Northern Virginia Roll Call

Sa-weet! That is good news, must be a load off your mind! I was wondering how that turned out, thanks for letting us know.

 

Are you just doing the grill lights Bill?

 

Yeah. They are just 4 leds. So they don't draw much. I mean I doubt it is hurting anything. My neighbor actually texted me at 1:45 am Friday telling me to check on my truck because the lights were on

 

That's what I do with my son's car. I say it's garaged in Harrisonburg where he goes to school in order to get the registration renewed since they don't do emissions down there. It works since he has an address down there as that's where they ship the stickers to. If you're going to "garage" it outside of NoVa, it needs to be an address you have access to get mail.

Thinking about doing that for the Tacoma while he's down there and "moving" his car back up here. Would save me a bunch of money on property tax. I finally got an appointment for July 21 at the DMV in Arlington so I'll try and do it then along with some other stuff I have to get done.

 

Tap them nto the green wire on your drivers side marker lights. I used spade connectors also for a quick disconnect. They will only come on with your marker lights but don't mess with anything else

 

I thought about that too. Just didn't want to run my marker lights to have them on

 

I understand just offering an option

 

But I still may do it that way.

 

What about tapping into the daytime running lights? Do they double as the blinker like on early 2nd gens?

 

Not sure if anyone has mentioned it but there are sensors set up all over the place where you simply drive by them and they read your emissions, then you logon to the associated site to get your report.

 

Is there any difference between doing that & going to an emissions inspection station? I thought you had to pay for the inspection. Sorry if this is becoming redundant by now

 

S'all good. The drive-bys are just something the DEQ does. It was experimental for a while. It doesn't cost anything, but there is a little bit of luck involved. I've driven by them frequently and still had to do emissions and driven by them and not had to do emissions. I was never notified that I didn't need emissions. I got my registration renewal and it wasn't required. So yaaaay for me.

The drive-in are run by repair facilities so there's money involved. That's where they do the actual plug-in, etc.

If your registration is due and you want to take care of this for a bit (until you can get it fixed or whatever), go into the DMV to renew. Somewhere on the renewal is a "where is this vehicle garaged" section. List a county where emissions isn't required. You don't need to change your address on the registration. DMV won't require any proof and you'd be good to go. I have no clue how they enforce this, but I have a couple of friends do this and ride on it for a bit.

 

Here's some more info: https://www.deq.virginia.gov/Programs/AirCheckVirginia.aspx

You might have some additional time because of the 'rona.

Here's some more info on the drive-by: https://rapidpassvirginia.com/VaPublic/

Huh. Maybe I didn't get a free pass. You're supposed to get a notice. I never did. Tacoma is three years old and I haven't gotten emissions done yet.

 

Well I’m aiming for Friday as the day to take it in to get it done & I’ve got my fingers crossed. Hopefully I’m not tripping over this too much
I’ll be sure to report back with the results though.

edit: wife says she drove by one accidentally before and said it passed. Not sure when this was though

 

I read somewhere if the vehicle is like “X” model years new/old then you’re exempt up until a certain point. This stuff is just silly in my opinion

 

I think it's 25 years old.

 

Oh... interesting.
Well I see there’s a drive by location in Chantilly from US 50 East to VA 28 (Sully Rd) North, so I may try that one at some point. I’ve got options it seems like.

 

I haven’t had mine done either. I want to say it’s 5 years from the model year if I remember correctly.

edit:4 years from initial titling
https://www.dmv.virginia.gov/vehicles/#emissions.asp

 

Probably right. I've tried to keep up with all the changes since I last did inspections, but it seems they're changing policy quite frequently. I suppose in two years, I'll know.

 

Yeah I was surprised last year when I didn’t need it haha. But I just edited my post, it’s actually 4 years