An Investigation of Idle Emissions Inspection and Maintenance at Altitude

Idle emissions inspection and maintenance was evaluated using a sample of 300 privately owned 1964 through 1973 model-year vehicles operating in the Denver metropolitan area. Ten privately owned stations, licensed by the State of Colorado to perform vehicle safety inspections, were utilized to conduct idle emissions inspection and subsequent maintenance of failed vehicles. Exhaust hydrocarbon (HC) and carbon monoxide (CO) reduction as measured by the 1975 Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) mass emission testing procedures was indicated to be 13% and 8% respectively at a 50 % rejection rate. The average maintenance cost to achieve the reduction was $11.32 per failed vehicle.

The adjustment and repair procedures provided to participating garages were sufficient to achieve significant emissions reduction and training provided to garage personnel was adequate. However, several problems were experienced with station personnel relative to data transmittal and inspection pass/fail limits. Problems were also experienced with respect to correlations between laboratory and garage-type analytical instrumentation.