Ok heres the deal, I have a 97 accord, the stock cat is clogged bad, I have to replace it. I want to get a federal legal cat because its 1/4-1/6 the price of an OEM california cat. Heres the deal, I just bought the car it was originally a NH car and has passed california emissions previously.

Now that I got the car I have to resmog it, so to get to the question.

If I was to buy an aftermarket OEM replacement cat that is not obdII california legal, will I get harassed by smog techs, or will I pass no problem assuming the rest of the engine is in good running shape with out a 2nd look by the smog tech

 

The problem is that the provision for mounting the 2nd O2 sensor (OBD2) is incorporated with the converter itself. Without that provision (OBD1) you can't mount the required 2nd O2 sensor, thus being in violation of CARB inspection standards.

P

 

Well I am talking about an OEM replacement cat, aka as direct fit catalyst. If you are saying that the o2 sensor needs to be in the middle opposed to after the cat for the 2nd o2, please clarify I am a little lost on your explanation.

Ryan

 

Remember you have that emissions warranty extension. So that means if your CAT is clogged, you ccan get free replacement from Honda. I'll get you more info.

 

http://forums.slickdeals.net/showthr...36971&t=202836 Check out that PDF.

Maybe you can get free replacement in the cap and rotor.

 

Yea thanks man I already knew about that, but that wasn't the question not to mention the car has 210k miles on it.

 

honda are very sensitive to Cat and 02 sensors. i know this sucks but just get another OEM cat. less hassle in the long run

 

he cant get a new oem cat, the cat on that car is only good for i believe 7 years under the emissions warranty

what you should do is if you get an oem aftermarket cat that is obdII compatible, take it to some hole in the wall, 9 times out of 10 the tech that is doing smogs is not going to stare at your cat to see if it is california legal, if they see a test pipe then yes your out of luck, but if the cat looks oe and it is a direct bolt on, who cares, i dont and i do smogs

 

oh and as dumb as this sounds, make it look like its been in the car a couple years,

only thing smog techs care for is if your car is sent from bureau of automotive repair

they are going to be looking at the EVAP/PCV/Timing a lot longer then they are going to be staring at your car

but the cat that you get has to be obdII compliant, because if its not, your check engine light is going to come on or something along that line and then you are going to have another problem

 

I used to have a 2000 Civic Si that was originally a Florida car, brought to California. At around 100k, the cat died. Being that it was a 49 state car, I picked up a 49 state cat (NOT a California cat). All I needed to pass smog was to adjust my timing, that was it.

Hope that helps.

 

Thank you very much too the last 2 posters, I was aware that I need an obdII compliant cat, I actually have a camry cat at work that looks to be in perfect condition and I am going to have a co-worker tig on some flanges. I also had the idea to make the cat look "used", the last poster gave me the exact answer I have been looking for. SO I will tig on some flanges get a pre-test done and see if it works out. I will be doing somestuff to makeit look dirtier and used haha.

 

if your car was not originally from Cali, you have won't have all the extra BS for the Cali Cat to hook up to anyway.