OT: I think it’s time to let go of my audi…sniff….

[bearishgurl]

[quote=flu][quote=FlyerInHi]It’s not a scam. Some countries like Germany don’t allow old cars at all.

We should develop sensible public transit. You don’t want old cars belching out pollutants in dense populated area. Move out in boonies if you don’t want to smog your car.[/quote]

Maybe not, but the Methane gas leak at Porter Ranch pretty much eliminated all of ev benefits in the state.

http://ecowatch.com/2016/01/15/porter-ranch-methane-leak-spreads/

http://www.autoblog.com/2016/01/28/californias-methane-leak-wiped-out-ev-benefits/

California’s methane leak has wiped out most EV benefits
With Methane’s Potent Effect On The Atmosphere, Porter Rance Is A Bad Scene

In November, an underground natural gas storage facility near Porter Ranch, CA started leaking. Since then, it has spewed an immense amount of methane into the air. How much is still an unknown, but it’s thrown more greenhouse gases into the atmosphere than any other facility in California.

So, what does this all have to do with cars? Well, other than the connection between leaks from facilities like this and natural gas cars, it’s the emissions. California has been the undisputed leader in moving its vehicle fleet away from gasoline. Thanks to zero-emission vehicle mandates and high-gas prices, Californians have purchased a lot of clean cars, many of them electric. Sad to say, but the methane leak at Porter Ranch has wiped out most of California’s electric vehicle efforts. As the Los Angeles Times puts it, the leak has spewed as many greenhouse gases as a car would emit if it drove 5 million – sorry, billion – miles. Yes, billion. With a B.

While the exact numbers are guesses at best (it’s impossible, apparently, to know how fast the methane is leaking out) here’s how the math is likely to work out when we compare the leak to EVs. The leak is spewing around 1,200 tons of methane per day and is estimated to take six months to repair. We’re currently in the third month. So, 1,200 tons for 180 days is 216,000 tons of methane. Since methane is 29 times more powerful than CO2 as a greenhouse gas, those 216,000 tons are the equivalent of 6.2 million tons of CO2.

Now, lets’ look at the average new car in 2016, which will emit the equivalent of about 60 tons of CO2 over its life. Given that, 6.2 million tons is roughly the same as 103,000 standard, fossil fuel cars. But electric vehicles have zero tailpipe emissions and, since California has sold a bit over 150,000 EVs so car, all of the greenhouse gas benefits of two-thirds of all the EVs in California are being wiped out by this single methane leak. That’s not to say all of those EVs were bought in vain – far from it – but it does put the Porter Ranch debacle into perspective for those of us who care about cleaner cars.
[/quote]

Porter Ranch is perfect! Got any “biz” to do up there??

[Coronita]

[quote=bearishgurl]Peeps, the moral of this story here is that if you receive a “STAR directed” registration in the mail from the DMV, you will likely have over two months before your registration expires. Don’t wait until the last week or two to get a smog check! You need to carefully plan and “prep” your vehicle for its STAR-directed “exam.” :=0

I hope flu has ample time left so he won’t be hit with excessive registration fees.[/quote]

Uh, what makes you assume I waited until the last two weeks?

First, my registration isn’t due until end of March.

Second, as long as you paid your registration, before the due date, you don’t really need to smog it before your registration is due if you don’t plan on driving it. You just get a “registration incomplete” notice, and you don’t get a registration sticker. But once you smog it and pass, you get the registration sticker afterwards, now about a week later.

Technically, you aren’t allowed to park on public streets, but if you leave the car in the driveway, or on a trailer that is registered, it’s not an issue.

So I have about 2 months to commute with it to burn off excess oil if that’s the issue. And if that doesn’t work, I’ll just have to commute to work with one of the other 3 cars that still pass smog (for now).

It was stupid for to go to Miramar. I didn’t think this car would fail, and I didn’t want to take time off to drive to Poway on the weekdays to get it smoged where I normal get it done, and I was down in UTC and thought I’d save some time to just get it done yesterday.

[Coronita]

[quote=spdrun]Googling STAR, it seems to be some sort of enhanced inspection program. I didn’t see flu write anything about being directed to such a station.

But yeah, I’d drive the thing, take it to a different station with a good reputation, make sure it’s warm when being given for inspection, and see if it passes.[/quote]

Yes, it was a STAR/test only station.

[spdrun]

He won’t be able to get the money back for his original smog test.

Dispute the charge anyway online just to make work for the slime and waste a bit of their time. Even if the answer is “no”, he’ll cause them a tiny extra bit of agida.

Corrupt people who exploit state requirements to cheat their customers are the lowest of the low in my book.

Also, report them to the B.A.R. — if enough people complain, it will also cause headaches for them.

[Coronita]

You know. A lot of people cheat the system (or at least bend the rules) and it doesn’t require finding a shady mechanic/test place (which is getting harder to do)….

I’m not suggesting that anyone should do this or that I would do this myself…But many people get around the bi-annual smog check simply by changing the car’s registration address to one of the counties in CA that don’t require a bi-annual smog check…That’s how some track cars that you know aren’t road legal due to emissions get their registration stickers

http://www.city-data.com/forum/california/719232-no-smog-counties.html

[spdrun]

It’s not a scam. Some countries like Germany don’t allow old cars at all.

We should develop sensible public transit. You don’t want old cars belching out pollutants in dense populated area. Move out in boonies if you don’t want to smog your car.

Most of the tech advances in engines came in the 80s to mid 90s with closed-loop electronic fuel injection, catalytic converters, and onboard diagnostic systems.

If the car otherwise passes the smog test and has a small amount of smoke on initial startup, it’s a scam. Plain and simple.

This assumes that there was any smoke, that the people at the smog shop aren’t just trying to scam him somehow.

NY has safety inspections. I once took my car to a shop that claimed that one of the joints in the steering system was loose (cost $200 to replace), and wanted to replace a tail light because of a small chip in the glass (cost $300). When I asked them to show me the loose part, they pointed out a part that I had replaced a few months ago after buying the car!

I told the owner to go screw himself with an icepick, literally. He kicked me out without even charging me the inspection fee — so saved a bit of money there. Nice.

I took it to another garage, it passed inspection (I asked for them to double check the joint and they showed me that it was really OK), and I added to the original garage’s collection of 1* Yelp reviews. And the garage had the nerve to respond to my review saying that I was trying to scam them, good for a laugh!

[Hobie]

you said .. ” normal white smoke on startup”.

Wondering if the smog guy saw steam from a cold start and thought it was actually smoke!

If you are not loosing coolant nor want to do a compression test maybe you are lucky and actually have a sound engine and smog guy was inept.

[spdrun]

Or register it out of state and park where a cop can’t see the license if they drive by every day 😉

But why even discuss cheating the system? As described, it sounds like there may not be anything wrong with the car.

Drive it, warm it up, take it to another shop. It sounds like it may well be fine. It’s been rainy in San Diego … white smoke on a humid day could be as simple as condensation.

[Coronita]

[quote=spdrun]Or register it out of state and park where a cop can’t see the license if they drive by every day 😉

But why even discuss cheating the system? As described, it sounds like there may not be anything wrong with the car.

Drive it, warm it up, take it to another shop. It sounds like it may well be fine.[/quote]

I wasn’t going to cheat the system, I’m just merely pointing out that the system itself isn’t exactly taking gross polluters off the road.

[spdrun]

Wondering if the smog guy saw steam from a cold start and thought it was actually smoke!

Yeah, I just wondered same thing.

It’s been rainy in SD, right? Inspector was a Californicator not used to what cars doing what they do on humid days?

Burning anything containing hydrogen produces … OMG! … STEAM! Which happens to be visible when humidity approaches 100%.

[spdrun]

I wasn’t going to cheat the system, I’m just merely pointing out that the system itself isn’t exactly taking gross polluters off the road.

As I think I’ve said … it’s amazing what kind of junk one sees on CA roads sometimes. I also find it cute that CA doesn’t have safety inspections. So you can have a car with a good engine and cat, but 100% bald tires down to the cords, loose suspension, a missing brake pad or two, and cracked lights, but yeah, it will pass.

[spdrun]

Did you pass the OBD II tests? If you did, then your cat is fine. There’s a rear O2 sensor that checks cat performance and would throw a code (and CEL) if the cat is bad.

[bearishgurl]

[quote=flu][quote=spdrun]Googling STAR, it seems to be some sort of enhanced inspection program. I didn’t see flu write anything about being directed to such a station.

But yeah, I’d drive the thing, take it to a different station with a good reputation, make sure it’s warm when being given for inspection, and see if it passes.[/quote]

Yes, it was a STAR/test only station.[/quote]I felt it had to be, spdrun, due to how flu described the paces his car went thru on the smog check.

flu, I never intimated that YOU waited until the last minute. I was simply issuing a blanket warning NOT to wait until the last minute to smog your vehicle if you rec’d a STAR-directed registration in the mail and to “prep” your vehicle before doing so.

[bearishgurl]

[quote=spdrun]

I wasn’t going to cheat the system, I’m just merely pointing out that the system itself isn’t exactly taking gross polluters off the road.

As I think I’ve said … it’s amazing what kind of junk one sees on CA roads sometimes. I also find it cute that CA doesn’t have safety inspections. So you can have a car with a good engine and cat, but 100% bald tires down to the cords, loose suspension, a missing brake pad or two, and cracked lights, but yeah, it will pass.[/quote] I was recently in the passing lane headed northbound on I-5 in LJ when a Porsche in front of me began blocking my vision with white smoke. I tried to honk and signal him to get off the road, even changing lanes and continuing to honk at him with my turn signal on. He finally emerged from his “fog” and exited LJVD/Miramar Rd spewing white smoke 3x as high as his car … hopefully before his engine block cracked :=0

[spdrun]

If it’s an old Porsche, isn’t that a feature, not a bug? Or perhaps it was a semi-retired German secret agent testing the cloaking systems on his car…

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