I can't believe the smog guy actually climbed under my car and
checked to see if the cat I have installed is the right one.
I had mine replaced by a local muffler shop about 4-5 years ago, and that one went bad. It was
replaced a couple years ago with a newer improved Magnaflow universal, the direct replacement for the 1st replacement. I put it in just before going for smog.
I think the very same tech passed it then.
So wtf do I do now? I think that for whatever reason there still isn't a certified replacement cat for my car, I'll have to double check. The mercedes one is like 1500? Fuggetaboutit!!

There was no problem with the emissions at the tailpipe, so I don't have to go to a referee. Just need to get it retested.

Will there be a note for the tech to double check that to prompt him,
or could I just go to another places and hope they don't look?
I heard about a guy who's handicapped and performs his inspections while
in a 'hover round' electric chair.
So pretty doubtful he'll be climbing under the car.
UNLESS he's notified to do so in the test. Anyone out there know how this works?

Like I said I passed everything else.
Spending 2 grand to replace the cat to achieve the same result and please the bureaucrats
ain't gonna happen.
Huh.
I see that Magnaflow list the 46646 as being for California and listed my year and model.
I wonder which one I have installed? Have to check that too.

Sheet. The inlet is 2.5". I've been down this road before.
2.5 is too big, needs to be 2.25" but the 2.5 one might be legal.

 

The end result is surely what counts. How you get there shouldn't matter.

Good luck.

 

PM me next time i have a guy....

 

get one from a wreckers??

 

Move to a sane state.

 

LOL, CA is truly ridiculous with their laws. I've got the same cat, and passed here with flying colors in September.

Since Magnaflow lists that cat as being registered for CA http://www.magnaflow.com/02catalytic...niversal=46646 I'm not sure what the problem was, unlelss your shop did install a different model#. You should check that first.

 

Yeah, it's a different model. But it works great. It's flat not round.
Round is probably gonna scrape.
The one I have is the 45005. 2.25". My pipe is 2", so the 2.25" slipped over the outside just perfect, and the 46646 is 2.5" is too big without doing some extra work.
It's listed as being compatible on the CA section of the Magnaflow site.
Does that mean it's acceptable to the state of CA for Smog?
It's the wrong size and form factor dammit!

My current one is WELL within the limits and it's flat.

 

Have you read this yet?

http://www.magnaflow.com/02catalytic...california.asp

If I'm reading it correctly, you'd have to use the application-specific cat (ie, mine) for your car instead of the generic one to pass CA. So my take on it is that you're hosed with your current setup, unless you get a lazy inspector or go the illegal way with Mike.

 

I would say find another inspector and see what they say

 

I'm not convined they can prove it is illegal if in fact it is.

http://www.magnaflow.com/02catalytic...california.asp

According to this Cats purchased and installed AFTER Jan 1, 2009 need to have a CARB
number stamped on the bottom, and not be picked out by the displacement of the motor.
Since the guy can't determine the # off the bottom of the Cat, and if it was installed
before Jan of 2009, why would it not be legal if it meets the emissions at the tailpipe?

Yeah, I'm probably gonna have to get with Mike's guy, or at least talk to him.
Mike, can you PM his info? And or can you ask him if a Cat installed before 2009 that was
selected "for installation based solely on vehicle weight, engine size, physical shape, size, configuration or pipe diameter" prior the change in the law,
and it passes at the tailpipe, would it be legal?

I have the receipt from the muffler shop that installed it.
Can I go to Mike's guy, or do I have go back the 1st shop.
BTW- The same guy passed my car 2 years ago with the same Cat.
SOB!

 

Well, I did a little more research, and busted the ***** of the shop that says it doesn't pass.
He called the BAR, and I called the Referre # and spoke a cool guy, who said that even if the Cat was installed in 2007 and would have been considered 'legal' at the time, if it isn't specified for your car in 2011 even with the receipt and everything, than fuggetaboutit!

He generously offered to have me have a smog referee look at it,
ha, not.

So, well at least worst case scenario I have to replace it, it's $200 on ebay, and probably get it welded for 75. I waste of a perfectly good Cat.

Better scenario is find someone with a grain of sense in their head who'll pass a perfectly functioning vehicle that passes at the tailpipe and isn't doing any harm to anyone.

 

Passed!

 

My sense of stubbornness would come in. Have the one you want, works and won't scrape welded back in and just have them swapped for the inspection. Of course more work and money than it is worth...but like I said, I get stubborn sometime.

I like the emission awareness, but your state is a bit insane.

 

Like I said, I passed. I went somewhere else.
The DMV apparently flagged for failure related to the cat, but wasn't specific.
They ran the car a while to make the cats were warm, and never looked under the car.

They are trying to maintain conformity, but yes, it's insane.
Especially when the stop lights aren't sync'd at all, and you waste buckets of fuel sitting
at lights, and spewing emissions.
If they were really serious they'd do something to make the stop light system smarter.
Too many times I've sat at a light for as long as 10 minutes in San Jose, and sometimes with
no cars going in ANY direction. Just sitting....I turn off my car most times.
All the lights now are 5 minutes minimum.

And then after waiting all that time, you drive 50 yards, and do it again.
And again. And again. I must repeat. I must repeat.

 

5 minutes!! Holy crap, I lose it when I'm sitting at a light for more than 2-3 minutes here in St. Louis...

 

At 176K miles I'm sure I'll be needing a cat pretty soon and I'm not looking forward to it. I've read where people have cut a hole big enough to pass the platinum pellets on the cat where it won't be seen, removed dead pellets, replaced with new/used pellets and resealed. Functionally it should work the same so it's not a cheat in the environmental sense. Anyone heard of this being done successfully? PM me for where in SoCal

 

+1 I am just over 171K on my cats and this is not a fun thing to think about

 

The whole idea of testing vehicles came from the Brown family that still rules California today. The saga started when the father who was a former governor, got his son to sign a bill that required all Californians retrofit their cars with a device that was to "close the crankcase" to prevent oil fumes from soiling the air. It did not clean the air at all, but it did rifle the pocket of every car owner for fifty bucks. The elder Brown's law firm represented the company making the hardware, and was paid huge money for his "advice."

Jerry Brown was not satisfied their was no income stream for government, so he invented the testing of vehicles and created the CARB to oversee the air quality. This meant a cottage industry sprang up to do the testing, and equipment manufacturers scrambled to be represented by politically connected firms. Jerry Brown continued to receive an "allowance" from his family well into his fifties, funded by the money from clean air.

Just like the camel with his nose under the tent, the emissions industry has grown and prospered with mandates based on junk science and rules demanding expensive components be approved by political bodies. This has led to things like crews working parking lots stealing gas caps and cats to sell. Toyota truck owners with bolt on cats have been hit hard because it is a two minute theft from roll up to drive off. The crooks make a hundy, and the car owner sports a $1500 bruise to his wallet.

Now you pay more for technology you don't need, and the state has stuck their nose into everything from lawn equipment to BBQ's in the name of clean air.

As long as public unions have a grip on the elected majority California will suffer under the burden of government stupidity. How else could the worst governor in California history be elected for a third term?

 

Having originally received my drivers license in the Garden State of Jew Jersey,
(Garden State? It's the most heavily industrialized, most polluted, most populous per sq mile, and highest cancer rate of all the states, though oddly they grow potatoes, but they mostly get used by Lays)
...I can tell you the idea of inspections is not necessarily a uniquely California idea.

In other states, including NJ (at least back then..), they test the WHOLE car.
All lights, headlight aim, braking distance (no sheet!), brake pad thickness and emissions.
They actually get in your car, accelerate and measure how long it takes to stop.
So, they do a safety inspection as well. The check the suspension, everything.
My 1st car was a VW convertible (the old type) and it failed for a burned out brake light bulb or some such nonsense, but about a month later, I escaped from NJ, along Snake Plissken (I heard he was dead? And taller) and returned to CA, from whence I had come.In fact, you can drive almost any piece of crap on CA roadways as long as it passes smog.
They don't check for anything else.

And as far as emission controls on cars go, well, they've come a long way, and it's not a bad thing. I can remember just feeling like I couldn't breathe back in the day.
I'd high tail it to the hills just get a breath of air, (oh the irony, and dump how much emissions to get there) and also lived in the hills just to have breathable air.

But one day, I was looking off in the distance and noticed, that hey, it was rush hour and I could actually SEE Mt. Hamilton. And I didn't feel so bad breathing the valley air.
So it has worked. When an old car goes by from the 60's, man, cough cough.
The automobile industry left to it's own devices, would still be putting out straight pipe
455's, diesels that stink to high heaven that spew black clouds, and cars that explode on contact liek the Pinto, and trucks with the gas tanks in the cab, so you can be covered with burning gasoline (oh joy!), without the governments of the world putting their feet to the fire.