The Smog Life

[The_Blur]

As many of you who have followed the news may know, a strike group that made the news this year has returned from deployment. I was onboard one of the ships in that strike group and am returning to my car build.

My Illinois plates have expired, and now I face the task of registering my car. Illinois wants me to get smog tested, although I'm calling again tomorrow to try to convince them otherwise. California says I'm illegal, but of course San Diego is filled with illegal racecars.

This leaves me with limited options:

1. Drive across the US with expired plates and get tested with the possibility of tickets along the way and failure in Illinois.
2. Make my car legal in California and get legitimately smog tested.
3. Change my address to another state but have the same problem in a year or two.

I'm open to ideas. Discuss.

[redcoats1976]

they dont test in florida,at least not yet.youd think they could give you a pass on the test just for being active service and not able to be checked in your home state.is your car wildly modified to the extent that you could never pass without spending a fortune?

[Not_Dave]

Get it back to Illinois and pass inspection there. Driving it would be illegal, only legal way would be to ship it. Driving it there you run the risk of getting stopped, probably multiple times because of expired out of state plates, and getting tickets or impounded (depending on state laws where you are). If you do that and get stopped you can try to explain, show your military ID, etc. It may or may not get you out of a ticket. Make sure you have a valid drivers license and insurance, that helps quite a bit. And for heaven's sake obey all traffic laws while doing it (if that's the route you take).

Registering it in CA of course you'd have to put all the emissions stuff on it to pass. And pay the socialist governments extortion fees to drive there. Oops, I said that out loud. I was born and raised in San Diego County, moved to TX 16+ years ago and haven't looked back. Beautiful place, don't want to live there.

You're in a tight spot. I looked at Illinois website to see if they have temporary transport plates and didn't see anything but maybe didn't look at the right place. www.cyberdriveillinois.com

[Jazzzed]

I once drove a rental truck from Illinois to Maine which had a cardboard license plate. Lol. The number was written on it with a Sharpie. I did most of my driving at night, and didn't have any problems. I would not advise that though.

Illinois re-tests every two years, so that would be a trip you would have to make regularly, even when the car is old and unreliable.

[Synner]

I've only ever mailed a copy of my orders to get out of any inspection and maintain an out of state address on my state license. Only 1 in 10 people at the DMV understand the exceptions for military personnel. Ask for someone else or a supervisor.

[Spec]

Get some stock cats (or even HFC's) and some shorties and as long as you're not popping codes, there's a good chance you will pass in CA with the OBDII testing. You will pass the visual test with cats on.

If you want to go back to your current setup, swap the pipes again afterwards at your own risk. At least tho you will not need to get tested again for a while (like 2yrs for a 7+yr old car I think).

Good luck. You're going to have to spend some money either way.

[riozlander]

all 3 sound not fun.
my only advice is to find a...........um (cough cough) less then reputable smog shop that will take a few hundred extra dollars to look the other way for the cheapest option.

AND GET OUT OF CALIFORNIA and never look back

[CamaroFred]

All Illinois does is plug into the OBD port and as long as you don't have a CEL you will pass. Takes about a minute.

You only have to do this in the highly populated areas like Chicago. Mid state there is no check at all. It's an EPA requirement, doesn't matter what state you are in. Millwaukee, Indiananapolis, St. Louis areas all have the same requirements, depending how close you are to the population center when you register the vehicle.

Last year I had my battery replaced and the CEL came on. I didn't pass but after some highway driving the CEL turned off and I was golden.

Not the end of the world as long as you get it hot enough before you go in. So blow some fuel through and have some fun.

Military used to get a pass but that was a long time ago.

I think even Champaign is going to change with the growing population.

[CamaroFred]

Originally Posted by riozlander

all 3 sound not fun.
my only advice is to find a...........um (cough cough) less then reputable smog shop that will take a few hundred extra dollars to look the other way for the cheapest option.

AND GET OUT OF CALIFORNIA and never look back

There are no smog shops in Illinois that aren't owned by the state. Probably not in California or New York either.

People live where they work and moving to another state is not usually an option.

[mlee]

First off Welcome back. We definitely missed you around here.

I'm a bit old school military, but we could always just pick a state and when in the military and not living in that state you didn't need the inspection until you actually moved back. Choose a state with no state tax like Texas (cool plates too) and run with it.

[riozlander]

Originally Posted by CamaroFred

There are no smog shops in Illinois that aren't owned by the state. Probably not in California or New York either.

People live where they work and moving to another state is not usually an option.

we have smog certified by the state but there not owned or run by the state.
its a umm..........big underground highly not legal thing to do here but there is a good amount of shops here that don't like the smog laws here.
some of them are a little BS for the laws here.

a few loop holes here is to reg your car as a kit car and under some loop hole no smog required.

any car 1975 and older no smog.
rear mounted turbo systems were popular here because you could make them for quick swap outs to stock just put the old ecu back on the car and intake smog and swap the go fast stuff back on.

it sucks for performance stuff here. glaspacks are illegal here for mufflers. there offroad only here.

there was a lot of people saying the RB26 is not legal here as well as a number of other jdm high performance motors. the state made its own law to kill street racing. if the car company never put that motor in a car with that configuration to be sold in the usa market you cant have it.

turbo kits supercharger kit and anything that has to do with forced induction that has not passed a strict set of guidelines by the state testing and given a CARB approval to be be sold and used here not legal to run.
but puff how many smog shops know what there looking at if the system is well enough done.

I have had CARB sticker approved intakes and parts on other cars and been turned away by many shops saying that's not legal we wont touch it and others who pointed out the sticker only covers the K&N airfilter. not the rest of the kit. other big money smog shops tell you its all fine because they know what there doing but at a price. its chaos here

one of the big reasons im moving to TX im just tired of the BS and stupidity and politics. I just want to enjoy my car and I cant do anything without violationg some stupid law because for some reason a sticker sez its okay to have.

like what do you do to a turbo to make it legal for the state ? or a supercharger when it comes down to the tunning to make the whole thing run with in the allowed pollution levels for the car its self WTF

just the words California and smog, makes my head hurt because of the detached stupidity behind the logistics of how they make things work here

unlkess your cars 1975 and older.......and even that has a debate its 1974 and a half because the next years models start early some late model 1975 cars have to smog

so old cars its the wild west here for mods anything goes

[nosmr2]

There's plenty of BS and stupidity in Texas, just not with modified cars.

[jrhagen]

Get a PO Box in Arizona, register the car there.

[DvKillar]

no tests anymore in Oklahoma!