Hi,

I have a 2006 Dakota here in California and recently when I tried to have it SMOG tested, the technician said that since his machine could not communicate with the OBD2 port, it failed the test.

I'm pretty sure that it has the CAN protocol and that is why his older machine could not communicate with my truck.

However, since my specific vehicle was not included on the "list" of exempted vehicles, it had to communicate or it failed.

On newer vehicles with the CAN protocol, the technicians can legally skip this part of the test if the vehicle is included on the "list" put out by CARB of vehicles with the new protocol.

Has anybody experienced this or have any information to share?

Also, has anybody purchased a Code Reader and used it on your 3rd gen Dakota? I'm thinking of purchasing one from e-Bay but thought I would solicite advice first.

Thanks for your time.

 

if you went to a dodge dealer for the test you should have been ok. some joe shmoe places dont carry the correct tooling for newer rides. i have used the reader that autozone carries a few times. it works really well. i would spend the extra dollars and purchase one at a local store instead of ebay. just incase of software problems

 

I took my truck to the dealer as suggested and they SMOGed it with no problems.

Also, I purchased a Toptak TP-180CAN for $48 on eBay. I hope that wasn't one of the cheap ones.

Anyway, thanks for the advice!