CA cat considerations
 

So as I understand it, as of a couple years ago, if you replace a catalytic converter on any car in CA, it must either be an OE replacement or have a CARB EO number.

Has anyone had to deal with this while getting a smog check? I only ask because a dude at the smog station in front of me had a Jeep Cherokee and got his shit rejected hardcore because his cat didn't comply with the rules.

I see there being 3 solutions assuming I don't want to pay the $$ for a CARB-compliant cat:

1. Use the stock cat for smog check time and aftermarket for all other times: This may require retuning during smog time due to the greater restriction caused by the smaller stock cat.

2. Use larger aftermarket cat all the time and hope the tech doesn't notice: I don't want to get fucked and fail a smog check, so this isn't my favorite option. But maybe the Cherokee above was easy to check because it's high. The miata would take considerable more effort to check the cat for compliance.

3. Use larger aftermarket cat, but hide it with OE-like heat shielding aka ninja-cat: I like this option the best. I looked at my stock cat and I figure the only way the tech can tell it's stock is that it looks rusty and has the heat shield around it. If I can replicate the weathered look + heat shield, I would be good even if dude tries to check my cat.

Discuss.

lol, become friends with a smog guy and make your problem disappear. Ask your friends if they know of a place for a special smog?

The past 2 times I've had to deal with smog, they only took a quick peek but I'm not sure what they were looking for.

Fuck this state. A lot of the smog regulations don't actually make your cars emissions any cleaner.

Fully agree. I',m of the thought that as long as your shit passes sniffer, it shouldn't matter what you have installed, but since CA doesn't subscribe to the same thought, I still think about this stuff.

FWIW, supposedly trying to pass the sniffer with a CARB approved cat will be a little easier. I've never actually tested this theory and honestly I don't plan to. The cheapest CARB approved cat I found was in the 4-500 dollar range.

www.car-sound.com

yeah that's more $$ than I want to spend. It's basically double the price for a stupid eo#

option 4: slip the inspector a $100 bill?

This simply doesn't work anymore. It's all about trust. The Bureau of Automotive Repair has been known to do undercover runs. Usually BAR guys are obvious (hushpuppies and pocket protector), but I know if a random guy I didn't know tried to slip me 100 to pass his car I'd tell him to get lost.

Bribery hasn't worked since the big crackdown 5 or 6 years ago where they pulled a ton of licenses and actually handed out some jailtime. No more clean-pipe inspections either.

The best thing to do is just find a small, independent shop and be cool about it. The place where I took my '92 to get smogged was a one-bay "inspection only" station in a seedy neighborhood run by a guy who kept a half-dozen motorcycles parked there. The visual portion of the inspection consisted of "You got the paperwork for that turbo setup?" (Yeah, it's right here in this manilla envelope.) "That's ok, just checking."

One trick, put in the butterfly brace. It obstructs visibility of the cat, and no service tech wants to remove/install the butterfly just to check the cat. As long as there is a cat, and it looks stockish, then I think you should pass visual with the butterfly.

Technically speaking a smog tech isn't even allowed to lift the car to take the brace out. This should put you in the safe zone unless you have somehow made your smog tech paranoid/sketched him out.

Lowered car - check
Butterfly brace - check
Stockish looking cat - check

I think I will be ok, I will report back in once I actually get smogged in the next couple of weeks.

Good list. Please do check back in and let us know how thorough the tech was.

Well, I had a pre test done to see if I would have any trouble and it went fine, except for failing the tail pipe test due to a fouled cat. I have ordered a replacement to use for inspections, lets see how this goes.

Just to emphasize, I passed the visual on the pre test with no trouble.

Pull you exhaust and save your factory cat(s) for smog check time, or get another set of factory cats/midpipe and leave them under your workbench "just in case." My 2000 is the cursed "California Model" with the $666.50 main cat and the $499.95 pre-cat and this is exactly what I'm doing. The way I see it, I'm a fried coil away from a $1166.45 emissions equipment repair bill.

FUCK. THAT. SHIT.

The $75 for a 2001-2005 factory manifold w/heatshields, EGR tube and o2 sensor relocation and another $100 for COPs is cheap ass insurance in this state. Oh and guess what? The car still passes smog on the single main cat, with flying colors.

If it looks stock, they will not question it. R&R the stuff that is not compliant for the inspection. I've also seen guys on the local forum borrow known good/legal units for testing.

+10 for this! If you are going someplace that is reading part numbers off cat converters, you are going to the wrong testing facilities. You need to visit a place that can test, but not work on/repair emissions systems. This gives them the incentive to get you done and on your way. I've been doing this for years with no issues.

fyi I've had issues with CA emmisions for awhile... When I first got my car the cat was toast. The tech's check to make sure its the CA cat cause if its not it wont pass because the CA cat uses a different combination of catilysts or maybe more I dont recall.. anyways the best option is to buy a magnaflow high flow ca compliant cat and wait for a coupon or something and a test pipe. throw the cat in for smog swap out to test pipe for 2 years and so on. The magna flwo cat is around 500-600 but through a connection I get em cheap I also have had VERY good luck going to the smallest test only places and just acting all sad like I don't think its gonna pass. Ask a couple retarded questions leave the car HOT and your home free :)

Before I swapped out the broken automatic (that only went into second gear) the back alley smog guy gave it his best to smog it, whereas another larger company told me to get the fu^& off his property and a few other things (don't go to Mesa Smog in costa mesa)

also with the 95-97 models you gotta have both o2 sensors -_-

Unfortunately, this is scheduled to change in 2013. Smog techs who don't fail enough cars will have something equivalent to a bad "grade".
Pretty much a rating system for smog techs. You're really going to have to know someone then.

I'm not sure if anyone has multiple cats laying around...
BUT, if you put 2 cats in your exhaust system, it WILL drop your numbers. Probably enough to pass if you're cutting it that close.

Wow, that's incentive to run a business. :giggle:

If it comes down to it, I still have my stock 99/00 manifold w/functional precat and even a second midpipe with good main cat sitting in the garage. If I fail a visual I spend an afternoon swapping exhaust around and I should be good to go. Too bad my Rotrex will probably never be EO'd, but it should be a pretty easy R&R. I'll report back next year with results :laugh:

wow so they are telling them they have to fail enough cars. Such BS no wonder Kali has gone to hell.

That seems ridiculous. Do you have any support for that?

I heard this too from a smog guy. There's a stupid new "grading" system for smog techs.

It goes into a lot more things, such as the number of unfinished monitors in the OBD system you let through, and how many times you abort at test, etc etc.

Just like MADD, when a bureaucracy appears which does good things, when its job is done, it doesn't quietly ride off into the sunset. It grows and turns into a monster that devours everything in its path.

Its somewhere on either the BAR or CARB website. I don't really remember where. I know a claim like that without evidence is useless, but its somewhere out there.

They honestly do, Some of the smaller shops would get pwned for passing like 95% of cars, cause in reality with the way carb and everything is setup, only like 75% would pass due to visual inspection... I have also heard from a couple smog guys, evey year they have to give their information on passes and fails and if the passes are over a certain percent they will be investigated and possibly shutdown...

Thats why everyone here in cali wants 90-94 cause they wont get checked. all they do is look at your cel and airbag light to see if something's wrong and your good to go. but obd2 cars your going to pay because youll fail for anything being wrong. Ie if you reset codes and dont drive 50 miles, any faults in airbag system, any engine code even if its not a cel fail. theyll check abs crap and everything. Theyr supposed to check for full funtionality of drive train also but most people consider the dyno thing good enough. I've been failed because of all kinds of random sh&*

This is my thought process regarding smog in CA, any of you had experience trying to do it this way?

I have only had to smog one car, when I first bought my Miata, its coming to that time again to smog it. I didn't pay attention to how well they looked at the vin plate on the dash, and the vin stamped on the firewall. I was curious to see how thorough are they when it comes to vin numbers and such? I don't really want to swap everything back to stock and my buddy has a 90 NA thats stock and is the same color.

Since I have the windshield and dash board out of my car, I was thinking of drilling out the rivets on the vin plate and maybe take some rivet heads and just glue them on. That way it looks like it is still attached, then take some two sided tape and stick it over his, put my license plates on his car and win?

I have looked into and asked around about all this hot smog stuff, the people I have asked around here that have done it cost them anywhere from $250 to $350 depending on the shop. That seems a little outrageous to me.

I thought that in CA, any unready monitors were an immediate fail. IOW, the tech doesn't have any control over the process.




Well, AB 2289 says that:On the plus side, it also looks as if they are going to eliminate the dyno test for OBD-II vehciles, and go on plug-in testing alone.

Many other states have previously adopted such a procedure, and in at least some of those states, it has eventually led to the elimination of testing altogether for non OBD-II vehciles. North Carolina springs to mind as one example- only '96 and newer cars are required to get smogged, because they got rid of the equipment necessary to test older cars.

Will CA go that route? Hard to say- we do have a bit of a reputation for being hard-asses. On the other hand, if one considers the number of pre '96 vehicles on the road today relative to the number of '96 and newer vehicles... :rolleyes:




I seem to recall that they scan the barcode on the door sill, which goes directly into the computer.

Well that might just be a little harder to get away with, maybe make it look like the car has been painted and the serial number was painted over. I'm sure the barcode stickers are tamper proof so you can't take them off and reuse them.

On my '02 salvage car, there's a sticker there that just says "void" repeatedly, so yes, they are tamper-proof.

For cars from 96-2000 I think 2 monitors can be incomplete, after 2000 its one monitor (usually ends up being evap).

Update:

You can pass CA smog with an exintake swap, a fresh non-ca magnaflow cat, and an mp62. In fact, you will likely pass with very good numbers.

What year car?

94.

The supercharger seems to eat cats. I burned out one cat inside 2 months and the rest of the exhaust system doesn't seem to be doing well.

What are you using for management? How are your AFRs? If you are running super-rich under boost or otherwise, your cat is working overtime.

Unfortunately the car is registered in CA and that won't change. So I am limited to CA legal engine management. If I could legally do it, I would put an MS unit in and tune it. As a result, I am stuck using the kit supplied pair of piggy back units. I don't know how bad the tune is, but the blower is only spun to make about 6lb of boost, so I don't think that tune is crucial. Anyways, the rest of the exhaust is going bad as well, so I will probably toss an RB set up on there in the next few months.

Anyways, I just wanted to let folks know that the exintake swap, in combination with the MP62 can pass smog in CA with flying colors.

My rotrex is currently running with the supplied band-aid management, but I'm also running an AEM UEGO wideband in a second bung on my downpipe. No reason not to know whats going on, even if I can't control it. I have a stand-alone MS2 in the garage and if life would cooperate and give me some time, I'd have it installed already. Its not that hard to pull your ECU/band-aids and swap in an stand-alone on a 94. Hell, you can get a new MegaSquirtPNP MM9495 new from DIYAutoTune for under $600 right now, or less if you snag a used one from the forum classifieds for significantly less. Add a wideband and you are cooking with gas. If you are really worried about cat replacement, get yourself a full RacingBeat stainless exhaust and swap in your stock cat/ECU/band-aids for emissions testing. The big hurdle with the MS is tuning, but there are more resources here on MT or over on DIY than you can shake a stick at.

You have an underhood CARB sticker for your SC, no one is going to question your management until its test-time. No reason to keep burning up cats with band-aids.

Or find someone who is willing to ignore visual...It's a lot easier than trying to find someone who will clean pipe you.
I plan to pass smog next year with MS. It is possible to pass emissions with an MS.

And to think, when I went to title the V8 Miata a couple of months ago, I pointed to the title at the clerks desk and said "It's silver now. It has 8 cylinders now." She made the changes and I went on my merry way. We voted out vehicle inspections back in '80 or '81. I can't remember which.

:inb4coolstorybro:

Riveting tale chap