jaybird302

Hello Yota peeps,
I'm in need of some help. I have a '99 4R SR5 4x4. I've had it for 6 months now and it drives like a dream, we love it! The issue is that it won't pass inspection. It's not throwing any kind of codes and there is no CEL. On the print out it tells me that the Catalyst, Evap, O2 Sens and O2 Sens HTR are all "Not Ready". My inspection guy is a friend of mine, luckily, so I'm not getting charged every time I take it in. I also trust him, so his advice has been to drive it and put miles on it for the sensors to come back on line. He's seen this before and putting miles on the vehicle has always solved the issue. I believe him, however I don't want to go through this every year.

Has anyone else been through this??? And how much is this gonna cost me???

Any advice would be amazing. Thanks in advance.

Jay

aowRS

Jay,
I was dealing with a number of codes over the last few years, but finally decided to solve whatever was causing them (in time for my last emissions test in December). I've owned the truck since new, do all my own work, and now have 297,000 miles.

I love the truck, so over the course of a few weeks I replaced: O2 sensor, air fuel sensor, MAF sensor, charcoal canister, and both catalytic convertors.

I shopped around and used all factory parts. It was terribly expensive, but I've now driven around 4,000 miles and the truck is code-free. Prior to all of this, I would see 2 or 3 codes at least once a week on my Scan Gauge II. Very, very annoying.

In a month or so I'll have 300,000 miles. Then I'll aim for 400,000...



Andreas

jaybird302

Thanks Andreas, funny thing is... I have no codes what so ever... Is there a possibility that all these sensors could be bad but not throwing codes? Seems unlikely to me, but you never know...

TheDurk

Are you having any electrical problems?? Is there anything happening that causes power interruptions or low battery voltage?

I have never heard of anything that keeps all those readiness monitors stuck at Not Ready. EVAP and CATALYST can take a while, and it can be hard to hit the Drive cycle but the sensor monitors should set ready almost instantly. That's why I am thinking there may be something systemic, like low voltage due to failing battery or alternator or bad battery cables or a ground problem. Speaking of that last, check the engine ground by the diagnostic plug, just for fun.

I have attached a TSB you may find helpful.

22REFORME

If this were my problem, and i am not saying this is the right thing to do... but i think i would unhook the battery and unplug the ECM wait a bit and plug it all back in and then drive for a week or so. having a scanner that will give you the status of the sensors would be ideal... i have an expensive OTC genesis that does this but i am sure at this point there are cheap ones that do this as well. good luck i hate problems like this.

lobukbuild

before we all jump the gun here we should get some history and explain that any time you have an electrical interruption like disconnecting your battery the computer clears and resets. some monitors will come back on quickly some take a while. driving the vehicle thru its heat cycles a certain number of times will allow them to reset and come back on. (not ready / ready ) have you had any interruptions electrically like changing the battery or disconnecting it for some other reason? a bad contact maybe or any other type of work or issue that might of caused a loss of electrical power?

jaybird302

Thanks guys for the response.

Lobuk, you are dead on with what my guy is telling me. I've had it since August and have never disconnected the battery or had any other electical issue. The only thing I've done is replace the radio and replaced the interior lights with LED's. I'm pretty handy and 99% certain I haven't caused any issues, but you never know...

lobukbuild

while doing the radio and lites did you happen to pop or need to change any fuses? something caused your computer to reset, or the previous owner disconnected the battery to clear the codes in order to shut the check eng lite off to hide an issue before he sold it. id run the truck untill the monitors show ready on the scan. there is a chance that shortly after this they will throw a code and the chk eng lite will come on. at least at this point youll know what to have replaced in order to get your inpection. there is a short window between all monitors ready and detecting a code that the truck will pass a scan test.

jaybird302

I don't think I caused any blown fuses, but I will certainly check. You'd think, though, that after 6 months it'd been driven enough to kick everything back on. We'll put a big chunk of miles on it Friday and I'll take it in to get checked afterwards. We shall see.

lobukbuild

youve had the truck for 6 months you say. how many drive/heat cycles have you gone thru? ( start cold , drive, shut off, let cool, repeat) how many miles have you been? the time frame seems a little excessive for them to still read not ready if the po was the one that caused the reset. but i had an astro van that took 1200 miles before coming up ready, it drove my buddy crazy when he had to work on it.lpl.

jaybird302

We drive it everyday, it goes through multple cycles a day. My wife is a busy stay at home mom. It's typically driven just around town, but it definetly goes through the complete cycle. Twice a week it goes about 20 miles one way, cools and 20 miles home. We've put 5-6k on it in the time we've had it.

jaybird302

Reckon this is the problem?!?!? Sheesh....

TheDurk

Hehe, I bet it is. I'm thinking I called it.

Nuthuts96

iTrader: (1)

Damn Durk! killed that diagnosis!