Air care, diesels, and full time 4wd

[Enigma]

That dreaded time most of us lower mainlanders dread, Aircare, is fast upon me, prior to renewing my insurance (and paying that damn speeding ticket too!).
This will be my first kick at it with the 81, as it had already previously passed, I can only assume, when we originally insured it last year.
I have not ran any biodiesel for several tanks, would that be better for test results? I recall that full time 4wd used to present a problem with their dyno tests, but I think that's not the case now?

This should be fun......

 

[xingji]

they have a lane for fulltime 4wd cars, at least thats what they have at the Marine Dr location in Van. They need those lanes for subarus.

 

[bj70_guy]

Don't worry too much. I've had exactly ONE diesel fail that money-grabbing scam. It was an 81 VW Rabbit with a bunch of miles on it. Totally the operator's fault, I don't think he knew how to drive a stick. he way over-revved it, then couldn't find the next gear, dropped the rpms to idle, found the gear, then floored it to get back up to proper rpm. Repeat 2 more times. Moron.

I drove home, had lunch, drove back and passed. Different operator that time. IH8 aircare.

Anyway, my 74 passed with .7% opacity - max allowable is 30%. My 370,000km 70 does almost as well. You'll sail through.

 

[Deny]

I have not ran any biodiesel for several tanks, would that be better for test results?

When we ran B100, it dropped our 12-20 reading down to 1 or less. We sometimes had trouble passing our old VW rabbits as if the tester didn't know how to drive standard, they would smoke like hell and fail. with Bio, there was never a chance of a fail.

 

[Deny]

Looks like Norm can type faster than me

 

[jfc]

Don't worry too much. I've had exactly ONE diesel fail that money-grabbing scam. It was an 81 VW Rabbit with a bunch of miles on it. Totally the operator's fault, I don't think he knew how to drive a stick. he way over-revved it, then couldn't find the next gear, dropped the rpms to idle, found the gear, then floored it to get back up to proper rpm. Repeat 2 more times. Moron.

I drove home, had lunch, drove back and passed. Different operator that time. IH8 aircare.

Anyway, my 74 passed with .7% opacity - max allowable is 30%. My 370,000km 70 does almost as well. You'll sail through.

Same thing happened to me, failed in Maple Ridge, Passsed in Abby, opperators fault, Same 81 rabbit

 

[Enigma]

Will they say anything about the smoke? The 81 tends to smoke while idling at times, and of course under load. I was waved away while in the lineup once, in my 45 with bad valves, for the big smoke cloud, while idling. I came back later and just kept it revved up, passed no problem.

 

[AJAEbj42]

When I put my '81 through a couple of years back, it was simply an idle test, no rollers and what not. Maybe cars are different, I don't know, but like Norm says, you'll likely sail through. Make sure your oil is new and you're good to go.

 

[cruiser_guy]

I've never failed with my diesels and AirCare. My '84 would smoke so bad at idle sometimes that people would think the engine was on fire (lots of blowby). I'd simply wait for a day that it was not too bad and then take it through. I was waved off once or twice but as long as I made it into the building I passed. That engine has since been rebuilt and is powering the FJ55.

Now with registration in Cranbrook I get to pay less for ICBC and I don't have to worry about AirCare.

 

[sailor]

Just ran my 81 thru. It's a bit of smokey idler. Put 'er on the rollers and 20 seconds later I was done. Opacity was like 1/20th of the average. Test was so short I thought I was screwed too! Just regular dino diesel with a bit of Howes like always.

 

[canucksafari]

You'll be fine Jeff. With an auto, they can't screw up the shifts. Every time in Abbotsford they mess up the shifts following a computer shift pattern for a truck they don't have on the computer. It still passes even though they rev the snot out of it. If you are worried about smoke, then put in a tank of B40, change your air filter and change you fuel filter. If you haven't changed your fuel filter since beginning to run bio, then it's time. Could be the source of your white smoke.

I got to get the wife's old smokey Tercel through aicare in June. With a few tricks, I got it through last time despite the oil smoke. I told her if it doesn't make it this time, I'm not sinking any more $ into it. She'll just have to settle for a Cruiser.

 

[Granite Grinder]

Like everyone has said, you won't have a problem. My '85 was smokey and it flew threw Aircare. They only gave it an idle test.
GG

 

[Cruisin']

Hey Jeff,

I just did mine a couple weeks ago. In the 'Wack they don't even do a driving test. They just rev it up to about 1500 and hold it there for 30 seconds or so. Mine smokes at idle and under load too, but at 1500 rpm with no load she's as clean as a whistle. No problems two years in a row. Just take it in and you'll do fine.

The funniest part of mine was watching the girl try to find the outlet of my side exhaust that's kind of hiding behind the slider. Took her quite a bit of hunting to find it!

-Jason

 

[jcolvin]

With diesels unless you are blowing huge clouds of black smoke you should be ok. The test seems pretty lax for diesels....it's fast too!

 

[Vanny]

I don't have a diesel anymore but when I had my BJ60 they only did the idle test. i asked why and was told it was because they blew out one too many (Landcruiser) rear ends on the rollers. The gearing isn't set up right for the test. Again no problem passing.

 

[Deny]

The test seems pretty lax for diesels

I remember when aircare first came out, my parents had to run their VW diesel on the same equipment as the gas crap (could have been the operators mistakenly running it on the same equip, I was pretty young at the time, but my dad still tells this story, wish he still had the papers to prove it), and the readings were always so low it was laughable, so the opacity test tries to catch the big soot smokers by measuring light through the end of the exaust. So unless you have the fuel turned up very high you should pass no problem, and in my mind, aircare is just a cash grab on small diesels (actually probably a cash grab on everything), cause no way they will ever pollute as much as a V8.

 

[canucksafari]

in my mind, aircare is just a cash grab on small diesels (actually probably a cash grab on everything), cause no way they will ever pollute as much as a V8.

Agreed, especially when they only measure PPP and not the total mass/volume of contaminates. If they did that, they would have to set the bar very high for all the big V8 to pass.

 

[Enigma]

I still thing it's a good idea, it just could have been done better, and integrated with annual mechanical inspections to keep all the junk off the road.
Which would suck, cuz then I'd be bussing it

 

[WrenchMonkey]

hey I went through with my BJ42 today no oil change no fuel or air change either for that matter and my truck was at the very very bottom of the scale. your engine really has to be in trouble for it not to pass.

 

[AJAEbj42]

Air Care Passed

Just went through Air Care today. Idle test only. Max opacity allowed = 30. My reading: 0.82 (Yes the decimal is in the right spot!)

I've been doing some mods to my truck lately, so I'm going to reapply for Collector status (my truck currently has collector plates). I highly doubt it will re-qualify due to the suspension lift, but you never know!