smog test failure on non-OEM cats

I was told the cats had to have a CARB number or sticker on them, no mention of OEM. They want California cats, not 49 state cats. They might have just not looked at them in the past.

 

FYI,


if you have doubts on your smog test go find a smog place and run a pre test to check the car out, when done ake the data results to your trusted tech talk to them and make the repairs.


Some times it will be expensive or very simple.

 

California has taken absurdity one step further...your car can be the cleanest running vehicle on the planet...puffing out highly filtered, pure breatable air with a slight, non-presumptious hint of lillac, but if it doesn't have C.A.R.B. approved/OEM parts and pieces, you fail.

Once again form over substance prevails in a state where the politicos have declared war on the automobile.

 

I would double check ur cats. Chances are they have a CARB approval stamped into them somewhere. Mine do. The rule is an interesting one, but it allows for grandfathering. Moreover, your cat cores probably are legal, depending on their source. I don't know how accessible and visible your cats are but on my 348 you cannot tell the difference between stock and my replacements. It would be a pretty picky shop that would bust you for running better, but not listed cats. Unfortunately, once the data is sent up to Sacramento, you can imagine the effort to "overwrite" it.

 

No experience with a Ferrari, but the smog shop that did my Aston used a mirror on wheels to look at the cats. Not a problem, but the tech told me that CA was really making them check everything and that getting caught looking the other way wasn't worth it.

 

It's going to get very bad.

 

CARB needs to be dismantled, they do nothing but waste tax dollars.

 

+1 there are many horror stories about CARB out there. The one that I find particularly offensive are the random roadside dyno tests. Communists.........

 

Couldn't agree with you more...

 

+1

 

Kinda like most of the other Government programs in California. If you didn't have them you wouldn't miss them.

 

Love California. My 76 308 GTB does not require smog here in AZ. I do not think that it would pass now in CA, last time a few years ago it was a joke and very, very expensive. Sorry about your problems and feel for you guys. Think about moving, I did and have never looked back.

 

What was involved in doing that?