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I patched up my muffler & went to the test only smog station today (yucaipa smog) & i passed but barely. My emission results were quite high on the HC (ppm). The state changed the max on HC (ppm), CO(%) & NO (ppm) & its getting tougher for a carburated car to pass now. I wont pass in 2013 cause those looney toons in sacramento want to once again make it harder to pass. The max @ 15 mph HC (ppm) is 111 & i got 110. Max @ 25 mph CO (%) is 72 & i got 59. Those nut jobs want us to run our carburators lean & thats not too smart. A fuel injected car will pass much easier. Im good to go now until nov of 2013 so ill worry about it then. Had i failed smog i would of been hurting big time. I have only put on 3200 miles in 2 years. I think had i put on alot more miles i would of failed.
Did you change the oil just before going in for SMOG, and the sparkplugs? Did you make an effort to get the car up to speed and get the oil good and hot? My guess is that the car would run cleaner if you drove it more and harder.
How old is your cat? They don't go on forever.
O2 sensor? Does this car have an O2 sensor? If your O2 sensor is "lazy" it will pay you in gas savings to replace it.
You can lean the car out for the test, and then set it back (idle mixture) although don't go too far or misfiring will get the HC back up.
From now to 2013 is long enough to vote with your feet, if you are so inclined. I would not touch CA with your bargepole, much less my own.
I didnt change the oil & sparkplugs. The O2 censor is good. I drove maybe 3 1/2 miles to the smog station (city driving) & then i let it sit turned off for at least 1/2 hr due to a customer ahead of me. If i still have the gas guzzler (15/18) in 2013 ill be sure to have it ready for smog. I do know the smog tech & dmv suggested that you get your car good & hot & drive it for at least a half a hour or so & go on the freeway if you can. Last smog in 2009 all i did was change oil, put in premium gas & drove 3 or so miles to the smog station (city driving only). I really thought i was gonna fail cause the smog tech had his doubts like me. Hopefully within the next 2 yrs ill have a nice & economical car. With as expensive its getting here in ca i may relocate to a less expensive state to live. Time will tell.
The bottom line its harder this yr to pass then last year if you have a carburated car. With the worse legislature in ca history im not the least bit surprised. Man children running calif is NOT a good idea.
I have a smog test next month & the mechanic i talked to @ the smog shop told me to not to replace my muffler which has holes in it. The smog tech said if the muffler was in the front of the vehicle (before the cat converter) it would be a different story. I doubt it very much if i will pass due to the state making it more difficult. My car is 28 yrs old & failing a smog test is very stressful & expensive.
I believe holes in the muffler are a automatic fail in ca during the visual test by the smog tech. I have only put on 3,500 miles since my last smog test (9/11) & before that was 3k miles (9/09). Im not sure if the jb weld will hold but if i have to do something ill most likely use muffler tape again. It did hold for 2 yrs (09-11) & got me through 2 smog inspections. My olds has 124k miles on it. I bought it in 1997 @ 91k miles. Once warmed up it runs great but the mpg is terrible (12/15 instead of 15/19). I will get the cat converter nice & hot this time unlike 2 yrs ago when i drove only 3 miles & let the car sit turned off for 30+ minutes. A smog test is 50.00 & a diagnostic (if i fail) is 85.00. I bet i need a carb overall or cat converter.
when there's holes in the tail pipe do you tell the customer to come back when it's fixed or do you put the probe in the crank case? need a smog tech to answer this for me
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