I went to two smog shops. They both couldn't smog my stock FD in CA.

One guy was really nice but his smog machine wasn't able to read the idle. It was reading 6k rpm at idle. His machine was older or something.

The other guy was having a real bad day. He was swearing at the other guys in the shop and the manager had to calm him down. After letting my car idle for 30 min, he finally start his work instead of swearing left and right. He then says that my idle is at 15k which isn't within spec so he had to charge me another $20 for adjustment. I said FINE! He couldn't do it and didn't like the fact that I was watching him monkeying with my car. He then aborted the smog. The manager didn't charge me anything but I wasted an hr there and possibly had my car overheated.

I am just going to a dealer that I know real well. I could take it to a rotary guy but they don't usually have smog machines. I am tired of this BS! Thank god my car is all stock. If I had an intake or DP or even a CB, I would probably get more ****.

F'ing incomps!

 

Overheated? Oh no

 

that sucks, where are you in CA? I'm sure lots of us could recommend places around you.

 

I'm up in Bay Area. I know the service manger at local Mazda dealer pretty well so I am just gonna go there. They can take care of my alternator belt too.

Thanks for the asking. I don't think my car would overheat from 30 of idling (the ambient temp is pretty cold). However, I just don't like to dance on the land mine if you know what I mean.

I was thinking about an Apex intake soon but I think I'll just modify the stock airbox and put a drop-in K&N. I don't want to deal with more BS in 2 yrs.

 

I remember the last time my car was smogged the technician couldn't get a correct idle reading either. He put the tester on the leading cable, and since the leading coil sparks twice as fast as the trailing he got a reading of twice as much as idle. I believe there is a selection for rotary input on the tester.

 

Yeah, the first guy put this sensor thing by the coil. His machine could't read the rpm right even as he went thru all the selections of rotary engines. He had an Allen machine. The other guy had this black loop thing that picks up the rpm. That seem to work except my idle is too high at 15k. That was a Sun machine.

So, I hope this helps anyone who maybe smogging in the future. Sun - yes. Allen - no.

 

Well, that's sort of true. The bay area uses very old and quite outdated machines. Any place that does dyno testing will have newer machines no matter if they are Allen or Sun or whatever which should have an option for a rotary tach signal. In your case the dealer sounds like the best place, especially since you know the manager.

 

Just out of curiousity, how do those with streetported engines manage to pass smog in CA?

 

$$$ and a cold beer!

 

I just learned that my FD overheated and spew coolant while the dealer was smogging it. Oh man, it was perfect before... They just needed to turn down the idle and smog it. Why can't they do it right? I think they just let it sit idle and it overheated.

I should have just adjusted the idle myself and get it smogged while I waited. I left the car with them and now who knows what's wrong with my car. I hope it's just an AST or something instead of engine damage... I may have to drive back (100 mi) to see what's f'ed up.

F'ing A, if smogging is so freaking hard with a stock FD in good condition, forget it, I might as well sell the ******! Screw mazda...

 

Oh damn man, that sucks!

I hope everything turns out cool,

I'm never trusting a dealer with my car again, I have been burned one to many times by them.