[theOkilla]

Hello,

I couldn’t find any posts on this but I’m curious what goes into the Texas state inspections. I will of course put my stock d*** pipes back on the car, but I’m not sure what else is legal. It’ll be Williamson county outside of Austin. Online it looks like all other mods for FBO would be okay to have? Intakes, charge pipe and BOV, etc.

Or am I missing something? I am waiting on registering my car back from non-op because I’m moving in a month from California. I would imagine it’s much less strict than California.

Any information would be appreciated!

[theOkilla]

Bump

[Vivek.]

They don't check ANYTHING. I've registered cars in TX before, their inspection is such a joke and carries a flat fee of like $7, so no one wants to do it and will make up any excuse not to. Took me a few days of trying before realizing this is the case so I asked a guy at pep boys who would do it without giving me some BS reason that they don't want to, regardless of cost. Had to pay an extra $6 as basically a bribe for the guy to actually do the inspection. This seems to be par for the course. Was a line of cars waiting to pay their $13 for the 'inspection'.

Inspection itself involves things like "turn your headlights on" and "press the brakes" while stopped. You don't have to get out of the car and if its even REMOTELY safe to drive, it will pass guaranteed.


Best excuse I got was "it's raining so we can't test the brakes" (wasn't even actively raining but roads were wet)....not that the brakes are involved in this inspection in any way shape or form. I was blown away by the apathy--dude basically told me "it's raining so I can't be bothered to go outside for 45 seconds and do my job"

[theOkilla]

Originally Posted by Vivek.

They don't check ANYTHING. I've registered cars in TX before, their inspection is such a joke and carries a flat fee of like $7, so no one wants to do it and will make up any excuse not to. Took me a few days of trying before realizing this is the case so I asked a guy at pep boys who would do it without giving me some BS reason that they don't want to, regardless of cost. Had to pay an extra $6 as basically a bribe for the guy to actually do the inspection. This seems to be par for the course. Was a line of cars waiting to pay their $13 for the 'inspection'.

Inspection itself involves things like "turn your headlights on" and "press the brakes" while stopped. You don't have to get out of the car and if its even REMOTELY safe to drive, it will pass guaranteed.


Best excuse I got was "it's raining so we can't test the brakes" (wasn't even actively raining but roads were wet)....not that the brakes are involved in this inspection in any way shape or form. I was blown away by the apathy--dude basically told me "it's raining so I can't be bothered to go outside for 45 seconds and do my job"

Awesome, that’s great news. Thank you for the detailed response! I kept everything on my car but put the cats back on in case they do emissions testing. I kept my car registered as a non-op until I move so I didn’t have to tear everything off my car because of California’s insane rules.

[Vivek.]

Originally Posted by theOkilla

Awesome, that’s great news. Thank you for the detailed response! I kept everything on my car but put the cats back on in case they do emissions testing. I kept my car registered as a non-op until I move so I didn’t have to tear everything off my car because of California’s insane rules.

Yeah...when you're coming from CA to other states you'll be blown away by the vehicle testing process. Automakers make cars for california (largest US market) and then adapt them for the other 49. CA has about 2/3 as many driver's licenses to registered vehicles, TX is more like 3/2.

I'm considering registering in Montana for my cars in the future. Seemingly impossible to hot smog an OBDII car these days, and the workarounds seem like more trouble than it's worth for a CA plate. Pre 2000 you're golden, 300 bucks and a VIN and you have your smog. E9x....absolutely fucked. Enjoy the lack of regulation in Texas. Don't love the state but certain things are way better than over here.

Anyways, swap your DP's back on and tune it. TX won't check anything, I promise. Such a joke getting my e39 reg'd there; I kept the CA plates on the whole time since TX tolls don't have a mechanism for charging out of state plates. I went 95 following a TX state trooper from San Antonio to Austin once, almost 100mph the whole hour.

They won't even pop your hood. You could have a top mount 6466 and no one would ever know.

[PerfectAce]

Wow. Where to begin with the amount of misinformation...

OP, if you're going to be registering your car in Williamson County, Texas, your car WILL BE emissions tested despite someone saying, "But I've registered cars in Texas, and I pay $7 + bribe and they only make sure my car has a working seatbelt, horn and headlights!" Which may be true...for them. Keep in mind Texas is a huge, varied state and they probably don't live where you do/will.

However, certain counties in Texas (Williamson is amongst them) require emissions testing for vehicles between 2-24 years old. FBO mods should be fine, as I do not believe Texas vehicle inspectors care whether or not your intake is CARB-certified. But you better believe they will perform an OBD readiness check.

Also, it's illegal for an inspection station to charge more than the statutory fee to perform the inspection. Not saying this doesn't happen, but it's certainly not "par for the course."

And finally, State Troopers WILL stop you for doing 20 over. Especially if they are patrolling the busiest drug-trafficking corridor in the US. Hell, they will pull you over for not having a front-mounted license plate...and frequently do.

[theOkilla]

Originally Posted by PerfectAce

Wow. Where to begin with the amount of misinformation...

OP, if you're going to be registering your car in Williamson County, Texas, your car WILL BE emissions tested despite someone saying, "But I've registered cars in Texas, and I pay $7 + bribe and they only make sure my car has a working seatbelt, horn and headlights!" Which may be true...for them. Keep in mind Texas is a huge, varied state and they probably don't live where you do/will.

However, certain counties in Texas (Williamson is amongst them) require emissions testing for vehicles between 2-24 years old. FBO mods should be fine, as I do not believe Texas vehicle inspectors care whether or not your intake is CARB-certified. But you better believe they will perform an OBD readiness check.

Also, it's illegal for an inspection station to charge more than the statutory fee to perform the inspection. Not saying this doesn't happen, but it's certainly not "par for the course."

And finally, State Troopers WILL stop you for doing 20 over. Especially if they are patrolling the busiest drug-trafficking corridor in the US. Hell, they will pull you over for not having a front-mounted license plate...and frequently do.

Thanks for the additional reply. I have my full stock exhaust system on and all the catalytic converters just to be safe. Was waiting till after the inspection to do those and my outlet pipes. Other than that I have dual cone intakes, charge pipe/BOV, bigger inlets, engine cowl removed, Dinan oil cooler, etc. From what I could gather online the only thing they’d care about would be OBD2/emissions as well as functioning safety features like signals etc. I’m a assuming based on that they wouldn’t pop the hood for a visual inspection? CA smog techs compare pics of stock engine bays and expect CARB stickers on everything. I didn’t bother getting it smogged because it would be a nightmare here.