Air Care News
October 1999
Cheating the
system doesn't pay
by Tom Myrsiades
The Colorado Department of Revenue (DOR) Emissions Section is
charged with the task of resolving emissions-related complaints, including cases involving repairs.
I have probably seen almost everything you can imagine come across
my desk in the form of complaints. Some are valid, some not. The most disturbing cases to me are
when a consumer has paid a lot of money for repairs and really got ripped off.
The following two cases were taken from actual complaint cases
investigated by the DOR.
Case #1
After spending $835 on his inoperative "check engine" light
(CEL), a customer was very upset that his vehicle was still failing the I/M 240 emissions test miserably.
The repair order indicated an oxygen sensor catalytic converter, and the electronic control module PROM
were replaced.
During the vehicle's evaluation at the Broomfield Technical
Center, Norman Bell from DOR and Joe Levonas from the Colorado Department of Public Health and
Environment noticed that the vehicle's CEL seemed to go out rather quickly. After some disassembly
of the instrument panel it was discovered that someone had soldered a wire from the CEL to the alternator
indicator light in order to make the CEL appear to function properly.
Additionally, no power was going into the computer and the
down-stream air pipe was not connected to the converter. Bell and a representative from the U.S.
Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) Enforcement Division made a visit to the repair shop and,
after some clarification of possible penalties, the EPA allowed the shop owner to repair the vehicle
properly at no cost to the vehicle owner.
Case #2
This case is similar to the first. It appears that someone knew how
the system worked and went to great lengths to circumvent it. The customer's complaint came to us after
she had spent thousands of dollars and six months attempting to get her vehicle running properly after
having the engine replaced.
Again, Bell and Levonas found CEL wires nsoldered to the alternator
light. The newly-installed Electronic Control Unit (ECU) had been opened up, the distributor reference
pins were cut, wires were soldered into the ECU, and the connector for the distributor reference was
melted. After a meeting with the repair shop owner, the EPA again allowed the shop to properly fix the
vehicle at no charge to the owner.
Thankfully, we don't see many cases like these because most
emission repair technicians working in the Denver metro area are well-trained and skilled at performing
sound diagnosis and proper repairs to vehicles that have failed an emissions test. In both of these
cases, the emissions failures were detected by Air Care Colorado due to high readings from the
tailpipes after someone had rigged the CEL to pass. But, one has to wonder why a technician would not
make every effort to repair a vehicle correctly the first time.
Tom Myrsiades is an emissions compliance supervisor with the Colorado
Department of Revenue, Division of Motor Vehicles, Emissions Section.
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Simple way to find out
if the converter is working
by Gary Cagle, Ph.D.
Have you ever wondered what a good engine in proper fuel control
is "feeding" the converter? Engine feedgases are the combined gases produced by engines
before they are treated by the converter. Knowing feedgas numbers (in grams per mile) for
different size engines aids in diagnosing converter operation. The National Center for Vehicle Emissions
Control and Safety at Colorado State University has done extensive testing of in-use vehicles and their
converters. Part of the testing included the development of converter feedgas charts for fuel-injected
and carbureted vehicles (see CO, HC and NOx feedgas charts below).
How do feedgas numbers help in diagnosing converters? It's
simple. After the technician has determined from the chart which feedgas numbers apply to the vehicle,
the technician then compares the tailpipe numbers (tailpipe gases) found on the customer's Vehicle
Inspection Report (VIR) to the feedgas numbers. If the numbers on the VIR are close to the feedgas
numbers, the converter is probably not working. Remember, the feedgas numbers assume good engine
integrity and proper, wide-range fuel control.
Example:
Using the feedgas charts provided above, determine if the
following converter is functional.
| Make/Model: |
1988 Cutlass Ciera |
| Cylinders: |
6 |
| Fuel system: |
PFI |
| Mileage: |
97,554 |
| Tailpipe-out
readings: |
HC - 2.22 gpm
CO - 17.4 gpm
NOx - 1.87 gpm |
Results: The converter is non-functional. The tailpipe-out
readings are almost identical to engine-out feedgases. This indicates little or no converter
activity.
Gary Cagle is an environmental protection
specialist at the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment, Air Pollution Control Division,
Mobile Sources Section.
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Voluntary programs
keep summer
ozone levels down
by Christopher Dann
Metropolitan Denver concluded its first summertime air pollution
awareness program September 15 without violating any federal air pollution standards. The Regional Air
Quality Council (RAQC) and the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment (CDPHE) confirmed
that, although pollution concentrations reached the unhealthful category on a few occasions, a
combination of control strategies and favorable weather resulted in fewer bad-air days than the
previous summer.
CDPHE's Air Pollution Control Division monitors air quality at
more than a dozen locations throughout the Denver metro area. Concentrations of ground-level ozone,
the most troublesome summertime air pollutant, were considered unhealthful on three days between May
1 and Sept. 15. However, the area's three-year average for ozone pollution remained within acceptable
federal levels.
Shirleen Tucker, chairman of
the RAQC, said, "With the cooperation and partnership of the petroleum refining industry, the
Petroleum Marketers Association and local governments throughout the region, we maintained our
compliance with the ozone standard. The work we have done this summer is an excellent example of how
voluntary programs can be effective."
Petroleum refiners voluntarily reduced the volatility of gasoline
sold in the Denver metro area to reduce evaporative hydrocarbon emissions. Petroleum marketers affixed
stickers to gas pumps encouraging motorists to not overfill their gas tanks (overfilling allows more
evaporative emissions to escape into the atmosphere). Local governments participated in efforts to
reduce summertime air pollution by adopting a variety of strategies including delaying the refueling of
fleet vehicles until later in the day.
Mild weather (under 90 degrees) was also a factor in this year's
favorable results.
Plans are underway to continue the summertime air pollution
awareness program in 2000. However, officials say next summer will be even more important than this
one, since the three-year average used to calculate compliance with the federal standard will replace
the 1997 data (a relatively clean year) with 2000 data.
Christopher Dann is the public information
officer for the Air Pollution Control Division, Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment.
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