Likely depends where you are. If you are somewhere with emissions testing requirements, then, probably they do check.
As of 2021, CO has the same requirement as CA for catalytic converters, in addition, Maine and NY both require that a car that is CA emissions certified use a CARB certified converter be used as a replacement, depending on the age of the vehicle.
Washingtonās stopped testing at all but CARB standards didnāt apply to pre 2009 models.
A 20 yr old cali car might be solid. Is it good enough to warrant a $500 cat? There are no secret shops selling a cali cat for less. Is the OP trying to save money only? Because they are not cheap. But they are not hard to find.
Tester
@Tester - this is an important insight!
So Calif BAR has a way to detect non CARB certified - wow!
Update:
Inspection station perhaps checked the CATās EO # and entered in the database. Hence a fail.
Based on my experience with my cats, the ONLY difference between a California cat and a federal cat is the number on the outside and the warranty. California, in its infinite wisdom, decided that aftermarket cats should be guaranteed for 50k miles. This is, of course, stupid, because a lot of replacement cats get put on engines with mechanical problems that caused the original cat to fail. The vendors know that if they sell replacement cats with a 50k mi warranty, there will be a lot of warranty claims. They therefore either decline to sell cats in California, or they take their standard cat, double the price to cover expected warranty claims, and put a CARB approval number on it. One of the reasons that it is more expensive to live in California is that we have a lot of stupid laws that cost money and do no one any good.
The video also noted the difficulty in installing bolts in the flange of a Magnaflow cat. I had the same experience with a Magniflow cat. Not a serious problem but annoying.
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Yeah good point. When I was looking through my owners manual for the cat coverage, the warranty on cats in the 49 states was 70,000 miles but for Cali it was 150,000 miles. Like I have said a number of times here though, nothing is free until people work for free which would be slavery. If you have to cover for an extra 80,000 miles, that cost gets passed on one way or another to the consumer.