:iagree: Those things are pointless, especially up here. They drink gas/diesel and get in the WAY!

Are the tickets from those evil vans pricey? I can't imagine they are cheap.

Dan got one for thousands of dollars. :bowrofl:

:eek: How is that even calculated?! More smog = more $$? For sure getting those cats to hopefully avoid that.

Well its a Federal violation so you can get fined up to like $10k in some instances.

I did read that somewhere. It can also be treated as a felony I believe? Scary stuff. There has to be a happy medium of fun/horsepower and "greenness" ha

Yeah I think it is.

$25k if you removed the cats yourself

That is insane. How does the aftermarket survive? Does everyone just claim their cars are for off-road use?

Maybe I should go back to stock...NOT!

Okay, I'm fully prepared for people to hate on my dad haha...

My dad is actually an Emissions Control Officer for the DEQ in Woodbridge. Steve and Dan are right; not running any cats WILL get you in trouble and if the shop has any competence, they will fail you on the visual inspection.

Yeah, those sniffer vans are all over the place now. I see them around the Springfield interchange weekly. Just run some HFC's and play it safe man :tup:

I appreciate the input! No hate here, someone has to look out for the air quality! Just don't turn me in! ;)

I am going to add the HFC's to the exhaust. I am just hoping I can work around the emissions inspections.

You won't be able to renew your registration/tags unless you get the emission inspection every 2 years. After you get your emission inspection, the pass/fail gets sent directly to the DMV. And unless you know a "guy" who can cheat the system without DEQ knowing about it, you're stuck.

P.S. these "guys" who cheat the system usually get their inspection license and/or shop shut down for 6 months courtesy of my old man.

How CAN they cheat it? Since what it reads is what goes into the system?

A lot of times they'll use an OBD scan from a similar clean car, but still use the correct VIN from the dirty car so that as far as the DMV knows, everything matches up. Now if its a pre 1996 car which still needs the tailpipe sniffer and dyno, it's even easier for them to cheat.

I would think it would be tough, depending on how automated the process is.

The only way I will be able to get past the hurdle is garaging the car in a test-free county or getting it tested and hoping it passes. From reading through information online, it looks like for newer vehicles, up to 1 emissions-related system can register as "Not Ready". So, if my secondary o2 sensors register as "Not Ready", maybe I could still slide through? Who knows, maybe this is just wishful thinking on my part.

The newer systems are pretty air-tight. Even if a pending trouble code hasn't triggered an actual CEL, you could still fail. Trouble with one part of the system showing as "not ready", especially O2 sensors, the inspector could then look deeper into the problem and then see what your setup is under the car.