New ECU regulations in CA?
 

I have a 2013 FR-S with a tuned ECU (I'll explain). My smog is coming due and I'm concerned that I will fail smog because the ECU is supposedly tuned to remove the well-documented torque. I say supposedly because it came with an ECU flasher and I was told the work had been done. Can I reflash it back to the original? Will the smog tester know or am I ok reflashing it back to the original specs?

Sometimes it's easier just to buy a second ECU and keep it stock. It's like 3 plugs and 4 screws or something to swap it out.

Sent from my SM-G975U using Tapatalk

What kind of ECU flasher did it come with? Some are easier to deal with than others. All are doable.

I just smogged recently and passed just fine after flashing back from an Ecutek tune to the stock base tune

1st gen OpenFlash I believe.

Then it is pretty easy to use that OpenFlash tablet to restore to stock. After smog, reflash the tune if you want.

I went back to stock recently. I used Tactrix, which is a bit more difficult but not hard.

I'm so glad i'm leaving CA soon. It's so silly to have to deal with this stuff

The reflash was insanely easy. Now, after reading my ECU I see there's a PO420 code. I have 3 options...

1) New catalytic converter. Yeah, no.

2) O2 bung. I wonder if the smog technician will open the hood and inspect it. I haven't had a chance to really see where it is or if it would be obvious. Does have a picture of where exactly it's located?

3) Citric acid wash. I've done this before and it works incredibly well. Cat soup anyone? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ZE0RhSZdRk

Do you have an aftermarket header? That's probably why the car is throwing code. I doubt the cat or the sensor has gone bad. I haven't seen many instances where that has been the case.


You won't pass a real smog visual with an aftermarket header. I recommend either buying a used one or borrowing one and swapping it.

The header itself on the FA20 engine has a catalytic converter, along with the front pipe. The only exhaust emissions sensor is located on the header; it's near the header-to-overpipe connection. In the area pictured below, you'll find a pair of twin connectors (one black and one gray); these are for the Heated O2 and AFR sensors on the header, respectively. P0420 deals with the black O2 sensor; follow the black sensor connector and wire down on the left side of the engine

https://www.ft86club.com/forums/atta...1&d=1465196787

I left 3 years ago..
 

I left Cali 3 years ago, SO glad I did.

Jaden

It's all stock. I wasn't aware that the headers contained the cat?

The car has 2 catalytic converters: one in the header, one in the front pipe.

You will fail. Are you NA or Boost? Do you know if they used ECUTEK or Openflash to tune the ECU?

openflash

I had a talk with a very reputable shop about talking with senators about regulations getting out of hand. I believe in climate change etc, so my idea was that you can add headers and a tune and if it passes smog...it passes. woopty doo. If you need full race tunes, they can only be unlocked by passing a gate at an actual race track which I thought the Dodge Demon does.

the problem with CA specifically is that the overwhelming amount of state legislators are way over the top with climate change stuff.
It's fair to be reasonable when it comes to exhaust emissions but it's beyond out of control here. They need to back off some things and put way more focus on road safety as well. When I lived in North Carolina they didn't do any emission testing but you had to have your vehicle road safety tested. I see cars every day that are driving 80+ down the highway that aren't road worthy but i guess as long as they pass the sniff test thats good enough for CA....

The tank is full of G2P, new air filter and oil, plus I added a short bung to the O2 sensor. I'm sure it will pass the exhaust sniffer, I just need to trick the car into setting the monitors to ready. The good news is that the downstream O2 sensor is almost invisible from the engine bay.

It's funny because other states have road-readiness inspections but belch clouds of smoke. We have the opposite here. Cars that should be driven straight to a scrap yard but somehow pass smog.

Thank you for sharing quality feedback.