I have a question for California diesel owners. How easy is it to pass smog on the 1999-2003 7.3? I am talking about stock or barely modified trucks here as the stock HP and torque numbers are fine for my purposes--currently i drive a '92 N/A 7.3 and it does the job, just slowly Do any people in CA regret not buying a pre-smog Powerstroke or am I basically worried over nothing since big power mods are not my concern? My main concern is that CA keeps screwing with diesel trucks and trucks in general--just found out my flatbed has potentially put me in a position where my current registration is incorrect and additional fees and permits may be required to get me legal again. I swear if my family, friends, and work weren't in CA I would be gone in a heartbeat!! Any help understanding the ins and outs of passing/failing CA smog is appreciated.

 

Truck has to be stock, COMPLETELY, or prepare to be butthurt while they bend you over. If you want an improvement over what you currently have,but no smog requirements, get a '97 PSD and be done with it. That's what I drove when I lived there.

 

It's actually pretty easy. According to the letter of the law you can run an intake and an exhaust. If the truck originally had a cat (most didn't), that has to stay on the truck. Other than that as long as your SES light isn't on you're fine.

 

I live in Northern CA and drive a 2003 7.3. It is stock except for a turbo back exhaust with muffler delete, AIH delete, CAI, and CCV reroute. I did add the resister to the AIH circuit to prevent a DTC. I do not have any trouble passing smog.

Paul

​​

 

It must depend on the smog shop. Another guy on here had a hell of a time because his AIH plug was missing as well as the red and green vacuum tubing. he had to get all that replaced new to be able to pass. It was a big PITA.

 

I just lived the dream and this was my hardest year yet. What passed last time did not fly this time (and I even asked the shop before last check and they said no problem).

It can be done but if you don't have a completely stock truck you roll the dice...every time. A friendly shop might not be next time. Whether it's training, new technician, or even an ownership change you have no control over what they want to call you on.

I learned a lot this time around. Shops are getting smarter on older diesels so you will have to find one that is not as "meticulous" as another one. I did learn that a shop has to have a certain number of failures to keep their license with CA so you the closer your registration is to December the higher the chance of a more thorough inspection.

This last time the smog tech spent close to 15 minutes the first time through before he called me over to show me discrepancies and called it a "courtesy inspection". Red and green air lines are a must nowadays along with an OEM-style diaphragm wastegate controller.

My signature shows I am far from stock but most of my magic is not visible to the naked eye (injectors, HPOP, etc.) so passes the visual inspection. That comes out in the snap test. Different areas have different rules so you will have to check with a local shop to see what their actual test consists of. Down here in San Diego here's what they do:

Start the truck (verify the Service Engine Soon light illuminates during the wait-to-start cycle)
Pull the truck into the testing bay and leave it idling
Do a visual inspection
plug in the OBDII reader and check for codes
Perform a Snap Test (rev the engine 3 times to 2-3K RPM and check for exhaust smoke). The exhaust can have plume up to 15 feet but must clear up within 3 seconds.

As you can see almost the entire test is subjective. If you find a friendly shop...great. Just don't bank on that two years from now. I did and paid the price for it (about $400 and a couple of days under the hood). While it was frustrating there was more that he could fail me on that he either didn't catch or didn't care (Hydra, AIH deleted, EBPV deleted) that would have been a much bigger deal.

If you don't plan to do much to the truck then you should be fine. As mentioned, intake and exhaust have pretty much stopped being an issue. If you are overly concerned you can Google California's Bureau of Automotive Repair (BAR) and check out their list of parts certified to be okay. These parts will have an Executive Order associated with them stating that they can be installed. The smog shops have access to this (or you can take the certificate as proof if you are questioned like I did).

https://www.arb.ca.gov/msprog/afterm...ery-091517.php

The only reason our trucks are even on the list is that in '99 our trucks became somewhat OBDII compliant so will always be tested until 25 years old. You will hear about "soft codes" which don't set off the SES light. You will get them for stuff like deleting your AIH or EBPV if you don't put a dummy load in the plug. These will not fail you. '98 and earlier are not OBDII compliant so are not on the list, hence BBslider001's comment.

If you are curious: https://www.bar.ca.gov/pdf/Smog_Chec...l_ENG_2013.pdf

 

Where in Ca. are you? They do have different requirement in the Southern counties. In my area the just do a visual to make sure that there a no mods other than intake and exhaust and do an OBDll check for codes. No opacity check (last time at least) and no "sniffer" in the exhaust ETC.

 

Northern San Diego County. The visual inspection gets tougher each time. I had to ditch my Turbomaster manual wastegate controller and get a Banks Big Head (went from a Porsche to a VW). He made a copy of the CARB EO paperwork that I brought to note my exemption.

After this round I'm done messing with anything visual. I'm too old to be toting the line or keeping a pile of parts in my garage to spend 2 days putting on, passing smog, then taking another 2 days to take off.

 

As stated it all depends on the shop and the guy/gal doing the testing. I have had to have mine done a couple times before getting into a change of ownership only smog area and never had a problem. My truck has intake, exhaust and some other mods that were not an issue.
Brian said"will always be tested until 25 years old." I don't know where he got that information because CA eliminated the rolling 25 year exception a long time ago. There is currently no sunset time for smog checks and considering the way this place is going to hell in a hand basket don't hold your breath waiting for one. Currently anything '76 and newer for gas and '98 and newer for diesel require some type of test with a few exceptions. I have included a link to the state site explaining the year requirements and some other useless info.

Good luck.

https://www.dmv.ca.gov/portal/dmv/?1...dmv/vr/smogfaq

 

Dang it!!! Now you're going to tell me there's no Santa Clause too!

Thanks for the correction. I hadn't looked at that rule for a long time figuring it wasn't going to change and it gave me something to dream about. Thanks for crushing my dreams!

 

Where do you think the truck parts came from. I have the wife convinced Santa delivers turbos....

 

One of may ex co-workers has a wife like that. She mentioned once that he had a collection of dozens of guns that had to be worth at least a couple of hundred dollars.

 

He also delivers spiders and red/green lines too!

 

Santa delivers parts trucks to my house.

 

so that would explain the double tandom UPS 18-wheeler in front of your house....I knew something was up....