Firestone Service Centers

[Stephen]

Is power steering required to pass inspection?

[dsrtuckteezy]

Is power steering required to pass inspection?

no its not

[94mstng94]

Firestone Service Centers

You cannot have an active power steering leak, but fluid level is not an item you can fail the vehicle for unless it's so low the steering is not operating as it should.

Edited - it does state the fluid level has to be at the correct level... sounds like this leaves some room for interpretation.

Link to a great informative site

https://www.dps.texas.gov/RSD/VI/safetyCNGTraining.pdf

[LANTIRN]

You cannot have an active power steering leak, but fluid level is not an item you can fail the vehicle for unless it's so low the steering is not operating as it should.

Edited - it does state the fluid level has to be at the correct level... sounds like this leaves some room for interpretation.

Link to a great informative site

https://www.dps.texas.gov/RSD/VI/safetyCNGTraining.pdf

Good info, thanks. Love living in a small town in a rural county, most of that shit is ignored. Headlights, tailights, wipers, brakes, seatbelt, insurance, tires, pay money, leave.

[ram57ta]

Report them to the DPS.

x2. Texas DPS does take action.

[kingjason]

Yeah I hate those places. They also won't touch anything that is not 100 percent stock or so. Like aligning a slightly lowered car. Orrr aligning a lifted vehicle. Never been impressed with any of their answers.

[4king]

I use the Firestone in McKinney to do front end alignments, it's my son's friends family, they are legit. I can see how most of those places up sell though. The Brakes Plus places are straight up crooks, they tried to charge my next door neighbor $1700.00 for a complete brake job in his few year old Range Rover. I felt bad for him and did it for a little under 500.xx, new pads and rotors on all four.

The firestone I had issues with was the one in mckinney, 380 and custer.

The reason it was taking so long? The person in front of me in line was having pads and rotors installed on his 04 tahoe. They milked that job for four hours

[juiceweezl]

The firestone I had issues with was the one in mckinney, 380 and custer.

The reason it was taking so long? The person in front of me in line was having pads and rotors installed on his 04 tahoe. They milked that job for four hours

This is the one where my wife took her car for inspection. Not sure if it's technically Prosper or McKinney. Either way, it sucks.

[4king]

This is the one where my wife took her car for inspection. Not sure if it's technically Prosper or McKinney. Either way, it sucks.

Agreed. They are idiots.

If I go anywhere is the service shop off of Virginia before independence. it's called affordable automotive and they have 8 bays but usually only have 2 cars in the bay so it's a slow shop and the manager and head tech seem to be knowledgable. They are only open Monday through Friday though

[JC316]

https://www.dps.texas.gov/RSD/VI/safetyCNGTraining.pdf

That actually explains a bit, that "training" PDF is incomplete. I got into an argument with my local inspection shop about the emergency brake. It was a car with a self releasing parking brake and they refused to pass it. There is a note in the actual handbook about how to test a car with that, but that PDF above doesn't have it. Explains why so few of those shops know how to deal with that.

[blandnuts]

I had fun with the emergency brake on my 90 mustang (with cobra brakes). He said I couldn't pass because when he put it in gear and gave it gas it moved forward. Just for fun, I jumped in and actually pulled the lever up (he did 2 clicks) and it stalled when I let the clutch out...but, it still moved according to him.

There's a funny ass thread on the interwebs about a guy and a Nissan GTR being tested at 1,800 rpms and failing....

The information on how to perform this test is mainly meant for an automatic.

Anyways, these inspections make my vagina salty.

[Juiced4v]

That is why I go to mom and pop/Hispanic owned shops only...all the other places will rip you off and BS you to get things you don't need.

[Broncojohnny]

Jesus I will be glad when safety inspections go away, they are such a waste of time. I think something like 18 states don't even have them any more.

[juiceweezl]

Needless to say the car was in and out for reinspection of the fluid this morning in a matter of minutes. I don't even think I added half a bottle of power steering fluid. That place won't see any of my business in the future.

[Rreemo]

Back when my wife still had her Magnum, I rebuilt the front end at around 70K miles (yeah I know, Chrysler shit). I did pretty much everything, lower control arms with ball joints, upper bushings, struts, inner/outter tie rods, sway bar bushings, end links, etc. Had a brand new set of BFG's mounted up before I put the wheels back on, Got it as close as I could with a tape measure and then took it to Christian Brothers over in Roanoke for an alignment. When I dropped it off I even told the guy that I had just rebuilt the front end, put new struts, shocks, and tires on it, and only needed an alignment.

Later the same day I get a call from a different guy, telling me that they've looked my car over and that the front end is so shot that they can't do an alignment...shoots me an estimate over $1600. I told him that I live close by, so would just come up there. Drove up there (with all my parts receipts on hand), and when I got there I asked the same guy I talked to on the phone to show me exactly what he was talking about....waited for some uniformed monkey to pull the car back onto a lift, and then he walked me out there to show me...instead I pointed out everything brand new to him, then pulled out my receipts, which by that point he didn't even want to see. Asked him if they were going to do the alignment like I originally requested, or should I go ahead and give Saul Garza a ring right now?

The alignment was done while I waited, and at no charge.