is there a downpipe that is carb legal for california yet? or in the process to be?

[949]

its been a while now and i was curious if any company has begun working on or offering or plan to offer a carb legal downpipe?
it would be awesome to have the sticker on the car so that if a cop attempts to ticket, they cant do shit with a carb legal downpipe. plus taking off the dp is a hassle in itself. i can only imagine the pain in putting it back on.


the only company i have seen attempting to carb legal some of their products is cobb. but no downpipe as of yet. they do have intake, tuned maps, and a few other items.

[owaterfield4]

I work at a shop and there is no downpipe that will be CARB legal. Here's why. California now does not allow any tune on ECUs as of a couple months ago. In order to erase the CEL from a downpipe software is required whether that be IE or EQT or Revo etc. So since you can't pass smog with a CEL and monitors will not set with out an oem cat that will unfortunately never be a reality to have a carb legal downpipe. My S3 is full bolt on stage 2 so when it's time to smog image to return everything to stock flash back to stock tune and get it done.

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[MetalMan]

I work at a shop and there is no downpipe that will be CARB legal. Here's why. California now does not allow any tune on ECUs as of a couple months ago. In order to erase the CEL from a downpipe software is required whether that be IE or EQT or Revo etc. So since you can't pass smog with a CEL and monitors will not set with out an oem cat that will unfortunately never be a reality to have a carb legal downpipe. My S3 is full bolt on stage 2 so when it's time to smog image to return everything to stock flash back to stock tune and get it done.

Uh, that's not entirely accurate.
Tunes CAN be CARB legal if they get certified. For example, APR went through that process and has CARB legal stage 1 tunes for some 1.8T & 2.0T engines. https://documents.goapr.com/d-783-3.pdf You can see that 8V A3 & S3 are covered through M.Y. 2017.
Beyond that, you're right, other tunes are not legal in CA.

With regards to the downpipe... any downpipe made that would be CARB legal likely would clean up engine emissions enough that a CEL wouldn't occur. There's no way CARB would approve a downpipe with high-flow cat, or one that insufficiently scrubs emissions.

[owaterfield4]

Uh, that's not entirely accurate.
Tunes CAN be CARB legal if they get certified. For example, APR went through that process and has CARB legal stage 1 tunes for some 1.8T & 2.0T engines. https://documents.goapr.com/d-783-3.pdf You can see that 8V A3 & S3 are covered through M.Y. 2017.
Beyond that, you're right, other tunes are not legal in CA.

With regards to the downpipe... any downpipe made that would be CARB legal likely would clean up engine emissions enough that a CEL wouldn't occur. There's no way CARB would approve a downpipe with high-flow cat, or one that insufficiently scrubs emissions.

I should have been more specific with my tune comment. CARB legal tunes are fine but downpipes and tunes associated with downpipes "stage 2" would pass. Thank you for clearing that up!!

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[Faceman76]

AWE's high flow downpipe has a no SES light guarantee, but appears to be discontinued.

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[MetalMan]

AWE's high flow downpipe has a no SES light guarantee, but appears to be discontinued.

Not CARB legal, though.

[Faceman76]

Not CARB legal, though.

Correct.

One could gut the first cat on the OEM downpipe. I've seen before and after dynos and the modified downpipe flowed similar to aftermarket units.

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[MetalMan]

Correct.

One could gut the first cat on the OEM downpipe. I've seen before and after dynos and the modified downpipe flowed similar to aftermarket units.

Very true! This might be the best way to improve exhaust flow in lieu without impacting visual inspection... but for the sake of discussion, we should admit that it's not legal.
Does the 8V have a secondary O2 sensor? If so I imagine doing this would cause a CEL since the secondary O2 sensor would be immediately downstream of the first cat... and the visual presence of an O2 sensor spacer may be cause for visual inspection failure.

In the past [on an off-road vehicle, of course] I gutted the pre-cat to improve flow without modifying the appearance of factory catalytic converters. (even managed to sell the removed material for a few $$ haha)
It looks like this is common on the B5 S4 as well where stock DPs with gutted cats are called "piggie pipes".

[CavEsk1337]

Does the 8V have a secondary O2 sensor?

Yes

[Tjtalan]

I think the bottom line here, is that no carb legal catalytic converter would be an upgrade from the factory unit.

Edit.
Carb legal catalytic converter’s are completely different units from the federal counterparts. Completely different emission standards.

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