What are my options - State Referee modified exhaust ticket

[bradmer]

That sucks. Have you seen Wanganstyle's thread pasted in below? You have options, maybe register in one of the 11 counties that don't smog? Another possibiity is if you have more than one elder car to go the Historic tags route? I have seen this on an e36 so I know it can be done, do not know how involved it is though. Good luck.

[Eric]

How about moving out of CA? I don't miss it one bit.

Or start a business in Montana...

[Robert]

I’m pretty sure you can just “sell” the vehicle & the ticket will disappear. If I’m not mistaking you can only do this a few times per vin from what I recall. I’ll ask my buddy.

[Sh3rpak!ng]

They will check everything, including engine ID, VIN's, Evap, etc. Yes, you will also need the correct intake manifold depending on how picky the ref is. I suggest doing what you can to get it compliant before the check as you can knock out 2 birds with 1 stone. If you come up short, they will let you know what needs to be addressed to get it certified. You can thank the Honda swap game for all this. Swaps created a black market for JDM and stolen engines back in the day so they started popping hoods and checking engine ID's.

I just hope there is no trouble on the engine block considering it's actually a 2.8 block that was bored out to 3.2 and I'm running all S52 internals and ECU

How do they verify if your Evap is actually working? Pre 95 cars only get visual and dyno/sniff right? Or would a post 95 vin on your motor make them require a obd2 scan?

they will scan the ECU and check readiness monitors/codes just like for any OBD2 smog check here

I'm not in CA, but I think engine swaps there have to retain the appropriate emissions of whatever equipment is installed in the car. and in the stock location to be legal there. Technically the first part is required everywhere, you know, the whole tampering with mandated emissions equipment thing.

emissions equipment has to match the engine

How does cali DMV work with smog if the vehicle is sold out of state and then brought back in? I know cali transfers back fees to the vehicle if it is sold out of state and titled back in state, regardless of who the owner was back fees still need paid.

Can you "sell" the car out of state to a family member or friend and then "sell" it back to yourself down the road? I don't have emissions where I'm at in AZ and I've had a few cars from phoenix that required smog testing- titled them in my home town in South dakota which has no smog through the whole state and then transferred them back down to AZ. AZ smog is lame regardless so it's way easier to fool than CA in the first place.

So when you bring a car into ca you need to get the car inspected at the dmv. So you won’t be able to title the car in ca at that point. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Yes - though the DMV inspection "VIN Verification" is easy, I've actually had to do that before. They just check vin plates in various locations. You will need to do a smog check too, but I don't know hat would happen in my case specifically.

This may sound like a long shot but you might as well go with the "plead not guilty and pray that the officer doesn't show up" route. This tactic usually works 50% of the time for me. Worst case scenario is that you'll still have to State Ref/part out/sell your car and pay the ticket.

Step one: Wait till the last day of the day to set an extension online for your ticket.

Step two: Wait to the last day of your extension to set an arraignment.

Step three: Show up to your arraignment and plead not guilty. Ask for the furthest date possible.

This process can possibly take at least 6 months or even longer with the Rona in place

Step four: Pray to the E30 gods that the officer doesnt show up.

or

Either plead not guilty and fight your ticket, explain to the judge that you fixed front plate and exhaust, also how the officer cited you for a loud exhaust ticket even though you were stopped. (Possibly a good idea to do both fixed and have an officer sign off on them)

or ask the Judge if he can reduce the exhaust ticket to a correctable offense and you'll plead guilty. Explain that the car is not running or something and its difficult to State Ref the car

At this point it'll depends on the Judge and how they feel that day.

Oh, and as long as you keep that ticket with you and show it to the next officer that pulls you over, I think you should be okay to drive the car.

Not sure if I mentioned, but the car needs smog check and is now out of registration... the real question is whether or not I was flagged int he DMV system somehow, and truly need to have the car inspected and smogged at the state ref, or if I'm fine to do the "normal smog" and deal with the exhaust ticket completely separately. If that's the case I'd consider just hiring the lawyer to get the ref part knocked down, if not the entire ticket dismissed.

So the key here is to figure out if I can still do "normal smog" or if I've been flagged. I don't know how to do this yet unfortunately.

Non-correctable is exactly what it says. It is set as an easy money grab for police, to create revenue.
Again the part that is gonna bone you, is the state ref. Read so many dudes just parting their cars out to not deal with the nonsense. Make an appointment with the BAR guy at Pierce college, he's an easy guy to talk to and will guide you in the right direction.

Man I really hate this shit. I understand that in my case I'm being punitively targeted for having what appears to be an "illegally" modified car and I was an easy target on that day, at that spot, at that time, but I am sure that many other people in much less privileged situations suffer greatly

[McGyver]

Not sure if I mentioned, but the car needs smog check and is now out of registration... the real question is whether or not I was flagged int he DMV system somehow, and truly need to have the car inspected and smogged at the state ref, or if I'm fine to do the "normal smog" and deal with the exhaust ticket completely separately. If that's the case I'd consider just hiring the lawyer to get the ref part knocked down, if not the entire ticket dismissed.

So the key here is to figure out if I can still do "normal smog" or if I've been flagged. I don't know how to do this yet unfortunately.

Is this something that AAA can tell you? Or can a friendly smog tech look it up? (I could ask my smog friend in Berkeley if you don't have one to ask)

[Robert]

You can check here, enter your vin/license plate

https://www.bar.ca.gov/pubwebquery/vehicle/pubtstqry.aspx

[Sh3rpak!ng]

That sucks. Have you seen Wanganstyle's thread pasted in below? You have options, maybe register in one of the 11 counties that don't smog? Another possibiity is if you have more than one elder car to go the Historic tags route? I have seen this on an e36 so I know it can be done, do not know how involved it is though. Good luck.

Yes. Kinda just repeated stuff I already knew, but ti helped. Counties that don't smog - I looked into this previously. It's not so simple. I'd need some residential address, or PO box (which you can only get with a legit address). So I'm not sure how to resolve that unless there exists some "LLC" service similar to the Montana LLC accomplishing the same end goal. I'll look into the historic tags route. I'd probably qualify with how little and sparingly I drive the car these days.

How about moving out of CA? I don't miss it one bit.

Or start a business in Montana...

Nahhhhh..... wife and I are happy here. Beach 12 mins away, central location to all the extra curricular things we enjoy, backyard filled with incredible driving canyons, couple of tracks within reasonable driving distance, airport 10 mins away, awesome weather.... I could do without the traffic and expensive homes, but other than that we like it

I’m pretty sure you can just “sell” the vehicle & the ticket will disappear. If I’m not mistaking you can only do this a few times per vin from what I recall. I’ll ask my buddy.

hmmm, yes please clarify

Is this something that AAA can tell you? Or can a friendly smog tech look it up? (I could ask my smog friend in Berkeley if you don't have one to ask)

You can check here, enter your vin/license plate

https://www.bar.ca.gov/pubwebquery/v...pubtstqry.aspx

holy shit.... I had no idea you could do this. I looked it up. It's not flagged for referee smog so I think this indicates I can get the smog cleared the "normal" way and deal with the ticket separately. This is a huge development for me haha. At least it means I can get the car registered properly in the meantime and drive it while I figure out the exhaust ticket. That makes a good case for me to go the lawyer route and avoid any inspection at all....

[36brua]

I have dealt with the California bar refs a lot, I think I have bar'd about 6 cars now. IMO here is what I think you should do, If your car has cats on it, put a quiet muffler on it and go to the ref. They are not trying to fuck you. They most likely won't have you open your hood for an exhaust ticket, They aren't like "yo dawg that doesn't sound like an m20 pop your hood" And If they do then go from there. If you do get flagged, If I were you I would OBD1 the s52, make it look like an m50, get some cal legal cats and go get it bar'd! This is not rocket science. If you really wanted to go play it safe you could either put an m50 in it or go about getting the s52 bar'd as an obd2 motor (this would be the hardest of the 3) but all three of these options are really well documented on here.

[Sh3rpak!ng]

I have dealt with the California bar refs a lot, I think I have bar'd about 6 cars now. IMO here is what I think you should do, If your car has cats on it, put a quiet muffler on it and go to the ref. They are not trying to fuck you. They most likely won't have you open your hood for an exhaust ticket, They aren't like "yo dawg that doesn't sound like an m20 pop your hood" And If they do then go from there. If you do get flagged, If I were you I would OBD1 the s52, make it look like an m50, get some cal legal cats and go get it bar'd! This is not rocket science. If you really wanted to go play it safe you could either put an m50 in it or go about getting the s52 bar'd as an obd2 motor (this would be the hardest of the 3) but all three of these options are really well documented on here.

I got an exhaust ticket once ages ago in another car. Very different from the way this one was written, but I also had to go to the referee. Probably 4 years ago. This was my other E36 back when it was supercharged. I ended up putting all the stock exhaust parts back on it (because I had them on hand). The referee checked the catback that it was OEM, also checked for cats and checked the midsection (that is was oem) and also asked to open the hood so he could check the exhaust manifolds. I don't know if it mattered, but I got lucky that the hood latch was legitimately broken, and he told me usually he needs to see that but let it go because he thought I was being honest.... dunno what would've happened if he saw the supercharger.

Anyway, the car doesn't have cats presently.

As far as the BAR legal route, info I read currently is pretty specific about engine code matching the ECU matching the emissions equipment. So I understood this to mean if it wasn't originally an OBD1 motor, you can not backwards convert it. Seemed like this was a new development to the whole BAR program...

I'm not concerned that I'm not technically capable of doing any of the work necessary to get to any of these end results... it's the time and effort involved. I have minimal spare time and a big list of projects, including an entire pickup truck that's in pieces and long past the date I promised my wife I'd get it running and out of the driveway. So that's why I'm pretty worked up.

[Rev Run D]

I have dealt with the California bar refs a lot, I think I have bar'd about 6 cars now. IMO here is what I think you should do, If your car has cats on it, put a quiet muffler on it and go to the ref. They are not trying to fuck you. They most likely won't have you open your hood for an exhaust ticket, They aren't like "yo dawg that doesn't sound like an m20 pop your hood" And If they do then go from there. If you do get flagged, If I were you I would OBD1 the s52, make it look like an m50, get some cal legal cats and go get it bar'd! This is not rocket science. If you really wanted to go play it safe you could either put an m50 in it or go about getting the s52 bar'd as an obd2 motor (this would be the hardest of the 3) but all three of these options are really well documented on here.

What swaps did you BAR? What was the easiest, and what was the most complicated?

[36brua]

What swaps did you BAR? What was the easiest, and what was the most complicated?

My best friend I have gotten three e30s 24v swaps bar'd two of them now being s52's running obd1. That is definitely the easiest. (super well documented)
I have an e30 with an m60 v8 in it that is bar'd that was definitely the hardest; https://www.r3vlimited.com/board/for...bar-d?t=367628
I had an LS3 1995 volvo 960 wagon that was bar'd.
Right now I am working on an ls3 e36 that will be cal legal as well.

Getting a car legal in California is definitely more work and more $$ but it is doable you just need the proper stuff and going through the right steps. you aren't going to get long tube headers and no cats through bar lol.
Baring an obd2 motor is way harder then barring an OBD1 motor. For all the obd1 swaps we have done they just take the vin off of the ecu

Who can tell the difference between an obd1'd s52 with the early valve cover on it and an m50 when the motors are in the car.

[Bimmerman325i]

Piggybacking a bit, I BAR'd my S54 E36 which had an OBD1 -> OBD2 conversion.

I would not recommend.

The advice to just swap valve covers and yolo it is the way to go, IMO, so long as you hide the OBD plug.

[treff-7]

A bit late to the game but the easiest would be to OBD1 convert it. You have the intake manifold already, you do not need a stock airbox (you can say it doesn't fit and the referee will accept it. I think you can't have an open filter. I used one from KA motors). Install an obd1 or welded obd2 factory exhaust manifold, oil separator, make sure the throttle body heater loop is connected, canister in place, cats (don't need to be factory) and take it to Pierce college. Tell them it's out of a '95 M3. If they ask about the valve cover (which they won't), tell them that the original magnesium one was ugly and the oil filler was right under the strut tower bar. I BAR'd my e30 with an s52 there and had no problems. The referee was super cool about things as long as above mentioned parts were in order. The only thing to give away which engine you have is the VIN on the back of the engine. If it's still there it's impossible to read as it's right against the firewall.
I hope this helps!

[dasmanschaft012]

FYourTicket. Give randy a call. I would expect a decent lawyer bill
Depending on the details of the ticket, you might be able to just pay the large fine and move on with your life.
There's also some options about selling the car and rebuying it if you can't get it OBD2 compliant.

[bmwman91]

Not trying to be a dick, but I sort of couldn't resist...

Man I really hate this shit. I understand that in my case I'm being punitively targeted for having what appears to be an "illegally" modified car...

Anyway, the car doesn't have cats presently.