A little background...
I am the original owner of a silver 03 cobra. Chipped/Pullied/Professional Dyno Tuned at 40k miles. It's been maintained very well. Wife drives it now, it has 125k miles.
The car has been great. Runs well, still gets approx 20mpg. Fun car to drive.
This past december it was time to SMOG the car. It barely failed the HC. Max allowable is 50, and it read 54. Having blown out cats before, I figured a Cat was failing. It's also a good time for a tune up.
Fresh plugs, air filter, and new cats (with CARB EO#). Took it for a retest thinking surely it would pass. Nope, again, barely over the HC limit. No check engine light. No codes. No nothing.
The SMOG tech referred me to a guy who specializes in late model mustangs in my area. After visiting the new shop, it was recommended I change my Oxygen Sensors.
I did, and had another retest performed.
Even though I noticed an uptick in gas mileage, it failed HC, barely.
Tired of the SMOG headache and out of options, I decided to drop it off at the mustang shop and have him diagnose it. He performed a compression test, with #7 @ zero compression. 5&6 were low.
TLDR; Car runs fine. Gets good gas mileage. Doesn't burn oil. Doesn't smoke. No CE light. No compression in #7.
Wouldn't you think if it were the rings, the car would burn oil/smoke at startup? If it were a valve/spring, wouldn't you think the car would make a strange noise?
For those with similar experiences, what did you do?
:shrug:
I am the original owner of a silver 03 cobra. Chipped/Pullied/Professional Dyno Tuned at 40k miles. It's been maintained very well. Wife drives it now, it has 125k miles.
The car has been great. Runs well, still gets approx 20mpg. Fun car to drive.
This past december it was time to SMOG the car. It barely failed the HC. Max allowable is 50, and it read 54. Having blown out cats before, I figured a Cat was failing. It's also a good time for a tune up.
Fresh plugs, air filter, and new cats (with CARB EO#). Took it for a retest thinking surely it would pass. Nope, again, barely over the HC limit. No check engine light. No codes. No nothing.
The SMOG tech referred me to a guy who specializes in late model mustangs in my area. After visiting the new shop, it was recommended I change my Oxygen Sensors.
I did, and had another retest performed.
Even though I noticed an uptick in gas mileage, it failed HC, barely.
Tired of the SMOG headache and out of options, I decided to drop it off at the mustang shop and have him diagnose it. He performed a compression test, with #7 @ zero compression. 5&6 were low.
TLDR; Car runs fine. Gets good gas mileage. Doesn't burn oil. Doesn't smoke. No CE light. No compression in #7.
Wouldn't you think if it were the rings, the car would burn oil/smoke at startup? If it were a valve/spring, wouldn't you think the car would make a strange noise?
For those with similar experiences, what did you do?
:shrug:
