What happens if you can't pass? Like the engine just won't clean up ?

My car will NEVER pass inspection. I know a friend of a friend who will help me out with that tho. Thats all matt really needs imo.

I need friends. :(

um...they have to pop the hood.

I've gone to the inspection station in flemington several times and they are pretty easy going. As long as none of the computers come up red and all the little bs things are there (usually) they dont care. Like i didnt have a rear view mirror.... they didnt notice.... check engine light was on... (in my buddys explorer im borrowing).. didnt notice.... tires were BALD... didnt notice

So I'm trying to say, if your close, try there or find a place that is more flexible

i think if you don't have a rearview mirror, you need two side mirrors.

Ok, so from reading everyones replies,

heres a list of **** thats the problem

1. EMISSIONS
2.HORN
3. ENGINE LIGHT(not even monitored by a computer)

My car runs really rich...

The only emissions control on the car - Cat

as for the horn, Im going to wire up a total different horn.. should cost 12 bucks...

your car is pre 96- engine light doesn't matter, but you should fix it anyways

I thought that too, the very last time i went through with my camaro they failed me for it.

That was on my buddys explorer that i took through, i believe its '97-'98.

oh i didn't read about the exploder. yeah that will fail. your car may not be old enough for the mirrors then. they are super easy to mount though!!

I really wouldnt get too hung up on emissions at this point. Fix the horn, fix the reverse lights.
Unless you pour 5 gallons of fuel system cleaning or some other chemical agent into your engine to reduce Nox levels as well as CO and Carbon levels, you are going to fail.

Every inspection station is different. Ive been to ones where they fail you for 5/32's of tread, even if thats is plenty fine and the state limit is 2/32's, and Ive been to ones where they will pass you as long as you have visible tread blocks.

you could get it to pass emissions just will take some work. Need to know the standards for your car. Ive seen people just do it with a cat and nothing emissions wise on the car.
________
STRAWBERRY COUGH PICTURES

Just to clarify a few things here, my SS monte just passed inspection a few weeks ago. the car had originally failed for dry rotted tires and the oil gauge wasnt working. therefore they could not run me on the dyno. emissions failed by default.

then i took it back after a little bit, with some new rubber and a fresh sending unit. the guy asked me 2 questions-
did you get new tires? yes sir.
did you fix the oil light? yes sir.

then looks at my papers, and says-
this is a v8?
Yep.

Ok then.

they never popped the hood or anything. went through all the motions of the reinspect, and i had a reverse light out and a liscence plate light out as well. the car has a TPI engine it with headers, a rust hole the size of a silver dollar and bla blah blah.
Passed no problem

Just take care of the little BS like turn signals, brake lights and headlights, the horn is an easy fix, just get one of those momentary contact switches. its like a 5 dollar fix.

My point is this- dont worry about the headache of emissions until you have to. Just take care of the silly stuff and maybe you will get lucky.

You got lucky as crap that they never ran a real emission's test. I think you're required to carry the emission's test results in the car with you so if you never got a printout showing the emission's you could still get nabbed in a roadside check. Once you fail for emission's, you are supposed to show receipts for the work done to the car to get it to pass. It could be as simple as a garage "adjusted carb" or "adjusted timing" but they want proof something was done. Check engine light will throw up flags no matter what year so get that turned off. You can get it to pass emission's with some adjustments to the timing and carb. I had an old 68 SS396 conv that was built up big time and my cousin's husband worked at a garage and helped me tweak it to pass the tailpipe test and gave me a legit sticker. As soon as it passed, I readjusted the carb and timing because it would stall out constantly. Another thing with the carb cars, you can raise the idle up to a certain amount and that helps burn off emission's as well. Got to the dmv website and read up on the details to see what you need to do.

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i failed for bald tires and rear blinker out on my car. first thing they did with my vehicle was pop the hood and check underneath with a mirror. you guys sound like your getting off easy

My car stalls a lot, but it also runs real rich and smells like raw gas.. so I'm guessing if it was tuned to pass the sniffer it wouldn't.. I'm going to take my car to a garage and get it to pass the sniffer! I don't really car how much money it takes, I want to drive this car, and If I cant drive it because it wont pass, It will kill me!!!!!!!!!!!!!

the car DID pass emissions. the second time through. my point was they never looked under the hood

you did get off easy. they need to know the displacement of the motor for the actual test. not just a v8. they also pop the hood to hook up an rpm probe. i don't know how they did the test or who but you got off very easy!

j/w why they need to hook an rpm probe up? i never saw them do that one

Matt, I'm sorry, but this whole thing makes NO sense to me. First, what would it matter if you waited until '09, so what if the car will be 25 years old? If you want to daily drive the 'Bird, you technically can't do it with QQ plates. And since you just registered the car, WHY didn't you go for the Collector Registration?? Again, technically, you can't daily drive a car with the Collector sticker either, but that's the only way you're going to get around the emissions mess you've potentially gotten into.

IMO, get the carb adjusted ASAP. If the car is running really rich as you say, you will kill the cat that's on there in short order, and then you'll have no hope of passing emissions with a dead cat. then fix the little BS stuff light the reverse lights and horn. Borrow a good set of 3rd-gen wheels so you can pass for the tires, then put the skinnies back on (why you'd want to daily drive with skinnies is beyond me too, but it's your car).

Good luck, and don't get too frustrated!

Matt,
Heres what I would do. First the cars been of the road for several years IIRC go over all the simple stuff, lights, wipers, horn, nuts and bolts. Lean out the carb. Make sure the car looks like its road ready, clean spotless. Ask around for some one "older" to take the car thru( no offense to anyone, but sometimes DMV (Parsons) will bust balls of 17 yo with a hot rod.)
I'm sure some on this board thats local can help you out, If not I'll do it. Go through inspection worse case you fail then take it to a shop if need be for the "fix" and the re-inspection. This way you will know exactly why you failed and exactly what needs to be done to pass. This should also satisfy the parental unit that the car is "road ready and safe.

you need to adjust that 750 you got on there...its dumping too much gas for the motor. once you get the carb in proper tuning you should be able to get it through emissions...i mean it's an 84 for god sake, just tune the bitch.

if your car is pre-96, they have to do a dyno test. they run the car at 15 mph for 90 seconds or less depending on the tail pipe reading. the engine must be within a specific rpm range as well to ensure an accurate reading from the tailpipe.

yup and they put a magnetic inductor pick-up on the hood/by the windsheild to read rpms. and if the test runs for the full 90 or so seconds, the car failed. if all is well, itll end with around 48-52 seconds left.

actually as early as 57. sometimes that pick-up won't work and they have one that clips around a ignition wire.:shifty: