More CAlifornia Smog Drama

[TheSubaruJunkie]

There's a reason I buy a different Subaru when my current subaru's tags expire.

 

The RX is due (actually overdue as of 05/02/05) for its smog test, and in order to get new tags it needs to pass some of the strictest california emissions test to date (thanks Grey Davis).

 

Since I got the car from Russ, and hes a cert. smog tech, i didnt worry about taking the RX in today. I took it to a reputable shop not far from where I work. I took the car there and dropped it off with no worries. Ive talked to the shop owner before and got quotes... so I had no worries when i left with no RX. Me and my roomate piled into his car and went to run some errands.

 

When I get the call that my car is ready, the 1st thing the shop owner sais is... "How much do you like this car?"

 

Of course, by reflex, my reply was "I love that car more than life its self... why?"

 

I had no idea if he wanted to buy it, or was preparing me to tell me it was a wreck. He replied with "well, are you sitting down?"

 

Anyhow, to make a long story short, he tells me the Serial number on the engine doesnt match the VIN, and the title is salvaged from Oakland.

 

"Duh" is what I replied. I didnt feel like talking about all this over my cell phone, so I told him i'd be there in 15min and asked him to wait for me.

 

When i got there, i was greated by him and the mechanic (who actually performed the test). The shop owner kept repeating "red flags" and such... after he entered the VIN in the computer. I told him to explain these red flags and lifted my hood for him. He said the red flag was that the VIN didnt match the serial # of the engine. I asked where he located the serial number and his mechanic pointed out a sticker on the bellhousing, between the tranny and the block. I felt like an idiot because it was apparent, but I still didnt understand what that had to do with smog.

 

So after that his mechanic points to my intercooler. The shop owner asks "isnt that where the spare tire goes? Does that look like a spare tire to you?"

 

So after a short debate, the mechanic stormed off... but I wasnt finished with him so I followed him into the shop and continued to question him. After a long discussion I found out that with the salvaged title and non-matching serial for the EA82... if he were to run the test it would send a "red flag" to the A.R.B or something. Which is who regulates smog shops for california... or something powerful (hopefully russ can fill in). I asked the mechanic if he ever got to the sniffer and he told me no... that he aborted the test as soon as numbers didnt match up. I promptly thanked him, and told him how much I apreciated that. Not only did it not send a red flag, but it also didnt charge me a thing.

 

After I got back to the shop owner I agreed to remove the intercooler and prepare the engine to stock. The mechanic agree'd to smog it and if it passes its all green. No red tape or anything.

 

I'll update as time passes.

 

-Brian

[subieman]

Why does it even matter if the engine or transmissions or vin number match up? Who cares! As long as it passes smog that all that matters. California seems to be getting more and more crazy through the years. Sorry dude!

[SuBrat84]

Yeah isn't it like... "I swapped the motor" so what the #'s dont match up. BAH! It's not like the car is stolen.

[TheSubaruJunkie]

In CA if you swap the engine in your car you need to make sure the engine you put in is as follows:

1) available for your specific model in the same year

2) from another CA emissions vehicle

3) not altered in anyway, shape or form.

 

Since I had a Saab 900 Intercooler that wasnt bar aproved on an engine that isnt verified as a correct replacement, the shop decided to stop the test instead of taking the car to a refferee to have it examined.

 

Since the RX has any ole EA82T it wont be difficult to prove it is the correct engine. And when I remove the intercooler it will look like it. It will even say SUBARU TURBO on the top of the intake so they do not forget

 

-Brian

[erik litchy]

what a hassle. glad im not in CA

[rallyruss]

he needs to go back to school.

 

in his blue book of smog info that he is required to know and have on hand it clearly states that intercoolers are exempt.

 

my wagon passed with an intercooler.

also the engine numbers do not have to match as long as it is the same type of motor as the car originally came with.

 

the smog test/machine never actualy prompts the tech to check engine numbers. he must think that due to the intercooler then you must have a engine swap. obviously he is mistaken. I smoged that car fine as well as my cousin when he sold it to you. those two techs had no issue with the motor.

 

Brian I will try to get more info for you. the tech in question just got paranoid and fliped out. as long as he did not run it you will be ok.

did you go to a test only or test and repair shop?

[Jibs]

Yeah, I think you need to move up here Brian up into Storey County. Absolutely NO smogging whatsoever. And lots of dirt roads and stuff to play on. Sorry to hear about your troubles, just take the intercooler off and get it to pass and then put it back on.

[Hank Roberts]

The reason this is getting worse, is that it's getting worse. As of five or six years ago, smog from China was reaching the Pacific Coast states in increasing amounts. Last I heard it figured, as China industrializes (burning a lot of coal, and with a third of the country getting a lot of acid rain) the increase in aerosols crossing the Pacific is going to about equal the best possible reduction in locally produced pollution in Alaska down to Mexico.

 

We can hope China cleans up their act.

 

Here's one of the episodes from a few years ago:

 

http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2001/ast17may_1.htm

 

QUOTE:

air pollution comes across the Pacific from Asia -- at least in the spring -- punctuated by a surge of pollutants once or twice a month.... presumably due to the wholesale movement of air from Asian urban areas across the Pacific. This prevents the pollutants from being diluted by mixing with cleaner air. During these surges, the air entering the West Coast can have pollution concentrations as high as 75 percent of federal air quality standards

END QUOTE

 

-- there are more recent examples, I was too lazy to search for them. But basically, this is why we're smogging California vehicles -- kids growing up here deserve at least no worse risk than we older folks had, and the best we can hope to do will about break even as the air coming off the Pacific Ocean gets dirtier and dirtier.

[Qman]

I think you need to contact CCR and find out if any shops in your area are Subaru friendly. Ideally, you want someone who actually knows something about your car to work on it. This shop obviously does not. You can access the regs via the internet as well. Maybe brush up on what is allowed and what is not. There are way too many prepared cars in Cali to not allow mods to your car.

[TheSubaruJunkie]

I think this shop just got alittle scared. The car is still registered in Oakland where i bought it, and I told them the test was for purchase of the car (for DMV purposes).

 

The shop was a smog & repair shop, however I trust these guys to a certain degree and even tho they dont know much about Subarus, they do know their stuff. I doubt they were after my walet like some other shops Ive visited.

 

Russ.... if you have any paperwork from when you registered it as a legit vehicle after it was salvaged, thatd be all i'd need. If the guy has internet access I could prove to him in 2min that is the stock engine

 

Ken, there are a few subaru only shops outside of the city. One guy up the hill from me is very reputable to the legacy crowd. Maybe I will take a visit to him and see if he does smogs.

 

-Brian

[chef_tim]

Hey Brian, if it gets to be to much of a hassle I could make some room at the "suba-ranch" where we got lots of wide open spaces and we ain't got no stinking Smog Nazis.....LOL Tim

[rallyruss]

Russ.... if you have any paperwork from when you registered it as a legit vehicle after it was salvaged, thatd be all i'd need. If the guy has internet access I could prove to him in 2min that is the stock engine

 

 

-Brian

 

Brian I did have the paperwork but it had to be turned in to the DMV to register it. DMV inspected the car and I had a brake/lamp inspection along with a smog.

trust me you need to jump hoops and get inspections to make a salvaged title car legal. it cost me well over 300 dollars in fees ect.

 

the reason why I asked if its a test only or test and repair is because a test and repair does not make its proffit off the smog checks as much as it does off the repairs it gets to make cars pass.

I realize you may trust thiese guys but they are stretching the definition of the smog laws. and in a manner as to help themselvs not you.

how many cars of that age have the original motor in them? its not a smog issue to install a rebuilt motor of the same type in a car.

as for the intercooler mabey the newest edition of the ruels and regs states somthing different than what all the previous books. I dont have my new one yet.

go to a test only shop next time. they do not make money from selling you repairs because they are not alowed to.

[WoodsWagon]

I personnaly believe that the only smog test should be a snifter up the tailpipe. As long as the emmisions are within factory limits or below, it should pass, no questions asked. All that really matters is that the car pollutes the least, so what it has under the hood should have no bearing on the tests. Mabe a check on the EVAP and PCV systems might also be needed, but nothin else.

[TheSubaruJunkie]

Im just going to revert the car to stock again and get it smogged. I need one more silicone elbow anyways.

 

-Brian

[Jack in Norfolk]

This sounds like a nightmare. Although I am embarrased that VA spends the least of any state on environmental funding, at least we don't have to deal with that garbage.

[Hank Roberts]

This sounds like a nightmare. Although I am embarrased that VA spends the least of any state on environmental funding, at least we don't have to deal with that garbage.

 

I grew up in N.C. and Virginia, in the '50s and early '60s -- back when gasoline was around $0.32/gallon, and a "nickel Coke" had just gone up to six cents in the machines at the gas stations.

 

What a blessing; no mountains to hold an inversion layer most of the time, like the Pacific Coast cities have, and the big coal burning plants up north sending their plumes northeast, not southeast as long as the prevailing winds held.

 

I remember 1964 or 1965 -- the summer week that the first big smog persisted, all down the Atlantic coast, but didn't cross over the Blue Ridge mountains into the Shenandoah Valley (which, back then, didn't yet have Interstate highways, so didn't then collect a layer of diesel truck smog of its own).

 

People around Roanoke were driving up to the Blue Ridge Parkway overlooks, to look east, to see and take pictures of the brown cloud below them hiding everything north and east. Some drove downhill halfway down toward Lynchburg, to smell it.

 

It was awesome, at the time.

[A DOG]

Up here in Montana theres no smog regulations at all! You can crap up the atmosphere all you want here.MUHHAAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH:lol:

[Sweet82]

In CA if you swap the engine in your car you need to make sure the engine you put in is as follows:

1) available for your specific model in the same year

2) from another CA emissions vehicle

3) not altered in anyway, shape or form.

-Brian

 

We have similar laws here but you also can't put a larger motor in the vehicle than it had originally. My Trooper had a 4 and a 6 available when it was made but according to Utah law, I'd get hung up if I put a 6 in my Trooper that came with the 4

 

Grumble, Grumble

Glenn

82 SubaruHummer

01 Forester

Many other cars...

[s'ko]

Up here in Montana theres no smog regulations at all! You can crap up the atmosphere all you want here.MUHHAAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH:lol:

 

Yeah but any state that elects a dofus actor has got it's own set of problems....

 

 

oh wait we elected Arnold (D'oh)

bW

[WJM]

i hate emissions BS. Im really going to hate getting te RX inspected.

[operose]

emission stuff's getting more strict here in NY as well.... seems like they only want you to drive brand new cars, and once the o2 sensor goes bad, buy a new(er) car

[Jack in Norfolk]

I grew up in N.C. and Virginia, in the '50s and early '60s -- back when gasoline was around $0.32/gallon, and a "nickel Coke" had just gone up to six cents in the machines at the gas stations.

 

What a blessing; no mountains to hold an inversion layer most of the time, like the Pacific Coast cities have, and the big coal burning plants up north sending their plumes northeast, not southeast as long as the prevailing winds held.

 

I remember 1964 or 1965 -- the summer week that the first big smog persisted, all down the Atlantic coast, but didn't cross over the Blue Ridge mountains into the Shenandoah Valley (which, back then, didn't yet have Interstate highways, so didn't then collect a layer of diesel truck smog of its own).

 

People around Roanoke were driving up to the Blue Ridge Parkway overlooks, to look east, to see and take pictures of the brown cloud below them hiding everything north and east. Some drove downhill halfway down toward Lynchburg, to smell it.

 

It was awesome, at the time.

 

I went to school in Harrisonburg and I was told by the old guys that you used to be able to see the Capitol Bldg (in DC) from the top of Massanutten Mtn on a clear day.

We have the most frontage of the Chesapeake Bay and we spend the least to clean it up. New York and Pennsylvania both spend more than us! Its ridiculous.

[Jack in Norfolk]

Yeah but any state that elects a dofus actor has got it's own set of problems....

 

 

oh wait we elected Arnold (D'oh)

bW

 

How come the governator wasn't called to testify on that steroids commision that they recently had in DC? With his new political career and his first hand knowledge on the subject of steroids it seems like a perfect fit?

[Sweet82]

emission stuff's getting more strict here in NY as well.... seems like they only want you to drive brand new cars, and once the o2 sensor goes bad, buy a new(er) car

 

Absolutely correct!!!

 

I have had people from the state commission tell me that.

 

They don't want the older cars on the road.

 

I can't afford to keep them happy,

Glenn

82 SubaruHummer

01 Forester

[ABdad]

Hang in there, Brian. You'll get it passed.

 

BTW, I'm still loving the Brat you sold me last year,