My Car Failed It's "Emission Test"

[billt]

What if the twenty year old family bomber blows a tire, has burnt our lights, drops a piece of exhaust on the road, can't keep its windshield clear because of bad wipers, fails to stop safely due to bad breaks or stalls in the middle of traffic and causes an accident?  When enough of us fail to maintain our vehicles safely we forfeit the right to operate any old piece on the road.

If you look at the number of accidents nationwide, and the number of fatalities and injuries from them, less than 5% are because of any type of equipment failure. Bad driving accounts for the other 95%. Based on that you could put every motorist in this country into a brand new vehicle and crush the rest, and at best you'll see only a 5% drop in accidents. Exhaust emissions have little to any effect on accident rates. Besides, any type of commercial vehicle used for transport always has stricter regulations to be followed. Cars, aircraft, or boat. A $500,000.00 Ferarri won't make a bad driver good.  Bill T.

http://www.smartmotorist.com/traffic-and-safety-guideline/what-causes-car-accidents.html

[Timothy]

I'm not disagreeing with M58, unfortunately, there ARE 20 year old bombers on the streets of New England with VALID inspection stickers on them.

The system here is corrupt just like the legislature, the Governor and the MA Supreme Judicial Court.  

I'm an ex-mechanic, my cars aren't allowed to get to an unsafe condition, I won't let my wife or daughter take the wheel without doing what's necessary.

Most of the jalopies are driven by non-English speaking immigrants, legal or not they don't seem to live to the same standards as the rest of us.

[JC5123]

Everyone here is making valid points. I DO like the idea of safety inspections. (wipers, lights, brakes, tires) I DO NOT agree with "emmisions" testing. This is another government bend over to the global warming crowd.   

[Pathfinder]

WTF?

States are still doing "vehicle emissions testing" these days?

We don't here in ND - thankfully, and renewal tags are still pricey but not as bad as some states. My F350 is $160, would be over $4-500 in Wyoming.

"vehicle emissions testing"  - what a cash cow joke!

[m25operator]

Emissions testing is not a joke, it is political, as the EPA, finds the worst counties as far as pollutants, and then bends the state over and those counties get the strictest rules, now we are talking about tailpipe emissions, not safety, but that is what all vehicles go through here in Tx, in counties that only have safety inspections, it is 12.50, for the safety and emissions it is 39.75, in the past they were just looking for gross polluters, the cars you see running around with white or black smoke pouring out their tailpipes, now in the big city, it is much more serious. I don't inspect cars, I just repair them. BillT you originally said you failed for fuel vapor or fuel leakage, the steps taken to correct your situation, indicate you had High NOX,  and probably high CO, Nox will not cause the vehicle any problems, High co, may or may not, too much fuel will often make the car run better, more fuel = more performance in a lot of cases, although fuel mileage should go down.

Also, the figures are skewed, smaller engines are allowed to pollute more, as their small displacement, means even though they are dirtier than other cars, they actually produce less noxious output, volume wise.

[Sponsor]

[tombogan03884]

And all the good done by all the emissions testing, and every single other "Clean air" action taken since 1971
was negated by the Iceland volcano's first eruption.

[MikeBjerum]

My thoughts on testing and inspection come from my years in automotive repair.  Years of sending cars out the door with bad tires, burnt out lights, bad wiper blades, bad shocks, bad brakes, oil leaks from everywhere, and engines that didn't run smoothly (the one that would be taken care of through emission testing).  And the same years driving tow truck changing tires on cold rainy or ice covered roads, picking up cars that stalled ... after they told us not to tune it up, cars that slid off the road in a heavy rain ... more bad tires, etc.  And I don't think I need to go into what we all face dodging old parts that have been deposited on the road in front of us.  I miss my farming days when I didn't care if I hit something with the grain and livestock trucks.  These days in a Chev. Malibu and a Goldwing, I really hate the smallest item in the driving lane!

The sad thing is that the times when inspections stations broke the rules and let people off, and the times when government would suspend inspection rules are times like this - poor economy.  These are the same times that people suspend their own maintenance, and these are the times when you see more and more vehicles "broke down" on the side of the road.

I wish we could leave the politics out of it and just do the right thing, but that isn't the American way anymore    Tom and Tom, how much rope do you need to fix that starting in January 2013?

[crusader rabbit]

Back in the day when I was wearing a uniform I had to have my vehicle inspected to get a Base Access Sticker for Long Beach Naval Station.  The inspection consisted of confirming headlights, horn, and turn signals.  I guess they thought you needed to see who you were about to hit and warn 'em to get out of the way.

(by the way, I had to go through the inspection twice to get a sticker on my 1960 TR3 that I named The British Revenge)

[billt]

And all the good done by all the emissions testing, and every single other "Clean air" action taken since 1971
was negated by the Iceland volcano's first eruption.

And all of the Freon Fluorocarbon aerosol propellants ever used by man even if they continued, were negated by a single Shuttle Launch.  Bill T.

http://www.chemtrails911.com/docs/Space%20Shuttle%20Launch-Ozone%20Layer.htm

[billt]

And I don't think I need to go into what we all face dodging old parts that have been deposited on the road in front of us.

Again, most all of the debris deposited on roadways is from careless, littering drivers and truckers, not from automotive parts falling off vehicles.    Bill T.

http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/news/articles/0803cleanup0802.html?&wired

"Crews are handling everything from thrown syringes to household items to human waste that truckers toss out in plastic bottles, otherwise known as "trucker bombs."