California smog check “not ready”

I don't quite understand this. My place is less than a mile from the smog test, and both with the Camry and my previous car, 2003 Buick, I'd drive from home, starting from cold, to the test, and the cars would pass. Is there something about newer cars that's different than on a 2003 Buick and a 2011 Camry?

There is no tailpipe testing unless it's an older car or maybe some specific conditions. All they do now is plug it into the ECU to look up the emissions diagnostics. I guess since I hadn't driven in a while it was missing some of the required test conditions that needed to be sampled.

As far as I know, the battery was never disconnected since I garaged it more than 3 months ago. It shows no sign I've been trying not to drive it because it needs a little bit of suspension work, but it still drives. And in years past I've actually disconnected the battery a few days before a smog test where it was just hooked up a scanner, and I've never had this issue before.
 
In order to pass, you can only have one monitor that is not ready - and usually that one is EVAP.
Correct.
In CA, 2000 and newer model year vehicles will need all emission monitors in READY or COMPLETE status with the exception of the EVAP monitor. An incomplete evaporative monitor will not cause a smog check failure. In other words, if the EVAP is ready and the CAT is not-ready, the vehicle will fail a CA smog check.
y_p_w, find a readiness drive cycle on-line for your specific vehicle and perform it. Before you start you should know that the battery must be strong and fully charged or some of the readiness monitors will not complete. If the battery is marginal or on it's last legs, now is the time to replace it. Additionally, you must do this when the engine is cold (after sitting overnight) and your gas tank must be between 1/2 and 3/4 full. I strongly recommend that you obtain a OBD2 scan tool so you can monitor your progress.
 
Correct.
In CA, 2000 and newer model year vehicles will need all emission monitors in READY or COMPLETE status with the exception of the EVAP monitor. An incomplete evaporative monitor will not cause a smog check failure. In other words, if the EVAP is ready and the CAT is not-ready, the vehicle will fail a CA smog check.
y_p_w, find a readiness drive cycle on-line for your specific vehicle and perform it. Before you start you should know that the battery must be strong and fully charged or some of the readiness monitors will not complete. If the battery is marginal or on it's last legs, now is the time to replace it. Additionally, you must do this when the engine is cold (after sitting overnight) and your gas tank must be between 1/2 and 3/4 full. I strongly recommend that you obtain a OBD2 scan tool so you can monitor your progress.

I've got a scan tool, but I don't use it for more than normal trouble codes and resetting them. It did sit overnight with about the tank half full. I might go back on Saturday morning. If it doesn't work, I guess my best option would be to register it with planned non-operation and then take care of it later. As far as I know there might be exceptions to drive it if the smog test is needed to register it for full operation.
 
If it still needs work in order to be road worthy, why not renew it as non-op?

I still would like to drive it short distances, if only because my wife needs her car for something else.

I brought it back and got a better looks at the pro scan tool they used. It showed that the cat isn't ready, EVAP, and something else. However, I was advised that I should probably just go and register it anyways and I could avoid any further late fees. I've frankly had some cash flow issues until recently and I didn't register it. I did get a couple of expired registration tickets for my wife's car though before I got it registered. I mentioned getting out of one ticket (officer wrote down the wrong date), but not another in another topic. But my car was another matter. I never got a single ticket, even parked on the street. Even a police cruiser right behind me. Even when I saw an officer looking at my license plate (when my car was parked) and then just driving away without even a warning. The closest I remember was in front of my house where I saw our local PD looking over my car, and I got out to ask if I "could be of an assistance". I was told they were just doing outreach and when they saw expired registrations they would leave warning notes instead of tickets, and then ticket if they saw the same cars were on the street. The officer did say I could get a PNO, but in the meantime I should just take it off the street.

This was on a Saturday, and apparently no California DMV offices are open on Saturdays for the time being. There are some automated registration kiosks (one is at a local supermarket) but I don't think they can handle expired registrations. So to register, I ended up going to a AAA office that was open on Saturdays, although they don't accept checks now, and charge a percentage for credit cards (but not debit cards). My fines, late registration, and current registration were pretty steep, but at least least it's current now.

I still need to get the smog check to pass before I can get my final registration and tag. It's a chicken and egg deal with getting the smog to pass while I would need to drive it to get to that point, while technically it's not registered. But at the very least I have the proof that I paid for it, along with the smog report saying it's not ready. I suppose I can use that as an excuse if I get pulled over, although I don't think it works if I get an expired tag parking ticket (although those would be a fix-it ticket once I get the smog done).
 
I realized that I could see the emissions checks with my one line dot matrix scan tool. However, a lot of what I could see was N/A. I think the cat is ready though.
 
I'm going to go out driving today with the scanner plugged in. I'm hoping that the oxygen sensor heater monitor will finally wake up and report to "central command" which is the engine computer. Supposedly, the scanner will beep when it does.
 
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