Bay Area Smog Test Recommendation

Hello

Any recommendations on smog test in Bay Area?

Tuned stage 2, No primary cats, aftermarket muffler.

Hate to do this but I did none of these mods and trying not to spend more and more money on getting it fixed.

You need to put your stock x pipe back on and your stock tune. No way you gonna pass a smog without cats and a tune in a legal way.

415rider wrote

You need to put your stock x pipe back on and your stock tune. No way you gonna pass a smog without cats and a tune in a legal way.

Also if he has a gts tune he needs to put his transmission back to stock tune
Cali is getting more strict with emissions

Most likely wont pass with no primary cats, aftermarket muffler! Almost all the shops will have the Technician crawl under and check for Cats (especially with Aftermarket Muflers). They are not taking any chances of losing their smog license).
I have DINAN (both exhaust and Tunes) the guy gave me a hard time but I point to the CARB sticker and he actually put it rhe Certificate).
Not sure if they start enforce checking ECU for tunes!
The one I usually go to is at Chevron Station off El Camino (San Mateo). The sho looks a bit antiquated so maybe they dont have the latest tools?

I passed my smog today. I flashed it back to stock tune,stock x pipe. Dct tune is ok and axle back is ok. I failed my first try because of my eventuri intake plenum. Also if you flash your car back to stock make sure all your monitors are ready if not you will fail. Get the monitors ready by doing the drive cycle.

415rider wrote

I passed my smog today. I flashed it back to stock tune,stock x pipe. Dct tune is ok and axle back is ok. I failed my first try because of my eventuri intake plenum. Also if you flash your car back to stock make sure all your monitors are ready if not you will fail. Get the monitors ready by doing the drive cycle.

So are you going to tune and change the stock x pipe?

Where did you get the exhaust work done?

Zhirm3e92 wrote

Also if he has a gts tune he needs to put his transmission back to stock tune
Cali is getting more strict with emissions

Transmission tune will fail smog?

First I've heard of this. Can you share more details?

Yeah you'll need stock cats and stock tune.

Muffler doesn't matter, and I am pretty sure transmission tune doesn't matter.

But I have heard of friends passing with aftermarket tunes in other cars, as recently as last year. It wasn't a BMW but maybe some tunes don't trigger anything?

drwankel wrote

Transmission tune will fail smog?

First I've heard of this. Can you share more details?

Yeah so basically now California smog checks files on transmission when I had a gts tune this last year it wouldn’t pass because the computer told the system my files don’t match

I've posted this before in other threads, but you can definitely pass smog test in NorCal at least with a BPM Stage 2 tune. I have passed 2 times over the last 4 years (most recently was about 9 months ago) without flashing back to stock tune. Like 415rider stated just make sure you have your stock x-pipe and the emissions/drive cycle checks are satisfied and you should be good to go.

I cannot speak to transmission tune since I'm 6MT but I don't think the smog equipment is all that sophisticated to be able to detect this stuff... maybe depends how the tunes are implemented.

I am surprised the Eventuri plenum got flagged. Did you try just brushing it off as a wrap or cosmetic change?

I just passed smog last week with a Dinan Tune and an OEM x pipe. The smog tech only checked to make sure all monitors were in ready state. My evap monitor was not ready, but apparently wasn't required.

I do find it pretty interesting how strict CA smog rules and testing are, but hearing multiple stories of people passing with tunes and aftermarket parts.

Makes me wonder...where is the inconsistency? Is it truly at the discretion of the smog technician? Visual checks I understand, but how does one pass with an aftermarket tune when others fail?

Or do some tunes just not get picked up by testing software as easily? I thought the test happened and the machine sends the data to DMV directly, no where for the technician to edit it.

wheatpaste wrote

I've posted this before in other threads, but you can definitely pass smog test in NorCal at least with a BPM Stage 2 tune. I have passed 2 times over the last 4 years (most recently was about 9 months ago) without flashing back to stock tune. Like 415rider stated just make sure you have your stock x-pipe and the emissions/drive cycle checks are satisfied and you should be good to go.

I cannot speak to transmission tune since I'm 6MT but I don't think the smog equipment is all that sophisticated to be able to detect this stuff... maybe depends how the tunes are implemented.

I am surprised the Eventuri plenum got flagged. Did you try just brushing it off as a wrap or cosmetic change?

Stage 2 tune requires removal of primary cats. How were you able to pass?

Thumbie wrote

I do find it pretty interesting how strict CA smog rules and testing are, but hearing multiple stories of people passing with tunes and aftermarket parts.

Makes me wonder...where is the inconsistency? Is it truly at the discretion of the smog technician? Visual checks I understand, but how does one pass with an aftermarket tune when others fail?

Or do some tunes just not get picked up by testing software as easily? I thought the test happened and the machine sends the data to DMV directly, no where for the technician to edit it.

+1 - so far I've heard engine tune (BPM Stage 2) will fail the test. It also requires primary cats removed.

itrocks4u wrote

Stage 2 tune requires removal of primary cats. How were you able to pass?

Correct, for normal conditions. For purposes of the smog test you have to have primary cats/OEM xpipe in place, you can't get around that in CA due to visual inspection.

The car still works fine with BPM Stage 2 tune and OEM xpipe, at least for short periods of time, allowing you to complete a smog test for example.

Each smog station and smog tech can be a little different, so your mileage may vary. Really my only point here is that in my experience (passed 2 tests in the last 4 years), a BPM tune alone will not cause you to fail a CA smog test as long as the rest of your car is compliant (OEM xpipe, emissions readiness monitors good, no check engine lights, etc).

So what I am hearing is that I have no excuse not to get a tune

wheatpaste wrote

Correct, for normal conditions. For purposes of the smog test you have to have primary cats/OEM xpipe in place, you can't get around that in CA due to visual inspection.

The car still works fine with BPM Stage 2 tune and OEM xpipe, at least for short periods of time, allowing you to complete a smog test for example.

Each smog station and smog tech can be a little different, so your mileage may vary. Really my only point here is that in my experience (passed 2 tests in the last 4 years), a BPM tune alone will not cause you to fail a CA smog test as long as the rest of your car is compliant (OEM xpipe, emissions readiness monitors good, no check engine lights, etc).

I cannot get my head around this statement.

itrocks4u wrote

I cannot get my head around this statement.

LOL why? Software and hardware can be independent... Is it ideal, no. Does it work in a pinch, yes.

The normal CA OBDII smog test only checks the car electronically, it's not like the old days where they ran the car on the dyno under load and sniffed/measured the tailpipe emissions.

I've had this same BPM tune on the car since 2014 at this point (and put on roughly 50,000 miles) and have had no issues. I don't know if all tunes are created equal, but this is my experience.

itrocks4u wrote

So are you going to tune and change the stock x pipe?

Where did you get the exhaust work done?

I already have the tune on my car that I can remove anytime. I’m just waiting on my new registration and put the car back on stage 2 tune full IPE exhaust.

wheatpaste wrote

I've posted this before in other threads, but you can definitely pass smog test in NorCal at least with a BPM Stage 2 tune. I have passed 2 times over the last 4 years (most recently was about 9 months ago) without flashing back to stock tune. Like 415rider stated just make sure you have your stock x-pipe and the emissions/drive cycle checks are satisfied and you should be good to go.

I cannot speak to transmission tune since I'm 6MT but I don't think the smog equipment is all that sophisticated to be able to detect this stuff... maybe depends how the tunes are implemented.

I am surprised the Eventuri plenum got flagged. Did you try just brushing it off as a wrap or cosmetic change?

I did, but they finicky about it.lol I have the dct tune also and I passed the smog without flashing it back to stock.

wheatpaste wrote

LOL why? Software and hardware can be independent... Is it ideal, no. Does it work in a pinch, yes.

The normal CA OBDII smog test only checks the car electronically, it's not like the old days where they ran the car on the dyno under load and sniffed/measured the tailpipe emissions.

I've had this same BPM tune on the car since 2014 at this point (and put on roughly 50,000 miles) and have had no issues. I don't know if all tunes are created equal, but this is my experience.

So if I fix the stock (put back primary cats on stock x pipe) with remus muffler, but leave the BPM Stage II tune on, I should pass?

itrocks4u wrote

So if I fix the stock (put back primary cats on stock x pipe) with remus muffler, but leave the BPM Stage II tune on, I should pass?

Yes you should pass. Make sure your emissions readiness monitors are good to go (evap typically doesn't need to show as ready but everything else needs to). There is a free app called 'OBD Auto Doctor' that you can use to double check that all your readiness monitors are ready before you take it in for the smog test.