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If your car is newer, ask your friends for a reliable smog check place. While on paper all certified smog testing facilities should follow the rules, some businesses want to make an extra profit by intentionally failing your vehicle. If youve taken your cars to the same place for years, and they have always passed, its a good idea not to switch. Even if a new place offers a coupon or deal to try their facility, you could end up paying much more after the entire ordeal. While test-only stations are authorized only to perform smog checks, other places can perform repairs in addition to the smog test, so unless a test-only station is in cahoots with a neighboring repair facility, there is less profit to be made from test-only stations, especially if they offer free-retesting.

If your car is older, take it to a smog check and repair facility where you know the mechanic. In 2010 a California state audit, about one third of pre-1996 cars passed a roadside smog check only one year after passing at a typical test station. The results of the audit suggested widespread fraud in the testing centers. While you shouldnt take your car to a repair facility where you know the mechanic in an effort to join the many scamming the system, you should take it to a legitimate place where you know the mechanic in order to get a good price quote on the parts and labor involved in repairing a failed car.

Use your stock tires. If you replace stock tires with larger ones, the results from the dynamo-meter will be incorrect and can cause your vehicle to fail.

Set your engine ignition timings to manufacturer specifications. Incorrect ignition timings can cause your vehicle. Car repair manuals such as Haynes, Mitchell and Chilton sometimes have different ignition timings listed for what should be a standard number for your vehicle, so ask the testing facility what book they use as a erence before submitting your vehicle to their test.

Drive your car for an hour before the test to heat up the catalytic converter, which reduces the emissions from your car and causes it to operate more efficiently.

Collect the oil you use for cooking in a container instead of sending it down the drain, straining any bits of food out. Grease and oil can plug up city sewer pipes and make treating effluent more difficult. If you change your own vehicles oil, save it in a watertight container. Do not use foiled containers like shortening cans since they can leak.

Limit the amount of oil to 15 gallons or 125 pounds or less per trip to the recycler. You can make as many trips to the Palo Alto Recycling Center a day as you wish, but the state of California restricts the amount of hazardous waste people can transport without a special permit. The recycling center will turn you away if you bring too much oil without the hazardous waste hauler permit.

Take the used motor oil to the city of Palo Altos recycling center located at 2380 Embarcadero Road between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m. The city also accepts oil filters. Bring your drivers license along or vehicle registration. The city only takes oil from residents.

Bring the used oil to an auto parts store if the recycling center is not convenient for you to reach. These stores typically accept used batteries, motor oil and filters. The retailers use recycling companies to haul the products away for reuse.