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Its a good thing you got new keys and reactivated the immobilizer. Anyone could have stolen your Evo with a regular key. It was a prime target considering how many Evos I have seen recently stolen.
Nope, many cars with immobilizers get stolen all the time. Trust me, this won't stop anything
With evos, people want them so bad that they will tow em to steal them. Best thing to do is garage it. That will do much more than the immobilizer ever will.
Originally Posted by Biggiesacks
The factory immobilizer is beyond useless as anti-theft. The third pedal is more effective anti-theft than the factory immobilizer. A 12-year-old could disable it in less than a minute. Install an aftermarket alarm or some creative kill switch if you actually want to protect your car from getting stolen.
100% agree. Much better to have an alarm with a starter interrupt relay and even that doesn't work a lot of the time.
You can't make this stuff up. Failed state ref because my stock cat is missing the bottom heat shield and he didn't believe me that evo IX's cats have a center o2 sensor: Pulled up the service manual in front of him and everything. Still didn't want to believe it. Everything else passed including the ecu portion, but I think their real behavior is to pick something at random to make people come back two or more times. Won't change the fact that this car is going straight back to a killer street setup as soon as this circus act is done. Ordered a new oem cat, if the place comes back and says they are out (didn't say out of stock) then I will look for a uni.
@Pal215
So when you return with the new stock cat, you might have to show the receipt of the stock cat. What a mess
It's been worse, this is my second time dealing with the referee circus clowns. Last time I was state refed it was through a checkpoint and it had a $500.00 ticket behind it. I fought it in court and won.
The vendor I chose for buying the OEM IX cat confirms that even today, the part is totally obsolete and out of stock everywhere. As such, I placed an order for the California, Carb approved WLK-82633 that Biggie found last year after confirming CARB EO# was still intact for our cars. They had two in stock at summit racing as of this morning just in case anybody is looking for a evo IX aftermarket cat with an EO number for passing smog or ref. Perhaps it's best to wait and see if I pass with it?
I just need to weld some flanges to it. All facts say it should get it to pass now, however, I find it borderline retarded that you can pass a state ref with a 2.3L crank, but a stock cat with a missing heat shield will fail you. So all you 2.1 - 2.3L guys out there, yes you can keep your stroker motor for state ref and the stock tune/injectors will support it. I'd be willing to bet the 2.4L would work fine too, but I have not tested it.
This, again, supports the claim that the CA referee program is not really about the environment. They don't make the state any money and they can't discourage people from doing what they want to the the car they own. It's funny that a sad little man gets to choose if you get to use your car that you bought and own on the street
Went ahead and got the cat replaced with the approved unit. Emailed all the paperwork to the referee board for the approval to make a 2nd ref appointment. Made the second referee appointment with the same guy so that I don't get a different guy which could start potentially tacking issues on randomly. They call me back and cancel my appt because the stupid ref got sick (serves him right). Had to reschedule to a referee at Southwestern College. As fate would have it, that is the referee I visited before 13 years ago. So this Friday we will find out what the hell else they want.
In the mean time I need to decide if I want an FP Green or FP54 Green. Does anybody have experience with both?
Failed smog again due to the rear most section of the approved new cat which is 2.5" in diameter, post cat, being welded to a 3" flange to better work with my aftermarket cat back. Remember, both times the car passed functional and ecu inspections, this is just opinion based visuals that the car is failing. I can't say I am that surprised since these people are the lowest of the low and don't give a damn about how much cash we need to spend to get things stock or how much time we waste before registration is due. They will literally pull anything out of their asses. This morning I ran down to the nearest exhaust shop, got some 2.5" pipe and had the rear section of the new cat chopped off and replaced with the 2.5" pipe and stock flange. At this point I can't think of a single visible thing they can fail me for, but I will not be surprised whatsoever if they make something else up.
This (red box) is why they failed me and then below how they want it:
WARNING: All you Evo IX guys who have the center tap o2 sensor for their stock cats, part # ( 1584A144), take extreme caution when visiting the ref because we have a problem that totally screws with us. As it turns out they DO NOT have the latest drawing from Mitsubishi about that o2 sensor location change in their prehistoric database. I had this last ref show me what they had in the system for an 06 evo IX and it only shows only the previous cats with the o2 sensor after the cat. They will not believe you that it's the stock cat because their system is wrong and they do not care to trust you. I put the damn service manual in front of them and they still didn't believe me. To make matters worse, all the figures from Mitsubishi parts websites do NOT show a center tapped o2 sensor for our cat part number. We have been completely and utterly forsaken in this matter.
What we actually have and what's true:
What CA refs have:
Now what does this mean for us? It means that unless the ref you get is related to you, he will fail you for stock parts. The solution? To install an evo 8 cat and use the o2 port on an aftermarket cat back or buy a universal cat and then use the o2 port on an aftermarket cat back. The other glaring issue here is that if their system ever get's updated and we get reffed again, they will suddenly change their minds and then we have to purchase a universal cat with an optional use center o2 tap (if one even exists for our engine family number...probably not).
Wish me luck boys. Referee Monkey Circus part 3 coming soon!
Wow what a PITA, thanks for sharing your experience. I don't think there is any way one could intuit from the laws that you couldn't add the larger flange. That Evo 9 cat stuff is infuriating. I'm pretty sure all it would take to fix is for someone to file lawsuits against mitsubishi and the state. I have a feeling it would get fixed really quickly. It might get fixed with just a letter from an attorney. Only someone with an Evo 9, who was burned, would have standing to sue though (AFAIK). Cats aren't cheap either, so the lawyer might actually be the economical solution.
Last edited by Biggiesacks; Jan 23, 2022 at 07:56 AM.
Why don't you just register it to another state that doesn't have any inspection requirements? This sounds like tons of work that you can easily avoid.
Why don't you just register it to another state that doesn't have any inspection requirements? This sounds like tons of work that you can easily avoid.
I thought about this route in the start, but CA can impound your car and throw tax evasion charges at you if you are caught doing this. Nobody knows the full extent of the punishment apparently. Almost pulled the trigger on hiring an LLC for Montana plates. This is the only route to stay out of big trouble long term.
Wow what a PITA, thanks for sharing your experience. I don't think there is any way one could intuit from the laws that you couldn't add the larger flange. That Evo 9 cat stuff is infuriating. I'm pretty sure all it would take to fix is for someone to file lawsuits against mitsubishi and the state. I have a feeling it would get fixed really quickly. It might get fixed with just a letter from an attorney. Only someone with an Evo 9, who was burned, would have standing to sue though (AFAIK). Cats aren't cheap either, so the lawyer might actually be the economical solution.
Absolutely, I just wanted to give everyone the heads up. We will probably have to fight these people at the source one day. It's very unfortunate that they are this ignorant, their way or the highway, when it comes to our cars.
I thought about this route in the start, but CA can impound your car and throw tax evasion charges at you if you are caught doing this. Nobody knows the full extent of the punishment apparently. Almost pulled the trigger on hiring an LLC for Montana plates. This is the only route to stay out of big trouble long term.
That makes sense. As to tax issues, as you already own the car, I don't think that is a big risk for you as the tax issue comes up on new purchases when people try to avoid sales tax. I'm not a tax expert, but just wanted to point that out.
That makes sense. As to tax issues, as you already own the car, I don't think that is a big risk for you as the tax issue comes up on new purchases when people try to avoid sales tax. I'm not a tax expert, but just wanted to point that out.
I misspoke, it has more to do with car registration fees going to a different states DMVs than CA taxes which pisses them off. They don't realize that we would only do it because we are being oppressed.
That is absurd.. feel for you man. Arbitrary visual inspection and being shown the actual Mitsu manual for the cat and still being like "hmm... nah f you, my system is right Mitsu is wrong". I could never tolerate commiefornia.
