Colorado emissions testing questions

rogue_ryder

Master Mechanic
Oct 27, 2017
267
549
93
Colorado
Since you like more of a remote location, I guess that means you would consider a place without high-speed Internet? That would be deal breaker for me.
Politics isn't a real problem for me. I've lived in liberal Austin and conservative San Angelo. I keep my poliltics to myself except for family and a few select close friends.
Look into rise broadband Internet if you find a place that isn’t served by comcast. I’m in the mountains and get good service with them. Enough for tv streaming and vpn remote work.
 

86LK

Royal Smart Person
Jul 23, 2018
1,972
2,038
113
Since you like more of a remote location, I guess that means you would consider a place without high-speed Internet? That would be deal breaker for me.
Politics isn't a real problem for me. I've lived in liberal Austin and conservative San Angelo. I keep my poliltics to myself except for family and a few select close friends.
I do too, hll, I voted for McCain in the primary way back. it's the deniers and Qanon believers that bug me. but there's ways of getting hi-speed internet even when rural
 
Last edited:

Clone TIE Pilot

Comic Book Super Hero
Aug 14, 2011
3,857
2,609
113
Galaxy far far away
Not exactly.

These counties require an emissions test to register a vehicle:
  • Boulder
  • Broomfield
  • Denver
  • Douglas
  • Jefferson
  • Portions of Adams
  • Portions of Arapahoe
  • Portion of Larimer
  • Portions of Weld
BUT here's the REALLY bad news. Thanks to Hickenlooper Colorado this year started following the California Emissions laws. So that means ALL vehicles 1976 and up need to pass emissions at least every 5 years (for 32 year old and older classics) and every 2 for newer cars. Also the emissions testing is now more stringent. Not exactly sure what's changed on the older cars but for OBD2 they look at more parameters in the ECU, that means NO TUNES. Then there's the "CARB Approved" parts issue, some meth head cut the Cat out of your truck? Now it's going to cost you 4x as much for CARB approved CAT because it's illegal to ship/sell "Federal Cats" to Colorado.

The mouth breathers at the Air Care facility don't care if your swap burns cleaner than what it replaced, all the items on their list must be intact, that means AIR Injection system, EGR, Cat & Evap are all in place. They also have a gas cap integrity test, this is the #1 failure. Lube up your O-Ring with Sil-Glide or White Lithium grease and you'll pass. I had a BRAND New cap fail this B.S. test.

I along with several other people believe this how Air Care had stayed in business, this failure is easy to fix, but shows that their testing is valid because they identified X-failures per year and X came back for a retest and passed therefore cutting down on pollution. If 99% of the cars coming in passed on the first shot, they'd shut down the testing as it's a waste of money (this happened in many other states).

I understand Texas is a hot and generally a miserable place to be outside 1/2 the year and Colorado is very appealing for the outdoor enthusiast, but the Front Range has turned into a cesspool of drug addicts, bums and Extreme Liberals from California. In Denver it's really gone down hill in terms of crime and vagrants all over the place.

If you DO come to Colorado, register your Elco up in South Dakota. Easy.

I saw you visited Estes Park, that's close to where I live. Keep in mind with the Mountains as you go further up the longer your winters will be. Places like Black Hawk or Rollinsville are in relative close proximity to the metro area and tick off all your boxes but you'll be shoveling snow from Oct til May. Further up will get your farther from Health Care, the Airport and make winters that much tougher. Estes is close to being the sweet spot which is why we have so many retirees here and yes the Summer is crowded with Tourists but that drops off cliff outside the Memorial Day-Labor Day season. Another bonus to Estes is it is outside of Air Care. It's a real give and take with the Mountains; Cheap and it's going to be FAR from any services, close to the action it's going to be EXPENSIVE.

My personal Favorite place that's in the Mountains is Buena Vista, it's not the harshest winters, tolerable summers, not extremely expensive and tourism is moderate. It does have a HUGE prison which is probably why it's not in HIGH demand https://cdoc.colorado.gov/facilities/buena-vista-correctional-complex but Colorado is ripe with prisons, we have the only Federal SuperMax prison there is at ADX Florence and is home to El Chapo and the Unabomber.

Burning cleaner is only part of low emissions. The exhaust pipe isn't the only source of pollution, flumes from your gas tank is a major source no matter how clean the engine burns or if its even running or not. EVAP captures these gas tank flumes to be burned in the engine. Only way to really test EVAP is to lock your car in a airtight chamber for 2 weeks. So instead they just do a visual for older cars to make sure everything is there or do a leak test on Enhanced OBD2 evap syetems that have built in leak sensors. Every engine package is a govt certified low emission package and its iillegal to decertified any low emission engine in a street used car. That is partly why the strict laws are the way they are besides the political bs.

Very interesting about the CO issues, sad to hear about them.
 

Supercharged111

Comic Book Super Hero
Oct 25, 2019
4,928
7,705
113
Colorado Springs, CO
Not exactly.

These counties require an emissions test to register a vehicle:
  • Boulder
  • Broomfield
  • Denver
  • Douglas
  • Jefferson
  • Portions of Adams
  • Portions of Arapahoe
  • Portion of Larimer
  • Portions of Weld
BUT here's the REALLY bad news. Thanks to Hickenlooper Colorado this year started following the California Emissions laws. So that means ALL vehicles 1976 and up need to pass emissions at least every 5 years (for 32 year old and older classics) and every 2 for newer cars. Also the emissions testing is now more stringent. Not exactly sure what's changed on the older cars but for OBD2 they look at more parameters in the ECU, that means NO TUNES. Then there's the "CARB Approved" parts issue, some meth head cut the Cat out of your truck? Now it's going to cost you 4x as much for CARB approved CAT because it's illegal to ship/sell "Federal Cats" to Colorado.

The mouth breathers at the Air Care facility don't care if your swap burns cleaner than what it replaced, all the items on their list must be intact, that means AIR Injection system, EGR, Cat & Evap are all in place. They also have a gas cap integrity test, this is the #1 failure. Lube up your O-Ring with Sil-Glide or White Lithium grease and you'll pass. I had a BRAND New cap fail this B.S. test.

I along with several other people believe this how Air Care had stayed in business, this failure is easy to fix, but shows that their testing is valid because they identified X-failures per year and X came back for a retest and passed therefore cutting down on pollution. If 99% of the cars coming in passed on the first shot, they'd shut down the testing as it's a waste of money (this happened in many other states).

I understand Texas is a hot and generally a miserable place to be outside 1/2 the year and Colorado is very appealing for the outdoor enthusiast, but the Front Range has turned into a cesspool of drug addicts, bums and Extreme Liberals from California. In Denver it's really gone down hill in terms of crime and vagrants all over the place.

If you DO come to Colorado, register your Elco up in South Dakota. Easy.

I saw you visited Estes Park, that's close to where I live. Keep in mind with the Mountains as you go further up the longer your winters will be. Places like Black Hawk or Rollinsville are in relative close proximity to the metro area and tick off all your boxes but you'll be shoveling snow from Oct til May. Further up will get your farther from Health Care, the Airport and make winters that much tougher. Estes is close to being the sweet spot which is why we have so many retirees here and yes the Summer is crowded with Tourists but that drops off cliff outside the Memorial Day-Labor Day season. Another bonus to Estes is it is outside of Air Care. It's a real give and take with the Mountains; Cheap and it's going to be FAR from any services, close to the action it's going to be EXPENSIVE.

My personal Favorite place that's in the Mountains is Buena Vista, it's not the harshest winters, tolerable summers, not extremely expensive and tourism is moderate. It does have a HUGE prison which is probably why it's not in HIGH demand https://cdoc.colorado.gov/facilities/buena-vista-correctional-complex but Colorado is ripe with prisons, we have the only Federal SuperMax prison there is at ADX Florence and is home to El Chapo and the Unabomber.

I meant to respond to this a while back. That map only covers the greater Denver area, but you go on to say the entire state will have to test. What about all those folks who live 4 hours away from Denver and the Springs? AFAIK right now, only the Denver area actually tests and it's coming to the Springs. Unless it's coming everywhere and I just live under a rock. This is why I love my MI plates. Only have to run a single plate out back and NO emissions testing. Hoping that doesn't change.
 

roger1

G-Body Guru
Aug 23, 2010
537
767
93
San Angelo, TX
...This is why I love my MI plates. Only have to run a single plate out back and NO emissions testing. Hoping that doesn't change.
Until you get pulled over for something else and they catch you on it. Then up to $100 fine. On a second offense, you get the fine again plus 6 points on your license. Another offense in the next 12-month period gets the fine again, points and a suspended license.
Not a lot to worry about until you get the first offense. Then you might have to worry a bit.
There was a bill in this year's legislative session to make the penalties much,much more severe for this but it failed. It expected they will try it again in the next session. This is probably our larger threat.

I'm probably going to do what you are doing for a while at least. I decided to change the Texas registration to an Antique on my El Camino right before moving to Colorado. That will be good for 5 years and doesn't require annual inspections.
 

Supercharged111

Comic Book Super Hero
Oct 25, 2019
4,928
7,705
113
Colorado Springs, CO
Until you get pulled over for something else and they catch you on it. Then up to $100 fine. On a second offense, you get the fine again plus 6 points on your license. Another offense in the next 12-month period gets the fine again, points and a suspended license.
Not a lot to worry about until you get the first offense. Then you might have to worry a bit.
There was a bill in this year's legislative session to make the penalties much,much more severe for this but it failed. It expected they will try it again in the next session. This is probably our larger threat.

I'm probably going to do what you are doing for a while at least. I decided to change the Texas registration to an Antique on my El Camino right before moving to Colorado. That will be good for 5 years and doesn't require annual inspections.

If it's registered to an out of state address (and not expired) I don't see a problem. Regardless, I'm active duty military and my home of record is MI so I'm good to go until I retire. But I just bought property back in MI, so they'll simply stay registered there and I'll just try and not get pulled over. How does a cop know you live in CO anyway if you have an out of state license, address, and registration/insurance?
 

roger1

G-Body Guru
Aug 23, 2010
537
767
93
San Angelo, TX
You won't have any problem then. I didn't realize you were military. I will have to get a Colorado driver's license and change the address with my insurance company.
 

rogue_ryder

Master Mechanic
Oct 27, 2017
267
549
93
Colorado
I meant to respond to this a while back. That map only covers the greater Denver area, but you go on to say the entire state will have to test. What about all those folks who live 4 hours away from Denver and the Springs? AFAIK right now, only the Denver area actually tests and it's coming to the Springs. Unless it's coming everywhere and I just live under a rock. This is why I love my MI plates. Only have to run a single plate out back and NO emissions testing. Hoping that doesn't change.
I don't think I was clear enough, Only the areas indicated on the map need to test (for now anyway) at an Air Care facility.

What does apply to EVERYONE even the folks in the far reaches of the state is they will only be able to purchase CARB approved emissions parts. So if you live in Craig and you catalytic converter burns up (or is stolen) on your vehicle you can only buy the CARB approved cat, instore or mail order ,even on eBay they won't ship federal parts to CO now; your only choice will be to go out of state if you want to buy a "Federal" Catalytic converter, this applies to all emissions related components not just cats, but the Cats are the biggest deal since the CARB compliant ones cost significantly more money. And with the mess PFI Speed got into with the EPA last year I'm going to take a guess that it'll be Extremely hard to get custom ECU tunes done anywhere in the state.

There's not much they can do to enforce the rules on non-compliant cars without testing, but they're going to make it harder to buy parts that aren't CARB approved.
 
Last edited:

ssn696

Living in the Past
Supporting Member
Jul 19, 2009
5,546
6,671
113
Permanent Temporary
Not mentioned so far is elevation. Whether you are in or out of the Colorado emissions testing boundaries, you will need to set up your carb or go to fuel injection to do that for you. Rollinsville is at about 9000 feet, for example.
 
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rogue_ryder

Master Mechanic
Oct 27, 2017
267
549
93
Colorado
^100% the reason I put the Sniper EFI on my car. But the OP has an LT1 and it’s multi port so it’s not going to be a problem for him.

Here you could easily have 80* temp swings in 24hrs and have +/- 6000’ in elevation change on a drive; you’ll never be jetted perfectly with variations like those.
 

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