[bearishgurl]

[quote=spdrun]Hence, most places. CA stopped moving the cutoff sometime around y2k.[/quote]Uh, yeah. flu’s “mid-2000” vehicle apparently got caught up in the “STAR-directed” inspection quagmire.

I never would have thunk it until he posted this thread but I’m not surprised in the least.

[bearishgurl]

[quote=flu][quote=Hobie]Small nuance here. Oil leak onto hot exhaust will produce a ‘white’ smoke with a slight blue tinge. But that is easy to smell and track down looking at the engine. But, if it coming directly through the exhaust pipe and is white. That is coolant.[/quote]

Thanks. It was coming from the exhaust.

I just switched to a thicker oil (rotella t6/for turbo diesels). Its not a vw spec oil, but someone on bobtheoilguy ran it on the same engine on a vw and had an oil analysis done. it did as well if not better than most vw speced oils. Besides, it’s a last ditch effort for this car, so things like coming the turbo is probably not on the top of list things I should be concerned about.

Amazon is selling it for $18/4 quarts woth a subscription, which is cheap for synthetic. Its the same oil I put on my sc miata, so if this works, I don’t need to maintain a big stock of different oils. I also topped off my coolant but I am pretty sure the leak is external, since I did see a drip. The coolant didn’t look dirty, and the oil looked fine.

I’ll post my finds in a week.[/quote]Sounds good, flu. It wouldn’t hurt to run that “CRC 05063 Guaranteed To Pass Emissions Test Formula” from Amazon thru a full tank of gas before retesting as well (preferably mostly at higher speed freeway driving).

Let us know how your retest comes out.

[bearishgurl]

[quote=spdrun]Not really — smog has decreased even in non-smog states. Cars get replaced by attrition anyway and post 1990 or so cars all have catalytic converters and electronic fuel injection.

Old, old cars are really an edge case and not subject to smog in most places anyway.[/quote]

In CA, vehicles which are 1975 model year or older are not required to be smogged (or Diesels 1997 model year or older):

http://www.dmv.ca.gov/portal/dmv/detail/vr/smogfaq

[bearishgurl]

[quote=spdrun]Or an oil hose and it was leaking on the exhaust. Remember that the aircooled Porsches are actually oil-cooled, which makes for a LOT of oil flow, more so than “normal” car motors.[/quote] Interesting spdun. Didn’t know that. I knew their engines were in the rear.

[bearishgurl]

[quote=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…[/quote]Yes, it was probably an ’80’s model. But this one quite obviously blew a head gasket.

[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

[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=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??

[bearishgurl]

[quote=spdrun]If you don’t see the white smoke, sounds like the smog place is somehow trying to cheat you or is totally inept. Take it to a place with good reviews for a re-test. If it passes, dispute the CC charge with the original shop. No sense in supporting scammers.[/quote]He won’t be able to get the money back for his original smog test.

[bearishgurl]

[quote=spdrun]If you don’t see the white smoke, sounds like the smog place is somehow trying to cheat you or is totally inept.[/quote]flu posted that he took the car in after it sat for weeks without driving it (or it was driven very little). That’s a no-no, especially when smogging for a “STAR-directed” registration renewal.

[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.

[bearishgurl]

[quote=spdrun]bearishgurl — can you take any vehicle to a “test only” station where there’s theoretically no profit motive for them to fuck you?[/quote]
Yes. Because you don’t have to take it back to them when you want a retest and they won’t be holding your vehicle “hostage,” trying to ‘hard-sell you that you leave it with them and pay $940 (or some other wildly unrealistic amount) they will assure you that it “passes” smog.

All a “Test Only” station made is $40 – $50 off you.

[bearishgurl]

[quote=flu][quote=utcsox]Audi, which is owned by VW, shall be able to tell you what you need to pass the smog test….[/quote]

HAHAHAHA…… Actually, my ECU/car computer said it was just fine. I failed the visual…. I guess that’s consistent with what VW/Audi would say…..![/quote]Glad to hear that, flu. Now …. focus on any errands you need to do in the far reaches of Ventura County. Maybe there’s even a meeting you can attend up there for work that you can get paid 54 cents per mile for :=D

Get crackin’ ….

Oh, and first, get that stuff ordered from Amazon. It’s good stuff!

[bearishgurl]

[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]Umm, SD is not SF, brian. We don’t have “sensible” and reliable public transit. We have a cobbled-together transfer system which could easily take a rider nearly 3 hours to go 20 miles.

You’re talking “pie-in-the-sky” and I’m talking reality here.

[bearishgurl]

I don’t know how many other (street) vehicles flu has but if the car was in good shape otherwise, if it were me, I’d make sure it passed smog. He can’t sell it to anyone but a wrecking yard if it doesn’t. If that means replacing the head gasket, so be it. He can get it done for $1100 to $1200 (incl machining, if necessary) by numerous backyard and private mechanics in the county vs $1800 – $2000 at a shop.

And it doesn’t matter what it’s current “book value” is. Flu claims $1500 but if it looks good (no body damage or big upholstery rips) runs good and tests out fine by a savvy private party (or their mechanic), it could easily have a “market value” of $2500 to $4500. There is a BIG MARKET for decent-running older vehicles, not only in CA but the entire country! This is so because the alternative is to buy a later-model vehicle with NAV and parking assist, iphone hookup, blah, blah, etc which jacks up the resale value exponentially. A large segment of the used-vehicle-buying population could care less about all that junk.

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