DMV cracks down on smog test cheats

Jace Radke

Wednesday, Dec. 19, 2001 | 9:47 a.m.

The cost of clean air

Nevada Department of Motor Vehicles officials are rolling out a new pollution-analysis machine during the next several weeks designed to crack down on smog-test cheats.

The $13,000 units include "smart" computers that can determine when cheats try to pass off the test results of a new, clean-running car as an older model that does not meet emission standards.

"We're always working to stop the cheaters, but they are working just as hard to find ways to get around the law," Jim Parsons, DMV management services division administrator, said. "I'd be lying if I said that no one ever illegally passes a car."

The analyzer, which is required to be in place at the 400 auto inspection stations in Clark and Washoe counties by Feb. 1, will not stop testers from using clean cars made before 1996 as stand-ins.

But it will stop cheaters from using cars made since then. The analyzer's computer relies on a link with an onboard diagnostic computer that became standard issue on 1996 or newer cars.

"The biggest way that people cheat is 'clean-piping,' or running a clean car through the check process and typing in the make and model of the dirty car," Parsons said. "The new analyzer can identify if the information put into the computer matches the data inside the car's diagnostic computer.

"It won't allow a 1996 car to be checked for a 1982 Oldsmobile."

Keeping cars that don't meet the standards off the road is a major part of the Clark County Air Quality division's plan to stay within Environmental Protection Agency standards for clean air.

"We haven't exceeded the EPA air quality standards for carbon monoxide in the last three years, and the smog tests are a big part of that," Clark County Air Quality planner Russ Merle said.

In Clark County, about 5.7 percent of the more than 800,000 vehicles that have been smog tested this year have failed, officials said. That's down from 6.48 percent last year.

Cars that fail must be fixed and re-tested, but officials know that some shops cheat. DMV inspectors constantly monitor smog tests, requiring all shops to have the same analyzer and adhere to stringent standards. DMV inspectors go to each smog shop once a month to test the machines and conduct surprise inspections and undercover investigations.

"We know which ones to look out for, and we make sure to visit them more often," Parsons said.

A smog shop illegally passing vehicles could face fines, revocation of licenses and criminal prosecution, Parsons said.

The new analyzers should help, officials said, as they have a lockdown feature that shuts the machine down if the computer and electronic systems inside are tampered with.

Jim Lewis, a mechanic at Eberhardt Auto & Tire, 5001 W. Charleston Blvd., had the new analyzer installed last month and said while the machine has new features, there are still those who may try to get around it.

"At the end of the day," he said, "it's still a computer, and what you put in is what you get out."