Here's hoping one of you So-Cal gents can offer some advice ..... I'm in the process of selling a 328. It has the CA-compliant sticker, but at the moment it has an aftermarket exhaust and test pipe in place of the cat. I do have the original exhaust and cat in good condition. I have a potential buyer who has valid concerns about whether or not it will pass smog if the original exhaust is reinstalled? Do any of you have experience with the visual checks they do in CA to see if the cat is present? Thanks for any advice!
Why not install the cat? It should still pass even if you have an aftermarket exhaust assuming nothing else is wrong with the car.
Thanks Mike. I could do that no problem but the buyer is concerned about the readings since it's never been checked in CA before. According to Autocheck and Carfax it's never failed an inspection but it's been in MA, SC and TN for the most part. The original cat is in decent shape and since it looks original rather than brand new I was hoping that's better for the visual inspection. What do you CA guys do? Always keep the original exhaust? Or put it on for the test then swap it out for the free flow exhaust right afterwards?
On my 328 i had original but with a cat bypass. Put the cat back on for the smog check. Depending on the shop, they may miss the aftermarket exhaust but the should catch no cat so best to put that back on for the test
The buyer will need a valid smog check before they can register it in CA. So it'll need the cats back in. Sent from my GM1917 using Tapatalk
Plus one on the above. I save everything smog / exhaust related. No telling when the laws may change out here
I just had my 328 smog checked and it passed (barely!). They are supposed to do a visual and a sniff test on the car. However, I'd say that most smog shops won't know what the cats/exhaust are supposed to look like on a 328. But, if they do, your the car will fail without even having to sniff test it if it is not original. I doubt very much that a 328 would pass the sniff test without the cats. As someone already pointed out, the car must pass a smog check in order to be registered in California. So I'd say that if your buyer is going to register it in CA, you'll need to install it all back so increase your chances of it passing.
