San Diego Area Shops for exhaust

[radhaz]

Hello all, after finally investigating the occasional "rattle" from my exhaust I have discovered an exhaust leak that is steadily increasing. I would like to nip this one in the bud and the sooner the better. I know I could get the leak "patched" but can't justify it since getting an HKS Hiper was number 3 on my list of mods.

So I'm in the market to buy the exhaust and get it installed in the San Diego area and have a few questions.

1. What's the best method for saving $$, buying the catback and bringing it in...or buying it outright from the shop and having them install it?

2. Can anyone recommend some affordable/ reputable shops to do the install?

3. Finally, is the HKS Hiper in any way smog illegal in california?

Thanks in advance for the help

[mrmephistopheles]

please note that my numbers do NOT correspond to yours.
1. do your own research.
2. don't limit yourself to buying in SD (most online shops will dropship your exhaust)
3. install it yourself. buy $50 bucks of craftsman and get to it. it'll make you proud of yourself and your car.
4. technically, if it doesn't come with a CARB EO number, it's illegal. Chances of you having to face a referee over it are slim as long as you keep your nose clean.

[radhaz]

1. My own research so far has been limited to reading reviews on catback exhaust's, locating reputable online dealer's, and pricing the HKS Hiper. My next step was to ask for info here and then start calling local shops from there (seemed like a logical order to me)

2. Not limiting myself to SD kind of covers comment/question 1. I know that I will almost always find a better deal online due to lower overhead; however, I am a bit worried about shipping costs.

3. Yes doing it myself is admirable; however, I live in an apartment complex and being relatively new to the SD area I do not have access to anyone with a garage where I can jack my car up on stands to do this. I am certain that doing it myself would be the cheapest route, I just don't think it is feasible at this time.

4. No CARB EO number is what I was afraid of, like I said before I am new to CA. I haven't yet gone through the trials and tribulations of getting my vehicle smogged, what I am curious about is during the "visual" portion of a smogging do they simply inspect the engine bay or the whole vehicle?

Thanks for the info Mr M

[mrmephistopheles]

I've answered your other questions in PM

About smaug, they only (99% of the time) do a visual on the engine bay, and 99.999999% of the time, they don't care if you have an aftermarket exhaust. I did a test-only smog (the most feared because you can't buy your way out of it) with my exhaust on and my car passed with flying colors.