I'm posting this both for my own accounts as well as for anyone else dealing with emissions gremlins, and passing smog...especially those in the PRK (People's Republic of Kalifornia).
My rig is a 1996 FZJ80 with OBDII. 248k miles. A Scangauge 2 constantly monitors coolant temp, intake air temp, RPM and the 4th varies. I had been intermittently throwing P0401 and P0420 codes, and upon close inspection discovered a leak in the Y-pipe. Once that was welded up, with two new O2 sensors installed, I cleared the codes and the truck eventually ran all monitors and reached a Ready status.
A few months later I put her in some pretty deep water and through my own carelessness managed to splash too much water and soaked the spark plugs. I pulled the plugs on the spot, used my ARB compressor to air dry them, re-installed, and after cranking for a few minutes the engine fired up, misfired, blew sparks out the tail pipe, mis-fired and sparked some more, and then stabilized and got me home. All sorts of codes turned up on the Scangauge, and it turns out that those sparks were the catalytic converter innards.
So...after some research, I ended up ordering a Magnaflow kit - CARB compliant y-pipe with CAT 1, CAT 2, and two new O2 sensors. Product numbers below:
MagnaFlow 447103 Direct Fit Catalytic Converter (CARB compliant)
MagnaFlow 447217 Direct Fit Catalytic Converter (CARB compliant)
Denso 234-4157 Oxygen Sensor (Air and Fuel Ratio Sensor)
Denso 234-4153 Oxygen Sensor
My exhaust guy (he's worked on all of my cars and trucks since '96) ended up cutting the flanges on the cats in order to get them to fit around my sliders. I told him I'd remove the sliders (Slee bolt-ons), but he said we'd end up better with welds over gaskets anyway, so out came the sawzall.
I picked the rig up from him Friday afternoon and headed up into the High Sierras for the weekend, figuring that 400 miles of freeway, back roads, mountain roads, and dirt would be enough to run the monitors and reset to a ready status. No such luck. No codes thrown, but still Not Ready as of this morning. Here is the test-status code the Scangauge delivered - the values of interest are the "p" and "q" numbers, or the 4th and 3rd from last in the lower left. The value 1 in the q position means Catalyst Monitor Not Ready (link: scangauge readiness monitor chart)
I'm overdue for a smog test and registration fees by 3 weeks. Not wanting to chance bringing it in with a Not Ready status in the OBDII memory (although I am pretty sure you are allowed one monitor not ready in 1999 and older vehicles), I disconnected the battery for an hour, reached the pre-conditions required in the test below, and drove the Toyota recommended readiness pattern - easier said than done to maintain 40mph for 7 uninterrupted minutes in SoCal.
At 7 minutes at 40mph, just barely feathering the throttle, I checked the Scangauge status.
Drove her straight over to a smog STAR station, ran the test, and passed no problem - actually pretty clean on the emissions:
My rig is a 1996 FZJ80 with OBDII. 248k miles. A Scangauge 2 constantly monitors coolant temp, intake air temp, RPM and the 4th varies. I had been intermittently throwing P0401 and P0420 codes, and upon close inspection discovered a leak in the Y-pipe. Once that was welded up, with two new O2 sensors installed, I cleared the codes and the truck eventually ran all monitors and reached a Ready status.
A few months later I put her in some pretty deep water and through my own carelessness managed to splash too much water and soaked the spark plugs. I pulled the plugs on the spot, used my ARB compressor to air dry them, re-installed, and after cranking for a few minutes the engine fired up, misfired, blew sparks out the tail pipe, mis-fired and sparked some more, and then stabilized and got me home. All sorts of codes turned up on the Scangauge, and it turns out that those sparks were the catalytic converter innards.
So...after some research, I ended up ordering a Magnaflow kit - CARB compliant y-pipe with CAT 1, CAT 2, and two new O2 sensors. Product numbers below:
MagnaFlow 447103 Direct Fit Catalytic Converter (CARB compliant)
MagnaFlow 447217 Direct Fit Catalytic Converter (CARB compliant)
Denso 234-4157 Oxygen Sensor (Air and Fuel Ratio Sensor)
Denso 234-4153 Oxygen Sensor
My exhaust guy (he's worked on all of my cars and trucks since '96) ended up cutting the flanges on the cats in order to get them to fit around my sliders. I told him I'd remove the sliders (Slee bolt-ons), but he said we'd end up better with welds over gaskets anyway, so out came the sawzall.
I picked the rig up from him Friday afternoon and headed up into the High Sierras for the weekend, figuring that 400 miles of freeway, back roads, mountain roads, and dirt would be enough to run the monitors and reset to a ready status. No such luck. No codes thrown, but still Not Ready as of this morning. Here is the test-status code the Scangauge delivered - the values of interest are the "p" and "q" numbers, or the 4th and 3rd from last in the lower left. The value 1 in the q position means Catalyst Monitor Not Ready (link: scangauge readiness monitor chart)
I'm overdue for a smog test and registration fees by 3 weeks. Not wanting to chance bringing it in with a Not Ready status in the OBDII memory (although I am pretty sure you are allowed one monitor not ready in 1999 and older vehicles), I disconnected the battery for an hour, reached the pre-conditions required in the test below, and drove the Toyota recommended readiness pattern - easier said than done to maintain 40mph for 7 uninterrupted minutes in SoCal.
At 7 minutes at 40mph, just barely feathering the throttle, I checked the Scangauge status.
Drove her straight over to a smog STAR station, ran the test, and passed no problem - actually pretty clean on the emissions:
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