Your Truck Failed Its Clean Truck Check. Here's What Happens Now.

Free Retest When Scheduled Within 30 Days

A failed test isn't a registration hold. Missing your deadline is.

Here's the difference, what usually causes a failure, and how fast you need to move.

First, the Part People Get Wrong

A failed Clean Truck Check does not, by itself, put your truck out of service. What CARB cares about is whether the vehicle is compliant by its compliance deadline.

If your deadline is still ahead of you, a failure is a repair job with a clock on it — not a crisis. Fix the fault, retest, submit a passing result before the deadline, and nothing else happens.

If your deadline has already passed, that's different. Now you're non-compliant, and the consequences CARB actually applies come into play: a DMV registration hold that blocks renewal, potential denial of entry at ports and freight facilities, a Notice to Submit to Testing, and possible citations at a roadside inspection.

Which is the entire argument for testing inside the 90-day early window instead of on deadline week. The window exists so that a failure costs you a repair rather than your registration.

Move In This Order

  • Check your actual deadline in CTC-VIS
  • Read the failure detail we hand you
  • Get the fault repaired
  • Let readiness monitors complete
  • Retest — free within 30 days
  • Confirm the pass posted to CTC-VIS

Why Trucks Actually Fail

In rough order of how often we see them.

Active Fault Codes

  • An emissions-related DTC stored and active
  • Check-engine light on at time of test
  • Often a sensor, connector, or wiring fault
  • Frequently the cheapest category to fix

Incomplete Readiness Monitors

  • Follows a battery disconnect or ECM reflash
  • Also follows clearing codes before a test
  • Needs a drive cycle — normal driving
  • Not a mechanical fault, just a timing problem

Aftertreatment Faults

  • DPF restriction or failure
  • DEF quality, level, or dosing faults
  • SCR efficiency below threshold
  • The expensive end of the range

Missing or Tampered Equipment

  • Deleted DPF or bypassed aftertreatment
  • This is a serious violation, not a fault code
  • Tampering penalties reach $37,500 per violation
  • Has to be put back to stock to pass

The Codes-Cleared Trap

  • Clearing codes right before a test backfires
  • It resets every readiness monitor
  • Truck then can't produce a valid result
  • Fix the cause, then drive it, then test

What We Hand You

  • The specific codes and monitor status
  • Plain-English explanation of the trigger
  • No repair upsell — we don't do repairs
  • Free retest within 30 days

How the Free Retest Works

If we tested your truck and it failed, the retest is free as long as you schedule it within 30 days of the original test. That applies to every truck we test, on every page of this site, in every town we serve.

Get the repair done, make sure the readiness monitors have completed — that usually means driving it normally for a few days rather than starting it in the yard — and call us back inside the window. We come out and re-run it at no charge.

Past 30 days it becomes a new test at normal rates, so it's worth moving. And if the repair is going to take longer than that, tell us; we'd rather work with you than watch the clock run out.

One thing we can't do is repairs. We're a testing outfit, which means when we tell you what failed we have no reason to make it sound bigger or smaller than it is.

Related

Schedule Your Clean Truck Check

Fill out the form below and we'll get back to you promptly — or call 707-225-7982 and skip the form.

Common Questions

Not immediately. A failed test doesn't itself take you off the road — what matters is whether you're compliant by your deadline. If your deadline hasn't passed yet, you have time to repair and retest. If it has passed, you're non-compliant, and that's when a DMV registration hold and possible citations come into play. This is exactly why the 90-day early window exists.

The most common causes we see are an active fault code in the emissions system, a check-engine light that's on at the time of test, incomplete readiness monitors after a recent battery disconnect or ECM reflash, and problems with aftertreatment components — DPF, DEF system, or SCR. Missing or tampered emissions equipment is a separate and much more serious matter.

Yes — the retest is free as long as it's scheduled within 30 days of the original test. Get the repair done, call us back inside that window, and we'll come out and re-run it at no charge. After 30 days it's a new test at normal rates.

If the monitors haven't completed, the truck can't produce a valid result yet — it usually just needs a drive cycle. That means normal driving over a period that varies by engine and manufacturer, often a few days of regular routes. Don't clear codes right before a test; clearing codes resets the monitors and guarantees this problem.

That depends on the fault, and we'll be straight with you about it. Some failures are cheap — a sensor, a connector, a DEF quality issue. Some are not, particularly a failed DPF. We don't do repairs, so we've got no reason to talk the number up or down. You get the readout and you take it to whoever you trust.