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Smog Check in CA

Anyone get their smog done lately in the OC?

I saw the place in Santa Ana but that was posted in 08...

Just wondering if there are any recent feedback on reliable place to go in the OC?

Thanks in advanced...

Jeff
 
Just got back from this place again and had excellent results. Same guy, changed me $45 (cash only) this time. I drove up and was out of there in about 15 minutes. Super easy and no issues whatsoever.

BTW, my car is pretty low with a Wings West front lip and skirts and there were no clearance issues with his equipment.

Just went to the place over the weekend. You are completely right. He charged me $50 and it only took about 15 minutes and it is done. I would recommend anyone in the South/West Los Angeles area to come here. It is fast and easy and he gets the job done.
 
Anyone get their smog done lately in the OC?

I saw the place in Santa Ana but that was posted in 08...

Just wondering if there are any recent feedback on reliable place to go in the OC?

Thanks in advanced...

Jeff

http://www.alisoviejoautoservice.com/map

Jeff, did you find a place? I just got my DMV notice that I need to smog my '05 for the March 2011 registration. I had it smogged in March 2009, when I bought it and registered it in my name, so it seems too soon to me. I thought they were good for 3 years. Anyway, when I had it smogged then, I went to Aliso Viejo Auto Center. I'll probably go back to see Shane again. He is the one I go to with all my '05 S2000 needs and to get oil changes on my '08 RAV4.
 
http://www.alisoviejoautoservice.com/map

Jeff, did you find a place? I just got my DMV notice that I need to smog my '05 for the March 2011 registration. I had it smogged in March 2009, when I bought it and registered it in my name, so it seems too soon to me. I thought they were good for 3 years. Anyway, when I had it smogged then, I went to Aliso Viejo Auto Center. I'll probably go back to see Shane again. He is the one I go to with all my '05 S2000 needs and to get oil changes on my '08 RAV4.

Hi there...

Thanks for the feedback I did find a place out in San Gabriel area...

A bit far but it wasnt too bad...

Jeff
 
I got my 2005 hottie smogged today. I went to Bake Auto Care at 20771 Bake Parkway Suite H, Lake Forest CA 92630. It's done. I'm very nervous with people touching my car who don't know about NSXs but it went okay, once the guy, Lazarus, found the hook-up under the driver's dash for the connector. The reason I chose them was because of the price. I had to have my NSX smogged in March 2009, when I brought it in to Cali from Chicago, and I took it to Shane at Aliso Viejo Auto in Laguna Niguel. He's fine but the price was going to be $60 and I'm always looking for a better deal. I went online and Bake Auto came up with a $10 coupon. Their original price was $58.24 but with the $10 off coupon it came to $48.24.


IMG_0833110127smogNSXjpg.jpg
 
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Got my smog done at Young's Smog Check near Venice and Western this past Saturday morning. Andy was very professional and friendly. He says that he smogs a lot of exotics due to his in-ground rollers which cleared my Downforce diffuser without problems. Took 15min max. Paid $45 by mentioning Yelp, but gave an extra $5. Tell him the guy with the yellow NSX recommended you.
 
I took my NSX to Bake Auto years ago, I remember the tech was pretty extreme about Toyota MR2's at the time.

It looked like a family-owned business, which I thought was cool; the car passed, which was the important part :tongue:

I got my 2005 hottie smogged today. I went to Bake Auto Care at 20771 Bake Parkway Suite H, Lake Forest CA 92630. It's done. I'm very nervous with people touching my car who don't know about NSXs but it went okay, once the guy, Lazarus, found the hook-up under the driver's dash for the connector. The reason I chose them was because of the price. I had to have my NSX smogged in March 2009, when I brought it in to Cali from Chicago, and I took it to Shane at Aliso Viejo Auto in Laguna Niguel. He's fine but the price was going to be $60 and I'm always looking for a better deal. I went online and Bake Auto came up with a $10 coupon. Their original price was $58.24 but with the $10 off coupon it came to $48.24.


IMG_0833110127smogNSXjpg.jpg
 
I took my NSX to Bake Auto years ago, I remember the tech was pretty extreme about Toyota MR2's at the time.

It looked like a family-owned business, which I thought was cool; the car passed, which was the important part :tongue:

Yeah, the counter guy is the son of the mechanic/boss. There were two other mechanics too.

Scorp, aren't you the young guy that showed up at NSXPO at the Saturday night dinner, way leaner and looking great? If so, I recognized your voice before knowing who you were. Please tell me, what is your avatar. It looks like a coyote but I don't understand what it's doing.:confused:
 
is it worth it to get illegal smog done?? i kno some ppl that can do it

no. not unless you want to have your car impounded and destroyed.
 
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I don't post much, but I have learned a great deal from this Forum - so in the interest of "paying back"... Here's a recent experience that hopefully will help others:

I recently purchased a '98 six speed. The PO had a considerable amount of work done in Nov 2008, after which he barely drove the car 2000 miles before I bought it. The work done was a thorough tune up - including TB / WP, all hoses, one O2 meter, and more. He also (had) installed CT headers, a Taitec LW exhaust including hi flow Cats (lucky me). It also had a LW flywheel and Clutch kit, but that's not really germane...

All work was performed by Autowave in HB, a trusted tuner / NSX specialist.

So - based on the posts above, yesterday I went to Bake Auto Care. They are fairly close, and I printed the 10 dollar discount coupon. I stopped to get half a tank of Chevron 91 on the way. They were nice enough, I waited abt 30 mins before they did the test.
It failed.
The HC was high, but not by much. I just spent 30 mins typing the chart with the numbers, but it doesn't work
Bake Auto seemed pleased, and was happy to offer to find the cause / make the repairs.

I called a couple of places, spent last night searching the Internet re. failed SMOG and high HC numbers. It was amazing the amount of "Witch Doctor" solutions that were posted...
Bottom line - I called AutoWave since they installed the hardware. Shane guessed the Cats never got hot enough. He sent me to his guy - EASY SMOG (H.B. Auto Center - 17922 Gothard, HB CA). They are right down the road from AutoWave. Very nice man, Mr. Le, I think - I let him look at the previous day's numbers. He let the car warm (prolly 4K RPM) for a good 5 mins before running the test.

Result? Easily passed with every single measured number SIGNIFICANTLY lower than the day before.
Back-to-back testing... The one and only difference was the the car (CATs) were significantly hotter before the measurement was taken (and perhaps the tester knows his business..:rolleyes:).

Highly recommend this shop. I will never go anywhere else.
 
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no. not unless you want to have your car impounded and destroyed.

How can you prove someone got it illegally done? They would be out of business if they were caught. Plus only way would be to get literally caught on machine signing papers saying it passed. If u can get it cause u need it do it. Benefit is you dint have to remove all the parts that make it unsmogable. That and some places dont touch the car, so no one else touching it. If its not me or ramon i dont want ppls messing with it. Stupid smog tech over heated my rx7 cause he was too busy trying to get me to let him borrow it for weekend, for a free smog, to realize he never turned the fan on.
 
I don't post much, but I have learned a great deal from this Forum - so in the interest of "paying back"... Here's a recent experience that hopefully will help others:

...
So - based on the posts above, yesterday I went to Bake Auto Care. They are fairly close, and I printed the 10 dollar discount coupon. I stopped to get half a tank of Chevron 91 on the way. They were nice enough, I waited abt 30 mins before they did the test.
It failed.
The HC was high, but not by much. I just spent 30 mins typing the chart with the numbers, but it doesn't work
Bake Auto seemed pleased, and was happy to offer to find the cause / make the repairs.

I called a couple of places, spent last night searching the Internet re. failed SMOG and high HC numbers. It was amazing the amount of "Witch Doctor" solutions that were posted...
Bottom line - I called AutoWave since they installed the hardware. Shane guessed the Cats never got hot enough. He sent me to his guy - EASY SMOG (H.B. Auto Center - 17922 Gothard, HB CA). They are right down the road from AutoWave. Very nice man, Mr. Le, I think - I let him look at the previous day's numbers. He let the car warm (prolly 4K RPM) for a good 5 mins before running the test.

Result? Easily passed with every single measured number SIGNIFICANTLY lower than the day before.
Back-to-back testing... The one and only difference was the the car (CATs) were significantly hotter before the measurement was taken (and perhaps the tester knows his business..:rolleyes:).


Highly recommend this shop. I will never go anywhere else.

Thank you for telling us about your experience, Mitch. It's very good information that you've shared!
 
How can you prove someone got it illegally done? They would be out of business if they were caught. Plus only way would be to get literally caught on machine signing papers saying it passed. If u can get it cause u need it do it. Benefit is you dint have to remove all the parts that make it unsmogable. That and some places dont touch the car, so no one else touching it. If its not me or ramon i dont want ppls messing with it. Stupid smog tech over heated my rx7 cause he was too busy trying to get me to let him borrow it for weekend, for a free smog, to realize he never turned the fan on.

i was mainly concerned bc my vs nsx has no cat in it and my buddys son gets the hookup he knows alot of ppl and has connections and can get it done for me if i want to.
 
I heard one smog tech/owner got busted.

and it wasn't even intentionally illegal.

He was careless and in a rush and didn't go through the entire check list by the book.

the car and owner was an undercover smog check that goes around.

So for his first offense he was:

1. sentenced to 2 weeks in county jail
2. $20k fine
3. and now he folded his shop, got blacklisted to open another one and is now making minimum wage as an employee somewhere

So the next time u want an illegal smog job and they ask $400+ u should understand that it's a really good deal considering what can happen.



On another note:

I just had my damaged STMPO cat back mufflers replaced with the Magnaflow 36000 series Cats.

Also, I just bought 2 bottles (recommended for our tank size) of the Clean Power.

Just with cats on the exhaust practically has no smell.

My smog test (at a test ONLY station) appt. is this Saturday.

I'll post results.

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my buddies connection can do it for $150

its still not worth it ..... just fix your car and make it pass legit. Our cars attract enough attention as it is why risk losing your ride over running an illegally smogged car?
 
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