Smog check changes leave drivers in a haze

Times have gotten tougher for residents of Placer County who need a smog check for their vehicle. Beginning on April 1, at the request of the Placer County Air Pollution Control District, smog check stations must now test for the ?partially enhanced? smog check requirements. The new changes affect the following zip codes: 95602, 95603, 95604 (Auburn), 95648 (Lincoln), 95658 (Newcastle) and 95663 (Penryn). This means that any vehicle in these areas needing a smog check must be tested using new BAR-97 analyzers and dynomometers.Roseville and Granite Bay are already in an ?enhanced? smog check area, which means their vehi-cles must be tested with the new equipment and may be directed to a test-only center when they re-ceive their DMV renewal notice.BAR-97? Dynomometers? Test-only centers? What do all these terms mean??It?s really confusing to the customer,? said Dave Brown, owner of Auburn 76 Auto Repair on Lincoln Way in Auburn. ?Most people who need a smog check don?t even know they?re going to have to pass these new tougher standards. It?s not even listed on the smog notice that they receive from the state.?So, Brown said, it?s left up to the smog technicians to explain the new requirements to the cus-tomer, and many are not happy when they hear about it.?The first thing people notice is the change in the price for a smog check,? he said. ?They come in and say, ?How come this now costs $50-$70 when it only cost $25 last year??. And I have to explain that there are new test requirements.?One difference with the new test has to do with what steps are required if a vehicle fails.?In the past, the test was set up so you would do a visual inspection first, and a lot of times you could get a good idea from that whether a vehicle would pass the test or not,? Brown said. ?With the new test, the order is reversed and you must do the test first and then do the visual inspection, and many times cars fail. The problem is that with the new test, if you fail by a certain amount, you get tagged a Gross Polluter, and if that happens you have to completely fix all the problems before you get licensed ? not just fix it enough to pass, as is the case if you just fail. We?re having a lot more vehicles fail the new test.?But, there is a way to get a good idea if your car will pass or not. Smog technicians can do a ?pre-test? that is essentially a smog check without being hooked into the state?s computers. Although it is an additional fee to a pre-test, Brown recommends it in some cases.?If your vehicle has over 80,000 miles or is over 10 years old, we usually recommend that you get the pre-test,? he said. ?If you don?t and then get tagged as a Gross Polluter, then you must make re-pairs and then go to a ?Licensed Test-Only Station? to have the retest and get your certificate.?And once your vehicle is tagged as a Gross Polluter, then you must also have your next two smog checks at a Licensed Test-Only Station or a Gross Polluter Certification station. Licensed Test-Only stations are prohibited by law from performing diagnosis or repairs of any kind.?We say you become a ward of the state for the next four years, or until you sell that vehicle,? Brown said with a laugh.Some of the changes with the new test include an accelerated simulation mode (ASM) test on a dynomometer to test for oxides of nitrogen (NOx) which, when combined with hydrocarbons and sunlight make smog.The BAR-97 machine consists of a 5-gas analyzer (Hydrocarbons (HC), Carbon Monoxide (CO), Oxides of Nitrogen (NOx), Oxides of Sulfur (SOx) and Particulate Matter (PM)), additional hardware, software, a fuel cap tester and a dynamometer, a treadmill-like device that simulates driving condi-tions. It can also perform the old two-speed idle (TSI) test on vehicles that cannot be physically tested on the dynamometer like all-wheel-drive vehicles. This new equipment is now required at all smog check stations and is not cheap.?The upgrades alone were about $50,000,? Brown said. ?And that?s not including the cost of training technicians. Currently, I?m the only one in my shop who can do smogs as my technicians are still in school. The total training time is about four months and will cost me about $6,000 to train them both.?Brown doesn?t know how the new requirements will be affecting his competition, but he said that the Bureau of Automotive Repair estimated that 50 percent of smog stations were no longer going to be doing smog checks because of the new requirements and expense of equipment upgrades.Either way, you must have a smog check done to get your vehicle registered and your best bet is to keep you car in working order and listen to your smog technician when you go to get it done.?Keep up on the maintenance of the emission systems of your vehicle and rely on the technician,? Brown said. ?They?re trained and if they don?t explain and perform the test right then they?re doing the customer a disservice.?Gold Country Motoring Editor Chris Somerville can be reached at chriss@goldcountrymedia.com.