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smokeythemechanic t1_j1wm92s wrote

This stems from major local lawsuits regarding cars that have been inspected where someone died and people that inspected the cars in question get railroaded with giant fines and jail time. Mechanics do not want to fail your piece of shit that's already trying to kill you with carbon monoxide from a manifold leak. To be totally honest if I followed the law to the letter, no car over two years old would actually pass, and some new cars also would not pass. That being said a leaking exhaust manifold is super dangerous and you could all of a sudden lose consciousness in a moving vehicle as CO builds up in your bloodstream over time, so maybe 3-4 longer drives around an hour in a month could be all that takes to end your life. You might have gotten lucky up to now driving jalopies but when you let people drive cars that are unsafe for everyone no matter where you are, you can potentially be the one in a car that kills a bus full of kids.

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MapleMechanic t1_j1wwrmd wrote

Thanks for an accurate response. Fixing an exhaust leak that far forward should be a no-brainer. Even without the risk of CO poisoning, no quality mechanic is going to pass something that noticeable, just begging for the DMV to pay you a visit.

OP, it's a very imbalanced system, as most of the inspection manual is open to interpretation. Not all shops log failures with the tablet, you could ask another shop to look it over and ask them if it was registered a failure in the system. I don't believe there's any problem with Bondo on fenders if they're not structural. That is more for rocker panels on a unibody car, which ARE structural and spray foam/Bondo won't do well in a crash. Exhaust, just gotta fix that one.

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lantonas t1_j1xy6tp wrote

So make the state do the inspections.

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smokeythemechanic t1_j1yk7j8 wrote

I can't believe you didn't include a /s with that, it'd have been a fantastic sarcastic joke.

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Footie57 OP t1_j1wmlpa wrote

Holy crap dude. It's a tiny little pinhole in a flex pipe, not a direct route to my air vents. There is literally nothing wrong with the car mechanically. It's only a shitbox cosmetically.

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smokeythemechanic t1_j1wn2oz wrote

A 17 year old kid died in Hinesburg from a cracked flex pipe under a Honda civic like 6-7 years ago for one, and for two, if the rot you can see is bad enough to fail you, how are the structural components that hold major components like the front and rear sub frame and safety components like the bumper rebar, and frame rails?

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Footie57 OP t1_j1wnggi wrote

I guarantee his leak was way worse than mine. And I'm not an idiot when it comes to cars. I just had it up on a lift at a friends place checking it all over. It's all fine

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smokeythemechanic t1_j1wnobr wrote

I mean if you're good enough at being a mechanic, get a job at a shop and get an inspection license so you can just slap your own sticker on whatever you think is safe and have it be your liability.

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Footie57 OP t1_j1woovz wrote

You know, if I hadn't just found a job, I'd seriously consider it

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8Dyl8 t1_j1zd8cv wrote

No inspection tech will pass that in fear of being sued. If the state didn’t crack down so hard on us we’d certainly pass a lot more. But losing my inspection license or risk a manslaughter charge is not worth it.

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