Texas inspection problem
12-07-2008, 04:30 PM
#11
4th Gear Member
Join Date: Dec 2005
Location: Houston
Posts: 1,371
My car was registered in a Houston county, but i was living in San Marcos going to school their full time. When i was up there i had to take my car to get a emission test and they just had me sign a paper saying that i did infact live in San Marcos 9 months out of the year, i would imagine it would be pretty easy to get away with.
12-07-2008, 05:00 PM
#12
5th Gear Member
Join Date: Aug 2007
Location: College Station, TX
Posts: 2,179
My car is registered in Fort Bend County, and I've gotten inspected in College Station the last 2 times. No emissions and $14.50. They make you sign an affidavit saying that you understand that you were not emissions tested, but you know you need to adhere to the guidelines. It really doesn't do anything but save their ***. The only way a cop knows where you got your inspection is if he gets in the car and looks at the back of the inspection sticker, which they never do. In T, you can get registered in any county you want, but if you aren't emissions legal and go somewhere with emissions requirements, they can technically give you ****, but I've never of it happening to everyone. It sounds like you're legal and it's just a technicality, so it won't matter at all. I have plenty of friends that live in Houston with O/R pipes that haven't had any problems.
12-07-2008, 05:07 PM
#13
2nd Gear Member
Thread Starter
Join Date: Mar 2006
Location:
Posts: 441
emission problem
My car is registered in Fort Bend County, and I've gotten inspected in College Station the last 2 times. No emissions and $14.50. They make you sign an affidavit saying that you understand that you were not emissions tested, but you know you need to adhere to the guidelines. It really doesn't do anything but save their ***. The only way a cop knows where you got your inspection is if he gets in the car and looks at the back of the inspection sticker, which they never do. In T, you can get registered in any county you want, but if you aren't emissions legal and go somewhere with emissions requirements, they can technically give you ****, but I've never of it happening to everyone. It sounds like you're legal and it's just a technicality, so it won't matter at all. I have plenty of friends that live in Houston with O/R pipes that haven't had any problems.
Thanks for the info. If anyone knows a specific location I would appreciate it.
12-07-2008, 05:19 PM
#14
Join Date: Jul 2008
Location:
Posts: 21
Reading this post, it reminded me of when I went to get my car inspected the day before I put in my Catless-X pipe.
1. So, The first place (Havoline Oil&Inspection) failed me because my eyebrow tint in the front went 1/4 of an inch past the AS1 line on the windshield. Yeah, needless to say I laughed at them, then when they told me that I owed them ~$40.00 or whatever it was, I said, "You made me rip off my tinted turnsignals to fail me for something even more irrelevant?" They began giving me the "it's the law speech" so I said, "I don't see this going anywhere productive" and drove off.
2. I go to some random Mom and Pop shop, I inform them of the things I have done to my car, and ask if there's a chance they'll pass me.
Them- "We can hook it up and see if it passes"
Me- "I understand, and appreciate that, but I'm trying to see if I'm going to be wasting both of our times"
Them- "Well, you won't be wasting our time, because you owe us $35 whether you pass or fail, then you have 15 days to correct the problem and come back"
Seriously?
3. Final place, Midas, tells me they should be able to pass me regardless of tint issues, and they should be able to work with me on the not ready's my car is going to throw. They hook it up, it throws "Not Ready" for everything it possibly can. Tell me to flash back to stock and go drive 50 miles. 50 Miles later, it throws the same codes.
Long story, I have to pay this dude $60 + the $35 I already paid for the inspection for a tag...
Now I know the solution, look for the most crooked looking shop, come in and drop 2x what an inspection costs on the table and ask if this will get me a tag, no questions asked.
1. So, The first place (Havoline Oil&Inspection) failed me because my eyebrow tint in the front went 1/4 of an inch past the AS1 line on the windshield. Yeah, needless to say I laughed at them, then when they told me that I owed them ~$40.00 or whatever it was, I said, "You made me rip off my tinted turnsignals to fail me for something even more irrelevant?" They began giving me the "it's the law speech" so I said, "I don't see this going anywhere productive" and drove off.
2. I go to some random Mom and Pop shop, I inform them of the things I have done to my car, and ask if there's a chance they'll pass me.
Them- "We can hook it up and see if it passes"
Me- "I understand, and appreciate that, but I'm trying to see if I'm going to be wasting both of our times"
Them- "Well, you won't be wasting our time, because you owe us $35 whether you pass or fail, then you have 15 days to correct the problem and come back"
Seriously?
3. Final place, Midas, tells me they should be able to pass me regardless of tint issues, and they should be able to work with me on the not ready's my car is going to throw. They hook it up, it throws "Not Ready" for everything it possibly can. Tell me to flash back to stock and go drive 50 miles. 50 Miles later, it throws the same codes.
Long story, I have to pay this dude $60 + the $35 I already paid for the inspection for a tag...
Now I know the solution, look for the most crooked looking shop, come in and drop 2x what an inspection costs on the table and ask if this will get me a tag, no questions asked.
12-07-2008, 05:31 PM
#15
5th Gear Member
Join Date: Aug 2007
Location: College Station, TX
Posts: 2,179
College Station is the closest one I know of. I don't think there are inspection stations in Hempstead or Navasota and anything closer than that tests emissions I think. Make a weekend out of it; Get your inspection and do a HPDE at Texas World Speedway, you'll love it.
EDIT: If you come to CS to get inspected, this is the place I use. They're very very fast and cost $14.50.
Quicker Sticker
2150 Harvey Mitchell Pkwy S, College Station, TX - (979) 693-8512
EDIT: If you come to CS to get inspected, this is the place I use. They're very very fast and cost $14.50.
Quicker Sticker
2150 Harvey Mitchell Pkwy S, College Station, TX - (979) 693-8512
12-07-2008, 08:05 PM
#16
5th Gear Member
Join Date: Mar 2007
Location: Deep in the <3 of Tx
Posts: 3,925
Dang...maybe I'm wrong about this. That sucks. Stupid emissions.
The place I recently went to (in a non-emissions county) seems like a place I could get away with about any thing since they liked my car so much.
The place I recently went to (in a non-emissions county) seems like a place I could get away with about any thing since they liked my car so much.
12-08-2008, 01:26 AM
#17
5th Gear Member
Join Date: May 2007
Location: Central Texas
Posts: 2,388
I was just talking about this to another stanger this weekend!
Ok, here's the scoop in Texas (you can look it up on the state web site).
If you reside in one of the emission-inspection areas, you must get your car inspected in one of those areas in the state.
There's really 3 different types of inspections we have:
-the non-emissions one
-one for the Austin area (Travis/Williamson counties)
-a different one for Dallas/Ft worth/Houston areas
And El Paso falls into one of the latter two.
Being in the Ausin area, I can only get inspected in one of the 2 counties, because I live in one of them. Although, just like 10 miles away, I could theoretically get a non-emission inspection done, but no one will do it (and risk losing their license or whatever).
So, yeah, being registered in a different county would help, and going to school like 9 months out of a year does count
Now, back to the original post. For emission inspections to pass via OBDII analysis, you can have up to 2 'not ready' systems and still pass. With my original custom tune, I had 3 or 4 also, and failed the first time. Let me see if I can help al ittle here. When you reset or reload a tune, or disconnect the battery for a long enough time, the keep-alive memory in the ECU clears itself out of previous driving data. After then, several driving cycles are required to get all the systems to run and do their tests, with different tests requiring different conditions to run. Mainly, if you have between 1/4-3/4 tank of gas, drive about 10 minutes in city and highway traffic, and park overnight and do it again, then you'll have allowed all your system tests to run within 2 days (the cainister purge test requires at least 6 hours between driving times for the initial test to run; most others run and complete the first time driven after a reset).
So, if you've been driving around for a couple of weeks and have some systems reading 'not ready', then they are likely due to being turned off in the tune.
The SIMPLEST solution, if you have a lightly-modified car that can run on your stcok tune, is to reflash your car back to stock a few days (or even a week) before getting it inspected, then drive it around normally, taking it a little easier than normal perhaps. Since all the factory enabled systems will be enabled, you should pass, assuming you get on CEL/DTCs to pop up for exhaust mods or something.
Otherwise, you need to have your tune modified to enable just enough systems to pass, and run the tune and make sure you have no codes thrown (CEL not on).
And FWIW, there are ways you can read that data off your car. It requires an interface to the OBDII system and connect to a computer and then read appropriate 'mode 6' data. I use a 'ELM327' device, connected to a Palm hand-held or to a laptop, so I know before going in for inspection whether I'm OBDII 'passing' or not.
What a PITA, huh!
Ok, here's the scoop in Texas (you can look it up on the state web site).
If you reside in one of the emission-inspection areas, you must get your car inspected in one of those areas in the state.
There's really 3 different types of inspections we have:
-the non-emissions one
-one for the Austin area (Travis/Williamson counties)
-a different one for Dallas/Ft worth/Houston areas
And El Paso falls into one of the latter two.
Being in the Ausin area, I can only get inspected in one of the 2 counties, because I live in one of them. Although, just like 10 miles away, I could theoretically get a non-emission inspection done, but no one will do it (and risk losing their license or whatever).
So, yeah, being registered in a different county would help, and going to school like 9 months out of a year does count
Now, back to the original post. For emission inspections to pass via OBDII analysis, you can have up to 2 'not ready' systems and still pass. With my original custom tune, I had 3 or 4 also, and failed the first time. Let me see if I can help al ittle here. When you reset or reload a tune, or disconnect the battery for a long enough time, the keep-alive memory in the ECU clears itself out of previous driving data. After then, several driving cycles are required to get all the systems to run and do their tests, with different tests requiring different conditions to run. Mainly, if you have between 1/4-3/4 tank of gas, drive about 10 minutes in city and highway traffic, and park overnight and do it again, then you'll have allowed all your system tests to run within 2 days (the cainister purge test requires at least 6 hours between driving times for the initial test to run; most others run and complete the first time driven after a reset).
So, if you've been driving around for a couple of weeks and have some systems reading 'not ready', then they are likely due to being turned off in the tune.
The SIMPLEST solution, if you have a lightly-modified car that can run on your stcok tune, is to reflash your car back to stock a few days (or even a week) before getting it inspected, then drive it around normally, taking it a little easier than normal perhaps. Since all the factory enabled systems will be enabled, you should pass, assuming you get on CEL/DTCs to pop up for exhaust mods or something.
Otherwise, you need to have your tune modified to enable just enough systems to pass, and run the tune and make sure you have no codes thrown (CEL not on).
And FWIW, there are ways you can read that data off your car. It requires an interface to the OBDII system and connect to a computer and then read appropriate 'mode 6' data. I use a 'ELM327' device, connected to a Palm hand-held or to a laptop, so I know before going in for inspection whether I'm OBDII 'passing' or not.
What a PITA, huh!
12-08-2008, 04:59 AM
#18
2nd Gear Member
Thread Starter
Join Date: Mar 2006
Location:
Posts: 441
College Station is the closest one I know of. I don't think there are inspection stations in Hempstead or Navasota and anything closer than that tests emissions I think. Make a weekend out of it; Get your inspection and do a HPDE at Texas World Speedway, you'll love it.
EDIT: If you come to CS to get inspected, this is the place I use. They're very very fast and cost $14.50.
Quicker Sticker
2150 Harvey Mitchell Pkwy S, College Station, TX - (979) 693-8512
EDIT: If you come to CS to get inspected, this is the place I use. They're very very fast and cost $14.50.
Quicker Sticker
2150 Harvey Mitchell Pkwy S, College Station, TX - (979) 693-8512
Does the affidavit ask for the College Station address or any other questions, or is it just an affidavit that you know your car must be compliant. I'm too old to look like a student, so are they going to ask questions?
12-08-2008, 05:14 AM
#19
2nd Gear Member
Thread Starter
Join Date: Mar 2006
Location:
Posts: 441
For emission inspections to pass via OBDII analysis, you can have up to 2 'not ready' systems and still pass. With my original custom tune, I had 3 or 4 also, and failed the first time. Let me see if I can help al ittle here. When you reset or reload a tune, or disconnect the battery for a long enough time, the keep-alive memory in the ECU clears itself out of previous driving data. After then, several driving cycles are required to get all the systems to run and do their tests, with different tests requiring different conditions to run. Mainly, if you have between 1/4-3/4 tank of gas, drive about 10 minutes in city and highway traffic, and park overnight and do it again, then you'll have allowed all your system tests to run within 2 days (the cainister purge test requires at least 6 hours between driving times for the initial test to run; most others run and complete the first time driven after a reset).
So, if you've been driving around for a couple of weeks and have some systems reading 'not ready', then they are likely due to being turned off in the tune.
What a PITA, huh!
I hope I don't have to prove that I live in the non-emission county to sign an affidavit. Actually, I just hope these silly codes clear this week.
This test sucks! I've driven several hundred miles, but not according to some of the drive cycle parameters. For example, until yesterday, I had not driven a constant speed between 45-65 for at least 10 miinutes without sloshing the gas in my tank to restart the EVAP senso. Who drives a constant speed in Houston, even on the freeways? Now I need to do FIVE constant speeds (each different between 25-45 mph) for 10 minutes each to ready the Catylist sensor. I have no idea what it takes to restart the O2 or O2 heater sensors.
Anyway thanks for the suggestions and I'll keep you posted.
12-08-2008, 08:00 AM
#20
3rd Gear Member
Join Date: Jun 2008
Location: Land of Lincoln
Posts: 707
I am 100% sure that when we lived in north DFW we HAD to get it done in our county of residence. The only exception was a street legal dirtbike that I had that was...ummm...marginal. For that, I ran up to Sherman and had it knocked out by a good ole' boy. But it was emissions exempt.
I find it odd that a few school kids were able to get out of resident testing. They were very matter of fact that there were no outs. I bet if you avoided "neighboring" counties and went, say 3-4 counties over...you may be ok. Then again, the DMV may kick it back down the road.
I find it odd that a few school kids were able to get out of resident testing. They were very matter of fact that there were no outs. I bet if you avoided "neighboring" counties and went, say 3-4 counties over...you may be ok. Then again, the DMV may kick it back down the road.