Brick Trick

The Volvo 740 continues to suffer from a bad case of The Miracles. I had been putting off getting emissions inspection for a while. First, because the distributor seal had blown, causing it to spew oil and smoke, and second because the smell of the gases leaving the vehicle, even without an oil leak, is so horrid that I thought the emissions were off the charts.

Of course, it failed the first pass inspection: why? Exhaust leaks. I had left the exhaust clamps a bit loose when I installed the new mufflers so I could save them when the catalytic converter failed (it's mostly rust). I spent an hour replacing each rusty clamp with a new one. The heat seems to break down the antisieze compound, so the old ones were removed by snapping the rusted nuts off with a socket.

With the shiney new clamps installed, and a new exhaust hanger fabricated out of a random bolt and spring from the junk drawer, I took the car back. "Certainly, now, I will pay 28$ to discover my catalytic converter is foozy and the oxygen sensor isn't!" I thought.

But I was wrong. The mechanic called a few hours later to say the car passed. With better marks than last time.

It's not like I'm trying to make this stuff happen.