zelatore
02-18-2012, 08:13 PM
Day started out pretty good. Got up, watched xtreme 4x4 (gotta daydream about building a Jeep), went out and talked to a neighbor for a bit, then came in feeling good and ready to start on some of the house projects.
Michele was sitting at her computer and while I waited on her I cruised over to Donzi.net and saw brwn234's post about the cost of registering his truck in PA. I write back saying that ain’t nothing – just be glad you aren’t here in CA where it’s nearly twice as much.
But that gets me thinking……and I go take a look at my tuck and realize my registration expired last month!
OK…look through all the old mail and there it is. I never sent it in. (I pay almost everything on-line, so mail tends to just get thrown in a pile and looked at once a month at best). So I print up a new proof of insurance and get ready to go to the DMV. Wait a minute – it says I need to smog the truck this time. First time it’s needed it (2005 model).
Oh great. Plus, the DMV is closed anyway on Saturday.
Michele suggests we maybe we just go ahead and join AAA since they offer DMV services. Nope; all their branches are closed on Saturday as well!
I look up a smog center and see that for an extra $25, they can do registrations. OK, that’ll work. So I drive 15 miles to the smog place (closest one to the house) and pull into the line. They have 2 rows of cars running through and I pick the shorter one. Only one vehicle in front of me.
Apparently, that’s the line run by the FNG or something though, as they run 6 cars though the other lane before my guy gets my truck through his lane. About 45 minutes wait for a 5 minute test.
While I’m sitting there counting all the cars that weren’t even there when I pulled up who have now already come and gone, I realize that about 3 years ago I put a cold air intake on the truck. I can’t remember if I put an EO number sticker on it, so I grab Michele’s ipad and look it up on Summit’s website. They have a nice link directly to the EO document. By the time I realize this and pull up the forms, they are just finishing up with my truck, so I take the form up to the counter and tell the guy ‘hey, I have a different air filter on the truck and I don’t remember if it has a sticker on it for the EO number, but here’s the document’. His response is too bad, but it has to have the sticker on it so we can look up the EO docs. But wait – I’ve got the docs right here…no, we have to see the sticker.
Grrrr….!
So they fail me. I ask, ‘did it pass other than that?’ Remembering that I also have a Suprechips tuner on it set for tow/haul instead of the stock tune (the tuner was actually in the center console and if it didn’t pass I figured I’d change the tune right there in the parking lot). Yeah, passed no problem other than not having a sticker for the air filter.
So I drive back home (anoher 15 miles) and pull out all my old stuff which luckily I’d kept all these years. I even have the original Summit installation instructions and all the OEM parts except an air filter element. No sticker though, so I call Summit and after a little digging they find my original invoice from 3 years ago and say no problem they’ll mail me a new sticker.
In the mean time, I re-install the stock intake and drive up to Kragen (20 miles) to buy a stock filter. Grab one and head to the parking lot to install the filter and somehow manage to drop my nice full-polish Craftsman Pro 11mm wrench into the engine bay in the process. Can’t find it for the life of me. I spent a good 10 minutes looking for the stupid thing…Where could it have gone? I don’t know…didn’t fall through and there’s only so many places but it’s nowhere to be found.
To make things even better, that was one of the nice older US made wrenches. The current ones are crappy Chinese made wrenches, so I’ll have to shop around to find a NOS wrench to replace it.
(Craftsman has really gone down-hill in recent years. I almost won’t buy anything from them anymore, except I don’t know who’s affordable and available to replace them)
Back to the smog shop (5 miles) where they again run 2 cars through in the time it takes the to re-do my truck. Passes no problems so I finally get home just as it’s getting dark (15 miles)
All in all, today went from ‘I’m feeling productive and will get some things done on the house’ to ‘the whole day is wasted and I’m out $400+ dollars’
And, the fact that the truck passed the smog test just fine other than not having a sticker just burns my ass. If they really cared about the air as they claim, why then do they need a special sticker if indeed it runs clean? Oh, because then you can make people pay extra for the *&^$# sticker, that’s why!
So….how was your Saturday?
And, I suppose, a thanks to brwn234 for making me look at my plates....who knows how long I might have driven around with an expired plate if his thread didn't come up!
Michele was sitting at her computer and while I waited on her I cruised over to Donzi.net and saw brwn234's post about the cost of registering his truck in PA. I write back saying that ain’t nothing – just be glad you aren’t here in CA where it’s nearly twice as much.
But that gets me thinking……and I go take a look at my tuck and realize my registration expired last month!
OK…look through all the old mail and there it is. I never sent it in. (I pay almost everything on-line, so mail tends to just get thrown in a pile and looked at once a month at best). So I print up a new proof of insurance and get ready to go to the DMV. Wait a minute – it says I need to smog the truck this time. First time it’s needed it (2005 model).
Oh great. Plus, the DMV is closed anyway on Saturday.
Michele suggests we maybe we just go ahead and join AAA since they offer DMV services. Nope; all their branches are closed on Saturday as well!
I look up a smog center and see that for an extra $25, they can do registrations. OK, that’ll work. So I drive 15 miles to the smog place (closest one to the house) and pull into the line. They have 2 rows of cars running through and I pick the shorter one. Only one vehicle in front of me.
Apparently, that’s the line run by the FNG or something though, as they run 6 cars though the other lane before my guy gets my truck through his lane. About 45 minutes wait for a 5 minute test.
While I’m sitting there counting all the cars that weren’t even there when I pulled up who have now already come and gone, I realize that about 3 years ago I put a cold air intake on the truck. I can’t remember if I put an EO number sticker on it, so I grab Michele’s ipad and look it up on Summit’s website. They have a nice link directly to the EO document. By the time I realize this and pull up the forms, they are just finishing up with my truck, so I take the form up to the counter and tell the guy ‘hey, I have a different air filter on the truck and I don’t remember if it has a sticker on it for the EO number, but here’s the document’. His response is too bad, but it has to have the sticker on it so we can look up the EO docs. But wait – I’ve got the docs right here…no, we have to see the sticker.
Grrrr….!
So they fail me. I ask, ‘did it pass other than that?’ Remembering that I also have a Suprechips tuner on it set for tow/haul instead of the stock tune (the tuner was actually in the center console and if it didn’t pass I figured I’d change the tune right there in the parking lot). Yeah, passed no problem other than not having a sticker for the air filter.
So I drive back home (anoher 15 miles) and pull out all my old stuff which luckily I’d kept all these years. I even have the original Summit installation instructions and all the OEM parts except an air filter element. No sticker though, so I call Summit and after a little digging they find my original invoice from 3 years ago and say no problem they’ll mail me a new sticker.
In the mean time, I re-install the stock intake and drive up to Kragen (20 miles) to buy a stock filter. Grab one and head to the parking lot to install the filter and somehow manage to drop my nice full-polish Craftsman Pro 11mm wrench into the engine bay in the process. Can’t find it for the life of me. I spent a good 10 minutes looking for the stupid thing…Where could it have gone? I don’t know…didn’t fall through and there’s only so many places but it’s nowhere to be found.
To make things even better, that was one of the nice older US made wrenches. The current ones are crappy Chinese made wrenches, so I’ll have to shop around to find a NOS wrench to replace it.
(Craftsman has really gone down-hill in recent years. I almost won’t buy anything from them anymore, except I don’t know who’s affordable and available to replace them)
Back to the smog shop (5 miles) where they again run 2 cars through in the time it takes the to re-do my truck. Passes no problems so I finally get home just as it’s getting dark (15 miles)
All in all, today went from ‘I’m feeling productive and will get some things done on the house’ to ‘the whole day is wasted and I’m out $400+ dollars’
And, the fact that the truck passed the smog test just fine other than not having a sticker just burns my ass. If they really cared about the air as they claim, why then do they need a special sticker if indeed it runs clean? Oh, because then you can make people pay extra for the *&^$# sticker, that’s why!
So….how was your Saturday?
And, I suppose, a thanks to brwn234 for making me look at my plates....who knows how long I might have driven around with an expired plate if his thread didn't come up!