I am scheduled for a telephone interview with a California BAR referee tomorrow morning. I was told it is Step 1 in the the referee inspection process and that based on the interview my car will be scheduled for an in-person inspection at a referee station. (Most of which are closed now because of the virus.)
This started when I took the car in for its biennial smog inspection. The tech told me my car had been "flagged" by BAR and couldn't be inspected until I cleared it. No citation involved.
I am the original owner of this '02 S2K, 23,300 miles on the clock - a beautiful, Berlina Black 98-point car. Not even a door ding. However, it definitely has been modified, with many tasty bits including Comptech header and a CT-Engineering SC. (In fact, the build was featured on the old version of S2KI.) Based on the limited information I've been given so far, I'm 99 percent certain that the reason for the flagging is my Hondata K-Pro ecu, which is not legal in CA (but has passed 3 previous smog checks!)
Any advice on what to say/not say to the interviewer? I'm pretty much resigned to having to replace the K-Pro with the stock ecu, but is there any wiggle room? I'm not hiding anything, but is there anything else I should be wary of in this interview/inspection process? I've been working on cars for the best part of a half-century (a shop did this work) and this is the first time this has happened to me. What really rankles is the car's emissions are cleaner than a ghost fart but the state apparently has dedicated a computer to sift through Smog station results to search for unrepentant scofflaws like me. Any thoughts?

 

My advice is to replace everything back to stock when you take it to the referee. You'll be there for a good two to three hours while they look over your car. They will look at everything. I did a AP2 motor and trans swap into an AP1. I knew I was required to have an AP2 ECU, but still got flagged for having the wrong VIN # in the used AP2 ecu. Also I was running an autozone check valve ($2) for the vacuum lines and was flagged for that also. Paid three hundred dollars at the dealership to code the correct VIN# into the AP2 ecu and replaced check valve with OEM ($40) and passed the second time.

Don't waste your time at the referee if your car is not totally stock.

BTW, AP1 ECU's doe not have the VIN# coded into them.

 

Do you have your vin set in the krpo?

It could be setup with an RSX Vin still...and that may be why?

 

Long story short, I have to replace the KPRO w/stock ecu. The ref was a nice enough guy, one of the first things he said was "let me guess, you have a Hondata." My car had passed previous smog inspections w/KPRO "because the state wasn't looking at that data" then, he said, adding that now, all smog check results are further scrutinized by a BAR computer which looks for aftermarket ecu installations, etc, identifies anomalies and flags their registration. As to the fact that the car meets state emission standards w/the KPRO, he said that a performance ecu makes more hp, which results in the car using more fuel and air than than factory data specifies for a 2002 S2000. Seriously.

 

The anomaly probably being missing two systems. Evap and Secondary Air Injection(not supported by kpro). When they compared your car to other same model year OBDII results.