Crooked Smog Test!!

[Guest]

So everydoby has to smog test, specially in Cali. Now and then you get people asking if you "know" someone who can "pass" the smog test on a gross polluter. But this month a friend encountered the flip side to this. He went to smog a Civic (which I repaired) and he got failed, the timing being off a few degrees. I adjusted it. Smogged second time, failed for the same thing, timing. At this point I'm PO'd because I've wrenched single cam Civic all day long when I had my shop and watched my old man do those things blind folded.

 

So I called two Honda master mechanics. One came out to double check my work and told me it was fine. So I'm like WTH? I took it to my smog check guy to do a pretest to make sure all is A OK. It passed. I didn't have him do the official test because after you are failed twice in one location and suddenly go to another location and it passes, it looks fishy and may draw a red flag with DMV.

 

My friend took it back to the orginal place he was failed at and would you believe the SOB failed the car again!! At this point I'm certain my friend is getting scammed by a croocked smog test location that fails people over and over to keep collecting on retests and "repairs".

 

Took it to a third party smog test where it passed with no problem just as it had in the pretest my smog guy did. There are all kinds of crooks out there. I told my friend to report that SOB to the BAR, DMV and BBB.

[88conquest_nutz]

im glad we dont have any of that here. both my cars would fail with flying colors. all you do here is go to the dmv and pay your property taxes and your good to go, no one even looks at your car. but that sux about your friend, how much does it cost every time he went to have it checked??

[Project83]

Man that sucks. I'm glad they don't have smog testing here in Oregon, I "think" a couple of my cars would pass... but the rest wouldn't.

[Guest]

He got nailed $75 the first test and $30+ every "retest". I don't know why the SOB doesn't just charge the $140 a smog test he wants to make instead of failing people till he gets the amount he wants.

[Big Al]

See at least VA has the right idea. Charge $16 for the safety test and retests are $1. Makes it not worth the shops while to keep retesting to get $

[M Code]

You have not supplied enough information.

Why did it fail?

Failed operation 15MPH test? 25MPH test? Nox?

Failed visual?

 

Also you need to compare the printouts, as there are tolerances between smog measuring machines..

 

What we do is to take the car to a friendly shop and do a pretest..

 

There are tricks and short cuts available.. But we will leave this for another time..

 

Just my $0.01..

[conquezzy]

See at least in some places of VA has the right idea. Charge $16 for the safety test and retests are $1. Makes it not worth the shops while to keep retesting to get$ Other places in Va don't smog test and really pisses me off!

 

 

LOL Fixed

[spoolinturbo]

we need to get rid of emissions laws

[conquezzy]

we need to get rid of emissions laws

My sister won't allow that LOL!

[Komeuppance]

Man that sucks. I'm glad they don't have smog testing here in Oregon, I "think" a couple of my cars would pass... but the rest wouldn't.

 

There is in the Portland Metro Area... and down south in Medford too...

 

Just wait, your hippie town near you will adopt it too!!

 

-Robert

[TheWormForEver]

My sister won't allow that LOL!

 

Ha ur sister doesn't like emissions

[TexasQuest]

Is the car modified? He may have something against modified vehicles, especially imports.

[Burton]

Luckily down here in San Antonio, I only have to worry about safety inspection, but other counties in Texas have it. I'm sure SA will get it soon, but I'm fortunate enough that I live about 10 miles outside of the county that SA is in, so unless it becomes state wide, I'm safe.

[TexasQuest]

Yeah your lucky burton. I'm sure Bexar county which I think is what san antone is in will have smog testing first before it's outlying areas. At least that's how they did it up here in dfw.

[Guest]

Is the car modified? He may have something against modified vehicles, especially imports.

 

The car is completely stock, just for the purpose Honda built it for, transportation. It's got 13" wheels for gods sake and my friend is in his 40's and a straight edge guy. That smog check prick was just looking to make a buck. I guess because of the neighborhood he's in, a little on the higher end of things and very few shops around he figures he can "F" with people and no one will question it.

 

I was at Formula Drift Round Two in Atlanta Georgia this past week end. Flying over the US and coming into the Georgia I was amazed on the air quality and how clear things are in that side of the country. Then flying back to Cali and seeing all the smog and how very little visibility there is, I began to really understand why we have such emmissions laws.

 

By the way Georgia is beautiful, I loved all the green in the Atlanta outskirts.

[Project83]

There is in the Portland Metro Area... and down south in Medford too...

 

Just wait, your hippie town near you will adopt it too!!

 

-Robert

It would have to go statewide for it to hit here, at least thats what i keep telling myself. lol

 

The guy who owned the shop i worked at for a while took a job on for a buddy who had bought like 5 or 6 cars from a Cali government auction None of them passed emissions and he had to take them like 200 and some odd miles for each retest it was a nightmare, thats the most i've had to deal with emissions. I get nervous every time i hear about new emissions laws for Oregon and start trying to figure how off i'de be from passing with my cars.

Same guy i worked for used to have a shop in Cali and he got busted for "passing" cars till he just stopped doing emissions testing... this was back when they first started that though.

 

Did your friend ever report this shop for all the hassle with his Honda?

[Guest]

It would have to go statewide for it to hit here, at least thats what i keep telling myself. lol

 

The guy who owned the shop i worked at for a while took a job on for a buddy who had bought like 5 or 6 cars from a Cali government auction None of them passed emissions and he had to take them like 200 and some odd miles for each retest it was a nightmare, thats the most i've had to deal with emissions. I get nervous every time i hear about new emissions laws for Oregon and start trying to figure how off i'de be from passing with my cars.

Same guy i worked for used to have a shop in Cali and he got busted for "passing" cars till he just stopped doing emissions testing... this was back when they first started that though.

 

Did your friend ever report this shop for all the hassle with his Honda?

 

 

I told him to, I don't know if he followed through though. The one and most recent emissions law that I think is BS is the one relating to Diesel powered anything. Those stupid filters that diesels are equipped with make the engines lose power and I've been hearing that they kill the life of turbos and diesels engines themselves.

[Big Al]

I would think that there would be a printout of the test available. Someone should have the law amended to require that to be available so that you yourself can verify the smog failing points. Would go a LONG way in keeping shops honest.

[ucw458]

I would think that there would be a printout of the test available. Someone should have the law amended to require that to be available so that you yourself can verify the smog failing points. Would go a LONG way in keeping shops honest.

 

You do get a printout. Pass or fail you get a sheet telling you how the car did and what failed.

[Guest]

You do get a printout. Pass or fail you get a sheet telling you how the car did and what failed.

 

That's the "F" ing part that gets me, he did get a print out each time and in those print outs in the first two fails it showed all emissions passed but was failed due to timing. Then in the last test, the print out shows the emissions failed but the timing passed??