I just got my car inspected here in wonderful PA and I talked with the mechanic about headers and if they would have a problem installing them or inspecting the car down the road with. He said that they are required to do a visual inspection of the exhaust from the engine down to the main cat to make sure everything is factory. It makes no difference if the car still passes emissions or not, it would fail the visual inspection. However, he did say if I hollowed the pre-cats out, he would have no way of knowing. I don't really think that is a good idea though since you aren't really getting a fluid exhaust flow that way as you would with the headers. I wonder if I had the pre-cat shells attached to a header if they would notice a difference from factory? Anyone have any opinions on this? As a side note, the guy was trying to talk me out of even doing this saying the car is fast enough already. Well, it is fast, but certianly not enough. And we all know that once the mod bug hits, there is no way of getting away from it.

 

Hmm...I think if you attached the heat shields it would probably work. Do they ever take those off to physically check for a pre-cat or cat? I doubt it.

 

why don't you find a mechanic that isn't a total ****.

 

How do they know if the headers are stock or aftermareket for every car they service?

 

That's a good question, but I don't think it would be that difficult to identify headers on a Maxima.

 

i asked about the procedure here in nc and he said pretty much the same. visual inspection was a part but they didnt say anything about my cattman y pipe. it says not for highway use on the pipe but they didnt look that close and think how many cars they do a day, i doubt remember what each manufactuers exhausts looks like.

 

I would think that on a visual inspection most places will only look to see if the main cat is in place. I doubt most places know where to look for the pre cats.