COLUMBUS, Ohio, Posted 12:54 p.m. November 28, 1998 --Two years ago, lawmakers in northeast and southwest Ohio were squawking that mandated emissions tests were ruining cars, raising motorists' temperatures and cutting short political careers.

Now that Ohio is getting a governor who says he wants to end the 14-county E-check program, some legislators want to get moving. Others, however, don't seem to be in such a hurry.

Gov.-elect Bob Taft said he opposes the tailpipe test, which measures the amount of pollutants a vehicle spews into the air, and would have signed a bill Gov. George Voinovich vetoed that would have replaced E-check with a simpler inspection.

But how he would do that remains to be seen, Taft spokesman Brett Buerck said.

Ending E-check is "the goal," but Taft wants to wait until he selects his Cabinet and meets with legislative leaders before endorsing any specific plan, Buerck said.

"The pledges that we made during the campaign will be fulfilled,'' Buerck said last week.

The Legislature approved E-check three years ago as the best way to meet federal clean air standards in the 14 counties that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency found out of compliance.

The test consists of placing a vehicle on a set of rollers and measuring emissions as the car is tested at various speeds.

But motorists complained that they had to get out of their cars while the test was run and said the results were often inaccurate.

Some said their cars were damaged during the tests. In one test in suburban Cincinnati, an unattended car was thrown off the test rollers, out of the station, across the parking lot, down an embankment and into a water retention pond.

The anger over E-check swelled soon after the tests began and several lawmakers introduced bills to get rid of the program.

But the state countered that it would be too costly to buy out the contracts of the companies conducting the tests and that ending them would risk further action by the EPA should the air become too dirty.

E-check emerged as a campaign issue in 1996 and at least two former House members Republican Ray Sines of Painesville and Democrat Karen Doty of Akron blamed their defeats in part on their opponents' hammering of them on the issue.

After Voinovich vetoed the E-check replacement bill, the EPA reached an agreement with one company that conducts the tests to allow most motorists to remain in their cars during the test.

That appeased many E-check critics and the issue seemed to fade during this year's election. Only one incumbent lost in the House: Rep. John Garcia, a Toledo Republican whose district is not in an E-check county.

By no means, however, is the issue dead. Rep. Diane Grendell, and a consistent E-check critic, said she would introduce two bills during the legislative session that begins in January.

One bill would abolish the program and the other would give motorists a tax credit for the $18.75 testing fee.

She acknowledged that the initial outrage over the tests has subsided, but she believes the issue is still a sore spot with Ohioans in E-check counties, including her own, Geauga.

Others believe that abolishing E-check is not the priority it once was.

Sen. Merle Kearns, whose western Ohio district includes parts of three E-check counties, believes the furor has died down and that the tests are necessary to avoid further federal sanctions.