As already noted, an excellent thread. I have never had a car I owned fail smog until last week. Yes, this was with my 103K mile NSX which I keep in pristine condition. I've been going to HB Smog in Huntington Beach. I hate waiting and simply call Hank, the owner, and go there to avoid waiting. He's a bit of a Goober but over the years was worth paying the $50 just to get this PITA process done.
As I was sitting near my car while Hank went through the process, he kept asking me questions. How do you move back the seat? How do you open the engine hatch? Mind you, he smogged my car before. While on the dyno, he was lugging it in 2nd gear. Although I brought the car in hot, that still worried me. As it turned out, it failed. I told him to warm it up and retry. He said he did, but I questioned his resolve.
Frustrated (and pissed), I drove to Autowave, which was close by. After speaking with Shane, he sent me to EZ Smog. Shane sends all of his NSX customers to this place. As a couple of others have already experienced, Brian (nice Vietnamese fellow with wife Michelle) warmed-up the car properly and it passed. Brian said each year, passing smog for NSXs will get harder. Still, this guy understands what needs to be done. He knows to get the cats get hot enough and how to run the engine during the testing sequence. It was worth the $75 after paying the goober at HB Smog $40 for nothing.
Next time, I'll remember to look for a coupon before going back to EZ Smog. Don't mind saving a few bucks but am happy paying full price nonetheless to avoid wasting time and the aggravation. Peace!
Steve
