Here is a thread for CAR & SMOG related issues be it specifications or legal jargon.

I am currently assuming this would be of interest to california, however anything is welcome.

 

 

 

Originally posted by Wicked4u2c
Your telling me, I live IN Cali and have been pulled over for NO CATS... I already go fined so in reality having a non carb turbo kit can be problematic in the long run... which is another reason why I am waiting because I hate dealing with all the BS. Its not cool getting pulled over and having your sent over to the referree station.
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What happened financially/physically when you were "caught" with this configuration?

 

Ok, I will tell you my whole story so bare with me its a little long... BTW this happened in my last car which I will post pics at the bottom.

I was driving home and was about 1 mile away from getting home. I see this officer pull in front of me, I didn't really pay to much attention as he was a good 5 cars in front of me and I was behind him. I than see him move to the left hand lane and completely stop! As I saw him do this and seeing that their was no cars around us I knew that he was going to pull me over. So what I did was begin to slow down to maybe somehow avoid him getting behind me but I can only drive so slow without making it too obvious. I pass him by and as soon as I did he get right behind me and throws on the lights. Now my Honda Civic SI was very clean and simple, but drew lots of attention because of the large intercooler in the front and and of course the other racing stuff (seats, exhaust, etc...) so I guess you could say it was a bit eye candy. So anyhow I get pulled over and the first thing the cop say's (typical line) "Do you know why I pulled you over?" And I replied no officer... He than pointed at my front windshield banner (had my company business on there) and said it was illegal. I than commented and told him that I was under the impression that you can have a windshield banner but it had to be within 7 inches from the top of the windshield he than said "nope". So I said "********!" Than I told him I had a SALEEN mustang before and it came factory with a SALEEN Banner, so your telling me that was illegal? He than replied "Yup!" I than told him, your telling me they are selling illegal cars than? He said "Yup!" I said that's a bunch of ********! anyhow seeing that I got angry which in this case I should of just shut my mouth before things got worse... He than looked under my car (the car was still on) and asked me... "Why are your cats welded? (I had a muffler shop do some test pipes but weld the shells so that it looks like they are OE because the pipes I had were 3" so I couldn't just gut the oem ones) After he asked me I said because I hit a pot hole and the shell started vibrating so I took it to the muffler shop and they told me that the shield was coming off and they needed to weld it. He replied "Im not buying it, pop your hood"

GREAT!! I said in my head..

I popped my hood and he said that my intake is illegal. I began to laugh... Literally! I said that's not an INTAKE, thats a turbocharger, see it go down into the intercooler and how it mates with the turbo.. He replied "Oh... Well, that is illegal" And I said, NO SORRY!!! See that CARB # from Greddy ( I had a sticker on my radiator support) I told him CARB Legal! "He said ok... well than that's illegal (pointed to my polished fuel rail) I said what?!! That's just a polished fuel rail that doesn't do anything (had to play the stupid role of course) its just polished for aesthetics nothing else.. He said "Still your tampering with emissions" All this pointing and ********ing and I laugh because he said NOTHING about my cam gears which were so obvious because they were spinning on the side. Anyhow he got this piece of paper that has this california emissions thing (i'll see if I can scan it and post pics) than said you have to go to the referee station and gave me the ticket which clearly stated on the ticket that NO OFFICER can sign it off and only way to clear it was through REFERRE station.

Anyhow I was pissed!!

So I go get my stock cats put on put try and put everything back to normal that I think will be of conflict to the emissions test.

TEST DAY COMES

I arrive nervous as hell, they finally put my car on the dyno to test it and if FAILS!!! And I will quote the guy what he said... "THIS THING IS WORSE THAN A 64 MUSTANG!! Your car is a GROSS POLLUTER, it is off the charts! To this day I don't know how this is even possible, I literally put everything BACK TO STOCK but not the turbo WHICH WAS CARB LEGAL so it should of passed with flying colors (according to GREDDY). So I than contacted Greddy and asked WTF is going on... My car is bacically stock with your turbo kit which is carb legal and it fails BY A LONG SHOT! Kenji (from Greddy) sends me a new blue box (basically a pretuned engine management system) and tells me to try that one.. I guess they might of made it more lean?

So now this goes on the DMV that I failed and my ticket is almost up... I need to get this resolved ASAP So I go to court and ask the judge what I can do to dismiss this... He said I had to pay a fine of $800.00 and he will basicall sign it off... I paid the $800.00 fine had the ticket signed off and in my title or record of the car (if you carfax it) it shows it was a gross polluter... All In all it was a BIG WASTE OF TIME! with me putting stuff back to stock wasting time from work etc... It ended up costing me over 2k in just BS stuff... Now im the type of person that likes to modify my car A LOT!! so its like a chain reaction if I have one thing illegal than im dead because everything in my car is illegal... LESSON LEARNED!! If its not CARB LEGAL DONT BUY IT!!!

That's why I haven't got a turbo kit yet, I bought the GReddy kit and my friend (WLD350z) ended up buying it from me I know they are working on a CARB thing right now so we just have to wait and see...

Id rather play it safe because im the type of person that rolls without a front license plate, has a semi loud exhaust so when you just keep adding fuel to the fire your going to get burned!

So the turbonetics kit looks sweet and I can tell you right now if it was CARB LEGAL they would have my money in a HEART BEAT. Because its like a snowball effect once you get caught everything else in your car is ILLEGAL and you get SCREWED! I ended up trading my car and getting my 350z because the CIVIC would just not pass smog with the turbo...

 

whew... i'm glad i live in one of those gross-poluter states w/ no emissions test

 

Yep no cats in Cali means a fine of a few k. Funny thing is, this state is super-car crazy.

 

I don't quite understand.....your Greddy kit WAS C.A.R.B. legal, yet you still had issues. How can that teach you about whether 2 buy C.A.R.B. legal or not....If anything, your lesson learned was not to buy CARB-legal, because you will still get screwed...

just my $.02

 

That is not what he said.

Yes the Greddy was carb, however other items on his car weren't, and the Cop was a *****, this is what screwed him.

He had to go down to the referee station, Vs. a standard station where he may have gotten away with it.

Also there were other issues they contributed to his not passing smog, the main thing was the cop was a *****.

Although he returned most of his car to stock, the odds are it did not get returned fully to stock, and who knows the condition of his engine, cylinders, valves, pistons, etc..etc.. Under test conditions after whatever he did with his car.

CARB does not guarantee you will pass smog under any/all conditions.

 

So this cost $800.00? Is there something continuing after you get flagged as a gross polluter?

About when did this happen?

thanks,

 

Thanks for clarifying.

I agree that the cop was a ***** and it is probable that nothing done at the scene would have made any difference.

It seems counter-intuitive that CARB exemption wouldn't guarantee passing emissions as qualifying for exemption mandates no increase in emissions.

I'm not saying that a CARB-legal mod on a poorly-tuned car should automatically pass the car, but it shouldn't add to your strife either!

I hate the smog ***** as much as anyone....they are threating to suspend my license and registration for a missed smog check for a car THAT WAS STOLEN IN FEB.

 

Yeah, although I got the ticket signed off my car was still registered as GROSS POLLUTER meaning I COULD NOT DRIVE IT until it passed smog (from REFEREE STATION) getting the ticket signed off just got me partially off the hook. At this point if I was found again driving my car on the road my car would get impounded, (this is where it got deep) so I couldn't take the BS anymore and I took EVERYTHING apart put it back to stock and sold all the parts... I tried selling it "stock" as a private seller and had no luck, than I heard rumors that the 350z was coming and fell in love when I saw everything about it, so instead of me trying to make my car pass smog and spending more money I traded the car in and let the dealership take care of that mess. And I was one of the first people to own a 350z which I was happy I did. And this happend about 2 1/2 to 3 years ago... Once you get tagged that's it. Its like you been in jail and you just get discouraged and dont care about modifying your car anymore because of all the BS you have to deal with the PIGS. So im proud to say most of my parts in my car are CARB LEGAL, and it they are not like exhaust isnt it is something that I can easily remove and put back (which i kept my oem exhaust) I learned DONT SELL OEM PARTS! Especially engine related.

 

thanks for the info, it's very interesting and equally unfortunate.

 

Here you go boys... Enjoy!

This is the little paper you get when you get pulled over and sent to a referee center (california) of course.

I will post pics of my SMOG check later, so you can see what they say and my crazy numbers!

 

Another great reason to stay as far away from California as possible. As if the Gross Ignorance isn't enough.

 

I partially agree with you, but nothing beats the weather of Southern Cali... We def have the best weather in the planet! At least for me, I live 1 hour away from the mountains and 30min away from the Beach! Well, worth living here IMO. Their is always ways around smogs like buying property in AZ where its cheap and registering your car over there... Trust me, im already looking into that in the future

 

lmao you were snitching yourself out the whole time, this is why you always be respectful of a cop and just stfu when he tells you the banner is illegal most likely woulda let you go, lesson learned then no?

 

17 years late to the party

 

and this is why i love bringing up old threads