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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 > > > > > ______________________________________________________ > Click here to donate to the Hurricane Katrina relief effort. > http://store.yahoo.com/redcross-donate3/ > > ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ > List info at http://www.vwtype3.org/list | mailto:gregm@vwtype3.org > ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ >