Foo, failed vehicle inspection for this?

[WobblyHand]

As you can tell from the thread title, this is a rant.

Bring in my 2015 for safety inspection. Get called that they failed my driver side headlight, for being too cloudy. Offer to sell me a "fix" for $150. I say, no thanks, bet I could fix it myself. Didn't want to ask how long the treatment was guaranteed for. Then I asked, how will I know if my work is good enough? What is the criteria for a pass? What is not too cloudy? Finally coax out the explanation, it has to be at least as good as the passenger side, which did pass. Ok. Guess I won't touch the passenger headlight at all, since it is my reference.

Get the rejected car back. The driver headlight is pretty cloudy. Honestly, it looked dirty. Wash it with some windshield wiper fluid, it showed clear when wiped, but then clouded over. I've seen that before and know the fix. Started the search in the garage for a bottle of Meguiar's Mirror Glaze Professional. It is basically a water based polish. Takes me 3 minutes to find it. A couple of minutes to shake it up again, as the old bottle has settled. 2 minutes after that, and 2 paper towel sheets later, the headlight looks almost new. That old bottle of Meguiar's cost well under $10 when I bought it. Pretty sure any gentle car polish would work. No UV protectant, so I will need to do it again in a few months, or at least before the next inspection. One of these days I will find some UV protectant, that isn't ridiculously overpriced, which should reduce the time between polish jobs.

I don't know, but, failing for the sake of a 2 minute polish job is bad, and making the push for the cleaning and protecting of the headlight for $150 left a bad taste in my mouth. Especially since the amount of work to clear the headlight takes so little time and effort. Makes me feel like they wanted to take advantage of me.

I will bring in the car for a "re-test" tomorrow. Don't think I will be going back to this place for inspections (which are yearly in NH). The place used to be ok, but has gone downhill in the past couple of years...

Rant over.

 

[rabler]

I will bring in the car for a "re-test" tomorrow. Don't think I will be going back to this place for inspections (which are yearly in NH). The place used to be ok, but has gone downhill in the past couple of years...

Rant over.

I would agree with your rant and avoiding the place. I have a few supporting thoughts about any sort of mandated process . But they might verge on political. I use to use Mirror Glaze on the plexiglass windshield of small planes. Works well.
Perhaps silly, but I wonder if sunblock work for token UV protection?

 

[Marv in Minn]

with gas prices like they are, i bought a locking gas cap for my Tundra.
the next day the check engine light came on so i went to have it diagnosed.
bad gas cap and charcoal filter, the test cost me $165!
they wanted $1250 to replace the charcoal canister and a new gas cap.

i put the old gas cap back on and the next day no more check engine light
today they called and said they have the parts and when do i want to come in?
i said "no thanks, i fixed it by putting the old cap back on".
you should have heard him spit and sputter!

 

[WobblyHand]

with gas prices like they are, i bought a locking gas cap for my Tundra.
the next day the check engine light came on so i went to have it diagnosed.
bad gas cap and charcoal filter, the test cost me $165!
they wanted $1250 to replace the charcoal canister and a new gas cap.

i put the old gas cap back on and the next day no more check engine light
today they called and said they have the parts and when do i want to come in?
i said "no thanks, i fixed it by putting the old cap back on".
you should have heard him spit and sputter!

Wow, what is so special about either the charcoal filter or the gas cap, that it would be that expensive? Labor for the installation because half the car needs to be disassembled?

 

[Just for fun]

As you can tell from the thread title, this is a rant.

Bring in my 2015 for safety inspection. Get called that they failed my driver side headlight, for being too cloudy. Offer to sell me a "fix" for $150. I say, no thanks, bet I could fix it myself. Didn't want to ask how long the treatment was guaranteed for. Then I asked, how will I know if my work is good enough? What is the criteria for a pass? What is not too cloudy? Finally coax out the explanation, it has to be at least as good as the passenger side, which did pass. Ok. Guess I won't touch the passenger headlight at all, since it is my reference.

Get the rejected car back. The driver headlight is pretty cloudy. Honestly, it looked dirty. Wash it with some windshield wiper fluid, it showed clear when wiped, but then clouded over. I've seen that before and know the fix. Started the search in the garage for a bottle of Meguiar's Mirror Glaze Professional. It is basically a water based polish. Takes me 3 minutes to find it. A couple of minutes to shake it up again, as the old bottle has settled. 2 minutes after that, and 2 paper towel sheets later, the headlight looks almost new. That old bottle of Meguiar's cost well under $10 when I bought it. Pretty sure any gentle car polish would work. No UV protectant, so I will need to do it again in a few months, or at least before the next inspection. One of these days I will find some UV protectant, that isn't ridiculously overpriced, which should reduce the time between polish jobs.

I don't know, but, failing for the sake of a 2 minute polish job is bad, and making the push for the cleaning and protecting of the headlight for $150 left a bad taste in my mouth. Especially since the amount of work to clear the headlight takes so little time and effort. Makes me feel like they wanted to take advantage of me.

I will bring in the car for a "re-test" tomorrow. Don't think I will be going back to this place for inspections (which are yearly in NH). The place used to be ok, but has gone downhill in the past couple of years...

Rant over.

Oh man, Now that you have the drivers side looking good the passenger side is going to fail........ LOL

 

[Jim F]

Dealers have a set labor rate at over $100 per hr.

Techs get much less than that, that is why the techs try to up-sell stuff, plus some dealers give spiffs for up-sells....

 

[WobblyHand]

Oh man, Now that you have the drivers side looking good the passenger side is going to fail........ LOL

I'll polish it up the other one tomorrow. Really only took a couple minutes. Maybe this time I'll use some shop towels. Thought I might have to use my orbital polisher, but the polishing went so fast by hand, it's not even worth looking for the orbital in the garage.

 

[WobblyHand]

Changed my mind. The passenger headlight passed inspection. I only failed because of the drivers side. Took out a shop towel and did another polish on the driver side. With a shop towel it took a whopping 90 seconds from start to finish. Makes me more miffed than ever. Going back tomorrow, with the polish, and shop towels, in case they are needed for the second headlight. After getting the pass, I am going to tell them they lost a customer. I strongly suspect they failed me solely to do an upsell. They have lost my trust.

 

[mickri]

A neighbor's son had a somewhat similar situation. He had bought a pickup out of state and it failed to pass the smog inspection to register it in California. The smog station said it couldn't quote him a price to fix until after they figured out what was wrong. Wanted around $500 to figure out what was wrong. Jonas is not mechanically inclined. He was into his horses. Some of which he kept at my old house. Told him to bring his truck down and I would look at it. Looked the truck over and immediately saw an unplugged electrical connection that was bright and shinny. Not a speck of dirt to be seen. I thought that hadn't been unplugged for very long. It was by the battery. A little further investigation and an online search revealed that there should have been a temperature sensor on the bottom of the battery. Pulled the battery. No temperature sensor. Somebody had removed it. The local Napa had one in stock. Cost a little over $50. With the sensor replaced the truck passed smog. Who would think that the temperature of the battery was somehow tied into the smog system. And who had removed it. Jonas didn't care because he got his truck fixed for $50.

 

[silence dogood]

That is the nice thing about the old stye incandescent light bulbs. UV does not affect glass.