May not be that simple. If your current tune is with a test pipe, and you swap in a CAT, your AFRs will most likely be off. This may cause you to fail the OBII emissions monitoring.

 

Was no problem for me. Swapped back to stock cat and then removed the o2 defouler. The readings actually came out cleaner than stock. This is with intake, cams, TBE, and tune.

 

Do we have an official California smog thread? I maybe I'll make one and sticky it. Seems like there are new smog threads every couple weeks with a lot of the same questions.

 

That's great to hear! I didn't know for sure; just speculating.

 

Need a quick smog advice. I know it's already been talked about but want to make sure..
I’m planning on purchasing a car with FL plates.

The mods are downpipe, perrin cat, catback, apexi intake, booster controllers, ets 3.5 interncooler and lower intercooler pipe.

I’m trying to smog the car and with the new law I heard there’s no more sniffing. Does that mean all I have to do is put the stock intake on and make it look like it’s all stock and I’ll be able to pass?

This is the only deal breaker as far as purchasing the car.

Thanks!

 

Has anyone actually smogged their cars in 2013 yet?

Did you just put it back to stock look and passed?

 

i went to a few somg places here in SD and none of them have implemented the new way of doing smog.

 

Yup just heard from a smog guy that they are trying to put in affect mid year this year.. so for now it's still sniffer.

 

Are you aware that when you bring an out of state car into California you will have to get it inspected at the DMV when you register it? I would be willing to bet you money that the DMV employee is going to see your aftermarket parts and send you to a referee for inspection. At that point, you're going to fail the inspection and be told to put all of the original smog parts on the car in order for it to pass smog. Thus, you will not be able to drive the car legally on public roads until you are signed off by the referee and then pass a real smog test.

You might be able to pass an ECU test due to a bypass with Evoscan but you'll fail the visual.
Depending on how good your catalytic converter is and what your tune is like, you may or may not pass the sniffer.

For what it's worth, I purchased a car from Iowa a couple of years ago and I had to go through the process of paying sales tax (you don't pay sales taxes in the state when you purchase it), paying registration fees, passing a smog test and passing a visual inspection at the DMV.

 

would I pass the test with my mods if I replaced the ETS TP with the stock cat?

mods in the sig.

 

Thanks for the heads up.

I was not aware that the car needs to be inspected at the DMV. The car is already here just with FL plates the owner just didn't get a chance to register it in CA yet.

Also, the car only has intake, IC piping, DP and exhaust so it's fairly easy to put everything back to stock and get it smogged and register it. But now I'm thinking if it's actually worth buying it or just wait for a lower mileage CA car to show up for sale....

 

I don't want to discredit any of the comments you are getting here, but just do your own research. I wouldn't hesitate to buy a car unless there were real, clear issues you can define that don't have a solution. A properly or decently running evo with a good cat will pass smog, let alone a nearly stock one.

I brought a heavily modified suby from MA to CA, and inspection was normal, easy, and just paperwork. And taxes as mentioned above. They checked for things like brake lights, etc, beyond just what our community gets hung up on.

I also bought and registered a salvage title evo. Everyone told me it was impossible, the end of the world, a waste of money. It was a couple of forms, a few ill informed DMV people, and a smog check. No big deal really. Just steps you have to complete. If you have massive mods, then you have a higher risk of issue. For all issues there are solutions, you just complete the steps. For a nearly stock evo, I wouldn't flinch. You need a cat.

However, remember that smog laws just changed, so very few of us know what we are talking about now as its actually applied since Jan 1st this year. Read up on the DMV site, call in, heck, even go there during off hours and ask questions. You can ask a pit manager about the steps needed because you are interested in purchasing a FL registered car. She will give you the steps, and then you can always reference her/his name during the process.

Intake is usually one of those things people recognize as non stock bling. It could even be carb approved, and you could get hassled. So that might be something even I would remove to avoid questions. 3 bolts, 5 minutes.

There is also little rationale thinking that a CA car will give you less trouble down the line with registration or paperwork. I think that is somewhat of a false conclusion. That car could have its own gremlins and mods that will trip you up.

 

Thanks.

Great advise, will definitely be calling the DMV today because their website doesn't have all the information needed.

 

Clichere1, I am going to say most likely not. You will not pass the visual.

 

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