Understanding the ins and outs of the California Air Resources Board certification process is essential for today’s performance parts manufacturers.

No one ever claimed that the performance business was easy, and that’s particularly true during these days of ever-tightening emissions control regulations. Aftermarket parts manufacturers not only service the pure racing market, but also the much larger street performance scene. A key to reaching the widest possible market includes securing emissions certification for parts from the California Air Resources Board (CARB). That CARB certification is the dividing line between a 49-state legal part and a 50-state legal part. 

CARB certification is a complex subject, and one that parts manufacturers have been navigating for years. But it’s worth taking a current read of the lay of the land, particularly with rule changes that have been implemented this year. After all, to say that attaining CARB certification for parts is a major focus of any aftermarket business plan is, frankly, an understatement. 

Gale Banks of Banks Power in Azusa, California, is one of the pioneers in getting aftermarket parts CARB-certified. Banks first worked with CARB in the late 1970s when Pontiac approached him about developing a dealer-installed turbocharger kit for the Sunbird. At the time, Banks said, CARB didn’t yet have a procedure for approving aftermarket parts. He has watched the importance of the CARB Executive Order (EO) grow from the beginning. 

“From a business standpoint, if you don’t have an EO in California for a popular vehicle, that’s 20% of your marketplace,” Banks said. “The population of California is more than the population of Canada.”

At K&N in Riverside, California, obtaining CARB EOs is a constant part of business. “We have a really good relationship with CARB right now,” said Jonathan Fiello, chief engineering officer at K&N. “In terms of total number of Executive Orders, at K&N we lead the way—we have more than any other aftermarket company out there. That’s a combination of K&N and our other brands. 

“Every year is a little different, but in terms of part numbers, on average we typically go through 85–100 part numbers a year. Those part numbers then cover multiple applications,” Fiello continued. “So we get anywhere from 500 in one year all the way up to 2,600 vehicle applications that go along with those 85–100 part numbers. We want the part numbers, so we want to cover as much as we can. In a good year, more than 2,000, on an average year I’m looking at probably 1,200 to 1,500 applications.”

ABCs of CARB

To unpack the complexities of the CARB-certification process, it helps to step back and take a wider view. “There are two governing bodies that oversee emissions in the United States,” said Peter Treydte, director of emissions compliance for SEMA, Diamond Bar, California. “There’s the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) that oversees the whole country, and in California there’s the California Air Resources Board, which oversees air quality in the state. Because CARB was formed prior to the EPA, CARB has continued to be allowed to set tighter standards than the EPA does for the state of California.”

The Clean Air Act was the federal legislation that set the stage in the 1960s for what was to come. There has been a steady progression of emissions-related requirements for vehicles, running from Positive Crankcase Ventilation (PCV) systems, to catalytic converters, to On-Board Diagnostics systems (OBD). The key issue for aftermarket parts makers is to show that their performance parts do not adversely affect emissions. 

For California, that proof is expressed in the form of an Executive Order from the California Air Resources Board. “Under EPA law, which is nationwide, you have to have a reasonable basis that the part does not take the car out of its original compliance,” said Daniel Ingber, vice president of government and legal affairs at PRI and SEMA. “Until very recently, the CARB EO was the best way to show that, even for EPA purposes. The EPA recognizes a California EO. Once you have a California EO you are 50-state legal. We advise all of our manufacturers that are making parts that go into the emissions system to get a California EO, generally.”

Complicating matters is that the EPA has recently started interpreting the Clean Air Act in such a way that the very act of converting an emissions-compliant street car into a race-only vehicle could soon be essentially illegal. 

“The RPM Act, which is currently in Congress, would clarify that you could convert a street car into a dedicated race vehicle,” Ingber said. “The racers need to know that without the RPM Act, with the EPA’s increased enforcement, with the EPA going after people who merely sell parts that could go on street vehicles but are made for dedicated racing, this creates a chill in the marketplace. This is going to mean that the parts they want for racing these vehicles may not be available.”

The Process

What goes on inside that Black Box of emissions certification for aftermarket parts? Frank Bohanan has run emissions labs for aftermarket companies and has worked as a consultant on the topic for many companies under his Brighton, Michigan-based GreenSpeed Automotive company. 

“Before you even get the vehicle to the lab, you realistically have to start a dialog with CARB and say, ‘Here’s what I want to do.’ And then they’ll come back and give you a Test Letter,” Bohanan said. “That Test Letter says exactly what you have to do. Sometimes they’ll ask you to test a vehicle that’s hard to get, and you have to negotiate with them to see if you can use a different vehicle instead. It could be something like they want you to test an F-350. Well, you can’t find an F-350, so maybe you counter with an F-250 that’s got the same powertrain and you dial up the weight on the dyno to make it think it’s an F-350. Those are the kind of things you do to make the process a little more user friendly.”

The SEMA Garage has an emissions lab that can help manufacturers attain a SEMA-Certified designation for EPA 49-state emissions compliance, or the necessary data for CARB EO certification. “There are two types of emissions that we typically have to be aware of,” said SEMA’s Treydte. “There are exhaust emissions, and that is what comes out of the tailpipe of the vehicle while it’s running. And then there are evaporative emissions, and that’s what comes off the vehicle when it is not running. Evaporative emissions regulations are only applicable to gasoline vehicles. Diesel vehicles are not subject to evaporative emission regulations. For those two types of emissions there are tests that are necessary to demonstrate emissions compliance in both those areas. At the SEMA Garage we don’t do evaporative testing. We do have relationships with other test facilities that can do that. We do have the capability to do exhaust emissions testing. 

“We have all the necessary certification equipment in our Diamond Bar, California, SEMA Garage,” he continued. “The equipment itself involves a chassis dynamometer with a 48-inch roll that offers good road simulations, and gas analyzers that measure the emissions that are coming out of the tailpipe.

“The required testing will vary depending on the vehicle type and the product type. In general, what we usually do is start with an OBD verification. That involves resetting the OBD system, essentially clearing the system so that all the monitors in the OBD system are incomplete. Then we do mileage accumulation with that vehicle to allow the OBD system to go through all of its processes. The intent of doing that is to demonstrate that the OBD system is not adversely affected by the product,” Treydte added.

“Once that’s complete, we then prep the vehicle for the chassis dyno testing. The prep process involves storing the vehicle in a controlled temperature and humidity environment. We then drain the fuel from the vehicle and put a certification test fuel into the vehicle. Then it goes through a prep process on the dyno. That prep is intended to establish all the operating conditions for the vehicle to normalize it. 

“After that prep is done, the vehicle is kept in the controlled environment for a minimum of 12 hours and a maximum of 36 hours. We call that a ‘soak period.’ Following that soak period, the testing is performed. The first test we typically run is what’s called Federal Test Procedure 75. The FTP-75 includes a cold start. If you can imagine the vehicle, having been stored in the controlled environment, will essentially be at room temperature when it starts that test. That means that the catalytic converter is not up to operating temperature yet. So we’re capturing any emissions that would come out of the engine prior to the catalytic converter being at its operating temperature. That’s part of that FTP process. The FTP-75 is a road simulation—it basically simulates city driving. The way I like to describe it is, it’s as if you get in your car in the morning, you start it up, you pull out of your driveway, and you drive through town, hitting a few stop signs and signals there, a few stops and starts, and you’re driving on city streets where the speeds are nominal. The FTP-75 doesn’t exceed roughly 52 mph. Then it’s as if you went to the donut shop, you parked your vehicle and went in to get a donut for 10 minutes. There’s a 10-minute wait period during two portions of the test. Then you get back in your car and finish your drive to work and park the car. That’s the concept of what the FTP-75 is simulating. It’s all a simulation of city driving,” Treydte said.

“Then we have two other tests that would represent highway driving. Both of those tests can follow directly after the FTP test because they are hot-start tests. Those two tests are called the highway fuel economy test and the US06. And finally, there’s another test that’s often referred to as the air conditioning test. Its official name is the SC03 test, and that test is performed with the air conditioning active in the vehicle. The idea there is that the compressor is going to place additional load on the crankshaft of the engine, which could potentially affect emissions output. The SC03 test is also a simulation of city driving speeds.

“The OBD verification portion of it is probably a one- to two-day process,” Treydte explained. “In some cases, it can be longer than that. The prep takes about a day, then the testing itself takes about a day. We typically indicate it will take about a week’s worth of time to complete a full round of testing.

“Following that test process, we would compile that information into a report. That report is what is used either by the manufacturer of the product for their own internal purposes or could be submitted to CARB in the efforts to obtain a CARB EO.

“A third option is, SEMA is starting its own certification program called SEMA Certified-Emissions (SC-E). We would use that same type of data and that same type of report process to issue our own certification for a product. SEMA Certified-Emissions is intended to specifically meet the requirements of the EPA. One thing that’s distinct between CARB and EPA is CARB offers a program for demonstrating emissions compliance, that’s the CARB EO program. EPA does not. So our purpose in developing the SEMA Certified-Emissions Program is to meet EPA’s requirements in the absence of a program that specifically does so,” Treydte said.

Mistakes and Misconceptions

The CARB EO process has been in place for years, and most aftermarket parts companies have dealt with it at some level. Even so, there are common misconceptions surrounding the process. 

“Manufacturers should have a better understanding or respect for what the OEM catalytic converter achieves,” Treydte said. “The catalytic converter is the primary emissions control device on modern vehicles, and it is doing a significant amount of work to control emissions. There are a lot of assumptions that aftermarket catalytic converters are capable of achieving the same result, and in most cases I have found that that’s not true. Aftermarket catalytic converters, or what people assume to be high-performance catalytic converters, aren’t performing at the same level as the OEM catalyst.

“That initial minute to two minutes of vehicle operation during the FTP-75 is really pretty critical,” he continued. “If your product affects the ability of the catalyst to reach its operating temperature in a negative way, then you could find yourself affecting the results of that FTP-75 test. The other issue is that there are assumptions made that aftermarket, or performance or high-flow catalytic converters, will do just as good a job as the OEM. I have yet to see test data that would support that claim.”

When it comes to enforcement actions against the industry, it’s important to remember that there is liability all up and down the chain—manufacturer, distributor, and retailer. Bohanan cautioned against simply labeling parts and thinking that is sufficient. “I would say probably the biggest single thing is, having a disclaimer that says, ‘Off-road Only’ or ‘Racing Use Only,’ doesn’t mean squat. You can put that all over on everything, but the bottom line is, what did you actually do? Did you actually take steps to ensure that your ‘racing parts’ are only sold to people who are actually racing? Or are you doing the ‘nudge, nudge, wink, wink,’ and if a guy comes in with a car with a license plate, you sell him a set of long-tube headers knowing that he’s going to take his catalytic converters off. And God forbid you should actually do the installation,” Bohanan said. “It really comes down to, you have to make a good faith effort to walk the walk, so to speak.”

Companies can protect themselves from allegations of illegally selling race parts for the street by documenting the sales process, but that also requires taking the whole idea of emissions compliance seriously. 

“It can be everything from taking pictures of the vehicle to show that it’s a race car with a tube frame chassis, to, if selling mail order, having a firewall where you get somebody to check a box that says, ‘Yes, I am only using this for exempted use,’” Bohanan said. “People forget that if you get a car built prior to 1966 you can do pretty much whatever you want to it. It’s not just racing use, it’s racing and motorsports and other exempted uses, which also includes emergency vehicles, and stuff like that. But you have to basically show that they are affirmatively attesting to the fact that they are going to do that. 

“Now, even that doesn’t get you out of the crosshairs, because then it goes to what we call ‘the laugh test,’” Bohanan said. “The laugh test is, there were 50 vehicles in the world that could use this part as a race part, and you’ve sold 5,000 of them. So you had to know, just by virtue of the fact that there aren’t that many legitimate uses out there, you had to know that some of these are ending up on street cars.”

Change In The Air

With tightening emissions standards for new vehicles and a more aggressive environmental outlook by the Biden administration, the motorsports industry will need to adapt to the changing landscape.

“The regulations just changed as of January 1, 2022. They got a lot more specific than they had been for a number of years,” Bohanan said. “Before, you could group a lot of things together and now you can’t. Now you have to really break it down into much smaller pieces.”

Some companies used to be able to get hundreds of part numbers on a single EO, but that’s much harder to do now. That’s ostensibly to make it easier for CARB engineers to go through the applications, Bohanan said. “The other thing is, conveniently, coincidentally, they’re going to start charging for the applications now.” 

If attaining a CARB EO is more difficult than it used to be, it need not always be an adversarial process. K&N has had productive meetings with the California Air Resources Board and has been able to present the industry’s perspective. “I think this is always a very touchy topic, but it’s also a topic people need to be educated about,” Fiello said. “Some people make it out to be way more difficult than it really is, and then there are people who make it out to be so simple, which it’s not either. 

“I had the fortune two weeks ago to tour the new CARB facility, which is literally two miles down the road from us in Riverside,” Fiello said. “We spent two or three hours with them talking about our experience and some of the challenges. One of the biggest challenges we’re facing is just the cost of getting an EO has more than doubled for K&N because of the emissions standards and the testing that’s required. I wanted them to see that because they didn’t realize how expensive it had gotten, and they’re willing to work with us now to try to figure out ways to curb some of those costs. It was a really excellent meeting, and they’re willing to help. They showed us the new facility and all the new test cells that they have for full SHED (sealed housing evaporative determination) tests. It’s an amazing facility.”

SEMA Garage Expands

Helping members navigate the EO (Executive Order) process has long been a mission for SEMA. “A few years ago, SEMA surveyed the members and asked a few questions about emissions compliance. We asked what were the challenges or difficulties that our members were experiencing with emissions compliance,” said Peter Treydte, director of emissions compliance at SEMA. “It really came down to a handful of issues. One was that dealing with CARB was challenging. There was a lot of difficulty in understanding the regulations, and our members indicated they needed a source of information that would help to cut through the red tape. Secondly, our members were concerned that it was difficult to get time in the emissions laboratories to do the testing that was required. A lot of the emissions laboratories had historically been dedicated to OEM work, and that resulted in aftermarket manufacturers finding difficulty getting availability in laboratories. The third thing that kept coming up was the cost of doing testing. Some manufacturers found that when it came time to do the testing, the cost was prohibitive to their business model. So SEMA set about to address those three issues, and that’s what led to the formation of the SEMA Compliance Center.”

SEMA’s Diamond Bar, California, Garage has the necessary equipment for testing as part of the certification process, and SEMA is now adding a second location in Michigan that will also have all the state-of-the-art emissions measuring equipment. The second Garage, at 14655 Jib Street in Plymouth, will hold an open house in August. The lab will be operational sometime around November, “but we will have other services earlier than November, including some ADAS testing capabilities, and a handful of additional systems,” Treydte said. —Steve Statham 

Sources

Banks Power
bankspower.com

GreenSpeed Automotive
fstncln@yahoo.com

K&N Engineering
knfilters.com

SEMA Garage
semagarage.com/services/emissionslab