Failed inspection

[Ouray]

I recently took my car in for the state inspection test and failed. The mechanic asked if I had disconnected the battery at any point, I did the previous season as the battery died and replaced it with a new BMW battery. He went on to tell me that this was the reason that the test ( catalytic converter, oxygen sensor, oxygen sensor heaters) were all coming back as not ready. He told me that I need to drive the car a few hundred miles to and bring it back and should pass the test with no problem. The mechanic claimed that this was a built in default in all cars to avoid people failing their inspection test, going around the corner and discounting the battery to reset the OBD systems and bringing it right back to pass inspection. Do I really need to drive that car that far? Is it possible to drive a shorter distance or have the engine idle for a couple of hours and achieve the same results?

[macfly]

Yes, it should reset in about an hours driving time. The thing that matters is for everything to get up to full operating temperature, and remain there for a chunk of time so the computer gets all it's codes realigned. I had a software reflash (Dinan upgrade) a while back, and took my car to be smogged after picking it up from service and it was the same thing. All I did was drive it home on the scenic route, then one short Sunday morning spin, and the next Monday took it back to the smog station and it passed no problem.