How to Pass Your Ford F-150’s Emissions Test

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For about a generation, teachers have been telling American students that the best way to be prepared for a test is to take a practice one, and when it comes to your F-150, the same is true. If you’re worrying about whether you will pass your emissions test, one of the best things you can do is test it to see. If you can’t find an emissions test you trust, the other option is to look at the places where your emissions quality could break down in order to satisfy yourself that everything is in working order. If you do find anything that needs to be replaced in your exhaust, you’ll have time to make the fix happen before you need to register your truck for another year.

Why Do Vehicles Fail an Emissions Test?

Most of the time, vehicles fail because their catalytic converters are not doing the work they need to do anymore, so the exhaust contains more harmful fumes than normal. Under ideal circumstances, the catalytic converter breaks down the most harmful emissions, resulting in a cleaner exhaust. If the converter is fine but the vehicle’s emissions are still below standard, there could be another issue in the exhaust system causing an emissions leak before the fumes reach the converter. Finding the best Ford F-150 catalytic converters gets easier when you use a VIN lookup to help with your shopping. Retailers offering this service are able to match your search with the parts that fit your F-150, because the VIN tells the system what year the vehicle model came from, not just what model it is.

Inspecting Your Vehicle for Preventive Maintenance

If you’re already looking a the exhaust system, why not just expand your efforts to a full safety check? Looking at your valves, fluid levels, brakes, and other parts made to wear on a regular basis is a good idea, and bundling Ford F-150 brakes and other supplies into whatever parts you order to improve your emissions quality means getting everything you need to refresh your vehicle’s performance in a single step.

  • Oil change supplies
  • Radiator and transmission fluid
  • Vales, spark plugs, wires, and miscellania
  • Brake parts

Making sure you have all your core systems updated and in working order helps to minimize the kinds of mishaps that could sideline your catalytic converter unexpectedly, because when your engine is inefficient, sometimes the extra emissions can cause performance problems for the catalytic converter. If you replace a faulty converter without addressing those issues, there is a good chance it will fail sooner than it should, and a not insignificant chance that heavy driving could take it out before you even get a chance to pass the test.

Keep your F-150 running like the workhorse it was designed to be. Get on top of your maintenance today, and make sure you go into a new year with a truck that’s operating at the top of its game. Then you won’t have anything to worry about from emissions testing and you’ll get a better driving experience out of it too.