So, went to have my emissions test yesterday. My car failed. Not that they actually tested what was coming out of the tailpipe, mind you, they just hooked it to a computer and said that it was reporting that there was something wrong with the oxygen sensor. Bang. You fail.
So, I do a little calling around to see what is involved in getting that fixed. $300 to close to $700 are the estimates that I am getting. Weeee!
But there is a catch. It would seem that if I go to a certified emissions specialist and spend up to $150 (not that I have that to spare either) that I can apply for and probably get a waiver. This kind of throws me because I then start to wonder what the whole point of this exercise is. To be sure, I can understand that we should control smog. But what is the point of waivers? Are they getting kickbacks? Do they just like wasting some amounts of peoples money and time?
Anyway, if you are reading this still, it gets better! Yesterday was also the day that my condo association had set for everyone to have their fireplaces and chimneys inspected. Turns out that (even though the inspector stated differently when I bought the place and I don’t use the thing) the chimney needs to be swept. Yahoo! More money to spend that I don’t have! Could I be more delighted?
You know, 122 views and no responses it pretty darn amazing. Isn’t anyone going to chime in with some sympathetic words, or to tell me to shut up and quit sniveling?
Atleast you did not have santa up your chimney. He begins to smell after the first couple of days and it costs a LOT to have his remains removed. I needed a crane the last time.
They were reading the trouble codes stored in the computer.
You don’t say what make vehicle you have but…
Was your SES/CE light on (steady or flashing) or has it come on in the past and gone out? If so, one quick way around that is to either pull the fuse for the ECM or disconnect the battery for 10 seconds or so and reconnect it. That will clear the codes and set everything back at factory default.
I had a old '95 Chevy pickup that the SES light was on all the time. When it first came on I read the code and it was the O2S. I pulled the fuse, engine off, ( here in Md. they won’t test if the light is on) in the parking lot of the emissions station, put it back in and sailed through. It did come back on after I drove down the road a piece.
Hmmm. We own 4 cars in a state that doesn’t require emissions standards. Maybe be happy that your car equals out one of ours? Or you could complain to the state that even though you have to pass certain tests, out of state cars don’t and they can’t control where the exhaust goes.
Sorry, but you’re just in an area that can control all pollution. Good luck with it.
For what it’s worth, I recently took my truck in to the shop for an intermittent “check engine” light, only to have the mechanic tell me not to worry about it. A few weeks later, it resurfaced at the inspection station up on Aurora at 120th, where I was introduced to the wonderful “check engine equals automatic failure” policy. So I got to make a second trip to the mechanic and a second trip to the inspection place, spending a few hundred bucks and getting two parking tickets in the meantime for not having my registration up-to-date.
So please don’t quit sniveling, or I’ll have to quit too.
Well, I’ll sympathize with you, Binarydrone, mainly because:
A) Having now moved to a state (Maryland) which requires emissions inspections, I get the pleasure of crawling out of bed early tomorrow on my day off to go wait in line to have my car “inspected”, and
B) According to the literature which accompanied my orders to appear for inspection, Maryland also has a waiver system, under which you may continue to drive your allegedly toxic-filth-spewing beater on the public roads so long as you can prove that you’ve spent a minimum amount of money (I think it’s $450 here) trying to correct the problem.
Both of these things irritate me to no end, but I could more easily accept “A” if it were not for “B”. What is our true purpose here, to keep air-fouling vehicles off the roads and presumably improve the air quality, or to provide employment for the “inspectors” and profits for the auto repair industry? To my mind, if the standards are effective at cleaning the air (and I have no evidence that they are), then a vehicle that can’t pass the test shouldn’t be allowed on the road until it can pass. Of course, I might feel differently if my car doesn’t pass tomorrow.
Don’t get me wrong, I would clearly rather spend $150 than $600. My point is that this just makes no sense if the goal is to get polluting cars off the road. Moreover, it seems like this sort of this is actually exploiting people with lower income in the guise of helping them.
You have either the legislature or–if it was an initiative–the citizens of the State of Washington who originally passed the law or amendment that included this waiver provision to blame. (I don’t work in the Air Quality program and am not familiar with the process that went into making that rule. If you want to talk USTs or cleanup site rules and regs in Washington, that’s more my area.)
Ecology has to go through a public comment process, as do all state agencies, before a rule is implemented. Next time the rule comes up for revision, comment on this waiver. If you want to be informed of the next revision date, ask to be put on the mailing list. Or, if you can’t wait, contact your representative. It’s a public process; my program has updated our rules at least twice in the 9 years I’ve been with them in response to statute changes and public comments during the rule revision process.
But I know you’re just ranting…you should hear the way the AQ folks talk out this stuff!
Well, I have an update on this delightful situation. Took the car to the emissions specialist yesterday and explained that I wanted him to do $150 worth of work to try to correct the problem. So, he did about $90 worth of diagnostic labor and found that, indeed, my downstream Oxygen sensor is malfunctioning and it will cost about $300 to fix.
So, although I am trying to appeal this, it looks like no waiver for me because (you see) it didn’t take $150 to determine that the expense to fix this will be more than $150. :rolleyes:
Of course, if you find the O2 sensor on your car (not difficult: it’s a proble-looking thingy with some wires coming out of it, in the vicinity of the exhaust manifold), you should be able to go to your local parts shop, pick on up for between $50 and $100, and slap it in there with a wrench. Should take you less than five minutes. $300 is for the factory part and the technician’s time. Really, seriously, if you can change your own oil, replacing an O2 sensor is even easier.
I understand not wanting to have to spend money (make repairs/prioritize your funds/whatever) at the whim of someone else, especially some faceless organization–but now that you know that something is wrong with your rig, don’t you want to get it fixed? If this problem had been discovered during the course of rountine maintenance, would you have had the repair made?
So, is your rant about having to spend the money, or having to spend the money now?
Sorry about the waiver–what can I say, our legislators (and frequently our voters) don’t always think these things through. And the Air Quaility program took a huge hit during the I-695 debacle. We thought we were going to lose the emissions program and some other important clean air functions due to the way that initiative made our legislators roll over and radically change the price of license tabs. Please tell me you’re not an Eyman supporter! You seem to have way too much sense for that, though, like me, I’m sure you prefer the $30ish tabs to the very strange MVET. I just wish the fools would have replaced the MVET with something sensible instead of flat rates. But that’s another rant…
I don’t have an ax to grind, I just don’t have the opportunity to post much and hey, you’re (indirectly) dissing my beloved employer!
I think the waiver thing is a good idea. Much of the time people have multiple things wrong with their car that make them not pass, and if each time they repair of few of them it gets them closer to fixing it.
And since some people don’t have a grand to drop on repairing a car they need to get to work and feed their familys, they need that waiver.
