Secondary air pump ?

[my 1.8t]

hi, i have a 2000 a4 and my secondary air pump is going bad. my question is do i really need it because if i dont that would make it alot easier to run my fm pipeing. also will i pass emissions with it off or will i fail? i do have a check engine light on because of it but always reset it before i have to go and when i pull this off if not needed how can i get that light to go off due to that.thanks for all the help

[djwimbo]

Your SECONDARY air pump is an EMISSIONS control device. It pumps air into the catalytic converter/s to heat them up more quickly. If you remove the pump, eventually you will get a CEL. This will make you fail an emissions check, OR you can talk to your chip/tuning company to see if they have a SAI (secondary air injection) delete option for your car, most have this option. However, an intelligent emissions check station will know that your car is supposed to have it, and it's pretty obvious when you don't.

The piping for the front mount is a ton easier with it out, but you shouldn't be wasting your money on a FMIC if you're still on stock boost or stock software. Wouldn't be a bad idea to do the whole thing as one install, FMIC, SAI delete and Chip. It won't be cheap though.

[turbo kraut]

i failed cause mine is dead

[Euromike]

also failed cause mine is dead

[my 1.8t]

mine is bad but still passing. like i sead i just reset the battery before i go to clear the check engine light and have allways passsed

[timdtracey]

The secondary air pump is only activated when the vehicle is started from a cold condition. It supplies excess air to the catalysts in order to get them to light off faster. The excess air and the coldstart enrichment cause a significantly faster catalyst heat-up and as such reduce your emissions greatly from cold. That being said, once the catalysts and the engine are warm, the secondary air pump will no longer function.(until the vehicle is cold again)

Do you need it? The answer is no. If you live in a state that doesn't require emissions testing, you can take it off and no one will hassle you. However, these cars are 50 state legal, which means the OBD system is designed to tell you when you have a failure that causes excess emissions. As such, when the air pump is removed, you will get a CEL unless you reflash the ECU and disable the air injection OBD.

Will you pass the smog test......probably not. Once the vehicle is warm, the Air Injection code can be cleared, and it will not come back until the pumps run again.(from cold) I don't know about the 2000 model year, but most modern cars have readiness flags. The readiness flag confirms that the air injection system has run, and that it has made a judgement.(either pass or fail) When you clear the CEL, the readiness flag is also reset to zero. In many smog tests, a readiness of zero is an automatic fail. The smog station will require that you drive the vehicle until the readiness flag completes. Without an air pump, the readiness flag will complete, but you will have a code for the air pump malfunction, which is also an automatic fail.

The ironic thing is that in California, the vehicle can actually pass the emissions protion of the smog test without an air injection system. Remember, Air Injection only helps the emissions at cold start. Once warm and on the rolls at a smog station, the emissions have nothing to do with the air injection. Regardless though, if the vehicle was certified with the Air Pump installed, it must be functioning in order to pass smog even if the emissions result is clean.

I don't know the regulation in Arizona, but I would do a lot of research before removing any emissions component. The amount of power you make is worthless, if you can't get the car registered...............that is unless you want it for track use only.

[merrigan]

get rid of it. have unitronic tune out the CEL, and your good to go.

[PoormansA4]

I got a question!, my car will be warmed up all the way i did like 15 mins freeway driving and such oil and water temps are where they should be and ill be sitting somewhere like a drive thru and my air pump starts going off, but it kinda sound a lil Fked up like it whines (unlike when you first start your car) seems to only happen at night, would this mean somethings wrong witht he pump or cat?

[turbo kraut]

my car is not passing the readyness for it or my cat or my o2

i have no cell, and haven't checked my hidden codes........ i am probably going to get out of state tags anyways

[biketsai]

mine is bad but still passing. like i sead i just reset the battery before i go to clear the check engine light and have allways passsed

That's not supposed to work. The computer will not be ready. Maybe you need to have someone check your dary system.

[turbo kraut]

mine is bad but still passing. like i sead i just reset the battery before i go to clear the check engine light and have allways passsed

That's not supposed to work. The computer will not be ready. Maybe you need to have someone check your dary system.

+1.... at least not in missouri.......they don't exactly check for cel's they check for readiness... and doing that you need to drive for 500 miles at highway speeds...blah blah...and it will come back


i have a spare ecu, i might try throwing that in, in the parking lot and seeing if it will pass

[TQMB5]

holy balls you need a speak n spell.

[my 1.8t]

That's not supposed to work. The computer will not be ready. Maybe you need to have someone check your dary system.

what do you mean check that system. i did and the pumps bad thats why i have a check engine light on so if i go and they see a check engine light on its a fail but if i reset it and no biggie.

[biketsai]

I have a pump for sale, want to buy it? Its in perfect working order.

[PoormansA4]

anyone got a answer for my question =[

[biketsai]

anyone got a answer for my question =[

I would check your pump, but first I would see if thats what is even causing the noise.

[PoormansA4]

I would check your pump, but first I would see if thats what is even causing the noise.

ya its def coming from the pump, I checked it out last nite, would this create any realy problems or just emissions related

[A4Rob]

Edited for spelling. I am not even going to bother on the punctuation or fragments.