Question for people living in smog testing states and running a csl airbox

[cliptheapex]

I live in OC, California and was wondering what everyone running a CSL airbox is doing when it comes time to smog. I understand that the CSL airbox will fail on visual inspection, so is everyone replacing their boxes back to stock before inspection? I am not worried about doing the work to replace the equipment. I am more worried about the tune or having to flash back every 2 years or can I replace the box and keep the tune and pass?

[gabylonfive]

I just put my stock box and dme back in every couple of years, not a big deal really.

Not only will you fail visual but the csl software never received the appropriate emissions updates to communicate with CA’s obd ii test. I heard there was maybe some effort to work around this but never found anything definitive.

Reminder - if you put your stock dme/tune back on make sure to give yourself some time to complete the drive cycle so your monitors set properly for smog. Don’t wait until right before - not like I would know -_-

[cbean]

Don’t wait until right before - not like I would know -_-

Ha, been there . . . done that

[su45]

I live in OC, California and was wondering what everyone running a CSL airbox is doing when it comes time to smog. I understand that the CSL airbox will fail on visual inspection

What would cause it to fail a visual inspection? How would an emissions testing place know the difference between that and the stock airbox?

[Tbonem3]

What would cause it to fail a visual inspection? How would an emissions testing place know the difference between that and the stock airbox?

Well for one, there's a sticker diagram on our hood of our engine. The other giveaway is teh FUCKING HUGE CARBON FIBER airbox

[skristedja]

FWIW I haven't had a smog tech open my hood in years. They just plug it in and in 15 min I'm on my merry way. Still on stock airbox though.

[heinzboehmer]

FWIW I haven't had a smog tech open my hood in years. They just plug it in and in 15 min I'm on my merry way. Still on stock airbox though.

Just as another data point, smogged my car about a year ago and the tech opened my engine bay and poked around quite a bit.

[gabylonfive]

Just as another data point, smogged my car about a year ago and the tech opened my engine bay and poked around quite a bit.

my experience here in the bay area as well - my last 3 or 4 visits for smog i've had a tech do a pretty thorough inspection of my engine bay.

[Xmetal]

FWIW I haven't had a smog tech open my hood in years. They just plug it in and in 15 min I'm on my merry way. Still on stock airbox though.

Where are you getting your smogged? Every Smog place that I had mine done in Santa Ana/Irvine/Lake Forest had popped the hood, look under the car before even plugging in their OBD reader

[skristedja]

Where are you getting your smogged? Every Smog place that I had mine done in Santa Ana/Irvine/Lake Forest had popped the hood, look under the car before even plugging in their OBD reader

Pretty much those same exact locations as you. Guess I've just been lucky?

[Epsilon]

Another datapoint in bay area: Tech wanted visual confirmation of my cats. He saw my AR20 modified sec 1 from a quick glance and thought my cats were modified. I told him the cats were on the headers so he lifted the car with jacks and went under with a flashlight to visually confirm. I guess in this situation, I could have got away with euro headers and euro sec 1.

[usdmej]

What would cause it to fail a visual inspection? How would an emissions testing place know the difference between that and the stock airbox?

In california if you own an E46 M3 it has to be smog checked at a STAR smog station.
the techs there are very well informed on discerning aftermarket mods from OE during visual inspection
they face pretty hefty fines for not doing so

apparently this is a better way of ensuring compliance over a sniffer test which is what used to be required for our cars

[cliptheapex]

Yes. Same here. The smog shop I go to will open the hood for a visual inspection. I also had an S2000 with a K&N but without a CARB sticker and he gave me a warning but I still passed visual.

So it sounds like I will need two DME's (Oem and flashed) or find a shop that will flash back to stock every time I want to smog. Does that sound right or am I missing something?

[EthanolTurbo]

You MUST flash back to stock tune or your ECU will be flagged for a ref inspection later on. As of 2020 they are cross-referencing internal ECU identifiers to see if the tune has been modified.

[Tbonem3]

Wow fucking hell