OBD not ready ** not ready monitors

I haven't been able to renew my tags because the OBD is never ready for inspection. My battery has been replaced but that was over 300 miles ago and I've followed the drive cycle procedures just to make sure I wasn't missing anything.

I am not seeing any codes, not even a P1000. I did notice the CEL flashes 6 times with the key on/engine off and goes solid. I'm not sure if that means anything.

Any help would be appreciated!

Have you contacted Kurgan?

You have an O/R X-pipe so they will need to write a tune that will allow you to pass.

I have. Other than him mentioning that he had another customer's car that did not go ready due to a bad gas cap, he didn't mention revising the tune.

I did get an open CEF file from him after I got it dynoed. So I'm going to use that to turn on the rear O2 sensors, stack two spark plug non-foulers on each O2 sensor, and try my luck. If that doesn't work I'll try Kurgan again. I just don't like bothering people with silly stuff if I can fix it myself.

Am I understanding this correctly, the port is not ready, so nothing reads? it's not monitors not ready?

When the inspector plugged into the port he was able to scan for codes (which there were none) and got an RPM reading. Readiness status was "fail 3" according to the printout.

ok, so it's not the OBD port that's the issue, the title is very confusing.

the lack of specific monitor failure makes it hard to diagnose


is the car tuned? if so who's?

Ah I overlooked the difference between port readiness and monitor readiness.

The printout from the inspector doesn't say much in regards to what is not ready. Seeing as there is no sniffer test in my state, I assume they're only checking for EVAP and HEGO monitors and maybe a few other things.

The car was tuned locally by Bob Kurgan after I installed a Procharger and related parts. Prior to that the previous owner took it to Ken Bjonnes on the NA setup. I'm hoping it's just a matter of turning on the rear O2s with non foulers and re-trying.

46addict said:

Ah I overlooked the difference between port readiness and monitor readiness.

The printout from the inspector doesn't say much in regards to what is not ready. Seeing as there is no sniffer test in my state, I assume they're only checking for EVAP and HEGO monitors and maybe a few other things.

The car was tuned locally by Bob Kurgan after I installed a Procharger and related parts. Prior to that the previous owner took it to Ken Bjonnes on the NA setup. I'm hoping it's just a matter of turning on the rear O2s with non foulers and re-trying.

Click to expand...

A few people have some success using non foulers but there's more to it that, you'll need to tweak the tune and likely still not go ready.

We tried doing that when I installed my TVS. The monitors would go ready ever so often but usually reported not ready.

So we disabled the monitors in the tune now the scanner wont see them and report them as not supported and it'll pass.

You still need an inspector that wont look too hard though.

.

Do you know which monitors were disabled?

I had issues with monitors not ready once. I had to reflash back to stock in order for it pass.

Your going to need to put cats on the car and get a tune file with all the inspection monitors turned ON. No doubt with a catless X pipe the rear cats are turned off. This will cause 4 monitors (02, 02 heater, Cats, and Rear 02) to read as "unavailable" which will fail immediately. In states that do OBDII plug-in inspection you can only have 1 not ready code.

I have gotten a different 3v car to pass before at the same inspection station with no cats. But that car had stock manifolds, stock cams, no blower, etc.

Let me get back with my tuner and I'll report back.

I had the same issue here is CA and it turned out to be the tune. I ended getting a new tune and that resolved my issue, GL.

Some people can get by on tuning and no cats. I did for many years. But after getting a local tune the guys there were not able to do that (it's basically illegal). I swapped mid pipes once a year but got tired of that. Then I built these things and wired them in between my front and rear sensors. Then I just swap to the tune with the sensors turned on and go get tested (after drive cycle). I leave them in all the time they are strapped onto my DS loop.

07 Boss said:

Some people can get by on tuning and no cats. I did for many years. But after getting a local tune the guys there were not able to do that (it's basically illegal). I swapped mid pipes once a year but got tired of that. Then I built these things and wired them in between my front and rear sensors. Then I just swap to the tune with the sensors turned on and go get tested (after drive cycle). I leave them in all the time they are strapped onto my DS loop.

Click to expand...

Is that a homemade MIL eliminator?

Also will the PCM trigger a MIL with high flow cats and the rear O2s turned on? Or would I have to use stock cats?

I'm going to see if Kurgan can update my tune but he's out of town at the moment so I'm throwing ideas around.

46addict said:

I have. Other than him mentioning that he had another customer's car that did not go ready due to a bad gas cap, he didn't mention revising the tune.

I did get an open CEF file from him after I got it dynoed. So I'm going to use that to turn on the rear O2 sensors, stack two spark plug non-foulers on each O2 sensor, and try my luck. If that doesn't work I'll try Kurgan again. I just don't like bothering people with silly stuff if I can fix it myself.

Click to expand...

I did the spark plug non-foulers trick with my rear O2's turned on. I used 2 foulers for each sensor and packed in some stainless steel wool in the bottom one. Works great. They've been on a the car for a couple of years and have never had an issue.

46addict said:

Is that a homemade MIL eliminator?

Also will the PCM trigger a MIL with high flow cats and the rear O2s turned on? Or would I have to use stock cats?

I'm going to see if Kurgan can update my tune but he's out of town at the moment so I'm throwing ideas around.

Click to expand...

IIRC there's a setting in the tune related to temperature that needs adjusting w/ hi-flows and rear O2s on

Disclaimer: this is as theoretical as racing in Mexico...

From the OBD2 test perspective, the Readiness Monitors can be set Ready, Not Ready or Unavailable. Not all cars have all monitors available, so the test can only look at the ones that are. The S197s have quite a few, and the Spanish Oak ECU is a pain to deal with.

Generally, once you flash the car with a new revision of the software, all available Readiness Monitors go Not Ready. Going through the OBD2 drivecycle the monitors should then go Ready. If a condition is present that warrants a fault, once the applicable monitor is Ready, the code will be triggered in either pending or current status depending on the fault type. Most OBD2 tests will allow one Readiness Monitor to be Not Ready, but not more.

Now, if the tuner turns off the rear O2s, the corresponding Readiness Monitor will basically sit there in Not Ready. The rear O2s are not sending any faulty values, they're just not sending anything at all. From a software perspective, the rear O2s either need to be switched back on, or the Readiness Monitor trying to set Ready need to be set Unavailable. To further compound the issue, some Readiness Monitors depend on each other to set. This means that there may be more than one Readiness Monitor that has to be set Unavailable, or the car will fail since they will sit in Not Ready.

Some people go the hardware route with non-foulers, MIL-eliminators, and so on, where others go the software route through the tune.

Thanks for the detailed explanation.

I'm still wondering how I got a catless car (different car than this one) to pass at the same inspection location with a canned Brenspeed tune with the rear O2s off. Either there must be something in custom dyno tunes that shuts down more than one monitor, or the state closed a loophole in the last couple years.

to piggy pack on Rasmus - some of the new state software systems are intrusive enough that it can see a "unavailable" and then prevent the system from performing a test. edit - you don't "fail" but the system tells the operator he cannot perform the scan and run the inspection.

When NYS went to a new system in 2014 I know a lot of modded guys had issues that they had not had in the past.