Originally Posted By: hpb
Pardon my ignorance, and sorry to go off topic, but what does emissions testing involve? Static test with a sniffer, rolling road with a sniffer? And from your last post, I take it they scan the ECU for codes? We don't have it here, thankfully! Also, how often, and only after the vehicle hits a certain age? Sorry for all the questions!
Every state is different. But here in Arizona we have 2 counties that don't require emissions, but they're kind of in the boonies. Here in Phoenix (main city - maybe 2-3 million people) we have to do emissions.
All cars from 1966 and older are exempt from emissions
1967-1995 have to run in a "dyno" type thing where they simulate driving and run something on the exhaust to check what's coming out. They also pressure check the gas cap to make sure fuel vapors don't leak into the atmosphere.
1996 and newer is only scanned on the computer to make sure there are no check engine lights on. It won't pass emissions if it has a check engine light on. They also check the gas cap. These vehicles are tested every other year except for diesels, they get emissioned every year. The diesels also get a sniffer put on the exhaust and revved for the test, except my car they run on the dyno thing?
2011-2015 cars are exempt from emissions. This is until the next batch of model year comes out and then 2012-2016 model years will be exempt.