passed smog - yes!

[Kevin Collins <kcollins1@socal.rr.com>]

At the 11th hour I finally went in for my smog test yesterday.  I was
sweating bullets because I have a leaky flex joint right now, plus have
late Motronic plug wires on my car, which have an extra connector for
something I assume is related to the 2nd knock sensor, which is just 
dangling loose on my car.  In California, in certain counties where the
heavy-duty smog test is required (such as here in Orange), the visual 
inspection is quite detailed and either of these conditions could have/should
have caused me to fail.

The one interesting result was the reading for "NO" (could this be oxides
of nitrogen - what we used to call Nox?).  The max permittable at 25 mph
(our tests are done on a treadmill) is 1354 ppm.  The average for all
passing vehicles tested is 194 ppm.  I scored 1347 ppm, or just 7 below
failing!  Damn that was close.  All other readings were very low, 
including HC (which I assume means my fuel mixture is OK, or at least
is getting burned completely).  Anybody have a clue what might be 
causing me to put out so much "NO", and what could be done about it?

Another question for you California boys - I was required to go to a
"test only" center.  I was told that about 15% of all cars are singled
out at random for this requirement.  I asked if it was somehow a more
stringent test, but was told "not really".  Anybody have any idea what
this is all about?

Anyways I'm good to go for another 2 years, and ready for my head/cam/
intake upgrade, which HOPEFULLY is going to happen soon (when the head 
finally comes down from Collin of TT).


--
Kevin Collins
'86.5 16V 2.0
'00 Passat GLS 1.8T

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