It runs! Finally!
 

I finally finished the brake job from hell and took the TD out on the road. It started out smoking and with brakes that pulled a little to the right (rusty rotors). After driving it hard up a few hills and standing on the brakes (on clear country roads) it now brakes straight and no smoke at idle! Yahoo!!

Next I get to take it through MD inspection. Does anyone know a reasonable inspector around Frederick MD? The last guy I took a car to be inspected failed it due to a rust bubble (fixed with 10 minutes of sanding and some touch-up paint) and a chattering windsheild wiper blade.

Congrats!

Glad don't have inspections. :rolleyes:

Good grief! I'm glad I don't have those here. Only thing that seems to be good about CA and cars, diesels have almost complete freedom!
-nB

EEEEGADS! They flunked you because of a rust bubble and a chattering wiper blade!??
Up here they would flunk you for failed emissions or a cracked windshield, bald tires.....but a rust bubble?...not unless it was related to a major structural failure! Jeez if they did that here 80% of the cars that are 5 years or older would be on the way to the crusher.

Better luck this time around!
Cheers

As you are doing on site ask around locally. There are always reasonable people around thank goodness. You still want something for your inspection dollar. Suspension, all steering components and a peek for structuraly dangerous rust. Guys in your area will tell you where to go. It is only practical and reasonable to overlook a few cosmetic things on older cars especially. As long as the vehicle is fundementally safe to use. That was the original intent of inspections. Not nitpicking things to death. We have a few clowns here as well.

That's pretty serious, that inspection. I don't think we've had to do any inspection at all for my 300D, emissions or safety or otherwise.

Man ...... ME TOO!!!

I have slowly come full circle on the need for yearly inspections. Where they exist the common problems like ball joints or tie rods falling apart cease to exist. If you do not have official inspections It is really wise to do your own religiously at one year periods. There is nothing worse than loosing your steering at speed for example in my opinion. Far worse than loosing brakes for example. Where inspections are compulsory it is up to the buyer to make sure he does not pick a shop that wants to make his car that days profit centre.:eek: Guys and gals, these cars are 20+ years old and many of them have been really over the road. They demand a good periodical look around. The alternative can be pretty bad. Just common sense if you think it through. With certain problems you cannot realistically drive till they let go. The person you kill may be yourself. Also most of the important parts are cheap if required. Now this must pertain only to real safety issues. Unfortunatly there are now getting to be too many things that go beyond essential safety lumped into so called official safety checks. The exposure to unethical people doing so called proffessional safety checks is also one other miserable factor you have to avoid if you live in one of those areas were they are required.

"In Europe you can't get your car licensed without a REAL inspection," he crabbed. "A lot of those cars running around today would be literally thrown off the road in some countries."

REALLY. That's what we need around here all right, a series of rigid inspections, SAFETY inspections, EMISSIONS inspections, AESTHETIC inspections,.....and you'd lose points if you drove anything built in a country we beat in World War II. That's the way they do it in Europe, in France, for instance, a place where they [B][I]REALLY] know how to build cars.

Really gets you in the old American spirit. Makes you want to run right out and buy a new Ford Focus, just for the sheer joy of driving. scrfeech the tires a couple of times in honor of good old American ingenuity.

Only problem with that, when you drove the thing home for the first time the kids wouldn't know whether you'd bought a new car or rented one from Hertz.:laugh2:

I was surprised about the rust bubble. The inspector claimed he had to fail anything that would catch a thread on a gloved hand. I suspect it was because he was trying to sell me body work (which was conveniently offered there).

After going through a rigorous inspection like that, the car never has to have another one, unless it is sold again. Maryland leaves it up to the police to make sure cars have properly working lights, which means it doesn't happen - unless someone gets pulled over for another infraction, or some critical failure causes a collision.

Virginia has a yearly safety inspection that is a lot less rigorous. I see a lot fewer cars in VA with dead lights than I see in Maryland.

I've got one of those too. :wacko:

My inspector basically told me it was a rolling death trap as he applied the annual sticker. :D