Smogging a 96 GTS in CA - Computer not ready, Catalist

[flyingskibiker]

Hi,

We tried taking the 96 GTS in for smog today. It is stock and has always passed smog. We drove it about 50 miles to the shop (took the long way, of course). When we put it on the computer, the tech said there were 4 OBD...what, flags??? not set (I was told my computer was "not ready" when it happened on another car last year). They asked if the battery had been disconnected. Well, it died over the summer and then the new one was drained due to a bad pigtail on the tender. It has only been driven a couple times for a few hundred miles since.

So, we all figure we need to just put some miles on the car/computer. We drove about another 60 miles and went back. The only flag that didn't clear was the Catalist ("Not Complete"). More driving. Put another 100 miles on it. STILL not ready...

Anyone know how long/far we have to drive it? Or is there a way to speed up the process? Say, starting the car 15 times or something???

I know, it's rough having to put miles on the car... ;-)

Thanks for your help!

[Tom, F&L GoR]

It's not just miles, it's number of successful trips. A trip is defined as a cold start and water temperature rises a certain amount (determined by OEM). The next trip has to start back at a low temperature. This is because catalyst failures are not determined by just poorer emissions when running, but by delayed light off temperature.

[gage]

It took me about 2 months of driving to clear mine after i disconnected my battery... and I tried to drive it at least once a week. So call it 10-15 trips?

[flyingskibiker]

Thanks! We are off to do another drive today. Sucks to be me... ;-)

[Coloviper]

I believe it is 3 to 5 full cycles. Not only start/stop cold/hot but we have to drive a certain speed for certain time at a certain RPM in there as well.

Would be great to document this in detail and save on this website. This is extremely valuable information to understand a Viper. As the fricken' EPA is only getting worse each year, this will help people to understand what must be done when battery is disconnected and changed.

[flyingskibiker]

We did a couple more driving cycles. Still "Not Complete". More reading/researching. We think we may have it narrowed down to a couple codes that were set when the battery died (no CEL/MIL): battery disconnect w/in 50 key cycles & codes using MIL test method completed (I gave abbreviated versions). We are going to clear them and see what happens after some more driving and cycles...

[Dan Cragin]

If your battery is weak, the computer memory will reset each time you start the car. Make sure your battery is good and fully charged.

[flyingskibiker]

It stays on a trickle charger... Had the codes cleared. Gonna drive it and see what happens.

[flyingskibiker]

Well, we finally were able to get it smogged. But we kind of "cheated"...

The catalyst monitor still indicated Not Complete. It turns out that the newer version of the smog equipment software requires the catalyst monitor to be ready/complete. I think 1 other monitor could actually be Not Complete.?.?

We were referred to a shop an hour away that still used the older version of software. It allows 2 monitors to not be ready, even the catalyst. So, it was put on the rollers, tested, and passed with flying colors.

The person that referred us to that shop has a '97 GTS. He reset his codes and it reset the monitors. He uses the car pretty much as a daily driver. He said it took him a month to get them all reading Complete...

So, I guess there is no easy fix for this issue. We kind of knew that could be a possibility after reading all the responses, surfing the web, doing some research, and talking to people. Seems like the only safe bet as to how to deal with this is not to get into it in the first place... Hope your battery doesn't die before the smog check if you don't put a bunch of miles on it prior to the test. Don't reset them manually for the same reason. It was on a trickle charger and still is, but we just have to make sure it gets driven more often. Again, not a bad problem to have...