I went to a Star station as required to get my registration renewed and was surprised that the message that came up for the tester was the car needs to go to a referee. He was also surprised and had not seen that before. I contacted the referee scheduling phone number but with the current Corona 19 issue, they are not scheduling till May. The answer as to why the car needs to go to a referee is that there was something about the previous test which was passed two years before but the person had no details as to what it was. I've paid the registration so as not avoid the late fees and will need to wait till May to go find out what will happen.
Has anyone had this happen to them?

 

Ordinarily, you are only sent to a referee if your cars fails a test. It sounds like your smog shop did not check your car for readiness reset before putting your vehicle on the machine, which will give an automatic fail if there is no readiness reset. If your shop tested it with a hand scanner before hooking up to the smog machine and you showed readiness reset then you have some other issue. But I’m willing to bet your star station was not familiar with these cars and didn’t check for readiness before hooking up to Sacramento...result....fail and sent to referee.

btw...a simple thing like a battery change can cause a not ready setting.

 

You are the second person that has seen a surprise referee notice, the other was a 997 turbo. I have a far out theory that the state is flagging cars that may have been previously tested at a since black-flagged smog shop.

 

While I like your DMV big brother theory it is most likely because the shop did not do a readiness check before putting on the machine...you don’t have to throw any codes to fail. To any Porsche owner, if you don’t have a scan tool yourself ask the shop to do a readiness check before hooking your car up to big brother.

 

Within the last year my s10 failed 5 times, one visual, two readiness and two excessive NOX. No referral.

The other 997 turbo case I know of got a referral in the mail with his renewal.

 

I guess big brother is getting more sophisticated than I thought

 

How do you guys put up with the **** in CA? It's mind boggling for real.

 

that is 1000% correct. plus. our cars have what the BAR refers to as a "high emitter profile". we ( as sport drivers in CA ) are an endangered species.

 

with bi-annual difficulty. every year one of my two "flashed" turbo cars, has to go through this. it's beyond ridiculous.

 

^ good advice. i don't know one porsche owner in CA that doesn't meticulously ensure "readiness" before even pulling into a star station lol.

i always make sure they plug their tester in and double check my codes are "ready" before i hand them my vin and paperwork and they plug in to the CA overlords.. one can't be too "careful" - "these days"

 

passed just fine 3 months ago with a modded car (no cats, upgraded turbo's, etc).

 

https://www.49dollarmontanaregisteredagent.com/

 

Just a way to avoid tax to me it seems.

 

There's no smog check or annual inspection for Montana vehicles. Also any vehicle more than 10 years old gets permanent tags, no annual registration fee.

 

you'll be fine there. unless you drive into butte with a CA plate.

and if you do? duck and cover.