at this point i am willing to try anything, cold cold weather start, 50 miles, flying over a canyon etc. if none of them work, i'll take it to my mechanic and have they diagnose all the vaccum lines and air pump, O2 sensor.
i've got exactly 1 month to get this sorted. sigh......

gotta say, i love this OBD reader tho. pretty awesome for $69.

 

Funny that you brought up E46. BMW actually has a tool that will set the secondary air to ready state. I have used it before and it works.

I hear you on the frustration. I had a car that went through a very similar situation and it was mind boggling. Though the one lesson I took from that experience is this: If you're overthinking the process to get the monitors to be the ready state, yet one or more is still incomplete, chances are something else is off.

You can still pay for the registration IIRC just that DMV won't send out the tags until they receive your smog cert. Just be mindful to carry the receipt that you paid for registration if law enforcement pulls you over. They are usually lenient about issues like this.

Good luck.

 

i followed your advice and erased everything. because this morning i woke up at 5am, the weather was about 49~50 F to start it, and SAP still wouldn't light up. so i erased everything and went for another drive few hours later. you were right, it didn't take long for most of the monitors to be ready. drove around town for the first 5 miles, few of them cleared in low speeds (EGR), and got gas at the gas station, got on the freeway, shortly after at freeway speed O2 and CAT also cleared. altogether took probably about 10 miles to clear most of them. i wish i could've gotten this scanner sooner to save me the time i spent driving like an idiot on the freeway almost 200 miles. only thing left now is EVAP and AIR. i believe EVAP will clear after few days? since it has to take gas tank's air pressure?

it's good to know that they're lenient. i've been so stressed out and not sure what would happen if i laps the deadline even if i pay for it. i just don't want the car get towed away.

i think i am going to try for a few more days and have my mechanic figure it out. i wonder if AMDS can get force the SAP to ready like the BMW.
funny thing is re-set my BMW F22 228i monitors last night and went to get gas, that thing went through smog readiness even faster, like 7 miles altogether or something. the F22 doesn't have a AIR (SAP) for smog, neither does my wife's Dodge Durango. makes everything even faster. OMG whoever decided to put SAP in Aston need to be slapped.

 

Did you cold start it and wait 2-3 minutes before your drive? You have plenty of time to figure it out. Yes you can pay for tags now to prevent penalties.

 

I did. I waited a good 5-6 mins. What else can I try. Turn the AC on?

 

I am encountering the same exact problem. '07 V8 Vantage, was in the shop with rat damage over the holidays when I got my registration with smog check notice. Got the car after 5 weeks repair, took to smog check Feb 5, no smog readings due to battery being disconnected. Took about four days for all but Evap and Secondary Air to reset, another two days for Evap. Now, Feb 23, 500+ miles of driving with "drive cycle" guides to follow, still no reset on the Secondary Air.

I purchased the Foxwell OBD2 reader for the same reason you are making the purchase.

My tags are officially expired this weekend, yet the repair shop, the smog shop, and the dealer I called (Newport Beach) all say if no MIL / Check Engine light comes on and no codes stored, then just "keep driving the vehicle" and the Secondary Air will reset. I did find one "pending" code in my Foxwell readout that has to do with an Oxygen sensor, but when I showed that to the repair shop they said it's only "pending" and should have no effect on getting Secondary Air to reset.

I have done multiple days of "cold starts" with 5+min idling in the garage (garage doors open; roof exhaust fan going; additional fan blowing cool air into the front grill - safety first). The car is now my daily driver until this Sec Air resets. When I garage it at night I leave the hood open with a fan blowing on it to cool everything off overnight. When I do the cold start, I plug in the Foxwell unit and look at the Secondary Air and catalytic converter temps live data streams - after the first couple of seconds following startup Sedondary Air shows "UPS" which I found means it's sending an upstream O2 sensor signal to start the Secondary Air system. That UPS signal ends after about 30 seconds. No other signal states come up in the OBD data live stream. And of course the catalytic converters after about 4 or 5 minutes are up to about 850+degrees F, which is too high to further trigger Secondary Air.

At this point I'm flummoxed. Curious to learn how you have resolved your issue. I live in San Fernando Valley so I'm tempted to take the car to Galpin, my nearest dealer, to pay $$$ to get this figured out.

 

can't tell you how happy to hear someone in exact same boat as me.
well maybe not happy, but at least i am not alone in this.

i emailed Irish, our resident former lead Aston tech, who now works at VelocityAP. Irish is always helpful despite often my questions don't pertain to the clutch i bought from them.
he sent me a ford drive cycle document, in which i just noticed that there're two scenarios to trigger SAP. one is the typical cold start, the other is to drive the car for a while and come to a stop and let it idle for 2 mins. it says for auto trans to leave it idle in Drive and M/T in Neutral. but it doesn't say what to do for our neurotic single clutch automated manual. i am going to try the idle method the next couple days and will report back. i told him that the Ford one seem different from the Aston one that i found floating around online. he said the Aston one i found is an old drive cycle PDF from an Aston Tech Training program for when the Vantage first came out. So although it's an official doc, but not one without errors. so the Ford one he sent is a good one to also use as a double-up.

where did you go in your Foxwell to show you the live data of your SAP? i just started using this unit, so not too familiar with all the menus. could you show me step by step please.

regarding your pending TDC. this is just a guess, but i read lots of BMW forum threads on SAP not being ready. apparently often lazy O2 sensors that don't necessary trigger a full-on TDC can be the culprit. that's just a thought. but unlike you, i don't even get any pending TDC, MIL, or regular codes. makes it even more mysterious. i think California really need to rethink the requirement for SAP. it just seems that a lot of Euro cars tend to have trouble with their SAP not ready. if i can't figure this out the next week or so, i plan on either calling and schedule an appointment with a CARB Referee or pay my mechanic a visit to have them diagnose all the vaccum lines and O2 sensors.

t@Irish07@VelocityAP

 

howz1854 - I called a referee (www.asktheref.org / 1-800-622-7733) and after a lengthy conversation they would not come out for a Secondary Air monitor not resetting - told me this is a "fixable item" and did not qualify for a smog referree. I may call again.

I did another "cold start" (cold being relative in Burbank) and put another 50+ miles on it today, still no joy.

The Foxwell steps I go through (Foxwell NT530) to get to the live data: I connect the cable, turn on the ignition but do not start the car, then tell the Foxwell to "autoscan" once it comes up from vehicle power out of the OBDII port (the left port; the right port is for "body" computer monitor readouts, and not OBDII). The monitor status then appears, but only indicates monitor counts not the specific monitors that are set / not set, just that 8 are OK, 1 is INC. I select F1 which gets me back to a main menu that now appears. At the top is "Status" which is the menu I just left. I scroll down to "Live Data" - this gets me to a second screen where I can select either to see all items or select out only a few items to look at. Scroll through those items and you can get to Secondary Air. Start the car, and this should then populate with a code similar to what I see - that is UPS for Upstream O2 Sensor activating (at least that's what I think this means). If the car is warm, this setting does not trigger - which confirms for me this has to be done only when the car is cold - I believe when coolant is below 120 degrees or some such - another reading you can find in the lengthy list.

If I get back out to the main menu that starts with Status at the top, scroll down to I/M Readiness - this is where you can find the various smog monitors and their status - which confirmed for me that Secondary Air was the 1 monitor still listed as "INC" in the System Monitor display that comes up immediately after the Foxwell Autoscan.

This is about the craziest damn thing I've ever encountered. And the most frustrating. Except when I opened the hood last Dec 13 to find rat-chewed wires in a nest, and a puddle of oil beneath my V8 engine.... I'm lucky State Farm didn't total the car based on all the rat damage done.

By the way, you can find all sorts of interesting data in the live data area, or elsewhere in the OBD2 system. The Foxwell instructions say to only run it with the ignition on but the engine not running, but I found it works just fine with the engine running.

Let me know if the above helps.

 

Cool, i'll have to try that on my NT301. sounds like you found the SAP live data inside the general OBDii menu, i'll have to look for it.
i drove the car over the weekend with the scanner plugged it and left it on the I/M readiness menu, which to my surprise, actually constantly updates itself. so i was able to see each smog category update to green as i drove my BMW, and my Aston (two consecutive days). it's much easier to do with it plugged in and constantly update as oppose to driving it blind for 100 miles not knowing what has been cleared. (i did that before i got the scanner).

i saw your PM. i usually take my car to Passadena Motors. have been going there since i got the car. They were the ones installed my VelocityAP twin plate clutch as well, also had major service items done there too (coolant, gear fluid etc). by now Owen knows my car pretty intimately. everytime i go, he's always servicing some aston or jag. i'll probably take my car there in a few more weeks if i can't get the SAP to clear. i feel like if anyone, he'll be able to get this fixed. But it might also be worth a shot for you to contact John A. at Galpin. John has always been helpful to me in the past. better, you might as well CC me in the email. that way he knows this is a common problem. i'd be interested in knowing what he has to say about this.

my 09 car only has 23000 miles, although 06/07/08 are more prone to O2 sensor failures, it's not uncommon for those little guys to become lazy on later year cars.

btw, i find Passadena's prices to be honset and fair. couple times i brought my own parts, and for them to source for the missing parts, and the prices all checked out. Sades there who works at front desk is better with phone than email i found. so if you don't hear from them through email, give them a call.

 

btw, the right side "body" port you mentioned that's under the passenger glove compartment right? because i only have one OBDII port under driver side steering wheel.
Edit: never mind, apparently AM changed the placement of those ports like 3 times. what a mess.
https://www.6speedonline.com/forums/...ml#post4211984

 

howzz1854 - there are two OBDII ports located under the driver side steering wheel, at least on my '07. They are next to each other; the left one is the standard OBDII port; the right one is the "Body" port. You have to twist up under there to see them, but once you know where the pair are located I find it's easy to feel around for them and plug in the cable without looking.

I looked at the Ford drive cycle you provided (thanks for posting that), and did a run this morning. Got up early enough to do two cold starts (confirmed UPS signal sent to Sec Air on both cold starts), did a sort-of drive cycle, and ended with a 2+ minute idle at home with the MT in neutral. Watched the Cat temps descend pretty quickly during the idle to below 900 degrees F, but noted the Sec Air did not trigger a UPS signal - it remained in "OFF". Turned off the vehicle completely, then turned on the key only - did not turn over the engine - and checked the monitor status - still INC for Sec Air. I'm now at over 600 miles since previous codes were cleared.

 

the link i provided above clarified that post 2007.5 MY have the Body port in the passenger side under the glove compartment. apparently according to Irish smog stations were getting confused between the two ports side by side next to one another and failing all the Astons. and then again in 2013 CARB rule changed to mandate the Engine port needed to be near the door, so 2013 MY and after have their engine OBD right next to the driver door and Body port in passenger side.

PM me your email, i'll shoot an email to John A. at Galpin and CC you and ask him about a way to reset the SAP. but chances are, i have a feeling that you and i might both end up going to Passadena. we'll prob be there a few weeks apart. last time i took my wife's Durango there due to an intermitten startup problem. i couldn't figure it out. but once they got the car to "not start" on their lot (took 2 weeks for the car to replicate the problem), on the same day they replicated the problem they traced the problem to a faulty fuel pump that was on the edge of failure.

also try calling the Referee again. some folks on E46 forum got lucky that the ref came and tested the car and didn't give a hard time about SAP not ready. apparently they took some additional readings. There's also a CARB rule that if you spend more than $650 on fixing the emission, they'll automatically pass you. but that cut-off is different by county. i think some has the cut-off at $1000. but i likely will call the Ref myself before i take the car to Passadena. problem is mine isn't throwing any pending DTC. everything is green. SAP just won't get ready. i tried the idling method from the Ford drive cycle as well yesterday for a good 5 mins. still no luck.

tagging
@Irish07@VelocityAP

 

I left a voicemail for John right after I wrote my last reply on this thread. Will send you my email.

 

just want to give everyone a final update. i finally was able to get the SAP complete today. for the love of god this was the most painful annoyance. below is what i did, hopefully future owners struggle with this issue will find this helpful.

after resetting I/M readiness back to zero to start over, thinking maybe SAP monitor got stuck. i started driving all over again. all the monitors complete within the first day, first 15 miles. EGR was the first to clear in low speed low rpm city driving within the first 6 miles hovering speed between 30~40mph. after getting on the freeway and cruise for a couple miles at 60mph, another 4 miles after, O2 and CAT subsequently also cleared, along with one other monitor. EVAP took another day with fuel tank between 1/4 and 3/4 sitting overnight. second day when i took the car out for second spin, EVAP cleared. now the most painful part, Secondary Air Injection. i tried multiple cold starts, even woke up early at 5am cold starting and letting it sit, 2, 3, 5, 10 mins, none of it would make the SAP complete. no MIL, Pending DTC, or DTC. nothing! now i was another 100 miles after the I/M readiness re-set. I was at my witt's end.

i think this is where most people have the misconception about Secondary Air. i started reading every topic about secondary air and how it functions from CARB sites, to various BMW, VW, GM, and Ferrari forums. lots of different school of thoughts and different opinions and suggestions. but eventually one thing turned out to be correct above all else. that's this. While it is TRUE that secondary air pump comes on during cold start, but the "non continuous self monitor" test does not run during cold start. it actually runs after warm up at cruising speed at precisely 50~55mph at very low steady throttle for miles and miles and miles on (20 miles to be exact according to what i read), followed by stopping on the side of road and turning off the car, and then wait and hot start the car again. it is then during this condition, the non continuous SAP self monitor will run its test by ingesting air and taking a reading from the O2. When you cold start the car, it is true that the SAP will run, but that is not when the self monitor does its readings. this last bit i saw from a Ferrari forum which caught my attention as the idea itself seem to differ from every other opinions out there. so i figured what the heck, nothing to lose, after so many cold starts and it didn't work. so i went on a long 20 mile cruise at 50~55mph. yes! it is that slow and painful on a CA interstate. everyone looked at me with the look like what the hell are you doing!. i was the slowest object on the road for 20 miles. actually the Ferrari discussion stated 20 miles of continuous drive, but i only made it to 14 miles or so before hitting traffic. disappointed by the hiccup, i went through the slow traffic for another 10 miles and eventually got off the freeway. i pulled over to the side of road and turned off the car. wait 1 min, and got my Foxwell NT301 out and plugged it in. i didn't even start the car and the I/M readiness had Secondary Air marked as Complete!. i think i sang hallelujah with tears in my eye.

i quickly started the car back up and got back on the freeway. didn't want to upset the balance of the Force, i kept the rpm low under 3K. Just like i kept it low since the beginning of this drive cycle from when i left the house, never once pushed the throttle. i gently drove the car back to the Smog station and passed it with flying colors.

altogether i drove 450 miles since the last two weeks when i took the car to smog and failed due to SAP not ready. that probably lowered the car's value by another $1K. it's A$$ backwards that in this great state of California that we have to smog up the air up and down the interstate just to prove that we don't smog. anyone see the ill logic here?

hopefully someone can sticky this, because i am pretty damn sure that countless of other owners will run into this again. and for the record, rdennis and i email/called Aston Martin at Galpin, and their response was not at all helpful. They only told us to drive the car gently, and for hundreds of miles and it'll eventually reset.

cheers!

EDIT: this is the Ferrari thread where the information i got from. apparently it works for Mercedes as well.
https://www.ferrarichat.com/forum/threads/drive-cycle-and-ca-smog.531458/

 

Congratulations, I knew you could get it to set. It just takes time and patience sometimes. As I mentioned earlier a clearing/reset may help obtain a better learning of drive cycles under what the EPA requires for the average drive cycle to set them. Sounds like the Foxwell aided your understanding of just how the system works. Thanks for sharing your research of how to get this accomplished.