Stay away from this place!!!
The owner (Steve Park) is a crook.
I went there in the morning a month ago to do a smog test for my 2004 Sienna. There are other auto care shops next to his, but he is the only one in the block that does smog test. After asking his price and agreeing to it, he scanned my DMV paperwork to start the process.
Then he asked me if my van has the 3.3 litre engine. I said 'yes', and he told me it would be hard to pass. He said the 3.3 litre engine is very sensitive. That should have been a red flag for me. I told him Toyota is well known for clean burning low emission engine. Also, the last time I did the test (2 years ago) it passed without any problem. In fact, I also have a 1999 Sienna that still pass the smog test without problem.
I had made sure the engine was hot. I drove around for 20 minutes reaching up to 50 mph before I got to his place, and I left the engine running all the time while talking to him. He positioned the car on the test equipment, put the sensor into the exhaust pipe, and proceeded with the test. After about 5 or 6 minutes or so he came out of the car and removed the sensor from the exhaust pipe, walked around for about 2 minutes, and sticked the sensor back into the exhaust pipe, and went back to the driver side and proceeded with the test. Then he called me. He said "I have had a lot of experience with smog test, so I usually know before the test ends whether it is going to pass or fail. With you car, I have a bad feeling that it is not going to pass". I just kept quiet. I wanted to know what else he had to say.
He spent another 5 minutes and ended the test. We waited for the test result, and when it came it says that the test FAILED in the HC category. The maximum limits for HC are 49 ppm and 32 ppm (at 15 mph and 25 mph respectively). The reading for my car were 71 ppm and 87 ppm respectively.
He told me he knows what to do. First, he said he needs to do the "Full throttle cleanup". The price for the job is $120.00 and he said that was a discounted price. Afterwards he would retest the car, and if it still fails he needs to replace the Oxygen Sensor. The price for the job is $200.00. So the total cost could be up to $320.00.
I paid him the $31.75 smog test fee without the certificate (since it fails) and got ready to leave. He looked at me and asked "What are you going to do?". I told him I would go somewhere else and took off.
I was so sure that the car should pass. So during lunch time on the same day I took the car to another smog place. I took the car to another smog place in the same area. I showed the the guy the result from the earlier test, and asked him if there is any restriction from DMV that I would have to retest at the same place. He said 'No', so I asked him to perform the smog test WITHOUT MAKING ANY CHANGES TO THE CAR AT ALL. He performed the smog, and IT PASSED. We compared the results, and it was like day and night. The reading for the HC this time were 10 ppm and 6 ppm, way below the maximum limits of 49 ppm and 32 ppm.
That night it suddenly hit me. I mentioned that Steve removed the sensor that goes into the exhaust pipe in the middle of the test for a couple of minutes and reinserted it. I remember the guy from the second smog place simply stayed in the car throughout the test process. That was one difference I noticed.
The next morning I called the second smog place and asked if the sensor can be removed from the exhaust pipe during the test. His answer confirmed my suspicion.
With that I called Steve back. First I told him that I took the car for another smog test at another place without making any changes just 2 hours after it failed. I told him that it passed the second time and the numbers were not even close. Then I told him that he cheated on me by removing the sensor from the exhaust pipe in the middle of the test, just enough to cause it to fail so he could extort more money for me for the made-up problems that he caused. I could hear him mumbling all sorts of things trying to deny what I told him, and refusing to refund my test fee when I asked him.
I hope nobody goes to him and put him out of business of cheating-on-people. read more