Most places would just drive it for you until they clear. But they probably didn't want to put miles on a car and get accused of joy riding it. It's the same thing that happens if someone clears their own CEL without fixing the problem right before inspection. Each state might be a little different, but if you have a scan tool that runs checks you can drive until all those show they pass. Normally it takes some mixed driving with the gas engine on and it can take nearly an hour sometimes. I drove back and forth on the highway for 45 minutes once waiting for the thing to clear.

 

Yea, most car scanner apps (using Bluetooth dongle) can tell you the status of the monitors. I'd just go drive it around in Polestar mode for a while/few days and then check.

 

Thank you for your responses. The service folks drove it a bit to warm up the catalytic converter, but couldn't get it to "ready" status. This sounds like a good excuse to drive in Polestar mode this weekend and pick up an OBD-II scanner tool. Does anyone have a good scanner they recommend? Thanks again for your input. This is really helpful!

 

Cmon over! I’ll get it ready for testing! 🤓

 

The dealer is being lazy. They should drive the car or do whatever it takes to get the car to pass inspection....this car is still under warranty.

 

Exactly,

All they need to do is drive around the lot maybe even go through the car wash and it’s ready.

 

Emissions testing "readiness" really depends on the model. It's a combination of time, miles, different speeds, etc. Some models can take an inordinately long time to become "ready".

Regarding tech driving, I had an issue with my local dealer when my P3 V60P was in for service and I got there to find both front seats adjusted differently, around 10 miles extra on the car, different radio station set, and the faint smell of old fried chicken, lol. This was for an oil change.

 

My biggest issue with all of it is that they never told me it failed the inspection. They called to tell me they wanted to rotate the tires, and when I picked it up I noticed a black R on my inspection sticker, meaning it failed emissions. I was really confused and quite angry that this was not communicated. The car is two years old and has 7500 miles on it. It should not fail inspection.

 

In most States I've been an Inspector, your vehicle didn't Fail Emissions but was Rejected for not being ready. If all the readiness monitors have not completed, the vehicle is Not Ready for Inspection and Inspection is rejected not failed. Usually a simple 20-30 min drive with combined local, then highway will have all monitors the set Ready if there are no issues. Techs don't have the time nor get paid to drive your car for 30 minutes just to make it ready. The offer from the Service Manager was very nice and would have saved you the hassle of bringing it back for Inspection or taking it somewhere else later. After your 50-60 miles drive, it should be ready. They should of however told you it wasn't Ready for Inspection over the phone or at least when it was picked up.

 

@Electric_V70R Communication is almost more important than fixing the car right for service departments. Sorry that they let you down.

 

@Kamil It could be the first time it happened. The odds of someone having an update just before inspection where the drive cycle hasn't occurred is pretty small. Of course, with a PHEV it's more likely, but still small. Without a scan tool there isn't a way for a customer to even know if it's occurred yet. IMO, the big failure here is to not communicate the failure when it happened, and with that communication should have been an offer to drive it around until the drive cycle finished. I wouldn't expect a technician to do this. We have hourly drivers that run shuttle and pick up and drop off service that we would use. It comes up whenever we do a big update on a car in house if the update had to be done prior to inspection (we train our techs specifically to try and do inspection first for this reason, but sometimes they forget). As I mentioned, I've done it for service when they are busy and I'm not. IMO the only time it would really be right to charge a customer for this is if the customer reset it themselves outside of a software update (changed battery, or cleared CEL, etc).

 

It's always a good idea to do a little driving before going to get the emissions checked, and to pay attention to when you do it. I live in the Los Angeles area, and I noticed with my old car that between two years that my emissions numbers were way worse...and then I noticed the worse times were in the afternoon when I stopped on the way home from work. Since then, I always took the car in the morning, with a bit of driving and a freeway jaunt of a few miles first, and it always passed with flying colors (including the last time after it had been sitting for a year and not driven much).

I would guess that most V60 PE miles are in Pure mode, even in hybrid it's still going to be a lot of electric driving for people's usual commute...I'm sure I'm not the only person that picked it up to have a fun car that's also economical for the daily commute. It means we have to think about it before we go for emissions...a couple days of normal driving in Polestar, with a freeway pass in there somewhere, will likely check all the boxes for an emissions test. It gives us a chance to blast a bit during commuting, consider it a bonus.

 

I do a lot of hybrid mode driving especially during a commute. The service team suggested that the last OTA update likely reset the emissions sensors and I didn’t drive enough under gas power to trigger the routine testing. This is my first hybrid car and I had no idea this was something to look out for. Glad I know now but it’s been a frustrating learning curve! Definitely appreciate the optimistic outlook to think of it as an opportunity to drive around on polestar mode for a bit before the emissions test! Did 50-60 miles in polestar mode yesterday and it was indeed therapeutic.

 

Thanks everyone for your responses. This has been a great learning experience for me and I appreciate you all sharing your wisdom!

 

While you all are here, what are your thoughts on which (if any) OBD2 scanner I should get? I recognize vida/dice is the gold standard, but I don't have that and I'm not the best mechanic as I can only do simple things like swap out a battery, change a headlight bulb, etc. I'm not looking for anything super fancy, just something I can use to check if my emissions system is ready for inspection. After looking through the forum here, I've narrowed to these three as it looks like they should be compatible with Volvo:

Amazon.com: FOXWELL NT530 for Volvo - All Systems, All Maintenance Service - Bidirectional Diagnostic Scan Tool OBD2 Scanner Automotive Code Reader ABS Bleed SRS Airbag SAS TPMS TPS EPB Oil Reset CKP : Automotive

Buy FOXWELL NT530 for Volvo - All Systems, All Maintenance Service - Bidirectional Diagnostic Scan Tool OBD2 Scanner Automotive Code Reader ABS Bleed SRS Airbag SAS TPMS TPS EPB Oil Reset CKP: Code Readers & Scan Tools - Amazon.com ✓ FREE DELIVERY possible on eligible purchases

www.amazon.com

iCarsoft VOL V3.0 | Volvo & Saab Full-System OBD2 Scanner with Special Functions

Shop the iCarsoft VOL V3.0 for full-system OBD2 diagnostics and special reset functions on Volvo and Saab vehicles. Ideal for DIY and professional users.

www.icarsoft-us.com

Amazon.com: BlueDriver Bluetooth Pro OBDII Scan Tool for iPhone & Android - No Subscription Fee - OBD2 Car Scanner and Code Reader - Diagnose Check Engine, ABS, SRS, Airbag & 7000+ Issues on Vehicles 1996+ : Automotive

Buy BlueDriver Bluetooth Pro OBDII Scan Tool for iPhone & Android - No Subscription Fee - OBD2 Car Scanner and Code Reader - Diagnose Check Engine, ABS, SRS, Airbag & 7000+ Issues on Vehicles 1996+: Code Readers & Scan Tools - Amazon.com ✓ FREE DELIVERY possible on eligible purchases

www.amazon.com

Does anyone here have experience with these? Or should I just get the set up to enable VDASH from D5T5? Thanks so much for your input!

 

I have an earlier version of the Icarsoft (VOL2) and it works fine. You can usually save a few bucks by getting it at Amazon.

Folks like the Foxwell one too.

I wouldn't spend the money though to just check emissions testing readiness - just drive the car normally for a couple of weeks and you should be good.

 

This is typical stupid Volvo programming. If you have an update that sets to not ready, how do you not flag the system to pop up a message and operate appropriately to achieve ready state? 🙄

I wonder if it even meets CAFE standards to set an emissions status to unready and leave it there. And what did they do to make it unready? And did they intend to?

 

This is typical stupid Volvo programming. If you have an update that sets to not ready, how do you not flag the system to pop up a message and operate appropriately to achieve ready state? 🙄

I have as low regard for Volvo programmers as anyone, maybe lower since I make a living selling their products. I can't say this one is really on them at this point. To my knowledge, no car on the road tells you when your drive cycle has completed for emissions testing. As I mentioned, it normally is common when someone has replaced a battery right before inspection, or if they intentionally cleared the code. It's not quite common knowledge that the computers need to run a full cycle to confirm emissions before testing for computer checks. I know many states/regions don't have emission inspections, many don't require it until a car starts getting older. Some I think just do a sniffer test. The cross section of times this is an issue is probably too small to have warranted many complaints at this time... and when it does, most dealers probably do just drive the car. So now we're down to a tiny percentage of times it is an issue, I bet it hasn't even been put in a suggestion box yet.

 

I have been through this many times. A SAAB drive cycle is specific and takes more than an hour (Thanks GM). In any case I use this: "ELM32 Bluetooth" from amazon for $6 plus a phone app called Torque. Works fine and will show readyness, plus a lot more stuff you really don't need to know. Make sure the device is compatible with your phone, and remember Amazon's generous return policy.
FWIW the Factory GM scanner for the SAAB did not report readyness. My local emissions chek station always checks readyness before starting anything and in CA on hybrids they don't sniff gasses any more, just check the computer.