I need to get state inspection for my straight piped F430 (no cats). Looking forward to some responses if someone can guide me. No CELs, no other mods. The county is Fort Bend. Any information will be helpful. I just want to take it to a place which will just not fail it for not having cats. Shouldn't the ODBII test be enough?
I don't live in Fort Bend County, but Fort Bend County has the enhanced Texas emission requirements. In any event, I might try to find an inspection station that would run an emission test without connecting to the state computer for you, if that is even possible, so you know if it would pass the emission requirement without the cats, before it becomes a failed test reported to the state. Second, I'm guessing that an inspection station will not want to take the risk of being suspended for not reporting car that has had the cats removed, see the link below. Emission testing is required only in the following areas/counties: • Austin-Round Rock: Travis. Williamson. • Houston-Galveston-Brazoria: Brazoria. Fort Bend. Galveston. Harris. Montgomery. • Dallas-Fort Worth: Collin. Dallas. Denton. Ellis. Johnson. Kaufman. Parker. Rockwall. Tarrant. • El Paso: El Paso. Plus: https://www.tceq.texas.gov/airquality/mobilesource/vetech/tampering.html Good luck
I thought all cars after 1996 get the ODBII in Texas. Since you have an F430, it should get the ODBII test. Does Ferrari of Houston/Woodlands do state inspections? Boardwalk does the inspection on my Cali. Heck, they are nice enough to do all our cars! T
Thanks Jerry. Is it also true that the car has to be tested in the same county as where it is going to be registered? I mean can't I go to another county and get it inspected where there are no emission restrictions? Just curious.
Tom, I went to a local guy in Katy and he was nice enough to run a test set up and as I expected, it failed on the cats (considering cats are out ). I even thought - heck with it. Let's install the cats back on. I called Ferrari of Houston and the guy said they won't put CATS back on because ther are not purchased from them. I even mentioned that the cats are original ferrari cats but still a NO. I asked - if he can refer me to someone who actually can do work like this - his response was - NOPE cant tell you that either. Not a good experience. I don't want to pay ridiculous amount of money to put cats back on. I just don't have the tools to do so myself. Only if I go this route .
Yikes, what a bother. You can get inspected in a diff county. I've had my Cali inspected at Boardwalk, which is in Collin County. I live in a diff county. T
The following is my understanding of the inspection issue for cars 2 - 24 years old. Texas has a two part inspection protocol for vehicle registration renewal. Some Texas counties require only a safety inspection. Other counties, mainly in metropolitan areas, require a safety inspection AND an emission test. You can have your vehicle "safety inspected" in any county, but that by itself will not allow you to renew the registration in a county that requires an emission test. You can also have your vehicle, regardless of where it is registered, safety inspected and emission tested/checked in a county that does both tests, even if your county of registration does not require the emission test. However, if you have your car inspected in a county that requires both tests, it must pass both tests. There wouldn't be much reason to do that and you probably don't want a failed emission test reported in the state vehicle computer. However, if your county of registration requires the emission test, you can not take your car to another county that does not require the emission test and expect to have your registration renewed with a safety inspection only. The inspection station would let you get a safety test and let you pay for it, but that by itself won't let you renew your registration. Motorists with vehicles **REGISTERED** in Brazoria, Collin, Dallas, Denton, Ellis, El Paso, **FORT BEND**, Galveston, Harris, Johnson, Kaufman, Montgomery, Parker, Rockwall, Tarrant,*Travis, and Williamson Counties **WILL NOT BE ELIGIBLE** to receive their vehicle registration if the vehicle has not passed an emissions inspection or complied with the vehicle emissions inspection program requirements. https://www.tceq.texas.gov/airquality/mobilesource/vim/highlights.html https://www.tceq.texas.gov/airquality/mobilesource/vim/overview.html You can also have the emission test completed in a county other than your county of registration. This would be "tomc's" case. Collin and Dallas counties both require an emission test so he can have his car inspected in Dallas county and renew the registration in Collin County. The County clerk's office (i.e. the "registration renewal office") computer is connected to the state safety inspection/emission testing computer. The clerk's computer will cross-check your registration address/county of residence against the state emission test computer. It must show a passed emissions test to renew your registration. You will not be able to renew your registration if the state emission test computer shows that you have not submitted to an emission test or failed an emission test. The removal of the cats is different compliance issue. My opinion is it would be better to have them reinstalled to avoid the tampering issue and hopefully pass the emission test, maybe at an independent repair shop. I think the sound would be sufficiently comparable and one less thing to worry about. I hope this is all accurate and apologize for the long answer. I also live in an emission requirement county so I can feel your pain. Still, good luck.
you can avoid the inspection upon renewing the registration by selecting "car out of state". I have done this for several years (unfortunately have been pulled over once or five times) and it has never even been a question from the polite officer delaying my spirited drive.
How about getting a PO Box in a non emissions town that isn't too far away (say Greenville if you live in Dallas) and have the car registered to that address?
I referred to the county "clerk's" office in #7 above. The correct office would be the county "tax" office. The state registration renewal procedure does allow a person to tell the registration clerk in the county tax office that the vehicle is "out of state" at the time the registration is renewed. The clerk will renew the vehicle registration, but will make a note (check the box) in the state computer records for the vehicle registration renewal that the vehicle was "out of state" at the time the registration was renewed and that the vehicle was not inspected nor passed an emission test. The owner has three days to get the vehicle inspected and pass an emission test (if required) after the vehicle is returned to the state. I do not know if a law enforcement officer has the inspection and emission test information, or lack thereof, on their law enforcement computer when they make a traffic stop. Notwithstanding all of that, it could be a problematic to provide false information to a government employee for a governmental record. Good luck.
I have the tool to pull the O2 sensor, it's a $12 socket. There's no other legal way to get it done, they have to hook the OBD up to "your car"....
Being new to the Ferrari scene isn't there someway to reprogram the computer? I did that with my Z06 when I built the engine and removed the cats. There are two ways to do it: A) put in simulators or B) tune them out. I am pretty sure the entire tuner world deals with this the same way. Why not Ferrari?
