2001 4Runner Inspection - Monitors Not Running
 

Hi, I brought my truck to get inspected today. They called and said that I needed to drive it for a week because the engine monitors were not running due to not having driven it in a while. I told them, how do I drive it for a week when the inspection sticker is up? Anyway, seems odd. Has anyone ever heard of this before.

Thanks
spv1425

Hmmmm,I've never heard that but even so it should just take a day if that but I've still never heard that from a mechanic.

They want to interogate the puter concerning the emissions. With the truck not being run in a while it doesnt have any recent data in the puter?

Shouldn't it still run fine with it's remembered settings?

This is a state-dependent question. What state do you live in?

Rhode Island. The girl at the desk said the inspections are getting tougher and tougher. She moved into the Toyota area of the dealer and has seen this more and more. They did attempt driving it for 20 minutes at highway speeds and said no go still. They said a week, but I suspect a few hours of driving would be sufficient.

Rhode Island sounds like here in ohio - If you have OBDII, they will just plug in and pull the codes out of the ECU. Otherwise they put it on a dyno with a sniffer in the tailpipe. All the inspection stations are run by the Ohio EPA, so there isn't much leeway. If you drive it some and it's still not sufficient net time, ask what they do for non-OBDII vehicles and ask for that test just to get it over with.

In North Carolina, they "license" the inspection stations, so you might be able to find one that is willing to work with you. They do a "visual" inspection looking for all the emissions equipment, then put it on a sniffer. I had major problems getting my '89 Pickup with 22R inspected (even though everything was legal) until I found someone who had their head in the right place - as long as it passed the sniffer, he would pass it.