Can a fuel filter cause bad emissions????????

I just moved to California 2 months ago. My plates and safety inspection
will expire in 2 months, so now I have to get a "Smog Check" here in Ca but
for some reason my car failed twice. It is a 94 New Yorker with 160,000 mil.
The first time, I removed the cone air filter I had, and installed the stock
air box thinking that would solve the problem. It did not. I have not
changed the fuel filter in about 2 years, but the car is running fine. Can
that still be causing the bad emissions? Thanks.

 

A partially clogged fuel filter will only be evident under high fuel
demand situations, i.e., accelerating. The emissions checks do not put
the engine in a high fuel demand situation. When you say that the car
is running OK, I assume that means also when accelerating in normal
driving, therefore it is doubtful that the fuel filter is restricting
fuel in a way that would affect the smog check results.

Bill Putney
(To reply by e-mail, replace the last letter of the alphabet in my
adddress with the letter 'x')

 

No, the fuel filter isn't causing your emission failure. It's some other
example of your gross neglect that's doing it.

 

Have the spark plugs ever been replaced on the car?

 

yes, sparkplugs have been replaced 5 months ago. I got a diagnostic test
done on it, and told me it was the catalitic converters. These cars have two
of them, but I certainly dont want to replace two of them, can just one big
High flow converter do the job? Thanks again.

 

How about checking junkyards for converters.

 

In the U.S., it is a violation of federal law to sell (or buy?) a used
catalytic converter. Many (most) junk yards have some government sign
(or commercial sign quoting from the regulation) hanging on the wall of
their counter area explaining, so that when some customer gets irrate
that the yard refuses to sell them a cat, all the counter guy has to do
is point at the sign.

Bill Putney
(To reply by e-mail, replace the last letter of the alphabet in my
adddress with the letter 'x')

 

Has your muffler been replaced lately? A new muffler can sometimes cause
problems in the test.

 

Check for fault codes in you engine controller. Probally, your oxygen
sensor is bad.