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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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#5 ·
KurleeDaddeeWRX said:
Written by Quicksilver, who just moved to California from Michigan. This is info for all of us Californians, North and South:

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.
Was that the stock gutted uppipe cat? and if so did you resister it?
TIA :)
 
#6 ·
Congrads on passing and welcome to California. Technically the up-pipe really doesn't do much for emissions, because its a pre-cat. It only goes into affect when the car is not fully warmed up, but if it is warmed up there's no problems there. The only thing you would have to worry about is the downpipe area, if you have a catted downpipe you will pass, basically all you need is one cat and that's it (with no cel of course).
 
#9 ·
nolimitbodnar said:
Or you can just move to Arizona. If you car has OBDII, all you get is an electronic test. That means if you have no CELs, you pass. Pre-OBDII cars have to take the sniffer though.

hey im moving to AZ very soon to hopefully jumpstart my career...what is emissions like there and what is needed to be done to pass im s2
 
#12 ·
i just did the buy back program subaru is having.

I traded in my 03 WRX for an 06. They gave me $14,600 towards a new 06.

I probably would have gotten $15K+. But i had to pay for labor to remove my springs and existing exaust. Lukily i had my stock springs and exaust or they would have charged me (over charged btw) for the new stock parts.
 
#13 ·
Just passed Smog and Inspection

I just passed my CA inspection and smog, comming from NH setup as follows:

02 WRX
STI 2.5 shortblock
Modded stock injectors
WRX heads
APS SR40 turbo
SSauto FMIC
Stock BPV
Subaru SPT Intake
Bosal catless DP
Stock 3rd cat
Bosal twin tip catback
Catch Can
Catless UP
Protune

Time to go get my Cali plates and license :)
 
#14 ·
the tech who passed your car was brain dead,sorry but if you were in my shop i would HAVE to fail you,even though i love the subaru's its not a choice i will lose my liscense that cost me a mint to get and years of hard work,be heavily fined and possible jail time.

the test for AWD is called a TSI,its a 2 speed idle test,30 seconds at 2500 rpm and 30 seconds at idle (has to be under 1100rpm),you have 2 chances
to pass a TSI test,if the first round fails it will run a warm up period then a second test.

there are many vis tests that we do and sevral functional test's,gas cap,obd2 etc.most you would not notice a tech doing as we are robots
and most do 15-25 cars each a day so have to be quick about it.

as the first poster stated please speak with us in advance of a test,unfortunatly we are starting to be required to do whats called a partial pre-inspection so our ability to answer questions is being limited
the partial pre at out shop we charge 15.00 then credit that back on a full test.once we start testing we cannot back out or tell you anything mid test,every thing we do is watched,timed etc.and has to be done in order

i am more than happy to answer questions,shoot the breeze or whatever about the car but if you are not completely honest about what you have done,and i find somthing i still have to fail you its not a personal thing.


uppipes and down pipes must have a CARB EO label,or its a fail,on a OBD2 car (96 and newer) the cat must be obd2 compliant,the sensors must be in thier origional location un modified,or attached to a CARB legal modification.

any CARB approved mods must have a matching EO label,the best place for them is on the part directly viasable ( a intake for instance)or on the hood,some parts have a plate attached to them with the EO (DC sports headers for instance) it must be visable













I just passed my CA inspection and smog, comming from NH setup as follows:

02 WRX
STI 2.5 shortblock
Modded stock injectors
WRX heads
APS SR40 turbo
SSauto FMIC
Stock BPV
Subaru SPT Intake
Bosal catless DP
Stock 3rd cat
Bosal twin tip catback
Catch Can
Catless UP
Protune

Time to go get my Cali plates and license :)
 
#18 ·
what were the numbers that you passed with? i'm curious how much one cat cleans things up.
 
#20 ·
i have a 16g, 550 injectors, turbo back,knn and more. If i put back on my stock exost and a stock air filter box, you think ill pass? I also have a utec do you think it would be smart to tune another map, for lower performance to pass or would that even help?
 
#23 ·
So, i know you've been asked this a hundred times, here is my set up, i heard i would pass, but you seem to be the expert,

05 WRX WAGON:
-carb legal CAI (AEM)
-invidia uppipe
-catted COBB DP
-SKUNK2 CBE (with high flow cat)
-COBB STAGE TWO MAP.



So your saying even two high flow cats will not pass?? Damn, at least i have a year before I need another smog, got mine smoged when i was stock about a year ago when i registered my car. Any help would be much appreciated. And do you recommend flashing back to stage 1/stock map on Cobb AP? I am trying to do my upgrades as simple as possible while keeping the car street legal. If there is no sticker on my DP or CBE and I can find a document stating they are carb legal and bring that to the smog tester will that suffice? Thanks man

Ben
 
#26 ·
In the end it all comes down to your individual smog check technician and how thoroughly he feels like checking over your car that day.
If I were in your place, I would put the stock DP back on and re-flash to stage 1. Find a place that will re-test you for free if you fail. Go take the test, if you fail, take it from there. If you pass, congratulations.
 
#28 ·
If you are a CA resident but not active military or federal then there is a limited time where you can drive without CA plates. Have you considered fixing the CELs instead?
 
#30 ·
C heck E ngine L ight. If you have an emissions fault related to a sensor it will likely trigger a CEL. If it does not, I suspect your car is modified and re-mapped. If this is the case, what may be happening is that specific sensor circuits are reporting "not ready" even though you do not see a CEL on the dash, presumably because you are using some sort of engine management solution.

To remedy "not ready" sensors on a modified car, use mechanical, not electronic solutions for the sensor circuits. This means a resistor mod for the up pipe sensor, for example.
 
#31 ·
thanx little slow on the lingo, my bad....

the cel was on but i changed two o2 sensors and it went off but wen i got a diagnostics done it still showed something on the cars computer wasnt right and was sending negative feedback to it. i have a friend who does tunes and told me he could put the vics map back to stock or go in and manually tell the computer there is nothing wrong with it and that the diagnostics wouldnt be able to detect it.

im not sure if i will do it but i have ben giving it careful consideration...wat do u think

:confused:
 
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