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Re: [T3] PA safety inspection


Mechanics like that belong in Dante's 8th circle of hell.
Daryl - 72SB
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Eric Helton" <e_helton@yahoo.com>
To: "T3" <type3@vwtype3.org>
Sent: Friday, September 09, 2005 9:28 AM
Subject: Re: [T3] PA safety inspection


> 
> Thanks to all who responded for the support.  I will 
> also look into the Harrisburg VW club.  And j_jonik,
> I agree with a lot of what you said.  I know that
> in some ways, the goal is to spread money out to
> the small mechanic shops throughout the state.  This
> is a peculiar state in that some things seem to 
> recognize the working class strength of PA, while
> on the other hand so much is such a burden on the
> masses of people that are living hand to mouth...
> 
> As it turns out, between naiivity and shock at the
> list of failures, many of the items listed are more
> "reasonable" than I initially thought.  I read through
> the checklist put out by PA online last night and
> some things that don't appear to be "safety" oriented
> are actually on the checklist they have to go through
> (like muffler).
> 
> So, from memory, my list of failures reads like this:
> 
> 1) Front side parking light lens - section
>    broken off (alright, fine I can fix it)
> 2) Wipers don't work - They actually did on the
>    the way to the shop (it was a dewy morning).
>    I don't know what they did to it, maybe the
>    fuse blew in a fit of bad timing.
> 3) Horn plate on steering wheel - I wrote to the 
>    list about this problem a couple of days ago.
>    I haven't had time to find the plastic connection
>    parts yet.
> 4) Upper and lower ball joints - I don't know about
>    this.  I do have a weird front end rattle on
>    high speed turns, but I had the car checked by
>    a shop in Wisconsin this Spring when I moved to
>    PA and my fiance was driving the VW.  They said
>    ball joints looked fine and the only problem
>    they could guess at was play in the steering box.
> 5) Steering dampner bad - I'm not sure if the 
>    shop in WI looked at this.  I replaced it in
>    '99 or '00.  I don't know the life of these,
>    especially given the front end rattle mentioned
>    above...
> 6) Muffler - 2 small visible leaks.  Evidently any
>    visible leaks or "external repair" is grounds for
>    failing here.
> 7) Speedometer - fluctuates a lot at low speeds, but
>    is fine over about 30 with no fluctuations.  This
>    might be a marginal item if it were the only 
>    problem.
> 8) Odometer - known problem, however, not grounds
>    for failing if the car is >25 years old.
> 9) Drums oversized - I think he means they had been
>    turned too much.  I will have to pull them and
>    measure them to find out.
> 10) Rear brake cylinders siezed - This might be
>    true.  The WI shop mentioned this and said they
>    had some tool to fix it.  Evidently, it didn't
>    fix it for long. :)
> 11) Rear brake shoes heat cracking - I haven't
>    looked, but it's possible
> 12) Something about the rear part of the frame being
>    rusted and breaking loose.  I haven't a clue
>    what this means, so I will go back and talk to
>    them about it tonight after work.
> 
> So, basically, most of it does appear to be somewhat
> reasonable.  I think that some could be a matter
> of perspective and a mechanic more familiar with
> VW's might perceive things differently, but I'm not
> sure.
> 
> My fiance picked the car up because I had to stay
> late at work, so I didn't get to talk to them until
> this morning.  They guy who did most of the
> inspection wasn't there yet, but another guy who
> helped was.  My initial reason for bringing the car
> back was that they forced open the glove compartment
> (because it sticks sometimes) and broke the latch.
> They never told us this.  So, I jumped in the car
> and nearly got myself killed at the bottom of the
> hill because the rear brakes basically didn't work
> at all and the pedal when straight to the floor 
> with little affect on the brakes.  I understand 
> some of the affects of pulling the drum off and
> loosening the brakes to allow it to, but they
> didn't re-tighten it to make it reasonably safe to
> drive.
> 
> If they would have told me about the glove box,
> it would have been understandable, but I'm a little
> disappointed with their lack of integrity by just
> ignoring it.
> 
> I'm going to stop now.  This is way too long.  Thanks
> for sticking through this epic email if you made it
> this far!
> 
> Best regards,
> 
> Eric
> '72 sq
> 
> 
> 
> 
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