Hi guys,

There's a possibility that I might be relocating from Illinois to the San Francisco area for work soon, and I'm concerned about my Evo and my wife's WRX (my 2g will be in storage for a while until I find a place to continue work on it, and we'll probably sell the 1g because there's no hope of it passing smog in CA). In particular, I'm worried about the mods I'll need to roll back to avoid issues with local law enforcement and smog testing. (Two major fault lines, and CARB...awesome. At least the weather is great compared to Chicago. )

Looking over the requirements on the DMV website, it looks like I have 20 days from the day I start work to get the car registered in CA. However, I won't have my tools with me or a shop to work in, so I'll need to prep the car before driving there (or fly out and get by without the car for a while, but that just postpones the problem until my wife moves out with me).

1. Has anyone else here gone through the process of bringing their car (particularly a modified Evo or DSM) into California that could share what they'll be looking for during both the DMV and smog inspections, and how detailed they'll be?
   
   (I've removed, but kept, most of the emissions-related equipment from the car; if I can avoid reinstalling it, I'll be a happy camper, but am prepared to reinstall most of it if strictly necessary.)
   
   
2. I still have the original airbox, and the original downpipe and cat with an aftermarket catback and "silencer" (which should keep things welll under 95dB). While it appears that I'll be legal at that point, how does local law enforcement typically treat drivers with aftermarket catbacks? Any city/county ordinances I should watch out for?
   
   
3. Other mods: I need to track down a stock-appearing LICP, apparently. Has anyone had issues with visible (but OEM-appearing) sensors attached to the intake manifold (GM IAT sensor, in my case) or hanging off other parts of the engine? GM BCS instead of the stock BCS? (See above about how detailed the visual inspection will be?) At least my wideband looks like a stock rear O2 sensor.
   
   
4. I've read stories of law enforcement pulling people with modified cars over and performing roadside visual inspections; anything in particular that they might be looking for that I should be aware of, other than the vague feeling that my rights are being violated?
   
   
5. How is the supply of E-85 around SF? USDE says there's a couple of stations in Oakland, Hayward and Fremont have one each, and there's a few around San Jose; does that sound right to folks in the area? Anything at all on the west side of the bay? (I suppose I should take the Flex-Fuel emblem off the trunk?)
   
   
6. My rear and rear-side windows are tinted; the front driver's and passenger's windows aren't. The CHP answers website seems to say I'm good on this front; again, is this something folks have been hassled about in the past, or should I assume it won't cause problems? (This is actually hilarious; I'd been tracking the passage of the new Illinois tint law that allows front window tint, and the local PDs that were continuing to issue tickets about it in violation of state law. I was planning on re-tinting the whole car this summer now that things have settled down. )
   
   
7. Is CA a two-plate state? (We are here in IL, so I'm already suitably equipped; just curious about this one.)
   
   
8. Any general advice? Things I might not have thought of?

Bah, it should not be this hard to move a car from one state to another. (Now I get to figure out how badly this move might screw me at tax time...)

All emission stuff must be there, if you need to pass visuals I maybe able to help, cops pull over stupid drivers, e-85 is only found on the otherside of the bridge or down south about 45 minutes. Also rear tints are fine, just can't have any on the fronts but usually they don't care .

Well, it's a done deal; I'm moving to SF.

GsxEcutioner, thanks for the help. I'm basically putting the car back to stock (aside from a catback), and I'll sort out what I can do to it later. Hopefully they won't scream too loudly about a few extra sensors and a lot of extra wires going into the ECU.

(I have less than two weeks to finish up the work on the Evo, get my 2g DSM race car to the point where it can actually sit on the ground again so it can go into storage, and sell my wife's 1g DSM. Whee...)

Good luck on the move, and glad to hear we will have another dsm'er in the San Francisco area.

No worries, welcome to the bay where mod friendly cops are scarce aha, let me know how smog goes as well.

No worries, if you know your people in California you can pass smog and get your tickets sign off but I wouldn't necessarily be cruising around cause the cops in California are coming down hard in moving violations and could run up in the thousands of bucks.

It's the way California having the most cars out of any other states dealing with their I don't know what's it billions or billions into debt!

1gDSM4g63 said:

No worries, if you know your people in California you can pass smog and get your tickets sign off but I wouldn't necessarily be cruising around cause the cops in California are coming down hard in moving violations and could run up in the thousands of bucks.

It's the way California having the most cars out of any other states dealing with their I don't know what's it billions or billions into debt!

Click to expand...

Did you just move to the Bay Area too?

welcome to the bay...

What city are you planning on moving to? Cops vary quite a bit by area.

Two plate state. In my experience they don't pull you over just for that but they will ticket you for it if they have you pulled over for something else.

As Far as smog issues I've never been to a referee so I can't comment on that. But the more stock looking you can make it the better. PM me for details.

I just finalized an apartment in Alameda, although with the Evo basically neutered, I'm not very worried about getting attention from the police. Now that I finally have a few days to rest, I can deal with some leftover ECU issues from reinstalling all the damn emissions hardware and get registration taken care of.

It's unbelievable how motivating it was working on the 2g again. I got more done on it in the three days before the move than I've done in the last three years...all so I could just put it into storage here. But, it's a great feeling, seeing the 2g looking and rolling like a real car again instead of just hovering in the garage on stands.

Which reminds me: does CA have a registration classification for what are essentially race/show cars? (In IL, you can actually register a car as a classic/show car: your allowed annual road mileage is limited, but you can drive it to the track and to shows without having to trailer it everywhere.)

(Random observation from the 2100-mile road trip from Illinois: Bonneville feels really weird when it's completely flooded. Every picture I've ever seen of it is this huge salt wasteland, but instead, it was a huge green six-inch-deep lake when I passed through. Really odd.)