New Ontario Drive Clean test

[ben2000]

Anyone have issues getting past the Ontario Drive clean test with a 2005 C4S?

[JFP in PA]

If it is not throwing codes, the car should pass; this test is the same one used by many states in the US. That said, it doesn't seem too popular in Ontario:

Ontario Drive Clean test is a waste of money
• 8:29 am, June 2nd, 2013

Performance review plan gets poor reviews

VEHICLE EMISSIONS INSPECTOR SHABBY GHANDEHARI ADMINISTERS A NEW DRIVE CLEAN TEST AT CAM'S AUTO SERVICE IN TORONTO ON FRIDAY, MAY 31, 2013.
Credits: DAVE THOMAS/Toronto Sun file
RYAN WOLSTAT | QMI AGENCY
TORONTO — This past January, shops across the Ontario started using new test machines that read on-board vehicle computers, and bugs in the system are frustrating drivers.
Drive Clean is a mandatory $35 test required every two years for vehicles seven years or older.
If your car fails, you can't renew your license plate sticker.

Over the past few years, 95% of all cars and light trucks passed on the first try and 90% have done so every year since 2004.

That changed in January after Ontario's Liberal government introduced a new on-board diagnostic test for more than 2.5 million cars and light-duty trucks and more than 100,000 heavy-duty trucks every year.

Instead of measuring tail pipe emissions, private-sector garages accredited by the province check on-board computers built into all 1998 and newer vehicles for the condition and operation of key emissions control equipment.

Government estimates initial failure rates will double from 5% under the old test to 10% in 2013.
Many failures are the result of a "not ready" message that can be caused by a number of problems, including if your battery's been drained and erased emissions data in your car's computer.

The government-recommended solution is to drive your car around for a couple of days, get it re-tested, again for a fee, and spend up to $450 on repairs if needed.
The mechanics at Cam's Automotive Service in Toronto are supportive of the program and feel it helps people keep their cars in good operating condition.

However, critics question what value motorists get out of the program.
"It's typical government regulation," said Ken Green, spokesman for the Fraser Institute, a right-wing think-tank.

The result, Green said, is "an industry of tailpipe testers who permanently lobby for more testing... to perpetuate the scheme."

Ontario's former auditor general, Jim McCarter, issued a 2012 report questioning whether Drive Clean is “an effective initiative in reducing smog relative to the cost.”

Drive Clean suffers from a host of other ills. For example, the oldest, worst-polluting vehicles are exempt from emissions testing.

B.C., which pioneered Canada's first emissions testing program and helped inspire Drive Clean, is phasing out its AirCare program at the end of 2014.

Ontario PCs are promising to do the same thing here. "To me, this seems like another cynical attempt to justify a program that's evolved into nothing more than a government cash grab,” said PC environment critic Michael Harris.