Will a catless DP pass CA emissions?

I was wondering if anyone had passed CA emissions with a catless DP.

Not going to pass visual without some Benjamins. I was able to talk my way through it with a catted DP, but the circumstances were a little special (car had NY plates). Might pass emissions, but no visual. If a CHP pulls you over and sees no cat its $2500 Good Luck!

you know we have a guy here in colorado that is running e85 with a catless dp and many other mods and passed.

Sorry, but Colorado is not the Smog Nazi State of California. Many of the smog related parts on cars today are only there so the car CAN be sold in CA.

No way. I don't even think it would pass just the sniffer. At least my catless setup is stinky as hell at a standstill. Gotta go back to stock to pass a smog or know someone.

Like I said, I talked my way through the visual. My car was/is full stage 2.5 with AVO TMIC, GFB BOV, Perrin Crank Pulley, Cobb Cated DP, SPT CBE and I PASSED CA Smog. No problems at all with the sniffer, the car was VERY clean. It was the missing upper cat that got the smog techs panties in a bunch.

 

Plus, the Cats used on our DP's are not CA Cats. In CA they are considered "resonators". As of JAN 1 2009 HI Flow cats are illegal in CA. I think you might be able to get away with a ceramic HI Flow, but I am not sure. Last muffler shop that saw my DP would not even bring the car into the bay. Told me to get the F out before they got fined for working on my car.

 

Good luck with the Smog Nazi's.

Do yall fancy a High flow Catted DP would pass NY?

 

Do catless UPs have any affect on Emissions tests anywhere? What is even the point of having a cat in an UP?

The point of the cat in the UP was to clean up the cold start emissions, before the heat of the exhaust could get the other cats up to temp and doing their thing.

 

Many states don't do visuals like Cali does or even do sniffer tests. Most just plug into the OBDI port and check for any codes, no codes and you pass.

^hmm interesting. so, how about running stage II or other various maps. is it necessary to flash back before inspections?

^ NO. They are reading codes. If you have none stored they read nothing. +1 on the up pipe cat. Thats why the 07-09 have the air pump, but no cat. Same purpose (preheat cats).

 

I know a member in Jersey who passed with a catless stage 2.5 set up.

Catless Legacies passing smog outside of CA? I imagine those states must have really high tolerance...

Catless Legacies passing smog outside of CA? I imagine those states must have really high tolerance...

 

It's exactly what goneskiian said. Those states have no visual inspection and as long as there are no codes, you'll pass.

Ahh... I miss New York sometimes.

MA seems to have the same emissions requirements as CA. I know this doesn't mean the inspection process is the same, but I imagine it can be similar. We do an OBD2-read on cars equipped with OBD2... and that's it. Since the LGT is AWD, they cannot put it on the roller-test that they had for a little while here (I think that's gone and done with now - stupid idea anyway).

 

All that being said, my 06 LGT has both the UP and DP replaced with catless ones, and passes inspection. Granted, they don't look very carefully anyway, so they wouldn't know it by looking... but if they did, they could see it was changed. It's really the only reason I carefully trimmed my stock turbo heat shield, so that it would better-cover the DP, making it harder to see

^ Ha, ha. In CA ALL cars except AWD go on a dyno (not just a roller). They check idle and 2nd/3rd gear load with a sniffer. They also plug in a checker to scan for codes. The visual inspection is thorough. They must physically verify that all cats are in place and NO emissions related devices are altered or missing. They check the gas too (for seal and vacuum holding). Not even CAI's are legal unless they have passed CARB testing (at the manufacturers expense)

 

With the AWD's you get the visual, code check, gas cap check, and sniffer at idle (they don't enforce AWD dynos, yet). But trimming a heat shield did nothing for the fact that the upper cat was missing. The guy caught that in about 30 seconds. If its larger than stock and shiny they are all over it. the penalty for falsifying smog checks is EXTREME, so it is harder and harder to find a "good" shop. CA is by FAR the strictest emissions requirements in the nation.

Man I love Nevada, especially the county I live in (Douglas) when it comes to smog checks, because there are none!

 

There are only two counties in Nevada that even do smog checks: Washoe (Reno) and Clark (Vegas) and those are just sniffer tests.

 

Poor Californian's....

With the AWD's you get the visual, code check, gas cap check, and sniffer at idle (they don't enforce AWD dynos, yet). But trimming a heat shield did nothing for the fact that the upper cat was missing. The guy caught that in about 30 seconds. If its larger than stock and shiny they are all over it. the penalty for falsifying smog checks is EXTREME, so it is harder and harder to find a "good" shop. CA is by FAR the strictest emissions requirements in the nation.

 

Now, when you say visual, they look for original pipes, correct? They don't physically unscrew your pipes and look inside, do they? That would be way more than the ~20-30 minute test (given that they're charging $30-40 for them, from what I can see, they can't spend an hour on them)..

 

As in, if it passes the sniffer, my gutted OEM DP (and possibly UP) should pass visual?

CA is by FAR the strictest emissions requirements in the nation.

 

Yeah, they're taking all the fun out of driving.. And to think I used to think CA was cool for cars because of all the "California specials" there used to be..

 

Makes me want to buy a Mustang and throw on a CARB legal Paxton or something :-(

I think they run sniffers on a two wheel dyno here in WA too. For AWD they simply do the code check. I haven't heard of them doing visual inspections here either.

 

Welcome to the Republik of Kalifornia!

Now, when you say visual, they look for original pipes, correct? They don't physically unscrew your pipes and look inside, do they? That would be way more than the ~20-30 minute test (given that they're charging $30-40 for them, from what I can see, they can't spend an hour on them)..

 

As in, if it passes the sniffer, my gutted OEM DP (and possibly UP) should pass visual?

 

If you gutt the OEM pipes you should be fine. They are looking for anything that is not OEM. Intakes, headers, downpipes, uppipes, crosspipes, missing or modified cats, etc. If it looks factory they don't know. But if it looks aftermarket they are usually running scared, at best.

Wow - didn't realize the ACTUALLY did that stuff. MA is supposed to do an inspection, but they usually just look under the car for the cat, and that's it. They don't know any real details, it seems.

 

As for the DP, mine is a matte-black Crucial pipe, so it's not "obvious" that it's aftermarket, unless you know what the stocker looks like. The heatshield just keeps it in the dark, and harder to see... again, in MA, they don't bother to look that carefully anyway. Just plug it in, and go...

Wow - didn't realize the ACTUALLY did that stuff. MA is supposed to do an inspection, but they usually just look under the car for the cat, and that's it. They don't know any real details, it seems.

 

As for the DP, mine is a matte-black Crucial pipe, so it's not "obvious" that it's aftermarket, unless you know what the stocker looks like. The heatshield just keeps it in the dark, and harder to see... again, in MA, they don't bother to look that carefully anyway. Just plug it in, and go...

 

I don't call them the smog Nazi's for nothing. California Air Resources Board (CARB) can suck my left nut!

Imagine you are taking your 05 in just for a pre-sales smog-check ( our '05s are 4 years old so that is required before you sell privately) - what actually happens if you fail a visual in CA? Does the guy just send you away, or are you now in the system as an 'offender' and do you have to bring it back until you pass? Obviously the smart thing to do is to part it out back to stock before selling but just wondering....

If you fail a visual they give you the opportunity to correct it. Not in the "system" yet. They should also retest you for free once the visual has been corrected. Iv'e been turned away before for CAI's, put the OEM box back on and retested (no charge) and no issues. But... the visual failure might get reported to CarFax as the car "fails" its smog check. This was noted on the car that I had fail visual for the CAI. The CarFax showed a failed smog check and I had to explain it to the buyer.

Thanks for the info. I really wonder if the guy I go to would even bother with a real visual ( and see my crucial DP) Last time I took my 97 F150 down there the gas cap failed the "suck test". So he said "no problem" and just put his mouth over the tube and it passed !