I just thought you might like to know.

As of today, January 1, 2005, vehicles 6 years old or less do not require the California biennial smog checks.

In addition, as of today, vehicles 4 years old or less no longer require a smog check for change of ownership or transfer of title.

Beginning April 1, 2005, the 30 - year rolling exemption will be repealed. Instead, vehicles 1975 model – year and older will be exempt. Therefore, 1976 model – year and newer vehicles will continue to be subject to biennial inspection indefinitely.

This is in California only as far as I know.


Dave

 

Wooohoooooooooo! That's great news Dave! Now I don't need to worry about by CAI not being CARB certified. heh heh, atleast for awhile. So if there are no biennial smog checks, when WILL be the next smog check???

Richard

 

I wonder if this applies to new cars (with CARB certification, like the MINI) brought in from out of state... I bought my car out of state (in Utah) this past spring and had it smogged for the intial certification and was sorta bummed that it would have to be done again in 2 years instead of the normal 4 year exemption.

 

Yes, after the vehicle has been smog checked for the initial registration into California, the car will be exempt until it is 6 years old. This means most vehicles will be tested in the 7th year of ownership.

BTW Richard, most CIAs do NOT have to be CARB aproved as they do not alter or move major components.
Air cleaner assemblies may be altered as long as they are NOT thermostatically controlled and providing all other systems remain in tact.


Dave

 

I think you have to pay for the longer exemption. I'm not sure how much, but I know it's less than the cost of three smog checks!

 

Hi Dave! Thanks for the info!

 

So why did they change it to 6 years?

 

They got smart?
I assume they did a statistical analysis and determined that cars <6 years weren't failing (duh.)
The static 1975 exemption bites, IMHO. If you've got a car that's 30 years old, you should get a break! I'd bet most of those are owned by enthusiasts and not used as daily drivers. But maybe that's just me.
I've got a friend with an early 80's Alfa Romeo - he's about to get rid of it just because of the smog issue. He rarely drives it, but it's apparently hell getting it to pass on the dyno (CA).

 

Hahah ya I guess they did get smart... COOL saves me some trouble...

ya... my cousins car is from the early 80s and its not passing smog check so she needs to get rid of it... and guess what the replacement is... a brand spanking new M3!!!!!!!!!!

 

Actually they have screwed the consumer even more. You are correct the failure rate of the newer vehicle is low however the smog test will find some problems that the consumer will never see. These problems should be taken care of under warranty but now the warranty will be fully expired and the consumer will face the brunt of the expense and in some cases this can be very large.

As for the 30 – year exemption, when the law was enacted back in 1997, a provision was put in based on the daily driver population that allowed the law to be repealed. Well this population has exceeded the limits set.


Dave

 

Well have they? You can still go get one done yourself cant you? Either way if they passed the law or not you would be paying for one in 4 years time.

 

Yeah, but if you think that's an issue, nothing stops a consumer from getting a smog check before the smog warrantee expires (100K miles, IIRC, in CA.) Then you pay for one smog check instead of 3-5. Less bureaucracy is good.

Where'd you get the info on the 'daily driver' limits. It would be interesting to look more into that. I know Leno gave Arnie hell about it...

 

Whew! Thanks Dave for the Good News!

 

Someone told me today that the fine for a 100mph+ ticket is now $750. Has anyone heard of that one? Or an other new California vehicle laws?

 

Headlights are required to be turned on when windshield wipers are on.

 

I havel always thought they should be. If it's raining turn your lights on

Earl

 

Good point but I was under the impression that smog equipment had a 100,000 mile minimum warrantee due to federal law. Is this not correct?

 

According to the Cal DMV website, you will be charged an annual $12 smog abatement fee for vehicles 6 years old or less. No need for a smog check till you hit year 7. Also, if you sell a vehicle that is 4 years old or less there is no need for a smog check but you will be charged $8 for a smog transfer fee by the DMV.

 

Hey this is CA of course you will be charged

Earl

 

The emissions related warranty is 7 years/70,000 miles in California (3.1.4 smog check inspection manual) Fed is 8years/80/000 miles (3.1.5 smog check inspection manual). I have not heard of any change to this. The question is who would get a smog check if they were not required to. So problems could be undetected until it is too late.

But then what do I know, I’m just a smog tech and I never see any of this in real life.

I corrected the warranty info 07:40 01/03/05
Dave

 

Well you know better than me. I was just posting what I had heard at some point. Considering all the issues BMW has had with their software and recalls for emission-related stuff, I agree with you. I think I will take the advice of another poster and have the car smogged prior to the end of my warrantee period.

 

Geez - why couldn't they have changed this last year before we just got through smogging and registering 3 cars in CA?? Dang..... We have 1 that is a 58' so it doesn't count...

But something I AM surprised that CA doesn't do is a yearly car inspection? As **** as they are about other things in this state, it amazes me. Coming from VA, that's how they did it there. For $10 a year, it was at least some piece of mind that your car was in relatively good working order. Yes - it was a pain in the butt, BUT, it sure did keep all the POS's on the road a bit safer!!!

I see more cars with NO BRAKE LIGHTS around here......gee, that's really safe! And broken out windows or cracked windshields.......off the soapbox....

Chow!

Donna

 

Al little vintage car smog nightmare story for anyone who's interested:

Back in the early 90's, we had a beautiful BMW 2800cs. Antique white with a blue leather interior. Just a gorgeous car and very strong runner. We eventually decided to sell it, and had a great offer in hand, but the buyer wanted us to provide a smog test certificate. We weren't at all worried as the previous owner had smogged it before the sale and it had passed with flying colors - we even had the printout. Our mechanic pre-tested it and it was well within the limits, so we took it to a local gas station for the test. Well, the guy stopped after the visual inspection and told us that he had failed the car because we had "aftermarket" carbs. He didn't even do the actuall tail pipe test. And he failed us officially, sending the info to the DMV. Bastard!

Well, it turns out he was partially right. The carbs were Webers, put on the car about 15 years earlier, as far as we could determine. General concensus was that the OEM Zeniths were complete crap - they could not hold a tune and actually tended to produce poorer emissions test results than the Webers, so 8 out of 10 cars had Webers swapped in by the time they were 10 years old. Our car had been passing smog tests for years with these "aftermarket" carbs.

So, now that we had been failed, the next step was to take the car to some kind of state testing center and have it examined by a "referee." They did a full visual and tail pipe test on the car and came back with the same verdict - they were failing the car because if had aftermarket carbs. Except this time they had the tail pipe test results... and it had passed! But the test results were not relevant, they claimed, nor the fact that the car had passed at least two previous smog tests with the same carbs. The only way to get the car to pass, we were told, was to replace the Webers with the original equipment Zeniths. Period.

Great. So now we go hunting for a pair of Zeniths. Finally found some used ones in terrible shape that had to be completely rebuilt. We also had to replace the whole throttle linkage. By the time everything was installed, it was 3 weeks later, we had shelled out more than $900, lost a buyer who had made us an excellent offer, and... the car ran like crap! Rough and hunting idle and overall terrible performance compared to the Webers. Our mechanic struggled to get the emissions within smog test tolerances, which was never a problem with the Webers. Finally got it re-tested and it barely passed. We showed the "referee" that the results with the OEM equipment were significantly WORSE than the previous test with the Webers, but they really didn't seem to care at all. Due to their prefessionalism and vigilance, I informed them, were were out umpteen hours and dollars, our car ran like a Peugeot, and now was spewing even more toxins into the atmosphere. "Keep up the great work!", I snarled over my shoulder as I walked out the door.

The final blow was that no more than three months later, the CA smog law was revised to exempt all cars built prior to 1973. Our car was a 1970...

 

Will a CAI pass the visual portion of the smog exam since it's not original equipment?

 

YES, however some smog techs don't read.

Air cleaner assemblies may be altered as long as they are NOT thermostatically controlled and providing all other systems remain intact.

I have this in print in the state smog inspection manual(appendix K).

What fails most cars is the silicon PCV return hose that is supplied with most CIA systems for ricers. If you use the correct type PVC hose you should have no trouble.
On all the CIA systems I have seen for the Mini, this hose is NOT replaced, therefore the stock hose is used and not a problem.


Dave