CA/LA Smog

[Bimmerjeff]

@ the OP, I just got my stock engine/exhaust but lowered M3 smogged in Pasadena last week. The shop only checked under the hood visual quick and basic, nothing probed under the car with mirrors etc like my last experience elsewhere. I made the comment to the nice older guy (owner I think) who was the only staff there that he probably rarely sees a stock one and he said no, because if it’s modded it “won’t pass the computer check anyway”. The shop is Vista Test Only Center on Colorado Blvd. I went on a Friday morning. He did say the computer prompted him to reverify the mileage for suspected fraud because it only has 44k! He quizzed me a bit about that. They also had a coupon on Smogtips.com, even better!

[skristedja]

They are literally doing this.

I took an E46 S54 conversion to the state ref for engine swap certification, with the only software tweak being EWS delete. They were quite cryptic about why they were failing it but it was software "mismatch". The donor was a CA car, registered and smogged here, and it turned out they had previously recorded the data...

Thanks for the data point Kevin! Any idea if it could have been simply due the VIN reading from the ECU not matching the vehicle VIN? My CSL boxed (and CSL software on MSS54hp conversion) car is due for a smog soon. Since I still haven't seen a good solution to get the CSL software to pass emissions, I'm going to try and pass with somewhat stock MSS54 software running an alpha-n tune on my original DME with the CSL box still installed. I've had luck with smog guys not even popping the hood.

All my previous smogs have been on 100% stock software so this should be a good test. If they recorded the data and compare it to the alpha-n tune, it should fail. If they decide to record it now, I'll at least have an easier tune to revert to for future smogs (won't need to fully swap in MAF and stock box). I'll share my results soon.

[ATB88]

@ the OP, I just got my stock engine/exhaust but lowered M3 smogged in Pasadena last week. The shop only checked under the hood visual quick and basic, nothing probed under the car with mirrors etc like my last experience elsewhere. I made the comment to the nice older guy (owner I think) who was the only staff there that he probably rarely sees a stock one and he said no, because if it’s modded it “won’t pass the computer check anyway”. The shop is Vista Test Only Center on Colorado Blvd. I went on a Friday morning. He did say the computer prompted him to reverify the mileage for suspected fraud because it only has 44k! He quizzed me a bit about that. They also had a coupon on Smogtips.com, even better!

Thanks for the data point! I'll probably go see this guy, it sounds like he's unlikely to notice/complain about my OEM euro headers + cats, as they look OE to anyone not in the know.

Life has made it such that I haven't had a chance to install my SS stuff yet, and I'm now within the window to get my smog done for this year's registration, making my situation simpler.

So my plan now is to:

1. Revert back to stock airbox/DME
2. Smog
3. Re-install CSL airbox/DME, install SSV1s + cats, TUUUUUNE

Stoked to finally get to the good stuff!!

[kaiv]

Thanks for the data point Kevin! Any idea if it could have been simply due the VIN reading from the ECU not matching the vehicle VIN? My CSL boxed (and CSL software on MSS54hp conversion) car is due for a smog soon. Since I still haven't seen a good solution to get the CSL software to pass emissions, I'm going to try and pass with somewhat stock MSS54 software running an alpha-n tune on my original DME with the CSL box still installed. I've had luck with smog guys not even popping the hood.

All my previous smogs have been on 100% stock software so this should be a good test. If they recorded the data and compare it to the alpha-n tune, it should fail. If they decide to record it now, I'll at least have an easier tune to revert to for future smogs (won't need to fully swap in MAF and stock box). I'll share my results soon.

If I bring a car with DME and chassis VIN matching, the ref complains that he can't tell the DME is that of the M3's because of the non-M VIN. If I bring a car with VIN mismatched, he complains that all numbers should be matching... They love dicking me around but they do need the latter to compare with whatever they have in their system, and it has to be a perfect match.

None of that should concern you though. You'll be fine. Plenty of M3s with small tweaks (eg. smg to manual) passing smog.

[Maxima SE]

What’s the best way for flashing back to OEM DME?

also do you guys know if DME updates at the dealer would erase existing custom tunes ?

[skristedja]

If I bring a car with DME and chassis VIN matching, the ref complains that he can't tell the DME is that of the M3's because of the non-M VIN. If I bring a car with VIN mismatched, he complains that all numbers should be matching... They love dicking me around but they do need the latter to compare with whatever they have in their system, and it has to be a perfect match.

None of that should concern you though. You'll be fine. Plenty of M3s with small tweaks (eg. smg to manual) passing smog.

That's ridiculous! I'm really curious as to where they are getting the software version they use as the benchmark for the comparison (and exactly what that comparison entails) since BMW was never obligated to provide software for the e46 to the CARB. It would make sense that the state ref has a more stringent process that includes the checksum comparison, I just don't see when or where they could reliably obtain the benchmark software.

Hope you're able to get your swaps passed! Too bad going back to stock isn't really an option, I guess there's always Arizona! 😅

[Daniel]

So who has coded out their post o2 cats and got through CA smog?

[Tbonem3]

So who has coded out their post o2 cats and got through CA smog?

That's not a thing.

You can relocate cats and still use post cat o2s and pass the obd2 portion of the test, but possibly fail visual.

Or, you can try forcing post cat o2 monitors green/complete via software which will put you in the same position of passing the obd2 portion of smog test, but fail visual (if the tech looks).

Or you can do whatever you want and find a guy who will "pass" you without a test for $.

My tech doesn't poke around or look under the car.

[Daniel]

Or, you can try forcing post cat o2 monitors green/complete via software which will put you in the same position of passing the obd2 portion of smog test, but fail visual (if the tech looks.

maybe my wording wasn’t clear but this is what I was referring to. I’m not worried about visuals I just need o2 to be complete.

I see someone a bit back in this thread had success with it. Anyone else?

[Thrifty S50]

Howdy yall, this will be my first post here on NAM3F. I was a long time member on Bimmer forums but unfortunately seems like less and less people frequent the forums over there...

Introduction aside, I am also Californian w/ a CSL intake. You might have seen one of my videos circling the threads here by chance

https://nam3forum.com/forums/forum/m...engine-bay-mic

Needless to say I have had the CSL intake for about a year now and have been needing to get it re-registered this January, something I was more then hesitant about doing. Long story short: I passed w/out removing Intake and still running the Euro CSL software (my MSS54 was converted to HP to utilize the MAP), also it was done 100% legally. And well, because the internet bible clearly states "Picz or it didnt happen"



Short story long version:

yes, 100% legally. I didnt pay xtra, I dont "know a guy", and im not interested in registering out of state. Simply, I just went in to see what would happen. I have no issue throwing it back to stock manifold, takes all of like 45 minutes maybe, but for me i was more concerned with the ECU side of things. I had specifically asked KASSEL (who did the MSS54HP conversion) to make sure that my US emissions monitors were still present after said conversion. In my mind, they dont have US Smog in Germany, so why include it in their software. This would have left me with a car that didnt even communicate to the smog computers.. Well, so, we have this conversation regarding emission monitors, and the cars, ECU's, our favorite foods, etc; and while im told that this is something that can be done, It was made clear that it wasnt exactly 100% bullet proof and that sometimes the computers still arent able to comm. to the MSS54HP, but that it should work.. I figured if it didnt, I tried everything I could and I'd just buy a spare virgin ECU and use that for smog. No biggie.

Well I had the car down for awhile while I was doing the rear subframe + XBrace, and after getting it running I needed to smog and register asap. The first thing that made me want to just go try it was that im still on stock US headers (w/cats), still have rear 02's, and still have stock section 3 (ditched my aftermarket exhaust as induction noise is just Devine). So technically, I mean the car should be capable of passing smog since all of that was still in place. Also, one thing I had considered as justification for not removing it, was that it kinda looks stock. Ok follow me on this one, For years these techs have been trained to spot cone filters. They usually see giant RED or BLUE hot air intakes. Not this giant piece of carbon that looks like its a piece of the car. As long as you dont have the Turner box, and w/ the CSL BMW decal, it looks the part. Especially compared to current Gen BMW's, its not that out of place for a BMW to be stock with a bunch of carbon.





The final kicker was I took it to a friend of mine who runs a shop, we hooked it up to ISTA (i believe) and he was able to verify that the emissions monitors were present and ready/active. You ever go to get smogged and they tell you "oh your cat and 02 sensor monitors arent ready, you have to do the driving procedure to ready the system". I figured, if those were registering and active, then why the hell not go for it. In California at least if you fail the first smog, you get one more at no cost to pass, so if I didnt, I wouldve just came back w/ Virgin ECU.

I know that was a really lengthy post, but I hope it was insightful to some who may be in the same position. An S54 with a CSL intake is truly how these cars were meant to be, hope more of you join the darkside 😈 Cheers 🤙

[old///MFanatic]

I have had the CSL intake for about a year now and have been needing to get it re-registered…Long story short: I passed w/out removing Intake and still running the Euro CSL software (my MSS54 was converted to HP to utilize the MAP), also it was done 100% legally.
yes, 100% legally. I didnt pay xtra, I dont "know a guy". I just went in to see what would happen. I have no issue throwing it back to stock manifold, but for me i was more concerned with the ECU side of things.

Hi, glad it passed. But it is not legal. The shop was incompetent. That should have failed the visual for emissions related parts removed and or changed. That shop could get major fines and lose license. Reading the monitors is only part of the test.
Happy you don’t have to worry for another two years. 👍🏻

[jet_dogg]

Congrats man but there is no actual tune on the ecu right?

[174bpm]

This is good news for those who wanna go with a CSL box in CA. Nice to know that you still had the Euro CSL software on there too.

[skristedja]

Great news! Do you know what modifications Kassel made to the euro csl software to get it to work? Also I think we are m3 twins. I also have an 03 steel grey on imola red with a CSL box

[Nate047]

Yea sooo which smog shop did you go to? Asking for a friend lmao