I should start off by saying the car has never thrown a check engine light and I am the original owner. The owner of the Chevy dealer I bought it from is in his late 60s and put about 2000 miles on the car before I bought it. Went for the first time to inspection today at a private facility because of the tint on the windows of my car. They hooked into the terminal and first showed 5 separated not completed codes. The battery hasn't been out of the car at all this year and there has been no computer work done to the car. I took it out and drove some more and returned. Still 5 not completed (cat, o2, evap sytem, second. air, and I forget the other.) Back out for another ride to try to get the readings. Take it to another mech. friend of mine and he hooks up his Snap On scanner. Now im down to just 2 not completed readings. This was after driving for about an hour. We try turning off the car, and restarting it like prior to the first test. AGAIN IT GIVES 5 NOT COMPLETES for the same diag.Eventually I again get to 2 (evap and air again). It acts as though the battery is being disconnected and its not carrying a memory and won't complete the evap and second. air. I again drive it further and still the same. I stop at a dealer Ive used before and the service manager had never heard of this happening before and told me to bring it in. At this point I can't even pass inspection. Anyone have any thoughts on this or seen it before?

 

Thanks for the reply on this. You may be right with that. I replaced the battery last year with an Opt though and have not seen a voltage drop. The tests for the secondary air and vapor system dont seem to ever comlete. I thought that once the car started the alt. would supply enough power for the comp. to run the diag. I just don't get it.

 

Whenever I have had a code that wasn't completed I was told to drive the car for a week or so before bringing it back.

Bill

 

My 2001 C5 convertible had the same problem. It took me 5 trips over a three week period to pass the computer emissions test. After failing the first time I had my 4 - year old Optima red top tested. It had a bad cell. I also found the negative terminal had alot of corrosion. Two weeks and 300 miles later my C5 was finally ready and passed the test. The tech that did the inspection said only one other car ever took five tries to be ready to test.

 

hmm very interesting! This is about the 5th report I have heard of all cars having issues passing tests when optima batteries were used...hmmmm very weird....Do a search and you will see what Iam talking about. Sure there are plenty out there running them, but the ones reporting issues like this are saying they have been running an optima battery and remarkably most of them say the battery is less then a year old when it starts going and then the problems start happening. The car's seem to all start up and run right, but there is just something about the optima's the C5's don't like. I can't explain it....just weird. Maybe someone with PCM/BCM training and knowledge can pop in and give us some answers in laimens terms.

 

What you are dealing with is the OBDII Readiness Monitors not being set to Ready. Based on thee year of your car, you can only have 1 or 2 monitors in Not Ready status and still pass emissions testing. If you have 5 monitors not set, the car will not even run the emissions test. If your profile is up to date, your mods do not appear all the extensive. Are you running a custom tune?

Every time you flash the computer, the Monitors will re-set and you will need to complete drive cycles to get them back to Ready. There are ways to trick the computer into thinking all the Monitors are Ready by setting certain codes in the affected system to Not Report.

First thing you need to do is determine if there are any codes present and see if they relate to any of the system you show not ready. You might have an O2 sensor going bad and that system is blocking other emisssions systems from coming on-line. If there are codes, those need to be addressed and the affected system fixed.

I know this becuase I just went through a month long ordeal with my own car getting it to pass emisssion in VA. I had 4 monitors not set but had no codes. Finally passed after fixing some settings in my tune. A fellow forum member sent me the advice I needed to get the car to pass. I will PM you.

 

Also I have read that to qualify as a drive cycle you must have a true "cold start". That means that the coolant temp has to be something like within 6 degrees of ambient on start up. You can't just get back in the car and drive around to fix it...even if you turn the key off. Just repeating what I was told!

 

The FIRST thing that I would do is monitor the actual battery voltage with a VOLT meter on the battery terminals at COLD START UP. Look for a deep drop in battery voltage (like 9.0 VDC during the initial crank)

If the battery voltage is dropping really low during the CRANK phase, the PCM can drop off line for a fraction of a second (during the low voltage period) and cause the PCM to reset just like you disconnected the battery. Another indication will be the HUD resetting to the factory defaut settings, reset of the fuel mileage "average" readings, loosing your FOB settings (noticed more on early C5s).

If this not the case, as much as I hate to keep bring this up as a source of c5 issues,,,check you ignition switch. If your losing B+ voltage from the ignition switch when you crank the engine to the PCM because the switch has damaged contacts, the same thing can happen. Heres a post for you to take a look at:

http://forums.corvetteforum.com/show....php?t=1951626

Hope this helps.

Bill C

 

Well I finally passed inspection. I think part of the problem had to do with restarting after running the car. Bofore I started it i changed out the fuel cap. I cold started the car yesterday and drove it about 55 miles. Took it directly to the station and plugged in. The car gave readings for all except the gas cap new cap and all. Here in N.J. you can have one not ready code and pass. So the stickers on and good for 2 more years. Confusing but done. Thanks to all that posted. Love this site.

 

Anyone ever do a "greased inspection" giving the guy the keys and a $100.00 bill?

Not saying it ever happens and it is always best to have the car running its best but just wondered about that.

 

No way, no how. It will not work with this kind of test. The testing equipment plugs right into the diagnositc port and transmits data directly to the DMV. No getting around it. Period!