Tolima’s Auto Center is proud to be a licensed New York State Inspection Center. At the end of every month we get a rush of customers coming in to get their cars inspected. Their inspection stickers are a day or two away from expiring. We quickly take the car in to perform the inspection ASAP. As an expired inspection sticker is a magnet for tickets from the city.
What a New York State Inspection Entails
The New York State inspection has two parts. One is performed by us where we check the car to make sure it is street legal and safe to drive. The second part requires us to connect the car’s computer to the New York DMV computer system. Then DMV checks that the car has passed all the onboard emissions monitors. When we start the inspection process and notice the car has a check engine is light on and that puts us in a tough spot. As a check engine light is an automatic fail for the second part of the inspection. We will then be in a rush to repair the car and go through the process to get it ready for inspection.
What you need to do to get your car ready for inspection
Once we fix the issue, the car’s computer has to be reset. This also resets the computer’s onboard emission monitors, which are necessary for the car to pass inspection. Once these monitors are reset we have to have our customer drive their car and complete a full drive cycle under specific driving conditions to get the emissions monitors ready for inspection. The conditions are as follows;
- Have your gas tank over 1/4 but under the 3/4 mark
- Drive the car on the highway between 40 to 60 miles keeping steady cruising speeds
- Do not exceed 60 miles per hour during the highway cruise
- Avoid stop and go traffic (which in most parts of New York City is almost impossible)
We have found driving in those conditions most reliably gets the car ready for inspection. All this has to be done under limited time constraints if the inspection sticker is about to expire. That is why Tolima’s Auto Center recommends getting the inspection done early in the month it is due. If an issue were to arise you have the entire month to get it resolved.
