Smog Check for Motorcycles...Charcoal Canister Beware!

So in order to mount the skidplate from Yamaha onto my 2010 WR250R, I had to remove the charcoal emmision canister from the front lower area of the engine. Maybe this is only for California bikes, but what I'm told is that motorcycles will soon have to pass emmisions tests just like cars, and if the canister is missing it is an automatic failure.

That got me thinking. While it's easy enough for me to hang onto the canister and re-attach it before a test, my experience has been that a larger fuel tank usually doesn't have the piping and tubes for attaching the canister. Is that true? If so, I'm wondering if I would ever be able to buy a larger tank and then might have problems passing a smog check...

Like I said, maybe this is just a California thing?

California is retarded....

The charcoal canister is for capturing the fuel vapor from the fuel tank vent. The larger tanks do have a vent(on the cap) that you can connect a hose to and connect to the charcoal canister, but I wonder if they(California D.O.T.) will make up some crap that the tank has to be metal and not plastic?

I hope they never pass the BS emission test for bikes in CA. It's just another way for CA to nickel and dime us...

GusinCA wrote:

Like I said, maybe this is just a California thing?

Yep.

Quote :

California is retarded....

Yep again.

Well, California may be retarded, but it's not a bad place to live... :)

Yes, the canister absorbs fuel vapor from the tank and holds onto it until the fuel injection sucks it out to burn it.

According to absolutley everyone I've spoken to in the industry, it is already happening (m/c smog checks) and the canister MUST be present and hooked up to a tank designed for vapor recovery in order to pass. But it is also happening in Arizona, where they are using exhaust sniffers to smog test motorcycles, so I guess California isn't the only state this is happening in.

So, again I wonder, does the aftermarket tank industry know about this? I'll wait to find out from some others before buying a bigger tank...

Anyone mind posting a picture of this charcoal filter mounted to the bike? Im trying to determine if i was sold a CA model as i live in Florida.

GusinCA wrote:

If so, I'm wondering if I would ever be able to buy a larger tank and then might have problems passing a smog check...

I removed the canister, glad I still have it if this is all going to happen. I removed it when I installed my CamelTank. As I remember it, the CamelTank would work fine with the canister in place because the default install is to bring the fuel hose up to the stock tank gas cap, meaning everything else could just stay. I took mine out because it worked perfectly to plumb the fuel line from the CamelTank into the same place the canister return line was, meaning I don't need to feed it around to my cap (I never linked that idea). So if I remember correctly it wouldn't take me much to be back smog-legal. It's a pricey option but I prefer it to oversized tanks.

It’s under the black plastic skid hump down there

PeteJE wrote:

It’s under the black plastic skid hump down there

Oh yeah, I don’t have this. Just the empty holes to mount it.

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You guys made me go look for my emission stuff, found it in the box with the stock tank. Hope to never put it back on but at least I have it.

Kalifornia has their own emissions standards that manufacturers must meet. The Carbon canister on the WRR is unique to Kalifornia WRR's only.

The current WRR (along with many other bikes like the DR650) are 'grandfathered' in under the original emissions requirements that they were required to pass when they we released - this is one reason why you haven' seen much development on some of these bikes since if they touch something in the powertrain they were have to recertify the product to meet current emissions.

Most manufacturers try to follow a 50 State Guideline for emissions which means a vehicle sold in Alabama would be legal in Kalifornia as well. But in the past this was not always the case and you end up with some models being Kalifornia specific like the WRR. I have notice most of the new models (new as in a complete rework) now come with carbon canisters as well which I think is also important to meet Euro 4 requirements.

Now I would really like to know which State push these god awful self sealing gas cans on us. I know it was done to limit VOC discharge but I probably spill more gas with these new nozzles that I ever did with my old gas can. I would say on my personal level my VOC discharge has gone up since having to buy one of these.

Probably Cali on the gas cans, ya, I threw the spout away and use a funnel. Ridiculous

Emissions testing in larger cities for California is different than other parts. If you live in what they call an "enhanced" area that could very well happen. However, if you live in a more rural area like I do (High Desert) it will never happen.

Cars emissions in this part are totally different than when I lived in San Diego.