California – A Bad State to Have Smog Troubles

by Jack

I’m the typical old school Dad, I fix my kid’s cars when they break down because they generally can’t afford to pay a shop $90 an hour when Dad works for free.

A few months back, my daughter complained that her Honda Civic wasn’t running right and it sounded like it could be a bad spark plug.   So I fixed it, but it still  didn’t seem right, like it did not have much pep (then again it is a little Honda).   My first thought was we may have a catalytic converter plugging up.

However, she need the car and before I could do any further investigation, she was backing down the driveway with the caveat that she shouldn’t drive it out of town until we know what mechanical issues may remain.

The next thing I know I am getting a call from Cottonwood, the Honda’s running really bad and she can’t make it home.  Oh great.  So much for keeping the car in town.   I drive up to Cottonwood to pick her up and find a repair shop for the Honda.

Skipping past a bunch of phone calls between myself and shop, two months later and $350 lighter, the car is still not running right and the mechanic says he can’t find the trouble.  He thinks this may be something only the dealer can diagnose.   I grab my daughter and head for Cottonwood and I limp the car home at 45 mph.  It’s totally gutless, but it’s running and we make it.

A few days later I figure out it’s a random short in the ignition system causing two coils to fail intermittingly and it resulted in the computer (ECM) going bad and causing the car to run retarded, that’s not an insult, it’s a timing comment.

A week later I’ve located the parts, installed, taken it to the dealer for the ECM to flashed to match the ignition key and all is good. Before I get it home the check engine light comes on. My Code Reader says I now have a bad oxygen sensor…okay, this is pointing me back to a catalytic converter problem, but I didn’t get that code.

I replace the O-2 sensor and guess what? Now I get the Cat-Code!!!   Yes, it does have a plugged cat and this has been at the core of the problems all along. And here is where the State of California and I have some serious issues!

I do some shopping around and I can buy a new  catalytic converter for $69, plus shipping.  This  is a Cat legal in 49 states…except California!   In CA their formula of cat produces virtually identical results as the other states, but it is over $600! Wittmeir in Chico wanted $904 for a factory replacement plus a $150 core charge.

This high cost is because the manufacture must add certain expensive metals into the catalytic converter to make it run .00001% cleaner than cats in 49 other states! I’m furious…this is a total rip off and a foolish rip off at that because there’s virtually no measurable difference between a CA only catalytic converter and the other cats good in 49 states. But, there’s no way around it, I can’t even order one of the cheaper cats because CA law prevents them from being shipped into the state. No wonder catalytic converters are being stolen right off parked cars!

If I had one of the legal in 49 states types I could put it on. It would work just fine and it would pass SMOG with flying colors, and isn’t that all that really matters? But, no, it apparently doesn’t matter if it will pass CA emissions, they still want you to buy one that costs 10X more. I can’t even buy a used CA cat from a junk yard, that’s illegal too! I can’t order out of state…illegal. So, I’m stuck paying for the $600 CA only cat. Yeah, it’s all fixed now, but I am really ticked off at this stupid state for fleecing me.

Bottom line: This is yet another reason why we need Northern California to break away from Southern California and let them keep their over-regulation, high taxes and poor legislation!