I was waiting to do exhaust mods until I had to get smogged, however I have yet to get a notice from CA DMV that I will need to get a smog check (bought my rex 02 in 2001).

I did some research and read that if your vehicle is 2002 or newer, you will not have to get smogged.

Is this true? Are newer California cars exempt from the smog check every two years?

Anyone with any info this?

Thanks,

j-wrx

just go to the source:

http://www.dmv.ca.gov/vr/smogfaq.htm

i just got a smog test done on my '03 WRX Wagon a few weeks ago... :huh:

it was for a transfer of ownership, but still, i gotta return to do the smog test every 2 years. what's stupid is that my turboback actually passed emissions but it failed because there was no cat. what's the point of a cat if my car PASSES emissions, i don't get it :huh:

anywas, as long as your car has primary cats you should pass the test easily. or if not, just get it done illegaly like so many people do in cali.

How many cats do our cars have?

1 2....3

i have a catless turboback, so only one pre-cat on the uppipe

but that'll change once i buy a HKS uppipe w/external wastegate fixture :lol:

1 2....3


Where are they located?

i have a catless turboback, so only one pre-cat on the uppipe


So you passed Cali smog with just an uppipe cat? Man, that's great news!!! :disco:

Too bad the smog guy failed you on the visual.

Where are they located?

your owner's manual has a diagram of them...a pretty good one too.

or you can lift the car up and see it for urself...they're the pretty obvious bulges in your pipes :huh: btw u should switch to turbobacks when you can....with or without a high flow cat. it's an easy +25 horsepower and it sounds great :D

So you passed Cali smog with just an uppipe cat? Man, that's great news!!!

Too bad the smog guy failed you on the visual.

it is great. what i don't get is why i need a goddamn cat. the cat is designed to keep your car's emissions low, my car passed, so why slap on something that...essentially...has no real effect? :huh: i mean ***, i had to pay a total of $70 to get the ugly old OEM cats back on, and then i had to custom-weld it in order to get it to fit properly (OEM downpipe and HKS midpipe don't get along...)

although after the swap, i notice i can my turbo a lot better, sexy lil thing, can't wait to slap on my BOV. but it's not as loud as it used to be :mad:

so you can pass smog on a cali car as long as you have one cat thats great

still, having the OEM primary cat takes a bit of power away from the turboback.

personally i can't wait when i swap back my DP before raceday :D

Where are they located?

up-pipe (from the manifold to the turbo - this one is a small, high-flow metallic one)
down-pipe (from the turbo down to under the car)
mid-pipe (from the downpipe to the cat-back - the place where the spring loaded bolts are)

most aftermarket downpipes replace both the downpipe and the mid-pipe

And catalytics are a racer's worst nightmare :mad:

Please someone call the ....

http://fileid.liquidsnake.com/gp.gif

So the guy doing the inspection crawled under the car? What a bastard. Did he confirm the DP cat and the UP cat?

So the guy doing the inspection crawled under the car? What a bastard. Did he confirm the DP cat and the UP cat?

you can see the cats just by looking into the engine and underneath the car. you just gotta sorta do a pushup and stay down to see it.

as far as i know no mechanic is hard working enough to actually jack the car up and look.

they only care about the primary cat....and on our cars it's the downpipe cat, which is visible. and i also failed OBDII test because i had a CEL light, i didn't know they really cared about those.

so i got em fixed, no biggie. now all i need is to get a new UP to replace that nasty pre-cat, get downpipe swapped back, voilà! my car is enviromentally unfriendly but doesn't have fumes bulging up in the pipes :D

That's pretty awesome! I thought that it would be a nightmare to have an aftermarket exhaust be emissions compliant in california. Looks like it's not too tough.

Even still, having a cat isn't all that bad. The power that you lose from the cat (~15hp?) is overshadowed by the power you gain from your larger diameter piping in the aftermarket exhaust.

Also, I have a question. The buddy of mine that sold me his STi had an interesting setup. I swapped his aftermarket exhaust for the stock one (I didn't like how loud it was and there were no cats to be found). He decided to put a resonator where the cat should be. He said that this was partially to fool any official type person into thinking it was a cat. Would this actually work (I'm thinking no)?

Heatshields, and resistors on 02's can and will fool Ref's/tech's.

...Not that I am approving or condoning any of that type of activity.... +1 for a highflow cat..

Wow, I just assumed that those guys would be able to spot that right away.

Wow

I think catalytic converters are a FEDERAL requirement, on top of the California requirement.

Big ticket from what my buddy who had a cat-less Mustang said. He had to wait an extra 6 months to buy his computer upgrade because of that ticket. (CHP)

in CA, new cars are exempt from smog check for first 6 years