State ref california smog

angel locz

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Hello everyone i apologize if this is the wrong section for this post if but just wondering has dmv sent you to get smogged by a bar ref. I bought my 03 cobra back in 2017 did a regular star smog and passed and this year 2020 went to smog as the smog tech puts my info he said i needed to go to a ref he looked at my paperwork and didnt even understand why?

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01yellercobra

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It's happening to a lot of people. It depends on the tune you're running. If any of the monitors are shut off it'll send you right to the ref station. There's a lot of threads on here about it.
 

angel locz

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It's happening to a lot of people. It depends on the tune you're running. If any of the monitors are shut off it'll send you right to the ref station. There's a lot of threads on here about it.
Really i bought the car off a dealership didnt expect a car to be tuned
 

me32

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Lmao at low budget but yeah a used car dealership i wouldnt say its super low budget had a couple nice vehicles

Yeah ill be honest the low budget or knock off dealerships really dont care how vehicles come in. Its in and out. They do as little work as possible to have the vehicles for sale. So its no surprise the vehicle had a tune on it. Most of the big name dealerships will send vehicles to auction if the vehicles they take in cost too much to repair or arent sellable at there lots.
 

01yellercobra

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Ford dealerships usually flash everything back to stock since they have the equipment. I doubt it even crosses the mind of a normal used car dealership.

Treed by me32.
 

angel locz

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Yeah ill be honest the low budget or knock off dealerships really dont care how vehicles come in. Its in and out. They do as little work as possible to have the vehicles for sale. So its no surprise the vehicle had a tune on it. Most of the big name dealerships will send vehicles to auction if the vehicles they take in cost too much to repair or arent sellable at there lots.
Makes sense but dont dealerships have to smog car before sale causing me to get sent to state ref the first year i own vehicle not 4 yrs later?
 

me32

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Makes sense but dont dealerships have to smog car before sale causing me to get sent to state ref the first year i own vehicle not 4 yrs later?
Yes car still has to get smog but some of those dealership have there own smog or a smog next door that will get it to pass for sale. The unfortunate side is the next buyer may end up with the issue. And as most vehicles are sold AS IS.
 

angel locz

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Yes car still has to get smog but some of those dealership have there own smog or a smog next door that will get it to pass for sale. The unfortunate side is the next buyer may end up with the issue. And as most vehicles are sold AS IS.
For sure thanks guess ill figure it out worst comes to worse i guess i buy a whipple since there 50 state legal since the car came with an aftermarket pulley
 

decipha

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I heard a rumor within' the EPA that too many 03/04 cobras were getting referred to ref's so they are all going to get defaulted to be sent to ref's regardless from now. Can you verify if a ref was required BEFORE they even plugged in to the car to validate this?

In any case ALWAYS backup your existing tune before getting it re-flashed. Just in case they did something to the car that required some custom code or the like a re-flash to stock could literally make the vehicle inoperable and if something custom was done could cost you several thousands of dollars to diagnose and resolve.
 

03 DSG Snake

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Tons of Lightnings and Cobras have been getting sent to the ref lately. Fun stuff. Mine is on the list as well.
 

P49Y-CY

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I heard a rumor within' the EPA that too many 03/04 cobras were getting referred to ref's so they are all going to get defaulted to be sent to ref's regardless from now. Can you verify if a ref was required BEFORE they even plugged in to the car to validate this?

in my case, neither me or my local smog shop knew that i would need to be sent to the ref until he plugged it into the state computer. at that point it wouldn't let him proceed any further.
 

wckdvnm

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You can check that status online. Don’t recall the page off the top of my head but my 04 is on the list as well.
My car has a SCT tune on it but it didn’t when I smogged it last and that’s due to it being smogged AFTER ford flashed it after the car got hit... 6 months later I got it tuned on SCT software.


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angel locz

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I heard a rumor within' the EPA that too many 03/04 cobras were getting referred to ref's so they are all going to get defaulted to be sent to ref's regardless from now. Can you verify if a ref was required BEFORE they even plugged in to the car to validate this?

In any case ALWAYS backup your existing tune before getting it re-flashed. Just in case they did something to the car that required some custom code or the like a re-flash to stock could literally make the vehicle inoperable and if something custom was done could cost you several thousands of dollars to diagnose and resolve.
Nope my smog paper work says just "star smog" the smog tech plugged it in and it said i had to get reffed and i can i just buy an sct tuner and save it? The only thing i have on car that i know of is carb legal headers, and intake, new cats, and not carb legal part is the pulley 3.1inch though thats how it came from a used car dealership according to smog history it passed a month before i bought it
 

angel locz

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You can check that status online. Don’t recall the page off the top of my head but my 04 is on the list as well.
My car has a SCT tune on it but it didn’t when I smogged it last and that’s due to it being smogged AFTER ford flashed it after the car got hit... 6 months later I got it tuned on SCT software.


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Yeah im guessing ima need to reflash it save stock tune and tune with a sct tuner
 

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