My truck failed inspection

My completely stock 2017 Tacoma, which hasn't had the battery out in 2 years, or the hood opened since August, failed inspection a little while ago. O2 sensor and catalyst not ready. I drove it 400 miles last Tuesday.

Inspection place said to drive it 80 miles and bring it back. I am doubtful the tests will complete but wanted to solicit opinions. Should I take it straight to the dealer?

Also it has almost 44k miles. I assume this wouldn't be covered by the part of the warranty that goes to 60k miles.

 

Do you have an active 'check engine' light? They should both be throwing OBD codes.

 

a 2 year old truck shouldn't fail inspection. Bring to dealer to fix

 

Was the truck fully warmed up ? Be sure no codes are stored in your computer.

 

That’s covered by the emissions warranty. Dealer visit time.

 

Cats fall under emissions equipment warranty. Look into that, and based on your mileage it should be covered even if it somehow doesn’t fall under Toyota’s specific coverage.

 

I had the same experience with a used vehicle I purchased many years ago.
I was told to drive it and come back but it still failed after driving hundreds of miles over several days and a couple more attempts at testing on the machine while the vehicle was thoroughly warmed up.

What finally worked was disconnecting the battery and then reconnecting a while later. After doing this, I took it back and it passed.

I suppose it maybe clears the system of codes or previous info.

 

Truck was not warmed up. No check engine light.

 

If they were doing a smog as part of the inspection,it will not pass until the engine is fully warmed up.Could be why they told you to go drive it some more.

 

They just do the OBDII tests. No tailpipe sniffer on 96 and newer.

 

Well your o2 sensors are doing the sniffing now. If the engines not warmed up they wont be reading the correct mixture.

 

dealers can be tricky as you've probably seen but keep this in mind. your cats -- if proven to be the problem -- will be replaced under warranty up to 8yr/80k. that's Federal.

EPA says * Specified major emission control components are covered for the

first 8 years or 80,000 miles of vehicle use.



According to federal law, an emission control or emission related

part, or a specified major emission control component, that fails

because of a defect in materials or workmanship, must be repaired or

replaced by the vehicle manufacturer free of charge as long as the

vehicle has not exceeded the warranty time or mileage limitations for

the failed part.​

 

O2 sensor and catalyst not ready just likely just means you need to drive it more to complete the emissions cycle so that it becomes "ready". You can monitor this yourself using a Scangauge or OBDII plug in with the Torque app on your phone.

Can also mean you have a weak battery that needs to be replaced.

If it was something wrong with the O2 sensors or catalytic converters, you would have a check engine light code(s) relating to those directly. P0420 or a P0136/137...speaking from experience as I've had both those codes.

In your case I'm betting you just need to drive it more to complete this particular emissions cycle, then take it back in

 

OK. The inspection place I use is like 1 mile from my office. The truck had been parked for 5 hours before the 1 mile drive in cool weather. I'll get it hot and take it back.

I didn't realize the test was real time. If nothing else I assumed the tests would have completed on the 400 mile round trip I made 2 days ago.

 

yeah I'm betting that's what it is. The smog shop I use is only a couple miles away from my place, but when I go to get my test done I always run some errands around town a couple hours before and then take the highway straight to the smog facility from wherever I was last at.

 

Sounds like the inspection place is to blame...

 

How? They told him to drive it which will warm it up and then they will be in the ready state.

 

Take to dealer have them try to fix it and have them inspect it while its there. Not sure how it is in other states, but the dealership in TX is a place you can have it inspected for your yearly renewal

 

OP where do you live that you have to get an emissions inspection on a 2017 vehicle? Even here in CA we don't have to get smogged until a vehicle is over 8 years old.

 

Texas, DFW specifically