Good evening!

I am posting because I am very frustrated after moving to a new state and need help from people who know more about cars than I do. I drive a 2001 Tribute with around 240k miles on it. I got this car in 2009 and despite the mileage and some (so far) fixable problems every now and then, it runs great.

I got this car in Georgia, where it's currently registered and insured, but I recently moved to Washington state for the next 6 months to a year. I planned just to keep the vehicle registered in GA since I won't really be here for very long, but as my luck has it, the insurance runs out in October and a vehicle registered in GA cannot be insured in another state. Since the car is living with me in Washington and will need WA insurance, I have to register it here, which means (in addition to dropping a ridiculous $90 to get a WA license and another nearly $100 for the tags) that the vehicle has to pass an emissions test, something very new to me as it is not required in GA.

I'm trying to find out as much as I can about what all the emissions test entails and what can cause a vehicle to fail it, and one thing that is apparently a guaranteed fail is if the check engine light is on, which it is in my Tribute. The check engine light has been on in this car since I bought it, and the mechanic back home (who I found out about the vehicle in the first place from) said it's no big deal, there are no problems with it and it just stays on because who knows why (or at least I don't know why). Like I said, the light has been on for the 6+ years that I've owned the vehicle and I've had no engine problems at all. Also, no one has ever mentioned it at all despite the car being serviced dozens of times at different places.

My question to you all is how can I pass this emissions test? Is there a way to disable the check engine light? And if I do that am I committing some terrible felony? Moving out here for the time being was somewhat of an impulsive decision (I'm waiting on a career thing that is taking awhile and needed to escape the South for awhile) but in general very carefully planned, and this car thing is incredibly frustrating. I didn't think it'd be a huge deal that I'm out here but now between the new license, registration and tags, the emissions test, and whatever it's going to cost me to pass the emissions test, I'm wishing I'd just left the damn car back home.

Any advice would be appreciated! Thank you very much for reading.

 

Take it to Mazda and get a code check. After-market testers don't have the full capacity as the genuine Mazda tester do.

 

Either remove the bulb or cut the circuit trace.

Yes.

But it doesn't matter anyway. Other than cheating a future buyer of the car, disabling the CEL won't help you pass inspection at all in most states. If the emissions inspection includes scanning the car's computer, the computer will rat you out and you'll fail light on or no. Even if you take the car to Autozone (or such) and have them temporarily reset the light, your Mazda's computer will tell the emissions computer that the light was recently reset and the car's own self test (done periodically and always after a light reset) hasn't yet been completed, so again you'll fail.

Some states just do a roll and sniff test and don't check the CEL, so if that's the case, the car might still be running clean enough to pass.

But the cause of the CEL being on *should* have been addressed back when you bought it. The light was on for most likely one reason at that time, but the car only has one light. In other words, more serious issues could have developed between the time you bought the car and now, and since the light has been on for the first issue, you wouldn't have been made aware of anything new.

These are not known for bothersome CEL issues, so the car should be repaired properly. Who knows, what you may have spent in extra gas because of the CEL issue may be well in excess of what you would have paid to repair the car properly.

John