MA Inspection Trouble! MA READ THIS!

[SVT-chris]

Alright guys here’s the deal, I hate being the bearer of bad news but I might be able to save some of you from what is happening to me.

As some of you know already, I purchased an 03 Cobra last fall from another member on here (MassMustang02). Last week I took it out of storage to get a new inspection sticker (I had not put one on since I took ownership and the one on the car had been expired since last September).

Now as I’m sure is the case with a lot of other cars on here, the window tint, drag radials and a few other things were not MA legal. But I know the garage owner personally so he went ahead and passed me on the safety aspect of the inspection. HOWEVER, my car has been tuned before and as a part of the tune the sensors which read the catalytic converters were disabled. Previously this car was still able to pass MA state inspection because the registry computers only looked for a check engine light, but now they are able to recognize the sensors as “Not Supported” and as a result failed me.

Now not only did my car fail the inspection, but this triggered a red flag in the system and now my car needs to be brought into a Motorist Assistance Center to be visually inspected by a state mechanic before they will issue an inspection sticker. For me this now means that I have to remove my BRAND NEW window tint, change the BRAND NEW drag radials, install cats, revert the computer back to a factory tune AND take the tint off my tail lights. To make things worse, now I have the inspector calling me once a week to verify that I’m taking steps to make the car legal again and reporting back to the state with my progress.

So, I figured I would share my story with you guys that may need stickers as the cars come out of storage for the year and save you the hassle of being flagged. Best of luck and I hope to see you guys again at Colt State!

 

[stangy2004]

I hope this isn't true and maybe was just a fluke.

 

[chelseadevil21]

Ya same here or else I'm going to have the same issue when october comes

 

[yuke175]

uh oh... stickers up in may.... just went offroad x pipe

 

[RDJ]

Lol this is what happens when you run illegal shit on your car. Don't get me wrong I do it too but eventually it catches up to you and more and more states are taking stps to catch the scofflaws. Gotta pay to play boys. Pretty much sucks tho. I finally put high flow cats on my cars and legal tint on the front.

 

[Driver500]

yay Louisiana. Finally a perk to living in this backwards ass state.

 

[Fox-4]

Federally mandated equipment was altered, what did you expect?

 

[SVT-chris]

Federally mandated equipment was altered, what did you expect?

I know the modifications are not legal but before now their equipment was not picking up on them, now apparently they can.

 

[SteveG@Lethal]

wow. So glad I left mass. LOL Drag Radials are DOT approved tires though. You can easily fight that

 

[SVT-chris]

wow. So glad I left mass. LOL Drag Radials are DOT approved tires though. You can easily fight that

That's what I thought too, I actually went to two different places and the first guy told me they were not legal in mass because the patch in the middle has no grooves in it. They're 345 BFG's

 

[mooch29]

Holy shit Chris good luck man! I'd give Pete a call, I'm pretty sure he's the one that did the tune. He guarantee's passed inspections I think. Let me know how all this turns out

 

[RDJ]

That's what I thought too, I actually went to two different places and the first guy told me they were not legal in mass because the patch in the middle has no grooves in it.

. Just because a tire has a DOT number on it does not mean it is street legal. Someone else will have to give the details however.

 

[SVT-chris]

Holy shit Chris good luck man! I'd give Pete a call, I'm pretty sure he's the one that did the tune. He guarantee's passed inspections I think. Let me know how all this turns out

Thanks man, James gave me the SCT which should still have the stock tune on it so I'm hoping I can switch it back and forth from the tuner without having to bring the whole car in, but definitely letting him know couldn’t hurt.

 

[OldTimer]

Its not a fluke... it happened to me two years ago. My Lightning had been modded & tuned by JDM for the previous owner. I passed the first three years, then Mass switched to a new software package in 2010 and I failed. Had to go to the MAC center also.

Reset to stock tune, added MIL Eliminators, and did the full Ford drive cycle. The MAC Inspector at the West Springfield facility was not a problem... actually a very nice guy. Didn't complain about the noise (Bassani headers, Hi-Flos, X-Pipe & SS Cat back) or anything else. I passed and then had to go back to the local inspection station where I failed and get re-inspected, so twice in one day LOL.

Paul at Total Induction in South Windsor, CT helped me out then, and I recently (last summer) had the truck re-tuned by Paul with everything left on and mainly because I had put a bigger lower and smaller upper pulley on. Passed the inspection fine in October.

Mike

 

[SVT-chris]

Its not a fluke... it happened to me two years ago. My Lightning had been modded & tuned by JDM for the previous owner. I passed the first three years, then Mass switched to a new software package in 2010 and I failed. Had to go to the MAC center also.

Reset to stock tune, added MIL Eliminators, and did the full Ford drive cycle. The MAC Inspector at the West Springfield facility was not a problem... actually a very nice guy. Didn't complain about the noise (Bassani headers, Hi-Flos, X-Pipe & SS Cat back) or anything else. I passed and then had to go back to the local inspection station where I failed and get re-inspected, so twice in one day LOL.

Paul at Total Induction in South Windsor, CT helped me out then, and I recently (last summer) had the truck re-tuned by Paul with everything left on and mainly because I had put a bigger lower and smaller upper pulley on. Passed the inspection fine in October.

​

Mike

How long did it take you to run the full Ford drive cycle?

 

[GOTSVT?]

All monitors MUST be on now. Talk to your tuner.

 

[stangy2004]

Well i know people that would hook up another car to the diagnostics to get it to pass emissions lol. And you could always use the sticker of your DD, just hope they don't check it when you get pulled over.

 

[MassDSGsvt]

thats because you have the tune set as CAT disabled. The inspection computer knows pass or fail. You can fail 1 emissions but CATs are not one of them becuase the computer now knows which cars were equipped with CATs. You need to trick your computer with o2 simulators you cant just remove it from the tune. You will run into similar problem with egr i believe. Im sure the people in MAC wont check under your car for CATs so i would remove tint, overlays, and retune with o2 simulators.

 

[Tifosi2003GT]

Ri is the same but we get a 2yr sticker.. which is nice

 

[GOTSVT?]

Well i know people that would hook up another car to the diagnostics to get it to pass emissions lol. And you could always use the sticker of your DD, just hope they don't check it when you get pulled over.

This is the stupidest advice.
Your plate number number is on the inspection sticker.