Air Care Colorado ....
In case you didn't know.
My truck finally passed and is good to go, but what a complete joke.
I haven't updated (or started a new ) build thread yet, but long story short I put a 3.4 5vz-fe into the 88 4runner. ( pretty easy swap really ) I took care to do all the emissions stuff with the cats and evap system and didn't really cut any corners.
So, you look up getting emissions tested on an engine swap and basically they say 1. has to be a newer engine 2. has to have all the emissions equipment for that engine. No big deal right?
I roll up to my local Air Care Colorado station and they do their thing make me pay my $25 and then tell me that it failed... Well, actually all the actual measurements where well under the limits - way under the truck is running very clean and smooth. It failed the visual bit because it doesn't have the Air Injection Pump installed - well no **** it doesn't the 3.4 doesn't have that stupid stuff like the 3.0 did. - but they have to judge it based on what was in there, and to get them to base it on the new engine I have to go have it inspected and the state ref will do something and allow them to inspect it as a 3.4.
Call the number they gave me, it's to a place in Denver, he gives me a different number, the lady there is confused and apparently I must be the only person around here to ever swap an engine and try to get it through emissions.
Make my appointment and drive to this special center a ways away and wait for an hour while they go through my truck in pain staking detail ( before this point I was under the impressions they would look and say "yup this is a 3.4L toyota engine, here is the paper work to have them test it based on that" ) - they are tearing into the engine bay. After an hour he comes in and says it failed because the pcv hose is off and something about computer dtc... I'm pretty pissed because I thought I was squared away. (I'm pretty sure they pulled it out while checking it over - he said he tried to put it back as a favor but couldn't make it work) I go out and take half a second to put that hose back on and fire up my new obd 2 and do not see anything about dtc... I call back and try to make an appointment - but have to wait another week.
Drive back over and more of the same waiting - comes out and fail... This time it is the obd 2 monitors not being ready...(last time he said dtc, nothing about monitors...) Ok, this is kind of my fault. I actually haven't had an obd2 engine and had recently disconnected the battery to work on a few other issues. But they don't have any public information about what the hell the inspection is about. I figured i was good without any codes.
So, I complain a little bit - why do I have to come in and wait and then be told these things? Why don't they put what the actual requirements are up on the website? Well... "There are over 40 pages and it can be confusing so..." I'm an academic chap - if they posted these 40 pages and told me what they where looking for... I would have done it right first. Getting judged on unknown criteria sucks.
In the mean time I start really learning about OBD2 and readiness monitors and sensors and well, they are kinda ugly. Drive cycles and conditions to make the ecu do these self test are not easy to replicate on demand and for the most part require driving around a lot... not something I have time or energy to do especially with temp tags running out.
I make my third appointment, which between my personal schedule and theirs isn't easy or convenient. I'm prepared with my laptop driving up there monitoring all the ecu functions and get there early to make sure no hoses came loose or oil could burn off the manifold and smoke or any reason to fail again ( not that they've told me exactly what they can or can not fail for ) ((double funny, I haven't finished wiring reverse lights, horn, rear defrosters, rear wipers - which are considered safety things in my book but they don't look or care))
Getting on with my rambling - I finally pass. I get a piece of paper that I have to hold onto for life (no copies) when i get emissions done in the future. Oh yeah, and I get to go back through line and do the regular emissions testing now.
Go back through the air care colorado test and pass ( actually had slightly higher emissions levels than the first time, but still under a quarter of the limit ) but they want $25 again. You only get 10 days to fix and re-test for free... but if I had known, or you know they posted this inspection bs somewhere first i could have done tha process first and saved the first $25. But they don't tell anyone that. Now with the scheduling inspections, weekends, and the unknown goal post - there is no way to get this done in 10 days.... Talk to managers, sweet talk the girl, plead my case which everyone agrees is kinda crappy - but they can't override the system and I'm stuck paying another $25. So. $50 4 trips to the center, over 4 hours waiting, and almost a month later I can now finish registration my truck.
Good job air care colorado - I could have kept and pass my polluting, oil leaking, oil burning inefficient 3.0 motor and passed your fake air quality test, but you rather punish me and make me jump through hoops for putting a newer, cleaner, more modern engine in my truck.
It isn't about air quality, it is about money.
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You can buy them at AutoZone for under $5 so I got one and wedged it in there and drove back. Of course I had to go through the revenue generating process again, but I passed the visual inspection the second time.
