First off, I have a 97 and I'm not in California....this topic is discussed to death around a TSB and CA emissions on 2005 & 2006 models.
I took my thing to get inspected yesterday, and aside from the CEL bulb being burned out, I unexpectedly had 3 not ready codes: Catalyst Not Ready, O2 Sens Not Ready, and O2 Send Htr Not Ready. I check my codes from time to time and I've never seen (that I can recall) anything related to the cat or o2 sensors being an issue, so it is very surprising that I would now suddenly have these be in a not ready state. I haven't had to clear any codes in months, and I've driven the thing plenty in the meanwhile...around town a bunch and then several 2hr drives to go wheel, which is to say I'm sure I've completed the "drive cycle" by now.
The only thing out of the ordinary is that over the past 5ish weeks, I've hardly driven it at all. Really, I've only taken it on one 20 minute drive and then the 5 minute drive to the inspection place. Is it possible that my lack of driving it over the past month is a factor in making the sensors read not ready? Battery was connected the entire time as well, that seems relevant. Really, it just sat in the garage, waiting to be driven.
But perhaps more importantly, is this indicative of some other issue? Is it actually telling me the o2 sensors are bad? Is there a heater circuit I need to investigate? The internet is very quiet on this (again, unless you have a 2005-2006).
I took my thing to get inspected yesterday, and aside from the CEL bulb being burned out, I unexpectedly had 3 not ready codes: Catalyst Not Ready, O2 Sens Not Ready, and O2 Send Htr Not Ready. I check my codes from time to time and I've never seen (that I can recall) anything related to the cat or o2 sensors being an issue, so it is very surprising that I would now suddenly have these be in a not ready state. I haven't had to clear any codes in months, and I've driven the thing plenty in the meanwhile...around town a bunch and then several 2hr drives to go wheel, which is to say I'm sure I've completed the "drive cycle" by now.
The only thing out of the ordinary is that over the past 5ish weeks, I've hardly driven it at all. Really, I've only taken it on one 20 minute drive and then the 5 minute drive to the inspection place. Is it possible that my lack of driving it over the past month is a factor in making the sensors read not ready? Battery was connected the entire time as well, that seems relevant. Really, it just sat in the garage, waiting to be driven.
But perhaps more importantly, is this indicative of some other issue? Is it actually telling me the o2 sensors are bad? Is there a heater circuit I need to investigate? The internet is very quiet on this (again, unless you have a 2005-2006).