My car inspection story.

[casperfun]

Well I was all gung ho going into my state inspection today. I was late because I wanted to change my brakes and rotors so that won’t be a reason.

I have been pretty lucky through the years and always get a sigh of relief when I passed. But with a 10 year old car it’s a crapshoot.

So of course I fail inspection because of the lower cross arm bar on both sides. I was kinda upset because it runs great to me and I don’t know if my ride is affected.

At first I said no and said give me the rejection sticker so I can get a second opinion elsewhere, as I spoke to myself in my head.

Then after thinking, it’s thanksgiving and I don’t have the time, I just let them fix it. Maybe the rubber piece was loose or deteriorated on them. I’ll justify in my head. Lolz.

At least I get a whole new part unlike them just fixing my boots a long time ago instead of a new axle.

Even though I probably could have done it myself, I’m getting a to old for this repair s*** for the last 10 years.
Heck, I even let them flush my brake fluids even though I just bought a brake bleed bottle and was planning to.

So yah, spent over $1,300 to replace the lower control arms, an alignment, brake flush. And this is after, rewards, coupons, and discounts.

But did refuse the fuel cleansing system or whatever.

So about 1/4 of the value of my rogue was spent on a little servicing.

Kinda would feel better if $1300 was used toward a new cvt instead of this, but hopefully I don’t need one for another cvt for another 90,000 miles. Hence, I hope this rogue with new cross arms will last until then!

And please don’t say I paid too much and make me feel like crap.

[AZhitman]

Not sure what state you live in, but please let them know I said they suck.

Unreal. I'll replace bushings when I goddamn well please.

[casperfun]

I’ll say this, I admit the Nissan dealership does not make the highest potential revenue with me visiting their service department since I have never utilized any scheduled maintenance with them for last 10 years.

I did most of it, they did a pair of brakes long ago, the belt, a leaky head gasket, and control arms today.

Heck that was my first alignment in 10 years with them. Lolz

Guess it evens out.

I probably could have done evertthing but the messy head gasket.

[datechboss101]

I used to live in one of those god-awful scammy states that require this so-called "state tax", more like state profiting

Who in the right mind wants the government have their nose in the rear end telling that vehicles needs to be up to standard? Like even the slightest minor issue, they fail the dang vehicle. Its nothing new. Its just pure greed and selfishness, like the government hasn't already been taking money from us hard-working middle-class citizens, in the form of income tax, property tax, sales tax, yearly automotive registration, etc.

Buddy, just move down to Florida and have the peace of mind of not paying that scam every freaking year. The mid-Atlantic states is nothing but scam.

[excel_novice]

I've never dealt with a state inspection that checks all that. I always thought the Smog Check every 2 years was an over-reach. I guess I'm lucky....who knew?

[08RogueAWD]

Damn, I just did both lower control arms on my GF's rogue a month ago. Front right had lots of play, kind of scary! Left side had the tiniest, almost undetectable, amount of play. Decided it would be better to knock them both out at once and did it. Outer tie rod boots were torn too, but didn't have any play yet, so I swapped those out for peace of mind considering it's about to be winter and loads of salt are going to be blasting them. It was due for an alignment anyways, and I figured we were saving money in the long run paying for one rather than two. The inner tie rods were in pretty good shape for 180k miles, though!
I'm lucky in that my state doesn't even require inspections. No smog, no safety checks, nothing! Which is nice for my cammed and modded Firebird and my winter beater that has a permanent EVAP code Although I do hate the Indiana winters. When I did control arms on my beater, I had to cut a hole in the floorboard to "liberate" the rear bolt's cage nut. Fun times, fun times...

[casperfun]

Boy do I feel like a big pile of dinosaur doo doo dung. It's great that you saved nearly $1000 bucks.

Hated how this spritely young female service advisor had to say," okay you dont want to do it today, so you want me to put the rejection sticker on?" Of course I said I'm not fixing it now and that's fine. Until I stood there and came to my NON -SENSING self and asked "ok, how long will this take!"

My immediate, instant satisfaction self wanted to pass inspection. In other words I needed my damn inspection sticker now.

So I just needed to justify this repair in my head. I could try a local mechanic, but they could find another thing wrong, mess it up, or put the wrong part, whatever.
Hey it's a nissan tech, using a nissan OEM part, which is guaranteed by the outrageous nissan price.
I could do it if I buy the parts but it's cold at the moment, even though it was like 65 that particular day folks. Very cold raining the next day tho.
I know!!!!.... because it's a decades old part, I hit a dozen curbs in my lifetime and the rubber part is deteriorated and loose. Even though seriously, it drove great, no drifting. Ok shut up me.

Anyways, I know absolutely zero anything about crossarms. Didn't know about it going bad, but understand parts under the rogue could go to s***.

Didnt even realize there is like nearly 2 pages a state inspector can look at to fail a car inspection by looking at just the suspension. Damnn moneyyyyy!

I mean dealerships have us by the ballsack if they are allowed to do the repairs they inspect.
Ok, I KNEW this going in, that's why I'm always nervous to pass.

Seriously, repairs should never be done by the inspecting company. Well I could have done that if my lazy a** walked away. But it should be law.

Saw a mechanic talk to a lady next to me and saw a crossbar pic on her nissan summary. Was it like a pre-thanksgiven sale or something?

I hate car inspections, but kinda still support because there are fools out there who dont know how to keep a car safe for the road. I hate to think a driver will still use brakes that dont work right. There had to be an in between where it's going bad. Not 100% work or fail.

For f*** sake, even though I was losing Christmas buying money, I was donating to this female service advisor for her holiday money. It was Thanksgiving, so I guess I spread a little monetary love to some nissan workers. Even though she was an ex-jeep employee of 5 years, her previous place of employment. Yippie-ka-yee folks!