Vinnie T

I've seen a lot of modified motors at local shows and around town with parts that obviously are aftermarket and not CARB certified. I know most of these cars are daily or weekend drivers of some sort. I've always wondered how you get these past smog checks?

Took my car in for a smog check yesterday and was curious to see what was said about the E2 oil catch can or even if they would notice. It's the only thing not stock on the car as far as motor and exhaust. They did, and it failed the visual which included about a 7 minute complete analysis of the engine bay and the exhaust system. It was only a 10 minute job to temporarily swap the catch can out and it passed no problem on the re-check. Had to laugh that it passed with a slightly higher emissions number in 1 of the categories without the catch can on. I would say that could be just a differnce in machines, but it was the same machine about an hour later.

Exotica

Ahhh....the $64K question

This is something that not too many people will post publicly - for obvious reasons. You are better off talking to some of the people you know or meet at the local shows or get togethers.

Vinnie T

Understood, since it's obvious that these places are very careful about "looking the other way" since their licenses are in jeopardy. I assume BAR must send in bogey's every once in a while to see if they are given a pass. What I also observed was my car drew the most experienced tech to do the test. It wasn't given to the young guy who ended up testing the Hyundai in the next bay. Definitely a more thorough visual test than that Hyundai got or my wife's Tacoma got last year.

Exotica

Yeah, I don't know too many people that are modifying Hyundai's to the point they would fail a SMOG test!

c5autoxracer

There licence, there freedom, there business yeah its a big big deal jail time fines the whole thing if they get caught.

trackboss

Personally, I no longer wanted to deal with the hassles so I replaced my long tubes with CARB certified shorties. I wish there was a better option because headers are a simple bolt on and great bang for the buck(probably even cleaner emissions), but until we remove all the beaurocrats in sacramento that steal our tax dollars to make a living we will have to deal with such non-sense.

hungryhippo

swap parts and retune. i still have 3 years though.

oldalaskaman

register it in a non smog state....and live there also...lots less b.s

c5autoxracer

Not just a smog free state a state where your right to bare arms is not infringed upon!

oldalaskaman

amen, I usta carry two guns, one for me and one for that a-h@@le who tried to shoot me first

tlove32

Dealing with smog is the reason I'll be pulling my LT headers and going to carb legal short tubes - even though my car passes the sniffer cleaner than a stock corvette (the tech was amazed it was so clean out the tailpipe).

CARB is not about clean air.....it's about $$

bullet900

I live in Lake County, Cleanest air in the state. We have no smog checks, just transfer of ownership you have to have a smog check.

Z06supercharged

You can just register at a house in a non smog area of a county. The owner of the house you pick doesn't even have to know because you can have the dmv paperwork/renewal mail sent to a different address. I know a guy that didnt even know who lived where his car was registered. He drove up to North shore Tahoe found a cabin with a attached garage and used it. All his renewals came to his other address and cabin owner never knew his address was being used. Most out of the way cabins up at Tahoe for instance dont have mail delivery so another address is common for all mail.

It isnt a problem with cops if they ask whats up with 2 different addresses as you just tell them the car is garaged up there at your vacation home because your garage is full here in bay area but you bring it down to bay area sometimes so your drivers license can still have other address on it. Your DL address and car registration address do not have to match but DL must be your main residence if they ask.

And if you dont wanna do that you can go to the underground. There is a vast underground of smog techs that will not do a visual, and next year when no more sniffer test on 2000 and newer vehicles it will be even easier to cheat.

LS9Drew

Man I hope theres no more sniffer test that'd be awesome even tho you can pass the sniffer perfectly fine with longtubes and all the other bolt ons as long as you have cats

Z06supercharged

Starting Jan 2013 there is no more sniffer testing for 2000 and newer vehicles.

doje

That's correct. Unfortunately there will still be a visual check which is where most people here have issues.

They should abolish everything BUT the tailpipe test. All that should matter is how clean the car runs.

Z06supercharged

Problem with only a sniffer test, when a car is fully warmed up it pollutes much less than when warming up after a cold or semi cold start and this is what needs to be checked and they cant. Sniffer tests really are a lousy way to smog a car. The computer data tells much more by far.

In 2013 they will be checking sums for various data from current vs past information collected either by dealer or smog checks. If the check sums dont fall within a match range then you fail for further checking whats going on. This is where if you have changed you're tune after last smog check or dealer data gathering when warranty work was preformed the checksums will not match and you fail.
In short this is how it works:

At the smog test, they connect to your PCM via the OBD2 port and read these things (using Mode $09):
- CAL ID for each segment,
- CVN for each segment,
- VIN of your vehicle,

they then use the VIN to look up a database containing valid CAL ID and CVN values for your VIN (this is already in place for 2005+ cars);

the CVN's are like checksums; when tuning software writes to the PCM, the tuning software calculates what the CVN should be for each segment and writes it to the PCM; when you turn on the key, the PCM performs the same CVN calculation and expects to arrive at the same values;

if you have significant engine mods, you would have had your PCM tuned, which means the CVN for the engine segment now differs from original...

if you deleted codes, then the engine diagnostic segment CVN differs...

if you had your auto trans tuned, then the trans segment CVN differs...

if you changed your ring/pinion ratio, then your speedo segment CVN differs...

if you changed your fan on/off temperatures, then your system segment CVN differs...

[ if GM reflashed your PCM for some reason or other, CARB will know about it (since the PCM is an emissions device), and the new CAL ID and CVN will end up in the database ]

if your car is a 2005+ they will definitely see the differences in CVN values, and they will fail you;

if your car is 2000-2005 they may still be able to pick up on these differences, even tho they didn't legislate for a database for cars prior to 2005; that doesn't mean they don't have a means of looking up and checking (they have had the ability to store the CAL ID and CVN values from all your previous smog tests, and they have the computing ability to detect differences, they just can't necessarily compare them to the OEM values);

I'm glad I dont have to worry about this bulls***

ducpor

I've always wondered, do the average Tech guys at SMOG check locations see enough C6/C6Z06 to know the difference between stock and aftermarket headers?

Same for OP's catch can, if it was all black and not a bright color, how do they know it isn't factory?

LS9Drew

Well I have a question, will they be able to tell if you flashed it back for the test?
Like say you have a Cam, LTs, Etc the whole deal but flash your ECU back to stock for the test since there is no sniffer no need to worry have them scan it and it shows up no current tune your fine? That actually seems alot easier to pass than the current testing in place if my example is correct

Z06supercharged

Dont know yet on that for sure but I am betting yes they will know just like GM knows if you have tune change back to stock for warranty work.