I don't know of any smog check place that will pass a car that has the CEL light on. Now, as far as I know, every smog check in America does an OBD-II read for cars 96 and newer.
IIRC, it
may be possible for a "typical person" to do the reprogramming themselves. IIRC, the cost of the hardware was over $1K for the programmer. And, they want something like $200+ per vehicle definition file. Plus, there's the learning curve.
I don't have any desire to do any performance tuning on my LX5. So, I didn't look any further into the suggestion from a gear-head GM friend.
Performance tuning on an LX5, or just about any engine, is limited. The real-life options are more spark advance and a slightly more richer mixture at WOT. Note that in both of those cases, "more" could mean
less HP for a specific engine and base tune.
For an LX5, there's no reason to touch the other (~100-300+) tuning parameters (base idle, cold idle, "accelerator pump", "dashpot", radiator fan turn on/off, etc).
For the pre96 cars, smog laws get more involved. Many States, like Mass, don't do smog checks on pre 96 cars. The reason is purely economical and because of garage owners lobbying. It takes more time to do a tail-pipe test. And, there are the
expensive dyno and tail-pipe sniffer maintenance and inspection costs. There is a small percentage of cars that are on the road, travel a lot of miles, and are pre 96. So, the States/Counties look at their car registrations and the years, the past smog results (also has the number of miles per year per car), and do a semi-BS estimation on how much more smog there might be if they don't test pre-96 cars.
Each State/County still has to worry about meeting Federal Clean Air standards. They risk the loss of Federal funding for roads, projects, etc. In other words, a massive amount of money for each State/County.
Conn still does a tail-pipe and dyno smog test on cars that are pre-96. But, they don't do smog tests on cars that are over 25 years old.
Each State/County has the right to change their smog testing laws, and they often do.
Don't forget Sinister who said they could remove secondary air provisions and still keep the CEL off.
Yes, what you said is correct.
However, I don't want people to misunderstand what Sinister says and promises. I know a few people that have had mods done by Sinister. The reason I recommend him is because he is very honest and straight forward.
Yes, Sinister can disable the the AIR system check, and prevent the CEL from being lit and an error code from being generated.
NOTE: When a system/function check is disabled in the PCM, like for the AIR system, approx ~99% of the time,
that test is labeled as "Not Ready".
IIRC, there are only a very few PCMs and very few tests where a disabled test will show up as "Ready and Passed".
The possible states are:
Not Ready
Ready and Passed
Failed
When you disconnect the battery, the state will be "Not Ready" for the functions. After a number of start/stops, and a number of miles in closed loop, the function will go to either "Ready and Passed" or "Failed".
With a modified PCM, that function (like AIR) will stay "Not Ready".
Different States and Counties have different laws/rules on how they handle a "Not Ready" status in the smog tests.
Yes, this is America, with the screwy Federal and State laws. Makes sense in some ways, not in others.
Since the AIR system is
not a "critical" emissions/control system/function,
"many" States/Counties will allow between 1 or 2 "Not Ready" non-critical functions, and still pass the car for smog.
FWIW, the oxygen sensors are examples of tests/functions that are critical.
Some States/Counties do not allow any "Not Ready" tests.
As far as I know, there's no way to get a list of what tests each State/County considers "critical".
Every person I talked to told me that Sinister made the above very clear in his emails. And, he also made it very clear that any mods where for off-road use only.
If that's not the case anymore, please let me know.
Hope the above helps.
