Hey Ken,

I kind of see where you're going with the 'pre-conditioning' idea, but in my opinion it would only make the vehicles that would have fast-passed anyway just 'look better'.

If 'fast-fail' actually existed (there was a guy in one of my update classes who insisted that it did, to the amusement of everyone), then your point would most certainly be valid.

If a car is going to fail ASM, it grinds all the way down to zero, regardless of the fast-pass status. The internal software emissions sampling algorithm might be slightly different, but I think that it is more likely just a boolean flag that can be flipped on or off remotely, with no other significant side-effects.

This brings up a question: In the last several months, since I have been publicly critical of the STAR program, I have noticed several inspections in which the vehicle ground down to zero seconds at both speeds, but passed with single-digit emissions. I am not making this up, I have witnesses. Am I being remotely 'baited' by someone to see if my restart rate is different for vehicles that fast-pass over vehicles that don't? I'm not a conspiracy theorist, but it seems strange that I never noticed that happening last year. Have any of you guys noticed something similar?

Have a good day,

Michael Barry
Technician
Quick Stop Smog & More
Sacramento, California, USA