When I first started in the business, I worked at a chain shop that did smogs. One of the shops had a deal with some car lots. The car lots would send a list and they would clean-pipe 30 cars at a time with about 2 minutes between tests. I don't know how they didn't get caught. All this was before OBD-II though.
In the early 90's We had a fake dealer license. We had a guy (registered sex offender as it turned out) that we knew was doing that. We went in and told him we were looking for a shop to do our smogs. We brought him a few clean cars. We never asked him to do any thing illegal. After car number three he told us "look just give me the year make model, License number and vin and for 50 bucks each I'll give you a cert". We brought him a list of 17 cars we had in a warehouse and picked up 17 smog certs later that day. Both he and his smog tech were arrested on TV. The tech was able to plea to a misdemeanor because he had no criminal record. The owner was still on probation for unlawful sex with a 15 year old (He was 48). He had to plea to the felony and did 260 days. Bottom line is that the ultimate buyers of these used pieces of shit were the one who got ripped off by the crooked smog shops and dealers.
On a marginal tailpipe failure you can run it at idle and induce a huge vacuum leak. This will cause the car to go full rich. Then you grab ahold of the throttle and as you put the vacuum booster hose back on you quickly snap the throttle. This will flood the converter with raw gas, superheat it and clean out the substrate. Basically the same as doing a diesel regen. I have seen this work. I might have even done it on my brother's 1995 BMW M5.
I have heard they are cracking down on the OBD 2 plug ins. Cars are being tuned to remove the codes to pass the plug in and techs look the other way for the visual. Headers, no cats etc. I know a few who have done this and each of them upon their reg/smog renewals were flagged to go to a Referee station after years of passing.
I do remember one day you guys ran a 4 Runner in with a straight piped cat. It was hidden by a heat shield but we found it. Then we called all the other shops in the chain and told them. Wouldn't you know, a few got the same one in
. I was never scared to get on the ground and do the proper inspection.
I mean.....the smog tech can say no
I think Massachusetts has cameras in the inspection stations
x10000 lol
could you imagine if CA did actual annual inspections for tires, suspension, electrical, mechanical, etc? half the cars wouldnt even be on the road.
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you’re right , if the state did that , it would be considered racist
When it’s free and adds 8HP.. who cares.
People put them on 100 HP Hondas for a decade
Needles !
Whatcha working on? What's the issue with it? Lot of sharp techs here that might be able to solve the actual issue.
Sold the Bummer? Someone is saving for a SXS.....
You need a mechanic, not a smog certificate.That's not what this is. I'm just a regular dad trying not to get bent over by the dealer for technical bullshit on my daughter's daily driver. For once in my life, I'm saying fucc it; tired of getting shafted for playing by the rules.
Sans the coke stuff...
You forgot the monster tach with a shift light and boost gauge with no boost.
Sold the Bummer? Someone is saving for a SXS.....
If there is a smog station within 50 miles , NO
My other address is in NM and I wont be there till the fall.
It's a leak in the EVAP system. It's not super hard to diagnose, but depending on the leak, can be time consuming. We had a smoke deal where you would charge the system with "smoke" and just look for it. We also had a super sensitive microphone that you would listen for the leak. I've been out of the business for 17 years, but I don't think this is something the dealer can't clear. BUT, it's one of the 'flags' that needs to set before it can pass an emissions test. That means that the system has to pass a drive cycle. I've seen it be something as simple as an old gas cap. Hell, the locking gas caps always seemed to cause issues. With it being an engine swap, could be a misrouted vacuum line, a missing or faulty solenoid/connector or any other number of random things. If I were at a dealer still, I'd quote an hour to start with the caveat that more time might be needed. At $100 an hour or whatever the rate is today, that would seem expensive if I were a customer and the car was running just fine, so I get your frustration. Maybe someone can point you toward an honest well equipped shop.
