The joys of car inspections

**Ares** · 07-01-2011, 03:51 PM

Had today off and stopped and found place close to do truck and car. Dropped truck off. Guy calls it has rust on rear rotors, needs an outer tire rod and one upper ball joint. Then tried to quote me over $680. Thanks but I'll fix that. Up road to parts store and grab 2 new rotors, pads, outer tie rod, upper control arm out door for $212 :) Course brakes work great and truck had no noticeable issues up front but whatever.

Ok drop car off. Almost had tires off truck when phone rings. He feels unsafe to try and pull my car in the garage. He can't get it to move so come pick it up. I'm thinking did he even try to release parking brake or even know how to drive a stick? Waste of time gah. Off to garage that does trucks at work and penciled in for next friday. They did it last year and I should have just gone there anyways.

I truly despise getting vehicles inspected. Hate people even touching my cars let alone leaving them with them.

**95V6** · 07-01-2011, 03:56 PM

I have never had a smooth in and out car inspection.

**SAC81** · 07-01-2011, 05:13 PM

Wow, that sucks.

Finding a reputable inspection shop is worth it's weight in gold. I go to Kress Tire up off Perry Highway in McCandless- they've always been totally honest with me and inspect all of my cars.

**speedracer** · 07-01-2011, 05:49 PM

My next door neighbor is my inspection mechanic...

**Ares** · 07-01-2011, 06:13 PM

I'll remember Kress as it was just down the road.

Now the stupid tie rod end is wrong in box. Moog/TRW ES3538 not even close to being right. Tried two places and all had same part in box. Part number is correct. When they look it up it is different then what was in box.

**torqueboxer** · 07-01-2011, 10:10 PM

You have to take your car to the inspection? i like the inspection to come to me....lol

**crazylou** · 07-02-2011, 12:44 AM

Originally Posted by torqueboxer

You have to take your car to the inspection? i like the inspection to come to me....lol

LOL... me 2...

**Mark Aubele** · 07-02-2011, 12:51 AM

Originally Posted by torqueboxer

You have to take your car to the inspection? i like the inspection to come to me....lol

Doesn't a car have to be driven to need inspected? Is your garage a public road or something?

**97LaserRed** · 07-02-2011, 01:54 AM

never had a problem slapping stickers on my car!

**ModularMike** · 07-02-2011, 02:00 AM

Originally Posted by Ares

Had today off and stopped and found place close to do truck and car. Dropped truck off. Guy calls it has rust on rear rotors, needs an outer tire rod and one upper ball joint. Then tried to quote me over $680. Thanks but I'll fix that. Up road to parts store and grab 2 new rotors, pads, outer tie rod, upper control arm out door for $212 :) Course brakes work great and truck had no noticeable issues up front but whatever.

Ok drop car off. Almost had tires off truck when phone rings. He feels unsafe to try and pull my car in the garage. He can't get it to move so come pick it up. I'm thinking did he even try to release parking brake or even know how to drive a stick? Waste of time gah. Off to garage that does trucks at work and penciled in for next friday. They did it last year and I should have just gone there anyways.

I truly despise getting vehicles inspected. Hate people even touching my cars let alone leaving them with them.

I saw your car at that place today and was thinking to myself why the hell is that car there...

**AdamantiumSilvr** · 07-02-2011, 04:35 AM

Its really hard to trust anybody anymore ta do any work and not screw you!

**PaxtonShelby** · 07-02-2011, 09:27 AM

I go to Imperial Heights Garage in ... uh ... Imperial. Kurt is the owner. Great guy. Very very thorough. I would call him a stickler. Some people think that is a bad thing, but all our cars that require annual safety inspections are older ( 1994 XLT, 1994 Cobra, 2001 Explorer ), and I don't want someone to just slap a sticker on them. I want them gone over with a fine tooth comb, and that's what he does. What makes him different is that he doesn't gouge you. He catches things that others would miss, fixes / replaces them, and does the job for a really really reasonble cost. He also shows you the parts that were replaced. If anyone is interested in giving him a try shoot me a PM and I'll give you his number, or you can just look him up in the phone book.

**95V6** · 07-02-2011, 02:05 PM

Originally Posted by PaxtonShelby

or you can just look him up in the phone book.

Whats a phone book? :D

I go to Chappys in Washington, great guys that do good work. Wont screw you around like some other shops.

**383taman** · 07-02-2011, 02:37 PM

Originally Posted by Ares

Had today off and stopped and found place close to do truck and car. Dropped truck off. Guy calls it has rust on rear rotors, needs an outer tire rod and one upper ball joint. Then tried to quote me over $680. Thanks but I'll fix that. Up road to parts store and grab 2 new rotors, pads, outer tie rod, upper control arm out door for $212 :) Course brakes work great and truck had no noticeable issues up front but whatever.

Ok drop car off. Almost had tires off truck when phone rings. He feels unsafe to try and pull my car in the garage. He can't get it to move so come pick it up. I'm thinking did he even try to release parking brake or even know how to drive a stick? Waste of time gah. Off to garage that does trucks at work and penciled in for next friday. They did it last year and I should have just gone there anyway

I truly despise getting vehicles inspected. Hate people even touching my cars let alone leaving them with them.

Yea stick with RJ he wont steer you wrong.Seen your car there last year

**blizzard** · 07-02-2011, 04:48 PM

ya just went thru this.. "my guy" (wink,wink) got a new job at a place where the emissions machine was too new (no more tailpipe sniffers) so i had to go to average joe.. passed emissions w flying colors, however told me i had to have mudflaps.. "ya, all trucks need mudflaps".. after arguing with him about the PA code, i guess he felt insulted and wouldn't sticker it... so i went back to "my guy" (wink,wink) for the annual since i now had the smog in the window

fyi btw.. mudflaps = >11k GVWR

**Ares** · 07-03-2011, 09:49 PM

Originally Posted by 383taman

Yea stick with RJ he wont steer you wrong.Seen your car there last year

We send RJ alot of work with all our company trucks. He had to drive my car to Neville Island and back due to check engine light last year.

Got it all fixed today. Now everything I was told was bad I found to be truely bad. Rear rotors outer faces were messed and it may have been from stuck sliders. They were not rusty but the grease used made them damn near stick in place. Truck stops great now and I thought it did good prior.

Tierod end was worn pretty good. Not sure how I never noticed. Plus I found that the right side tierod is also worn. They missed that one but may have been due to the bad upper ball joint. Nice thing is parts I got are greasable fittings unlike the factory crap.

**Ares** · 07-08-2011, 06:26 PM

Guess I'm taking my truck to RJ since the mfr I took it to hit strike 3 with me. Tuesday no sticker come back friday. Friday he wants me to come back monday so he can lift it back up to look at stuff replaced that is easy to see. Told him no as now I'm getting the run around. Questions me on fixing my own stuff.

I flipped out. He couldn't even tighten the lugs on back tire all the way(finger tight I found) and he questions me on replacing a tie rod end and upper control arm. So hard to tighten the stud nut to 45ftlbs plus 90* and arm bolts to 97ftlbs and ball joint to 55ft lbs and install and cotter key. Not my first time turning a fn wrench.

30 mins later and still got my blood pressure up. Rather spend more money for less aggravation with someone else.