When you bring your car to Devoted Repairs for a NH state inspection, we’ll check all the important components to ensure your car is safe to drive, both for you and other drivers on the road. We’ll also check your car’s emission levels. To pass inspection, your car has to pass both parts of the test. But why do we test your car’s emission levels, and how do we do it?
Let’s start by looking at how we test a vehicle’s emissions during a NH state inspection.
The Emissions Test
To test a car’s emissions, we hook it up to an on-board diagnostics (OBD) scanner. The OBD scanner checks for issues in the vehicle’s emission control system that could cause excess emissions. If the scan reveals issues with the vehicle’s emission control system, the vehicle will likely fail to pass the inspection. Using the OBD scanner allows us to identify the problems and recommend repairs to resolve the issue.
Even if the OBD scanner does not flag any issues with the emission control system, we may also perform a visual inspection. To perform a visual inspection, we let the car run for a short time and look for any dangerous emissions in the exhaust.
Why an Emissions Test?
The state of NH requires all vehicles made after 1996 to undergo an emissions test as part of the annual inspection. But why do we have this requirement? There are many reasons, but here are some of the most important:
- Air quality: Before vehicle manufacturers took measures to reduce emissions, air pollution from cars was a serious problem (think smog in Los Angeles in the 1970s). By adding features to consumer vehicles that reduce emissions, both air quality and public health have greatly improved.
- Environmental sustainability: In recent years, the auto industry has made an effort to make the manufacture and use of vehicles more environmentally sustainable. By enforcing emissions standards, local governments help contribute to that overall goal.
- Vehicle performance and efficiency: Reducing emissions also helps vehicles run more efficiently. Repairing issues with a vehicle’s emission control system will allow it to run more efficiently and, therefore, consume less fuel.