A warning for the California people, and where to get a cheap cat?

[Gokou]

I'm looking to get a THDP soon, and I was going to just run a test pipe, but I'm here in California, and I read a rather scary article in my local paper this week where about a dozen cars (mostly ricers) were confiscated for federal emissions tampering when they had to go through a roadside smog check "trap." The cars were confiscated because they didn't have cats, which counts as federal emissions tampering, and the cars were sold at auction! I was under the impression you'd just get a fix it ticket... boy was I ever wrong.

Needless to say, I'm now VERY nervous about driving my TTA around with a test pipe so I want to gut a cat and slap it on so it will at least pass a roadside visual. I will buy the THDP with the Cat through John's Performance (and keep that one intact for smog testing every 2 years) but that means I'll need another one to gut. He also sells the cats seperately, but I'd rather not pay $150 for another new 3" cat just so I can beat the stuffing out of it with a pipe... is there a cheaper solution?

Thanks guys...

 

[Black Car]

If your cat is like the 86-87 Buicks ones, then you could cut the inlet neck right at the weld just before the body of the cat.
Then I had 3" pipe welded into the hollow cat. It looked like any other cat.
If your opening isn't big enough then you could use a 2-3/4" to 3" reducer pipe instead of the straight 3" pipe.
This is what I did when I was living in Fremont, CA.

Gary

 

[gofstbuick]

What town did this happen in and when (or newspaper and date)?
Not that I doubt you (well, yes I do), but something like this would have spread though the agency I work for. Usually, a vehicle is confiscated for lack of registration, warrants or safety. Vehicle code section 27156 relates to air pollution control devices and no where in the code does it warrant confiscation. In fact, it says in 27156 (d): If the court finds that a person has willfully violated this section, the court shall impose the maximum fine that may be imposedin the case, and no part of the fine may be suspended and section 42001.14 describes the imposed fines for violating section 27156. So, I would be surprised to say the least.

 

[1BADDAM]

I took out my TP w/dump, and put the gutted cat back on. I have heard the fines are pretty steep. The cops in my area are really cracking down on the street racers (mostly rice), this is just an additional way of going about it. Around here, undercover officers, video the races, then around 5 a.m. they come knockin on your door and take you and your car.

 

[gofstbuick]

The descpiption provided by 1BADDAM is a far stretch from violating the federal clean air act (which by the way carries a $25000 / day fine per incident), or for that matter (to a lesser extent), voilating 27156 of the vehicle code (modified emission control equipment). So what is the story, taking the car for smog check equipment, or getting caught street racing (or evading a police officer)?

 

[Gokou]

The article wasn't very specific and did not go into details, it only said that approximately a dozen vehicles were impounded and confiscated at a roadside smog check station because their emissions systems had been tampered with. They did show a lowered Integra with a fart can on a slideback as the picture.

I'll see if I can find the article and scan it, I believe it was a few week ago. I was at the muffler shop having a new SS Ultraflo installed last Friday, and as soon as he put my car on the lift and saw the test pipe, he went into the office and handed me this article.

gofstbuick: I'm with you also and doubt the article. I knew penalties for shops which do false smog certs or emissions tampering are very severe, but I thought individuals only got off with a fine and a fix-it ticket, mostly a slap on the hand type thing, so this article was news to me. Sorry if I caused any commotion, I should have spoken about the article with a bit more skepticism as I didn't research any of the vehicular code pertaining to emissions control devices and penalties. The article may have very well be written by someone uninformed or who was fed bad information, or the article could have been written strictly as a scare tactic, who knows.

Thanks for the pointers on the cats... I like the idea of welding a straight pipe in. I don't like the idea of just hollowing a cat because I can see that big hollow chamber causing a drone and a resonance. Still, I need another cat to do this to, so I might as well just bite the bullet and buy a new one for $150, as that's probably a hell of a lot cheaper than the possible fine.

 

[tta583]

Gokou,

I just went through this. The space left by the THDP to the intermediate exhaust pipe, where the CAT of test pipe goes, is shorter than the space left by the stock DP. I searched for a "cheep" aftermarket generic CAT I could use but none had the squarish flange that mates to the intermediate pipe. Muffler shops would take a genaric CAT, cut off the flair at the end of the intermediate pipe, ditch it and the associated square plate, them just weld it all together. The only shop that offered a "bolt in" replacement was over $200 for the CAT and I was still unshure it would fit due to length. One way or another the inlet would have to be cut off and replaced or adapted up in size for the THDP. I have a gutted stocker I was going to cut down but after looking at it I would have spent more than $150 of my time to do it so I just ordered one from John and spent 20 minutes putting it on.

Brent

 

[gofstbuick]

I talked to a colleague and he said that law enforcement is confiscating vehicle(s) of spectators and participants of illegal street racing. Also, if the vehicle has missing or modified emission control system(s), a separate citation is written for violating VC27156. Recent articles in our local newspaper documented 4 or 5 major accidents attibuted to street racing (many involved fatalities), so more than likely, law enforcement agencies are cracking down. Even our Kill/fish section suggest to drive responsibly.

 

[Gokou]

I just noticed you're in Sacto gofstbuick, I'm only about a half hour south of you, and same as you, we've had some fatals recently due to street racing. Funny thing is, the fatals were at the rice races! (The dumbasses here race down a 4 lane street towards another 4-lane street and usually blow the light there, most of the accidents have been NASTY broadsiders). The article didn't mention anything about street racing, but they did say nearly all the cars confiscated were of the lowered coffee-canned import variety, so maybe they were targeted on suspicion of racing... lord knows we have enough ricers here who think they're the fastest cars on the road and drive in the best way to show off the "MAD POWAHHHHH" of their 4-bangers.

I just thought about buying the THDP test pipe and then picking up a universal cat and welding them together, but the price came out to be the same as a bolt-in cat from John... looks like I'll also be ordering 2 cats, keeping one intact, and gutting the other one.

How much is the fine for violating VC27156 by the way?

 

[gofstbuick]

My understanding is the fine for 27156 is around $125 plus a visit to the referee ($38)
Also, I have a used cat (sell cheap), if you're interested. It doesn't have a flange on it, but you can adapt something to it for your smog test. I know it's good, because it passed on my last smog check in April. So PM a phone number if interested.

 

[iwantatta]

Here is some more info from the subaru forums. They have a rolling emissions alert thread going
http://forums.nasioc.com/forums/showthread.php?t=611748&page=2