what could cause a car to fail etest?

Seems like your car is running “rich”.

If a car is running too rich, the air to fuel mixture is not right. Running rich means that there is too much fuel (gas) going into the engine for the amount of air going in. On the opposite side, too lean would mean that there is not enough fuel going in for the amount of air. Cars can run rich when the oxygen sensors go bad, or on older cars, if the carburetor is not adjusted properly. Running rich can be accompanied by a distinct exhaust smell, and in the extreme cases, some blue smoke. The inside of the exhaust pipe will be black if a car has run rich for any amount of time (when it’s cool, take a light colored rag and wipe it inside the end of the tailpipe-if it comes out black, the car is probably running rich).

So how do you fix the problem?

I think that car is fuel injected so the computer should be adjusting the mixture. Part of the job of oxygen sensor is to help the car do just that, check them. Also you may have worn injectors. If your seeing wear that fast on plugs, have a tech plug in a good scan tool that can read values and see what is causing your problem.