[s-cars] MA inspection suggestions?

[JC]

Actually FINALLY some better news & developments... and have the real Mass
lowdown for any other listers stuck with a similar jerkbag situation... 
 
Spent the day fuming and calling around and driving around... got an answer
from most shops that this jerk was being extremely conservative with
interpretation of the rules - not just letter-of-the-law but
beyond-letter-of-the-law. 
 
Basically yes the guy is allowed to fail me at his discretion based on the
fact that "he feels it's louder than OEM would be".  That is NOT how he
described  it and he rather angrily and aggressively told me repeatedly
"Since October XX of 2008, non-original exhaust is an AUTOMATIC FAIL!!!! NO
APPEAL, NO ARGUMENT".... 
 
The other shops told me he was just being a dickhead, and other names of
that sort.  
 
The actual rule however is 'it can't be louder than OEM', which Mr Ayyhole
interprets as 'it can't be anything BUT OEM'.  Aftermarket exhausts are
LEGAL (this guy was WRONG) but only if - in the judgement of the inspector -
they are about as quiet as the OEM would be... so lots of room for
interpretation.  Apparently reasonable shops interpret that as 'should be
reasonably in the range for a street car as long as it's not leaking or
malfunctioning or missing cats etc'.   
 
Also what he lied to me about was the fact that I COULD have appealed to a
state inspector overseer type dude etc. etc. which while it would be
satisfying to hassle him back, I just don't have time for, but you have that
recourse as well as recourse to just try other shops and see if they'll OK
it - which is what I did. 
 
The first shop that would re-inspect me right away did do a full inspection
but then failed me on WINDOW TINT (another PO addition) which Mr. Assbag has
PASSED me for... It was starting to become comically ridiculous, but I ran
home, fired up the heat gun, peeled the window tint off driver/passenger
front door windows, and then ran back...  NOW I have a sticker, WITH the
Stromung exhaust, and no front window aftermarket tint... (it was a bit
ghetto anyway but when I park in the marina parking lot on hot summer days
I'll probably miss it...)  
 
What a damn waste of a beautiful day though.  Had to cancel a round of golf
and a music jam session... that bastard really screwed my day... 
 
Oh yeah, in re: visual driveline inspection - Mass does require a quick jack
and inspect on front suspension although it's pretty cursory less stringent
than other states that give a tough look at all suspension and brake
components and cranking on the wheels to see if ball joints / tie rods are
dangerous (NH for instance looks at brake lines pretty closely IIRC).  
 
Finally with the kind sticky-icky.... JC
 
John J. Cunningham
 <mailto:jc at j2c3.com> jc at j2c3.com
US Mobile +1 (617) 750-5025
Main / Global +1 (978) 633-3510
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  _____  

From: LL - NY [mailto:larrycleung at gmail.com] 
Sent: Saturday, May 30, 2009 11:00 AM
To: JC
Subject: Re: [s-cars] MA inspection suggestions?


This is bad, since MA and NY are both on the same Cali rules.  I really HOPE
that this is some stupid mis-interpretation. Can you go to a different
inspection facility (perhaps Lee or Brett know of a "friendlier" facility)?
I didn't think that NY nor MA had "visual" inspections of
driveline/emissions equipment like they do in Cali. I do know that the OBD2
cars just get plugged in to the diag computer. Hell, I don't even know if
they check the brakes, other than driving the car into the bay. If they
don't hit the wall at the back of the bay, the brakes are good. I think they
check the Saabaru's wipers though...

Good luck!

LL


On Sat, May 30, 2009 at 10:00 AM, JC <jc at j2c3.com> wrote:


QW'rs will have to excuse the multiple cross-posting but I'm in a solid jam
now and all the input I can get is desperately needed... This goes out to
Mass listers who I hope will have suggestions/solutions... here's the story:

So I just trundled the wagon with the sweet stainless (and in perfect
condition) Stromung exhaust in for state inspection and the aaaayholes at
the local Mobil (huge mistake) flat failed me for "non factory exhaust is an
automatic fail since October of last year".

System is tight and has a cat and everything works perfectly - obviously it
would have been completely possible for him to look at it and say "looks
tight and fine to me" and I'm sure OEM-clone exhaust parts from aftermarket
are legal but he had to be a complete dickhead and give me the "That's
aftermarket right? Automatic fail. And it's a 'safety violation' so you are
not allowed to even drive the car until you get it fixed blah blah blah..."
And this is NOT an emissions issue (oddly enough I guess we don't have the
rollers anymore so they took that whole hassle away...) it's just exhaust
equipment/sound related...

Has anybody else been hit with "non-OEM" exhaust fail in MA and have a
solution? Any 'exhaust friendly' inspection stations out there?

My bet is that this rule like the expensive and stupid failed
roller-emissions test it will probably be rolled-back eventually but right
now it's a friggin' disaster...


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