I needed to renew the registration for my pickup truck, and an emission test was required. I went to the Kirkland test station on Monday, paid the $15 fee, and failed in all four categories (CO levels and CO2 levels for cruising and idling).
I had to spend at least $150 for repairs to receive a waiver, so I took it to Woodinville Import Auto Repair, which also does work on domestic vehicles. My dad had a positive experience with them, and they were listed as having an “Ecology Specialist” by the information given to me from the testing station. The repair shop charged me $280 for two and a half hours of labor and a new oxygen sensor. The oxygen sensor was $70, which seemed a bit high, considering I found it for half that on-line.
I had the pickup retested on Wednesday (for free) and it failed again. It passed the idle tests, but not the cruise. They gave me a waiver, so at least I can register it. Unfortunately, they said I would need to fix it or spend at least another $150 trying when I next registered it and needed emissions testing, in two years. I feel like I've already spent nearly $300, so I should get that waiver for free. I'm all for saving the environment, but I think it's ironic that I've only driven my vehicle for a few hundred miles in the last two years, so the amount of damage it has done to the ecology probably wouldn't buy a bale of hay.
Cruise control is nice, but I wish it worked better. When I drive down the road, there is a speed limit, and I would like to prevent my car from exceeding it (perhaps by no more than some small amount, say 5 mph), to ensure I am not ticketed. I imagine a set of buttons for common speeds, such as 25, 35, 40, 45, 50, 55, 60, 65, and 70. When I select one of them, the vehicle cannot go beyond that speed no matter how forcefully I depress the accelerator pedal. A large button labeled infinity (or clear) would unencumber the maximum speed. To fully implement such a feature, the vehicle's electronics would need a way to activate the brakes so that it could be (gently) slowed down to the maximum when traveling downhill. (My Ford Ranger 1988 pickup doesn't do this, but perhaps other vehicles do.)
Three days ago, my dad observed that my rear differential was leaking oil, and he said I needed a new gasket. I read about fixing them online, and proceeded to Schucks auto parts store for more advice and parts. The employee with whom I talked had worked in a car shop previously, and he recommended a caulk instead of a gasket, so I bought the sealant, a couple quarts of gear fluid, and a bottle of degreaser for cleaning the driveway for around $25. I drove the back-end onto red ramps to elevate it, and laid on the wheeled sled for car repair. There were eleven bolts that had to be removed to take the differential cover off, and the fellow at Schucks suggested I start from the bottom to prevent the remaining oil from making a mess. One of the bolts had a metal tag on it, and I wondered what the numbers on it signified. The differential gear was shinny steel and blue oil and had a petroleum odor. The oil took 20 minutes to drain, during which time I cleaned the old rubber sealant off the differential cover. Everything went smoothly, although I had some difficulty locating the port for adding fresh gear oil. I found it on the front of the differential housing, plugged with a bolt having a square indentation. Fortunately the socket wrench had the mating gender shape and size (about 3/8ths of an inch per side). I added nearly two quarts of gear oil, and I hope that is enough. I still need to dispose of the used oil at a filling station. The degreaser and a spaying hose cleaned about 80% of the oil off spots on the driveway. I used the degreaser on my engine, and the engine became cleaner, though not something off which I would want to eat.
About 10 months ago, my friend Dave mentioned that the right tail light on my pickup truck was not lit, though the blinker worked. He mentioned the section in the California motor vehicle code that required its operation. He had been following me back to Stanford after we had dinner. Within a few days, I took apart my tail light enclosure in the Sears parking lot and found that there was only one bulb. Since the bulb worked for signaling, I jumped to the conclusion that the problem was due to the wiring system. A few weeks ago I mentioned the situation to my dad, and he said the bulb probably had two filaments. I bought a new bulb, and close examination proved him correct as usual. Finally, my tail light is working again.