'02 Boxster S Does Not Pass Emissions
 

My good friend's S did not pass emissions testing yesterday. This car ran perfectly well when placed into storage last fall. A can of "seafoam" was added to the fuel tank and a battery tender placed to take care of the charge. He took the car out and drove it for a hour or so, then headed to the testing station.

The car did not pass because the errors were two fold: 1. Secondary air system - not ready 2. Catalytic warmup - not ready.

I plugged my code reader into his ECU and did not detect any fault codes. It appears the ECU simply isn't reading these sensors. My suggestion to him was to disconnect the battery for a minimum of five minutes, then take the car for another longer drive to "re-map" the ECU.

Is this a reasonable assumption? Any expert advice would be appreciated.

Maybe the fuel stabilizer is throwing off the readings. Try a:

400 mile road trip
Fresh fuel
Re-test

Yes Yes. Also possible rodent damage to sensor wires. It happens a lot during storage.

I doubt it's the fuel stabilzer...I put the same thing in my two Porsches every fall and he's done the same since purchasing the car. Also, I know for a fact there are no rodents in his garage.

Thanks for the responses...

There is nothing wrong with the car, these are ready status errors. Simply the car hasn't gone through enough drive cycles in order to get the ready status on the air injection and cat efficiency to go 'green' or a happy face on the PST2. Just drive the car for a while and have it retested.
Alternatively you can use the pst2 to activate the diagnostic routines that have not been carried out using the Short Test function.

-Todd

I had the same problem passing NY State inspection after having my battery disconnected. Since the battery disconnection, I drove the car at least 500+ miles, but still couldn't pass because the readiness sensors were not ready. Finally, I read about the drive cycles that you have to perform in order for all the sensors to be in the "ready" state, and off the top of my head, this is what you have to do:

1) Don't drive the car for at least 12 hrs (ie. let the car cool down fully overnight).

2) Turn on the car, and immediately turn on the A/C / climate control system, and run the defrost system at the same time while idleing the car for a full 2 minutes, and then turn off the defrost and a/c.

3) Drive off at medium throttle and reach about 50mph, and then keep it there for a full 3 minutes without touching your brake and clutch pedal at all.

4) Slow down by coasting below 30mph without touching the brakes.

5) Drive off again at moderate throttle to 50mph and keep it there for 5 minutes straight, and then coast below 30 without touching the brake pedal or clutch.

Doing this is very hard in NYC (I had to go up and down the west side highway), but it finally worked, and I passed inspection. The thing is, the way I drove, I always drive with a heavy foot, so I'm always wringing the car at pretty much full throttle in every gear, so even if I drive like this for 500+ miles, the readiness codes for the car would still not be in the ready state. You have to go thru these drive cycles for the car to be "ready" for testing. It stinks, but it works. Oh, and don't ask him to disconnect the battery again.... everytime you do this, he'll have to start from scratch and go thru the drive cycles again, in order for the car to be ready for testing. Good luck to your friend.

Thanks for all your comments...I will pass these along to my friend. It seems quite odd that this has popped up after years of no problems; guess that's the way it goes. I'm also wondering if it may be attributed to the original battery still in the car. Even though it's on a battery tender, perhaps when being driven, voltage falls below the required charge. I think a new battery is in store, just as a precautionary.

Very interesting thread. This is the first time I have heard of this issue.

Have you ever heard of RXP? I have an older car that won't pass unless I put a bottle of that in with a tank of gas. Works like a charm. 7 bucks a bottle.

Did a Google search on RxP...fuel additive that claims to reduce emissions? Sounds like snake oil, but if it works on your older car, must be something to it.

Try it and post your results. Put it in with your next tank of gas and get it flowing through the system. It impressed/surprised me.