Is Lake County still doing emissions testing?
Yes. As of 30 September 2026, Lake County still requires emissions testing for gasoline passenger cars and light trucks, every other year. Clean Air Car Check lists even-numbered model years from 1976 through 2022 as due in 2026. Indiana passed a law in 2025 aiming at an eventual phase-out, but no end date has been set.
Last checked 30 September 2026. We’ll update this page, or retire it, when the program changes.
Who has to test
The rules come from the program’s own pages at cleanaircarcheck.com, read on 30 September 2026:
- Which vehicles. Gasoline-powered passenger vehicles and light duty trucks with a gross vehicle weight rating of 9,000 pounds or less, registered in Lake or Porter County.
- How often. Every other year. For 2026, that’s model years 2022, 2020, 2018 and so on, back to 1976.
- How early. A vehicle can be tested as early as 1 October of the year before it’s due.
- Exemptions. Fully electric vehicles are exempt. Vehicles fuelled by something other than gasoline get an alternative fuel exemption, and there are narrow exemptions for show cars and qualifying antique vehicles.
There are seven Clean Air Car Check stations in the two counties, including Hammond, Gary and Griffith, open Tuesday to Saturday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Where the phase-out stands
This is the part that has changed, and the part people get wrong.
The law. Senate Enrolled Act 103 passed in April 2025 and Governor Braun signed it on 6 May 2025. It told the Indiana Department of Environmental Management to identify strategies that would, among other things, “result in the eventual phase out of the inspection and maintenance program for light duty vehicles” and withdraw Lake and Porter counties from the Metropolitan Chicago Interstate Air Quality Control Region. It did not switch testing off.
IDEM’s report. IDEM published its response on 31 December 2025. It calls enhanced vehicle emissions testing “no longer effective in reducing quantifiable emissions” and “cost-ineffective for states to continue administration of the program”. Its next steps run through the U.S. EPA: IDEM may petition the EPA to find that on-board diagnostics (OBDII) are in widespread use, and it will look at whether removing the program can be shown not to interfere with the area’s Clean Air Act obligations. Both are federal processes, and the report sets no date.
What that means for you. Testing continues until the program actually changes, and nobody can promise when. If your car is due this year, plan as if the test is happening, because it is.
If your older car fails
A fail isn’t the end of the road on its own. According to cleanaircarcheck.com, these are the routes:
- Repair and retest. Get the fault fixed and bring the car back.
- Keep your receipts. Only repairs made after a failing test count toward a waiver.
- Ask about a waiver. A waiver is a temporary extension that gives you extra time to make more repairs before the next test is due. You present the original receipts to station management to apply.
- Ask about a temporary permit. The stations can issue temporary permits on site for vehicles that need time for repairs.
We’re not going to suggest skipping a required test. But there’s a fourth option that has nothing to do with the program: sell the car as it is.
Fix, wait or sell?
Fix it when the fault is small and the rest of the car is sound. A cheap repair on a dependable car is money well spent.
Waiting for the program to end is a gamble on timing nobody controls. IDEM’s report points to federal steps with no date attached. If the car is due now, waiting doesn’t get it registered.
Sell it when the emissions fault is one problem among several. A failed test on a car that also runs hot, eats batteries or needs brakes is a car telling you it’s done. Our guide on when to junk a car lists the other signs. If overheating or white smoke is part of the story, see cars that overheat or have a failed head gasket.
Selling a car that failed
A failed emissions test doesn’t stop a sale to us. We buy junk, wrecked and scrap cars as they are, including ones that can’t pass. You send the car details, we call with an offer, towing is free, and you’re paid at pickup.
We cover Whiting, East Chicago, Munster and Highland, the towns that border Hammond. Munster readers: the Munster page has local pickup notes. For everyone else in Lake County’s northwest corner, start with junk car offers near Hammond, Indiana.
Where these facts come from
- Clean Air Car Check, home page, About Emissions Testing, and Extensions, Exemptions and Waivers pages (cleanaircarcheck.com), read 30 September 2026.
- Indiana Department of Environmental Management, “Report Responsive to Senate Enrolled Act 103”, 31 December 2025.
- Post-Tribune (Merrillville), “Emissions testing in Lake, Porter counties could be phased out under new law”, 11 July 2025.