Smog Diagnostic Speclst

In without an appointment, customer friendly staff, and completed the smog test with a pass in less than 10 minutes wait time. Should have selected this smog test shop first. Excellent customer friendly attitude and made me feel like they truly want my business unlike the previous smog shop (Natomas Smog, see my review) that clearly didn’t care and would not do the retest as agreed.

I bought a Jeep from someone who neglected to smog it prior to the sale so I went over to Northgate Smog who was the closest to my work so I could do it over my lunch break. I went there dropped the Jeep off and went across the street for lunch. I got a call when it was done and when I got there I was told I had a list of things wrong and the total bill for the repairs from them was over $ 800. I was told I had to get the repairs done by them in order to get the «free retest» and that he had already called around and found the exhaust manifold for a low price of $ 350 and the other assorted parts for a total of $ 500 and it would be $ 300 for labor. I then looked online for the parts and found that they were around $ 250 at autozone and kragen and if I went to a Jeep specialty shop it was around $ 200 for all of the parts. I don’t know where they get there part but it sounds like there is a little bit of mark up going on there.
Issue number two is they told me the emissions were failing likely because of the parts that were broken. So I called the previous owner and he said it had recently passed smog (not recent enough for the DMV to let me register it, but recent enough) so he offered to smog it himself. He took it to a different smog shop and it passed with no issue. The parts that I was told were illegal by Northgate were just fine and the exhaust manifold that I was told was cracked was just fine.
Moral of the story is find a true smog test only center because these guys just tried to scam me

They will only give you a re test if you have them do the repairs. Also, they were $ 14 more than the shop down the street that does give a free re test with no catch.

Do not use them! They tested my car with the check engine light on knowing it would not pass, charged me the full price, said I needed to put so many miles on it before I can retest it and pay the full amount again! Robbery!!!
My cars check engine light and oil light were on so I had my boyfriend tech it to his mechanic at the golf course and check and repair everything and let them know I was going to be getting the smog checked. I just moved here fro
Texas. They changed the oil, replaced filters, spark plugs, fan belts, replaced fluids and every/​anything that could have caused any problems. Unfortunately they forgot to turn off/​or reset the lights ‘check engine’ on the dash. I noticed this when he brought it back and asked him to call him and turn it off. He did not do that. I thought it was taken care of. Took it to the smog place. They took my car, ran the tests with the light on, did not say anything to me about it automatically failing if the check engine light is on and charged me the full amount knowing it would fail. Not only did he fail to ask me anything about the vehicle or if the light is on or why and notify me it would automatically fail he would not allow me to turn it off and recheck properly due to the circumstances and told me I have to wait for a number of miles to be driven before it can be retested and pay the full amount again. I feel this should not be legal. My car passed everything else and I should have been notified that the light would fail it and that there is no point in running the test before they did this and also it should be discussed that there is no retest if your vehicle fails. In Texas it would have been retested for free and they would have turned the light off for me.
Polly

I’ve had a coolant flush and transmission fluid flush done on my camaro here, these guys know what theyre doing but unfortunately are overpriced. I took my friend’s ford escort in for a diagnostic and they said the oil pan gasket leaked and needed to be replaced for like $ 270. I then took it to another place and they found no leak whatsoever, she checks it often and it holds every drop of oil. They will overcharge you and they might tell you something is wrong when it’s not.
On the positive note, they have several guys working there so you won’t have to wait too long for a job to be finished.