Eco Test (Read Before Going)

[nana0665]

Hi Everyone

Recently I went though some interesting details while doing an ECO test. The test passed but I thought everyone should know the details. This applies to both diesel and petrol vehicles.

1. My vehicle has very low emission standards after an overhaul 20,000KMs ago, 1kz-te turbo diesel engine maintained by Toyota and the test was done soon after a service.

2. The test failed when the officer stepped on the engine and reved it over 5000RPM. Simply the guy stepped on the accelerator in 1 second (I timed it). The engine smoked all 3 times because it failed to calibrate intake and output ratios of diesel with the turbo lagging after 1 second rampage to the floor. it was always an under burn because the engine was trying to respond to an overfed intake, By the time the equilibrium was found the test was on the last last few seconds. Therefore the average test reading failed.

3;. Having some knowledge on the subject matter, I started arguing on the test result and the way it was performed. I claimed that the person incharge was not trained on fundamentals. Despite my option to take the test within another 60 days after so many repairs listed to overcome the problem, I opted to do the test again in 30 minutes after the next person in line. The test passed, the engine had fraction of emissions, almost equal to a common rail direct injection engine.

4. I did not go on the easy way of throwing money at the problem of influencing the officers.

What happened here? Let me explain.

1. An engine cannot respond to an immediate floor level acceleration in 1 second. The test says - take it over 3500-4000RPM in 3 seconds. What happens is, there is a notice on the computer instructing "ACCELERATE" and the guy ramps to the floor. Engine reaches the red zone of the RPM counter. My 2nd test was done between 3500-4500RPM with proper acceleration.

2. The engine that runs on 5000-7000RPM blows all the smoke dust that is accumulated inside the silencer over 1 year. We NEVER rev engines over 4000RPM on normal running. Not even on an up climb. It is only on an occasional quick deathly overtake and even that I doubt over 5000RPM. The testing should NEVER force an engine to this range. Any engine manufacturer has a warning on red zone RPMS that will definitely damage the engine. The simple colour indicating the RED zone of RPM is to avoid going there.

3. They do the test in this crazy way to reject the engines because there is pressure from the authority (RMV) to stop the smoking. RMV has started penalizing the test officers for passing tests of those engines that are later smoking on the road. This is now going in the typical Sri Lankan viscous cycle of hitting the consumers. Consumers spend over Rs5000-10,000/= to temporarily clean up injectors and replace air cleaners. Some even wash the silencer inside. However the motive behind 1 second floor acceleration is to play safe and fail the engines to avoid penalties by officers conducting the tests. Even if RMV catches on the road the records will indicate that it was failed once.

One other reason to rev up is, the actual RPM and the echo based RPM reading on the computer is showing a difference to the lower side. Therefore they floor it to compensate the gap.Instead of doing all this unprofessional over protective conduct of tests, what they really should have is a good software that takes the tester through a good acceleration cycle with a graphical illustration. If the government is so keen on this and care about the environment they should CERTIFY this software and regulate proper usage. if we do not get this properly established like in other countries, lot of innocent people who are not conversant on the detail are going to spend a lot of money when they are already finding it difficult to make ends mean.

My polite request - Share is with many people as possible. My intention of writing this is for someone to get this forwarded with proper influence to the Minister of Transport and Commissioner of RMV.

For those who go and get into this sad pit, know your rights, show the vehicle manufacturers manual, argue, demand your rights as consumers but be genuine with emissions. We have to protect the world for our younger generation. If your engine is bad get it fixed.

Regards

Nana

Edited March 17, 2013 by nana0665

[Komisiripala]

Wow thanks. Never knew that. Props for a good informative read

[kalana]

Thanks for the informative post nana. and welcome to autoLanka!

[hrm]

Thanks for the information !! In every location do they follow the same way? What exactly is the place you are referring here? Dr*ve Gr**n or Lau**s?

[heavyD]

Good info. But isn't it prudent to redline your engine once in a while? To dust the cobwebs, so to speak.

[nana0665]

Certainly Xenomorph on an even acceleration you can take the engine to a burn once in a while. Not a 1 second to the floor on a road driven engine. Certainly not on an eco test. Even a common rail engine will throw smoke for about a second on a floor rampage because the electronic injection system takes about 1/2 second to respond.

[Magnum]

and at some places they purposely fail you, happened to my cousin once, he immediately left tested his van at another location and it passed(it also has a 1KZ engine). Then we went back to the first place had an argument, almost ended up as fight. On the plus side the guy who carried out the test was fired as he was expecting a bribe

[dpbatagoda]

We had Toyota Townace CR42 3C engine and it got failed both in 2008 and 2009.

2008: spent lot of money to repair the injectors and all and still second test failed. Our garage guy scolded the testers and we got the green certificate.

2009. Test failed. We didn't do any repairs, Before we showing to second test, we had a long trip and on the way back we showed it, all green and test pass.

Advice: Before you go for econ test, Please drive your vehicle at least 20Kms (in high speed, high revs).

[heavyD]

  On 3/17/2013 at 8:02 AM, nana0665 said:

Certainly Xenomorph on an even acceleration you can take the engine to a burn once in a while. Not a 1 second to the floor on a road driven engine. Certainly not on an eco test. Even a common rail engine will throw smoke for about a second on a floor rampage because the electronic injection system takes about 1/2 second to respond.

I don't really get what you're saying here. One second to the floor, two seconds to the floor, even acceleration, it doesn't matter. You're not putting any extra pressure on the engine than what it was already built for. If you're not supposed to rev it hard, wouldn't the manufacturers make sure that you can't?

[CJ5]

  On 3/17/2013 at 8:36 AM, heavyD said:

I don't really get what you're saying here. One second to the floor, two seconds to the floor, even acceleration, it doesn't matter. You're not putting any extra pressure on the engine than what it was already built for. If you're not supposed to rev it hard, wouldn't the manufacturers make sure that you can't?

I think what he means is to rev the engine gradually over 2-4 seconds to the red line -"even acceleration" ( once in a way to do a bit of dusting so to say) not a 1 second floor rampage to the red line tearing the guts out of the engine so to say.

nana0665,

Anyway very good informative post nana0665. Thank you and welcome to the forum. Your future input here would be immensley valuable to us as I can see.

Edited March 17, 2013 by CJ5

[Schiffer]

This is good information

i have faced the same issue before with a toyota starlet.

the first time, he revved the nuts out and said its failed. after that. i returned in two days . did nothing to the car and it was a different person conducting the check

and it was passed.

[Rumesh88]

Excellent piece of information Nana! Thank you for taking time to keep public informed.

Edited March 18, 2013 by Rumesh88

[Davy]

This actually happened to one of my close friends who is also an automotive engineer. It was at Katunayake a few years back and my friend got furious with the guy at the testing centre for stepping on the gas so hard. There was a thick black cloud of smoke as he stepped on it and made the engine rev all the way upto about 5000RPM. After a very heated up argument and speaking to the manager of the testing centre, the employee accepted that he shouldn't have been so aggressive on the car.

Thanks a lot for sharing!

[kush]

I thought the max rev for new common rail engines were around 4500-5000.

Revving up to 5000 rpm specially with out and load could damage the engine.

[maheshw]

Thanks for sharing a valuable information to the a\l members as well as to the public.

[terrabytetango]

Thats shitty. I go to the place in Embuldeniya, they always ask the vehicle driver to follow the instructions on the screen and never get inside the car themselves. The people there only interfere if you futz things up.

[Rumesh88]

  On 3/19/2013 at 11:01 AM, terrabytetango said:

Thats shitty. I go to the place in Embuldeniya, they always ask the vehicle driver to follow the instructions on the screen and never get inside the car themselves. The people there only interfere if you futz things up.

Well that's a good approach. I don't think the inspectors would insist on you to get off the vehicle. I always used to leave the vehicle to them watching what they do from a side but not faced any issues so far. From next time on I would sit in the car and follow the instructions on screen. Thank you for the advice terra!

[shanX]

Yup at some places they rev old engines really aggressively, happened with our 4dr5 once, failed. Few days later went to the same spot, got passed without doing anything. But the weird thing is their behavior is not the same case with newer vehicles. Maybe they do this intentionaly.

[dpbatagoda]

  On 3/19/2013 at 2:33 PM, shanX said:

Yup at some places they rev old engines really aggressively, happened with our 4dr5 once, failed. Few days later went to the same spot, got passed without doing anything. But the weird thing is their behavior is not the same case with newer vehicles. Maybe they do this intentionaly.

Yes, Once my father went with the CR42, the guy has rev it up and radiator guard plastic cover was broken. After some argument my father has left the place without any compensation.

[Davy]

  On 3/19/2013 at 11:01 AM, terrabytetango said:

Thats shitty. I go to the place in Embuldeniya, they always ask the vehicle driver to follow the instructions on the screen and never get inside the car themselves. The people there only interfere if you futz things up.

That's a good way to avoid issues like this I guess. Once they hook up the car to their computer, it's just a matter of reading and responding, so it shouldn't be that difficult to handle.