ebonyandivory said:
As a small government type, this stuff really pisses me off. And it’s more than a bit ironic that the other myriad things that are a NO-GO inspection-wise here are going to very much negatively affect the people that can least afford a perfectly stock (or realistically so) vehicle.
My stock 2005 Yukon Denali would fail inspection with the 1” hole in the sheet metal above the rear wheel. That’s ridiculous.
And it was a condition like this that led to the death of two kids. Mom put the kids in the car and then had to run in to get something. Came back less then 5 minutes later and thaught they were just asleep. Nope. . . . They were dead. Carbon monoxide is absolutly deadly to little kids. The car in question here had just recently been inspected and had outer body rust through that allowed carbon monoxide into the cabin while the car sat and idled that killed the kids. All just so the car could pass the inspection. There are reasons for the rules. They are not there just to be a problem. The things I have seen come in for inspection have scared me. The new inspection system will hopefully get those cars off the road. As a car owner you have a responsibility to the other people you share the road with to not endanger them due to your car not being in good working order and safe. We don't care if you want to kill your self due to your own stupidity but taking inocent people with you is not a right you have.
In short ebonyandivory fix the rust hole your life or the lies of others really can be effected by it. Modern cars are much tighter than cars of the 60's 70's and 80's and as such a rust hole in the floor or the body can be much more deadly than in the cars of yesteryear.
In reply to dean1484 :
The rust hole he's referring to probably doesn't go through to the interior, just from the outside of the wheel arch into the wheel well. In upstate NY, that's an incredibly common rust spot (and a lot of vehicles will have rust holes there before there's any penetration into the cabin).
As far as registration renewal with expired inspection, I'm surprised that MA doesn't already go for that one. NY does now IIRC and CT has for a long time (they stopped giving stickers for the emissions test, they just go by "no current test, no registration renewal")
I really should post up some of my inspection storys. Some quick ones.
Oh and then there are the cars that are so nasty that you feel like you need a shower when you get out of them.
Live rodents, spiders, ants, roches are but a few of the fun things people drive around with. Just nasty!!!
Jacking a car up to inspect the front end and have the ball joint separate and the a arm fall away was a fun one. The person was pissed like we broke there car. Ummm no your car is a POS. I could feel the stearing issue when I drove it in. We were annoyed as it made getting it out of the inspection bay a PITA and was costing us $$$$ as we could not do inspections with it in the bay.
Oh and then there are snakes. Freekin pet snakes should not be in your car. I hate snakes. They thought it was funny until I failed them due to not being able to inspect the car and I noted it in the system that the car had a snake in it. Now when the police run the plate it will come up. Idiots. I then told them that they are not allowed in the inspection bay (state law) and we are not going to drive the car with a snake in it so we were going to have to have it towed out of the bay. See who is laughing now. Why are people so stupid.
Failed a car for seatbelts due to the back being filled with trash up to the window sills. I could not inspect them so it is a fail. Really????? We are supposed to rummage through half eaten food things that are rotting and snot riddled papers. It was a dumpster on wheels and smelt worse. It was a salesmens cars. Failed.
It is just amaizing what people bring in.
A car that recently had been spraid by a skunk. Nope not going in it.
Dog got sick in the back and instead of getting it cleaned came to us to inspect it?
No headlights and wipers that were missing no wiper fluid. Sure we will give you a sticker just because you asked. NOT or rather they got one but it was with teh big red R on it.
People should really inspect there cars before bringing them to us. They seem to think it is our fault that there car is broken. You get jaded after doing stickers for a while.
In reply to dean1484 :
The hole isn’t in any way connected to the inside of the vehicle. Having fixed it, i saw it was not even close to an interior panel. Still, that’s a fail in Ma.
I completely disagree about there being no gray area as has been alluded to in this thread. Even a small rust hole in a lower front fender would be a fail as far as I can tell.
Sure, there’s meaningful regulations that need to be met but Not all of these new regulations are things that will start killing babies or firemen.
Like most everything Massachusetts does, it’s overdone and much of it is an overreaction. If our lawmakers really wanted to keep people safe or alive, they’d go after drunks and put them away, have stricter testing for the elderly and outlaw teenage girls.
Wow, for one people aren't complaining about smog laws in CA. :)
In reply to rslifkin :
Does not matter outerbody rust though can and does go directly in to the cabin on many vehicals. We are not paid enough to make a judjment call on each car and if a specific rust hole in a specific location is ok or not. It is also a safety issue as a sharp edge that say a toddler or young kid walking by the car could be hurt on. That is another reason why it is a fail. Creepers just break out the gorilla duct tape. I would not want to pass it with that but I think I would have to. If we had to make those kinds of decisions and get to that level of technicality on each inspection the inspection cost would be $100 per inspection. They you would really see people crying. I can see the day when they make passinger car inspections more like the 7D inspections. That would be a huge eyeopener to people.
I use to be the one complaining about the inspection rules but now that I am one inspecting and see the stupid stuff that people want us to pass. I now completely understand the need for the rules. People think about them self and don't consider the bigger picture when dealing with these things.
codrus said:
Wow, for one people aren't complaining about smog laws in CA. :)
If we had those I wold not do them. Those are nuts!!!
In reply to dean1484 :
The 1” rust hole on a fender that’s not even on the widest part of the body and isn’t an opening to the passenger compartment is a danger to the public but a tow hitch sticking out of the receiver at shin height isn’t?
I’m tall enough to poke my eye out on an antenna. See where I’m going with this? It’s not an opinion that having zero discretion is stupid.
And I’m not even mentioning the things that may actually be an improvement over the factory offerings but I’ve read from garage owners may likely now fail you.
ebonyandivory said:
In reply to dean1484 :
The 1” rust hole on a fender that’s not even on the widest part of the body and isn’t an opening to the passenger compartment is a danger to the public but a tow hitch sticking out of the receiver at shin height isn’t?
I’m tall enough to poke my eye out on an antenna. See where I’m going with this? It’s not an opinion that having zero discretion is stupid.
And I’m not even mentioning the things that may actually be an improvement over the factory offerings but I’ve read from garage owners may likely now fail you.
Call your Congress man. This is the same stuff I get from people wanting there car inspection. As inspectors we don’t make the rules we just in force them. The bottom line is you have a vehicle with outer body rust through. It is a fail. Get mad at your state rep or congressman.
These new rules are going to cost me. I have rockers that are a fail on my truck. And as an inspector I have to be extra critical of my own cars. Yes I can inspect my own cars. That is in and of its self something I see as a problem with the system.
Rockers should definitely be a fail on most (if not all) vehicles, as they're typically structural.
Of course, we can compare this to NY where rust holes in the frame, bottom 6 inches of a door rusted off, etc. still passes provided the suspension attachments haven't rusted off the frame / body yet.
In reply to dean1484 :
Like I said, I fixed mine. But I’m good at things like this and can do it myself. Get the single mom with an older car with a little rust hole on the front fender and she is going to now fail and pay a good chunk of money to have it fixed because of some group of douches think they know better than we working class folk.
I guess I’ll tell my elderly neighbor with his 90’s S10 pickup with some rot on his bedside that has to spend his fixed income on body repair and not on his wife’s medicine to “complain to his Congress man”.
ebonyandivory said:
In reply to dean1484 :
The 1” rust hole on a fender that’s not even on the widest part of the body and isn’t an opening to the passenger compartment is a danger to the public but a tow hitch sticking out of the receiver at shin height isn’t?
Actually, it is. In MA, if you don't have a trailer attached, you are required to pull the pin and remove the ball mount so it isn't a hazard.
mith612 said:
ebonyandivory said:
In reply to dean1484 :
The 1” rust hole on a fender that’s not even on the widest part of the body and isn’t an opening to the passenger compartment is a danger to the public but a tow hitch sticking out of the receiver at shin height isn’t?
Actually, it is. In MA, if you don't have a trailer attached, you are required to pull the pin and remove the ball mount so it isn't a hazard.
I guess my inspection station is getting fined then because I have a huge pintle hitch on mine and I don’t even own a trailer yet somehow still got a sticker. Zero discretion? Really?
dean1484 said:
I can not wait for them to try and back charge you for inspection fees for a registered vehicle that otherwise is legal but you did not get a sticker for. I wonder if not having a sticker will raise a red flag when it comes time to renew the registration. I can see another money grab opportunity here.
If that was directed at me I won't complain when it happens. I can take the lumps I deserve and more than a few I don't. I understand the state is ordained by God yet sometimes I wonder why people live in the NE of the country. 
Actually there is nothing in the regs for an inspection sticker that pertains to a trailer hitch and if the ball is I place that I know of. I was just re certified and I read the manual cover to cover about a month ago.
ebonyandivory said:
In reply to dean1484 :
Like I said, I fixed mine. But I’m good at things like this and can do it myself. Get the single mom with an older car with a little rust hole on the front fender and she is going to now fail and pay a good chunk of money to have it fixed because of some group of douches think they know better than we working class folk.
I guess I’ll tell my elderly neighbor with his 90’s S10 pickup with some rot on his bedside that has to spend his fixed income on body repair and not on his wife’s medicine to “complain to his Congress man”.
It just has to be covered, doesn't have to be a Class A OEM repair job. A minute with the grinder and fifty cents' worth of fiberglass will patch bodywork well enough.
chaparral said:
ebonyandivory said:
In reply to dean1484 :
Like I said, I fixed mine. But I’m good at things like this and can do it myself. Get the single mom with an older car with a little rust hole on the front fender and she is going to now fail and pay a good chunk of money to have it fixed because of some group of douches think they know better than we working class folk.
I guess I’ll tell my elderly neighbor with his 90’s S10 pickup with some rot on his bedside that has to spend his fixed income on body repair and not on his wife’s medicine to “complain to his Congress man”.
It just has to be covered, doesn't have to be a Class A OEM repair job. A minute with the grinder and fifty cents' worth of fiberglass will patch bodywork well enough.
Many, many years ago I had an uncle "repair" the rust hole in the trunk of his $50 car with chicken bones and roofing tar. 
I think we are going to see a lot of wheel spacer kits sold to the bro-dozers
did I read something correctly, you can fail for not having washer fluid in the tank?
In reply to mad_machine :
Makes perfect sense that you can fail for that. If the washers are required to work to pass, they can't test them without fluid. So they have to assume they're not working unless the shop is allowed to fill the tank before testing them.
Wheel spacers are not legal and are an automatic fail. Yes no washer fluid is also a fail.
About eighty percent of the things that are inspected are things people should check regularly and should especially check before an inspection. It amazes me that people don’t turn on there lights and just walk around the car.
At the end of the day the most Common fail is light bulbs followed close by worn steering components and bad tires.
People are lazy how hard is it to walk around your car and inspect the tires, bulbs , seatbelts your gas cap your wipers and the horn and the windshield washer and then test the e brake. It is the self important type that get mad when I fail there car due to there own laziness that I get the most joy in failing. I don’t like failing the single mom just getting by or the elderly on a fixed income but it is also my job to keep them safe. I couldn’t live with my self if I let something slide and someone got hurt.
Well thank God a 1” rust hole in the bed of a pickup truck will fail. We need to keep these menaces off the road. Small rust holes in external, non-structural body panels kill and injure hundreds of people each day.
The trick in maryland seemed to be "moving" too west virginia at a friends house. At one point 4 of my friends in hagerstown had west virginia plates too avoid inspection.
dean1484 said:
Wheel spacers are not legal and are an automatic fail.
That's utterly ridiculous to me. Guess my list of "states nobody could pay me enough to live in" is up to 2 (Mass and California).
rslifkin said:
dean1484 said:
Wheel spacers are not legal and are an automatic fail.
That's utterly ridiculous to me. Guess my list of "states nobody could pay me enough to live in" is up to 2 (Mass and California).
With the number of failed wheel spacers I've seen I'm not sure it's so ridiculous. A wheel spacer is not a trivial thing but people treat them as such.
rslifkin said:
In reply to mad_machine :
Makes perfect sense that you can fail for that. If the washers are required to work to pass, they can't test them without fluid. So they have to assume they're not working unless the shop is allowed to fill the tank before testing them.
Having grown up in NJ back when they had a fairly stringent inspection process (before it was privatized) I never had the washers in any of my cars checked. I did have a car fail for not having a cover on the gas pedal, but never for a washer. I also had a fiat fail because the inspector could not get behind the wheel to check the braking. I will leave it to your imagination how heavy she was, probably over the car's weight limit
