I am almost to take my married woman's 2007 car in to get information technology smog checked.   For the 2d time in two days.  We have to do information technology or the Country of California won't let us renew our registration.

I took it to an "official" smog bank check station yesterday morning just was told it could not exist smog checked because it would neglect the test.  This was before the the technician even did the exam.  He hooked it up to his land certified smog check figurer, a blood-red low-cal came on, and he said he wouldn't smog check it because information technology would fail.  He said "perhaps if you bulldoze information technology around for a while and bring it dorsum it will pass."  Huh?  That made no sense to me, so I collection over to the well respected auto repair store that services our cars.  The store'south director, plugged the car into some other computer, a automobile which, he said, was far more sensitive than the computer at the smog cheque station.   He looked at the auto.  The shop'due south owner then came over for a consultation, and gauge what?  They could find nothing wrong with my wife's machine.  "Sad, only there'due south nothing I can exercise for y'all," the store's manager said.  The car is fine.  I agreed, beingness that information technology's a relatively depression mileage car that's regularly maintained and runs beautifully.

Then why couldn't I pass a smog check for the State of California?  At this bespeak things get really complicated, merely the apparent problem is that the car's onboard computer is stuck in the centre of some bike or another.  But in that location'south cipher wrong with the car and it should laissez passer a smog check with no problem, according  to the mechanic.

Frustrated, I chosen the state Agency of Automotive Repair (the "BAR").   After waiting on the phone for what felt like an hour but was probably 15 minutes or so, I finally reached one of their mechanics who told me smog check stations are given one exemption for the blazon of problem I was having (because there really is nothing incorrect with the car) and that I should just proceed going from one smog bank check station to another until I observe one that'southward willing to pronounce my married woman's car equally roadworthy.  I asked him what logic there was in a program that would force me to drive from one smog bank check station to some other when a mechanic had already told me there was absolutely cypher wrong with the car.  The BAR mechanic explained that the smog check organization has been screwed down then tight in California, that some cars that were fine were existence rejected.   However, the smog cheque stations were given exemptions for the blazon of computer code result my wife's machine has, then that they could pass it.  If they wanted to.  Merely, if they laissez passer likewise many cars with that detail blazon of exemption, information technology might eventually red flag the BAR, which might so threaten to pull their license for doing smog checks.  They did things this fashion, he said, considering there are bad people out there who are re-setting something or another on older cars to defeat the system and some newer cars that are perfectly fine are getting caught up in the dragnet.   I might be able to fix the (non-real) trouble on my wife'due south car by taking information technology out on the open road and driving it for a considerable distance at highway speeds he said, only not too fast and non likewise slow and you lot tin can't step on the brakes and apathetic, blah, blah.  My head was at present spinning.

I pressed him for an answer as to why the country'southward smog check arrangement is cleaved.  At nearly this point he got aroused and loud.  I responded in kind, telling him I didn't intendance for being treated in such a manner.  The chat deteriorated from there.  Information technology's possible we'd both already had a bad day prior to the conversation taking identify.  I know I had.

And and so here I am, without resolution in spite of the fact that I spent the day, yesterday, from around x in the morning until four-30 in the afternoon, trying to sort this out.  Subsequently an hour or so with a mechanic, who, I am convinced, is an automotive expert, I take concluded that at that place is null wrong with my wife'south car.  Nonetheless, I must now take it to a second smog check station in the hope that a different technician will pass it for smog.  If not, I estimate I'll accept to find a tertiary smog cheque station and then maybe a fourth, or possibly I'll try driving out to Malibu and back at highway speeds to re-set the onboard computer.  Of course I'll have to do it without stepping on the brakes, plain.  Here in Fifty.A.?  Expert luck with that.   It has to practice with "clearing all the codes" and so that the estimator'south monitors send out a bespeak that everything is working as information technology should.  It's all very confusing, and that alone, might non be plenty.  To determine what should exist enough, you can find instructions on "How to complete a basic bulldoze wheel" on repairpal.com.  There are five steps to information technology and yous have to let your car sit overnight in temperatures beneath 90 degrees, and then forth, and then on.  It's way as well complicated for a guy who just wants to get his automobile smog checked.  In any event, it appears that I'll exist forced to spend at least 1 more mean solar day dealing with this issue, as this second smog check station will require me to drop off my wife'due south car and leave it there until they've had fourth dimension to wait at it.  So information technology may require a third day of inconvenience if I have to go back over tomorrow and pick information technology up.

Yous think in that location'due south something about this I don't understand?   That possibly I have no right to be a trivial peeved?  Permit's review-

I took the machine to a smog check station.  The technician at the station refused to pass my machine for smog.  I then took information technology to an motorcar repair shop where a qualified mechanic hooked it upwardly to his computer and told me at that place is nothing wrong with the car.  I so chosen the BAR which told me to continue taking information technology to dissimilar smog check stations until I tin find ane that will pass the car.  Or I can try taking the car for a long drive without stepping on the brakes – which, according to repairpal.com, won't exist plenty because in actuality I'll take to become through a two-day "basic drive-cycle" process (which may or may not work) earlier taking the car back in for yet another smog bank check.

Go along in heed that this appears to have nix whatever to do with the frazzle the motorcar is producing and everything to do with the "drive cycle" registered in the onboard computer.   In other words, the frazzle can be just fine, the car can be within the legal limit for California, merely it notwithstanding will not pass muster on a smog check.

I have to wonder how many thousands of Californians and their mechanics, are being forced to go through exactly this same exercise, wasting time and money, burning gas unnecessarily, because the state'due south smog bank check system doesn't piece of work.  It'southward all very sad because generally speaking, the BAR does a very important job protecting California consumers.  They've helped me out big time with a couple of automotive issues I've had in the past.  I just wish they'd ready this smog check matter.   Perchance they could go back to measuring what's coming out of the auto's tailpipe?  Or would that be also simple?  This is basics.

Okay, the mechanic who now has the car just called.   He's going to need to go along it for at least another solar day.  The problem is that he and a 2nd mechanic volition have to have the machine through a serial of speeds at various distances with all iv wheels rolling while it's attached to a portable monitor inside the automobile.  To do that, volition require a considerable distance of open road with no other traffic.  How he is expected to accomplish that here in Los Angeles, I exercise not know.  I estimate all he can do is try.

I actually hope somebody from the DMV reads this, considering no Californian should be forced to spend several hundred dollars on a smog check that takes iv to five days for a car without whatever serious issues.  Only that my friends, is what our state currently demands.

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CC:   Senator Alex Padilla, California State Senate, 20th State Senate District

CC:  Assemblyman Adrin Nazarian, California Country Assembly, 46th Assembly District