On my way back home from school today I noticed two motorcycle cops waiting for helpless me to drive by. I rolled my windows down prior to them seeing my car planning to just cruise by.

Half a mile later he was riding my *** and pulled me over. After bitching for 10 minutes he did a full car inspection.

Ended up with window tint, blue headlights ( they are 6k....), modified emissions ( air intake ) , and no front plate.

My question is he gave me a fixit ticket with a sticker on the back saying I can't drive until I have my car inspected.... does anyone know how extensive these tests are? I have clear corners and custom projector headlights that I can't replace with oem

Also if so any stations that go easy? I didn't even know this existed I only have had fix it tickets in the past...

 

omgoodnesss! Sorry to hear bro!

 

easy fix , find one of your bros on this forum with the same car , swap parts that u have to , go see the ref, how long does it take to swap headlights & a intake ,,,,,not long, be glad you don't have headers!

 

Since when are custom headlights illegal?

 

sorry to hear this
wish you good luck with the inspection

 

^+1, sorry to hear this happened. Hope all goes well with your inspection.

 

From what I have googled people seem to get raped doing these. Anything aftermarket in cali is illegal. If your headlights are not DOT approved you can be cited. I don't have orange in my headlights or side markers.

I have my old set of headlights and air intake some place I think, but the wiring was changed when i did the quad projectors and leds. I'm more worried about having to pass smog because my cars so low I can't get on the machines to test my car..

The cop even pulled out his tape measure to check how low I was... haha what a dick.

 

When I got pulled over they had a tape measure and a camera. When I got to the ref he had pics of my car to reference, as did the judge when I went to court. The cops kept me stopped for about 45 minutes while they took pics and measured all the parts in question.

In the end, I got the same thing for the intake... the ref checks everything engine/emissions related. This means no oil catch can, no plenum spacer, make sure all your vacuum hoses are there and OEM (colored hose fails), no headers, etc. Even if you think you have something that is CARB approved, make sure it's CARB approved for your vehicle year. If you have an 05 and the EO number is for 03-04, it's not CARB legal on your car, and the ref will know this. The ref was a cool guy after I talked to him, but when I first got there he made sure to tell me that he would check everything - and I better not be wasting his time.

I don't remember them checking the headlights... just took off the engine cover and inspected everything, hooked it up and did the smog, then took it outside and checked the exhaust volume. The Ref was like $12, the ticket (even though I passed) was $450 or something.

My car is pretty low too, so I took off my sides before hand and was ready to pull the bumper if necessary, so I could get on the machine. The ref was very appreciative. The whole process was a huge hassle, sorry to hear you need to deal with it.

I also heard you could just pay it off, but I never got that paperwork.

 

Thanks this is really helpful. Thank god I took off my testpipes. I have my nitrous hoses hooked up is that going to be an issue do you think? The ticket was 450$?! just for an air intake? thats outrageous.

I'm just going to raise up my coils and change out the headlights. I don't want to make two trips to this place.

I'm confused on why they gave me this. I have been pulled over for these same reasons and just had to have another cop sign off that the infractions were corrected.

I wonder if I should go to court to contest this fee if it is 400$ or above. Seems very pricey for a fix it.

 

If you have nitrous hoses going into the engine compartment, I would personally take them off. Don't give the ref any reason to fail you, or to take a closer look at anything.

I went to court hoping the judge would lower the fine, and he said with the ref ticket there's a set fine (even when the car passes). Unfortunately, "tampering" with the emissions system is much more serious then your typical fix it ticket. If you we're to just pay it off without fixing it, I believe the fine is substantially higher (you'll need to see what paperwork comes with your ticket). If you have the time definitely go to court (for me it was mandatory... I still don't know why), it's worth a try. I changed everything back and had it pass ref within 3 days of the ticket. Went to court the following week, asked the judge some questions and still had to pay a huge fine. It really just wasted a lot of time.

The cities are looking for money + you have a modded car with illegal modifications = easy money. I'm very curious to hear how this goes and if the fine is any different. Hopefully you'll be able to find a way around it, or at least get the fine reduced.

 

This sux soooo bad. Makes me scared to drive my car...

 

Again thanks a lot for the insight. I'm going to hide everything I can but I will try to go pull off my sob story to the judge and see if I can get it lowered.

Yeah I have been getting getting wrecked since I bought this car. I'm on my breaking point of selling it and getting a bike.

I will update this thread as I handle this matter.

 

damn, sorry to hear man. what a hassle especially right around the holidays. let us know how this turns out.

 

Thats why Im glad I dont live in Cali. I dont know why all the manufacturers are in Cali in the first place... It seems like they restrict businesses quite a bit, and overall a huge pain in the *** to the aftermarket communities.

Liberals ftl.

 

Really good info right here. I'll chime in as well. I actually have been in this situation twice. Cops pulled me over, took pics, measurements, everything. Once the cop told me my engine is illegal, even though all I had was a Z tube, pop charger with CARB # and a painted engine cover. Her response, "it looks illegal to me."

It's their job to cite, if they are unsure, they'll cite and pass it onto another agency. The state ref is for the intake. I doubt it's for the headlights, that's probably a fix it ticket.

As mentioned, the OE# has to be for your year. I didn't pass with my pop charger since I have an '06 and it was for the 03-04 year. Guy was cool about it before giving me the test and said I can take it and pass inspection but fail the visual. I swapped to an OEM intake and that's all I needed.

As for the plenum spacer, I left mine in. They didn't notice it and it did pass inspection. I'm assuming you were in HB? I heard in HB they're cracking down a lot. Glad I'm not really out in that area anymore, but I know I have to be there soon.

Anyway, the time I got the ref ticket I just had to pay for that. It was like $8.25. After that I had to show up in court, bring in my paperwork, and it was dismissed with no fine.