I just purchased a 1990 348 from Utah and drove it back to Southern California this past week-end. Now I need to get it smog, is there any places that you would recommend in the Calabasas/ Thousand Oaks area? The car was smogged in California 10 months ago, but brought back in Utah, so smogging it should not be a problem.
I would call the service manageer from the Auot Gallery and ask them where they take their cars. Now, the $64K question is, "Do you have reason, coming from Utah, to think that the car will not pass a CA inspection?" You can check yourself to see that the smog equipment and cats are installed before you even take it for a test. Obviously, if they aren't there, you are not going to pass. FYI, usually in the high rent communities, the ARCO guys do enough of these to be sensitive to owners' concerns. In my area, Palso Verdes, we have a local ARCO that does them, but I wouldn't take the car to an ARCO without at least witnessing them doing a number of exotics.
Minor adjustments?????? What minor adjustments? They aren't allowed to make minor adjustments anymore as just about every smog test certification these days required by the DMV is "Smog Check II". Meaning they are only allowed to strap it on the dyno and tell you if it passes the 15mph & 25mph rolling test. That's it. Nothing specially about it. I don't know of a place in T.O. but I do know of two in Ventura. Just take it to one of the Smog Test Only stations in T.O. and have them put it on the rollers. Now that I think of it. There is an exhaust shop in Agoura Hills right across from The Tire Man on Dorothy Drive, right off the Chesebro exit. Try asking them where to got.
I might just mention, from my own experience, don't take the car in for its smog test unless you have thoroughly warmed it up first. The first time I took my 348 in for the bi-annual test, I only drove it for about 15 minutes before I got to the station, and it narrowly failed. I then took it out for about a half hour, drove a loop on the freeway, took it back to the same station, same tester, same lane, and it passed easily. I've had it re-tested twice since then, always warmed up first, and it has passed every time with no problem.
The guys as the Calabasas Ferrari dealer recommended Hank's tire as they smog a lot of them. Just so happens my kids play hockey with the owners kids. The car passed and I was in and out in 30 minutes. Decided to take Mulholland home from the San Fernando Valley rather than the FWY. Had not ran too many twisties with it yet, but that is not the reason I bought this car, as I have the Lotus for that. However, after stopping at the Hallmark store to get a Father's Day card, the car had no power or acceleration. I made it home, parked it in the garage and watched the hockey game. Then just took it out after the game was over to see if it was still acting up, to my relief it was not. Any idea what it could be?
That sounds an awful lot like one of your banks cut out. It could be many things; the two I'd check out first is an overheated catalytic convertor and/or a faulty cat ECU given the fact that the car operated normally after it had cooled down. Search the site as this topic has come up frequently, and be sure to read No Doubt's 348 primer. If your car has the 2.7 Motronics system the 348 primer will tell you how to easily pull the engine codes which will give you more insight into the problem.
