Car Emissions Question

[Electric Amish]

Just got the emissions inspection done for the year. I was looking over the results and was wondering about the following:

HC (HydroCarbons?) (~2k rpm)
Max- 112 ppm
Avg- 6ppm
Me- 112ppm

NO (Nitric Oxide?) (~2k rpm)
Max- 948ppm
Avg- 76ppm
Me- 463ppm

What causes these high readings? The readings at ~1700rpm are just fine. My readings seem inverted. Low at the lower RPMs where they should be higher, and high at the high RPMs where they should be low.

What's up? Bad combustion?

I've also started noticing a loss of acceleration power as well. Could the emission readout and the loss of power be related??

thanks,

amish

 

[Demon-Xanth]

Looks like you're running rich or having a misfire, check you plugs and if you have fuel injection run some cleaner through the system to make sure the nossles are misting the fuel instead of dripping.

 

[mutiny]

In addition to checking spark plugs, etc. I'll add how long has it been since you changed your fuel filter, oxygen sensors, and pcv valve? Look in the owner's manual for when you're supposed to replace them.

I just moved from California to Texas(grew up in TX, lived in CA for a year) expecting to not have to do emmissions tests and now I find out Denton county is going emmissions in November :| I was really looking forward to putting an off-road h-pipe back on my 'stang...

 

[JACKHAMMER]

High HC could also be caused by a failing cat.

 

[Zach]

The O2 sensor, from what I've seen, helps the computer to figure out how much gas to give the car.. if it goes bad it'll screw up your mixture.

A tune up might help too... new plugs are only $1-$2, you can get lifetime warrantee plug wires for around $40 usually.

 

[Electric Amish]

The wires are relatively new, probably about a year. The plugs, tho, are a couple of years old.

I've never changed the fuel filter or PCV.

amish

 

[JACKHAMMER]

<< I've never changed the fuel filter . >>



Yikes!!! I doubt it has any emmission related trouble, but definite performance. When u change it u will notice.

 

[Zach]

Changing my PCV shure helped my idle...

I'm still leanring though, so I wont try to ad much more.

 

[Viperoni]

You *might* have a small vacuum leak somewhere.......I OTOH have a huge one......on both sides of my intake manifold
Big job to replace them......pretty urgent now that the engine doesn't smoothen out until 2.5k+ rpm :Q