California and up/down pipes

[Nose Nuggets]

i duno if this should be in the region specific area, but i was afraid i wouldent get any responces, it seems quit over there

i live in cali, im not in San Francisco so i dont fall under the super restrictive smog rules, but cali in general is fairly strict.

i was wondering if anyone knows what the deal is with removing any of the 3 cats i have on my 03 wrx. can i get away with the downpipe at the very least?

worst case scenario, i get my up/down and turbo back exhaust and remove all 3 cats, how long would it take to put the whole stock setup back on for when i smog?

[hondaeater]

There are many factors to contend with:

Do they have an OBDII readiness test?

Do they have a visual check?

Do they have a sniffer check?

Now, the UP cat is mainly for start up emissions, and they can't see that mofo on a vis check, so all you need to do about that one is make sure it isn't throwing any CEL's or keep your OBDII system from freaking out. (inline resistor, or proper EM can take care of that)

Now, you DP cats are a different story. you can fix them so that they don't trip CEL's, or freak out your OBDII system, but what about visual and sniffer? I don't know how many tests cali has so I need more info.

Changing the DP doesn't take that long, maybe an hour with experience, couple hours the first time depending on heat shields etc.

[Nose Nuggets]

i was a mechanic for a while, so i know my way around a wrench and a car. so if we are talkin hours im not worried about it.


to be honest i duno they test. i know "people" so im i think i get out of the visual problems. as long as the probe that goes in my pipe spits out numbers the county likes, i should be ok. all i know is the cats play a fat role in this. if i get a utec or something can i adjust this for testing purposes?

ill see if i can get the exact requierements for cali on the smog thing

*busts out google.*

[Nose Nuggets]

found this

Beginning January 1, 2005, vehicles 6 or less model-years old will be exempt from the biennial Smog Check inspection requirement. For vehicles with registration renewals due in the 2005 calendar year, this exemption includes model-years 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004 and 2005.


damn wording has me confused, sounds like ill never have to smog my car.... but that cant be right.

[hondaeater]

I don't think the UTEC allows you to keep your OBDII system from going into an "unready" state, but I could be wrong.

I know Cobb's Street tuner, AP, and pro tunes keep the stock OBDII in check. So does ECUtek tunes (although they have no self tune available yet).

[hondaeater]

no, that doesn't sound right, not for the cali smog nazis.

[Nose Nuggets]

i quoted

Beginning January 1, 2005, vehicles 6 or less model-years old will be exempt from the biennial Smog Check inspection requirement. For vehicles with registration renewals due in the 2005 calendar year, this exemption includes model-years 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004 and 2005.

from the cali DMV .gov site. it sounds like you only need smog if your transfering ownership.

i need to read a little deeper i guess.

[JMONTY]

you may want to check with Mike at SPAUSA.com

I have a Prodrive stage 3 done. It has a 2 1/2" Turbo back done. I have a 2002 so I have not been smoged yet. I did keep all of the stock shit when the time does come if I need to put it all back on.

[Nose Nuggets]

excelent idea