[2mAn]

Hi everyone
I thought as these cars are getting older and traded in the secondhand market that there will be issues with dealing with clueless smog techs. This thread will hopefully provide the information to help others out in the future, assuming they attempt to search for the answer, as I did unsuccessfully.

I had my firsthand experience with an unsuccessful smog today, so Im hoping to return armed with the knowledge of what needs to be done to properly test the REx.

I wasnt given my PASS as the Catalyst Monitor was NOT READY. He initially seemed to be trying to run it with the car on, but then asked me to "Turn the key on, but not start the car." I use quotes because we can understand what his actual request is compared to what he actually said.



I just did a smog on a gas car the other day and that car was sitting idling and passed just fine (my just sold 2000 323i Wagon). This makes me think that since the car wasn't "ON" and the Catalyst Monitor was in a NOT READY mode, that the car needs to be ON, with the REx activated for this process to work. I have a scanner and will play around with it later today after work, but thought if I ask I can get my answer before playing in the garage. Im dealing with this now because CarMax forgot to do it prior to the sale of the car. Fun stuff!

[vreihen16]

My guess is that the OBD-II readiness is not set, probably because the 12V aux battery went dead while CarMax had the car sitting. The same thing happens to ICE cars when the battery goes dead, and it takes a few drive cycles for the ECU to set the readiness flags again. I don't own a REx, so I can't offer advice on how to make the engine run to do this.....

[2mAn]

Just a quick update on this one in case it comes up in the future. Super easy and got me out of there in “5” minutes