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California Smog Testing Will Now Sniff Out (and Fail) Tuned ECUs

Dvroofer

Dvroofer

Active member
Joined
Jan 23, 2021
Location
Long Beach,ca
https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.motortrend.com/news/california-smog-testing-ecu-software-flash-modifications/amp/

Just read this. Not that it applies to older non obd2 cars but the point is California is doing everything possible to follow ridiculous rules all the time. Im not even going to say what my catalytic converter cost… about to attempt to pass before I +t and +ms while knowing in 2 years I will have to bolt my old junk on. Sorry for the rant .. just frustrating living in the land of regulation.
 
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Dvroofer said:
https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.motortrend.com/news/california-smog-testing-ecu-software-flash-modifications/amp/

Just read this. Not that it applies to older non obd2 cars but the point is California is doing everything possible to follow ridiculous rules all the time. Im not even going to say what my catalytic converter cost… about to attempt to pass before I +t am +ms while knowing in 2 years I will have to bolt my old junk on. Sorry for the rant .. just frustrating living in the land of regulation.
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I get relatively annoyed by California's approach to older pre-OBD2 cars myself. That said I would like to see tighter restrictions for the OBD2 cars but I would just want to see a tailpipe test. The VW diesel scandal (and every other manufacturer who was caught following it) has shown how easy it is to cheat emissions tests using a computer. I do though want to see restrictions lessened for older cars regarding visual inspections. So long as it passes it is fine in my book. For newer stuff where you can still get parts easily? Test those more strictly as they are likely to be the ones on the road in numbers.

People will figure out ways around this though. Probably by swapping ECUs or something similar when it comes time to get the test done. They mention an OBD2 system called Hondata Flash Pro in the article. Solutions like that will probably become more prevalent.

I just ended up going pre-smog myself. But I still want a nice stock-ish turbo car with EFI so that may change in the future.
 
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All this accomplishes is making sure no tuning companies get cores back for tuned ECUs. That being said most tuned cars I've worked on have disabled emissions equipment in the name of power anyways, and won't set various drive cycles. But quickly flashing the stock tune or swapping the stock ECU in you'll

I agree with Austen, as we have discussed before, that a tailpipe test should be the only requirement for pre-OBDII cars. If I have an extra cam, cylinder, turbo and vastly more advanced EFI system outputting cleaner emissions why should it not only fail, but be sent to a BAR station with a State ref ticket.
 
James M said:
All this accomplishes is making sure no tuning companies get cores back for tuned ECUs. That being said most tuned cars I've worked on have disabled emissions equipment in the name of power anyways, and won't set various drive cycles. But quickly flashing the stock tune or swapping the stock ECU in you'll

I agree with Austen, as we have discussed before, that a tailpipe test should be the only requirement for pre-OBDII cars. If I have an extra cam, cylinder, turbo and vastly more advanced EFI system outputting cleaner emissions why should it not only fail, but be sent to a BAR station with a State ref ticket.
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Even if they just made the BAR ref process more clear I would be fine. Maybe a forum or something where you can post pictures of what you are thinking and get refs to chime in on whether they would fail or pass it before you sink money and time into a mod or swap. It is kind of hard to do so over the phone.
 
between that and the epa crack down on all of this stuff, the outlook has gotten pretty bleak. reckon openly flaunting rules for decades will get that for ya
 
It seems reasonable to hold OBDII cars to a higher standard then whats currently there. The OBDII stuff can easily be hacked and tweaked and something that passes a scan test might be a way worse polluter then a pre odbii car thats stock.

Based on the amount of people around me that take their cats off just so they can shoot flames putting around town... They make a good point for putting more oversight and enforcement into place. Most of the stuff people do doesn't even make the cars faster or more efficient. Its just about scene points. :roll:
 
I agree with Ben. A lot of people do stupid stuff just for the Instagram ****. It’s beyond annoying, I’m mostly looking at you mustang, challenger owners. Honestly, it feels like they are just effecting people that buy and hold onto cars. Alot of those people I see change their cars long before they even have to smog them!!!! They buy a new car, change parts out, then end up selling the car after a few years when they want to try something else, or get a newer model. If they want to change something, get rid of the 8year smog abatement for new cars. Why don’t they just run the tailpipe sniffer on obd2… if it burns clean, who cares what’s done…

I’m not looking forward to next year tho… have to smog the lotus and the previous owner had a tune flashed. Not looking forward to having to fix that.
 
They don't even tailpipe test 2002+ cars out here just plug in. The ecu can't read exhaust gasses so it very well could be polluting by their standards lol.
They just don't want older cars on the road out here and they dont care. The govt party out here isnt doing us any favors either. Easier to move vs fight them.
That or register it out of state.
 
Even here in NJ they figured out the IM240 testing cycle is a bunch of crap and they dropped it many years ago. Now pre 96 cars are inspection exempt and they only plug in the computer to test OBDII or newer. They can use a tailpipe test but only do so when they see visible smoke. In fact they can fail you for any visible smoke even without the tailpipe test. All of my vehicles are pre 96 so I am saving money and time without inspections to deal with.
 
Well the guy was cool and said he could fail me for my adjustable fpr and cam gear, but said he really didn’t care. Put the stock injectors back in and left the ipd turbo cam in. Here’s my results for my 30 year old Volvo 240 wagon. [url=https://ibb.co/TmWHMmN][/URL] not bad, now the 2 year countdown starts and I can throw on all the fun stuff
 
On newer cars, I would just use a handheld flash tuner. I have one for my V50 T5, takes 3 minutes or so to set it back to a stock tune. Rica iSoftloader
 
spock345 said:
He must have a fresh cat on that car or something to get it that clean.
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Yes I bought the cat directly from magnaflojo a couple months ago replaced pretty much everything got to stage 0 . Put in my cam because?.. and made sure everything was fresh. Muffler, egr, are original. Canister was found in junkyard , same with vacuum solenoid thingy, replaced all vac lines. Warmed it up and hoped for the best. Came out squeaky clean for a 800$ Smoking Hoopty on the way the the crusher 2 years ago.
 
Dvroofer said:
Yes I bought the cat directly from magnaflojo a couple months ago replaced pretty much everything got to stage 0 . Put in my cam because?.. and made sure everything was fresh. Muffler, egr, are original. Canister was found in junkyard , same with vacuum solenoid thingy, replaced all vac lines. Warmed it up and hoped for the best. Came out squeaky clean for a 800$ Smoking Hoopty on the way the the crusher 2 years ago.
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That is awesome. My 240 would just barely pass smog each time or otherwise be borderline. Usually on the second try it would pass. It was probably the original cat.
 
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