Just wondering if anyone has ever failed a state safety inspection before for Windsheild wipers? The guy before me failed for the same thing and he had this total look of disbelief on his face as he sat back down after agreeing to have the work done there by their ACE Mechanics(I couldn't believe it myself). Then it was my turn and the guy said the same thing to me and said "we'll take care of that for ya right away ?" I said NO thats okay. Thinking to myself I sure as hell am not paying you 30$ to change some wipers. So I drove 2 minutes down the street, threw on some new blades and returned shortly.(the autoparts store was actually advertising free wiper installation--<never heard of that before but did not take em up on it) I walked back in and the same guy behind the counter addresses me like he does n't know what the hell I'm back for. I told him I needed my Approval form for the safety inspection cause I just put brand new wiper blades on the truck. (Even thought I had just used the so called worn out ones that morning)
So he says we close in an hour we wont have time today to bring it back in the shop.
I said "Bring it back in the shop for wipers?"and then he said "Oh yeah its the state law we have to bring it back in."
So now I'll have to make trip #3 for my worn out wipers tommorrow!

Okay I feel better Now Thanks for listening

Jim in MO 89 F-150 4.9L M5R2 3.55 nonLS 156,000m

 

That used to happen everytime I had a vehicle inspected. They always need wiper blades and headlights adjusted.




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'94 E-150 Conversion Van 4.9 / C-6 -- '89 Mustang LX 5.0

 

Thanks I don't feel so bad now.

Jim

 

That kind of stuff is one of the reasons that S.C. no longer has an inspection. Seems the fee that the garage was allowed to charge was never enough to allow them to spend enough time to do a proper inspection.....so.....find something wrong that could be charged for, such as wiper blades or headlight aiming. Interestingly enough since that aspect of the states safety program was dropped there has been no rise in the number of safety related accidents at all.

 

Pennsylvania is a bit different. We have a stringent inspection process, and if one drives the vehicle off of the lot beacuse it failed (even for one reason), the whole vehicle must be inspected again if and when it comes back (since there is no way of knowing if the vehicle hit something, or if parts were taken off of the vehicle, while it was away). When you stop and think about it, it makes sense.

Personally I'd much rather live in a state that I knew most of the drivers around me had good brake linings, and had decent treads on their tires.

I lived in Ohio for a few years, and the greater number of people over there are idgets when it comes to safety and their own vehicles.
Tires blowing at speed all of the time, first snow and cars are all over the place, no brakes, etc.

Having lived here and worked as a mechanic, I know that most people, by nature, will generally wait until brakes are digging through their rotors (steel to steel), or other similar extreme indications, before they get an aspect of their car worked on. Having a yearly inspection at least helps most owners get a grip on preventitive maintenance.

It seems that after living in PA for awhile most people get the hang of inspections and make sure the simple things (lights, wipers, tires) are Ok before bringing them in. But if they drove it to the shop to drop it off for an inspection, and if I was outside, I'd do a preliminary check to tell them if the tires or wipers would fail it so they could go get them fixed if they wanted to have them done elsewhere (most shops aren't like that though).

But, again, I just don't believe that the people who live in states with simple, or no, inspections are all doing preventitive maintenance at the rate they should be. I've seen it, and by nature most people don't want to spend any more on their cars than they have to (then there are 'car & truck enthusiasts' who will spend all they can to make cars fast, but won't spend the money to make sure the brakes are at least as good as when the car came from the factory, or won't replace ball joints on time, or won't have all of their lights working).

For those reasons I really like living in this state.

Best,

 

Hey Gamma Driver where you from in PA

 

takin' it to e-mail for non-technical conversation - tim, check yer e-mail bud.

Best,

 

I agree with GammaDriver as he made some good points. I saw a car the other day broke down old honda civic with a Hi-po muffler. Rust all over the place and just a beater. As I was driving past him I noticed only 3 lug nuts and not 4, interesting that he has enough money for a muffler but can't put the right amount of lug nuts on his car. I took my moms car into the shop for inspection, the backup lights didn't work because the switch was broken, and 1 of the 2 bulbs in the third brake light assembly was out. The guy was like "I can change that but the rear lights you'll have to have checked out". I wish I let him change the bulb in the rear third brake light. The socket melted and he would have had to replace the socket and I bet that would have thrown him for a loop. I know for a fact that 85% of people don't properly take care of their car and thats probably why they don't last long. They put gas in them and change the oil every 5k miles instead of 3k.


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Justin - One Happy FTE Member