I'm on this same soapbox this weekend - also in Larimer County. The place I get my test every year in Longmont was closed yesterday - sign said "Closed for repairs". No eta so I went to Loveland. Was told at 2PM I needed an appointment. There were only two others ahead of me but couldn't get in until 4. I killed 2 hours, put in some fuel treatment and went back at 4.
He rolled the truck onto the dyno, parked it and came into the waiting area to tell me my check engine light is on. I said I knew that - it's an intermittent thing, camshaft position sensor comes on about once every 3 months. He says, "That's a fail - I can't pass you with that light on. "
I asked if he could clear the code and run the test. He said yes - for $40. I said I could drive home, clear it with my own code reader and come back - was he really asking me to go for a 45 minute drive to save $40?
His reply was, "Well my machine costs $9,000".
Kick me for not just moving on at that point but I was just anxious to get this solved. You see, the other fun thing going on in Larimer County is they start fining the heck out of you for overdue license plates. And you don't get license plates without an emission test (on diesel only) So every day I don't take care of this it's getting more expensive.
Mr. Shop Owner tells me he'd be there when I got back but he really wants to get out of there by 5:15 or so. I said I'd make it. As I walk out the door I look at the sign which says his hours are until 5:30...
I drove home, cleared the light, drove back and got there by 4:45. He wasn't in the waiting area just then so I walked back out to the truck to grab my cell phone I'd forgotten. When I came back 60 seconds later the door was locked!
I knocked and he opened it and said, "Oh *****, I forgot you were coming back!" He rolled my truck in and started testing while I waited. The first time he did the accelleration test I thought, "Sheesh, I need an emissions test, not a horsepower chart!"
I heard my truck idle down, and after 20 seconds he goes for another run. Then another. On the fourth run I walked out into the shop to see what was going on. Something was rapidly leaking from under my engine - looked like fuel, and he says -"You got a chip in this thing? Because it won't pass no matter what I do. "
I said I did - the same chip and injector combo that it's had for 9 of the 10 years I've owned the truck and it's never failed yet. I have the Edge Comp, and it was set at level 2x2. I passed last year with it on 3x3 (barely, I hadn't meant to leave it there but I blew a 30, well under the 35% opacity max). I dialed the chip down to 1x1 and asked him if he would please run it again. He said "OK, but this is the last time, otherwise I'll overheat my dyno. "
I should have said out loud what I was thinking which was it would help if he would run an emissions test instead of trying for a 0-60 record. I'm exaggerating a bit but I know it was way over the top compared to any test I've had at the Longmont station.
It failed again. Right where I could tell it would, when it shifted into 3rd and I could hear huge boost building up. Before the turbo caught up with the fuel request though it made just enough smoke to fail. So he wrote me up a failure report which had three entries:
40mph 25% opacity
50mph 35% opacity
60mph 42% opacity
When I looked at it, he said on the previous test (chip at 2x2) I was blowing an 80%. But he didn't show me that report.
Of course I still had to cough up $75, which I expected, but he also explained I could bring that back for one free re-test after I got it "fixed".
He kept harping about my chip and injectors, completely ignoring me that it has passed multiple tests with exactly this same setup for years. He also got pissy about my tail pipe - a whopping 4 incher
- that made it "hard" for him to attach his sensor. He said I should "get a tail pipe on there" before the next test.
I asked him about the fluid on the floor and he said, "Oh yeah, I tried to find the source of it but it's so wet under there I can't tell. It's obviously been doing that a long time. I guarantee you if we walk out and look in the parking lot, we'll find an identical spot where your truck was parked before the test".
Guess what? I took him up on that and we couldn't find one. Granted, it was dark by then and the lot wasn't particularly well lit, but the spots he tried to blame on me were OIL, not fuel.
So now I'm stuck. Do I try to find some way to squeak by his test - some other fuel additive, change all filters, etc? just so I can get it for free on the retest? I'm not thrilled about having that guy touch my truck again. Or do I cough up $75 somewhere else and hope for a softer right foot and a better result?
I don't like making accusations, but can you imagine how hard of a time I'm having with the coincidence that the testing station that's passed me all these years is only that - a testing station; but Mr. Leadfoot also happens to be a diesel repair shop?
Nah, that can't be it. It's gotta be that chip...
#@$%!
Attention: TDR Forum Junkies 
