Hey all and first of all thanks for reading my post. I have a 2001 buick lesabre and I recently had to take it in for an emissions test. I figured with no CEL or any other trouble with the car since I have bought it a year ago it would be an easy pass. WRONG!!! Unfortunately the technician at the emissions place told me that my monitors had to be reset. I dont know or even understand what that means other than what the technician had told me. He said i should do a complete drive cycle. What is that? What are monitors and how do I reset them? Can I not just unplug the battery to reset these? Do I have to replace the monitors? Can someone please help me I have no clue what a drive cycle is on my car or how to reset the monitors. Do I have to take it to the mechanic or is it something I can do. I am lost and I need my car to pass emissions asap so I can renew my registration. Please help…TX Sooo Lost
Don’t disconnect the battery. This is what erases the readiness monitors. The vehicle needs to driven under certain conditions or a drive cycle to reset the readiness monitors
Here’s the drive cycle for your vehicle to reset the readiness monitors. http://ww2.justanswer.com/uploads/JHoop/2011-10-31_214120_5.pdf
Tester
Thanks guys for the info I will try to do that drive cycle in that order and see what happens. How will I know if i correctly did this process? Also @db4690 I did have to get a battery new this past winter and I did have a gas cap code because i drove off with my gas cap on my hood and lost it so I bought a new one and the guy @ autozone erased the code for me and it never came back but this was about 3 weeks ago so could this be the problem, him resetting the codes and or me replacing the battery?
@soolost
Replacing the battery will reset to “incomplete”
When the autozone guy cleared the code, all the monitors reset to “incomplete”
Depending on various conditions, it can take quite some time for a non-mechanic to get all the monitors to run to completion
One moe thing: When you go for the test, drive your car at highway speeds for at least a half hour before going to the emissions test station. Your car will be thoroughly warmed up and ready to give its best readings.
You will know the monitors are ready if the tester says they are. You won’t know without a code reader.
And OBD-II code readers are available to scan your car at many auto parts chains. Call one near you to see if they have one, that it’s free to use, and that it works. I use Advance Auto Parts near me, but once their scanner was out for repairs and I had to go to another AAP about 20 minutes away.
Welcome to the world of emissions testing nightmare / nonsense…And good luck getting the 12 year old OB-2 system to “reset” itself by doing the drive cycle thing…A bunch of technobabble garbage that makes zero difference in our air quality…
If you want to try and slog through this, you can buy a a OBD-2 to USB cable and a simple free program that will allow you to connect a laptop to your cars computer allowing you to monitor and manipulate this stuff…