At 05:52 AM 10/16/2004, you wrote:
>Man, this is going to be ugly. Two of my Vanagons got tagged for the
>more intensive "test only station" smog checks this year. I thought
>these were issued at random? They got me twice in one year. I must be
>very LUCKY!!!

I used to get a "test only" demand for my 1989 Isuzu Pickup every time. I
simultaneously had a bad cat and O2 sensor once four years ago and it
failed so miserably that I think they flagged it as a "suspect vehicle" or
something. Even though I replaced the cat and sensor after that one bad
test and it passed with ridiculously clean numbers every test after, it
still got "test only" every time. I also suspect that their "random"
selection tends to lean towards certain makes and models of older cars that
they think tend to pollute more (cough)HotRoddedCamaros(cough).

>Problem with this is one of the vehicles in question has a cleaner
>running inline-4 which has not been run through a referee. Darn,
>guess, I'm gonna have to get me a CARB sticker. I've been getting away
>from local smog shops by not mentioning it is a conversion. Most
>places take one look and assume the VW Fox engine in thre came from
>Wolfsburg.

 From the test only places I've been, I'd think they'd be LESS likely to
notice that the inline doesn't belong. Most of those guys at test only's
aren't mechanics. They probably couldn't tell a wasserboxer from an inline.

>Looks like they are trying to legislate Vanagons out of existence.

If they could, they'd send every car over 10 years old to the crusher and
make us buy new ones, the jerks. California has an annoying tendency to
make car ownership difficult.

John Bange
'90 Vanagon "Geldsauger"