Tunes, Mods, and Smogging

GlassTop09 said:

Homepage | California Air Resources Board

Put this here to not start no flame wars BUT if there was anything that the Fed EPA needed to copy from CARB it's the link at the bottom of CARB's home page...."Aftermarket Parts".
This is a listing of all CARB EO aftermarket parts legal to use in California or other CARB states from all vendors that sent parts for CARB cert testing. This includes FI kits (turbo's, centris & TVS\TS).
All parts come w\ the legal documentation & in the case of cats, the engine size\max poundage rating so that you can match up to what you got & show at smog tests for verification.

You can talk about them all you want BUT they have made it as easy & helpful as they could for folks to have their modded cars w\ performance AND comply w\ the CARB rules.

I look for this site to get pinned to the Fed EPA web site & become the official site in the upcoming future.

Click to expand...

WJBertrand said:

Just got my car smogged with the Ford Racing Performance tune installed. No issues at all, they just make sure the CARB EO number matches your VIN. First place I went said their site was down and could not check the EO number but the second site had no issues. The only pisser is they charge +$10 to smog your car if it has been modified. I don’t know if that’s just the site I used or they all do that?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

Click to expand...

WJBertrand said:

Yeah, of course I was not informed of that until the inspection was finished. Next time I will ask first. Interestingly, they don’t even put the car on a dyno now, they just plug a cable into the OBD II and do a visual. The guy told me cars these days almost never fail. Total waste of time and money if you ask me.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

Click to expand...

eighty6gt said:

Of course cars never fail. The number of cars on the road modified at all is miniscule. All modern cars pop mil's immediately and people get things fixed.

I guess the stick is, if you are poor and couldn't care less about the MIL and you have an evap leak or dead cat, you will prioritize repair over more expensive cat food to eat so you can get your sticker and keep driving 2h each way to work at the Amazon warehouse.

Click to expand...

WJBertrand said:

Yeah, of course I was not informed of that until the inspection was finished. Next time I will ask first. Interestingly, they don’t even put the car on a dyno now, they just plug a cable into the OBD II and do a visual. The guy told me cars these days almost never fail. Total waste of time and money if you ask me.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

Click to expand...

GlassTop09 said:

Hi WJBertrand,

When I read that you had to pay an additional $10 on top of the reg smog fee for having an aftermarket CARB EO# exempted tune installed, I went on CARB's website to look myself for an official listing of additional smog fees charged to see if this exists in the official CARB regs.....to date I couldn't find anywhere in CARB's website using the site's search function that showed any listing of additional fees charged to smog a modified vehicle....only fees for manuf's getting products initially certified for CARB EO# exemption so I might suggest that, whenever you do ask the next time about additional smog fees charged for vehicles having aftermarket parts including tunes installed, to also ask to see the official CARB fee list to verify that this isn't a dark market scam because from what I did\didn't see on CARB's site so far this activity does seem to be very suspicious....especially if the aftermarket tune\parts legally have a CARB EO# exemption attached AND there isn't any kind of prior notification of these additional charges posted so that a customer can see them up front prior getting smog test.
Obviously this wasn't included w\ your 2 yr CARB smog notification documentation........

This IMHO looks like some folks may be intentionally using all the hysteria around CARB smog certification testing & their certification positions to their advantage to extract\extort extra money from unsuspecting customers even though, from what I've found so far myself, no official CARB additional smog fee listing\statements exists to back up the practice.....

I'm just an outsider looking in but this is the kind of activity that needs to stop regardless of where 1 resides & IMHO is an area where the Fed EPA should also be looking into as well as the State.......

Just an observation from my perspective......hope this helps.

Click to expand...

Juice said:

Shop charging extra for no real good reason? wow, I have never ever heard that before....

Click to expand...