reyes Station, San Geronimo, Stinson
Beach, and Tomales.
The transition to enhanced area is coming in phases. The first
phase began July 1, 2003. As of that date all smog stations in the affected
area that have not purchased new equipment ceased doing smog inspections. July
1 also marked the beginning of the OBDII functional check as part of the smog
inspection.
OBD stands for on-board diagnostics. On-board diagnostics have
been around since 1979. When the
computer in the car detects a malfunction, a diagnostic trouble code (DTC) is
set and the malfunction indicator light (MIL) comes on. On newer vehicles, the
MIL may read "Check Engine," "Service Engine Soon," or
consist of a yellow icon that is supposed to look like an engine. It has always
been illegal for a smog technician to pass a car when the MIL stays on. It has
sometimes happened, however, that the customer has been able to cajole,
intimidate, seduce, or bribe the smog technician into overlooking the MIL.
OBDII differs from earlier on-board diagnostics by being more
comprehensive and more standardized. With a single diagnostic connector and
generic software, a scan tool can pull a DTC from any vehicle 1996 or later.
The new smog machines are equipped with this scan tool capability. The
technician plugs in the connector, and the vehicle's computer communicates with
the smog machine's computer. If a DTC is found, the vehicle fails the test. The
smog technician is pretty much out of the loop. Vehicle owners need to get used
to the idea that a vehicle will not pass the smog test if the MIL is not
working the way it is supposed to work.
It sometimes happens that a new car owner notes that the MIL is
on, takes the car to the dealer, and is told that there is really nothing wrong
with the car. If such an experience happens to you, you've been had. If the MIL
is on all the time, there is a malfunction with the car, and it is the dealer's
responsibility to fix the car under warranty. If you let the problem slide, the
car will fail the smog test. By that time the car is off warranty, and you'll
have to pay for the repair out of pocket.
A tactic to get cars through the smog test, especially popular
with used car salesmen, is to clear the DTC immediately before the smog test.
With the OBDII functional test, this tactic will not work. The OBDII computer
monitors for engine misfire, monitors the fuel system, monitors the various
sensors, and monitors many of the add-on emission components. The generic scan
tool can tell if any of the self-tests the car computer is designed to perform
have been completed. An incomplete sel-test is called an incomplete monitor.
The vehicle will not pass the OBDII functional test if there are too many
incomplete monitors. When a DTC is cleared with a scan tool or by disconnecting
the battery, all of the monitors are made incomplete. Many of the monitors will
be completed after a few minutes of operation, but some monitors will not be
completed until after a substantial amount of driving. If one merely clears a
DTC without fixing the problem, the DTC will probably return about the same
time as enough monitors have run to successfully complete a smog test. We are
supposed to repair the malfunctions, not merely clear the codes. The OBDII
functional test will be required in basic areas as of January 1, 2004.
On October 1, the Bay Area began dynamometer testing and the
direct measurement of NOx emissions. NOx emissions are various compounds of
nitrogen and oxygen formed in the high pressure, high temperature conditions of
the gasoline engine combustion chamber. NOx emissions are significant factor in
the formation of smog and of acid rain. Directly testing NOx emissions provides
a new way for a vehicle to fail the smog test and a new way to be tagged as a
gross polluter. The standards for NOx emissions are still more lenient in the
Bay Area than in other enhanced areas. Nox standards will gradually be
toughened until they are the same as those for Los Angeles.
Some vehicles that will fail the no-load test will pass the
dyno test, and vice versa. Overall, the failure rate is somewhat higher on the
dyno test. It is also harder to fudge the results on a dyno test, and an
effective pre-test is more labor-intensive and expensive on the dyno test.
There tends to be more gross polluters on the dyno test.
Fortunately, the certification of gross polluters is not as
difficult as it used to be. The intractable state-run referee no longer
certifies gross polluters. Gross polluters are certified by test-only stations
and by gold-shield stations. When I have sent a smog-legal car to a gold-shield
station, it has come back with a smog certificate.
It is arguable that a more stringent, more tamper-proof, smog
test, while inconvenient to some, benefits us all by improving air quality. It
is also arguable that the dyno test exacerbates the substantial injustice of
the smog-check program. Neither the dyno test nor the no-load test measures how
much a vehicle pollutes. Neither test even measures conformity to EPA
standards. EPA standards are set in grams per mile. The smog test measures
parts per million. The smog test measures the concentration of pollutants in
the exhaust, not how much pollution is coming out of the tailpipe. If a big SUV
and a subcompact both have 80 ppm hydrocarbons in the exhaust gas, but the SUV
is burning gas at twice the rate, the SUV's hydrocarbon emissions, in grams per
mile, are twice as much as for the subcompact. Many subcompacts that fail the
smog test are putting out fewer grams per mile of pollution than SUVs that pass
the test.
The total amount of pollutants emitted by a vehicle in a year
is roughly equal to the concentration of pollutants in the exhaust times the
rate of fuel consumption times the number of miles driven. The smog check
program does not care what kind of gas guzzler you own or how many miles you
drive it, as long as you keep your pollutant concentrations in line. When all
factors are considered, the poor tend to pollute less than the rich, yet the
smog check program comes down hardest on the poor. The dyno test exacerbates
the injustice by testing small engines under speed and load conditions suitable
only for big torque motors. The owner's manual for my Toyota Corolla recommends
that, for economical driving, I keep the engine speed between 2000 and 4000
RPM. If I try to run the 15 MPH portion of the dyno test in 1st gear, the
engine speed will be about 3100 RPM, near the middle of the recommended driving
range. Yet the smog machine will abort the test for "speed violation"
if I go over 3000 RPM on the test. I must shift to 2nd gear and lug the car
through the 15 MPH portion of the test at 1800 RPM. Lugging small cars through
the dyno test artificially increases their NOx emissions.
Burning less gas decreases carbon monoxide, hydrocarbon, and NOx
emissions just as effectively as burning gas cleaner. Burning less gas also
decreases carbon dioxide emissions. The smog check program does little about
carbon dioxide emissions. In fact, as hydrocarbon and carbon monoxide emission
failures are repaired, the carbon dioxide readings inevitably go up. While
carbon dioxide is preferable to hydrocarbons or carbon monoxide, greenhouse
gasses are an environmental concern.
There are in the California legislature multiple
"greenhouse gas" bills. One AB1493, requires that CARB address the
problem of vehicle greenhouse gas emissions, but severely restricts the way
CARB can act. CARB is not allowed to ban SUVs , raise gasoline taxes, limit
vehicle weight, or limit miles driven. In short, CARB is not allowed to do
anything that might offend the petroleum or automotive industries. The
development of fuel cell technology as an environmentally responsible,
cost-effective means of powering vehicles may yet prove to be as illusive as
the discovery of Iraqi weapons of mass destruction. Thus far, the primary
effect of the technology has been to lull people into believing that nothing
needs to be done to reduce greenhouse gasses in the present.
If you happen to be identified as the owner of a "gross
polluter," by all means address the issue rationally, but do not take the
nasty name too personally. The whole country is a gross polluter. You are just
a scapegoat.
Einar Dale is a regular reader of the Coastal Post and a
licensed smog technician since 1979. He currently lives and works in San Rafael.