Does anyone know anything about emissions systems?

[Stephen]

My DD, a 1998 VW Jetta VR6 wont pass emission because of 5 things:
1. The Secondary Air Injection System isn't working properly.
2. Catalyst is reading as 'Not Ready'
3. Evaporative System is reading as 'Not Ready'
4. Secondary Air System is reading as 'Not Ready'
5. Oxygen Sensor is ready as 'Not Ready'

I figure that I need to replace the O2 sensor (car just passed 100K). But the others I don't know. The Secondary Air Injection Sysytem has been a gremlin for about a year, and every time I think that I've fixed it, it comes back.
Any help is appriciated!

 

[Rusted]

This may be no help to you, and I don't know about the VW's at all, but I would guess that items 2,3,4 could all be related to a vacuum leak. Have you checked for a vacuum leak, it would be easy / cheap to start there at least. Seems like a tight vacuum system fixes a lot of those type of issues.

 

[Unimog]

I'm not an expert on this either, but I may have one recommendation: If the results didn't come from a real VW computer reader (VagCom), have that done first. Any tuneup shop can read the generic messages since the VW computers will spit out ODBII compliant messages, but you will get much more complete info from the real VW reader.

Eric (Thankfully live in Tooele County - no emission testing)
2002 Jetta TDI

 

[78mitsu]

could be an electrical (connection) problem.

 

[Kiel]

Does it have a check engine light? Is it related to the air injection system? If so that would keep the other issues of the systems not being ready. Once a car pops a engine light it will not procede with the readiness of the other systems. So fix the check engine light and if that was it, all should be good

 

[Dracsnar]

i think the readings are from the IM test print out. most of your failures are coming from one area. that area sounds to be your air injection system.

1: do a visual and phical inspection of the system to see if any of the tubes/hoses are bad or rusted out. if they are you will need to replace them.
2: see if you have vacum or electronic air system valve controls and test them to see if they are working properly. (if one is stuck in the wrong position it will cause you no end of problems)
3: your air punp for the system may not be putting out the air need to run the system (if it is the origanal pump it could be worn out and not functioning right)

if you can get the diagrams and flow charts, get them! they will help in finding you problem and correcting it pronto. i hope this will help you out