Vehicle inspections getting inspected (Texas FReepers, your car may NOT have failed inspection!)

Fort Worth Star Telegram ^ | 05/25/2004 | Bud Kennedy

[jtminton]

Remember when your old junker failed the new state car inspection?

How much did the repairs cost? Maybe $500? Maybe $1,000?

Maybe your car didn't really fail.

Maybe the computer failed.

Two years into a vehicle emissions testing program intended to clean up city air -- and expensive repairs that left a lot of us cleaned out -- the Texas government has announced that some of the tests were wrong.

About half the vehicles from model year 1995 and earlier that flunked were tested on computers with flawed software, state environmental officials announced Friday.

If your '89 Cutlass or '92 Corolla bombed the test, you probably had trouble scraping together enough money for repairs. Or for a new car.

Turns out you might have been able to keep that junker after all. And your money. The car may be long gone to scrap already.

But Texas is trying to get your money back.

About 50,000 cars mistakenly flunked inspection in the North Texas and Houston areas combined, environmental officials said Friday.

"We expect the testing company to contact the owners and make it right," said Andy Saenz, a spokesman for the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality.

The integrity of auto emissions testing is at stake, he said. The inspection program "is a big deal, and we want to do it right," he said.

"If people don't have any confidence in it, that could be a problem," Saenz said.

The cars that flunked mistakenly -- maybe 10,000 in Tarrant County alone, just based on the 50,000 number statewide -- were tested at inspection stations using computers from a Connecticut company, Environmental Systems Products.

The computers showed double the actual reading of hydrocarbon emissions -- unburned fuel -- in the exhaust, a company spokeswoman said.

Newer vehicles are tested differently, so only the pre-1996 cars were flunked by mistake. And most of those older cars flunked because they were also spewing high levels of other pollutants.

But the people driving older cars are also some of the Texans who can least afford expensive repairs. They're students, working-class adults, older adults -- and cheapskates like me who simply didn't want to buy a new car.

Two inspections and $600 later, my 1995 sedan finally passed the emissions test last winter. It has 249,000 miles on it, so I imagine that it had more problems than some little software glitch.

That car wasn't worth spending $600 to fix. But I spent the money because I wanted to keep it. It's a rolling souvenir of the 1995 hailstorm.

I bet a lot of folks in the last two years wanted to keep older cars but sold or traded them for a few dollars because they could no longer pass inspection.

Those are the people Saenz meant when he said the state wants the computer vendor to "make it right."

Calling from Austin, company spokeswoman Jessica Chartier said most of the mistaken repairs were probably "simple and fairly inexpensive" -- a tuneup and carburetor adjustment, for example. Saenz said the mistaken repairs might also have included a valve job.

The company is asking state officials for a list of car owners and will decide on reimbursement, she said.

Right now, Chartier said, the company is working to fix all the machines in time for the end-of-the-month inspection rush.

About half the inspection stations in the state use the company's machines. Of those, some were fixed with a software patch uploaded over the weekend, she said. The company has flown in 20 technicians to help fix the rest of the computers by June 1.

Until then, if you have an older car that flunks inspection solely because of hydrocarbon emissions, ask the mechanic whether the computer is from Environmental Systems Products.

If it is, don't OK your repairs until the company finishes its repairs.

At Westerly Tire and Automotive in west Fort Worth, former Benbrook Mayor Jerry Dunn was surprised and a bit frustrated. His shop has an ESP system, but he had yet to hear a word about replacing software or postponing repairs on older cars.

"They ought to tell us something," he said. "I need to know what to do about all these inspections."

A 1994 Lincoln Town Car flunked an emissions inspection that morning, he said. He mentioned a mysterious part that triggered painful memories from my $600 repair at another shop -- the "EGR valve."

He decided to call the state agency and the company for an explanation. He called back later.

"The left hand doesn't know what the right hand is doing down there," he said. "The state hasn't told us a thing." A company sales agent told him to go ahead with inspections, Dunn said. He's waiting to hear from state officials.

So let me get this right.

About 50,000 Texans already paid for car repairs they didn't need.

Now, the state agency involved and the private vendor responsible can't even get the word out to inspection stations and garages.

Sounds as if our old cars weren't the only things blowing smoke.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Bud Kennedy's column appears Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays. (817) 390-7538 bud@budkennedy.com

[jtminton]

I hope this helps people get back some of that money that they throw away to the state over these new emissions inspections we have to get here in north Texas and Houston!

[SaveTheChief]

Great. I need to get my 1993 inspected this week.

[No Blue States]

I hope it was an honest mistake and not a scam.

[Ff--150]

"I hope it was an honest mistake and not a scam."

Follow the money--and that will lead to a former president and her husband's friend, uh Vernon Jordan may be his name...

[unsycophant]

ESP is not just in Texas--they're in other states too. Now you have to wonder which others are going to turn up with the same problem.

[jtminton]

Can you ping your Texas list with this?

[jtminton]

Even if it is an honest mistake, it is still a scam. Only Houston and DFW have to get the emissions part of the inspection done. I live in Johnson county, which is rural and south of Fort Worth, and we still have to get it done. But have you ever tried to breathe in El Paso?

[No Blue States]

Austin, San antonio and quite a few other big Texas cities escaped this nanny state Bs too.

You might be my neighbor, Im in Burleson.

I miss those $12 inspections.

[jtminton]

Cleburne

[Izzy Dunne]

I lived in San Antonio for a time.

I drove into an inspection station (which was also a "Jiffly Lube" or some such place), asked for an inspection, and was told it would be a few minutes wait.

I waited in the car, and he came out after a few minutes, and asked me to turn on my left blinker - he was looking at the back lights.

I did so, and he said OK, turn on the right blinker.

I did so, and he went up front, and asked me to turn on my left blinker.

I did so, and he said OK, turn on the right blinker.

I did so, and he informed me that neither one of my front blinkers worked.

I told him that I was shocked, since I could plainly see the reflection of the front blinkers in the store window!

I got out and went up front and pointed out where the turn signal lights were!

He immediately went inside, and came back out with a sticker, and asked for his $10.00

Didn't check anything else.

[Truth29]

An alternate response might have been to tell him that he owed you the $10 and maybe a lot more if he wanted to retain his license to conduct inspections.

[Ff--150]

Grand Prairie.

Your comment wondering if this was a scam was a huge understatement. The Clinton cronies were major investors in every aspect of these inspections.

The documentation is old, but it's out there.

[MeekOneGOP]

Happy to ! One Texas ping coming up ! Thanks. :^)

[MeekOneGOP]

Vehicle inspections getting inspected
(Texas FReepers, your car may NOT have failed inspection!)

Excerpt:

Two years into a vehicle emissions testing program intended to clean up city air -- and expensive repairs that left a lot of us cleaned out -- the Texas government has announced that some of the tests were wrong.

About half the vehicles from model year 1995 and earlier that flunked were tested on computers with flawed software, state environmental officials announced Friday.

If your '89 Cutlass or '92 Corolla bombed the test, you probably had trouble scraping together enough money for repairs. Or for a new car.

Turns out you might have been able to keep that junker after all. And your money. The car may be long gone to scrap already.

But Texas is trying to get your money back.

About 50,000 cars mistakenly flunked inspection in the North Texas and Houston areas combined, environmental officials said Friday.

"We expect the testing company to contact the owners and make it right," said Andy Saenz, a spokesman for the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality.

The integrity of auto emissions testing is at stake, he said. The inspection program "is a big deal, and we want to do it right," he said.

"If people don't have any confidence in it, that could be a problem," Saenz said.

The cars that flunked mistakenly -- maybe 10,000 in Tarrant County alone, just based on the 50,000 number statewide -- were tested at inspection stations using computers from a Connecticut company, Environmental Systems Products.

Please let me know if you want ON or OFF my Texas ping list!. . .don't be shy.
No, you don't HAVE to be a Texan to get on this list!

[No Blue States]

Howdy neighbors,

Better windy than 100 degrees huh?

It figures that the clintons were in on this..I entered politics after clinton suprised me(and made me furious) with winning a 2nd term.

[Ff--150]

it's nice out--daughter got rained on Geo. Bush tollway this morning.

On Sat. mornings on k??? [will come to me after I post] 570 AM Ed Wallace has covered this major scam with the reformulated gas and inspections for maybe eight years now.

Maybe people will start hollerin' to end this travesty, for it's pure fraud.

[MeekOneGOP]

Thanks for posting this.

About 2 weeks ago I went to get my car inspected. For the first time EVER, my car failed. For an O2 sensor. It cost me about $80 for the replacement part and $90 to get it installed.

The mechanic said that he cleared the Computer Codes out and for me to drive it about 50 miles before getting it inspeceted again. Something about the computer having to readjust it's settings and it's set up that way to keep car dealers from working around the codes to get bad cars to pass inspections (and thus sticking it to consumers).

So I do exactly as he said, except I put about 28 miles on it and take it the next day to the inspector again. The 'check engine' light did NOT come back on by the time I got there. BUT, when the guy checked it, it was failing again (the 'check engine' light came on right after I got there), for a different code. (When I bought the replacement part at Autozone, they checked and said there was another 'pending' code, like another sensor was going out, so I wasn't surprised about that). The inspector said that they couldn't do the test again because it would just fail. But he did tell me that he could reset the codes again and if I'd drive it about 30 miles again and IF the 'check engine' light wasn't on that it should be ok. So I did. Drove it 32 miles, the 'check engine' light stayed off and it PASSED this time.

Ten miles later, the 'check engine' light came on again, though. Whew ! That was close ! LOL !

[No Blue States]

Ill check out 570 am, havent been there yet. shame to get most news from NPR (filtered through FR filter) because there just doesnt seem to be much news on in the morning.

Both my cars are more recent than this problem covers, but I will sure keep an eye out for is this fall at inspection time.

[Ff--150]

Don't mean to butt in, but before the next inspection buy some RxP gas additive ($7) and add for two fill-ups before it's due; a bottle for one fill-up, then another bottle after the next fill-up.

Stuff works...

[Jack of all Trades]

..The computers showed double the actual reading of hydrocarbon emissions -- unburned fuel -- in the exhaust, a company spokeswoman said...

One would have hoped that a 100% measurement error would be picked up before the systems got out in the field.

..He mentioned a mysterious part that triggered painful memories from my $600 repair at another shop -- the "EGR valve."

Wow, 600 bucks to swap and EGR valve. They're usually a simple bolt on affair. They're also not usually a cause for high HC.

I wonder if ESP has any connection to Agbar, the company that's currently screwing up the emissions testing program here in CT.