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Escape the Smog People Mail Tribune / Roy Musitelli Inspector Juergen Bigalke uses a mirror to find a car's catalytic converter at the Rogue Valley I/M Test Center on Biddle Road. Beginning Jan. 1, owners of new cars won't have to visit the smog station for the first four years the car is in operation. Advances in automotive technology clear the air - and the lines at emissions test stations By MELISSA MARTIN Mail Tribune Looking for an excuse to drive a new car or pickup off the showroom floor? Consider this - brand new vehicles won't have to visit the smog station but every four years. The Oregon Legislature extended two-year emission tests beginning Jan. 1 because new vehicles have sophisticated computers that diagnose their own emission problems. "The computers are getting more involved and running everything on the vehicle," said Charles Longmire, master technician and alternative fuel specialist for Butler Ford in Ashland. "Now the smog people don't have to tell you your engine is bad or you have a bad catalytic converter - the computer will tell you. And you can run right to your dealer so you don't have to drive around polluting the air." The Legislature also was motivated by the fact that new cars rarely fail emission checks, said Ted Wacker, supervisor at the Rogue Valley I/M Test Center on Biddle Road. "New cars are so clean, there's probably not a whole lot of reason to test them at two years because the pass rate is so high," Wacker said. The Department of Environmental Quality's "smog station" that opened in 1986 tests about 60,000 vehicles a year, Wacker said. Medford remains a maintenance or testing area even after a 12-year clean record with no federal standard violations for carbon monoxide. "Cars have gotten cleaner and people don't tamper with their cars - disconnecting things so to pass inspection like they did in the early 80s," Wacker said. That's because modern-day cars and pickups have too many computers on board to scare away driveway tinkering. "All of us had to make drastic changes to keep up with computerized cars," said Harold Pretorius, one of the owners of Keith Schulz Garage in Medford. The federal government required auto manufacturers to install on-board emission control computers by 1996. Lincoln Continentals and Ford Thunderbirds were the first cars with diagnostic systems that check their own emission systems, Longmire said. Cars started getting cleaner in the 1970s with the help of the catalytic converter, which reduces emissions, Pretorius said. Later, electronic fuel injection replaced the carburetor, which relied on the rules of physics to provide gasoline to the motor. Fuel injection computers accurately send fuel to the engine, resulting in lower emissions and higher fuel economy, he said. Today's cars rolling off the assembly line also have "cat monitors" that tell the onboard computer whether the catalytic converter is working. "Our computers are so sophisticated, they will pick up a cat malfunction right away and turn the engine light on," Longmire said. "If it's a gross polluter, the computer will turn the malfunction indicator lamp on," Longmire said. "But for some of the things that are more minor, the computer will continue checking to see if it fixes itself. If it does, it turns the light back off." That's much different than in days past when a car's spark plug would go bad. "The engine continues to run, but poorly, and you were pumping out harmful things in the air," Longmire said. Smarter cars have resulted in cleaner air, he said. "Now if the computer sees a misfire, it turns that cylinder off and quits pumping fuel into it." Reach reporter Melissa Martin at 776-4497, or e-mail [email protected] Mail Tribune Home | Ottaway Newspapers, Inc. | Dow Jones & Co., Inc. | Privacy | Contact Us Copyright � 2001 Mail Tribune, Inc.