[meyerdw]

I recently acquired a 2005 supercharged mustang and am absolutely loving it. However, I moved out of state and am trying to get it registered in-state, which of course requires a state inspection.

About 90 days ago, I went to Firestone near my apartment and when they tried to inspect it, they found that the negative side of the battery had been disconnected during my drive over there, which turned out to be their fault from some work they had done the previous week. Anyways, they said that when the reconnected they battery and tried run the inspection, four of the monitors were reading "Not Ready" (Catalyst, O2 Sensor, O2 Sensor Htr, and EGR System) so the car failed the test. They claimed that the battery being disconnected may have caused the sensor to reset and that I would need to drive the car some in order to give them time to collect data again.

Well, since then, I have driven over 700 miles and have been back to them three times in the past 90 days (last weekend being the most recent) and they say that the sensors are still reading as "Not Ready." They suggested that I take it to the Ford dealer and get them to take a look at it.

I will probably end up doing this, but I wanted to see if anyone had experience with this problem and might have some advice. Is there someway for my to tell myself if the sensors need to be replaced? I'm pretty sure that the car has a custom tune from the previous owner, is there anyway that the tune could be messing with the sensors?

There are also a couple strange symptoms that may or may not be related:

Firstly, right after I turn on the car it will idle at 1500 - 2000rpm, if my foot is on the clutch or if the car is in neutral. This usually stops after I start driving, but it will sometimes happen while I'm sitting at stop lights too.

Secondly, I've noticed that sometimes the tachometer will read between 1000 and 2500 rpms less than it should be. I will be cruising along at 80mph in 5th gear and the gauge will read 1000 rpms when it should be more like 2750 - 3000 rpms. I've actually had the RPMs drop below 0 in the lower gears.

Anyways, I would really like to be able to go into the dealer and tell them that I want a particular part fixed so that they don't spend hours and lots of my money trying to find the problem. And, if it's something that I can fix myself I would much rather do that. Thanks for your help!

 

[TexasBlownV8]

You must have a tune that turns the rear O2 sensors on.

Do ***NOT*** try to let Ford fix it; they are not able to tune it properly with the supercharger on there.

Find a local tuner or get one of the reputable remote tuners to get you a tune. Justin at vmptuning.com has very good turns for supercharged v6's. Just tell him you need a tune that has the rear O2 sensors on and can pass emissions.

After loading your revised tune, you can drive it around a day or two and you should be good to go.

 

[Earl_the_Pearl]

I'm pretty sure that the car has a custom tune from the previous owner, is there anyway that the tune could be messing with the sensors?

If you are supercharged you have a custom tune. It is common for tuners to turn off some sensors to keep from lighting the check engine light.

If you moved to California you would probably have to put the car back to factory stock to pass inspection. You could get a custom dyno tune, best idea or try a mail order one but you will have to buy a hand held tuner. The cost will be about the same but you get to keep the tuner with the mail order tune.

 

[neeby1]

After my first programed tuned, I went for an inspection and failed I was told to drive 500 miles and got no results, then told to run another 100 miles driving under 60 mph still no results finally went to a tuner and he told me that the inspection for the car was not set up properly. I'm guessing the emission test is what your real problem is. But disconnecting the battery might reset your system.

 

[Earl_the_Pearl]

But disconnecting the battery might reset your system.

It will reset everything, even the radio, but 200 miles of driving should make everything ready. Most likely sensors have been turned off, it is a common practice with tuners.

New Jersey is now testing for third party tunes with the OBDII test. The manufactures put a hashcode in their PCM tune. If one thing is changed the hashcode will no longer match the programming. This will not automatically fail a car but the tester then has to look more closely at the emissions.

OP this is the driving "trip" to reset all monitors.

Ford Motor Company Driving Cycle

 

[TexasBlownV8]

lol, you guys and your >100 miles of driving to get the monitors ready...it's NOT NEEDED!
I can get my v6 monitors all ready, within a single drive cycle, in under 20 miles.
The general procedure:
- make sure there's between 1/4-3/4 tank of fuel
- start the car, let it warm up 3-4 minutes
- then drive, doing 3 different speeds (45,55,65 in any order), holding the throttle steady at each speed for 1-3 minutes on flat roads.

If unsure, do this twice before going in, or on the way to inspection as the 2nd 'cycle'.

If you disconnect the battery or reload a tune, it'll clear the monitors and you have to do it again.

I've put a lot of effort into figuring out how to get my mustangs in a readiness state that will pass; I use a device to read the readiness before taking a car in to make sure it is ready. But, having a tune that leaves on what you need is crucial, otherwise you can drive 25000 miles and still be not ready.

 

[amustangrocks]

on your tach issue, i`m thinking its the gauge itself if the engine is running good. the stepper motors that work each gauge are prone to fail. they can be repaired (not too pricy) or the cluster can be replaced( pricy).

 

[amustangrocks]

you could also contact doug at c&l intakes. hes been writing tunes for the x chargers for a long time. heres his email
[email protected]

 

[05mystang]

As others have said it is most likely your tune since many aftermarket tunes will disable the rear 02's. Any of the big email tuners should be able to help you out, or it would be a good excuse for a dyno tune. Disconnecting the battery won't help or hurt you. Earl, I thought having the battery disconnected for an extended period if time would reset my radio, but even after 3 months of having the battery out the radio never reset lol. And as far as the tach issue, it is likely the stepper motor that is bad like amustangrocks said. They are a cheap and relatively easy fix

 

[meyerdw]

I just wanted to thank everyone for their informative and prompt responses. I will be looking into a new tune and into the stepper motor and will let the forum know how it goes. Obviously, if anyone else has any other ideas I would love to hear them.

 

[Earl_the_Pearl]

Earl, I thought having the battery disconnected for an extended period if time would reset my radio, but even after 3 months of having the battery out the radio never reset lol.

OK, I misspoke. It doesn't reset like the ECU, the radio forgets. With over 20 preset stations I was thinking about getting one of those 9V memory savers that plug into a power outlet, it keeps the ECU settings too. Every time I do something with the car the instructions say to disconnect the battery.

 

[GrayPony]

I live in NJ and drive a SC v6... been there done that
NJ will allow 1 "not ready" as long as the continious monitors are running and there are no codes. Have your tuner turn the monitors on. (if you have no cats you will not pass)

 

[Earl_the_Pearl]

I live in NJ and drive a SC v6... been there done that
NJ will allow 1 "not ready" as long as the continious monitors are running and there are no codes. Have your tuner turn the monitors on. (if you have no cats you will not pass)

New Jersey is getting smart with the ODBII testing. They now check for non factory tunes even if everything else is 100% ready and code free. They use an algorithm that is almost imposable for a tuner to fake. If they find a third party tune it is not an automatic fail but they then check more than if it had a factory tune.

That is one reason I went with Ford Racing for my tune, not only does it have a C.A.R.B. sticker it looks like a factory (Bullitt) tune to the state OBDII test. New Jersey also checks for the number of times the ECU has been flashed, how long since the last flash, the number of cold starts and other things.

 

[GrayPony]

New Jersey is getting smart with the ODBII testing. They now check for non factory tunes even if everything else is 100% ready and code free. They use an algorithm that is almost imposable for a tuner to fake. If they find a third party tune it is not an automatic fail but they then check more than if it had a factory tune.

That is one reason I went with Ford Racing for my tune, not only does it have a C.A.R.B. sticker it looks like a factory (Bullitt) tune to the state OBDII test. New Jersey also checks for the number of times the ECU has been flashed, how long since the last flash, the number of cold starts and other things.

They do not check the number of times flashed (I have flashed my mustang more than 50 times) or for factory tunes. (the tune does not have a signature) I'm running a non-factoy PCM on my turbo car with a non-factory tune and have no trouble passing. If the emissions monitors are ready, running and there are no codes... you pass. The inspection code says, one monitor (other than catalyst)not ready is acceptable as long as the continious monitors are running and there are no codes. I went thru inspection 3 weeks ago with my EGR monitor not ready and passed.

 

[Earl_the_Pearl]

They do not check the number of times flashed.

Upon further review they do not check the number of ECU flashes but they do;

Vehicles were required to store the VIN number of the vehicle in the PCM starting in model year 2005, and some vehicle manufacturers started populating this data element early. As such, in the upgraded system electronic VIN information is recorded starting in model year 1998. Even if the electronic VIN that is returned by the OBDII system does not match the actual vehicle VIN, the data captured can still be used in identifying the vehicle being tested.

In the upgraded system, two additional vehicle identifiers have been added to the required data elements. These are the Calibration Identification Number (Calid) and Calibration Verification Number (CVN). These elements are not only useful for vehicle identification purposes but can also be used to identify vehicles where the manufacturer’s PCM calibration has been altered. Some non-OEM calibrations alter the Calid for their own internal identification purposes, and these vehicles can be flagged as tampered. However, Calid alone is not entirely sufficient to determine whether a vehicle’s OEM calibration has been tampered with because it is merely a static value held in a memory address of the calibration itself. Once the address is known any modified calibration can use the OEM Calid to appear as if the calibration is unaltered, commonly referred to as spoofing. This is why CVN data is also captured during the OBDII test. The calibration verification number is the result of a manufacturer determined hash digest of the calibration itself. This means that a change in even one bit of information to the OEM calibration would result in a different CVN value. The nature of how each CVN is calculated makes it much more difficult to spoof, since numerous changes would have to be made to a calibration to ensure a valid CVN would be returned from the manufacturers hash digest algorithm.

The additional data captured during the OBDII test that is used for flagging stations that may be routinely exploiting known weaknesses in OBDII testing methodology is: distance traveled with the MIL on, vehicle warm up cycles since the last time DTC information cleared from the PCM, distance traveled with the MIL on, time since DTC information was cleared from the PCM, and time the vehicle was operated with the MIL on.

http://www.nj.gov/dep/bmvim/NJ2010_Annual_Report.pdf

 

[GrayPony]

My cars have modified tunes from various tuners... my cars are inspected at NJ State run Drive thru centers and have always passed emissions. Both cars are 2005 -2010, both with non factory FI installed, one with a modified PCM and the other many different reflashes. Both have gone thru inspection in the last year. (They do scan the barcode in the doorjamb before hooking up the ODB tester on both cars) That tells me if a custom tune is done right and not "spoofing" the system, the car will pass. I run original Bama, AMBama, VMP and JDM tunes on the Mustang. I've passed with all, providing the tuner turns all the monitors on, there are no codes stored and no more than one moniitor not ready.