§ 1051.305 - How must I prepare and test my production-line vehicles or engines?

§ 1051.305 How must I prepare and test my production-line vehicles or engines?

This section describes how to prepare and test production-line vehicles or engines. Test the engine if your vehicle is certified to g/kW-hr standards; otherwise test the vehicle. You must assemble the test vehicle or engine in a way that represents the assembly procedures for other vehicles or engines in the engine family. You must ask us to approve any deviations from your normal assembly procedures for other production vehicles or engines in the engine family.

(a) Test procedures. Test your production-line vehicles or engines using the applicable testing procedures in subpart F of this part to show you meet the emission standards in subpart B of this part.

(b) Modifying a test vehicle or engine. Once a vehicle or engine is selected for testing (see § 1051.310), you may adjust, repair, prepare, or modify it or check its emissions only if one of the following is true:

(1) You document the need for doing so in your procedures for assembling and inspecting all your production vehicles or engines and make the action routine for all the vehicles or engines in the engine family.

(2) This subpart otherwise specifically allows your action.

(3) We approve your action in advance.

(c) Malfunction. If a vehicle or engine malfunction prevents further emission testing, ask us to approve your decision to either repair it or delete it from the test sequence.

(d) Setting adjustable parameters. Before any test, we may require you to adjust any adjustable parameter to any setting within its physically adjustable range.

(1) We may require you to adjust idle speed outside the physically adjustable range as needed, but only until the vehicle or engine has stabilized emission levels (see paragraph (e) of this section). We may ask you for information needed to establish an alternate minimum idle speed.

(2) We may specify adjustments within the physically adjustable range by considering their effect on emission levels. We may also consider how likely it is that someone will make such an adjustment with in-use vehicles.

(3) We may specify an air-fuel ratio within the adjustable range specified in § 1051.115(d).

(e) Stabilizing emission levels. Before you test production-line vehicles or engines, you may operate the vehicle or engine to stabilize the emission levels. Using good engineering judgment, operate your vehicles or engines in a way that represents the way they will be used. You may operate each vehicle or engine for no more than the greater of two periods:

(1) 50 hours or 500 kilometers.

(2) The number of hours or kilometers you operated the emission-data vehicle used for certifying the engine family (see 40 CFR part 1065, subpart E, or the applicable regulations governing how you should prepare your test vehicle or engine).

(f) Damage during shipment. If shipping a vehicle or engine to a remote facility for production-line testing makes necessary an adjustment or repair, you must wait until after the initial emission test to do this work. We may waive this requirement if the test would be impossible or unsafe, or if it would permanently damage the vehicle or engine. Report to us, in your written report under § 1051.345, all adjustments or repairs you make on test vehicles or engines before each test.

(g) Retesting after invalid tests. You may retest a vehicle or engine if you determine an emission test is invalid under subpart F of this part. Explain in your written report reasons for invalidating any test and the emission results from all tests. If we determine that you improperly invalidated a test, we may require you to ask for our approval for future testing before substituting results of the new tests for invalid ones.

[67 FR 68347, Nov. 8, 2002, as amended at 70 FR 40498, July 13, 2005; 73 FR 59251, Oct. 8, 2008]