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Turned away at smog stations in CA

10K views 19 replies 13 participants last post by  willtotheumm 
#1 ·
For the CA peeps. Has anybody else been turned away from a smog station for having an older car? Seems a bit suspicious to me, being turned away after informing the year of my car to the shop. 1 shop refusing would be ok, but 5 times raises a red flag. The reason given is their 'grades' in the "STAR" program. Any clues??
 
#3 ·
Yeap, I had brought mines in 7 different stations last year, all refused; 2 of which i went to said i had no cat.... but when pointed out they refused anyways, seemed like upon visual they would turn me down, the other 5 refused with no apparent reason, I couldn't even test it to see if it fails. Cars all stock, just the valve covers painted purple.
 
#9 ·
It is really strange, I have not heard about that. If you have aftermarket emission part without CARB sticker they might tell that you will fail ( or even not tell you, take your money and fail you after that on visual check). Why would they refuse to smog a car? Maybe they were super busy and did not want to mess with OBDI which takes a bit longer?
 
#4 ·
I got turned away earlier this year because i had exhaust piping that was bigger than stock" says the ref. It seemed like bull to me. However, i got the car smogged at another shop 2 blocks away on the same day and they didn't care.
 
#6 ·
I believe it is because older cars OBD1 require many more stringent items to check for as well as requirements required by BAR probably. OBD2 and newer cars are much simpler.

I know BAR or whatever loves to send under covers cars to many smog shops and i guess grade them or either fine/revoke their license if they do something wrong. So if you have ANY sort of obvious mods, you will likely be turned down because if shops pass them, they will get in trouble.
 
#10 ·
As for the OBD thing, I believe the first gen MR2 is considered OBD0(zero). My Corolla, the car I'm trying to smog currently, is completely stock with the exception of a fartcan that the previous owner installed. The only "mod" I have on my MR2, 1987, is Nology wires and capacitor. Not sure how things are these days, but ignition wires never raised red flags in the past. I'll try the Corolla again next week. If it passes I'll work on my MR2. These cars really should be exempt.
 
#13 ·
The reason why some Star shops are turning away business is because of the crappy way the state is grading our Star scores and how easily it is to lose our Star certification.

1. If you fail smog in 2 years. They ding the last shop that passed it. (Not fair)
2. If you have any mods that are not supposed to pass. And comes around to bite them in the behind. They loose their livelihood. State will take away the Star Certification and they're pretty much out of business.

Basically because the state is being super strict and unfair to the shops. They're all being careful on what they will smog.
 
#14 ·
This bureaucracy nonsense has me worried, my car is all stock except for a wide band that I recently installed to monitor my A/F ratio. Am I going to have to remove it when it comes time to get a smog check? Even though the gauge has no affect on emissions or performance, will it give them a reason to fail my car?
My car is a 87 AW11 NA.
 
#20 ·
The only time I've been turned down was a smog shop that I always took my cars to said they wouldn't do a midengine car. Front and rear mounted were fine, but not Mid. I won't even take my truck there anymore.
 
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