I need to do a drive cycle and my question is do I have to perform each and every step every time I need to do one? I am assuming I only need to do certain steps once to activate certain censors. I am doing the steps from this site General Motors Driving Cycle and it says that "it may take 5 complete driving cycles to determine the state of the catalyst." I am assuming I only need to do whatever steps that didn't activate certain censors if I failed to activate all the censors the 1st time. Also how do I determine if I am going half throttle and 3/4 throttle? Is it just how much I push down the gas pedal or is it the RPM or is it both? Just need to learn how to keep track of this for the drive cycle.

 

Yes you do need to do all these steps.
This procedure is not about activating sensors but to create certain conditions that helps the computer diagnose the emission system.
If you had the battery disconnected for a longer time you need to do this several times as the document says if you need to smog your car. Otherwise it will fail due to the OBD2 system not being ready. I didn't know that and the dealer did not tell me about it either after they rebuilt the engine. I ended up having to pay for 2 smog checks.
About the position of the accelerator. Just push it approximately half way and then 3/4 of the way. It doesn't need to be spot on.

 

What are you trying to do?

It is about creating conditions for the OBD2 tests to run.

The official drive cycle is very difficult to accomplish without a computer. However, most times 30 cold to hot cycles will get everything run, that is: normal driving. The EVAP test will be last.

On my 2011 everything would run in a couple cold starts, then the EVAP would run a week or so later.

 

Yea I am trying to pass smog cause I know it will fail and probably fail tomorrow. If it is gonna be troublesome to complete, it will be a long Summer for me lol. Sadly my car isn't registered and needs smog to get registered and I can only get issued 2 one day drive passes at a time so I am in a catch-22. From what I can tell, just drive my car a in bunch of situations til all the sensors are ready for smog. I have to ask, is the link I provided not the official drive cycle? It doesn't seem that hard to recreate that drive cycle. I just don't want to keep paying for smog.

 

I've seen a few (slightly)different sets of "GM drive cycle" instructions. You should talk to your smog tech, sometimes it is not necessary that all monitors be "ready".

 

Why are you sure it is going to fail? That was my question, I thought you wanted help.

I didn't look at your link but the drive cycle is different for different years and you don't give us that clue.. Most of the authoritative internet cycles are wrong. And, as I said,m very difficult to accomplish; I tried for a couple of weeks until the EVAP ran itself.

This is for 2007 L61 2.2L