I read up on the California smog and every year, you have to pay an annual smog tax if your car is 6 years old or younger.

Anything past that, you need to get your car smogged every renewal period .. and as you know .. pre-cat deletes won't pass a visual .

Has anybody in the SoCal area paid off smog places to pass?

I can't figure out what's more important .. passing smog or having an extra 12-15whp

Advice (especially from people from California) would be much appreciated.

 

tyler....i cant help with the whole smog emissions in CA, but i can tell you that having that extra power from the precats is easily worth it to me

 

people make too big a deal out of this. comes smog time, either reinstall your stock cats OR find a "special" smog guy. they are a dying breed though and not as plentiful as they were back in the day, since the risk and fines are much greater than they were before. now they get their machine taken away from the state and license revoked. for the "smog only" stations, thats their only source of income and that can be devasting.

 

Hmmm I didn't know they still did visual inspections. Thought they just plug in to your OBDII port and check that way. Don't think they do the smell test anymore but you DEF won't pass that

 

Yeah.... what he (04accord) said. You should just get them and swap them out for your OEM cats when you need to get a smog check... You gotta pay to play, homie!

 

Gah, exactly what I was affraid of.

Reinstalling any kind of catalytic converters is a big pain in the ass ...

A newer TL would be much more convienent .

 

Tyler, i dont think you will need to worry about the visual inspection necessarily I have never seen them do much of a visual. At least thats what I am hoping when the time comes for mine with the pro-cats on. You will fail when they stick the wand up the pipe. I think your only way out is to reinstall OEM for the test, and yes its not an easy install, especially if it were to be yearly. arghhh

 

Pre cat deletes from what rowdy told me isnt the easiest installation....so taking them off and on would be a pain.

 

ugh...i'm in your same position not sure what i'm gonna do as of yet...

 

^ huge PITA

 

yes, it is a PITA for sure.

lucky for me, i know a "special" guy they arent cheap though, but you dont have to go through the hassle of changing parts and paying labor twice. so you actually save money, if you dont DIY.

 

DUDE, did i tell you that it took us TWO fucking nights to get those damn cats out?! We stripped (thought) those damn bolts on the rear cat!!! We bought extractors, different sized breaker bars, etc....................for nothing -_- you should have heard us when we CRACKED the first bolt loose with a 6 point lol

 

Haha nice man. I just crank that breaker bar til something gives.

I learned this past weekend to always use PB Blaster first...

 

Pb blaster ftw!

 

You are not gunna find it anywhere on here as it is highly illegal, but I plan on just paying someone off..

Probably not the smartest thing to post up on a public forum, but oh wells..

Anywho its not cheap tho.. I hear this one guy will do it for 3-4 hundo..

Either that or ill just suck it up and swap em.. I plan on trying just replacing 3rd cat, and taking car to one of those pass or don't pay places..
Just for the hell of it.. Has any one confirmed it will not pass with solely 3rd cat? Like personal experience?

 

^ yes definitely something I would like to know as well. If you can just swap in the third OEM cat and have it pass that would be tight!

 

what if you put in your pre-cat deletes and rigged three 3rd cats together, rig your exhaust so you can install and remove quickly by just removing 6 bolts. so every time you have to get a smog test you can just put in you contraption andtake it out after the test.

i know this sounds goofy.

dose any one think the three 3rd cats put together will pass the smog test?

 

Thats funny, I have two in my garage I was thinking the same thing.. LOL