Possible bad fuel pump

How did you register the vehicle with an aftermarket cat in CA? AFAIK there is only one that is certified for this use, and it is functionally identical to the OEM one. Car won't pass smog without a legal cat. And yes, they do check.

 

You can get the stamp that's on the cat made by a metal shop and then you can bang it onto a converter that looks similar same to a dealer converter and if you stamp that in the right place correctly get it in there good then rusted a little bit You should be good they're not going to be messing with it that close they looking for that mark or that little plate which you could just take off your old converter and tack on the new one and then water it down get it a little rusty so the stuff matches kind of put it on the car drive it for a week and you should be good to go I could probably find the shop that would pass me in East LA anyway because that's what things they do there doesn't really come back on you as much as you think it does takes a long time for the nonsense to catch up with you if you really want to look at it that way A few half-assed inspections generally aren't going to kill you and wind up with a fine and you go on about your business when you get caught if and now in the current climate that's going to subside quite a bit You're going to have a whole lot more to worry about than catalytic converter pollution

 

They're suppose to physically look; but high volume shop rarely do. As long as all the status indicators on the OBD2 are green - they pass.

 

The shop I go to checks. It took them a while to get their cell phone in the right place to take a picture through the window on the cat shield.