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zelatore
02-18-2012, 08:13 PM
Day started out pretty good. Got up, watched xtreme 4x4 (gotta daydream about building a Jeep), went out and talked to a neighbor for a bit, then came in feeling good and ready to start on some of the house projects.

Michele was sitting at her computer and while I waited on her I cruised over to Donzi.net and saw brwn234's post about the cost of registering his truck in PA. I write back saying that ain’t nothing – just be glad you aren’t here in CA where it’s nearly twice as much.

But that gets me thinking……and I go take a look at my tuck and realize my registration expired last month!

OK…look through all the old mail and there it is. I never sent it in. (I pay almost everything on-line, so mail tends to just get thrown in a pile and looked at once a month at best). So I print up a new proof of insurance and get ready to go to the DMV. Wait a minute – it says I need to smog the truck this time. First time it’s needed it (2005 model).

Oh great. Plus, the DMV is closed anyway on Saturday.

Michele suggests we maybe we just go ahead and join AAA since they offer DMV services. Nope; all their branches are closed on Saturday as well!

I look up a smog center and see that for an extra $25, they can do registrations. OK, that’ll work. So I drive 15 miles to the smog place (closest one to the house) and pull into the line. They have 2 rows of cars running through and I pick the shorter one. Only one vehicle in front of me.

Apparently, that’s the line run by the FNG or something though, as they run 6 cars though the other lane before my guy gets my truck through his lane. About 45 minutes wait for a 5 minute test.

While I’m sitting there counting all the cars that weren’t even there when I pulled up who have now already come and gone, I realize that about 3 years ago I put a cold air intake on the truck. I can’t remember if I put an EO number sticker on it, so I grab Michele’s ipad and look it up on Summit’s website. They have a nice link directly to the EO document. By the time I realize this and pull up the forms, they are just finishing up with my truck, so I take the form up to the counter and tell the guy ‘hey, I have a different air filter on the truck and I don’t remember if it has a sticker on it for the EO number, but here’s the document’. His response is too bad, but it has to have the sticker on it so we can look up the EO docs. But wait – I’ve got the docs right here…no, we have to see the sticker.

Grrrr….!

So they fail me. I ask, ‘did it pass other than that?’ Remembering that I also have a Suprechips tuner on it set for tow/haul instead of the stock tune (the tuner was actually in the center console and if it didn’t pass I figured I’d change the tune right there in the parking lot). Yeah, passed no problem other than not having a sticker for the air filter.

So I drive back home (anoher 15 miles) and pull out all my old stuff which luckily I’d kept all these years. I even have the original Summit installation instructions and all the OEM parts except an air filter element. No sticker though, so I call Summit and after a little digging they find my original invoice from 3 years ago and say no problem they’ll mail me a new sticker.

In the mean time, I re-install the stock intake and drive up to Kragen (20 miles) to buy a stock filter. Grab one and head to the parking lot to install the filter and somehow manage to drop my nice full-polish Craftsman Pro 11mm wrench into the engine bay in the process. Can’t find it for the life of me. I spent a good 10 minutes looking for the stupid thing…Where could it have gone? I don’t know…didn’t fall through and there’s only so many places but it’s nowhere to be found.

To make things even better, that was one of the nice older US made wrenches. The current ones are crappy Chinese made wrenches, so I’ll have to shop around to find a NOS wrench to replace it.

(Craftsman has really gone down-hill in recent years. I almost won’t buy anything from them anymore, except I don’t know who’s affordable and available to replace them)

Back to the smog shop (5 miles) where they again run 2 cars through in the time it takes the to re-do my truck. Passes no problems so I finally get home just as it’s getting dark (15 miles)

All in all, today went from ‘I’m feeling productive and will get some things done on the house’ to ‘the whole day is wasted and I’m out $400+ dollars’

And, the fact that the truck passed the smog test just fine other than not having a sticker just burns my ass. If they really cared about the air as they claim, why then do they need a special sticker if indeed it runs clean? Oh, because then you can make people pay extra for the *&^$# sticker, that’s why!


So….how was your Saturday?

And, I suppose, a thanks to brwn234 for making me look at my plates....who knows how long I might have driven around with an expired plate if his thread didn't come up!

justleft
02-18-2012, 10:29 PM
Hey, You PASSED !!!! :smileybo: Now it's time to celebrate !!!!!!!!!!!!!

Conquistador_del_mar
02-18-2012, 10:43 PM
Ouch Don,
A day of your life spent on something like that makes you wonder where our priorities lie. I get mad at myself when I have days like that where no real progress is made. Those type days occur far too often for me. Thanks for reminding me that I am not the only one who have days like you just went through. Bill

Ed Donnelly
02-18-2012, 11:25 PM
I know the feeling.

I had all kinds of things I wanted to do to the Vette (Spring is around the corner)

Instead I spent the day in bed watching TV.. Didn't spend a cent......Ed

inlander
02-19-2012, 02:02 AM
everything was so much simpler then...http://www.donzi.net/forums/images/attach/jpg.gif 003.JPG (39.8 KB)

RedDog
02-19-2012, 11:01 AM
glad I live in a free state

what"s a smog test?
I was bitching last time I had to renew my truck registration - up to $60/yr now

zelatore
02-19-2012, 11:55 AM
The smog test is to make sure you're supplying your fair share of the state's required smog.

OK, actually it's an emissions test. Lots of states have them, but of course California is famous for having the toughest. (in fact, a while back when other states started to get on-par with CA's smog laws the local greenies got upset and demanded we set our laws tougher to 'keep CA ahead') I'm sure when you've been shopping for aftermarket parts you've seen the little disclaimer about 'not for sale on pollution controlled vehicles' or '49-state legal' or whatever. Well, this is what they're talking about. They don't require it on new cars, you don't have to start testing until it's 6 or more years old. Here are the official rules:
http://dmv.ca.gov/vr/smogfaq.htm#BM2535

Basically they look at the vehicle to make sure everything 'looks' stock (the visual inspection). Then they do a tailpipe sniffer with the car idling. Then the do the sniffer on a dyno at certain RPM/loads.

I'm not totally against the idea of pollution controls on vehicles. I can understand the need. But of course, like everything else, it can be taken too far. If you want to make ANY changes to your car, even things that won't affect the emissions of the vehicle, such as an aftermarket air cleaner assembly like I have, then it must be submitted by the manufacturer to the California Air Resource Board (CARB) so they can test it themselves. If it passes their test, they grant it and EO number which you must then display under the hood. I had a 'legal' part on my truck, but I didn't put the little sticker on it to 'prove' it was legal. On the other hand, I produced the actual document the little sticker was referring to, but they still wouldn't accept it.

In my opinion, if you want to have smog testing you should only do a sniffer test. What difference does the visual make? Who cares if you put a whole different engine under the hood, so long as your vehicle still produces under the required emissions levels? The way the rules are written now, I could take the hemi out of my truck and put a Prius motor in there producing a fraction of the emissions and it would still be illegal.

Enough ranting. That was yesterday. Today I can put my 'normal' filter assembly back on the truck and while I'm there jack it up and see if I can find my good 11mm wrench!

tmh
02-19-2012, 12:52 PM
But all those regulations are to protect us. The positive thing is the regulations help California remain business friendly and cost competitive and the state has learned from its previous ideological mistakes. Job opportunities and a vibrant economy are just around the corner!

Ed Donnelly
02-19-2012, 06:31 PM
Don; If you don't find your wrench let me know.

I will ship you a real wrench A Gray wrench.. They are celebrating 100 yrs here in Canuck land........................Ed

silverghost
02-20-2012, 11:51 AM
The question I have to ask is~

If you had not told them that you had an non-stock, non-original, aftermarket performance air cleaner , without a proper California C.A.R.B. smog sticker on it~~~

Would the smog inspection station guys have really have noticed it on their own if you had Not told them about it ?

I never tell the PA Emissions inspection guys about any performance mods, or ECM chips & reprogramming, I have installed on my cars & 454 SS truck .

Just Say N20
02-20-2012, 12:46 PM
but all those regulations are to protect us. The positive thing is the regulations help california remain business friendly and cost competitive and the state has learned from its previous ideological mistakes. Job opportunities and a vibrant economy are just around the corner!

:lol9:

zelatore
02-22-2012, 11:56 AM
Ed, thanks for the offer, but I'll just pick up another matching wrench when I find one. It's not like it was the only 11mm I had, it just happened to match that set.

Brad, they did notice. It has a big logo molded into it so that's no surprise. On the other hand several years ago I had an Alfa Romeo GTV6 that originally had a 2.5 liter V6 which had been replaced with a later 3.0 liter V6 with aftermarket headers. But since few people have ever heard of Alfa Romeo, and even fewer know they made cars other than the
Spider, and even fewer yet know anything about their V6 motors/cars....well, I never had a problem smogging it since they just didn't know what it was!

As for the comments about our bright and vibrant economy....I have no defense. Then again, we're not alone in that particular boat. Although I confess I was looking at jobs in the Portland area just this morning. Of course, you guys will all tell me about how Oregon/Washington are just California v2.0

gcarter
02-22-2012, 01:27 PM
Florida has none of that crap........

Not that it wouold make any difference w/all the out of state/out of country cars here.

zelatore
02-23-2012, 10:22 AM
Florida has many good things, but it's lacking one critical thing for me: Mountains. Heck, even just some decent hills!

You're going to have to sell pretty hard to get me to overlook that little detail George!