I have a 2010 Prius III with ~138k trouble free miles on it. I've owned it since new. I've had no trouble codes or dashboard warning lights warnings on the vehicle. This vehicle has to go through a mandated annual state inspection for emissions every September. Being the first of the month, I wanted to get it out of the way and brought it in to the inspection station this afternoon. So the OBD-II port would not communicate with the state emissions machine. After this issue presented, to troubleshoot my mechanic put his OBD-II reader onto my OBD-II port and the OBD-II on my Pri communicated without any problem. While I would think that troubleshooting points to the state emissions machine, I witnessed vehicles (both within 10 years new, so OBD-II) immediately before mine and after mine use that same state emissions machine and no OBD-II communication issues with those cars. FWIW: 1) I checked all of the fuses, and they all look fine. 2) the inspection station & mechanic are well known to me.... I know the mechanic/owner and this isn't some contrived shake-down. Anyone have any thoughts on what to look for or how to trouble shoot this issue?
or try a whole nuther inspection place. if his reader worked, the state machine should have. i doubt it's your car.
Find someone with a OBD2 tester thingy and plug it in, check if it powers up the OBD2 device and retrieve display real time values. If it powers up and populate data, the smog place machine had a hiccup and smog it elsewhere. Hope those smog people place were polite to you when it didn't communicate, the ones I run into here are rude and accuse me to pull the battery terminal when it doesn't pass.
I agree with the advice to try another inspection station. OBD II can use any of several electrical interfaces, which use different pins of the connector, so even something as simple as a broken wire in the stations’s test cable could cause the equipment to work with some vehicles and not with others. Massachusetts is also in the process of starting a new inspection program, and if your car was tested with one of the old machines, you might try again after October 1, if you can wait that long. If the test fails at a second station, you should check if your car has any coverage remaining under Toyota’s California Emission Control Warranty, which also applies in states like Massachusetts that have adopted the California requirements, as long as the car has a California or 50-state emission control system (most do, but check the certification label under the hood). As the Warranty and Maintenance Guide (PDF) says, subject to certain exclusions: For 15 years or 150,000 miles, whichever occurs first: If your vehicle fails a smog-check test, all necessary repairs and adjustments will be made by Toyota to ensure that your vehicle passes the test. This is your Emission Control System PERFORMANCE WARRANTY. Subject to the specific terms pertaining to maintenance described on the following pages, if any emissions-related part is defective, the part will be repaired or replaced by Toyota. This is your Emission Control System DEFECT WARRANTY. If you take your car to a Toyota dealer (be sure to bring a written report of the test failure), they’ll try connecting to it with a Toyota Techstream diagnostic system. If they can reproduce the problem this way, there are Repair Manual procedures to fix it, but otherwise, they may have to open a case with Toyota's Technical Assistance System (TAS), the dealer-only support line. Definitive troubleshooting might require access to the state-approved inspection equipment, an oscilloscope with CAN bus decoding capability, back probes for the DLC3 connector, and copies of the SAE J1962 and ISO 15765-4 standards—but none of this should be your responsibility.
Elektroingenieur - thanks much for the input! Years ago Massachusetts adopted California automobile emissions standards and this 2010 Prius was sold under that standard. I hadn't considered this, so your info gives me a good place to start. Fortunately, my local Toyota dealer (Tufankjian Toyota of Braintree) are good people (I'm not prone to describe dealers as good). Having all the info that you provided is super helpful.
UPDATE: So I took my Prius to my local dealer, Tufankjian Toyota of Braintree. I provided the failure report from my emissions test as well as all the info provided by Elektroingenieur (Thanks again). The first thing they did was attempt the emissions test with the state inspection machine.... the OBD-II had NO communication issue and connected just fine. My Prius passed the state emissions. For kicks & grins the service tech connected the Toyota Techstream diagnostic system. The system had no communication issue and no trouble codes reported. So this appears to be an issue in which the state inspection system hardware at the place I first took my car in for the emissions test has an issue. I stopped back at that shop afterwards to let them know. For anyone in the Boston area looking for a good dealer to service your Toyota, I recommend Braintree Toyota and Service Advisor Emily Rose. Thanks to the PriusChat community for your help.
