The short answer is yes. Your vehicle can pass the smog check with a pending trouble code, so long as the check engine light is not illuminated and the required emission monitors are ready. A pending trouble code may set for diagnostic purposes and will not illuminate the check engine light.

What does it mean when a code is pending?

These codes are referred to as pending or maturing codes. Pending codes are caused by intermittent faults or faults that the PCM needs to see happen in two consecutive warm-up cycles to set the code. If the fault does not reappear within 40 warm-up cycles, the code will be cleared from memory.

Will a transmission code fail emissions?

Your vehicle might be experiencing a problem which is only transmission related, however since the check engine light is ON, it will fail the smog check. It should be noted, that most often, transmission faults do increase emissions when causing incorrect shifting patterns or idle speed faults.