Hi all,

I live in CA and need to get my car smogged soon. I have RPM S2 tune so i should pass the OBD2 test. However, after i swap back my intake to the stock box, I also have a catless DP. Do smog techs use a mirror to look in the downpipe to see if there's a cat? Thanks

 

It depends on how observant the tech is. The place I went for smog was upset about my ECS carbon intake, even though the CA law says intakes don't matter. He did try to look up if it had CARB approval though. So I went home and swapped the stock back in, went back and passed. He totally missed that I had replaced the hot side boost tube and have a bigger intercooler, both items that won't make any difference for emissions but are non-stock.

The cat is pretty hard to see behind the heatshield, and the tech would have to be familiar with MINIs to know what to look for. But, even if your tune is masking the CEL, your emissions monitor readiness won't be set and that will cause a fail. CA only allows the EVAP monitor to be not ready. Reference: https://bar.ca.gov/pdf/Smog_Check_OB...te_Version.pdf

If for whatever reason they use the sniffer instead of just the OBD test, the sniffer won't be fooled, it will read about 10 times the normal level of NOx.

I'll be interested to hear how it goes.