ks0385 said:
I dont get it. Is it that hard to get some mechanic to get u a sticker?
I know in Boston, you can go to pretty much anyone and have em pass you just like that, cat converter or not.
It is possible, but here's a little insight into how it works:
Many states use simply a visual inspection of the car, that can be performed by a lot of shops. In California, the DMV couldn't give two squirts of piss on the amount of thread on your tires or wether your headlights are properly aimed (that's PD's job).
Out here every two years you have to take the car to a TEST-ONLY station, where a specially licensed smog tech performs a visual and emission test of the car. And they check EVERYTHING. If your ignition timing is off, you fail. You have Toulene mixed with piss-water gas in your tank, you fail. You have aftermarket parts that don't have a CARB (Cali Air Resources Board) number, or have a CARB number is for a different application (like say an intake for a KA24DE on a KA24E), you fail.
If your emissions are beyond a certain level, your car is labeled a gross polluter, this is VERY bad. You have to get your car repaired, then certified by a TEST-ONLY or Gold certified facilitiy.
You
can get a "hook-up" smog, but it is very underground, expensive, and if the tech that does this gets caught, the first time he/she is fined $10,000 dollars.
And the state sends cars with hidden cameras and data gathering devices that will knowingly fail to shops, if the tech passes it, the tech gets busted. California means business when it comes to this shit.
I'd love to and could afford to do a bitchin SR swap with all the goodies, but I don't need the aggrivation every two years. Every once in a while I see a car with a swap for sale hella cheap because the kid that did the swap can't get it smogged.
Oh and a couple things I forgot:
During the test, once it starts, the tech can't stop it. And the info is piped directly to Sacramento as the car is tested, so there's no photoshopping or forging the results and taking them into the DMV.