1985 Chevy Malibu. Does CA require the smog check to be run at 2500 RPM?

1995 Chevy Malibu. I had a test only smog check done for vehicle sale and the TSI was done at 15 mph/977 rpm and 25 mph/949 rpm. The vehicle passed. My mechanic said the smog test was suspect so I had a pre-test done and the TSI was done at 15 mph/1896 rpm and 25 mph / 1981 rpm. The results of this test showed the vehicle as a GROSS POLLUTER.

Is the first test valid? Is the pretest valid? I thought that one of the TSI tests had to be at 2500 rpm.

I'd appreciate if you can clear this up for me.

Thanks very much.

Answer:

We'd recommend ensuring the vehicle information entered into the smog machine during both tests have been exact. Vehicle weight and engine size allow the smog machine to determine engine and dynamometer load. It's possible the two smog techs entered different data. The only other explanation is that your Malibu has a stick-shift transmission and the first technician inspected your vehicle at the upper gear limits. The problem with this theory is however, that the smog machine will designate a specific RPM range to fall in between during both 15 and 25 mph portions of the test; and so... for a smog technician to be able to go that high or low off of the required RPM range would cause the smog machine to abort the smog test.

posted by SmogTips Support