[CW3SF]

Originally Posted by Oddspyke

I suspect this is confusion about why the tuned cars are failing inspection. Many aftermarket tunes automatically defeat catalyst efficiency channels to keep your CEL off if you use high flow cats or a catless DP. This will cause you to fail inspection on any car in a state that runs obd2 readiness checks. Tunes that leave all channels ready (not defeated) should not cause you to fail inspection in any state. This same topic comes up all the time in the Cobb tuning forums for VW and Ford because all the OTS tunes and most custom tuners just turn those channels off.

The turning off of the rear sensors isn’t the reason cars will fail in CA or parts of CO. In those areas you will fail automatically if your car has ANY tune in it that is not a CARB certified tune. It doesn’t matter if the rear sensor is on or off. It’s the fact that the car has been tuned. Very few have CARB certification.

[Oddspyke]

Originally Posted by CW3SF

The turning off of the rear sensors isn’t the reason cars will fail in CA or parts of CO. In those areas you will fail automatically if your car has ANY tune in it that is not a CARB certified tune. It doesn’t matter if the rear sensor is on or off. It’s the fact that the car has been tuned. Very few have CARB certification.

I don't doubt that non-CARB tunes are illegal and prohibited in CA, but if all channels show readiness, how will they ever know? There is no "OEM tune flag" in the ECU. Even manufactures have to use flash counters and check them against their own proprietary databases that dealers track dealer flashes of your VIN so they can flag suspected ECU tuning. The only way I can think of that the inspector could know it was non-OEM would be to actually pull the load tables and do a line by line comparison of your ECU to the factory tables, which I'm fairly sure isn't happening. A piggy back or aftermarket ECU could be easy to spot, but not a retuned ECU that came on the car.

Not trying to be argumentative, just genuinely curious. Technically PA is a CARB state and follows the same rules, but I passed emissions with a tuned ECU 2 years in a row. No flags, no questions. Although, I doubt anyone doing inspections in PA takes it nearly as serious.

[CW3SF]

Originally Posted by Oddspyke

I don't doubt that non-CARB tunes are illegal and prohibited in CA, but if all channels show readiness, how will they ever know? There is no "OEM tune flag" in the ECU. Even manufactures have to use flash counters and check them against their own proprietary databases that dealers track dealer flashes of your VIN so they can flag suspected ECU tuning. The only way I can think of that the inspector could know it was non-OEM would be to actually pull the load tables and do a line by line comparison of your ECU to the factory tables, which I'm fairly sure isn't happening. A piggy back or aftermarket ECU could be easy to spot, but not a retuned ECU that came on the car.

Not trying to be argumentative, just genuinely curious. Technically PA is a CARB state and follows the same rules, but I passed emissions with a tuned ECU 2 years in a row. No flags, no questions. Although, I doubt anyone doing inspections in PA takes it nearly as serious.

The emissions testing equipment in CA and CO can detect if your car has been tuned, the same way that the dealerships can tell and void your warranty. These nazi emission states aren’t the same as the “OBD2 only” checks that are done elsewhere in the country. It’s far more in depth, and they are actively checking to see if you’ve been tuned, not just acting when a red flag appears.

[radz28]

Well - at least there are CARB-options for us that are stuck with dealing with them...