I just got a ticket for no front license plate and for the RB Intake not being CARB cetified in Milpitas (near San Jose). However he did not see my RP high flow cat. On the ticket next to the infractions there were 2 boxes above the Correctable Violation list. One with Yes and one with No. The "no front license plate" had "yes" checked to it and the intake(ticket said "alter pollution sys") had "no". The bastard cop said you must take your car to a state referee to sign off on it. My question is this, what kind of procedures would the state referee do to my car ? Would it just be a visual inspection where they jack up your car or would it be a full on smog check ? Lastly, I know that I should put the front plate back on before seeing the state referee, but should I also put the stock intake back on even if the correctable violation said no ?

ANY help on this matter would be greatly appreciated!!

 

They dont jack it up unless the ticket is about a loud exhaust. So dont worry about that. If he sees that ur missing ur cat he will just fail u nothing big. Then u just return with the cat put back in. Dont waste ur time putting it back in right now though. As for the intake if it on the ticket yes, u have to change it back if the cop didnt write ANYTHING about the intake then ur free to go and the referee cant do anything about it. I had a loud exhuast ticket before so i went to a referee station and he looked under my hood asked me a question about my aftermarket intake and saying its not legal and sent me on my way.

the alter pollution thing is intakes dont change pollution thats why its not checked yes if he saw a test pipe then it would be a yes.

oh ya there a holes at referee stations. lol its all free so it dont matter i guess. Have fun tell me how it gos

 

I waited for the ticket and just paid the fine. I have a little too much on my car to take it there. If the officer wrote you up for an intake violation, I'd suggest that you put the stock one on when you get it checked out. They may smog it as well, so you may need to put your stock cat back on. I didn't actually get my car checked out, but I heard they can be thorough.

 

I thought the state referee would give a visual inspection on the car to see if all the CARB certification was on it. Surprisingly to me, the stock intake doesn't have a CARB certificate on it I think...

Would the RP high flow cat w/Greddy sp2 exhaust past a smog test ? I don't think anyone on this forum in California ever tried to smog that combination yet, so I'm curious. Also my car doesn't need a smog test for another two years so would they give me a premature smog test ?

Lastly, the ticket did say "Alter Pollution Sys." What does that mean ?

 

oh man, and here we all though the RB intake looked stock and wouldnt be obvious.

 

The stock intake shouldn't have to have carb certification, as it is part of the original certified equipment.

I highly doubt you will pass with the high flow cat, but I could be wrong. Since part of it is a visual test, I highly doubt the state ref will believe an exhaust that says "GReddy" on it, and has huge tips was sold with the car. Honestly, I'd just spend 2-3 hoours putting it back to stock, take it in, have it taken care of, and go right back and put you aftermarket stuff back on. Its either that, or you pay it off like I did. But the only reason why I did that, is because it isn't exactly easy or cheap for me to just go back to stock.

 

How much did you pay anyways Mike ? Was it some crazy fee or something reasonable ? If it's reasonable, I rather just pay it off because I don't have much time to put everything back on and off.

 

You can have any CAT back exhaust. It's a muffler.

High flow CAT is ok. You can buy any catalytic conveter and put it on your car.

High flow means it's high flow. It doesn't mean that it doesn't clean the air.

Sorry, they don't like modding the intake.

 

thats not really true.

for one, your muffler can't be louder than 96db

and second, your cat has to be an oem matched cat

 

Higher flow cat means more polution, higher emissions. It is much different that the OEM cat, which is why people switch to it. You will more than likely not pass with it, but then again I don't know for sure, and I wouldn't take a chance it if were me. I don't know about the muffler not being louder than 96db, but the GReddy is pretty loud and raspy.

As far as price, my ticket was a little less than $400. For your situation, that is way to much. Just spend 2-3 hours putting it back to stock. If you don't want to do it, you can pay me $200, I'll put it back to stock, give it back, you take it in, and I'll put all the stuff back on later.