Yes, a STAR smog station (or any licensed California smog test center) can perform what's referred to as a smog check pre-test. Advise the smog station you visit that the purpose of the inspection is to make sure you will not run into problems after buying the vehicle, as well as to simply find out if the vehicle can even pass the smog check.
Here's what you should know about smog inspection pretests... The vehicle's smog inspection results will be sent to the Bureau of Automotive Repairs data center even during the pre-test, however the results of the inspection will not be held against the vehicle owner should the vehicle fail the inspection as a gross polluter. Also, you may always ask a smog station to conduct a smog inspection using the smog machine in "offline" mode, and simply as a scan tool and/or exhaust emission analyzer.
posted by SmogTips Support
