1999 V70 Wagon, failing NJ state inspection.

[pfmet]

Has no one suggested you to check this with VIDA? If someone nearby is willing to help the VIDA software should read you monitor status and I would think inform you of any malfunctioning monitors. The lack of communication with a “not supported” reference sounds unusual in my limited experience.I frequently get the “not ready” status on our 99 V70 when the car had sat too long and an older weak battery has been drawn down by those pesky phantom loads. Usually every other year around emissions testing time. Never seem any monitors labeled “not supported”. Best of luck with this.

[MrAl]

Hello there,

From what I found with the 1998 v70 was that New Jersey allowed 2 monitors to be "not ready". That means that there is no check engine light but 2 of the monitors did not yet complete the tests they are supposed to perform.

If this is a different issue like "not supported" that sounds like something other than "not ready". It sounds like the computer cannot communicate with the device that is trying to read the monitor status for those monitors. It would be like calling a fax number with your fax machine and the receiving party fax never picks up to answer the fax request.
So it sounds like the hardware/software that looks at the monitors thinks those monitors are just not there, probably due to a communication problem. Could there be a problem with the battery or alternator where the voltage is not quite sufficient. The logic levels have to be within a certain tolerance.

Unfortunately, I do not know what else could cause this. As you thought, the only people who might know are the Volvo people or the people who work on foreign cars a lot like the Volvo. Perhaps someone else here has some more information on this.

[MoVolvos]

State DEP agent says that the transmission ECM is jumping ahead of the engine ECM.
He did acknowledge that the 7 monitors listed in my last posting are sufficient to pass.
But no one can explain why a simple scanner can see something the state computers cannot.

.
Does that mean you get a pass? In most states after 20 years Emissions is no longer required during Inspection. Perhaps the newer equipment doesn't have the software to communicate older cars.
.

[abscate]

You still have to pass emissions , but two of the monitors can be incomplete. The check engine light cannot be on.

In NY, it’s 25 years to be emissions exempt. I have three cars that qualify this year…yeah!

[xanthefin]

State DEP agent says that the transmission ECM is jumping ahead of the engine ECM.
He did acknowledge that the 7 monitors listed in my last posting are sufficient to pass.
But no one can explain why a simple scanner can see something the state computers cannot.

They must be joking.. by having OBD reader which cannot handle multiple ECU's to answer same request as per standard is pretty disappointing to hear.


You cannot demand ECM to come before TCM in that request which as their device shows correctly not supported on multiple things compared to ECM.

Or ask them to show that in OBD standard i will wait.



Example on mine too i always see people get in this order:

Code: Select all

OBDII PIDs
ECU 1F has PIDs [01]  supported

ECU 17 has PIDs [01] [03] [04] [05] [06] [07] [0C] [0D] [0E] [10] [11] [12] [13] [14]  supported

or

Code: Select all

ECU:1F  MIL:OFF  DTC: 0 codes

Test Name    Available  Complete
Components:    True   True
Fuel System:    False   N/A
Misfire:        False   N/A
EGR system:    False   N/A
O2 Sensor HT:   False   N/A
O2 Sensor:     False   N/A
A/C Refrigerant:  False   N/A
Secondary Air..:  False   N/A
Evaporative Sys..: False   N/A
Heated Catalyst:  False   N/A
Catalyst:       False   N/A

ECU:17  MIL:ON  DTC: 3 codes

Test Name    Available  Complete
Components:    True   True
Fuel System:    True   True
Misfire:        True   True
EGR system:    True   True
O2 Sensor HT:   True   True
O2 Sensor:     True   True
A/C Refrigerant:  False   N/A
Secondary Air..:  True   True
Evaporative Sys..: True   False
Heated Catalyst:  False   N/A
Catalyst:       True   True

[kevinAtKAB]

had the dealer look at it, only found battery to be down 10%. put a four hour charge on it. Again, My innovo shows all 7 ready.
I took it to a garage that does inspection, they got the same result as my Innovo and tried to run it through their state system in training mode and the car Passed. unfortunately, they are not a Certified Emissions Repair Facility, so they could not officially inspect the car! They referred me to another garage that is CERF and they cannot get any ready codes on two of their scanners, one is a Snap On the other I did not recognize. Again, brought the car home, put the Innovo on it and get all 7 ready. I really don't know what to do at this point. The last garage offered to try and trouble shoot it, but that of course, won't be cheap. But cheaper than buying a new car if they can manage to get a sticker on it. I suppose I could detach the battery and force a reset on the computer and see if that does something,

[scot850]

Have you tried to speak to the powers at be on this issue explaining your frustrations that there equipment cannot test your car, but you can show it has the correct results they need?

I am surprised that to measure the information there are not state sanctioned specific equipment for this?

Neil

[kevinAtKAB]

I took the car back to the state inspection today and it passed. So, what to conclude? I think the battery recharge was the ticket since it passed on two state computers after the recharge. I also think there could be degradation of the plating on the obd connector and that reacts with other test equipment connectors to explain why the last garage I went to could not get a connection. You have to maintain electrical contacts. There are lots of products, being in the hi fi service industry, I use DeoxIt all the time. See you in two years.

[scot850]

That is a relief, and yes to De-oxit. Love that stuff!

Neil.

[MrAl]

I took the car back to the state inspection today and it passed. So, what to conclude? I think the battery recharge was the ticket since it passed on two state computers after the recharge. I also think there could be degradation of the plating on the obd connector and that reacts with other test equipment connectors to explain why the last garage I went to could not get a connection. You have to maintain electrical contacts. There are lots of products, being in the hi fi service industry, I use DeoxIt all the time. See you in two years.

Hello again,

Oh so the battery voltage may have had something to do with this issue, that's interesting.

I've wondered about the voltage on these cars for years now. My v70 only charged at around 14 volts which I do not think is sufficient unless maybe you are driving a lot and every day. Other cars I have measured now are 14.5 volts or around there.
I only have some guesses as to why this is. Once is the age of the technology. A 1998 car is over 25 years old, and that's a long time in techno years. A lot can change in that time. In 1998 my computer CPU ran at something like 100MHz, now it is well over 30 times that speed. I had wondered if battery technology changed enough where the charging voltage had to be higher now. That could be due to recycling of the lead acid battery types. If the internal resistance when new is allowed to be higher now, it will not charge as well as 14.0 volts as it would at even 14.2 volts. That seemingly little difference in charging voltage could make a lot of difference in charge. When I brought my old Hyundai battery into the house now and then to charge manually with a power supply, I always had to go over 14 volts to get it to charge all the way up. If I set the power supply to 14 volts it would charge for like 2 minutes and then hardly any current would flow which means it was no longer charging. I knew that was not right because the voltage would dip down too far when trying to start the car.
Could it have been the alternator on both cars? It could have also been the wiring or the connections of the wiring and chassis or other connections. If the resistance of the wiring and/or connections is too high that is the same as having an old battery that won't take a charge anymore.

Now I have been helping a neighbor with their car also lately and notice that their car voltage is low too. I said something about it, that we should check it every week to see how the battery is doing. Well, we never got around to doing that, and guess what, the battery went dead after about two or three weeks. Since it was a new battery, that's very strange. They got a second new battery now so we'll see how long that lasts. They are also getting a new alternator though so not sure if that will be installed also, I'll have to check on that.
It's funny because all of the tests done by places like Auto Zone and other garages all say the charge system is ok on all three cars, yet it is clearly not.

If you have a voltmeter then you can check your battery voltage. If you don't you will need to get a decent digital meter. Check the voltage at least once a week and log it down on paper, then at the end of a few months or so we can go over the log and try to see if the battery is being charged enough. You should check the voltage each morning before you start the car, and the charging voltage just after the car starts up. It's also good to check the 'dip' voltage when the engine first starts to turn over, but that requires a fast analog meter or an oscilloscope.

Copper wire itself never really goes bad unless it corrodes a lot, but connections do go bad it could be the tightening of the connection bolts or the connection crimps.

I am hoping that it is not the battery technology that has changed. The only fix for that is to install an extra diode in the alternator (or similar mod), which is not very easy to do on these cars. You can read about that on the web now as other people have been doing that also.