It might make it easier if you get it inspected at the dealer who told you that this one year only part is no longer available.
Iām not sure thatās true anymore. While the systems were originally mandated to monitor emissions systems, they all now include ABS, TPMS, airbags, and other mandated safety systems. I believe the feds now require the OBDII system to monitor mandated safety systems as well. OBDII systems themselves have detailed federal requirements for their designs and what they monitor.
The dealer I worked for in Southern California did not do emissions tests.
sgtrock21- The OP indicated he was in NY State. I have never heard of a new car dealer in NY State that did not do State inspections.
So what did he do when he sold a used car?
Hereās a link to who does what for state inspections.
It was 1976. I think the requirements changed the following year.
To bring you up to date. The dealer sent me a copy of the page from the manual which showed the runner control. Pretty complicated. Itās not your run of the mill runner control. It is unique only to the 1998 Continental, no other cars. There probably never were any after market parts made, the market was so small. I wrote to the DMV and explained the situation and asked if they could give the waiver on the basis that the unavailability of parts would be essentially the equivalent of spending the required $450 for repairs. A guy from the DMV called me on the phone. The guy said he googled the parts and found one for $35 so I knew he was way off base. I tried to convince him it was a lot more complicated than that but no relief there. He looked up my last inspection and noticed there is 179000 miles on the car and it really is time to get it off the road. He also contacted my dealer and the girl there suggested maybe they should have another look at it, maybe its only a loose wire in the control or something easy to fix. Well the control is vacuum, not electronic. When I re-pleaded my case for the waiver he said no, I would have to spend the $450. (But how does one do that when there are no parts available. Maybe I can have the dealer partially disassemble and reassemble and I pay for that) The guy really spent some time looking into the problem but came up with all the wrong answers. So what I will do now is take the car in for inspection and see maybe there are other bad problems. Then I will plead my case to the inspector at the dealer. When I drove the car today I winced at the idea of maybe taking the car to the junkyard. It just doesnāt make sense.
I suggest you talk to another DMV person, perhaps the supervisor of the person that contacted you . . . ?
This one is apparently unable to grasp the reality of the situation, and heās obviously so crippled by rules and regulations, that heās unable to think outside of the box
Iāve had my own share of dmv problems, and success or failure often depends on just who you are dealing with. One time I was also faced with the idea of junking a low mileage car due to some seemingly unresolveable paperwork/title issues. Another dmv person stepped in and was able to come up with a workable solution, and he was able to do so by thinking outside of the box
Why didnāt you ask him for a link to the part? Maybe he was correct and it was a used part.
Welcome to the world of totally ignorant bureaucrats in a position of authority.
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Suggest to challenge the DMV staff person on the $35 part. Tell them if such a thing is available, they should mail that part to your mechanic, youāll have your mechanic install it, and if it is a compatible part, youāll reimburse them the $35. If the staff person wonāt agree to that challenge, then ask their manager why not. After all, the DMV is now invoking the ease of the availability of the part you need, so asking them to produce one, that seems fair to me.
If that doesnāt work, which it probably wonāt, canāt fight city hall and all that, your other idea to just figure out a way to spend $450 on something emissions related that will improve the engine performance to your benefit, thatās probably the best path forward.
I donāt see how the DMV can decide you must junk your car. They can entice you to do that tho.
This is sounding like something where you just got to be persistent. Eventually theyāll get tired of talking to you, and give up.
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