Things to know about WA vehicle inspections/emissions/laws?

[Mebot]

Hello,

Can the fine folks in Washington state provide me some general QA/QC with regards to Washington's laws on emissions, inspections, tint level, etc?

is there required Annual safety inspections for your car? What about emissions? Is it hard to pass if you have a modified Marauder? What about exhaust, tint and HID lights. Are the cops pretty bad about that kind of stuff? Is there anything that they go after more than anything else?

for instance here in VA, you can get away with HID and exhaust, but cops are notorious for pulling over illegal tint jobs.

Anything else that is worth knowing about, I'd greatly appreciate it!

Thanks

[Haggis]

Hello,

Can the fine folks in Washington state provide me some general QA/QC with regards to Washington's laws on emissions, inspections, tint level, etc?

is there required Annual safety inspections for your car? What about emissions? Is it hard to pass if you have a modified Marauder? What about exhaust, tint and HID lights. Are the cops pretty bad about that kind of stuff? Is there anything that they go after more than anything else?

for instance here in VA, you can get away with HID and exhaust, but cops are notorious for pulling over illegal tint jobs.

Anything else that is worth knowing about, I'd greatly appreciate it!

Thanks

You moving?

[Merrill]

Emissions are every other year, My procharged car passees fine, they do the OBD2
scan. My 4.6 Ranger did not pass because too many reports were turnrd off in the tune. Also only the populated ares have emission testing ( parts of king , pierce and snohomish counties). See lots of cars with HID's , tint and that are loud, can't say it doesn't happen but they are not militant about it.

[Mebot]

Emissions are every other year, My procharged car passees fine, they do the OBD2
scan. My 4.6 Ranger did not pass because too many reports were turnrd off in the tune. Also only the populated ares have emission testing ( parts of king , pierce and snohomish counties). See lots of cars with HID's , tint and that are loud, can't say it doesn't happen but they are not militant about it.

Ok thanks for the response Merrill, I appreciate it! So only certain counties require the emissions every other year. I assume the populated areas of Seattle, Tacoma, Everett, Bellevue and Spokane are going to require emissions testing.

I'm reading Dom's (Motorhead350) thread about his trials and tribulations trying to pass emissions in IL and I've heard that NJ is also a pain. I have to go through emissions every other year here in VA, but i've never had any problems before.

[Mr. Man]

You moving?
What Barney said? :dunno:

[Hadamustang1]

Ah yes the jet city... hope you like sales tax..

[Anthony84]

In my 14 years of driving experience and 53 personally owned cars; WA is pretty laid back with most of their laws. Been pulled over before in cars with way darker than legal tint - no hassles. Same with too loud exhaust; and almost all my coworkers have HIDs in halogen housings...along with like half of the beat to hell 90s Civics. Plus I've ran tinted and clear license plate covers and have gone plate-less on the front and whatnot. All my Jags had those big Euro plates on the front of em (I loved the look)

Another funny story about the front plate bit; I've ran those logo plates on the front, like Lincoln star, old school Plymouth font on my Fury, etc. Got pulled over once in my Cordoba with the vintage Chrysler font and Pentastar plate on it (yeah, I have a collection of these things) Cop said it was illegal; and as nice as I am, I kindly pointed at the fine print that's on our registrations; and I quote:

"Place tab on rear LICENSE plate, a front plate is still required"

So I said to him, well, I do have a plate...and it just says "plate". So a dinner plate would suffice right? He chuckled and said well, it should be implied; but I can't see how you're breaking the law. And I was let go.

For the record; my DTR has the black "Marauder" plate from eBay on the front...

In closing, welcome to the state of laid back laws, and as long as you're respectful (like I always am; regardless of why I got pulled over) you'll be ok.

P.S.

Emissions are OBD as mentioned above; (sniffer and rollers for non-OBD) for 25 year old cars and newer...so every year us car guys get another year of cars to not worry about emissions:)

[TORINO]

HOPE YOU LIKE TO DRIVE SLOW. THING HERE IS THEY THINK EVERY THING IS CAUSED BY SPEEDING.THEY JUST CAMP OUT BEHIND A BUSH AND COLLECT MONEY.
MOST ALL FREEWAYS ARE A WHOPPING 60MPH. AND THEN WE HAVE ALL THE IDIOTS THAT GO EVEN SLOWER IN THE FAST LANE. AND WERE I AM (ALL TWO LANE) WHEN THE SUN GOES DOWN MANY ARE SCARED OF THE DARK AND THE 55 LIMIT IS TO FAST FOR THEM SO 40-45 IS GOOD.

[EMAS]

Yes the only the greater Puget Sound and Spokane areas require emissions testing. It used to be that just being as south as Kent meant you were out of the area that required testing. As mentioned it is just plugging in to the OBD port so you will need a tune that has all the monitors that the car originally had turned on and they need to be completed when you show up.

As far as tint I've seen some pretty dark cars running around but if you give they a reason to mess with you they will but of course it does depend on the jurisdiction as far as how closely they check speeds ect. With the state patrol you just have to watch the end of the month when they need to meet their quotas. In general the state patrol will cruise at 70 in the 60 zones and they generally won't mess with you for doing the same. The thing to watch out for is the cites that have the red light and school zone cameras.

[Mebot]

In my 14 years of driving experience and 53 personally owned cars; WA is pretty laid back with most of their laws. Been pulled over before in cars with way darker than legal tint - no hassles. Same with too loud exhaust; and almost all my coworkers have HIDs in halogen housings...along with like half of the beat to hell 90s Civics. Plus I've ran tinted and clear license plate covers and have gone plate-less on the front and whatnot. All my Jags had those big Euro plates on the front of em (I loved the look)

Another funny story about the front plate bit; I've ran those logo plates on the front, like Lincoln star, old school Plymouth font on my Fury, etc. Got pulled over once in my Cordoba with the vintage Chrysler font and Pentastar plate on it (yeah, I have a collection of these things) Cop said it was illegal; and as nice as I am, I kindly pointed at the fine print that's on our registrations; and I quote:

"Place tab on rear LICENSE plate, a front plate is still required"

So I said to him, well, I do have a plate...and it just says "plate". So a dinner plate would suffice right? He chuckled and said well, it should be implied; but I can't see how you're breaking the law. And I was let go.

For the record; my DTR has the black "Marauder" plate from eBay on the front...

In closing, welcome to the state of laid back laws, and as long as you're respectful (like I always am; regardless of why I got pulled over) you'll be ok.

P.S.

Emissions are OBD as mentioned above; (sniffer and rollers for non-OBD) for 25 year old cars and newer...so every year us car guys get another year of cars to not worry about emissions:)

That's a funny story about the license plate! And I appreciate your response. It doesn't sound like I will have too much problems. I have HIDs but they're 5000k (bright white and no blueish tint like the 6k)


Yes the only the greater Puget Sound and Spokane areas require emissions testing. It used to be that just being as south as Kent meant you were out of the area that required testing. As mentioned it is just plugging in to the OBD port so you will need a tune that has all the monitors that the car originally had turned on and they need to be completed when you show up.

As far as tint I've seen some pretty dark cars running around but if you give they a reason to mess with you they will but of course it does depend on the jurisdiction as far as how closely they check speeds ect. With the state patrol you just have to watch the end of the month when they need to meet their quotas. In general the state patrol will cruise at 70 in the 60 zones and they generally won't mess with you for doing the same. The thing to watch out for is the cites that have the red light and school zone cameras.

Thanks for the input EMAS. I am not going to worry about emissions just yet, but it's good to get an idea of what I will be facing. I always like to plan ahead if possible.