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CA advisory: Hogzawst fails CA smog


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You can read about our beloved Hogzawst. I have been running 'stage 2':lol: for over 4 years now on our LGT wagon.

 

Took it in to get smogged and the shop could not get a legit sniffer reading at idle, did ok at the 2700 rpm test, however.

 

So, word of advise to CA folks: spend the 15 minutes undoing it before taking it in. I ended up donating 60$ to the smog thugs because of my 'failed' test.

 

The car sounded pretty toothless to and from the shop, but now that I have a 2011 WRX, I am going to let the wife decide if she wants the sound.

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Sorry. It is the truth. Because the inspections are automatically/instantaneously uploaded to DMV's computers it becomes part of the cars DMV history. CarFax reads DMV history's and includes them in the report. So, CarFax will now show that the car failed a state inspection. Will not say why, just that it did.

 

I had an unscrupulous smog shop F with my wife once. I was lazy and told her to just stop by anywhere when she had time and get a smog, her car was legal and would pass. Because the AEM intake CARB sticker had fallen off, the smog tech refused to passs the car (clean otherwise) and failed it for visual. I returned with the AEM paperwork showing CARB compliance and they re-tested the car and passed it. After trying to sell my wife a new OEM intake among other things (even though the computer showed that the intake was legal and all they had to do was check, they failed it to try and scam some work). When I sold the car, first thing the buyer asked... why does the CarFax show that the car failed a state inspection? Had to explain the intake/smog ordeal.

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Hmmm, good heads up.

 

Back in December I switched out my headlights right before getting my inspection done (one bulb out). Had to yank the battery.

 

They told me the car wouldn't test for emissions because the computer said it had just been reset. They may have hooked it up and failed me, not sure.

 

Now I'll look out for that on the record....

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I'll admit I'm not familiar with CA testing, but why does a post-cat exhaust leak fail for smog? AFAIK, mufflers don't actually do any cleaning to the exhaust. I know the noise is higher, but if you're just talking pollution, is it actually any different if the exhaust comes from before or after the muffler?
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Regulations. Noise and its the law. Post cat exhaust leaks will fail a smog inspection. If for no other reason than the visual inspection. Shops are responsible for the cars they pass. If a shop passes a car and it gets pulled over and checked, the shop can lose their license to operate if the car is not what it shows on the inspection report. Fines start at $25k for shops. I know 3 shops personally that went under due to fines.
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Also had the Subaru smogged for the first time this week. Very interesting experience.

 

We'd been racing it the prior weekend and disconnecting the battery, etc. Like the previous poster said, the first thing we got tripped up on was the OBD-II being "NOT READY". I've got a cheap ACTRON code reader and it turns out that it shows these monitors. After doing a drive cycle it cleared all but one EVAP monitor.

 

I also learned that if you have 1-2 monitors "NOT READY" and your car is pre-2000, they'll test it anyway. Since they need to Dyno to test the Nox you get a free-pass on that part because they won't dyno AWD.

 

We passed, (thankfully). Not that I'm worried about a carfax, but it's definitely interesting to navigate the process. Smogging every two years is a royal pain, but until NorCal gets less crowded I don't think I want the alternative. Just requiring CELs to be fixed probably keeps some of the unsafe heaps off the road not to mention the 1% of cars creating 99% of the pollution.

 

http://www.facebook.com/goodluckracing

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