Chevrolet Lumina failed at a smog test only center

I took my 1999 Chevrolet Lumina to a Test Only Smog Test Center yesterday. The smog tester found a couple of problems that would cause my car to fail the smog test even before he tested it. He found hair line cracks in the o-ring in my gas cap and he also found a broken plastic tube which someone had installed a piece of hose over to cover the break. He told me that the broken tube would cause it to fail the smog test. How do I find out what I need to fixed before going for the Test Only Smog Test?

Answer:

You can go about it two ways: 1. Get a complete a smog test, or 2. get a smog check diagnosis from a smog check repair station prior to the test only smog inspection. If you go ahead with a complete smog test note that if your Chevy Lumina fails the smog check the smog technician will give you a VIR (Vehicle Inspection Report) and it will indicate what your vehicle failed the smog check for. You may very well still need a smog check repair station to conduct a hands on diagnosis to learn the exact cause. The VIR is not meant to identify smog check problems. It is simply a report of your vehicle's smog check performance (emission results, tampered emission components, timing inspection result, gas cap test result, and so on.). Simple problems can be fixed using the VIR report. complicated emission problems however will need a technician to get "hands-on".

posted by SmogTips Support