Working on moving to the LA area sometime after I graduate BMW STEP in October. How bad is California State Inspection in terms of car mods? My E36 has a S52 swapped into it, ACS exhaust, Conforti intake, and ZKW's on it (those are the mods that I figure may cause problems). Will I have any problems passing Cali inspection with this stuff? How often does inspection take place in cali? How bout frequency of emissions testing? I assume that cali does OBD2 plug-n-scan for '96 and newer vehicles, right? Just trying to gather all the info so i'm not surprised by anything related to my car after I move. Thanks in advance.

How hard was Nazi Germany on ..................?????

You just need the right connections, find someone who takes care of emissions and stick to being good friends with them.

*cough* I might be able to help a little but nothing I would post. You gotta contact me otherwise for that info.*cough*

You know nothing from me. *Poof*

Working on moving to the LA area sometime after I graduate BMW STEP in October. How bad is California State Inspection in terms of car mods? My E36 has a S52 swapped into it, ACS exhaust, Conforti intake, and ZKW's on it (those are the mods that I figure may cause problems). Will I have any problems passing Cali inspection with this stuff? How often does inspection take place in cali? How bout frequency of emissions testing? I assume that cali does OBD2 plug-n-scan for '96 and newer vehicles, right? Just trying to gather all the info so i'm not surprised by anything related to my car after I move. Thanks in advance.


With your current list of mod, you might "slightly" pass the emission. If your car is pre 96, then don't worry about the OBD2 plug check. There's no difference between the 2.5l to the 3.2l engine related to the amount of emission it emitt, so you're cool on that one.

I would recommend you removed the intake( if it doesn't come CARB certify). Because in the Republic of California we have a boards the govern how much emission we can throw into the wind, and they all called CARB (California Air Resource Board). They mandate whats allow or what's not allow on vehicle.

You probably heard rumors about CHP (california highway patrol) now have the power to pull you over and give you a ticket for having a loud exhust, just because HE THINK its loud :mad regardless if you're CARB or not.

Also, since you will be living in LA. I recommend you stay away from the hood areas. Local police and Carb officals LOVE to do surprise road emission checkpoint. I am talking they have the whole sabang and roller to check your car emission. :eek: Sure hell, surprise me when I got caught up on one of those.

Just have this in your mind, there's 100 of fish (us, who mod cars) and only one shark (police) to catch us. Some will get caught, but most will get away :) Just hope you're the one that got away, this time ;)

You can't have an engine in your car that is older than your car, it won't pass. Our smog laws are the toughest in the nation. traffic laws are pretty standards, I would think.

yea, they do the obd-II plug in thing. if you're required to go to a smog place with a dyno, they'll check other things too like your gas cap. like what was suggested, it's best to bring your car to a place where somebody you know, knows the owner. this will make it much less painful. and they can even do a pretest (not reported) to make sure your car does pass.

make sure you drive your car hard for 15 min or so, to get the cats hot. let your car idle when you get to the smog shop. make sure they test your car right away, so it doesn't sit in the parking lot.

as for other mods, don't worry about the zkw's (nobody can really tell). cali inspection only involves smog. clear corners are usually not a problem either, as long as you don't use some ricer blue bulbs. just make sure it's white or amber (amber is still safer though imho, even though white is legal. it's just white sticks out more at night). and depending on how strict your area is on front plates, you may consider throwing it on just to avoid harrasment.