Educate me on catalytic converter’s on euro cars in California

[n2bimmer]

This coming weekend I am having my exhaust system replaced which will include a new catalytic converter, my muffler technician tells me that euro cars most likely will not pass smog inspection therefore the catalytic converter does not necessarily need to be California compliant, what are your thoughts?
Thanks


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[Coupenut]

My 84 was a CA car. It passed CA emissions for a number of years according to the paperwork that I got when bought the car. It has the CARB sticker on the strut tower. This was with cats. I've since removed the cat since emissions testing isn't required for cars with antique tags in MD.

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[n2bimmer]

My 84 was a CA car. It passed CA emissions for a number of years according to the paperwork that I got when bought the car. It has the CARB sticker on the strut tower. This was with cats. I've since removed the cat since emissions testing isn't required for cars with antique tags in MD.

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Ok thanks.

[kojo96]

Most smog techs (Calif) don't crawl under the car to inspect the cat to make sure it's CA compliant- Just that it's there. a well tuned car with good A/F mixture will pass no problem- BUT, has your car been registered in Calif in the past? If not then passing smog isn't your real problem, it's the DMV, they will not issue a registration if the car doesn't carry a CARB tag-
Assuming it does have the tag, much depends on the ECU you're running, and you may have to run an 02 sensor and the euro 011 ECU (I think that's the one your car came with) doesn't have provisions to sense the 02 sensor-
If your car has the CA CARB tag, you should be fine with a non CA cat and a good tune- make sure;
NO vacume leaks
fresh plugs/oil filter
fresh cap/rotor
Do a search on this and other forums (mye28.com) on AFM adjustments, very doable and not to hard to get the car to pass smog.