I have a 1998 GSX and recently went in to have the car inspected. I live in New York and starting in Dec they began doing OBD II testing (which sux). So I drop my car off and when I go to pick it up I'm told it failed the OBD II testing because too many monitors (O2, catalyst, evap syatem, O2 heater, EGR syatem) were "not ready". They asked if a had recently had the battery unhooked which I had and they informed me I just need to drive the car so the ECM can perform the engine checks. Ok no problem; drove it around for a week and then took it back. When they tested it again same problem. So I did some searching of my own and found out some Mitsubishi's (pretty much anyone between 96-01) can potentially have this problem, the monitors are difficult to set to complete. Has anyone else had this problem? How did you fix it? Or any other suggestions which might help me out all all appreciated. Oh yeah I took the car to a Mitsu dealer and they seemed clueless. They wanted to charge me straight time, which is like $75/hr, and had no idea what even be causing this. This to me seems ridiculous. The only reason I took it there was I figured they would have some idea what was going on. Please help.

 

If your sensors are older I would try changing those out. Have you done any aftermarket changes to your exaust system? And how well have you kept up with the oil changes and tune ups over the years? If you catlytic converter is dirty inside you'll never pass that test. Try the sensors and a tune up, that may do the trick. Worse case you may have to replace some exaust parts.

 

and after you clean the sensors unhook the battery again so the computer can reset, drive it for a while, then take it back......

 

what sensors do those tests check for in particular? I'm sure O2 and whatnot but anything other than that?

 

Ok turns out everything was ok. All the sensors were fine and it was just that Mitsu's OBDII system sucks. It (the ECM) was stuck on the EGR readiness monitor and couldn't complete it and never could check any of the other monitors causing me to fail the test. I'm glad everything is alright but it still cost me over $200 to have Mitsu force the sensors to run and drive my car around for a little while so it could perform the readiness checks. If anyone else has such problems there is a list on the EPA website, http://159.145.15.175/ftp/pdfdocs/OBDProblems.pdf , that lists all the cars that could encounter this problem.

 

well at least you got it back to normal, that's always a good feeling.