I took my "new" 91 Sentra SE-R in for Emissions inspection the other day as I neared the end of my Temp Tag that I've been sporting for the past couple of weeks. Run it semi hard on the 5 mile trip to the Kingshighway facility. Screw around for 5 minutes trying to figure out how to get to it through Home Depot's parking lot, then wait for about 10 minutes in line. Pay my fee and think to myself... Ahhhh this is the last time I have to do this for a while (dang Durango is a 98... everything else I own is pre 96 and going to stay that way!). Watch em do the test, then see them pull the car outside of the station... That can't be a good thing. Aw cr*p. Yellow highlighter everywhere. HC's are more than double the limit. "Looks like you'll need a new Cat" Aw cr*p again.
Fast forward to the next day. I take it to a local shop. Tell them to take a look at it and see if they can do anything. Also tell them that if it's the Catalytic Converter, not to worry about it as I'm going to have a new exhaust put on it (High flow cat, stainless setup yada yada). $130 later they tell me I need new spark plug wires, EGR Vac. lines.... and a new cat. Oh... and I find out on the way home that whatever they've done to it has caused it to run like poop. Did I mention that cost me $130?
The next day (Saturday) is the last day my temp tag is good, so I stop by Autozone on the way home and pick up the $8 can of Emission Pass in a bottle. Put it in the tank, fill'er up and figure I'll try and run the pi** out of the car the next day and see if it'll pass with a nice, hot cat. Ordered up a Cat online that night just in case.
The next am, I leave the house at 7:15, and the car's running even worse than the night before. Won't even spin a wheel in 1st gear. I CAN'T run the pi** out of it cause it will hardly run. Stop by the AZ on Big Bend... closed til 8. Run down to the Maplewood Carquest... Closed Completely!!!! gone! not even a crumb left!!! Run down to the NAPA on Chouteau and buy a set of $60 spark plug wires and replace 'em in the parking lot, grumbling the entire time. Now, I'm into this for a good $200 now (not counting the $100 cat thats speeding its way towards me courtesy of Christocs favorite delivery service).
Box up the old SPW's, toss em in the trunk and get in ... still grumbling... Fire the car off and it purr's like a kitten!!!! Well, until it idles down and the solid motor mounts I installed a couple weeks back make their presence known.
SOOOOOOO, I start to think, where can I get this cat nice and warm, w/o a certain element of law enforcement getting too interested in what I'm doing... Hmmmm I seem to remember a certain owner of a perpetually dirty car mentioning something about some roads near a facility we all know and love on the other side of the big river, that are of "loose" composition. I take a good drive over there, say hello to all the Mopars at Monster Mopar Sunday (dang... missed it again this year!) and proceed to have about $200 worth of a great time kicking up quite a bit of dust and scaring the heck out of a BUNCH of turkeys! The SR20 sounds very good at about 5.5K in 3rd gear :D
After my fun, I headed back over to the testing station, never letting the car get under 2K rpms to keep that cat hot. Pulled in, no line jumped out and before I could even start to worry about what was next, the "Fast Pass" screen came up. Previous reading was around 1800 ppm, pass was 8 or 900. The car blew in the high 400's. Of course, I have no idea if it was the $8 "Pass in a bottle", $60 SPW's or the $10 in gas I burned through scaring turkeys. I'm pretty sure it had nothing to do with the $130 I spent at the grease monkey.
Anyone need a brand new Cat for a 91 Sentra????