|
Seems like there isn't much experience with N/A Subarus here and California SMOG laws and tests and such...
*There are no CARB legal headers yet for this car, IE nothing is technically "California Legal" at this point.
*SMOG isn't required until 5 years after the first sale of the vehicle.
*Your car will not be inspected for emissions unless its pulled over by police and they tell you to have it inspected, or if you are pulled into one of the "Rolling SMOG stations" that are around California and setup by local police or the Highway patrol.
I've run all sorts of exhaust combinations of my old Normally Aspirated Impreza here in California and never been pulled over, harassed by police, or failed an emissions test. Here are some common sense things you guys need to know:
1) Our headers are underneath the engine, and are not normally visible to a visual inspection of the engine bay. If you use headers that retain the stock heatshields or something that looks like the stock heat shields, they will probably pass a "visual" inspection. Nobody knows the wiser.
2) Almost any exhaust will at least one catalytic converter will pass an actual emissions test (excluding visual) as long as your car doesn't throw a check engine light.
3) Keep your stock exhaust so you can reinstall it if you have to have your car inspected or end up making it to the 5 year SMOG testing time. Its worth it even though it requires extra effort and somewhere to keep it.
Finally, take this all with a grain of salt and with a great deal of caution... It all depends on where you live and where you drive, what you look like and what your car looks like, and more. If your car looks modded as heck, you will probably get pulled over and inspected at some point. If it looks stock your likely hood of being pulled over is greatly reduced.
|