Air Repair: August 2001

              Air Repair August 2001
Volume 4 Number 4 August 2001
Are you ready for the OBD II Program?
Continued on page 3
1
The three-part seminar series to
help technicians diagnose and
repair IM240 failures continues to
be a success. With 18 seminars
completed, the results are already
playing out in more vehicles passing
the IM240 inspection.
There’s still time to attend a “How to fix an
IM240 Failure” seminar presented by Al Santini
The success stories are
endless. Shops have seen an
immediate improvement in their
REI. Some of these same shops are
now listed in the latest issue of the
Repair Facility Performance
Report (RFPR). One shop owner
from the northern suburbs wrote to
us recently stating that since his
technicians attended the three-part
seminar series, his shop’s REI has
gone from 38% to 65%. He wrote
that Al’s delivery and material
Ross attaches the new OBD II cable
connector to a vehicle in position 1 at
the Elk Grove Village station.
Elk Grove Village Station Manager
Vickie Ross shows Ron Wohrle and
Major Hearn the new OBD II cables for
connecting to the vehicle in position 1
prior to the actual test in position 2.
Wohrle is the Section Manager for
Field Services, Vehicle Inspection and
Maintenance Division of the IEPA.
Hearn is the General Manager of
Envirotest Illinois, Inc.
The Illinois vehicle emissions test
was enhanced a couple years ago
to more accurately identify gross-polluting
vehicles. These enhance-ments
were necessary to keep pace
with technological advancements in
automotive engineering and design.
Technology continues to
improve. On-board systems were
initially installed in conjunction with
catalytic converters. The second
generation of on-board diagnostic
systems (OBD II) became a
requirement for 1996 and newer
vehicles.
Although OBD II monitors all
computer controlled aspects of
newer vehicles, our focus here is on
the emissions portion of the system.
OBD II provides a universal means
to inspect and diagnose vehicle
performance. The system is so
sophisticated, it can detect degrad-ing
and malfunctioning components
and systems before more serious
failures occur.
The Illinois EPA plans to
include OBD II as part of the pass/
fail criteria for 1996 and newer
vehicles in January 2002. OBD II
inspections have been performed on
1996 and newer vehicles since
December 1999 on an advisory
basis. Diagnostic trouble codes
have been printed on Repair
Diagnostic Reports for failed
vehicles to assist the repair industry.
As soon as January 2002,
vehicles will fail the OBD portion of
an emissions inspection if the bulb
check fails; if the MIL is on (or
commanded on) for any diagnostic
trouble code (DTC); or if the data
link connector (DLC) is missing,
tampered or inoperable.
Vehicles (model year 1996 to
2000) will be rejected if more than
two readiness flags are not set.
Seminars will be conducted to
discuss OBD II systems. (Please
see the announcement on page 2.)
Helpful Web sites to visit for
more information are: The USEPA
site at www.epa.gov/otaq/im.htm or
the NCVECS site at
www.ncvecs.colostate.edu or the
Weber State University site at:
www.weber.edu/autocenter.