As all cars, including ours, need valid technical inspection papers, so we could drive on road legally, it’s not bad to use the opportunity to check the car, for free! So this year for second time our Road Traffic Safety Directorate (RTSD) created event “Tehniskās apskates nakts (Technical Inspection Night – TIN), which went on from 8PM on 29th to around 2AM on 30th of August. Drivers could test their car technical condition for free or if the condition was good get the TI paper.
As for my car – my TI paper ends in 2 weeks, so I thought – why not to try this and see is there any problems to fix for TI. As I moved closer to the TI house I saw a line of cars already standing, although it was 8:15 PM. So I drove to the end of the line (it was around 1,5 km long). The line moved slowly, but there were many more jointly drivers as others, so they drove till the start of the line and tried to push in front of others. After some cars made in the line a traffic police arrived and started to “ask” these rude drivers to go back to end of the line.
In the first hour ~200 cars made through the TI, so I thought that it will go very fast and after some 1-2 hours I’ll be done also, but it was a bit more complex. Because there were “Green trial” bikers and cyclists who made tricks and stuff during the whole evening, so not all car pits were working, so the line was moving more slowly during these shows. These shows were ok and a small accident happened. One biker when jumping over his sleeping colleague bounced a bit on his side, so after getting up, master of ceremony asked this guy if he was fine, and he answer – bigger problems occur during training time.
So after around 2,5 hour waiting in the line I got my ticket (475):
There was a big tabloid with ticket numbers in the pits. At the moment it was 235, so I had some spare time and I started to watch tricks again and.. there was also a contest for tire change. As I haven’t changed tires on the road for a while (I hope I won’t need to), I wanted to try and see how fast can I complete this task. My time was… not good, but not too bad also 2 min 20 s. To explain why so long in short:
- You have to be in the car, seat belt on, hands on wheel;
- Coach gives the signal to start and you have to get out of the car;
- Put on reflective vest;
- Put the jack under the car (it was 2 t jack on wheels);
- Take of the tire (as it was VW Golf, it had screws not nuts. I don’t like screws);
- Change the tire – there was another tire 2 meters away;
- Pull of the jack;
- Take of the vest;
- Get in the car and put on seat belt;
- The time is stopped when you put your hands back on wheel.
Nothing to hard, but time consuming. The best time was 1 min 40 s – the time set one guy who works at tire service. Makes some sense right?
But that is not all. During the contest there was an electricity cut and 4 projectors went out and the big tabloid started to show strange signs. As nobody knew what line number should go to pit, so our famous TV car show star Timrots took over and called which numbers should go to pits.
And the finally, after 4 hour waiting I got into the pit. And now – let the party begins.
Lights, emission – good. If we don’t count that I have a bit damaged reflector for one fog light. As I am looking for some other fog lights I don’t count it as a big problem.
Brakes – as I changed the discs and calipers only few weeks ago I didn’t know if they had the right worn out. Front brakes – perfect. Rear brakes – good. E-brake.. well.. too weak for this car weight.. shiissh. To weak? I use my e-brake all the time and have no problems. But ok, it’s only adjustment.
After that – car lifter. Front – no problem, all ball-joints, shocks e.t.c. good. Then – the first big problem – transmission output shaft seal is bad and needs a replacement.
Then moving more to the back – rear lower arm bushings are gone on one side. I had a little clue, that there might be something wrong with these. And there is another story with these lower arms and bushings. These bushings are different for small engines and for big engines and that would be only normal, but we had a big surprise when I called our part supplier and later googled – there is a difference between cars that have manual or automatic transmission. I don’t know why, but there is and for manual trannys they produce these bushings together with control arms, but for automatic trannys you can buy bushings apart from control arm and then just change them in with a press. Ahh well.. Learn by doing.
And then one last problem. After checking the car the TI guy asked – why do I have different wheels in the rear. I said that one of the tires were flat, so I changed them. As it comes out – you are not allowed to have different size rims i.e. they must be equal in diameter.
So in conclusion, for the next TI I need to:
1.Need to adjust e-brake;
2. Change rims;
3. Transmission shaft seal;
4. Rear lower control arm busshing.
Nothing too serious, but enough time consuming.
Parallel to fixing the car (looking for parts) I am slowly making my K.I.T.T front scanner lights. And I will receive my clutch repair kit tomorrow, so I will change my clutch also.
Have a nice morning, day or evening and see you later.
