Search Results

The AirCare® vehicle emissions inspection and maintenance program is briefly described, together with the benefits which the program has already achieved. Additional benefits have been projected should the program include some more sophisticated assessment of evaporative emission control systems. The feasibility of including such an assessment has been investigated, and a pilot study has been conducted in the regular inspection lanes. The operational and systems implications are described. The pilot study has resulted in an analysis of the incidence of faulty gas caps in the Lower Fraser Valley light-duty vehicle fleet, and how this relates to other vehicle characteristics such as vehicle make, model, model year, mileage etc.; and inspection data including emission control system components tampering and tailpipe emissions. Approximately 10% of all gas caps tested failed the pressure test, compared to the 1% that were failed by visual inspection.

A method for assessing the annual mileage of a fleet of vehicles has been developed, which depends on tracking individual vehicles from year to year. Although significant data manipulations are required, the method is more reliable than previous sampling methods, and it has shown that these sampling methods actually underestimate annual mileage. The method has been used to show that annual mileage is related to model year, engine size, net weight, and historical mileage; and that vehicles which pass emissions inspection tend to have slightly lower mileages; but there is very wide variation about the mean. The most significant factor in determining the total annual mileage for a particular vehicle group is simply the number of vehicles in that group.