Re: NEW PA EMISSION RULES

[four_rings@juno.com (Igor Kessel)]

On Tue, 18 Nov 1997 00:12:32 -0500 (EST) Porsray@aol.com writes:

>I am trying to write an article for our local car club dealing with 
>the new Pennsylvania emission testing laws.  I am looking for info such
as:
<...>

>         - Any min. amount required to pay to attempt to get repair
done,

Yes, it's $150/year.

I had just inspected my '88 Fox, it has passed the emissions with flying
colours.

@15mph it showed:
HC ppm:
Allowable limit --212, actual 26. (12.26% of the limit)

CO:
Allowable limit --1.20, actual 0.06. (5% of the limit)

NO ppm:
Allowable limit --1657, actual 1. (0.06% of the limit)

Not bad for a 10 y.o.VW! I would like to see any Detroit-made vehicle
being in such
good health in such an age.

My regular friendly garage had that new super expensive rolling board
emissions machine on backorder and I was running out of inspection, so
for the first time ever I decided to use some Joe Shmoe "we fix cars
good!" garage.

The funny thing was that the clown, who performed the inspection, had
failed the car, yet charged me $50 for the test. He sed that it needed a
cat.
 
I looked at the nos,  and noticed: 
-Emissions control equipment,  functional test -- passed
-Emissions control equipment, visual test --failed
Puzzled, at home I lifted the car up on the ramps. Sure enough, all
plumbing was intact, no holes or rust, the cat was a bit rusty but air
tight, and I had just replaced both mufflers two weeks ago.

Next morning I came back all pi$$ed off and suggested either to put the
car on the lift and  explain  what exactly the monkey-lad did not like
about my car or I'll have it inspected at an independent garage, after
which I'd stop payment on my credit card and take their a$$ to court.
(I get nervous when anyone sez that my cars are anything than
mechanically perfect, coz it's never a case. I take it as a personal
insult ;)

The kid lifted the car up, pointed at the cat and sed:
-- "it's a resonator, not the cat, the car is illegal".
After I was done laughing I politely enquired if he ever saw a
european-made car before. 
I also asked him if he ever saw a non-cat equipped car pass the emissions
@ 12% of the max limit  IN THE WORST TEST RESULT!
I let him have it coz I hate it when a pro, sporting an ASE label on the
sleeve of his blue shirt, arrogantly presumes that a customer wearing a
white-shirt-and-a-tie and driving anything other than a Camaro is a total
imbecile in the car mechanicals and could be had up his a$$ on the amount
equal to the new cat+labour+reinspection. It got rather ugly.

The manager interfered, called up the muffler distr and asked him about
the p/n that was against the picture of the cat listed for my car in his
muffler replacement guide.
--"oops, sorry, sir, it is indeed a cat, sir, our fault sir!"

The reason why I do all repairs on my cars myself is not so much saving
some dough, but because I'd rather get my fingers dirty and spend a
weekend in the cold garage wrenching, than die of a heart attack by the
age of 40, while dealing with our *friendly* car service.

BTW, a quattro is not subject to *the road-running test*. They don't have
machines with 2 pairs of rollers, so our cars are to be tested the old
fashioned way, at idle and fast idle.

Igor Kessel
'89 200TQ - 18psi (TAP)
'98 A4TQ - coming soon
Philadelphia, PA