Non Ranger issue

[lil_Blue_Ford]

Here the inspection price is set the state, I think it's $55 for the safety and $35 for emissions +Tax. The state gets a chunk of that and the shop gets a chunk.
Some guys are pickier then other, however it's the individual tech that holds the inspection license, so if something happens it's that guys license that gets revoked, not that shop.

The shop I go to is pretty busy as it is, normally a week wait for an appointment. So they don't seem to try and sell more work for themselves if it isn't needed. Plus, if something is wrong, they will let me bring the truck back a couple weeks later after I fixed it and not charge me to inspect it again.

Some places, if you don't have them fix it, will fail the inspection and you still need to pay. Then if you bring it back later want to get paid again.

They can pull an entire shop’s ability to inspect, but it’s supposed to be really rare, but it happed to the local Monroe Muffler twice that I know of. My understanding is there was one or more employees doing “lick-n-stick” inspections without the manager catching on and IIRC, forging other techs signatures on some or all.

I’ll only deal with shops that I know and know they’re honest. Or at least honest with me. The one I’m using now is good about telling me what’s wrong and give me all the time I need to make it right and he’s not overly picky. He’s also convenient, right around the corner from my buddy’s garage. I’ve had a few shops try to screw me and I’ve never gone back to those.

Around here, I don't think they can really tell if your inspection is expired or not without pulling you over and looking at the stickers. They change the color of the stickers every year to make it easier to tell, but still hard. Most of the time if someone gets a ticket for expired inspection, its after they got pulled over for speeding or something.

Also, expired inspections are considered "fix it" tickets. So you can just pay the ticket, or you can make a date at the courthouse to dispute it, and if you show up with fresh inspection stickers they drop the ticket. You probably still have to pay some "clerical fees" or something, but not the $500 for expired inspection.


For some reason, I remember someone telling me that a missing inspection sticker has a lesser fine then an expired inspection sticker. Not sure if it's true or not.

The new inspection stickers with the little curly-cue thing in them and the raised dot? RFID chip and antenna. Cruisers equipped with scanners can read those as they drive near you. Not sure the range.

Not sure if a missing sticker is a lower fine than expired. I heard something awhile back that supposedly some sort of situation they can fine you for, if you don’t have an inspection sticker they can fine you for all the years that you owned the vehicle but if you had an expired inspection sticker then they could only fine you back to that point. I know years ago that taking a good sticker off a junkyard vehicle and putting it on yours was a bigger fine than not having a sticker so guys would buy a pack of cigarettes roughly the right color for that year and leave it sit on the dash where the sticker should be.

 

[lil_Blue_Ford]

If that's true you should just scrape it off.
Seems like every state has different laws about it.

The messed up thing is that every state has different laws, but technically if you travel to another state, you have to abide by their laws. Thus, Ohio doesn’t really have a rust law that I’m aware of except certain places. Pennsylvania does (no rust holes in the exterior that you can put a finger in). So a legal Ohio vehicle with a large rust hole in say, the bedside of a pickup can be fined in PA for the rust hole. Duct tape is not a legal repair in PA, but if you spray paint the duct tape it is classed as a permanent repair and is legal.

 

[James Morse]

It seems to make no sense. Some states require 2 plates, some just one. But I've never heard of somebody from, say, SC (I think they just require one) getting stopped in another state. They must give some leeway.

I been going to the same place for probably 20 years maybe more. Probably they're about the right amount of picky. I don't think I've ever had anything fail except wipers. but you know what, it's really important to see in the rain so I guess that's ok. Then last time I went I complained about seems like it's always wipers, and these wipers are good! That's when they found the no-battery-hold-down but you know what that's just fine with me and they didn't make a penny off the part or install so no gripes from me. Not sure if this theory holds water, but dealers might be a bit more careful, if they lose their inspection license, that'd be a real problem for them. They're not what you call fast, I bet they take an hour on it. If you want to wait another hour they'll wash it for you too, but I usually don't. Plus they have sodas and waters and snacks and a nice waiting room with TV and newspapers. And lots of new and used cars so you can waste some time wandering around looking at stuff. They are just putting up a new big showroom I think they are adding BMW to Lexus and Audi.

Aside from all that, they take an appointment, and yeah, you probably still have to wait some, but not a ton. And close, like a mile.
They were bought out by Parks Luxury group, they have a bunch of dealerships around the greater area (NC etc). Seems like they kept things pretty much the same but I think the big manager was changed out.

 

[James Morse]

So the parts were swapped out. Old driver side front caliper was frozen to the rotor, had to hammer the rotor out of it. So, definitely trash. I think it was dragging enough to affect acceleration, and it was pulling to that side. I actually only drove the thing once before, but it seemed to have more pep now. Brakes work nice. I couldn't put it into a skid, but I suspect there's ABS, though I couldn't feel any pulsing. What I'm saying is on a panic stop, it did stop real fast with no skid so I assume that's the way it's supposed to work, if it does have ABS then theoretically you can never brake it into a skid.

O'Reilly sent two left hoses - they were different part numbers but same part. The reason there's a left and right hose is because the center mount is crimped to the hose and the wrong side will have the mount pointing 180 degrees wrong. I was able to run to the local O'R. (1/2 mile) and they had that, so that worked out ok.

Other problem though. When he put the lower caliper bolt in (passenger side front), he couldn't torque it. But threads looked just fine (not stripped) on the bolt and fit very tight into the old caliper. I figure when they chased the threads on the rebuilt caliper they messed it up. Can't think of any other reason except if bolt's threads were somehow worn/smalller/something which wouldn't seem to make sense as it fits the old caliper threads fine. I have tons of old stuff so I looked for a matching bolt just in case, to try, couldn't find anything that big with the fine threads. O'R. didn't have the caliper in stock local. I couldn't leave the thing sitting there.

So I suggested, take aluminum foil, put a couple wraps on it, and try that (this is a kluge!). It went in pretty good, and he tightened it up just barely. Aluminum is soft so I imagine it wouldn't take a lot to strip it out. Bolt was loose enough before you could turn it with your fingers when it was all the way in, which says to me that's quite a difference. It's an ok temp fix, bolt shouldn't just back itself out if it's a bit tight. But clearly it's not kosher.

The top bolt was no problem, real tight. I told him, I better not tell her "your car is held together with aluminum foil." I talked it over with him, and he said, if it gets loose, you'll have vibration this side, but it won't fall off or anything, and you'll know what it is. He said if it arises he'll come work on that again for free. Which really isn't even fair to him as that part discrepancy isn't his fault.

So where to go with that? I do not like leaving it lie that. I suppose I could have let it sit in the shop a couple days waiting for the part, I didn't, so here we are. I'm tempted to contact O'R., tell them the issue, and tell them yeah I installed it because I was stuck, but this ain't right so send me another right front caliper. The only other thought I had was get that bolt new and see if there's a difference. Threads should have a good amount of engagement, if you can turn it with your fingers all the way in (prior to shimming) that's way different. But I suspect it was just not QC'd good on the rebuild.

I think I should try to get it replaced. And actually the core charges are so high on these it wouldn't be much of a cost for me to just get another one if they argue about it. And bolts, then try the fit of those things, if they are good, call the guy back and have him replace it which wouldn't be so hard, parts will come out easy. I think it's fine to drive around town, bolt problem wouldn't disable it, but, I kind of don't want to send her on a 1000 mile trip with it like that. I'm going to go talk to them right now, I have to take cores back anyway ($95!). They can get a replacement in 24 hrs then I can call the guy to swap it. To me that would be the path forward. I don't feel good the way it is. And probably give him something for doing it again, even though he didn't ask.
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Side issues, things he found "to watch and fix as they come up": Upper motor mount bushings wearing, so replace at some point. Do valve cover gaskets at same time, have to take off intake to do rear one so replace intake gasket. Do tune-up at same time, plugs, wires, coil. Sway bar rear (vertical) bushings are wearing, is ok, if bushings go completely it'll rattle but not fall apart. Rubber boot on left rear shock is trash, shock is ok less bushing wearing. He's just seeing these things and pointing them out, none are immediate needs unless valve cover gaskets are leaking a lot of oil which I -think- they were doing intermittently (smell) but I don't see massive smoke or anything.
Those things to me seem to make sense, at 263k miles you will have some wear for sure. Edit: Forgot, rear caliper piston seals are going, so rear calipers, not critical but should be done. Also tires, which don't have tons of tread anyway, are starting to crack, he pointed out mainly in the tread area. But still if you added up all this it's maybe a couple car payments more/less so if she's planning on keeping it I'd suggest doing these things in some logical order, worst first. But none are going to stop you on the road except maybe the rear calipers if they locked up.

 

[James Morse]

O'R. is going to replace the right front caliper, Monday. I picked up a couple 14x1.5 bolts at Advance, and checked them against the old calipers - they are correct. When the new one comes in I'll try a bolt against the threads and make sure it's right.

 

[RobbieD]

You'll get there. And, it sounds like you've found a good "wrench for hire".

 

[James Morse]

Let's say he spent probably 3 hours on it so he was making 50+ an hour so it's really not bad money, and I'm fine with it. But it wasn't on an hourly basis just an agreed price to do.
He's got zero overhead and I chased all the parts. So for him, it's all gravy. I'd much rather price per the job not per the hours.
The thing about having your own shop is to make consistently good money you'd have to have people scheduled all the time and that wouldn't happen unless you maybe had already built up some clientele. Plus then if you're commercial you got all the taxes and licenses and etc, it's kind of a nightmare compared to just picking up some extra cash here and there.

 

[James Morse]

Finally got other caliper replaced with good one, so done this thread. Guy would do it for nothing, but I threw him $30, not like it was his fault.
Other stuff to do: tune-up (plugs, wires, coils); upper motor mount (bushing starting to get loose); intake gasket and valve cover gaskets; ball joints (ok, no noise, but starting to go); rear vertical sway bar (bushings going).
None of that stuff stops it from driving or makes it unsafe (yet) and I'd say those are all things one would expect at 263k miles.
I vacuumed it out and used Meguiar's scratch remover which is basically like hand glaze maybe just a tiny bit more aggressive, it won't take out a deep scratch (how can you if it's down to the primer) but it does help a lot on minor stuff. Sometimes you find out it's not a scratch just paint transfer. Anyway, messed with it enough for now and she knows what it will need in the coming months/years (or at least some of it).
When I saw it has a full-size spare on an alloy wheel I was like, wow, they didn't scrimp on this. Full size spare is nice to have.
Her sisters told her stepmom (it was her dad's car) about the brakes and her stepmom was like, I wouldn't have given it to you if I knew that was bad so I'm paying for it, and she paid the 1100+ that was the Firestone quote so actually that was a profit of about 500 on that deal since she got the car for nothing and the brake work all told was like 600 and change. And brakes were working when she got it, she put probably 6k miles on it since.
Doesn't look horrible, at 25 ft it looks real clean, closer up you do see some cosmetic issues but not crazy bad. I didn't quite finish stickers removal yet. Rear bumper stickers were covering a bad puncture hit, but looks like bumpers are cheap. She won't do it.... I would. These are quite huge inside, I could fit my big dog crate in the back. Looking for the missing bolts for the splash shield, thought they were common thread, seems not, about ready to go to junkyard for those. Edit: looks like scratch on hood in pic but it's reflection of telephone wire.
THANKS FOR THE HELP.