Ga. emission? GDMV torture,

[RayneSummer]

Ga. emissions?

I finally got the hateful car registered after 6 :rolleyes: trips.
I thought Virginia DMV was a nightmare.

Last trip, I gave the clerk a piece of paper and instructed HER to write down verbatim the documents needed.
My parting words were I'll be back in 2 hours. I think she took pity on me, but I got it done.

I told her I needed to register my Miata, had ALL the documents and she mentioned emissions?
I just wanted to jump across the counter and......feel free to insert your ideas there :rolleyes:
Wasn't in the mood to get the emissions done, so checked my tag and realized it expired in 2015 :p

Not sure why my friendly little cop hasn't stopped me for that yet.
We became best buds after he stopped me 4 times in one week.

So I'm asking in advance, any recommendations for a shop?
I have a sneaking suspicion, I might need one.

[oldgrayfrog]

Well what year is your car? 90-92' Miata's no longer need to be tested, next year will see the 93' model year drop off testing. All Miata's made from 96' forward are OBDII compliant. It means your car is basically testing its emissions every time you start it up. If you've got a check engine light on for more than thirty seconds after starting, it's likely emissions related. Unless you're car has had a dead battery for a while, or you disconnected it, your car hour be ready for testing. If your miata is a 93-95, you'll need to find an emissions test facility with rollers. For newer cars, any OBDII facility will do. The places charge $20, but if you fail for some reason, you don't have to pay again, as long as you return to the same shop. If you find that you need some repairs, I highly recommend RSpeed in Marietta, Miata Afterworld in Braselton, or Sport Motoring in Decatur for repairs.

edit: Okay I see you drive a 93'. That's pretty easy, lots of guys I know have passed emissions without cats, purely by retarding the timing a few degrees. If your car is running well, it will most likely pass. The best news is that this will be your only test for this car. You get twelve months from theate of testing, so this test will get you to the 25 year mark. If you do need a little help getting it past, talk to Hector over at RSpeed. He's the best Miata mechanic in the country.

[iscariot]

It's becoming difficult to find a shop that'll do a pre-96. I think the state forced an upgrade on them 2 years ago, and not a lot of shops upgraded their rollers and switched to just do post-96 testing.

And the new system is.. fidgity. Took my emissions guy about half an hour to get an RPM signal out of the battery terminal on my brothers 94 - they can't use the spark plug wire inductor anymore for some reason.

It's state mandated $25 for a roller test - and if you fail, you get a free retest within 30 days. I don't think any of the shops Dave listed above do emissions testing, but I would wholeheartedly use them for repair. But - first things first, get a test done. If it fails, the results will tell what needs to be replaced. If it fails by a narrow margin, retarding the timing might get it to pass. Just make sure that the car is good and warmed up before you go on the rollers.

[oldgrayfrog]

I use Mighty Muffler on Memorial Drive in Atlanta, about 2.5 miles West of 285 exit 41 (memorial dr). They're still $20 the last test I did a couple months ago, have the rollers, and the new test computers.

[Georgia Cracker]

The last time I had to go I tried retarding the timing and putting in colder plugs and still failed. Put a new cat on and passed. I got a cheap one from Summit and was lucky the bolts on the old one were not locked up as they usually are. On the '95 I had prior I had the same problem every year, so I had an emission test cat that I installed each year for the inspection then swapped it back to the old one after inspection.

[gmjantar]

https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B000J...iata+catalytic

Put that in and drive on the highway for an hour, then get tour car tested. This will be the last time you have to do it at least.

[iscariot]

Installing a cat without air tools is generally something I wouldn't advise to attempt - least not on a 24 year old car that's possibly seen some virginian winters.

If it's close to passing - retard. If it's far - cat.