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California Smog Test! Out of Stater Passed!

38K views 57 replies 32 participants last post by  SD_GR 
#1 ·
Written by Quicksilver, who just moved to California from Michigan. This is info for all of us Californians, North and South:

Two days before the smog, I swapped back my DP and Muffler (I had a Bosal DP and Scorpion axel-back (ie Prodrive). I also had my friend clear all codes w/ his hand-held OBDII reader. No codes were stored anyways.

I looked up shops on the internet and called around and picked the cheapest station near where I lived ($59). Some places literally charge over double that.

When I drove up I asked the tech a couple of questions: asked about the KN filter and the blue samco IC hoses. Once I explained what the hoses did, the tech said “no-problem”. It’s very important to ask specific questions because the law states that the tech has to do the test in a certain order, so a cel will be an automatic fail, but the tech will perform the entire test, even when he knows you will fail due to the cel. But if you asked them BEFORE the test about certain things, it saves a lot of hassle. Also, it’s a chance to get on the tech’s good side and to explain things that may seem questionable later. Once the test started, they really went into auto-pilot and it was hard to talk with them.

Since it was AWD, no dyno.

The tech placed the car in neutral and placed a rod to depress the gas pedal to reach ~3000 rpm. He had the sniffer in the tailpipe and the OBD scanner hooked up. The computer pretty much did the rest. They checked the gas cap. The tech asked about some wires which were dangling from my fuse box (I was in the middle of gauge install) , once I explained, it was cool.

I did not see them check under the car or do any specific visuals outside of looking under the hood. Defintely no mirrors. They scanned the barcode on the driver’s door (to get VIN, I guess). Some techs started gathering to check out the car, a couple wrx fans were amongst them. One guy even said he saw a wrx on the drag strip take out a mustang (big whoopee-doo there, hey we know what wrxes can do). I tried to downplay all that and never gave them a reason to suspect I modded the car’s performance, but I don’t think these guys cared at all. They must do like 50 cars a day.

The whole thing took like 15-20 minutes. The tech printed out the report and the results looked clean across the board. Not even close to failing any parameters.

Like I posted earlier, this is w/ gutted stock cat (sensor still in), all stock exhaust, and KN panel filter, and blue samco IC hoses. Car has ~60K miles.


You can PM Quicksilver with specifics and the shop info.
 
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#35 ·
#37 ·
Grats on the pass!

I'm keeping all stock parts in storage for when the time comes.

This brings up a good question in mind, do you think I could get away with an STI turbo like a vf-39 in my car?

It would seem like a painfull mess to swap out a turbo then swap back after smog.
 
#38 ·
People do pass with VF39s. Keep your stock exhaust and intake stuff and have a map ready to run the car (don't know your other mods etc.) plus if there are shiny parts around they better have a CARB sticker on them.
 
#39 ·
Amador County, CA - No Smog Required to Register

I live in Amador County (next to Sacramento) and this county does not require smog certs unless you sell your car. I live here so it's easy for me, but I wonder if you get a PO Box here and use it as your address if it will allow you to bypass smog as well.
 
#41 ·
hey there im Military based in san diego, only thing not stock that they could see is an injen intake, do you think that would make a problem for the smog check? Any help would be appreciated
 
#42 ·
Unless you have the associated BAR sticker (if it's available) they should fail you if they follow the book exactly. I bet most people wouldn't but it is illegal without a BAR sticker. I know they're especially stringent in SoCal though. Check the manufacturer website for any information about the BAR sticker, if they got it legalized for CA they should put that info front and center.
 
#43 ·
QUESTION

If i have the full exhaust system i.e DP UP TB and all others, will that alone be enough to fail emissions? Im military and need to pass emisions to get registered on base. Also the car will have others mods (i.e Intake,FP,bigger TMIC,ECU tune/flash,plugs/wires just to name a few) will that setup alone make me fail hands down? This might be a stupid question but i want to have the car pass with no chance of failing. Any help would be appreciated:sadwave:
 
#44 · (Edited)
That setup is not legal for a road car anywhere in the US.

What kind of wires will the car have? The Subarus do not use spark plug wires. Is this another car brand? It doesn't matter as far as emissions, I'm just curious.
 
#49 ·
Products exempted by CARB are issued a number and the sticker indicates this number. Contact the manufacturer of the product directly -- although whatever the product is, a CARB sticker is (or ought to be!) a major selling point so I find it odd it's not been affixed.

Could the battery dying affect the CEL error?

Any help is appreciated.
Yes. What may be happening is the tech is seeing a "not ready" because the car has not gone through enough cycles. This is intentional in the design of the system, as it prevents an owner from pulling the battery 30 seconds before the test to clear any legitimate CELs, then reattaching and passing.
 
#48 ·
CEL Question

Hello,

I have a 2004 wrx w/ a turboxs high flow catted downpipe w/ a prodrive axelback, and the stock uppipe. I took my car to get smogged about a year ago and passed with this setup (in southern CA).

So I recently took my wrx to get smogged in San Francisco, and passed the sniffer but failed due to the CEL (even though there is no light on the display).

About a week earlier I had to replace my battery as it couldnt hold a charge. The memory was cleared (all radio station programming/clock reset). I had only put 20 miles on the car since the battery was replaced and when I went to the smog place.

The technician thought this could be the reason it failed (I didnt mention the downpipe obviously), He suggested I put a few hundred miles on the car and bring it back, as that should give the sensors adequate time to collect data or whatever.

My question is does that sound like a logical approach/remedy or do I need to pursue this mechanical resistor fix thing. I am hoping I dont have to deal with the resistor given that I already passed once w/ the same setup. Could the battery dying affect the CEL error?

Any help is appreciated.
 
#51 ·
Since the tech said the car failed but the CEL was off, and power had been interrupted, this means that no codes were stored so the failure is not due to a previous problem. This also means one or more sensors reported not ready so yes, give it time and drive it, and also turn it on, run it, turn it off etc. to give it cycles. I don't remember what the threshold is for all sensors to report "ready" but it's not terribly long.
 
#52 ·
Good info here everyone. New to CA (bringing a slightly modded WRX from DC). Anyone have a recommendation for some shops in San Francisco for smog and inspection? I'm willing to revert to stock if necessary, but want to see if I pass before going that far.

Also, if I don't pass, what are the top recommended Subaru-friendly automotive shops to do the work to put a stock exhaust back? You can PM me if you'd rather not reply all, appreciate your advice guys, thanks!
 
#55 ·
Got my first smog check notice (bought a 2005 new) so wanted to test how badly I'd fail running a STi uppipe, Crucial Racing cat-less downpipe, Stromung race-pipe, tuned with Cobb AP stage 2. Failed the visual (no surprise), passed at 2500 RPM fairly well, and failed horribly (gross polluter with hydrocarbons) at idle. I'm going to assume the failure at idle is due mostly to a rough throttle release from 2500 to idle.
Put on the factory third-cat section and passed no problems.
Moral of the story: keep the third-cat (or any cat) to pass smog. It lives in my closet now instead of in storage two hours away.
 
#56 ·
hey thanks for the tips! i appreciate that, but the thing is this wrx came with an aftermarket downpipe and it looks like it has a resonator or a high flow cat...and wut sucks that it has aftermarket after the resonator..so i guess i'm going to have to find a full oem exhuast to slap on just for SMOG!! sucks! thanks for the quick response!
 
#57 ·
im moving form new york to long beach in a couple weeks. i have an AEM CAI and a COBB cat back and a COBB 93 octane map.i now how i have to put he EPU back to stock settings would i pass teh smog test with those mods?
I also learned while playing around at my local garage with my COBB Access Port if you uninstall the performance map but the EPU back to stock settings and use the access port to but the computer in the pre-made COBB economy mode your emissions drop could this help me p[ass and you al too?
 
#58 ·
Contact AEM and ask if their intake has a CARB exemption. If so get the sticker and put it on. If not lose the intake and fit one that does, or fit the correct Subaru part. There is a visual check not just emissions.
 
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