Passing Texas Vehicle Inspections
 

I just moved from California to Austin. We'll technically Round Rock, but I need to register my Fit this month and it needs to go through a state inspection. I know I need to fix my check engine light. But my question to anyone that has experience is what about my cat-back exhaust and cold air intake? Do these need to come off prior to inspection or will they pass it with them on? I live in Williamson County, not sure if that matters.
I also have the LED taillights, but they are DOT certified, so I'm assuimg the will pass. Also, I have the lightest window tint possible on the front windows, does that matter? HELP!

You need to fix your CEL and everything else on your car you described will pass. Sorry for the late reply, just saw this. Also passing tint is 25%

^^ Ditto, just seen this as well.

Basically in your case the CEL will have to be taken care of like BlueCell has mentioned as well as have several emissions monitors rest back to their "Ready" status after having the the DTCs cleared (these set to ready as your drive provided the CEL isn't tripped on again). Generally speaking, it'll take about 75 to 200 miles for the monitors to reset to "Ready" and I can give you more info on that later via PM.

In order to get the car registered here (since you're coming from Cali), what you'll be needing to do or have done is an OBDII safety and emissions inspection AS WELL AS get a VI-30 (also known as "Green sheet/slip") which is a form that inspectors fill out with the vehicle's make, VIN, type, mileage during inspection, who's presenting the vehicle (recommend having who ever's name is on the title on the VI-30), the inspector's signature, the station/business's name, the inspection sticker's serial number, and date of inspection. The VI-30 and the Vehicle Inspection Report are two documents you NEED to show that your vehicle meets this state's DOT laws at this time.

For the actual inspection, the safety portion is done first and there is no exhaust sniffer... at least here in Brazoria County. Williamson may be different but here for the emissions test the inspector plugs into the OBDII port and check for DTC codes, emissions monitors that are "not ready", and the gas cap.

The safety portion is fairly straight forward and what is basically checked is parking brake, horn, the signal indicators in the dash as well as high beam indicator and signal stalk itself, vehicle must be able to stop from approx. 20 MPH within 25 feet, wiper blade condition, windshield wiper functionality, ALL seat belts must not be frayed and can coil and uncoil as well as buckle and unbuckle freely, mirrors, brake fluid level MUST NOT be below 1 inch of the max level mark, ALL emissions equipment must be retained (test pipes with O2 simulators WILL fail you on visual), check (IE: "feel while turning") steering rack for signs of binding, check brake lines/calipers for signs of leaking, check exhaust for leaks and catalyst converter(s), exhaust must exit with tip either directing gases away from the cabin area (IE: Can't ditch the axle back and run the B/Mid-pipe as your "tip"), head and tail lights must meet DOT requirements AND CANNOT have any tinting/covers/spray-on-film that blackens or reduces the light transmittance as well as modified in any fashion... PERIOD (Smoked JDM tails "might" get by since only the reverse section is smoked/tinted if memory serves me right and projector retro fits will fail if the inspector has a keen eye to detail/knowledge of OEM Fit parts), HIDs or any lighting source labeled "for off road use only" will of course fail, the driver and front passenger door windows can be tinted as dark as 25%... rear doors to the hatch can be painted black as far as the state/law cares, any "eyebrow" tint running across the windshield cannot go below the AS-1 line or 5 inches from the top of the windshield if no AS-1 is printed/etched in the window.

Might be missing something from there but that's the "jist" of a safety inspection. :p

The emissions portion the inspector hooks up to the OBDII port, checks the functionally of the CEL in the gauge cluster (Turn on, good. Stays off, instant fail), starts the car then checks if the CEL has turned off (CEL off good sign, not secure pass though; CEL still on, instant fail), turn vehicle off and test the gas cap(s) if it is testable. After the gas cap test, the OBDII state inspection process is concluded.

As far as your cat back... IF it replaced JUST your B/Mid-pipe and your axle back as well as doesn't leak, you should be fine. :cool: IF the cat was replaced for a test pipe or "high flow" cat, then you should be looking for an OEM cat pretty soon. :p As far as LED tail lights, as long as they ARE indeed DOT you should be fine.

I hope this helps. :wavey:

Any other questions feel free to check out the links below or PM me.

http://www.txdps.state.tx.us/rsd/vi/index.htm

http://www.txdps.state.tx.us/rsd/vi/...nCriteria.aspx

if you disconnect the battery terminals...(to clean), then have it SMOG.

Will it affect the OBDII reading? or do you need to drive the car for awhile, say a certain "mile" so that everything in the ECU will be normal again?

If you disconnect the battery terminals without using any sort of memory saving device then YES the emissions monitors checked in OBDII testing will be affected by reverting in a "not ready" state. Mind you, I'm not sure how Cali does their emissions testing but in my county there is no SMOG test so we don't use a sniffer for vehicles '96 model year or newer.

Basically your vehicle will be relearning its parameters at that time and checking for the various emissions monitors. Once it meets those prerequisites then the PCM will set them as ready; on the other hand, if the monitor sees something obviously fail out of said parameters then the CEL will trip within 2 or 3 start cycles. I HIGHLY recommend having those monitors set prior to any emissions testing.

For our Fits (and most recent Hondas at least 2007 to now), you can tell if all your monitors have set by putting the key to the ON/RUN position (engine off) and watch the CEL for about 20 seconds. After 20 seconds has passed the light should turn off if ALL the monitors ARE set; in the flip side, if there are one or more monitors that have NOT set then the CEL will flicker 5 times prior to shutting off.

A mistake this is what happened:

I disconnected the battery terminals to clean the battery and the battery undercarriage, then I connected it use the car for more or less 6-8 miles for a few errands and the car sat for 3-4 days.

i then went to buy something in the grocery (5 Miles), the next day I went to DMV-CA (4 miles) to have the car registered but they said I need to have it SMOG.


On the SMOG center this is what the tech told me:

It FAILED because of a "FUNCTION TEST" ( Malfunction Indicator Light)

The car PASSED the : Visual Inspection and Emission Test

the technician ask me if I disconnected the battery, I lied and said NO
because I was upset on why it would FAIL a SMOG.

The technician with his hand held device put something in the car (beside the/below the car's ignition) and showed me through this device where
the failure was.

The technician then told me to drive the car for a certain miles so that the cars ECU can be reprogrammed.

I did drive the car for 30 miles, the following day I went back to have it
RE-SMOG and it PASS.

1) the SMOG center here in Hollister cost $45-50
2) I had a coupon of $ 29.95
3) Did the technician PURPOSELY - FAILED my SMOG TEST
so that I would return to have it re-SMOG and pay him
$8.75 ??? because that's what I paid him
4) NOT about the money of course, its the SCAM !!!
5) I knew I had to bring it back, or else I would have gone to another SMOG center which would have charge me $45-50 !!!!

http://i1104.photobucket.com/albums/...enoyz/SMOG.jpg
-

The tech/inspector asked if the battery was disconnected like due to having too "not ready"s for the emissions monitors which WILL cause the car to fail... like I mentioned in my previous post.

Driving those brief stints and having those engine start/stop cycles may have had the minimum or all the emissions monitors set to "ready". SO, no foul play in my honest opinion. :/

Hootie thanks again for the help

I did the same stupid thing of disconnecting my battery on a Blazer before taking it in for testing. There are several readiness tests that it must pass before it can go in for inspection. I spent almost a week driving the Blazer in a combination of highway and city driving before I could get all of the readiness tests passed.

I had a Subaru once with a bad cat. It was a balancing act every year, trying to clear the codes and get it ready and tested before it set the codes again.

Thanks a lot for this, that info could not have come at a better time lol. I failed inspection last week because a few of my monitors were not ready so they told me to return once I've driven about 40 miles. I was worried because I haven't disconnected my battery in about a year so there was no reason for it to fail, unless jump-starting my brother's car last week had something to do with it. I did the test a few days ago and it blinked 5 times so I was concerned, but today there was no blinking so I may be clear. I'll be going back in a week to have it re-inspected, hopefully with no more problems.

Thanks a bunch for that information.

Make sure you get there within 15 business days or you'll miss out on the free reinspection.

I am about to buy a 7.3. Has never been registered. I was wondering if we needed a cat and muffler on the vehicle to pass. Also is there anything else I need to know about a diesel. I have owned 3 in Florida and never had to worry about a thing. Any input is good input. thanks