Quote:
Originally Posted by philt68
epa fines, even on a car that's older than 25 years old? i thought 25 and older were exempt from all that kind of thing?
here's what i found on the webs..
'For future reference, in NY, if the vehicle is 25 years old or older, it doesn't have to have the catalytic converter in place. You could legally replace it with a straight pipe. A vehicle newer than 25 years old, by NY State law must have the catalytic converter in place to pass state inspection. We had to fail a pristine 94 f-150 because it had a motor swap for a mustang 302 and a cat delete. The truck came from Florida, where they have no inspections.'
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Doesn't matter. Federal law makes it illegal to remove any "emissions control device" from any vehicle, regardless of age, unless the removal is for replacement due to part failure.
The fact that some states stop performing emissions inspections after a certain age does not invalidate the federal law.
http://www2.epa.gov/sites/production/files/documents/exhsysrepair.pdf
"The 1990 Clean Air Act Amendments even
prohibit private individuals from installing 'converter replacement pipes' on their own vehicles. Anyone who installs such pipes would violate section 203(a)(3)(A) and (B) of the Clean Air Act (Act)."
Note that this technically applies even to removing the catalytic converter for "off road" use.
Now, if a state has stopped performing inspections because of the car's age and your shop doesn't check, it's unlikely that the missing catalytic converter would ever be noticed, so the decision is up to you, but it's still technically illegal. (Note also that it's technically illegal for a mechanic to allow a car with a missing catalytic converter to leave his or her shop unless the exhaust system has been returned to compliance with the Clean Air Act regulations, so a mechanic could, theoretically, refuse to release the car back to you without a catalytic converter if you took it somewhere for repairs.)
Link to the specific regulations in the US Code:
http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/42/7522