[e90pilot]

This must be too good to be true:
http://www.smogtips.com/new-smog-law-AB-2289.cfm

[hurricane56]

Interesting how it took CA that long to implement the ODBII emissions test since the CARB regulatory agency is usually at the forefront of implementing new standards.

Regarding catless headers, I heard that running them with o2 simulators may suppress any codes and CEL indicators, but will usually report back to the ODBII emissions readiness monitors as "not ready". Most states will allow your vehicle to pass with one readiness monitor not ready, but we should all double-check before cutting our cats of the headers.

[e90pilot]

The correct way to do it is to have a tuning company edit the software to report all systems ready. The E39 had a common problem with the secondary air pump getting jammed with carbon. It's several thousand to fix or you could get a flash that would disable the system and report it as ready. Euro versions of the car were not equipped with the system.

[mike-y]

They will still require the visual inspection though, so no cats = no pass

[AoS810]

so I've never had a smog check performed.. but do they raise the car up to check the cats? like lets say.. what would happen with the popular combo of P.E. + 2nd Cat delete?

[jc5988]

Originally Posted by AoS810

so I've never had a smog check performed.. but do they raise the car up to check the cats? like lets say.. what would happen with the popular combo of P.E. + 2nd Cat delete?

last time i went, guy had a mirror w extention to check underneth the car....

[AoS810]

Originally Posted by jc5988

last time i went, guy had a mirror w extention to check underneth the car....

thats quite unfortunate.. but thanks for the heads up!

[jfisher160]

No they don't raise your up. The place I got they just put the tester in the tailpipe. If you pass there is no problems. I have never had anyone look under the car or in the engine bay. Our cars have plastic on the bottom so a mirror is not going to do much.

[kiwi29]

If this is true, I'm going to either hollow my cats or get flex pipes in place of the cats :3 please be trueeee!

[mike-y]

It depends on the dyno shop. I've almost always had the techs look for the oxygen sensor and cats on my cars. The bottom of the E90/92 had plastic, but not over the exhaust tunnel, otherwise it would melt.

however, I've also had internal work on my cars (cams, throttle body, head work, etc), that you can't see, so they still ran the car on the dyno and smogged it.


YMMV of course.

[Dracon]

We use the OBDII emission check system in TN, at least in Nashville.

They use a mirror to check for the presence of a cat, if not found, it's an instant fail. Otherwise they hook up the computer to the OBDII port and do the readiness checks. If you fail any of the checks, you fail.

I think in TN vehicles up to 2000 can have two readiness checks in "Not ready" and still pass, past 2000 only one check can be "Not ready". Not ready is what is set when you clear all trouble codes on a car.

What is nice is that if you do fail, your registration is automatically extended by 30 days to give you time to fix the problem. You just have to keep your current registration and the paperwork from the testing facility together in case you are stopped.

[Coding@DetailAddict]

You still won't pass with any auto-clearing enabled since they still will scan OBD and if you reset the light you won't have Catalytic Readiness status.

[spacemonkey1112]

sooo.. no to gavin's headers in CA? hahaha damn

[TroyDeJ]

i live in NY but when i make my custom headers im putting fake cats on them and runnig O2 sims so theres no code. it should pass both inspections with that setup