Fort Hood/Bell County vehicle inspection/emissions

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crazy_raccoon

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I was wondering if anyone knows how they do their vehicle inspections in the Fort Hood/Bell County area? I'm actually a Texas resident but is currently stationed in NC and will be getting stationed in TX soon. My vehicle is registered in Tarrant County/DFW which does emissions testing I believe. Just thought I could get some insight on what to do once I move there, what kind of inspections they do vehicles and what I need to do in my particular case since I'm already a Texas resident in another county.

- Vehicle is registered in Tarrant County/DFW TX which does emissions
- Will be moving to Fort Hood/Bell TX County
- Currently at Fort Bragg/Cumberland County NC
 
If you're in the service you can consider your former address your domicile for registration/ inspection purposes.

What car is this? Are you worried? I doubt it's any more than an OBDII scan.
 
Well I am south of Fort Hood in Williamson county.

I can speak for the inspection process.

Number one if you are active duty you can have expired plates on your car and expired license. I know many enlisted folks with 10 year old license plates from all over the country.

As for vehicle inspection, it is a standard OBD2 plug in test, a gas cap test, and a very basic safety test.

There are many places around the Austin area, and north that offer 10 minute inspections. Basically the dude drives your car around the block to test "safety", then pulls it in a bay and plugs in to it, and you pass.

I have only heard of people failing for bald tires, or bulbs/lights inoperable. Suspension components are not checked.

The Texas vehicle inspection is so stupid, there is talk of it going away.
 
Hey thanks for the information guys. I drive both an '07 Scion tC and '07 Honda Accord coupe which are both OBD2. I just wasn't sure how the laws were back in Texas regarding this because I've been away for several years and there is talk about certain inspections going away soon that would save us Texans lots of money as well as the state. Like I was saying before, one of my cars is registered in Tarrant County which does emissions as well as the other car is registered in Dallas which too does emissions. I wasn't sure if I was able to get my inspection done in Bell County when I move there because of where the cars are registered and the registrations/inspections sticker expires in this coming December.
 
In Ohio we have sniffer trucks that sit on the highway entrance ramp. If the truck detects low emissions as you drive by then you pass. Of course this has to happen at least 2 times over a certain time period. But still kind of high tech.

Here's the link:

http://ohioecheck.info/rapidscreen

Kind of nice to know their schedule so you can go by twice. Then you get a letter in the mail stating the car passed. Since I travel often it comes in handy. One less thing to do.
 
Originally Posted By: SatinSilver
In Ohio we have sniffer trucks that sit on the highway entrance ramp. If the truck detects low emissions as you drive by then you pass. Of course this has to happen at least 2 times over a certain time period. But still kind of high tech.

Here's the link:

http://ohioecheck.info/rapidscreen

Kind of nice to know their schedule so you can go by twice. Then you get a letter in the mail stating the car passed. Since I travel often it comes in handy. One less thing to do.


one more reason i'm glad not to live up around cleveland. that's the only part of the state with any testing. (Cincy used to, but fairly certain that was discontinued some time ago.
 
Originally Posted By: JustinH
Well I am south of Fort Hood in Williamson county.

I can speak for the inspection process.

Number one if you are active duty you can have expired plates on your car and expired license. I know many enlisted folks with 10 year old license plates from all over the country.

As for vehicle inspection, it is a standard OBD2 plug in test, a gas cap test, and a very basic safety test.

There are many places around the Austin area, and north that offer 10 minute inspections. Basically the dude drives your car around the block to test "safety", then pulls it in a bay and plugs in to it, and you pass.

I have only heard of people failing for bald tires, or bulbs/lights inoperable. Suspension components are not checked.

The Texas vehicle inspection is so stupid, there is talk of it going away.


so from your perspective, a soldier stationed at hood, with out of state plates, shouldn't have an issue with the DPS etc, unless he reregisters it to his TX address?...
seems pretty straight forward really... I'm just curious. My Buddies Little Brother went into the Army this summer, and his first station, post AIT is at Hood. his car is currently back here in OH. but he should be getting it at some point.

kinda interesting, that car(My old Neon) is originally from TX. My brother was the first owner, he lived in Tarrant County at the time, bought it from the Dodge Dealer in Grapevine, few years later i bought it from him, and drove it back to OH. then when it was time for me to get my old man car, sold it to my buddy's mom for her youngest, who will now be taking it back to TX....
 
Originally Posted By: earlyre
Originally Posted By: JustinH
Well I am south of Fort Hood in Williamson county.

I can speak for the inspection process.

Number one if you are active duty you can have expired plates on your car and expired license. I know many enlisted folks with 10 year old license plates from all over the country.

As for vehicle inspection, it is a standard OBD2 plug in test, a gas cap test, and a very basic safety test.

There are many places around the Austin area, and north that offer 10 minute inspections. Basically the dude drives your car around the block to test "safety", then pulls it in a bay and plugs in to it, and you pass.

I have only heard of people failing for bald tires, or bulbs/lights inoperable. Suspension components are not checked.

The Texas vehicle inspection is so stupid, there is talk of it going away.


so from your perspective, a soldier stationed at hood, with out of state plates, shouldn't have an issue with the DPS etc, unless he reregisters it to his TX address?...
seems pretty straight forward really... I'm just curious. My Buddies Little Brother went into the Army this summer, and his first station, post AIT is at Hood. his car is currently back here in OH. but he should be getting it at some point.

kinda interesting, that car(My old Neon) is originally from TX. My brother was the first owner, he lived in Tarrant County at the time, bought it from the Dodge Dealer in Grapevine, few years later i bought it from him, and drove it back to OH. then when it was time for me to get my old man car, sold it to my buddy's mom for her youngest, who will now be taking it back to TX....


Yes I have family stationed at bases throughout Texas. They have vehicles with plates from different states, all expired. My family member is like 30 now he has a drivers license from New York issued when he was 16 years old. Obviously they keep up on insurance but expired plates are common place. Another family member served in Air Force over in Germany, he had German plates on his vehicle for years while he served in New York.
 
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I only thought servicemembers had a 90 day grace period returning from a deployment (with orders) to get their licenses/ plates up to date.

Might be a state thing, but I suspect it was centrally coordinated.
 
I was also wondering about this as well as I forgot to mention it.

My car has two catalytic converters. One main cat in the header and a secondary cat in the mid-pipe. Is there a universal cat that I can weld into a custom mid-pipe that will pass OBD2 emissions? I'm currently running the OEM mid-pipe that has the secondary cat on it and I do not have a CEL due to my O2 sensor CEL eliminators screwed in. Due to my setup it looks like I can only run 1 cat since my aftermarket headers do not have a primary cat in them. An example picture below of an OEM setup on the left (with 2 cats) and aftermarket setup on the right (no cats).

tCexhaust.jpg
 
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Originally Posted By: eljefino
I only thought servicemembers had a 90 day grace period returning from a deployment (with orders) to get their licenses/ plates up to date.

Might be a state thing, but I suspect it was centrally coordinated.


I do not know the official laws/rules I am not military myself. Just telling my observations from multiple people.
 
If you have "a" cat, the o2 extenders, and no codes, you might find someone to pass you. You, no doubt, legally have to have a cat as written in the state inspection book, and to have it somehow effective in the emissions book. The extender might look like an adapter to make it all fit with the aftermarket exhaust.

Of course ripping off the mani-cat is a federal crime so you'll find yourself in a gray area of the law.

My camry has a manifold cat and an underfloor one, but the 2nd sensor is between them and therefore only reading the manifold's performance. Of course the software is programmed for this as well.
 
Originally Posted By: eljefino
If you have "a" cat, the o2 extenders, and no codes, you might find someone to pass you. You, no doubt, legally have to have a cat as written in the state inspection book, and to have it somehow effective in the emissions book. The extender might look like an adapter to make it all fit with the aftermarket exhaust.

Of course ripping off the mani-cat is a federal crime so you'll find yourself in a gray area of the law.

My camry has a manifold cat and an underfloor one, but the 2nd sensor is between them and therefore only reading the manifold's performance. Of course the software is programmed for this as well.


Yeah I wasn't sure if my secondary cat was enough to pass emissions test just in case. My exhaust has a strong smell when I drive and I figured that the secondary cat wasn't enough. Right now my O2 sensors are in my header and the second 02 sensor is right before the secondary cat. Goes in this order;

- Header without primary cat (1st 02 sensor)
- S-pipe in conjunction with header due to the 4-2-1 design (2nd O2 sensor)

Pretty much the 02 sensors are at the beginning of the header and the second one is mounted to the s-pipewhich is the other pipe you bolt to the header.

- Mid-pipe (secondary cat and then resonator)
- Axel-back exhaust








I just wanted to know if there is an universal aftermarket cat that was possibly hi-flow that I could weld on a custom mid-pipe that does a better job with cutting down on emissions.





_________________
 
I'm not sure if this is for real but my understanding is removing ANY cat, despite it still passing the SMOG limit and despite it is after the O2 sensor's location, violates the emission law.

Were you failing in the past so you remove the 2nd cat? or were you just trying to get a couple extra HP at WOT? or was your old one stolen and you don't want to replace it?

Last time I heard Carsound has universal cat that's pretty good on flow and still durable.
 
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No I always passed but I had the OEM header, OEM midpipe and the only thing I had aftermarket the last time I did an inspection was my Injen Short Ram intake and rear Tanabe axleback exhaust. I'm in the military and out of state but will be returning to my home state of TX. For us Texans we renewed out registration online for military out of state but didn't do inspections because we are wavered for active duty status. Now that I'll be returning to my home state being stationed there it's different because my vehicle is registered in a Texas county that does emissions but that place I'll be living does not require emissions. I would still like to pass though just in case.

Which caraound cat are you talking about? I'm interested in anything that'll help flow and pass emissions especially when I'll only have one single cat I'm the system overall.
 
Originally Posted By: JustinH
The Texas vehicle inspection is so stupid, there is talk of it going away.

That's exactly what Oklahoma did about 10 or so years ago.
 
MODS please move this to the general maintenance section please as I did not know this topic is in the incorrect forum. Thank you.
 
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