Stupid CA smog checks. . .

"Squid" (squid) 08/26/2014 at 22:39 • Filed to: Kommiefornia

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So Cookie, my Miata, is still registered to my parents address and I totally forgot about registration being due. My mom calls me on the day it was due to tell me I have to take my little Miata to a fucking STAR station. Mind you I have the last 10 or so smog check results and there is not one failure or close to failure test in the vehicles history. . . So I paid the registration fee, but the problem is that it is the first week of school and I won't have time to go get it tested till thursday afternoon. . . But I want to go driving now!!! I think that since I have paid the fees I should be good to go for a quick drive, and the main reason I want to go for that long quick drive up in the mountains is that when I filled up the tank on last thursday I put a 20 gal Techron treatment bottle in the tank as the car was sitting for a bit with a dry tank. . . So now I got to drive to drain the tank so the Techron doesn't fuck with the stupid STAR test. From what I've heard, albeit very little, is that the STAR tests are a little less forgiving.

Any other California Miata owners put on the stupid STAR Station smog check regimen?

His Stigness > Squid 08/26/2014 at 22:48

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If you've paid your fees then you're okay to drive, just make sure you carry the receipt with you so you're not cited for expired registration, which you won't be for a month because there's a 30 day grace period.

On the smog, Techron won't affect the test, at all, the State machine is not sensitive enough. That's even if they test your car on the dyno with the old machine, which they may not depending on what year your car is. 2000 and newer cars get checked through a new machine that just runs a test through the OBDII connector, and as far as I know they're just checking to see if all the monitors have run (I say as far as I know because I don't what happens when you re-code the ECU).

And STAR stations aren't "less forgiving," they're staffed with guys who generally know what they're doing. A STAR station has to have technicians that have a certain grade, now called the FPR (follow-up pass rate), in which their scored on how the cars do after they've tested them. It's a grading system that has weeded out a lot idiots and frauds.

If you fail, or ever have failed, it's not because the technician is out to get you, it's because your car failed the California smog check and if they don't fail you they can be fined up to $5,000, charged with a felony, and the shop can be fined something like $10,000 too, so don't be so hard on them, just make sure your car is in good working order.

Squid > His Stigness 08/26/2014 at 22:58

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It is, I just don't drive that much. I've had the car for 16 months and have put less than 8,000 miles on it, and I have probably put about 2-3,000 miles on it in the past year. I don't drive that much anymore so it just is annoying. The problem is that I don't really know if there are any star stations in my town that I can go to or if I have to go into Sacramento to find a station. It is just more of a headache which I am going to use to go blow off some steam and burn some hydrocarbons up in the Sierra Nevadas. . .

His Stigness > Squid 08/26/2014 at 23:00

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Well if you think that's annoying, I have to smog my brand new Golf TDI because the idiots in Sacramento forgot to add diesels to the 6 year exemption rule. They're so stupid.

Squid > His Stigness 08/26/2014 at 23:01

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That really blows man.

TheVancen- In Pursuit of a Greater Payday and Car Parts > His Stigness 08/26/2014 at 23:05

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you want stupid? In Ontario, if your car is 1988 or newer you have get the car E-Tested, (emissions). And it doesn't advance every year, if you own a 1988 mustang, its gotta get tested, in a hundred years, if you have a 1988 ANYTHING, its gotta get tested. They even ding you if its an engine swap into an old car.

So by that logic, my '77 Capri, if I ever do the swap with the '91 SHO V6, would have to get tested. Stupid Ontario

His Stigness > TheVancen- In Pursuit of a Greater Payday and Car Parts 08/26/2014 at 23:36

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We have the same rule here, except it's '72 or something. But if you have a car before that you can do whatever you want, even put in a modern engine, and you're good. If it's a newer car though you have to jump through a ton of hoops if you want to change the engine (that didn't originally come with the car or wasn't an option).

TheVancen- In Pursuit of a Greater Payday and Car Parts > His Stigness 08/26/2014 at 23:58

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Yikes. You have to smog a 72!? That's nuts.

RazoE > Squid 08/27/2014 at 09:33

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I had to sell my Supra because of STAR testing..=/ Make sure you run that puppy HARD before you smog it. Get the cats as hot as possible. My buddy failed because he drove from home, straight to the smog station 2 miles away. I told him to take it on the freeway, run it hard and then immediately test it. Passed with flying colors.

His Stigness > TheVancen- In Pursuit of a Greater Payday and Car Parts 08/27/2014 at 12:05

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Welcome to California!!!!