3rd-World

Really seriously thinking of doing the Softronic or Cobb.
Anyone in CA have performance tune & can share their smog check experience or issue passing smog check?
Thx

SF997S

Great question...anyone??

Wayne Smith

Mine is stock excluding Fisters. I'll be going in this month for my smog. I'm told the Fisters could be a problem. I'm told any tune will be a problem. I'm not sure if individual stations will be that attentive. But the laws, I am told, are pretty clear. But the laws are new. I'm looking forward to hearing from others here.

yelcab

The station does not need to look. If you have a different after market tune, a few things can happen.

1. The check sum returned by the ECU to the main OBD computer in Sacramento will be different, and
2. The data pattern returned by the ECU to the main OBD computer will not be the same as the 99% of the other cars they see.

Either is a fail. This is new for 2022.

carbonduc27

The key to passing CA smog is a visual inspection to make sure you have cats and then a obd sensor check to make sure your O2 sensors are online and reading correctly. Tunes can sometimes turn off O2 sensors to prevent check engine lights.

I have a Cobb tune on mine and I just reprogram to stock then drive it for a few days to get the sensors back online. Once the Foxwell reader tells me the O2s are reading OK I head off to the smog guy.

They no longer do the "sniffer" test (at least in my county) so they do not run the car at specific rpms to test for NoX or CO. I have had cars with gutted cats and an O2 spacer that I could get to pass by driving carefully until the O2 sensors said "ready".


Short Version - If you tune, use a company that allows you to flash back to stock (such as Cobb) so everything reads normal and make sure you have cats and a CA legal intake.

jamesinger

As a side note, I would be shocked if your fisters got a second look, especially if welded and painted with ceramic paint by Darrin. The cans look OEM. @carbonduc27 has had a similar experience to me in LA County with other cars and now with my 997.1 C2S. I do not have a tune but the procedure is exactly what I experienced for my first 2022 smog. I have been told that you need to be able to flash back to the OEM/factory tune to pass but I have also not heard of people just going for it with an off-the-shelf tune or a custom tune.

My BIG exciting 2022 SMOG experience:

I drove 20 miles out to the valley for work. Car sat for a few hours while I took care of a few things that couldn't be done remotely. I drove back in typical afternoon LA traffic. Once I was back in my area, I pulled into the smog place and kept it running. Sleepy grandpa I have gone to for the last 10 years (and 5 cars) got up from his nap, gave me paperwork, walked around my car, plugged my it in, walked around the car a little more acting like he was using a mirror that airport cops use to look under the car...must've seen my cats...then he poked around the rest of my car casually, peeking into the engine bay pretending to understand it, and walked back to his computer. I am not even sure if he did the gas cap check. Computer told sleepy grandpa the car passed. He finished up the paperwork and would've already been back to napping if some annoying LA type cliche lady had not blocked me in by parking weird while she was yelling into her cell phone walking around her car visually annoyed that no one was already helping her. This angered sleepy grandpa smog man who harshed her out of my way and I was off!!

jayzbird

So does flashing a Cobb back to stock require going through the whole drive cycle as if you cleared codes or disconnected the battery to get back to readiness?

BAR said when they launched this ecu checksum compare that they were not applying it globally, at least not yet. It seems if they were matching our cars we’ve have heard on here.

Wayne Smith

FWIW, went through CA smog today.

2010 C4S PDK @ 145K miles. Stock but with platinum plated Fister. So this response doesn't address the concern of a tune

Sacramento verified and accepted the check sum.

The mufflers got looked at but since the inspector wasn't sure where the motor was located I figure he didn't know what to look for. And they do look pretty stock (original).

In and out in 10 minutes. $60. Nice to have that in the rear view mirror for another two years.

PRC928

I have a '06 997S with a Softronic tune. Our shop is a Softronic dealer. I called Scott and asked about this specifically prior to my smog last fall right after this stupid rule took effect. He said it is not a problem as he does not change the check sum parameters. Sure enough, went right through.