Not passing MA inspection post VW emissions recall

ttcheung

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Oct 20, 2004
Location
Sudbury, MA
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2011 TDI Sportwagen 6MT
I have a 2011 JSW TDI 6-spd manual, and had been driving on the Kerma TDI tune. That tune did not pass MA state inspection, so then I put the stock VW tune back in. The stock tune is the VW emissions recall tune that I had installed back in CA back in August 2017. I took the car back to the shop (Marlborough Nissan, good people) and again, it didn't pass. The reasons were that the EGR was "not ready," as well as another emissions-related sensor (inspection papers not with me atm). I would like to know if anybody else in MA has come across this; I understand this is a slim group of people. Thanks.
 

meerschm

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you probably just need to put a couple hundred miles on it.

car needs to run emissions checks to set all the values looked at for the emissions check for the state. this includes a DPF regeneration run by the car.

the emissions folks use a computer to ask the computer in the car if it has run the checks.
 

KITEWAGON

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2014 Touareg Exec, 2014 JSW
you probably just need to put a couple hundred miles on it.

car needs to run emissions checks to set all the values looked at for the emissions check for the state. this includes a DPF regeneration run by the car.
This is my guess. Readiness is a PIA to deal with. I'd drive the car around for a week and try again.
 

n1das

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IIRC you are allowed to have one or two readiness monitors in a "not ready" state and still pass the test. That's how my 05 PD JWagen passed for years in NH which requires passing an OBD-II scan and readiness. Same in MA, IIRC. The EGR readiness monitor always showed not ready because of mods and tuning but all other readiness monitors worked and showed ready status.

There may have been other readiness monitors (more than 2) that were not ready yet. The car needs to be driven enough to get all readiness monitors to set "ready" status. The readiness monitors are designed to prevent people from simply clearing all codes and immediately go for their inspection and pray they get through the inspection before any codes come back.
 
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ttcheung

Veteran Member
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Oct 20, 2004
Location
Sudbury, MA
TDI
2011 TDI Sportwagen 6MT
Would driving around until the readiness monitors become "ready" take longer than a typical OBDII driving cycle? I have 60 days, and the folks at the shop said they've seen (although uncommon) a car take almost two months to get all the readiness monitors back in check. Therefore they told me to drive around for a month; sometimes it just takes that long.

Unfortunately, I am not familiar with having a few monitors not be ready and still pass inspection. If that is indeed a true statement, then I could go back and ask the shop to change the vehicle status. At time same time I'd be contacting VW and asking if they recalled my software correctly.
 

jonferns

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May 10, 2009
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New Jersey
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'15 Golf
You should have no issues passing with the Kerma tune, as nothing is deleted. I passed state inspection without any issues with my Kerma tunes JSW. Reach out to them and let them know the issue you're having


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 

CNGVW

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Bob Mann Auto, 111 High St, Pembroke MA 02359
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Many TDI Jettas and a Beetle Race car run 2010 jetta tdi cup car build roadrace
In MA you can have one monitor not ready that is to pass for a sticker if you have the OEM tune in it I would use the VAG com and do a drive DPF regen. This will get it close and with luck ready for the sticker.
Bob Mann
 

EECSentric

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The readiness monitors are all read out over ODB2 which is actually quite helpful. That means you can check the status of the monitors yourself before going in for the inspection.

There are plenty of different ways to get the data. I use the Torque app (or Torque Pro) running on an android phone with one of the cheap ELM327 bluetooth ODB2 readers. One of the displays the Torque app has is a list of all readiness monitors and their status.
 

Powder Hound

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I don't know if this will apply to you:

When my wife's gasser Jetta needed to reset the readiness bits because of some work I had to do to it for repairs, I found driving it around was insufficient. So then when I was checking the readiness bits on VCDS, I found the program button on the lower left of that screen. It had a specific set of instructions to run through after the car was warmed up. Took about 15 minutes while sitting in the car running through the program to reset the bits. This was opposed to driving the car for miles and miles without result.

If VCDS has a program for your car (the ALH TDIs are so simple to reset a program isn't needed), it would be worth it.

Shameless plug: I have a micro-CAN VCDS for sale (it is my son's) for reasonable $$; for your year it should work fine.

Cheers,

PH
 

oilhammer

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Location
outside St Louis, MO
TDI
There are just too many to list....
The manual readiness setting feature is not on any of the VAG diesels in VCDS, unfortunately.

If it was, I'd be making use of it quite often. Most all the gas VAG engines have it, and I make use of that almost daily it seems.

Someone from Rosstech could comment on this, but I am pretty sure they only give access to what is already resident in any particular ECU. It isn't like they pick and choose what is available and what isn't. And even on the gas engines, it isn't always the exact same procedure. Some go really quickly, and easily. There are even some that only require one "step" from the operator, and once in that mode, the engine just goes through its checks sequentially.

It does require the engine be warmed up though, especially the catalyst(s), so I always take them for a good test drive prior anyway.
 

ttcheung

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Sudbury, MA
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2011 TDI Sportwagen 6MT
Thank you for all the insight.

I have been in contact with Kerma, and they have a tune on-hand that will help me pass. Since I have this time between the expiration, the Kerma tech is curious to know why things aren't ready. I could've swore I went through one regen process already. I have probably logged over 600 miles on it now, but I guess I'll just be safe.

I think the reason why my tune wasn't working is because I was one of the first folks to get the updated tune from Kerma. I was reporting acceleration shuddering around 1700rpm and 3rd gear, and Kerma and I iterated a number of times before we were able to solve that; that was back in early December. Perhaps Kerma has since then addressed other things?
 

ttcheung

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Location
Sudbury, MA
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2011 TDI Sportwagen 6MT
1000 miles later, i hooked up my OBD scanner and it was still reading the EGR and oxygen sensor as "inc," which I assume is "not ready." Not sure what the deal is, and not sure if taking it to the dealer might reveal the car was previously tuned. Would the dealer void this?
 

ttcheung

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Location
Sudbury, MA
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2011 TDI Sportwagen 6MT
Not trying to feel like I'm writing to myself, but n1das mentioned that I'm allowed two "not ready" monitors during my inspection. I searched around and found the following.

https://www.mavehiclecheck.com/motorists-basicinfo/#Emissions

If you ctrl-f "2012," it basically points out that cars older than that are allowed two monitors to not be ready. My car didn't fail with the catalytic converter, so this should technically pass. Thoughts?
 

oilhammer

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outside St Louis, MO
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There are just too many to list....
You need to ask at your local station.

Here, it says for cars through 2000, we are allowed TWO unset monitors, and for 2001+ cars, only ONE unset monitor. However, the catalyst monitor cannot be one of the unset ones.

BUT... even though they never actually told us this, I've found out that the diesels, no matter what year, cannot have ANY unset monitors. Which has become a nuisance sometimes, as I have had to drive some cars, more often 2009+ TDIs, quite a bit. I often have to drive them home overnight to make sure they get a good run out the highway, and in some cases I have had to do this twice. :rolleyes:
 

KITEWAGON

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2014 Touareg Exec, 2014 JSW
I'm sorry that I can't be helpful. All I can say is that readiness is the devil. On some cars its worse than others. 1000 miles should have been enough, but if you read up on what driving sequences it takes to reset certain monitors of certain vehicles it is totally insane.
 

ttcheung

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Oct 20, 2004
Location
Sudbury, MA
TDI
2011 TDI Sportwagen 6MT
Yes, you are right. It's as if I need to rent out the Bonneville Salt Flats to do this driving cycle. Part of the cycle instructs the driver to decelerate from 55-20, on top gear. For a manual car, the engine's ultimately going to die. Worse, the last part of the driving cycle instructs the driver to decel from 55-0; yes, I will get onto the MassPike and go 55, get honked at, and then just slow to 0 on the shoulder, no sweat.

Is this driving cycle supposed to be completely followed in order?

Would ambient temperature have an effect on readiness as well?
 

CNGVW

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As I have said in the past hook up the Vag Com and do a DPF drive reset. This will force most of the EGR readiness tests and most of the MA emissions readiness that are tested.
Bob M
 

ttcheung

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Oct 20, 2004
Location
Sudbury, MA
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2011 TDI Sportwagen 6MT
Unfortunately, I am one without Vag Com. I have (so far) not needed to use it, as most of the CELs were able to be found and resolved from searching this forum.

Dr Volks, I see you are south of Quincy. Maybe one day I might have to take a trip to your shop and request your assistance on this. Thing is, I have had the car go through TWO DPF regenerations already, so it doesn't make sense why the monitors still aren't ready.
 
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