Moving to California - Emissions Advice

[Titan94]

Hi Everyone,

I am going to be moving to Los Angeles, California from Long Island, New York and I was hoping I could get some advice regarding our cruisers and emissions.

I have a 1994 Fzj-80, it's in great shape and I will be driving it to LA to be my daily driver etc, as it has been for the past eight years.

My truck has been throwing a check-engine code for at least a decade, it's the EGR valve and I've never bothered to fix it because it's a fairly irrelevant part, my mechanic has passed me every year for the past 22 or so years of ownership since day one.

Now, I understand that California has stricter laws than NY, or at least that is my impression. I doubt I will be able to pass the smog and emissions check with a busted EGR valve as my NOx levels may be too high. Does anyone have any experience with this by any chance? Is there any way to get around this, perhaps running premium fuel or bringing it to the mechanic hot? Or does anyone know a mechanic who works with Cruisers often and would be willing to work with me regarding passing emissions?

Furthermore, California requires new residents to register their car within 20 days of moving there, which seems slightly ridiculous to me. Is that timeline extremely strict? Will I be fined severely for failing to adhere to that law upon registering?

Thanks mudders.

 

[riffman12]

not sure about registration time, but if the check engine light is on for any reason, you will fail the emissions test by default before they even plug it in.

 

[Mandrake]

Well, it's relevant enough to prevent you from passing an inspection in any state that has one because a CEL on while running is an automatic fail. Cali is no different, so you're gonna have to get it fixed.

 

[Titan94]

Hmm alright, I'll see if I can get it fixed before heading out there. Thanks for the advice regarding the EGR valve.

 

[jcardona1]

Is this OBD or OBD2? Not sure about other states, but in California a 1996-1999 vehicle will not pass SMOG if it has more than one OBD monitor in a not ready state. Not sure what this means for a pre-1996 OBD2 vehicle? So you simply can't clear the code and expect to pass as the monitor(s) may not switch to a ready state.

 

[Titan94]

OBD I, I believe ODB2 is 1995+

 

[Rea1994]

In California, there is special registration for cars from other states if you are moving here. You would have to probably contact the DMV or maybe someone knows more, but you can apply for 49-state emissions as long as you can show the car was registered in your previous state.

https://www.dmv.ca.gov/portal/dmv/?...ntent_en/dmv/pubs/brochures/fast_facts/ffvr29

 

[LandCruisinMy93]

Best emissions advice for moving to California is to move somewhere else that doesn't have emmisions.

 

[madisonr34]

If your check engine light is on here in California, you automatically fail.

 

[baldilocks]

Why do this to yourself?

 

[samiam09]

Yes my advice is stay the hell out of LA. we have the smog nazis from hell. So as i can retire I will be leaving this god forsaken place. between developers trying to build on top of other people, and the idiots in Sacarmento who only represent the bay area or their own wallet. Ca is the last place you want to live. Remember We have the highest gas prices in the states. Other then that if you have a federal smog devices approved by other states you will only have to meet their standards.That was the way with my fj60 from Utah.make sure the check engine light is repaired before you register it here. I know a lot of people here who have their car registered in Nevada. All thou that's suppose to be illegal

 

[arcteryx]

Get ready for some fun. 1976 and newer vehicles must pass emissions. Your best option would be to fix all that ASAP before you leave.

side note, you are one of the very few moving TO Cali, most folks are exiting

 

[dirtyboots]

Prediction: This thread goes 50% trolling CA and is multiple pages

Tech Solution: You've got 3 options- 1) fix your junk 2) sell your junk 3) find a loophole

Being mostly deaf with tremendous nostrils I estimate that 15% of the vehicles here are on option 3. The rest pay copious amounts of cash to drive new vehicles or keep their old ones legal. I would just roll it in to a shop and deal with it. Good luck and welcome!

SacBee article from May '17:
About 2.5 million people living close to the official poverty line left California for other states from 2005 through 2015, while 1.7 million people at that income level moved in from other states – for a net loss of 800,000. During the same period, the state experienced a net gain of about 20,000 residents earning at least five times the poverty rate – or $100,000 for a family of three.

Read more here: California exports its poor to Texas, other states, while wealthier people move in

 

[dugsgms]

Things may not be as bad as you think, you have a few things working in your favor. 1. you are OBD-1 so there will be no "plugging in" and checking for monitor readiness. 2. You have AWD so there will be no dyno test only a idle/2500 rpm test so NOx will not be measured.

That being said, the EGR will still need to pass a functionality test, the smog tech will apply vacuum to the EGR valve while idling and will need to see a drop in rpm and the check engine light will have to pass a light check(light must illuminate during key on/engine off and go out and stay out when engine is started).

 

[Cruiserdrew]

There really are not any loopholes and the practice of a friendly "clean piping" shop ended years ago with the onset of centralized computer reporting by all shops. So fix or sell. It's also illegal to be registered in another state and live in California. You might get away with it for awhile, especially if you park inside, but they even set up an online reporting system to help your neighbors turn you in:

Cheaters: Out-of-State (Out of State Registration Violators)

While I like living in Northern California, I do not like the smog laws here, which are not friendly to collectible vehicles.

There are at least 2 counties with no smog requirement after the first registration in that county-Lake County and Amador county, and I think it's just parts of Amador. But that's not a bad work around if you have a friend with property in Lake County.

Good luck, but prepare to fix your truck. Realize while it may be your EGR valve, it could also be the VSV that controls the EGR, or the temperature sensor for the recirculated gas. I think they all give the same check engine light code.

 

[TRAIL TAILOR]

We are moving to Redding, CA in two days and all our older cars (3) are registered in WY for the next 2-3 years and the newer ones (3) will be registered in CA. We have two homes currently so this is the way we decided to handle it.

I know guys that do the same thing with PMB addresses and call it their "permanent" address although living in another state for a majority of the time. I did this all the time when I was a contract inspector. I sold a car to a guy in CA and almost two years later I was getting parking tickets... I finally went to the DMV here in WY and told them to KILL the plate and they took it and my name off the records. Guy is still probably driving it around with WY plates.

If you are planning on being a FULL time resident of CA then you will need to pony up and get everything repaired for the smog nazis. Eventhough we plan to be full time residents for the most part, there is that loophole that @dirtyboots is talking about.

J

 

[bajaphile]

Just fix the EGR system. It really isn't that big of a deal.

I've registered & smogged 10+ FZJ80's in the past 10 years or so, and never had one fail smog. The main difference is that since the 80s are AWD, they can't do a AWD dyno test, so they just do it without load.

Lastly, once you see the amount of humans and cars on the road in such a small area, you'll see why we have strict smog laws. Born and raised here, I've never really had an issue with smog, and the newest car I've ever owned is a 1997 Land Cruiser.

 

[nukegoat]

Yeah just fix it and itll be fine. Whatever.

 

[cybrstar]

Your lucky it’s OBD1 kanobi,

Just unplug your battery before you smog (if you have a check engine on because obd1’s don’t have any tests to clear for the smog) and hopefully you get lucky with a clogged EGR for the numbers to pass. Smog does not put our 80’s on the dyno or else numbers would be different. I do it all the time with my 94.

 

[Landseer]

For a 94 you can short the wires going to the EGR temp sensor and it will trick the ECU into thinking the system is functioning properly and prevent a EGR CEL. I imagine it wouldn't be too had to do this in a way that would be very difficult to notice (short the pins inside of the connector maybe?). I believe people have reported that you can pass the tail pipe emissions test even without functional EGR.

The EGR CEL is generally caused by carbon deposits building up inside of the intake, pulling the intake apart and cleaning it is the first step towards getting it operational again.

On another note, California is on really shaky legal ground by preventing out of state registrations, I wouldn't be surprised to see this issue end up in the courts in the near future.