stealership / passing inspection
 

My saturn Sc2 wont pass inspection because the computer read "not ready" for almost everything.

I brought the saturn to my family's mechanic for over 10 years and he tried to diagnose it but he couldn't figure it out. So I had it scheduled for a saturn stealership to check the car over...

Aside from the 95 dollar diagnostic fee.....

they say it needs

Cold temp sensor.
02 sensor
coolant flush

and something else about emission carbon build up.(It was jotted down on a piece of paper and left as a note for me.)

I talked to the tech over the phone and he says, the computer will not reset it self because the sensors are bad, and that as long as the sensors are bad, the computer wont reset it self..

the grand total for the bill If I have everything done by them is $500.

I do not want to put $500 into this car. If I put $500 into the car, I wont have money for gas, so the car is useless anyway.

I think this is really a trick, into getting me to get this service done.

But I wanted your input before, i said yay or nay to anyone.

How hard is it to do that stuff yourself?

i use to work for a saturn dealer, i might be able to get those parts for cheap realy cheap, as for putting them in, it takes 10 mins.

is the temp sensor in the air inlet? and as for the 02 sensor, I don't know which ones to pick up. but the parts seem to be under 100 bucks..

I dont get how they said it would be 500 for what they want to do???

im thinking its more around $300 for a dealership to do what they want to do...

well dealers parts are 3 times more then an autozone par or nap DUH, and they charge you by the hr to do the parts so say if it says they take 3hrs to do and 200 bucks for parts, hench why there stealership.

but as for the temp senser its on the side of the head if you look rite down under the air tube you will see a senser with wires come out of it, its on your left when you look down.

But is what he said about the computer not being "ready" because of the sensors, and when the sensors are replaced the computer will be "ready"

yes bascily, the not ready code is bascily like an SES lgiht when they huke up the scanner they can also what is wrong and 90% of the time its a senser or carben build up.

as for the coolant flush, they are probably trying to charge u 150 at least right there, when for a beater, i wouldnt even worry about that.

x2 on that

How would i tackle the carbon build up?

and why wouldnt the service engine soon light be on if the o2 sensors were bad?

seafoam the car and use dectron techtron that light will probally go away.

THERE IS NO CHECK ENGINE LIGHT.

same **** different flies.

????

he said the light isnt on, regardless if its SES or CEL

as for the sensors...O2 sensor is easy, i believe its right in the front of the motor IIRC

temp sensor, is it the air temp sensor or the coolant temp sensor? air temp is in the airbox, coolant temp im not sure but somewhere in the head most likely

edit: and for the carbon, use some "Blaster" fuel injector cleaner if you can find it at your local parts store...its made by the people that make PB Blaster (the rust penetrant)...and you can also get some 2+2 carb/TB cleaner and take off your intake hose, hold the throttle open a bit, and shoot short bursts into the intake

I misread it as why would the light be on..:| oops

Interesting, never heard about the Not Ready code. Learn something new every day!

If you use a scanner to clear the codes, and haul ass to the DMV for inspection, thats what you will fail for. You need to drive for like 30 miles (not sure really what it is) before the ECM is ready to be scanned for inspection.

agreed. i worked for a nissan dealership and i went out often to just drive the car so it would be ready for inspection

That's not how it worked out. After the stealership I brought it to a different mechanic then usual. I was only charged $216 to get it to pass. They did a computer diagnostic, and drive cycle. BUT I wrote down the miles on my car before I took it to him, and they were the same when I got it back.....

haha i bet when you brought it to them you had completed the drive cycle. if you delete your computer's codes, it puts all of the monitors in a not ready phase until criteria for each individual monitor is met. this is called the drive cycle. its not a certain distance, its certain things the car needs to perform to check the parameters of the sensors to make sure everything is in spec/working.

you probably got scammed though.

Oh, that's what you're referring to.

Art.