I don't post much, but I have learned a great deal from this Forum - so in the interest of "paying back"... Here's a recent experience that hopefully will help others:
...
So - based on the posts above, yesterday I went to Bake Auto Care. They are fairly close, and I printed the 10 dollar discount coupon. I stopped to get half a tank of Chevron 91 on the way. They were nice enough, I waited abt 30 mins before they did the test.
It failed.
The HC was high, but not by much.
I just spent 30 mins typing the chart with the numbers, but it doesn't work
Bake Auto seemed pleased, and was happy to offer to find the cause / make the repairs.
I called a couple of places, spent last night searching the Internet re. failed SMOG and high HC numbers. It was
amazing the amount of "Witch Doctor" solutions that were posted...
Bottom line - I called AutoWave since they installed the hardware. Shane guessed the Cats never got hot enough.
He sent me to his guy - EASY SMOG (H.B. Auto Center - 17922 Gothard, HB CA). They are right down the road from AutoWave. Very nice man, Mr. Le, I think - I let him look at the previous day's numbers. He let the car warm (prolly 4K RPM) for a good 5 mins before running the test.
Result? Easily passed with every single measured number SIGNIFICANTLY lower than the day before.
Back-to-back testing... The one and only difference was the the car (CATs) were significantly hotter before the measurement was taken (and perhaps the tester knows his business..).
Highly recommend this shop. I will never go anywhere else.