Id guess its because so many people clear their codes then go straight to the inspection station before the light comes back on

How many times do I have to explain how and why that does not work?

No emissions testing here.:D

It works sometimes. A classmate of mine was having a CEL problem on his truck and they wouldn't pass it. I told him to either go to autozone and have them clear it, or disconnect the battery for awhile. The next time I saw him he reported that he had a sticker, but the inspector did mention that he needed to drive it a bit longer b/c it wasn't ready. His light eventually came back on.

If you don't have an ********* for an inspector, it can work.

FYI- The "CEL" is the term for OBD1. "MIL"(malfunction indicator lamp) is the correct term for OBD2, more encompassing because drivetrains include the transmission and traction control systems.

OBD2 uses self testing/readiness checks of all systems to see if they are working. For example, it will have to "see" different voltages between the pre/post cat O2 sensors only while warm, and supposedly it will occasionally open the EGR and watch for change at the O2.

For example, The gf's Honda ran great, but only threw a code under full load/wide open conditions. I was thinking possible fuel filter, or injector, or coil, or spark plug. Then the battery just died, with no dead throws or hint of them. The battery had previously tested fine, started fine, etc. before.
If I had just disconnected the battery and gotten it smogged, it would have passed clean.

The government declaring tools to diagnose and repair your own car illegal?
I'll bring the crumpets to the Sacramento tea party.


The BAR is kind of like MS Windows, they make a variety of stratified nonsense rules that people easily work around, then they make more on top of those, until it's just a pile of expensive rules.
-If they want people out of cars, then provide good mass transit.
-If they want piece of junk cars off the road, then make them buy expensive permits, or let them put in any clean engine they want.
-They could put tailpipe sniffers at major intersections like bridges/tollways and check all the cars. If they enforce the system fairly, and give people the information to clean up the car there won't be this mess. No "personal circumstancial exceptions" allowed.

-John70t (awaiting the exploding collar)

What baffles me about the CA rules is that they are about pollution. So, why test this other BS? Just use the tailpipe sniffer, if the car meets the emissions requirements it's good. Of course, that's far too simple.

You don't understand how CA politics works - everything (and I mean EVERYTHING) is dumbed-down to the lowest common denominator. Vehicle inspections are no exception. Instead of doing the (brutally) fair thing that most countries do and saying, "if you want to drive, it's going to cost you. No junkers, no exceptions, we enforce insurance and safety inspections rigidly and if you can't afford it, too bad - you walk", CA feels the need to try and treat vehicle ownership as a "right" (although they still assert it's a "privilege" when it suits them). In other words, we've created a society where the de facto reality is that vehicle ownership/operation is a right and it's expected by the populace, but they try to regulate it as a privilege. It's the classic problem this state has of trying to talk out both sides of its mouth and be too many different things to too many different people.

Add to the fact that there's no viable mass transit system (thanks to deliberate choices made by politicians over the last 60 years) and the fact that so many political campaigns are in bed with the parties making a fortune off of vehicle ownership (dealerships, automakers, fuel/oil companies, insurers, financiers, etc.) and there's little incentive for the political hacks in this state to do anything meaningful. They, and those whose back pockets they're in, are making WAY too much money preserving the status quo. All of the above make FORTUNES by keeping people driving. The only people that lose are (predictably) the ones at the bottom paying the bills (you and me - the vehicle owner/operators).

NOTHING meaningful will be done in CA for the foreseeable future. Not a chance. You're fighting a moneymaking racket of a size and scale that's virtually incomprehensible. No way the powers-that-be are going to let that one go... No way, no how.

Hahahaha!!! Yeah, between you and me, we've both explained it a couple of times.