State REF (California BS)

AFLOCOBRA

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any Cali Terminator owners been refed before? My car apparently needs to be refed.... soooo fed up of this state :mad:
 

02gt87

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any Cali Terminator owners been refed before? My car apparently needs to be refed.... soooo fed up of this state :mad:
Sold my car before I got handed one lol bunch of folks I know got reffed. If your car isn't heavily modded should be relatively easy to pass just gotta make your tune is factory and your upper and lower pulley is stock since they actually measure them.

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PC03GT

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Sold my car before I got handed one lol bunch of folks I know got reffed. If your car isn't heavily modded should be relatively easy to pass just gotta make your tune is factory and your upper and lower pulley is stock since they actually measure them.

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That's ****ing insane
 

02gt87

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Have you smogged it under the table before and that shop since got busted? Heard that’s why cars are getting ref’d.


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That's exactly what's happening. Also the machines received updates and can detect when a car is not on a factory tune and automatically stop the test and get sent to a Ref regardless if all emission monitors are still in place.

Here is proof smogs are verifying CVN's

https://www.bar.ca.gov/pdf/On_Board_Diagnostic_System_vehicle_Tampering_Prevention_10.17.19.pdf


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wckdvnm

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That's exactly what's happening. Also the machines received updates and can detect when a car is not on a factory tune and automatically stop the test and get sent to a Ref regardless if all emission monitors are still in place.

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Correct; also anyone who had been tuned by a SCT device got reffed regardless if you plugged in or not. This is transferred to the owners as well when you sell it. I have never had to smog mine illegally but I got tuned on a SCT device right before the EPA went after them.

There are mods that pass ref and make it less a hassle here but people don’t want to put the effort. I’d rather just move and bring the car back on vacation and to visit family; it may be a hassle but we have great roads worth bringing the car back for. But the smog nazis have cracked down hard.
 

01yellercobra

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any Cali Terminator owners been refed before? My car apparently needs to be refed.... soooo fed up of this state :mad:

It's been happening for a while. If you search you'll find a couple threads on it at least.

Correct; also anyone who had been tuned by a SCT device got reffed regardless if you plugged in or not. This is transferred to the owners as well when you sell it. I have never had to smog mine illegally but I got tuned on a SCT device right before the EPA went after them.

There are mods that pass ref and make it less a hassle here but people don’t want to put the effort. I’d rather just move and bring the car back on vacation and to visit family; it may be a hassle but we have great roads worth bringing the car back for. But the smog nazis have cracked down hard.

That's not true. I had to get smogged in 2018 and I had an SCT tune at the time. I didn't get flagged for ref when it was due in 2020.

It's not the tune per say. It's the fact that some of the monitors are turned off. The machines now know how many monitors each car is supposed to have. So if your car is supposed to have 7 and the computer only finds 5 its going to throw up a flag. Just make sure all the monitors are on. When I passed in 2018 I had all monitors set.
 

Fastback

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It's been happening for a while. If you search you'll find a couple threads on it at least.



That's not true. I had to get smogged in 2018 and I had an SCT tune at the time. I didn't get flagged for ref when it was due in 2020.

It's not the tune per say. It's the fact that some of the monitors are turned off. The machines now know how many monitors each car is supposed to have. So if your car is supposed to have 7 and the computer only finds 5 its going to throw up a flag. Just make sure all the monitors are on. When I passed in 2018 I had all monitors set.

Sounds like you passed smog. But the Ref is much more detailed. Yes there are many people that have had to do this, search on here. The people were saying, that had been to the Ref were needing to be 100% stock. Airbox, exhaust, pulley, even tune. But again, i have not been through this. Just what I have read, crazy shit. I've never been through a smog station either.
 

CobraBob

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What is a ref? Is this just for CA? Considering we are making America California again, it's something that may spread elsewhere.
That can just about be expected now that Biden and the Dems are pushing their climate/energy policies anew. And pushing hard! :mad:
 

01yellercobra

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Sounds like you passed smog. But the Ref is much more detailed. Yes there are many people that have had to do this, search on here. The people were saying, that had been to the Ref were needing to be 100% stock. Airbox, exhaust, pulley, even tune. But again, i have not been through this. Just what I have read, crazy shit. I've never been through a smog station either.
Yes, I passed smog. He was saying if you have/had an SCT tune you're automatically going to the ref station. I was pointing out that's not the case.

I've been reffed once, but that was for my last Cobra and it was definitely not legal before going in. The ironic part is I passed ref with the rear O2's not even hooked up and turned off in the tune. Things have really changed.
 

rolive

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My experience from a couple years ago convinced me the ruling caste wants these cars to die. I’ve owned my ‘03 since ‘04 and have always left the Diablo Predator switch in the custom tune position. It passed multiple smog checks in that configuration until 2018.

In 2018 I took it to my regular smog check station assuming they would do the typical sniff test and I would be on my way. I was wrong.

As soon as he hooked up the rig it failed me and wouldn’t let him proceed. Apparently diablo turns off a couple monitors. Shit, ok. “Can I set the switch back to stock, drive until the monitors reset and come back?” “No, you’ve been flagged for BAR referee. No one in the county can smog you now except BAR.”

I set up the next available appointment 2 weeks out. Thankfully I didn’t wait until the last minute for my smog or I could have been driving on expired tags.

So now I need to take time off work, drive 30 miles to a community college auto repair facility (apparently the indoctrination protocol calls for targeting the young) and wait 20 minutes until the ref decides to come back from lunch. Finally ‘they’ roll up in ‘their’ Prius ( I sh!t you not) and starts grilling me about what mods I’ve got and whether I have any non-CARB approved parts. I told ‘them’ the only mod is the chip with the switch. ‘They’ drove it up onto a drive simulator that looked like a dyno, did a visual inspection including measuring pullies, hooked up the rig and ran it through the tests.

‘They’ seemed a little disappointed when ‘they’ couldn’t find anything to nail me with and proceeded to issue my smog cert.

Unfortunately, as I was leaving my foot slipped off the clutch and I may have inadvertently turned $10 worth of rubber into smoke and stripes... ooopsie...

The moral of this story is that The Ruling Party wants these cars to die, and if you have any disabled monitors or non-CARB approved aftermarket goodies you are well and truly screwed.

Good luck.


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02gt87

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It's been happening for a while. If you search you'll find a couple threads on it at least.



That's not true. I had to get smogged in 2018 and I had an SCT tune at the time. I didn't get flagged for ref when it was due in 2020.

It's not the tune per say. It's the fact that some of the monitors are turned off. The machines now know how many monitors each car is supposed to have. So if your car is supposed to have 7 and the computer only finds 5 its going to throw up a flag. Just make sure all the monitors are on. When I passed in 2018 I had all monitors set.
Have you smogged since 2018?

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OSU34

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I’ve been reffed. The car has to be completely stock, and if it isn’t, you need to have CARB EO numbers for everything that isn’t. You can NOT have a a/f gauge and/or a aftermarket boost gauge. The state ref goes through a thorough test - visual & monitor check. Don’t waste your time and make sure all monitors are ready before you head there. EVAP does not have to be ready.

In regards to why, it’s not just happening randomly. Back in the day, you could pass smog in CA without every monitor ready. If your car has passed in the past without a monitor ready, they have records of that and are flagging these cars after a new rule in 2018.


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roy_1031

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What is a ref? Is this just for CA? Considering we are making America California again, it's something that may spread elsewhere.

As far as I know its a California thing. A gas powered car needs to be sent in for an emissions test every other year if it’s older than like 7 years or something like that now. The ref is a state employee who works for the bureau of automotive repair. They go over the car with a fine toothed comb and make sure everything on the car is working as it should, stock, if not stock have an approved part number from the cal air resource board all before issuing your registration. They’re like a super smog station. That’s a ref in an nutshell. Hope that helps you understand the process better.


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Sprchd83

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That can just about be expected now that Biden and the Dems are pushing their climate/energy policies anew. And pushing hard! :mad:

Ha. That's definitely what I was thinking during my original post.

As far as I know its a California thing. A gas powered car needs to be sent in for an emissions test every other year if it’s older than like 7 years or something like that now. The ref is a state employee who works for the bureau of automotive repair. They go over the car with a fine toothed comb and make sure everything on the car is working as it should, stock, if not stock have an approved part number from the cal air resource board all before issuing your registration. They’re like a super smog station. That’s a ref in an nutshell. Hope that helps you understand the process better.


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Thanks for the answer. Makes sense. Well the answer make sense. The whole ref thing is a freaking circus. I've always said I wish CA would just float away like Madagascar. Heck they wanted to succeed for a while there. Most of the of people in the state are great. Unfortunately the elite and the government spoil it for the rest of them.
 

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