DupermanDave

I'm considering future career options (might join the Air Force.) The career path I want to choose may have me moving to Florida (yay), Hawaii (not so yay) or California (ick!)

I dread having to give up my truck because I don't think it'll pass emissions there. How strict are california emissions? What would I have to do to prepare to get my truck registered there? Would I need 2 cats?

As is, my truck needs a new cat (which I'm replacing next paycheck.) and maybe some new O2 sensors. It's already a california emissions truck, and I'm also missing a thing or two on the vacuum rail for the emissions parts. The previous owner moved out here about 3 or 4 years ago from San Diego,

Basically, for anyone that has moved from somewhere that did no emissions testing to california, what was required when you moved? Is it possible for an engine to be too far gone to ever pass emissions? For example, would bad compression cause an engine to fail? Not that I have bad compression. Everything is great, no vacuum leaks, no smoke while running or starting up, but the truck does burn up about a quart or two of oil between changes.

I'm looking for some honest and reassuring answers.

abecedarian

California has been sued and lost over emissions regulations. They tried making everyone bringing vehicles in and registering them in Cali comply with Cali regulations. It was struck down a while ago under the beliefs that doing so was unfairly penalizing people since the vehicle was legal somewhere else and doing such violated the "Full Faith and Credit clause" of the Constitution which essentially requires states to recognize laws and such from other states. You can contact the Califoria DMV or Bureau of Automotive Repairs for more information at http://www.dmv.ca.gov and www.bar.ca.gov, respectively. At worst, they could require repairing the vehicle to California standards since it is technically a California vehicle. At best, nothing other than an emissions test to check it complies with your state's regulations.

As for an engine to be too far gone to pass emissions, worn rings could cause failure and if the engine has been bored / honed and re-ringed, it's possible that the wear is too much to allow further repairs and the engine block would need replaced. Low compression can cause failure since oil getting in to the combustion chamber will raise HC emissions and burning oil can hasten the failure of the catalytic converter.

DupermanDave

So I could sue and go through the courts to get my vehicle exempt? That's a lot of work. I might just keep the truck over at my parent's for the next 20 years, lol. I probably can't get more than $1000 for it (though it's an awesome truck, has a lot of external damage). So it's not even worth selling.

I've thought many times about getting a newer tacoma. Maybe if I get my job it'll be a good upgrade.

I think Cali. emissions are kind of stupid. If i bought a newer tacoma here, would it be able to pass the california emissions? I'm all for emissions and trying to clean up the environment, but we need a standard across the country.

abecedarian

California cannot penalize you for bringing in a legally registered vehicle from another state. That is what I was getting at.
Your truck is legal in Colorado, right? If so, California might complain since it was originally a California Emissions vehicle but they won't have much of a leg to stand on if it's legal in Colorado. If you bought a new vehicle in Colorado and brought it here after you registered it in Colorado, California shouldn't give you any grief.

I gave you links to the relevant California beauracracies so you can get the answers you need straight from the source.

DupermanDave

I have been reading up on the links (and it gets more depressing) because they say things such as:

Question: My renewal notice says my car needs a Smog Check. But the car is out of state, and will not be back for many months. It's too far to bring it back to California for a smog inspection. Can I get the car smog checked in another state and send the results here?

Answer: Do not obtain a smog inspection in another state; it will not be valid here. You need not bring it back to California in order to complete your registration. Simply fill out and sign DMV's " Statement of Facts " form (you need the free Adobe Acrobat reader to download and print this form). The registration tags will be mailed to wherever the car is currently located.

So they make it sounds like out of state smog is invalid in Ca, and thus needs to be smog checked and pass in Ca according to their rules, no matter where the vehicle was made for.

Magnusian

Actually, it sounds like they don't want out of state smog tests done, which is understandable. How it should go for smogging is based upon your vehicle's make, model, year, and emissions control setup. If it's setup for cali, it has to pass cali, if it's setup for fed, it has to pass fed, if it's setup for fartknocker, then it has to pass fartknocker, for it's vehicle year, not whatever the present standard is (else any car over a year old would fail emissions). Since your truck is setup for cali emissions, it WILL have to pass cali emissions for it's year, outside cali, they might not really care and only require you to pass the non-cali reqs, but in cali you'll have to pass them. If it's emissions setup was for 49 state/fed/fartknocker/humdinger/dingleberry/bob, then you wouldn't have to pass cali, just the standard it was setup for.

If your registration hasn't expired out of state, and it's had recent emissions, then you should be able to get away with just changing the registration over, it's doubtful they'll require a smog until the registration needs to get renewed, not just changed over.

abecedarian

The blurb about smogging out of state only refers to a vehicle registered in California[ but is outside of California when the test is required. For instance: if my 4Runner (I'm a Cali resident) required a smog test done but the truck and I are in Washington and cannot get back to California to perform the test, I would complete the "statement of facts" sheet and send it to them with payment for the registration and they would send the tags to me without requiring the test.

Remember that their web pages are written predominantly for residents of California, not people coming in to the state, though much information is there for that as well as information for military personnel living in California.

dark_fairytales

or you can do what many cali citizens do and just register you vehicle in another state and have you license and insurance in that state as well. then get a cali id or license but do not carry both license on you as that is not legal. it is vary common place here for people to do that to save money and headaches. Also if you move due do joining the airforce you do not need to worry about any the the registration crap as you would only be in cali do to armed forces.

DupermanDave

How does that work?

abecedarian

http://www.dmv.ca.gov/pubs/brochures...militaryvr.htm

DupermanDave

I read all that earlier, it just seems a little complicated. I'd have to have a PO box over here, or use my parent's address, and have my registration renewed over here each year.

I've been thinking about other possibilities to make things easier. I was thinking about buying a new engine and having it dropped in with any sort of enlistment bonus I get, or possibly taking whatever waiting time I have and just rebuilding the engine myself. The county I'm in now (which I would have it registered under) is also thinking about doing emissions testing. I could probably pass the test here, just not cali smog.