I was seriously thinking about getting the new set of headers that are available, but living in California, it makes it will be virtually impossible to pass smog. I have a 2006 is250 and plan on keeping the car for a while. My question is to to those that have pre-purchased or are thinking about purchasing your solution to the smog check and how you plan on passing smog.

If I could find a legit way (for the most part) then I would jump on this offer right away, but so far I have not been able to find a good solution. What options are there. I don't really want to swap back and forth every time I have to get a smog check as that can get costly as I won't be able to do it myself.

Any advice would be great, thanks.

 

Register your car in a county that doesn't have Smog Check II requirements.

Click here for a map showing those counties.

If you're in the orange area, you're totally screwed. If you're in the bright blue, not so bad, but still screwed. Anywhere else, you only have to smog on change of ownership. That's where you want to be registered.

 

remove your secaondaries and add some cats that can pass in cali...

 

yeah, i'm in the orange, no luck for me down here in san diego

 

Let me add some real value to this thread very quickly. If you don't live in California, and have never lived in California, you probably have no clue what a California smog inspection is like and your input is misguided at best.

The suggestion above would never pass Cali smog. Ever. It's not the tailpipe inspection that causes the problem, it's the visual. Everything from the factory has to be present and working correctly. So, again, if you don't live in California and have never lived in California, you very likely can't bring value to this discussion.

I lived in Sacramento for 27 years and had to deal with Smog Check II far too many times to remember. It sucks worse than anywhere else in the US.

 

basically you gotta know someone or be good friends with someone who knows someone that can hook you up. Otherwise you have to switch back to stock get tested then install them again. When I had my WRX I had some exhaust components that allowed for the reattachement of the factory heat sheilds disguising the upgraded stuff.

 

If you live in Southern Cali, go to El Monte California, and have one of the hundred Mexican Smog shops smog your car. They could care less whats under your hood, and they'll make it pass smog.

 

Too bad we don't have as many Mexican Smog shops up here in Northern Cali. If anyone DOES know of any shady ones up here PM me. lol

 

I'm with ba-b4. I'd love to get headers, but I wanna pass inspections.

 

I used to have some family members north of the border who would run those Mexican smog shops.

 

Hey I was actually curious about this the other day and was wondering something you could probably add some insight to. Lets say I get a full cat back exhaust (that removes secondary) on my is350 , live in cali and go to get it inspected. Are most of those tech's going to have prior knowledge that my is350 has 4 cats and not 2? I am guessing that even on a visual inspection most of those inspectors would look under and see the primary cats and think everything is good?? Or is there some sort of diagram or something that comes up when they go to do an inspection and they put the car/make/model into the computer and it shows them that there should be a total of 4x cats?

None of it matters to me here in TX, but I was just curious.