Earth-friendly Prius struggling to overcome Ga emissions glitch

[Klaus]

Earth-friendly Prius struggling to overcome Ga emissions glitch

By KEN FOSKETT
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Published on: 11/26/07 Scott Merritt bought his low polluting Toyota Prius to help save the planet, conserve energy and encourage others to go green. He's also a big believer in keeping dirty polluters off the road.
So imagine his surprise and frustration when his electric hybrid failed Georgia emissions testing ? not once, but three times.

Ben Gray/AJC

(ENLARGE)

cott Merritt spent the better part of a week trying to get his 2004 Toyota Prius hybrid car to pass Georgia emissions testing and finally ended up with a waiver because it couldn't be tested properly.
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"I spent a total of three full days getting this resolved," said Merritt, 34, a public relations executive. "I went to three different places, and nobody was able to do the test."
Merritt encountered a glitch that state emissions officials hope to have resolved by next year, when many more Prius cars become eligible for testing.
"We are concerned about this becoming a larger problem," said Tim Smith, the program manager for the vehicle emissions and inspection program at the state Department of Natural Resources. "We expect a lot more of these vehicles to show up at these stations."
Emissions tests, costing $10 to $25, are required every year to renew tags for cars and light trucks registered in the 13-county metro area. New cars have a three-year exemption from testing.
Early this year, officials discovered a problem with Toyota's 2004 Prius, a hybrid that uses a small gasoline engine to supplement electric power generated by a battery.
Typically, the emissions analyzer plugs into a car's onboard diagnostics module, downloading the engine's emissions history.
The software used for the test, however, is incompatible with the Prius, Smith said. A fix should be in place early next year, he said.
In theory, testers can work around the problem by capturing tailpipe exhaust with what's called the two-speed idle test, or TSI.
Here, again, the Prius trips up the test because idling causes the gasoline engine to shut down, leading the test to abort and fail.
State officials developed a 10-step procedure to work around the problem. But the fix didn't work for Merritt.
"It's not as simple as they say it is," said Adam Kyle, the emissions tester at a Chevron station in Dunwoody, where Merritt first took his Prius. "You've got 60 seconds to get it to go right."
At a regular meeting of emissions testers this month, the 10-step procedure for testing the Prius was reviewed, Smith said.
Part of the problem, Smith said, was that testers hadn't practiced the test enough because they weren't seeing too many Prius vehicles.
With practice, Smith said, "we expect that they will be able to do it blindfolded."
As a New York transplant to Georgia, Merritt needed a passing test to get a Georgia tag.
At the Dunwoody Chevron station he tried, Merritt walked away with a failed test result and instructions how to obtain an emissions test waiver.
Merritt learned, however, that some of the service center locations listed on the instructions had moved. He spent an hour looking for the wrong address before he found the building.
"The woman behind the counter looked at me like I had three heads," Merritt said. "She had never heard of this problem."
Armed with the 10-step instructions on how the test should be done, e-mailed to him by Smith's office, Merritt said he returned to the first station that failed him.
But the tester turned him away, saying he didn't have the right equipment. Another station down the road also declined.
A third station brought out a supervisor to work on the car, Merritt said. After nearly an hour of waiting, the technician still couldn't get the test to work.
"I had to pull the plug," Merritt said. "I had to get to work."
In the end, Smith helped Merritt obtain an emissions waiver, which allowed him to apply for his Georgia tag.
In addition to his own time, Merritt estimated that he put an extra 60 miles on his car trying to resolve the problem.
"There is no reason a Prius should fail this test," he said. "And there is sure as heck no reason that I should have to go three separate places to get a test."
Merritt's testing woes, however, are not over.
The state will ask Merritt to have his Prius tested again next year, Smith said, "to make sure there are no issues with regard to his vehicle."

http://www.ajc.com/metro/content/met...ge_tab_newstab

[DRTYFN]

[Agriv8r]

my H2 passed....

[mikejr]

kinda gets me teary eyed that the tree hugger couldnt pass the emissions test.....sniff sniff....