I feel you on the emissions/smogs. California rules are a pain, and everyone hates them. I actually work at the place that creates all the rules for energy efficiency, but for buildings. Everyone calls to get explanations or to blame the death of their family on us. We also get some very...colorful uses of words thrown at us.

I'm thinking get another A4 that looks exactly like yours color wise, swap out the vins and license plate that they inspect, and drive in with the repalcement A4. I'm not too familiar with what they inspect but does anyone know if that trick would work? Hell, the car doesn't even need to be worth working right. Just enough to drive and pass smog.

Or find someone who will make it pass for you. I have yet to befriend that kind of individual in Sacramento.

 

Mooseimage, while what you are suggesting, both VIN swapping and finding the right shop, would work perfectly, both are Highly illegal. The shop can lose it's license or recieve a huge fine, and swapping VINs is pretty serious, but I'm not sure what they go after you with.

 

wow,...i didnt know CA was that restrictive on things. Shlt there are even some states that dont require inspections.

 

yes, in that sense, cali sucks. But its very easy to have someone pass it for you, My buddy is up right near pismo and did all that for us. My roomate had a lifted and modified 79 gmc jimmy with a 350 crate... not a single piece of smog equipment on it. the engine bay consisted of nothing but the motor, when we worked on it, we could sit inside the bay, seriously. Just get a friend with an emissions shop.

 

Jeff's not in Cali, i think he just wanted it to be stealth. and you can definitely stick a cat in the dp, so the inspector can see that as well. but that makes me wonder, how do they find the cats on say a 3.0? or even a b5 s4?

 

Does Ca have a police force to tackle cars that are modified to the point where they wont pass inspection?
Like are cops out there looking for cars with louder than usual BOV ?

I know some of the auto crime officers in NYC are knowledgeable when it comes to vehicles ( specficially honda / acura ). Our emissions isnt to strict but loud mufflers , loud cars in general would yield you a ticket......correction: Fix me ticket

 

CA seems to now just destroy them



its for street racing, not being modified, but i wouldn't put it past them

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/19339955

 

that wing still looks salvageable there.

We'll since cars get destroyed for people street racing, I want to know how many of them run from the cops.
Does it happen more often now?

 

In NY, we have strict laws, but not as strict as CA (although I think that basically for the most part, what CA enacts, NY usually follows with in a few years, although we don't have the roadside CARB checks). For swapping VINs, you have to be VERY careful - in NY, the inspector does all the usual checks (lights, horns, brakes, tires, etc), and then the car is emissions-checked. Here though, it's not a dyno-check, but they hook up the car to the diagnostic computer, and Albany decides in real-time if it passes or fails. Where you have to be careful in VIN swapping is that some cars (I don't know about Audi, but I would imagine we're included) have the VIN encoded in the ECU's software, and if they were to scan the car, pull its VIN from the ECU, and then compare and see that the VIN on the tags does not match, you're screwed.

Then of course there's the issue of, once the "dummy car" passes, they put the sticker on the windshield (here in NY anyhow), and you'd have to get it onto the other car without damaging it or tearing it - more of a PITA than you may think - those things STICK.

 

I think FL recently abandoned its inspections (FL guys can correct me here). Wish NY would, but there's no way that'll happen - NYC has way too many cars that mean a steady stream of money for the state.