Well that makes it easy...I don't have it so lucky here in North Carolina. It's a fairly extensive check that includes a sniffer and hooking you up to a diagnostic computer. That's another reason I'm a little worried about having a tune in place when I get the inspection, the sniffer could be bypassed by a more efficent tune for sure, but what does that computer tell them?

Cajun, everything I've read in the tuners section of the f150 forums says DO NOT deprogram your vehicle prior to a diagnostic computer check. If you do, it will set a code that causes the vehicle to fail unless it has been driven long enough to "unset" the code (about 30 miles I believe). Those that have had the diagnostic test and have left their tunes in place have all passed without any difficulty.

I kind of think all the tester does is look for malfunctioning items like O2 sensors, EGR valves, and so on. One thing though: I believe if you run up against the speed limiter, it sets a code, and I don't know when/or if that code goes away by itself. For that reason, I adjusted my max speed up to 110mph, even though I don't intend to get there.

And, remember you can use your Gryphon to check for codes before you take your truck in to be tested. It can clear these codes too if the cause of them has been eliminated.

I intend to leave my tune in place when my truck is inspected (which won't happen for another year in Tucson).

- Jack

Yep, that makes a lot of sense Jack, thanks for explaining it that way. Thanks for the tip on the limiter code, too. I'll probably do the same thing you did, although it would take one heck of an emergency for me to hit any sort of speed limiter. Those days are passed, I'm a little sad to say, but who knows, Pinks might comes to town looking for an all truck 12 sec field or I might get a wild hair and bracket race it one weekend. Yeah....who knows? :2thumbs:

Never thought my truck would hit 85....then my wife borrowed it for a weekend while I had her truck tore apart. Went through the "records" on my edge, top speed: 97mph....

Yep! It's kind of surprising how fast you CAN go briefly. We drive to an from a Nature Conservancy preserve in Southern Arizona now and then and on one stretch of Hwy 83, it's easy to get behind an RV, who's behind an old truck hauling a horse trailer full of horses, who might be behind some guy who's pulling a boat to Parker Canyon lake.... :) Well, if there's an opening to get around them, I'll take it, and even though nothing may be coming, I don't like to spend a lot of time in the left hand lane, so the truck's moving right along by the time I'm back on the right side. :woohoo: :turboflame:

- Jack

Wow, is the default really set at 85mph? I've probably been right up at that in a passing situation.

OBDII Emission inspectons
 

Cajun and Jack, Emmision inspections check more than just DTC's they also check the readiness status of the monitors in your ecm. The monitors ck operation of 4 or more operations in the ecm, EGR monitor, Evapoative emmisions monitors, Catlayst Monitors Oxygon sensor monitors and in some vehicles more. The vehicle that has been set back to original tune will not cause a DTC unless there is a fault, but doing this will make all moniotrs not ready. It takes completion of a drive cycle to reset these monitors and in some states 3 out of 4 monitors must be ready to pass. The drive cycle varies by vehicle and engine but what it does is that it verifies the correct operation of these systems on an actual road test. All manufacturers have a specfic routine of cruising, idling and accelerating over time and speed to reset these monitors. This drive cycles are usually completed easily on most Ford vehicles but others can be very tempermental and take hundreds of miles to complete. The worst thing to do is disconnect the vehicle battery before an inspection as it opens all the monitors and it will not pass until the drive cycle is completed. Many people disconect the battery to reset DTC's to pass inspection but find out that it just got worse because monitors wont be ready. I would reccomend setting it to original status a few hundred miles before the day of inspection. Low fuel level and very cold temperatures can affect closing the Cat, and Evap monitors. Hope this helps and wasn't too confusing. Jim

No, not confusing at all, great info Jim, thanks for taking the time to post it up. This is the stuff we need to know if we're going to try to tune these days with all the restrictions. Not to mention you can see the testing technology improving each year when you go. I normally try to hang around and bug the tech. Of course, though, now that I think it through, my old truck passed NC inspection, chipped, and breathing right with Flow Master pipes and it passed no problem. I won't be taking my new truck to Ford for the inspection, so I might try it through my regular guy with the tune in and any hardware out. If I fail I have two weeks to correct any problems and re-inspect. I'll have time to go to stock and drive it out of the reset code. I do 250 miles a week just to work and back.

Hey sorry, I just realized I hijacked the thread.....:doh:

DD your truck does sound sweet, and I'm envious of your inspection procedures....

jfuller...

Thanks for that post. I couldn't have explained it any better myself.

For what it's worth, we're looking at adding in the system readiness monitors into the Diagnostics menu so people can see if they're ready to pass emissions testing.

Just need more hours in the day... :sigh: