Ca. Smog Check 03 Cobra

CSCOBRA03

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First a little back round history, I have lived in SoCal for 10 years and I'm the original owner of a 35,000 mile 03 Cobra. The Cobra has factory cats and is totally stock except a tune that has been in the car since 03, the Cobra has been smog tested and passed 5 times, I take it to the same star smog shop I have every time. Last week I took it in to the same shop he looks at my car and all is good until he connects to the Ca. smog computer and a message appears that says my car can not be smog tested and needs to go to a smog referee. I ask the shop owner what is going on, he told me that it's a rare thing and he has no idea why my Cobra needs to go to a referee. My question is to Ca. cobra owners has this ever happened to you and if so what are they looking for ? I have an appointment at the smog referee on Monday morning. I'm not happy maybe it's time to leave this socialist state!
 

P49Y-CY

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I have never heard of that exact situation before (sounds weird!), but a cop made me go to a referee once, and I can tell you that the car has to be bone stock and pass every test in the book.

Good luck and let us know what happens.
 

*Jay*

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Been reading about this same thing over on Lightningrodder, various Lightnings been getting sent to the referee for no apparent reason. They seem to think it has to do with being a targeted vehicle type or something like that since it has nothing to do with a failed test when they get sent.
 

01yellercobra

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Make sure to put it back to stock first. My guess is the monitors were turned off or missing. They've really started cracking down on the correct number of monitors being available lately.

Local guy got sent to the referee after "passing" smog. I think almost all of his monitors are set to N/A.
 

CSCOBRA03

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Thanks for all your ideas and help. I believe everything on my car is correct and in order. I'm beginning to think socialist Ca. is cracking down on some of the cars most modified such as Lightings and Cobras. Many smog shops will pass anything for a price and are doing illegal tests.

I will report back on how this turns out, it will be a interesting morning for sure!
 

Wings65288

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So for non daily driver guys how bout registering it in Nevada, Arizona, Oregon, Washington? How's the Smog rules in these states? I'm up in the most northern part of cali and guys are getting Oregon plates to cut back on reg fees. I'm wondering if it can be another way around the smog too? I totally agree it's getting very bad...Gotta start thinking outside the box. Luckily where I'm at here in Humboldt county we have NO smog period but who knows, maybe they change it one day?
 

me32

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First a little back round history, I have lived in SoCal for 10 years and I'm the original owner of a 35,000 mile 03 Cobra. The Cobra has factory cats and is totally stock except a tune that has been in the car since 03, the Cobra has been smog tested and passed 5 times, I take it to the same star smog shop I have every time. Last week I took it in to the same shop he looks at my car and all is good until he connects to the Ca. smog computer and a message appears that says my car can not be smog tested and needs to go to a smog referee. I ask the shop owner what is going on, he told me that it's a rare thing and he has no idea why my Cobra needs to go to a referee. My question is to Ca. cobra owners has this ever happened to you and if so what are they looking for ? I have an appointment at the smog referee on Monday morning. I'm not happy maybe it's time to leave this socialist state!

Who tuned the car and what may have been turned off?

My guess is it found something wrong when it connected to your computer. Because if it was a random check it should of found something when your scan bar on the registration was scanned.
 

01yellercobra

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Mine passed 3 weeks ago with K&N and Borla stinger.

But what tune is in it? I passed at a Star station back in December with a tune I loaded up and similar mods. I didn't have a stock tune to go back to. My guess is his tune is from a time when tuners would turn off O2 sensors and possibly make other things N/A. So if it's missing monitors it's going to trip a flag of some sort. That's why I suggested going back to the stock tune for the ref station.

FWIW, one of my deciding factors on getting the Whipple is that it's CARB legal. So the blower and intake (JLT) both are CARB legal. The fuel system going in....no so much.
 

CSCOBRA03

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You guys a correct, I went this morning and my issue is with the tune in the PCM, the monitors were turned off. The ref told me to install a OEM tune and then drive the car to reset the monitors and then retest, I have the original tune so I will put that back into the pcm. They looked the car over very carefully, everything else was fine, Ca. must have upgraded their test equipment as my car always passed in prior years.

My tune was from 2003 from RWTD, are the new tunes different as in do they keep the monitors turned on ?
 

03 DSG Snake

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You guys a correct, I went this morning and my issue is with the tune in the PCM, the monitors were turned off. The ref told me to install a OEM tune and then drive the car to reset the monitors and then retest, I have the original tune so I will put that back into the pcm. They looked the car over very carefully, everything else was fine, Ca. must have upgraded their test equipment as my car always passed in prior years.

My tune was from 2003 from RWTD, are the new tunes different as in do they keep the monitors turned on ?

Buy an OBDII bluetooth scanner and check your monitors are ready before every smog test.

Easiest way to do it on a stock fuel system is to replace the stock tune and drive for 30 40 until they all reset.

I had the same issues with an older tune as well.
 

CSCOBRA03

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Buy an OBDII bluetooth scanner and check your monitors are ready before every smog test.

Easiest way to do it on a stock fuel system is to replace the stock tune and drive for 30 40 until they all reset.

I had the same issues with an older tune as well.

Thanks for your reply, I was a Ford Senior Master tech for 46 years, I went to install my factory tune yesterday and my Diablosport tuner had this message ' The Application Missing or Corrupt" so now I'm trying to get in tough with someone at Diablosport, it never ends!
 

CSCOBRA03

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What is the best tuner to have these days as I had my tuner the Diablosport since 2002 and now it won't work?
 

Palacios289

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The CA smog nazis have gotten way smarter now. The main DMV computer now is programmed to know what monitors should be in place for each vehicle. Smog a car with a certain monitor n/a and you’ll probably get sent to a smog referred. I believe this started a few years back when CARB updated the smog rules to only allow Evap monitor not to be “ready”. I learned this with my 2000 excursion. Ford in their wisdom uses a OBD2 pcm, however for 2000 actually has many monitors turned off. It’s almost like an OBD1 system. was sent to smog referee who was actually quite knowledgable and passed it after inspecting (excursion is bone stock). He explained why I was flagged because of the n/a monitors.
 

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