[s-cars] Emissions Question (NTC- no turbo content)

[Rich Assarabowski]

Tom:

I posted the following back in December, It should apply to a non-turbo
car as well.  The irony of this post is that yesterday I received a
letter from the company doing the emissions testing in CT stating that
they had a "software bug" in their testing and that my car was
incorrectly diagnosed as having high HC.  They would reimburse me for
repairs done at a repair facility, unfortunately I did them myself.  You
may wish to check with them whether your car may have been part of this
"buggy" testing.

Here's my previous post:

I brought my '92 S4 in early December to the newly resurrected emissions
testing in CT (now done at private service facilities instead of
state-owned).  I passed on CO but failed on HC at idle (400+ ppm).  The
car was warmed up when I went it but not really hot, it also sat for
about 20 minutes with the engine off before it went in.  I had been
running on 89 octane recently (car is unchipped) with no pinging, mostly
highway light-throttle driving.  The mechanic suggested I switch to 93
octane and get the car checked at an Audi stealer (yeah, right!).  

I went back in for a retest about a month later and passed with flying
colors, HC was 17 ppm and CO was only 0.01%!  The mechanic was amazed.

Here's what I did:

1.  Ran down tank and filled with 93 octane
2.  Ran a can of Techron through the gas tank, then back to untreated 93
octane
3   Put in a can of dry gas (isopropyl alcohol) for one tankful to
    remove any moisture
3.  Put in a can of 104+ Octane Boost to the 93 octane 2-3 days before
the test 
4.  Cleaned the plugs and retorqued (they looked good, were not loose) 
5.  Checked for any vacuum leaks (found none) 
6.  Checked for any fault codes (found none) 
7.  Changed engine oil the same day of the test (important) 
8.  Took the car for a 1/2 hour ride at high rpm, got the oil
temperature nice and hot just before I arrived there 
9.  Kept the car idling when I arrived, mechanic took me in about 5
minutes later -- success!

-- Rich
   92 & 93 S4
   Vernon, CT