i thought you could just say "im sorry i already passed smog this year"

 

Someone should just take their daily driver (civic, camry ect.. as long as its stock and passes smog) through there and see what happens if you decline.

 

Visual AND the sniffer?

 

Yes. unless it has a CARB cert. Which I do not think anyone has done that yet.

 

My Cobb high flow cat (SCCA STX AutoX Rules) failed sniffer. A lot of smog stations don't care about the visual, but that's not a conversation for a forum.

 

Visual....The cat itself is legal but the piping is illegal, it's the stupidest thing ever!! It's a total infringement on our rights! They designed things this way to take rights away from people who like to modify cars, which is stupid because Cadilacs ctsV's and shelby mustangs pump out way more power and probably way more emissions than a modded subie LOL .......What comes out of the tailpipe should be all that matters

 

i wish we were a smog free state :'(

 

I agree with this but remember when doing this be prepared to spend some time in jail. They can detain you until you are checked out or brought in front of the judge.

 

I've never had trouble with my hi-flow. I guess it all depends on the quality of the hi-flow as they are not all created equal.

Some information that I've been told from a legit exhaust shop (they weld custom roll cages for rally cars, track cars, basically anything) is that the legal replacement cats are almost on par with hi-flow cats now. You can take one of these, cut off the stock diameter piping and open it up a little and reweld 3" piping on it to fit your exhaust, and it'll be 100% legal. It'll have all the correct serials, CARB #s and whatever else that these cats are stamped with. These guys don't do anything illegal in their shop and will not do anything off-road only unless the car comes in and leaves on a trailer. They told me shops are still liable for the work they have done to the car if the illegally modified car drives off their parking lot, no matter what warnings, waivers and anything else they do to try and protect themselves. Just an idea for anyone who wants to take the safer road.

But back on topic, I'm assuming these places don't have AWD rollers, since smog still doesn't require shops to have AWD rollers. I wonder if this means we have to automatically refuse and get logged into that database?

 

ive read about these things for awhile now since they got my attention. i even have the privilege to pass one without getting waived in, but got scared ****less. has anyone here ever got waived in and have the experience to share?

 

Actually, no they cannot. You cannot be detained without probable cause. Declining a roadside smog test, for which you are "randomly" selected, does not in any way qualify.

 

Electronic Exhaust Cut-out Ftw! All I gotta do is hit a switch and I'm clean

 

I'm out of town... I got a stock ride with a CBE and would love to put our tax dollars at work with this.

 

fact is if you get sent to the ref and your cat doesnt have carb/eo #s that MATCH AND SAY its for YOUR VEHICLE, you will fail smog.

not just ref, but any strict smog shop..

how do i know, i passed STATE REF SNIFFER, numbers were clean, they check the cat, it was indeed a CA SPEC replacement, BUT they ran the numbers on it and it was for a honda/acura, of course the car was not.. FAILED.

and yes the shop that installs it is responsible, the shops im sure know how strict this law is with that, all i had to do was show them the FAIL from the ref they replaced it with the right one and labor all free, didnt have to pay more.

my next car is a hybrid that gets 50 mpg or a car that has massive amounts of hp stock from the factory. too old for this BS

 

I've heard about at least 4-5 smog check points in Sac last few weeks. There was one 2 blocks away from my house.
Not sure if it's true but someone told me that if you refuse to take the test they'll impound your car for further inspection, don't think so
S..t got real people
Welcome to California, broke state that needs to make money somehow