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Does your 1992 NON California 190e have a Check Engine Light?

1K views 10 replies 5 participants last post by  355190E26 
#1 ·
Hello All.

Been a bit silent for the last month or so, working on other projects.

Still struggling to get the '92 190e 2.6 to pass smog. Emissions are great, but test station (as well as Millers and Motors' smog manuals) say that model is supposed to have a check engine light.

The owners manual shows a check engine light, with a comment of "California Only" - and this car was a non-california (Florida) car.

Just taking a quick survey - any of you out there have an early 90's 190e 2.6 that was NOT originally sold in California? And if so, does it have a Check Engine light, and does it have the Impulse Counter LED under the hood for pulling check engine codes?

I'm going to make an appointment to see the referee, but I'd love to have a little more data.

Thank you!
~Bryan

355190E26 (Chris) - I called Richie, and he was super nice and helpful - he looked the car up in both books and it states that it's supposed to have a MIL light. So this leads me to believe that the data that feeds both companies is flawed, or this is a grey-market car that somehow managed to pass 19 years of California smog checks. CA smog history says it visited the referee twice a few years ago: https://www.evernote.com/l/ABGXpK11N0NCVIGR6BVZhGqI2ckR_q_hoIw
 
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#2 ·
Bryan,
I'm glad to hear that you were able to talk to Richie and was able to check what he had in his books. (He really cares about helping those of us who drive older cars) Pretty sure you don't have a gray market car though, I believe they have different VIN numbers.

I suspect that the other smog shops that did the car in the past were either inexperienced (or lazy) and didn't bother consulting the book. It was probably a matter of they looked at the dash, didn't see the MIL and just put "N/A"

I do have another friend who has a 92 W124 400E that's also a federal model w/ no Check Engine and that car passes every year.

Hopefully some of our other members can chime in that have Federal models. Visiting the ref may be your best plan of action, I think there should be one near you.
 
#3 ·
Visiting the ref is the definitive answer and is also free, so I would definitely go that route as 355 mentions.
I wonder if that would get the car flagged though. They seem to know all the smog history of the car when you go there and exactly why it has failed in the past. Been there....
 
#6 ·
Hello all,

Thanks so much for all of your comments - will definitely be contacting the Referee for an appointment. This car has been to the referee before, according to the smog check history of the car on the state of CA web site.

Chris, again thanks a ton for that image. I have the Alldata on the car, and I never came across that diagram with footnote, I must have missed it (or Alldata did...)

Thanks so much - grateful for this community - will keep yo all informed!
~Bryan
 
#8 ·
Wow, I had not even gone as far as to look up the location - that's excellent, it's literally just a few miles from me!

On that encouragement, and armed now with both the owners manual and the maint manual stating no CEL on federal cars, I went ahead and booked the appointment, they will see me Monday at 8am!

The gal on the phone was nice, when I explained the reason she said "I'll schedule you for a retest, but it will probably be a fail again..." I did not even argue the case :)

I put the car on the triple charger just now, been sitting for a while, and no need to increase emissions due to alternator load!

Will let you all know!
~Bryan
 
#9 ·
Hello Folks,

Good news! Had a successful appointment this morning at the CA- State Bureau of Automotive Repair (BAR) "Smog Check Referee" center.

I presented the car for inspection, including both the owners manual (stating no CEL on Federal models) and the page from the service manual electrical diagram also stating no CEL on Federal Models.

He said that they often do find little errors in the data in the Millers' and Motors' manuals that test stations use to lookup specifics of the smog test for each car. He said he would test, and if it passed emissions, then he will issue the certificate, as well as a footnote on the BAR test result page that can be used to show future test stations that the BAR agrees there is no CEL on this car, and that that is correct.

So the little $700 190 passed!! I've attached the emissions results just in case anyone is interested. First time for me adjusting Lambda on a CIS-E car. Just a couple more little bugs to fix:

- Heat continuously coming out of the side vents
- Re-Install the Outside Air Temp display (replaced the LCD)
- Right rear door does not open using the outside handle.

When I saw this car, other than the moss covering it from sitting under a tree, it seemed like it had really good bones - and for a change it was a good call on my part! Mama is excited to have it to drive shortly - she's currently driving the 10MPG Ford Excursion V10 family truck-ster to work and back.

Thanks for all of the help friends!
~Bryan
 

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#10 ·
Congratulations!
Your research paid off.
 
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#11 ·
Bryan,
Congrats on passing the smog test! Glad to hear everything went smoothly at the ref and they put a footnote so future smogs will be much easier.
The rest of those fixes you have are pretty easy things that should only take a couple weekends.
 
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