Hey guys... 2000 Honda Civic guy again. Brief recap for any who didn't see the previous threads...

Hey guys... 2000 Honda Civic guy again. Brief recap for any who didn't see the previous threads, bought a $500 car off of craigslist, runs fine and is great on gas but was heavily ghettofied. Have been trying to get it registered.

I bought a plug in speedometer, mechanic just finished installing a horn, it should have been ready to be registered. I took it to a petboys to have it inspected...

It failed the inspection. No power steering. They told me to get it registered I'd have to replace the ENTIRE system for 1,630.

How fucked am I? I thought the steering was heavier and more sluggish than I was used to, but perfectly manageable. Os this really something that I absolutely can't drive regularly with?

Right now it has insurance and paper plates I think are expired. The ENTIRE reason I got this car was to drive it across the country. I know my drive takes me through one guaranteed border check, and I'm not the world's best driver so I could get pulled over anywhere along the way. How likely am I to get pulled over just for the plates? Is there any way I can continue with my trip without speding the 1,630 (I don't have) to fix it?

>failing inspection because lack of comfort item
Yeah might as well fail you for the interior some light not working. That's stupid.

Take it somewhere else retard. Find a shop that would take a bribe. Not worth driving illegally across the country, that’s dumb as shit.

You have money to stop working and spend to drive across the country. Stop being a tard and save your cash to fix your shit.

>Find a shop that would take a bribe.
This assumes 1. I could afford a bribe and 2. I have any idea how to find a place that could be bribed.

I don't have any work until the 20th. Even then I'll not even have enough to be able to pay what they're asking, and at whatever point I did that would mean no money to go on the trip itself.

So, yeah.

lol what shithole fails inspection for not having power steering?

Find a small shop, not a chain, when you see the guy inspecting your car, just say hey here’s $20 are we good? If he wants more just suck his dick, might have to let him finish inside you though.

Is the P/S system completely drained because of a leak or are the lines actually looped? If it's not leaking, just fill the rack and loop the lines, tell the inspector if they ask that your model didn't include P/S.
Civics in the 90's had manual steering and power optioned. Regardless that's not something you can fail for and I'm in Taxachusetts.

Open the hood and check if the previous owner removed the belt. Alot of retards do that because they think they'll get "sik hp gainz" from it.

Take it to somewhere like JiffyLube that has nothing to gain from you needing a power steering repair. I assume the $1630 was quoted by Pep Boys?
Last year the shop I'd been going to for years failed my G35 for the third brake light and a supposed power steering leak (pretty sure they were just being retarded or trying to scam me because I haven't put any fluid in since and the level is still fine after 8 months). Their price for the brake light was BS so I did it myself with a $60 eBay replacement and took the car to JiffyLube to have it inspected again. I got nervous as fuck because they knew that it had already failed and so they asked me what for, but I simply neglected to mention the power steering and they passed me.

It's not possible they saw a novice and tried to pull one over on me, is it? When I came in the guy before the inspection marked me down that I needed new wipers, and I was like "...How much is that?" "Nine dollars per." "...Alright, sure." Stupidly I thought *that* was their way of getting me to pay extra.

The guy was shocked when I said I wasn't going to replace the power steering. I'll post the actual notes in a second. I could just be interpreting what they told me incorrectly as well.

...

Bump.

>pep boys
take it to a real mechanic and ask for a second opinion

Secondary question though, knowing at one point I'd stop at a border checkpoint passing through Texas where they will definitely ask if I'm a US citizen but likely nothing else, how likely am I to get in trouble if I drive across the country with expired tags? Is it likely I could make the entire trip without getting pulled over? And if I was pulled over, since the tags are expired instead of fake and I do have insurance, would I likely still be impounded or could I possibly make it just getting ticketed and allowed to go home? Any states particularly bad for ticketing?

It probably just needs a new power steering pump. Go to the wrecking yard and pull one for like 30 shekels

>binding or jamming stops
did they even take it out of park?

I remember you, you bought that shitty Honda with the string to open the door.

Your best bet is to go to harbor freight, get a jack and two jackstands, some tools, a chiltons manual and then start reading. To be honest it sounds like pepboys was trying to jew you, unless your rack and pinion is leaking you don't need to replace it. Replace the power steering pump, shouldn't be too hard. While your at it replace your timing belt, the distributor, air filter, and maybe throw some spark plugs and a fuel filter in there just for peace of mind. Doing all of this yourself will be so much cheaper than $1600 dollars.

Not only that but there are thousands of videos online of how to do repairs on your car, they're super popular. Which is nice because parts will be cheap. If you can follow instructions you'll be able to do that all yourself, all that stuff is easy

Junkyard parts are also dirt fucking cheap, and Civics are like roaches (at least in the yards around here). Best bet is to just pull the entire PS system. Rack, pump, lines, pulley, all of it. Probably won't cost you more than $200.

But also you're the kind of guy who had a mechanic install a horn, so maybe this isn't an option. No sleight intended. This isn't exactly a small job though. If you're afraid that you don't know what you're doing, proceed with the knowledge that you could either really hurt yourself or experience steering failure at speed if you get it wrong.

>Not only that but there are thousands of videos online of how to do repairs on your car, they're super popular. Which is nice because parts will be cheap. If you can follow instructions you'll be able to do that all yourself, all that stuff is easy
100%. It's not the hardest thing, but it's also really, really bad if you manage to get it wrong, especially on steering components.

Bump.