I moved from Virginia in 2006, but I'm going to guess that NC does the test in a similar fashion. The tester sticks a sniffer in your tailpipe to measure exhaust gases (primarily CO, HCs, and NOX). If those numbers are good and your check engine light isn't on, you pass.

In VA, we had to do it every two years and couldn't renew our registrations until we passed the emissions test.

If someone reset the CEL for you and it still hasn't come back on, it could have just been a one time occurrence and your actual air pump is fine. I've seen that happen many times as well.

Emulators aren't technically legal, but unless you're in a place like California that does an intense visual inspection of your engine bay I doubt an inspector would even look for it.

Anyhow, good luck with the car. cheers.

 

You are right in that they cannot just pass it, even if they want to. I do believe there is an exception though where if you've spent either $200 or $250 trying to fix an emissions problem preventing you from passing, you basically get a get out of jail free card for that year.

An emulator done correctly will 100% trick the cars computer which will trick the inspection station computer

Small world indeed--I'm over in Greensboro now. Lived in Raleigh/Cary for about 6 or 7 years total. Miss it sometimes. Othertimes, not so much

 

Update: Drove the 530i for over 100 miles, CEL was still off, tried to reinspect, Mechanic said it was not ready, P0411 code still pending. Ugh. This morning, CEL came back on about 15 seconds after starting the cold engine.

Gonna attempt to remove secondary air sensor (hose is permanently clamped) to check it out. But kinda pessimistic about it. Regardless, like NCSU suggested, my mechanic offered to give me a waiver inspection that will be good for a year. May still try to find or build an emulator. So far, no luck for my particular model. Thanks all for your input! Helped a lot.

 

What year is your 530i?

 

I have 2004 530i. Bought it used... First owner was apparently a Canadian, The car's displays are in kilometers, Celsius, etc. Not sure if that affects the parts on the car. Seems to be like other e60s.

 

Page 6 in this might be useful if you haven't seen it already: http://www.bavauto.com/newsletter/20...newsletter.pdf