My 2000 XJ lost it's downstream cat before I got it and my mechanic says since it's not monitored it will pass NY inspection without it. The 2 upstream cats have 02 sensors above and below them and do all the monitoring anyway. This may not work in states where they use a tailpipe sniffer though. Thoughts?

 

Well he is right about the rear cat not being monitored in an '00 with CA emissions. Where I live technically they could check under the car with the bomb mirror and notice that you are missing the rear cat. If they were even aware that one should be there. They also plug in where I live so there is a chance that you could get away with it. But there is also a chance you could get tagged during future inspections. As far as the sniffer test goes lets say they don't notice that the rear cat is there. Thinking much of that would depend on how well the Jeep runs. I have to assume the better running the engine is the less crap that is coming out of the tailpipe for the sniffer to detect. Maybe? My thinking is give it a shot. Where I live blow off emissions to long and I think they would suspend your registration. If not definitely would make you get it inspected first before you could renew the registration when the time came. If you fail you are just going to have to bite the bullet and set the exhaust straight. I am also assuming if you fail emissions there is a grace period to fix the problem and get retested. Where I live you don't have to pay a second time. I think.

 

The trick here is he does the inspections and he says as long as the computer plug-in doesn't see it, it passes. He's inspected my cars for the last 8 years so I trust him. If it fails, you have 10 days to pass it again. You can't get past it because legally if your sticker has expired, he has to take it off before the test and put the 10 day on it if it fails. He will always check it with his scan tool before if your sticker is still good so you have a chance to fix it before he plugs it in.

When you re-register the plates, you have to have a valid inspection in effect at the time. If you don't or are registering another car, you get a 10 day sticker so you can drive it to get it inspected. My recently purchased XJ has a 10 day that expired 2 weeks ago, but it's been in the shop being repaired. Besides that the previous owner has a sticker on it that expires in Feb 2019. It's not quite legal for me to use it, but it's the right color and unless the cops scan it and see that it doesn't match my plates, I can get away with it. The 10 day is in the glovebox.

 

I was going to ask if garages up there do the emissions/inspections like where I live but was under the impression in NY they were state run. And you trust him so you should be good. I think where I live you have 60 days to get your vehicle retested if you fail emissions. We don't do actual inspections anymore. Years back any car over 10 years old had to be inspected before you get plates where I live. You could get a 30 day temp plate which made it legal for you to drive the vehicle around and to the DMV to get inspected. Never good to procrastinate when you get your first set of temp plates. You could get a 10 day one after that but no idea what you would do if you needed more time.

 

There is one thing. If your vehicle won't pass emissions and you can show you spent more than $600 it get it fixed, you can get a one year exemption from inspection AS LONG AS IT PASSES SAFETY INSPECTION. The trick is after that one year, if it still won't pass, the vehicle must be scrapped or sold out of state. NY requires any new vehicle sold here to be CA emissions equipped. Talk about liberal bias! According to my buddy. the reason NY doesn't use a sniffer is because most shops can't afford to equipment and have lobbied against it.

Funny story! Years ago when the Watkins Glen Racetrack was sponsoring all kinds of racing, people used to go there and camp for the Can-AM, Trans-AM, and SCCA Nationals weekend event in July. You could buy a totally wasted delivery van or truck, register it for the weekend, drive it down on the 10 day tag, then trash it when you got back, turn in the plates, and get a refund of your registration fee! Once in a while, the steering was so bad they crashed on the trip or the brakes went out. OR the driver was so stoned he lost control,LOL!

 

That makes sense about the sniffer. Way back when it was done that way emissions were done at state run facilities. I think we also have an exemption if you spend "X" amount of dollars trying to fix the problem and can't. But no idea what happens the next time you come up for emissions. Emission laws are vauge in my state. You try to get answers and all you really get is "I think......" The only way to find out for sure is the hardway.