2015 Mustang GT emissions problems..

[fastblackcar]

Hi all,

I have a 2015 Mustang GT Premium PP1 with a Cold Air Intake and GT350 Manifold, all professionally-installed and the custom tune done by Rodeheaver's Hotrod Shop in PA.

I live in OH and have been battling emissions, specifically for my car to pass. Took it to the emissions kiosk, tried and it did not pass me, wasn't a failure either, my O2, Heated O2 and Cat Conv were all "not ready". Drove it around, did the same thing, nothing. I have a SCT X4 hand tuner and read around there internet I could turn it back to stock and pass.. I did this not knowing the full consquences. I believe I put it to stock, not knowing the manifold needed a tune and when I took it to the kiosk, boom, engine light and a failure. After I reverted it back, never got the CEL again or never failed a emissions test. This obviously screwed me over. EVERYONE told me it was my tune, so I contacted a tuner and said please make a tune that is emissions friendly and that everything is on. Got that, spent $500, didn't work. RIP. Went to a emissions special shop, they said the IMRC codes were removed, as I was throwing the P2014, 2008, etc.. codes. Four of them. Which I assume was all my IMRC codes. This left me dead in the water, with an expired temporary tag and false hope. I've simply been throwing money at this. Last shop I took it to said I'd need to take it to Ford for a full flash and maybe they could do something.. I'm lost though. Please help, any guidance. Just a young car enthuist who really can't enjoy my car.. Thank you so much.

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[Goterr0r]

If you have the IMRC plugged in and go back to the stock tune it will work. Its more than likely your cold air intake that needs the tune to not throw the code.

A few things to try. Have IMRC plugged in. Install stock cold air intake and reload your stock tune. Reset your battery. You will need to perform a full drive cycle to get the monitors to clear and in he ready state. Typically driving like 50 miles in certain conditions you can look up online. You can also use an OBD wifi/bluetooth adapter and something like OBDFusion on your phone to see if all the monitors clear before you go back to try again.

Option 2. Contact a real tuner like Wengerd performance that deals with this platform more than most. I'd be willing to bet he can get you a tune with your gt350 manifold and cold air that can pass as long as you still have cats. Not knocking your guy, but this sounds like he may have turned off some of your monitors which was pretty common practice early in this platforms life.

Good luck!!

 

[junits15]

Sadly your best course of action is going to be to put the IMRC back on and run the stock tune for the inspection. This may also include your headers but depending how that goes you may be ok with leaving those.

If you have to pass emissions in your car, its extremely important to continually check that every mod you do doesn't cause any of your monitors to stick "not ready" or "not equipped".

In general, you can't just "turn off" codes like you used to be able to, the car needs to believe that the emissions equipment is still present and working. So that IMRC tune is just disabling the codes for the IMRC but the emissions monitor is not going to "ready" because its unable to complete the drive cycle due to the perceived IMRC "failure".

The monitor runs, and fails, throws a "not ready" and tries to throw the engine code but cannot. However the failed monitor still causes you to fail emissions.

 

[Bridgie]

Resetting all the alerts for emissions is a pain.. After my engine rebuild and tune I had the same issue.. I tried all the recommended routines - start, hard accelerate drive at 40mph etc. Couldn't get I'M readiness Cats, O2S and HRT.. so would fail the North Carolina emissions test.. Only one "not ready" is allowed.

After driving it for about 10 days it also did not reset

The key to the reset is NOT to drive in 6th gear (manual) keep the car in 5th for the CAT and O2S reset.. Eventually mine all reset and passed no problem..

Hope this helps -> if not then stock tune might work..!

 

[Bridgie]

If you can access the tune file -> Another thing to check is the "Long Term Fuel Trim" settings. Typically, tuners turn this off..
Which could be a factor for the IM reset... We switched it back on.
Mine is HP Tuners, I bought the license and VCM tuners suite SW.

Failing that -> wait for Trump to remove the emissions test for US vehicles.

 

[JVO21303]

If you can access the tune file -> Another thing to check is the "Long Term Fuel Trim" settings. Typically, tuners turn this off..
Which could be a factor for the IM reset... We switched it back on.
Mine is HP Tuners, I bought the license and VCM tuners suite SW.

Failing that -> wait for Trump to remove the emissions test for US vehicles.

Do you have long tubes?

 

[Bridgie]

Do you have long tubes?

No - only Resonator delete and Roush Axle back - Original Cats & Sensors

 

[fastblackcar]

If you can access the tune file -> Another thing to check is the "Long Term Fuel Trim" settings. Typically, tuners turn this off..
Which could be a factor for the IM reset... We switched it back on.
Mine is HP Tuners, I bought the license and VCM tuners suite SW.

Failing that -> wait for Trump to remove the emissions test for US vehicles.

Thank you for your help.

So I should revert it back to the stock tune with the GT350 Manifold, do the drive cycle and try it out and see it works? I have a handheld device to check everything so.

 

[fastblackcar]

Sadly your best course of action is going to be to put the IMRC back on and run the stock tune for the inspection. This may also include your headers but depending how that goes you may be ok with leaving those.

If you have to pass emissions in your car, its extremely important to continually check that every mod you do doesn't cause any of your monitors to stick "not ready" or "not equipped".

In general, you can't just "turn off" codes like you used to be able to, the car needs to believe that the emissions equipment is still present and working. So that IMRC tune is just disabling the codes for the IMRC but the emissions monitor is not going to "ready" because its unable to complete the drive cycle due to the perceived IMRC "failure".

The monitor runs, and fails, throws a "not ready" and tries to throw the engine code but cannot. However the failed monitor still causes you to fail emissions.

Back to a stock manifold? The car only has those two modifications, the CAI and manifold, tuned to pass emissions. It passed before back in PA but.. for some reason man, mine will not. Or can I revert it back to the stock tune, do a drive cycle and hope for the best? As I've driven hundreds upon hundreds of miles with the current IMRC tune and nothing.

 

[junits15]

Back to a stock manifold? The car only has those two modifications, the CAI and manifold, tuned to pass emissions. It passed before back in PA but.. for some reason man, mine will not. Or can I revert it back to the stock tune, do a drive cycle and hope for the best? As I've driven hundreds upon hundreds of miles with the current IMRC tune and nothing.

Back to stock is a guaranteed pass. It comes down to how the state checks emissions, its possible PA does it differently such that it was easier to pass. I don't really know for sure about the specifics.

Basically what this boils down to is you need to connect a code reader and use the "IM readiness" check to look at the status of all the monitors. This car should have the following monitors:

• misfire
• evap
• fuel system
• Catalyst
• O2 Sensor
• O2 Sensor heater
• EGR
• Comprehensive monitor

If any of these items are "not ready" or "not equipped" or "not available" you will fail a plug in emissions test. I would bet that one of them is stuck not ready because of that IMRC delete. So hook up a code reader and look at the monitors. See which one is causing you issues.

"tuned to pass emissions" is a load of bs most of the time, they just disable the code but its not possible to force the monitor into a "ready" state. The reason you can pass sometimes is that many states (including mine) allow you to have at least one monitor "not ready" and still pass the test, but there are weird stipulations about that. Some places only allow you to have one monitor be NR but never the same one twice, some places allow one or two NR but all need to be ready on the first time the car is tested. It varies wildly.

Always watch these monitors, if any are ever "not ready" you have an issue.

 

[fastblackcar]

Thank you.

Just the O2 Heater, O2 Senor and Catalyst will not ready. Ohio allows the one monitor to not be ready as well so, they simply do an OBD-II plug in and that's all the inspection entails. It's hard, don't really have cash on hand to do a whole stock manifold swap.. Unless I somehow was able to trade in my GT350 Manifold for it and let some of that extra money be used to cover the labor?

 

[junits15]

The headers are absolutely causing you to fail, I bet your tune disables the rear O2 sensors entirely, which IMO is a foolish method to "tune out" cats. Buy some J-style non foulers and put them on the rear o2 sensors. Drive for a while and see if that works. If that doesn't work then you need to go back to the stock tune, which will require you to put that IMRC back together or else you'll fail for that.

This is why i think disabling the rear O2 sensors is foolish, it makes it impossible to pass a plug in test. All it does is prevent the CEL, which would have been enough to pass emissions 30 years ago but hasn't been in a while.

 

[junits15]

Another option instead of going back to the stock tune, would be to get your tune updated so that it doesn't mess with the rear o2 sensors at all, then when you put the spacers on he rear o2 sensors everything will work.

 

[mepawn]

Another option is to create an LLC that is in a non emissions area in OH, transfer the car to your LLC and you can avoid all the emissions testing then. Would have been cheaper to do that than spend another $500 on a tune.

 

[fastblackcar]

The headers are absolutely causing you to fail, I bet your tune disables the rear O2 sensors entirely, which IMO is a foolish method to "tune out" cats. Buy some J-style non foulers and put them on the rear o2 sensors. Drive for a while and see if that works. If that doesn't work then you need to go back to the stock tune, which will require you to put that IMRC back together or else you'll fail for that.

This is why i think disabling the rear O2 sensors is foolish, it makes it impossible to pass a plug in test. All it does is prevent the CEL, which would have been enough to pass emissions 30 years ago but hasn't been in a while.

I don't believe I have long tube headers on the car?

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