California Smoging diesels
 

Got my registration renewal in the mail and it was stamped Smog certification required....

Thought it was a mistake so I sat in DMV to get it corrected for an hour... only to find out that all 1998 and newer Diesels have to have a smog certification...

a little more research and the test is a visual only to make sure that all the smog devices are on the truck and to check for excessive smoke.. (tech stands there and watches while you rev it.. then says pass or fail)..

Good thing I left my Cat on the truck..

What a crock!!!...

good thing its easy to detune a diesel to keep it from smoking. thats sucks bout the cat and stuff though. good luck passing

well took it in for its check... Everyone that has programmers better beware.. they basically plug it into the OBDII plug and check for programmers and make sure you have not removed the Cat or any smog device.. then blip the throttle and make sure there isn't excessive smoke..

What is excessive smoke I asked.. Well we know how much smoke is supposed to come out.. This from a guy reading the book to see what the truck needed in the way of smog equipment.

Glad I left the Catalytic converter in mine...

So hope your programer puts back the program it took out...

This really SUCKS!!!!

AZ I hear does the snap test as well...I live in NM and we don't even have to smog check our cars here.:jump:

I am so glad my county dosnt require smog unless we sell our trucks. Do you have to smog every year?

that sucks

It is every other year.. and it is mostly just to check that you have not modded your truck
I watched the BAR videos and plugging into the computer also checks to see if it has recently been reprogramed.. if it has """FAIL"""

I guess if you have no stored codes it is an indication that it had a programmer in it.

I was at a speed shop in CA when a guy who just got a killer deal on a new 3500HD dually and ask the counter guy is there were any chips and exhaust on the market for his truck yet...mind you this was when the housing market crashed and dealers were slashing big truck prices and the 3500HD guy got like 12K off his new truck...you should have seen his face when the counter help told him about the smog laws on all new diesels...it was like someone just took the life out of him...he was saying "you're kidding right?!...then said that if he knew about the smog laws that he would have bought an older truck...I felt bad for the clueless guy cuz he just spent 25 large ones on a diesel that he can't mod:ouch:

You can't mod Diesel trucks in California anymore?

Just like you can't mod gasoline cars newer than 1975? :scare2:

It sucks, but we're not the first state to do it and it's not illogical.


The biggest problem is that there is no emissions criteria regarding aftermarket units, so CARB stickers are impossible to get for any manufacturer. The state is too lazy to mandate an actual opacity or NOx requirement, so you can't prove that your performance device doesn't increase opacity or NOx. Banks wrote an open letter complaining about that a while ago. Making that more ironic is that we're one of the few states that actually has an excessive smoke state statute that does specify a specific opacity as excessive.

Too bad they didn't back Jedd Clampett when he wanted to put the big fan in the san Bernadino mtn's to suck out all the smogg..................... But really, The state has to do what it has to do to get bretheable air--They just ought to buckle down much harder in the industrial polluters in the big dirty--flyin into burbank is like landing in a layer of real dirty cotton wadding........