Thinking about a relocation... Redondo, El Segundo area

750H.P.V6 said:
You need a new smog guy. There is no reason the car can't have an aftermarket cat since it's an OBD1 car. Why does he care what color the plug wires are? Sounds like he got up on the wrong side of the bed that morning. :mad:

Neal
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If the cat doesn't have a eo number it matters
 
Scott Atk said:
Haven't received an offer yet, but it's coming. The thought of moving to Cal. scares me. I'm trying to figure out how much more I would need to make to break even. I'm about to retire from the USAF so I only pay Federal tax on a portion of my income now and no state tax in Nevada. So I'm looking at Federal taxes on all of my income plus California state tax which I understand is no joke. It looks like Redondo median house price is $800K so that's out of the question. I guess I'm just looking for some real life feedback, and I'm sure there's plenty of things I'm not considering. Thanks in advance. Scott
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Have you put some thought about buying a foreclosure? Might be able to buy a home at a better price, of course you'll have to pay all cash at the court house. If you have partial of what the property cost you can get a short term loan from a friend, family member or bank and refinance or get a loan for the home as soon as you close on the property. My plan is to move to Orange County in the future and I have been looking and studying the prices on recontrustco.com. Usually banks will post prices a few days before they go on sale at the court. If you see a property that is on that website and do not want to wait to bid on the property, you can get a hold of the Realtor and make an offer for what the bank posted on recontrust that will be the low end price the bank is willing to take and it gives you an idea of what the bank will take for the property as shortsale.
 
Buying a house is not an immediate need. It will be just me for a while so I would probably get an apartment or maybe a Budget Suite type place until I know if I'm going to like the job or not. Not willing to uproot my wife from her job until we know if this is going to work. I appreciate everyone's thoughts so far. I'm anxious to get the offer and see where this takes me.
 
750H.P.V6 said:
Only on OBD2 vehicles. I double checked on the CARB website. Their catalytic convertor E.O. database starts at 1995.

Neal
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From another board: "The new law went into effect 1-1-09. It specifies that any cat that is replaced for a California car must have the C.A.R.B stamp on it and the exemption (EO - Executive Order) number on it."

The way that the new CARB rules work is that pre OBDII cars do not need a seperate EO for each car. The manufacturer gets one approved for say all pre-OBDII lite trucks and it is good for any vehicle that is in that class.

http://www.magnaflow.com/02catalytic_converters/02product/displaydirectfit_pre.asp?directfit=36438 has a CARB EO number. I think you need to have a OBD2 cat now if you replace your cat on your OBD1 or earlier car. If they are doing the job they are supposed to do and see that your cat looks new but does not have an EO they may question it since this went in to effect 4 years ago. As asinine as it is, it's the rules. Makes me glad I have my stock rusty down-pipe and cat. Lets just hope it passes this time (smog is due on my car before July 1).

As for the plug wires; that's a new one.

EDIT: That damn magnaflow converter is $300!

Chris
 
Si
Scott Atk said:
Peter, That's what I was wondering. However if pre-75 is exempt then how would big brother even know it has a swap?
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Since its an out of state transfer you'll have to take the car for inspection and DMV. More than likely they'll catch it...possibly not. It would be different if it was a CA car and then you did the swap.
 
So they catch it, I tell them it's an 87 transplant. Now I have to have it smogged every year to 87 standards even though pre-75 is exempt?
 
Scott Atk said:
So they catch it, I tell them it's an 87 transplant. Now I have to have it smogged every year to 87 standards even though pre-75 is exempt?
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I am not sure how they handle a swap on something that should be exempt. Maybe there are 3rd parties that can do the vin check that won't question it?

If they do have issue with it they will send you to the referee and you have to have all of the 87 emissions equipment in place (although I would say it's an 86 since the standards are a tiny bit lower). Stock downpipe, cat, closed air box, working egr, fuel vapor canister, etc. When I swapped a 86 IC setup in my 85 they checked EVERYTHING down to the checksum on the chip.

This state really needs "classic"/limited use plates. I would gladly pay $200/yr over the $100/yr my registration is to not deal with this stuff on a car that *may* see 2500 miles in a year.
 
Scott Atk said:
So they catch it, I tell them it's an 87 transplant. Now I have to have it smogged every year to 87 standards even though pre-75 is exempt?
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not likely Scott, when i bought my GN from out of state it had to go to DMV to verify VIN, i took it to west covina DMV which has a small CHP substation on site, i was asked to open hood dont remember why, CHP walks over and says "i thought they all had V8s", at the time car had no cat, atr headers, adj fuel regulator, plenty of visible aftermarket parts underhood no one cared, same with my 1969 z/28 that came from Connecticut, two DMV guys looking it over trying to tell me it was a RE-VIN since dash VIN didnt matched trim tag #, i had to get superviser over to clear things up since trim tag is just a sequence number and no relation to VIN. no one ever cared about what motor was in the car. Scott if they dont ask dont volunteer anything, if they do just tell them you believe its the original V6 the previous owner supercharged because the V6 was slow :eek:
 
I have done 3 DMV VIN verifications in San Diego when bringing out of state cars into CA. Never once checked underhood, years ranging from 74 to 05. All they cared about was the VIN.
 
Squid4life said:
I have done 3 DMV VIN verifications in San Diego when bringing out of state cars into CA. Never once checked underhood, years ranging from 74 to 05. All they cared about was the VIN.
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i guess we're just lucky down here

Red C5 said:
Last time I registered an out of state car they checked everything, including under the hood.

Here's the link to CA BAR regarding the subject.

http://www.bar.ca.gov/80_barresources/07_autorepair/engine_change_guidelines.html
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yea Peter,

but think that is more related to cars required to smog, DMV is just trying to verify the vehicle's identity (was told by friend who works for DMV)
 
I take mine to AAA to be verified. The last time was for the race car I just bought. The guy wanted to look under the hood so I let him. His eyes got really big when he saw the engine. :D I asked him what he needed to see and he said he was looking for the emissions decal. I told him it was originally on the A/C box and that they had removed the A/C since it was a race car. He decided to mark it as missing.

Keep in mind the inspection that is being performed is to determine if the VIN and documentation match and that the car isn't stolen. It really isn't their place to determine whether or not the car has the necessary emissions equipment or the correct engine for that matter. On the other hand I wouldn't go out of my way to piss them off either because they could probably make things difficult for you if they really wanted to.

Neal
 
750H.P.V6 said:
I take mine to AAA to be verified. The last time was for the race car I just bought. The guy wanted to look under the hood so I let him. His eyes got really big when he saw the engine. :D I asked him what he needed to see and he said he was looking for the emissions decal. I told him it was originally on the A/C box and that they had removed the A/C since it was a race car. He decided to mark it as missing.

Keep in mind the inspection that is being performed is to determine if the VIN and documentation match and that the car isn't stolen. It really isn't their place to determine whether or not the car has the necessary emissions equipment or the correct engine for that matter. On the other hand I wouldn't go out of my way to piss them off either because they could probably make things difficult for you if they really wanted to.

Neal
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completely agree
 
750H.P.V6 said:
You need a new smog guy. There is no reason the car can't have an aftermarket cat since it's an OBD1 car. Why does he care what color the plug wires are? Sounds like he got up on the wrong side of the bed that morning. :mad:

Neal
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The Hi flow cats are two way & meant for earlier cars with air pumps. Our cars require a three way cat that has to have the correct air resources sticker. The laws have tightened up especially since the star program was introduced on 01/01/13 and I only mentioned the plug wire remark by the inspector to make a point of what its like to have a car hobby in Calif. In SD county things may be a little more lax but if the inspector is doing his job you will be hearing more stories like this. Plus I seem to get all the problem cars that have been modified/butchered elsewhere & are now coming to me with these sad stories. All I can say is save your smog equipment cause things are going to get worst till they legislate our cars off the road.
 
There are plenty of butchered cars to go around now that they are all 25 years and have been worked on and modified by god knows who. Your right that the end game will be when California legislates all old cars off the road. You'll either be able to own something pre 1975 or less than 10 years old, the generation of cars in between will just disappear.

Neal
 
UPDATE: Went to the Northrop Grumman complex last week. Pretty impressive place. They flew me, hotel, and rental car so I assumed they were pretty interested. It went well and the job sounds pretty cool. Fast forward to this afternoon: I heard back and they are definitely going to make an offer. I told them what I wanted and she didn't seem to flinch so we will see. She did warn that it might take up to six weeks which is fine since I'm having surgery Thursday and will be out of commish for a month.
 
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