1996 Other Saturn Models "Not Ready" on Inspection

JOSEPHLOWDER

MEMBER
1996 SATURN
4 CYL
FWD
AUTOMATIC
190,455 MILES

I have a 1996 Saturn Sl2 and everysince I bought the car it would not be able to pass inspections. On the inspection sheet it say that the Catalyst, EGR system and the O2 sensor is not ready. I have taken the car to 3 different shops and they all tell me the same thing "drive it 50-100 miles and it should reset itself." Then I tell them " I have driven this car for over a year now and I'm pretty sure that from Lexington, NC to Fort Benning, GA is a alot more that 100 miles." So I took it to the dealership. They ran a diognostic test on it and reseted the computer and told me t drive it 50 miles and on the diognostic test it said that I need a new coolant temp. Sensor which shoudn't be the reason why the not ready codes are on the inspections. What is wrong with my car?

1 Reply

MASTERTECHTIM

MECHANIC
4,750 POSTS

Your coolant temp is about the only thing that can cause this. I cant believe noone found this before. In order to pass a readiness test you need to do atleast 2 complete drive cycles. This means the car has to be started and driven, coolant temp gets up to operating temperature then shut off and cool down. The computer then wants to see in the next key cycle that the outside air temp is equel to the engine coolant temp, indicating the engine is cool. If you have a bad sensor then you can never have outside air temp sensor and coolant temp sensor read the same. I hope this clears things up. Get back to us because a lot of people are running into similar situations.