My turn to do valve seals

[wsmeyer]

Originally Posted by Skyline

I know you're being sarcastic, but I really don't know if a 100k mile V8 X5 could pass the California smog test if the valve guide seals had not been done.

Would the typical symptoms of bad valve guide seals cause a car to typically fail the CA test? (I know mine would smoke ALOT if you hit the gas after an extended idle.)

Here in NY, (where the emissions standards are as tough as CA and MA,) there's no emissions testing on OBDII vehicles. The presence of smog equipment is checked, and as long as there's no CEL or pending codes, you're good to go after the safety check.

I didn't even think about it at the time but we no longer do tailpipe tests either. A little Googling and I think it failed the "Visible Smoke Check":

https://www.smogtips.com/visual_inspection.cfm