cal smog nazi moving north

[juanbenae]

i have been fretting about the possible passage of sb708 and the fact that the rolling 30 year exemption will be repealed before my 78 hits three oh. ssi install, shed of smog pump, free breathing 911.....

now in reading the paper here in no cal today i was informed as of 7/1/03 the cal smog II requirements take effect. what is the smog II you may ask? it requires that the car be on a dyno device to simulate real driving conditions. in a three city area known as the tri-valley in the east bay there is currently one station in the area. so just how do you get smogged? im hearing upwards of $150 a test until it has settled in and the number of test stations and qualified techs become established. im also hearing the expected failure rate is 30%.

can any so cal guys give me the skinny on the test process? i am currently holding my registration renewal for the 911 (p-car reference to stay on topic) and im busting my ace to get it smogged prior to the 1st of july.

california used to be a desirable place to live but the goverment has taken all the joy out of it. i want to get the capital F out of here but am kind of entrenched currently. im pissed and wondering if stocking up on ammo is the last resort? now im getting how the cats at ruby ridge felt, over taxed, over goverened, under served.

governed out of a once great state

[Moses]

Originally posted by k911sc

...governed out of a once great state.

It's sad. I've lived here all my life, but this State is sinking fast. The real issue is that the inept leaders of this state are planning to heap the entire burden of their financial misconduct on the shoulders of the taxpayers.

Bank-One needs to do one of their ads with Gray Davis: "What's in your wallet?"

[tobluforu]

One thing I was told by a mechanic is that if it fails, you are not considered a gross poluter. But having visable performance additions could be a prob. I was also told "ONE" good thing in regards to this new Piece of crap rule, law or whatever you want to call, is that you can sit at the dyno all day until it passes. You do not have to go away and come back, or see a smog referee. Davis sucks! My 72 will not have a prob. based on years, my saab will. But what use to be a $40 registration fee is now going to cost me upwards 150 bucks for the 72. I'm all for a clean environment, but we (car enthusiasts) are getting screwed for mistakes made by a bunch of knuckle heads.
I was also told that modified forced induction cars will get screwed-like my saab. Turbo porsche's beware.

[BlueSkyJaunte]

Originally posted by k911sc
it requires that the car be on a dyno device to simulate real driving conditions.

Hmm. We already do this in AZ, and have been since before I moved here ('98). I'm starting to think that maybe you guys complain a lot about smog nazis, but we actually have it worse.

[1fastredsc]

In NM we have a grueling and impossible exam before our cars are registered. First a women comes out of the registration office and looks at while idling. As long as there's no visible smoke coming out of the exhaust and there are four wheels on it then that test passes. The the last and hardest test of all, she checks to make sure there's a steering wheel and three pedals. Then the car is cleared and can be registered. (I'm sorry guys, i had to rub that in since i'm still pissed at our fuel quality here)

[1fastredsc]

Actually i feel for you cause in Jersey we had the smog test with a dyno to present the vehicle under load. Then the suspension was tested and the gas caps were pressure tested. So all in all, failing was a hell of a lot easier than passing, plus i'm told that most of the smog rules in california are stricter than most places.
And BTW, somehow the idiot that drove my car always managed to stall it which pissed me off.

[dotorg]

Originally posted by 1fastredsc
The the last and hardest test of all, she checks to make sure there's a steering wheel and three pedals. Then the car is cleared and can be registered.

About time someone made automatics illegal!

[Randy Webb]

Hey, wait a minute, don't you work for the govt.? Or is that someone with a similar handle?

Anyway it is sad that these rules have gone the way they have. It would be more effective to cut truck emissions, but that has only recently become politically viable.

The air pollution problem is very real tho, and the basic problem is that there are too many people in areas that have air masses that don't move much, and those people drive too much, and drive polluting cars...

You could move to a place where there are few people (eg Wyoming -- 1 person every 4 miles & getting sparser), or get a nice clean engine transplant. I suggest a 993 with Varioram....

[juanbenae]

guilty as charged, i hate my job too.

[ZAMIRZ]

My car hates those effin dynos, it always gets WAY too hot when they're running the tests (ghetto smog place with no fans over the motor, just throw it on there and lets go) and on the way home I can tell the poor car hated it. My best advice to you would be to befriend some persian or armenian dudes who are in the business Being persian myself, I have some friends who are smog guys and they don't mind slightly bending the law to get my car to pass. My car burns clean and passes the dyno test, but for the visual inspection they just check it off since I have no smog pump or anything of that sort. Anyway, good luck with your whole ordeal.

[Wayne 962]

Tax issues are different than environmental issues. I for one support the strong smog laws here. I haven't lived in CA for super long (about 8 years now), but Tom tells me the air quality on a bad day here these days is equal to what a good day was like when he was growing up.

-Wayne

[Randy Webb]

Just a tip: a twin plug oughtto burn a lot cleaner... not that there's anything wrong with the better responsiveness...

[island911]

Originally posted by Wayne at Pelican Parts
Tax issues are different than environmental issues. I for one support the strong smog laws here. I haven't lived in CA for super long (about 8 years now), but Tom tells me the air quality on a bad day here these days is equal to what a good day was like when he was growing up.

-Wayne

My understanding has been that the emission requirements, set on the manufacture, has driven down the vast majority of smog. The engineering of cleaner, more complete combustion eclipses any impact from the "testing", for better air quality.

I see testing as a tax; not only $'s, but also, my time in circumventing the test.

Am I missing something on this?

[RoninLB]

Originally posted by Wayne at Pelican Parts

but Tom tells me the air quality on a bad day here these days is equal to what a good day was like when he was growing up.

in the early 70s, on 405.. my eyes would burn.. I literally took a bottle of water with me to flush the eyeballs.. and motorcycle guys would wear gas masks/ no joke..........Ron

[4nk8k9]

In Alberta, to register a vehicle the test is "do you have two pieces of ID and Insurance?", if it becomes impossible or too expensive to keep your cars on the road and you need to sell them cheap, I can come up with a buyer

[emcon5]

"4nk8k9"?

Does that mean you screw dogs?

[BlueSkyJaunte]

Nah, he screwed the pooch. :P

[pbs911]

My best advice to you would be to befriend some persian or armenian dudes who are in the business. Being persian myself, I have some friends who are smog guys and they don't mind slightly bending the law to get my car to pass.

That's exactly what I do. But I prefer to call it massaging the law.

One word of advise in getting a smog test in CA - pre-test.

[Randy Webb]

Island911 -- you _are_ missing something -- testing makes sure that the really gross polluters are stopped. Well, cars anyway (you wouldn't believe what the staionary sources get away with...). A lot of the implementation is political -- see the trucks comment above. But we really do need to clean up the air. I have asthma and I can really tell when I'm behind a truck. The problem is that it can put some pain onto a small group that likes older cars. It might be hard to enforce but a low mileage exemption would be useful. Modern cars are very clean -- most lawnmowers pollute as much from mowing a lawn as a 200 mile drive in a late 1990's car. Tho the Honda lwnmowers are much cleaner. Same goes for snowblowers, weed trimmers, etc. Someday all this stuff will run on fuel cells...

[nhromyak]

I think all of us CA poluution haters better double check and see who or what is really making the most pollution per day.

Hint: It's not all the cars on the road.

Hint#2 : Big business gets smog exemption when they buy cheap cars and crush them. ...

Sad place here in CA.