Here in Ontario, we have mandatory emission testing for cars older than 5 yrs and up to 20 yrs old.
My car a 1991 Acura Integra (1.8 dohc) runs beautifully, quick starts, no hesitation or stumbling, good acceleration (for what it is). I took it in for the "E" test and it failed miserably (I'll post the numbers tomorrow when I have the paperwork back).
Having failed, I did the simple quick fixes: replaced air cleaner, replaced plugs (Bosch Platinum 2's), replaced o2 sensor, ran a full tank of premium fuel with a bottle of fuel system cleaner and even (at my wife's insistance) changed the oil ... I had changed it 2500km ago. It failed a second time, much better but not enough for a pass.
I went down to my friend's garage where we separated the exhaust for a quick look at the catalytic converter, it looked fine but he gave me a great deal so that was replaced, also added approx. 40 oz of Methyl Hydrate to the gas tank in the hopes of a really clean burn. Third fail.
Took it to a friend of his who is liscensed for testing, somewhere we could tweak it as much as we could. Unplugged an injector, which should add more "pure" air to the exhaust. Failed. Advanced then retarded timing. Failed again.
What we have noticed is it is failing in the "curb idle" section of the test and passing in the "steady 40km/h" part. This doesn't make any sense to me, am I overlooking something? Could the injectors be opening too much and dumping far too much fuel at idle or possibly all the time, this could explain my poor mileage ( I had thought it was just my aggressive driving) of approx. 480-520 km/tank .... how to test for this?
Any ideas would be welcome, thanx guys.