Hi all, I just moved to the LA area (Woodland Hills) from the Seattle area. My car passed emmisions just fine in Seattle, but I tried here and it failed. It passes visual and the exhaust sniffer just fine, the problem is when they plug into the computer they noticed that some sensors have been turned off, so it failed.

Is there a good shop that can help me out here with some programming, preferably near Woodland Hills? The mods on my 97 LT1 Camaro are relatively minor, just a hotcam kit, shorty headers, and programming as far as engine stuff goes. I've searched on this regional board and noticed that Don Lee Auto is mentioned a bunch, but thats a bit of a drive. Anything closer?

Thanks!

 

Find a shop full of mexicans that cant speak english......money talks.......

 

I'm not looking for anything illegal, just a local speed shop to fix the problem. I'm hoping the cpu programming just needs some tweaking. Or maybe the hotcam can't be made legal in LA? In that case I guess I'd need to change the cam. Either way I'm new around here and just looking for some reliable LT1 shops to have them look at my car and get it street legal.

 

Did u check the code that your car may be throwing? I have the same situation, turns out to be my o2 sensor and something that can easily be fixed without needing a shop. Maybe your situation is just as simple.

 

Hmm, I don't think its the o2 sensors. Back when we put the hotcam in, it seemed to go in just fine into other peoples obd1 Camaro's, but mine is an obd2. For whatever reason certain codes would get thrown. He though it might be the o2 sensors so we changed those out for new ones but it didnt help. We went back and forth on different things for a long time to no avail. In the end, the only way to get the 'check engine' light to not come on was to disable or mask some of the things that were being triggered by the computer. I don't know if thats the right way to do it, but it worked and it passed emmisions just fine in WA. The car burns very cleanly as well. Here in Cali, the emmisions guy told me the car runs fine but their cpu check was timing out on a few items, and the only reason the car failed because it was one short on the cpu checks they do. I assume they were timing out because they were disabled by the previous programming done by the other shop.

Anyways, I suppose I could try changing the o2's again but it seems like a longshot. I admit I know little about modding theses cars, I've always had someone else do it for me so I'm hoping to find a similar shop here

 

Well, I actually was just giving that (o2's) as my own example. I would get the car scanned, try the autozone scanner since your obd2, or take it to don lee auto. In my situation, i passed emmissions and visual, but my car threw a code, even though my ses light wasn't showing .

 

Yup, thats exactly what mine seems to be doing! Where did you get yours fixed? Have you gone to Don Lee Auto before?

 

Months b4 getting smogged, my ses light would come on every so often. Back then, I checked the code at autozone-turned out to be my o2. But it (the ses light) went away after I cleared the code with the scanner. When I took it to get smogged, even without a ses light it failed that part. So, resetting the pcm by unplugging it or unhooking the battery obviously isn't good enough.


Go back to the smog shop ask them what code it popping up. Then you can work from there. I hope that helps

 

Welcome ....
I live in North Hollywood....
Hope you like the Valley and good luck finding a good shop that works on LT-1
and when you do PM me ....

 

Go see Rob Barth in Van Nuys, he owns Strictly Performance Motorsports and is an expert with LT1s and LS1s ... as well as any other performance domestic vehicle.

www.spmotorsports.net
(818) 342-5693