I know it's not a Ford, but it's in my family....1990 Plymouth Lazer Turbo, basically an Eclipse, 179,000 miles. Took it in for the emission test today, and it came back with a hydrocarbon reading that was double (1.6) of what they allow (.8). Everything else passed with flying colors. Any ideas? They couldn't find anything wrong at the emissions place. I think that he gets the car up to normal running temperature and with a tank of good gas (93 octane), it should pass...any ideas? I wasn't there when he took it to the test, but I think the motor was cool when he got there, the test center is less than 1 mile from my house.

 

There are several ways to "finesse" your way through emissions testing for such minor problems. You can try high octane, or an emissions lowering addative, then get it hot, and by hot I mean real hot....Run the crap out of it. Get to the emissions station, drop it into park and rev the **** out of it. The hotter it gets, the cleaner it will burn. (I used to do emissions testing in NC) If that doesn't cut it, run a Fuel Injection Cleaning on it then change the plugs and wires.

 

I'd try to find out why it's running rich instead of trying to hold your mouth just right to get past the test. Dunno jack about Mitsubishis, but the basics still apply. Fuel pressure okay? MAF? It hasn't been tinkered on anyhow (bigger injectors, turbo tweaked, cat removed, etc)?

 

The car is 100% stock, plugs and wires were just changed maybe a month ago when he got it. The car isn't throwing any codes, and in MO the emissions place is supposed to fill out the form telling you what is wrong with the car. They couldn't find anything wrong with it, so I'm going to assume that it failed because it was cold and probably running on cheap gas.

 

IMHO Change the front O2 sensor. Had several cars that tested that way and the O2s fixed em.

 

+1 for the O2 sensor.

I've changed the O2 sensor in a '90 Eclipse. It's an easy job (as long as the sensor isn't stuck) because the sensor is located in the forward section of the engine compartment next to a heat shield and just behind the the radiator fans (for the 2.0L, non-turbo, manual transmission version anyway).

 

This is a turbo manual 2wd version, we're going to try the running hot method and if that doesn't work then I guess we'll start replacing 02's