Stolen Catalytic Converter in CA

yes, the correct aftermarket cats work fine. in cali, idk, it's a risk. you might get an engine light which would fail.
i would read thru some of the existing threads

 

You can't do squat in California you have visuals and connected inspections that never end referees and plenty of inspection cops are out on the roads in California you can be pulled at any time in your car can be refereed and removed from the road on the spot leaving you walking just beware.

 

my factory original Toyota cats were stolen but recovered in Virginia. cut at rear before round resonator - unbolted at front I would like to sell it to a californian who needs factor/oem and put on an aftermarket as i'm not required to have factory here and then mark my car in a way so thieves pass me by the next time. shoot me a message maybe we can work something out.

 

No cop is going to be able to spot an aftermarket catalytic converter on a Prius as it drives by. No cop is going to pull over a Prius just on the off chance it has an illegal cat. That is just not going to happen. I see people driving around all the time with illegal tint, which the cops can see at a glance, and apparently they don't care enough to cite them/follow through to resolve the violation.

There are inspections every two years as part of the smog check though. So the aftermarket cat better be CA legal, or it will fail inspection.

 

From what I understand in California at a regular traffic stop for a loud stereo or for a woman topless or whatever the stop is a cop can just get a wild hair across whatever and call in a referee or a smog person or a state whatever person it is and they'll come pull up in a fancy vehicle and get out like the feds and start looking at your shite and can take it off the road on the spot if that person feels like it that day oh of course he has to answer for it in court but in the meantime you're out of your vehicle no matter what as I understand how it can be from watching what happens to the speeders from Canada in California it can escalate to that real quick especially if you're in a car that makes any noise or does anything that makes them think that they might want to do something they may have to answer for that further down the road but in the meantime it's costing you your vehicle time and money I get that.

 

Cops only stop topless women for one reason and it isn’t to inspect the cat

 

Maybe… it IS to inspect….the cat..

 

I have lived in Ca for forty years and have never seen this happen, not sure where you get your information but is simply wrong. I have driven mostly Corvettes, with some pretty loud with aftermarket mufflers, never had an issue at all. I have had cops drive right next to me and give me a thumbs up. All of my Vettes had custom wheels, and non DOT European taillights(Split in the middle so the lower is a yellow turn signal and the upper is the tail/brake light) and aftermarket exhaust, and no front plate which is required in CA, and MONSTER sound systems(I would drive down the road and people would come running and screaming out of their houses thinking the band is going by.)Heck we even had a caravan going well over 100mph on a back farm country road. Just happen to be a couple of cops down a driveway and saw us go by. When we finally stopped for lunch, they mentioned we should be a bit careful driving that fast as tractors frequently use the road. The other one mention he sees 15 no front plate tickets, then laughed. Then invited them to sit down with us and we bought them lunch

 

Oh and back to the OP you MUST have a CARB certified convertor. Only two companies make them Toyota and Magnaflow. You can't slap on any convertor and pass smog. I have a Smog shop behind my detailing shop and they were trained to spot non CARB compliant convertors.
When I took mine to another smog shop, as it was close to the DMV, he knew I had a dealer convertor versus a factory convertor. Both places use mirrors or rack it to inspect the convertor

 

Maybe you're the correct class of people for things like stayed to happen to you n yours I don't know . Legally these things can happen in that state. A cop can have you out of you're vehicle in seconds and folk dispatched on short order they have offices in that state for said type issues . My state do not . That is all . The carb board has long wielding power they're . Have their own enforcement division .

 

You need to seriously question the reliability of your source for that information.

I have lived in CA for all but a few of my >60 years, and in that time I have never seen a car pulled over and some CARB enforcement droid called to the scene. I have seen a car pulled over for gross pollution, but the cop just writes them a "fix it" ticket and sends them on their way. (Leaving aside for the moment other possible factors, like a dead prostitute in the passenger seat, or other similar flagrant criminal offense.) A little puff of smoke won't do it either, the car has to be blowing clouds of smoke for a cop to bother with it. Probably not even then.

Here is CARB's site:

Homepage | California Air Resources Board

CARB legal enforcement is usually employed on big problems, like an industrial plant belching sulfur dioxide or some other noxious compound. I suppose that if one were really unlucky they might come after you for a smoking car, but cannot imagine that the first action by them would be anything other than a "fix it or junk it" order. Such a car would be a "gross polluter" and they don't have much tolerance for those. (Me either, I hate driving behind cars which billow clouds of smoke.) Enforcement is outlined here, but again, most of that is for industrial scale violations:

Enforcement Policy | California Air Resources Board

There is a program that the state runs where they stop random cars and measure their smog output. It is just data collection though, that is, to see how well, over all, automotive emissions controls are working. The inspection is optional and there are no negative consequences for failing. This isn't CARB though, it is the part of government in charge of auto repairs. They don't do this very much though, I estimate they only need 100 to 1000 cars a year or so for adequate statistics, out of roughly 30 million vehicles. So the odds of ever encountering one of these inspections are minute.

https://www.bar.ca.gov/roadside-inspection-program

You should also consider why CA started this sort of an organization. Most of the population lives in regions which are bounded on one or more sides by mountains. So unlike, let's say Kansas, our air pollution doesn't usually just blow away to become somebody else's problem. More often it piles up somewhere else in the state. For instance, a lot of the pollution from the greater LA area will on some days blow out towards Riverside. Which is why even back in the 70's when hardly anybody lived in Riverside they had terrible air pollution. Also, before CARB the air pollution here was truly hideous. When I was in college in the late 70's in LA probably half the year I couldn't see the hills/mountains even though they were just a few miles away, and playing a game of soccer made me feel like an 80 year old with emphysema. CARB may sometimes be a PITA but they do get the job done, and the state's air is much much better now than before.

 

Yep I've never seen either . The laws and boards exist. That's enuff for me to stay out . And gives LE broader powers. And I certainly don't want any part of that just watching videos of police activities from about Central America on out west is pretty wild I'll stay out of that whole mess

 

CA cops are pretty typical of those elsewhere in the US, with the exception of the LA County Sheriff's Department. (Not a stellar group of LEOs.) The Sheriff was just voted out because he didn't do enough (anything) to break up their gangs and rein in the other forms of misbehavior which are rampant there.

 

You watch what happens when the Canadian guys come down here with the nice Lamborghinis and whatever the heck they're driving that year Ferraris pinfarina cars whatever. You see the crap that the LA and whatever the California cops I don't care what city it is they give these guys grief and every city they go to they're exhaust are illegal I mean every bit of it these are factory cars coming from the factory dropped off in Canada and then driven down here for whatever events they're doing and the California police harang these guys the whole time they're here with the littlest pettiest nonsense I've ever seen in my life It is incredible I mean I've watched the videos I see them when they put new ones out get them the same day and it is really petty they came here to North Carolina they'd be in heaven they wouldn't even know what was happening because nobody would give to squats but get to California out past the middle of America and all of a sudden you are in Gestapo land it's incredible I guess if you've never lived out here you don't know

 

Visiting with Canadian plates or an imported Canadian vehicle? The cops may pull over a visiting Canadian or Mexican (never seen any other country's plates) for one reason or another, but smog compliance is not one of them. The problem will be when that car stays long enough that it must be registered in state and so must pass a CA smog check. My understanding is that a lot of the exotic manufacturers sell the same 50 state car in the US and Canada (maybe Mexico too). Such a car, if it is in good running order, will pass smog and be good to go.

There is also the issue of how long it has been owned. If it is bought out of state and then moved shortly thereafter into CA use tax (sales tax), plus I believe a small penalty, will be due. This is perfectly logical since the state has an interest in not letting people bypass its sales tax by buying cars (or anything else) in other states and then moving them across the border. If the car has been owned for several years I don't think use tax is still due, but I could be wrong. I mean, why would I have ever imported a Canadian car (probably with significant rust) when I could buy a rust free CA vehicle? There are plenty of cars in CA to choose from.

 

Once again, I love the fact that people who don't live in Ca know more about what is going than us of those actually live in the state. I owned a very, and I mean a very high end auto detailing shop in Silicon Valley. The cars you are talking about were common place in my shop. Most of my customers were in the news daily and would buy cars from all over the world and bring it to my shop for a detail. It was not unusual for me to have $4-5 million $$ worth of cars in my shop at any one time from all over the world, my reputation was that good, AND NOT ONCE, AND I MEAN NOT ONCE in the real world did any owner EVER have an issue with local law enforcement. Trust me you would wet your pants with my customer base.
You know simply put you should stop posting and stop embarrassing yourself as it is obvious you are posting based on hearsay and not actual fact.

 

Yeah that's great My brother and family's over in a thousand oaks in those areas We know a little bit about it but that's okay glad you have a great customer base and no one ever gets harassed because of that customer base is probably why they don't get harassed but that's great no problem I don't need to live there Believe me that would cost me more than my life is worth practically