New Jersey’s Rapid Inspection Procedures for Vehicular Emissions

In support of the Federal regulations which limit hydrocarbons and carbon monoxide emissions from new motor vehicles, the State of New Jersey has passed a law which is intended to require that vehicles with these controls, as well as vehicles without controls, be kept functioning properly. The law states that all motor vehicles subject to inspection pass a test annually to show compliance with standards to be set by the Department of Health.

This paper describes the development of a 1 minute test for measuring and evaluating the crankcase and exhaust emissions for carbon monoxide, hydrocarbons, and smoke. It involves putting the vehicle on a simple set of inertia rolls and driving a simple cycle, called the ACID cycle, that was developed for this test. The exhaust is collected by either a variable dilution or variable flow system and analyzed for hydrocarbons, carbon monoxide, and carbon dioxide. The results will automatically be weighted, corrected, and compared with a standard to give a pass or fail answer.