mooney201

Went out to get the Vette to go to the smog station, and had a dead battery. I used another battery to start it and ran it around for about 30 minutes to charge battery. Smog people told me that after battery goes dead, you have to go through a seven step process for the car to get ready to run a smog check.
One was decelerating "four times" from 45 mph to 25 mph without touching gas pedal lasting for 25 seconds.
One was decelerating from 55 mph to zero and then holding clutch in and brake on for two minutes.
Another was driving at 55 mph for six minutes after engine is warm.
The whole list of steps is mind boggling.
Two more steps are needed after engine has been cooled down for 12 hours. I will do those steps tomorrow.
It still throws a column lock error, which only started after the battery ran down. The battery is new, and the car sat only for one month. From now on, when it sits for more than a week, on goes the trickle charger.

Bill Curlee

If you have a battery issue,, your are going to continue to have emissions NOT READY status. You can not charge a battery in a short period of time. Fully charge your battery and have it professionally tested at the auto parts store.

If you have a weak or bad battery, you will need to complete the OBDII drive cycle each time you
PM drops off line due to low voltage.

GM Drive cycle:


GENERIC OBD II "DRIVE CYCLE"
Most OBD II ("On-Board Diagnostics II") diagnostic monitors will run at some time during normal operation of the vehicle.
However, to satisfy all of the different Trip enable criteria and run all of the OBD II diagnostic monitors, the vehicle must be driven under a variety of conditions. The following drive cycle will (theoretically) allow all monitors to run on (??) vehicle. (Note: Drive cycle specifics vary by vehicle!)
1. Ensure that the fuel tank is between 1/4 and 3/4 full.
2. Start cold (below 86°F /30°C) and warm up until engine coolant temperature is at least 160° F (typically requires at least one minute; up to 3 minutes).
3. Accelerate to 40-55 MPH at 25% throttle and maintain speed for five minutes.
4. Decelerate without using the brake (coast down) to 20 MPH or less, then stop the vehicle. Allow the engine to idle for 10 seconds, turn the key off, and wait one minute.
5. Restart and accelerate to 40-55 MPH at 25% throttle and maintain speed for two minutes.
6. Decelerate with using the brake [or the clutch!] by coasting down to 20 MPH or less, then stop the vehicle. Allow the engine to idle for 10 seconds, turn the key off, and wait one minute.
GENERAL MOTORS (SPECIFIC) OBD II DRIVE CYCLE
Performing a GM OBDII Driving cycle:
1. Cold Start. In order to be classified as a cold start the engine coolant temperature must be below 122°F (50°C) and within 11°F (6°C) of the ambient air temperature at startup.
Do not leave the key in prior to the cold start or the heated oxygen sensor diagnostic may not run.
2. Idle. The engine must be run for two and a half minutes with the air conditioner on and rear defroster on. The more electrical load you can apply the better. This will test the O2 heater, Passive Air, Purge "No Flow", Misfire, and - if closed loop is achieved- Fuel Trim.
3. Accelerate. Turn off the air conditioner and all the other loads and apply half throttle until 55mph (88km/hr) is reached. During this time the Misfire, Fuel Trim, and Purge Flow diagnostics will be performed.
4. Hold Steady Speed. Hold a steady speed of 55mph (88km/hr) for 3 minutes. During this time the O2 response, air Intrusive, EGR, Purge, Misfire, and Fuel Trim diagnostics will be performed.
5. Decelerate. Let off the accelerator pedal. Do not shift, touch the brake or clutch. It is important to let the vehicle coast along gradually slowing down to 20 mph (32km/hr). During this time the EGR, Purge and Fuel Trim diagnostics will be performed.
6. Accelerate. Accelerate at 3/4 throttle until 55-60mph (88-96 km/hr). This will perform the same diagnostics as in step 3.
7. Hold Steady Speed. Hold a steady speed of 55mph (88km/hr) for five minutes. During this time, in addition to the diagnostics performed in step 4, the catalyst monitor diagnostics will be performed. If the catalyst is marginal or the battery has been disconnected, it may take 5 complete driving cycles to determine the state of the catalyst.
8. Decelerate. This will perform the same diagnostics as in step 5. Again, don't press the clutch or brakes or shift gears.
Further useful information:
Understanding On-Board Diagnostics (from the Illinois EPA):
http://www.epa.state.il.us/air/vim/g...nding-obd.html
from "A Guide to the Illinois Vehicle Emissions Inspection Program" (March 2005 revision)
[ http://www.epa.state.il.us/air/vim/guide/ ]



Have your battery tested and see if it has the correct CCA and Reserve Capacity.

IF,, your battery properly charges and test good,, and you're battery discharges in a short period of time when the car is not being driven,,,,,, you have an excessive amount of current draw. Check for that by measuring the current draw from the battery when the BCM is in sleep mode.

Bill

mooney201

Thanks Bill;

I was given a print out of the steps for our 2002 C5. They told me that the steps vary depending on year of car, which makes sense. The procedures were very close to the ones you posted. I will complete the other steps today. I put a trickle charger on the battery yesterday and will see today if the battery lost it's charge overnight. If it has, I will replace the battery and start the sequence all over again. The battery is one year old, so either it has a bad cell or there is a abnormal electrical drain.

Thanks again for your help.

ssrallyred

I did ET in Atlanta for years and that program was based off of CA.'s . Depending on the year you could have up to 2 not readys and still pass. Newer cars could only have one and pass. Is Ca's the same way ?

Kale

It took me a couple drives to set most ready states.
The last one took nearly 300 miles to go ready.

You can get a cheap handheld scanner that will tell you if everything is ready or not.

bighank

Did this on a Taurus with emissions not ready. Drove it another 1/2 hour at 50 decellerating to 30 and so on. Passed emissions.

mooney201

The smog tech said that I could only have one not ready message and still pass.
I took the car out this morning and ran all the procedures again. I have always kept the car full of fuel, so I had to drive it around to get it below 3/4 full before doing the procedures.

The "service column lock" keeps coming on when I shut down the car or when starting it up. Each time I hit reset and it goes away, but comes back when I shut the car down again.
Is there a different way to remove this error message?

mooney201

I have gone through all the steps to clear the "not complete" codes, with no luck on three of them.

What I found out is that when you have a dead battery or low battery the "service column lock" warning will not go away until you remove one of the battery cables, and then reconnect them.
Now that the computer is cleared, I am going to go through all the steps again.
Maybe by disconnecting the battery completely, the computer will reset itself once I do all the steps required.