elysianite
New Member
So I called up a Gold Shield station yesterday and spoke to the smog technicians there. He said that he would instantly fail the car for being "tampered with" since it has JDM intake manifold, etc and so to not bring it to him. Asked if I could at least take it there to get the potential issues diagnosed and maybe get a replacement cat if needed. He said no, that he couldn't touch the car without approval from the Ref.
He said that I had gone to the right place, but that they had not done their job. He said that they would have to give the shop approval to work on the car and to essentially give them the okay to put a CRV cat in an Integra.
Soooo... it seems I've found the CA Catch-22:
I need the car cleaned up to get the "okay" from the Referee, but I need the "okay" from the Referee in order to get permission to get the car cleaned up... Wow, what a system we live and drive in.
I propose we chuck this whole system and start new with this:
We smog our cars and forget all the CARB CA-OE crap. There are limits on emissions depending on the vehicle classification and if it tests below, you're cool. Then there are random tests (roadside, if cited, at colleges, work, etc.), if you fail and it's due to you intentionally tampering with stuff (exhaust, cat, intake, etc.) then you get fined and have to go through an approval/Ref process. Bingo!
The way our system works now, hypothetically some genius engineer could manufacture his own non-carb ultra-green exhaust/cat/intake/etc. system that emits WAY below the "legal" version, and he would be penalized for this... what a joke! Freakin' bureaucratic rat's nest.