Sacramento County Says It's Illegal to Work on Your Own Car in Your Own Garage
 

https://jalopnik.com/sacramento-coun...own-1836085130

"The chemicals involved in major automobile repair can pollute our neighborhoods and endanger the health and wellbeing of our residents. Furthermore, this kind of activity increases vehicle traffic and the visual impact can negatively impact property values.​"

Fortunately, these types of bylaws are generally only enforced when the city receives a complaint from a resident.


I'm pretty sure outside car repair is illegal in my little city (I suspect it is in many cities). As is outside parking of vehicles that aren't in use.



If you're conscientious and good with your neighbours, nobody will complain.

Had, repairing cars outside is illegal in my city too, yet...

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/Ns...w3920-h2940-no

Never had any troubles.

What did your Insight ever do to you?!

People comment on Watch JR Go's videos on YouTube that his neighbors must hate him for using power tools after dark. He says he has an ongoing feud because of their dog. People also regularly complain about him working under his car without jack stands, but he just says they are already under a car.

I have offered to order him a pair of stands, but he has not responded.

I would not start any car repairs outside that I could not complete that day or at least latch the hood and lock the doors.

I would be much worse off if someone messed with my car.

If someone was always working on a car it would indicate they are a mechanic and\or dealer and I would understand issues with cars in constant states of disrepair, but what difference does working on your car in your garage make?

Maybe if you need to keep the garage door open and you have parts everywhere or some other mess, but how would it go down?

[banging on garage] "Open up! We know you are working on cars in there!"

Are they allowed to look through your garage windows?

I tend to work late on stuff, so that's a concern of mine. I'll close the garage door, which should go a long way to reducing noise, but the garage is very close to other houses.

Sooooo glad I live where I do.

:D

What a load of crap.

OTOH, nothing like Third Worlders for the need to create such a law. Examples are endless. Dump coolant in street and then remove water pump. Saw that again just last week at a WalMart with a big truck. (I’ll bet he got store manager approval, huh?). Same for oil changes. GALLONS and GALLONS of oil per OFL. At LEAST a gallon spilled every time DIY with no real equipment to contain.

The oil drain bolts on my Prius and Acura don't line up well with the cutout in the plastic, so spillage is unavoidable unless you remove the entire plastic, or somehow secure a funnel/hose under the drain bolt. Then there's the oil filter mounted horizontally, which is impossible to remove without it spilling half the contents onto the axle and various other suspension parts.

I lay a large piece of scrap cardboard under the car when I do oil changes, and that usually contains the massive amounts of spillage.

You'd think something that is to be performed regularly should be easier to access, with less spillage.

Years ago someone gave Mom a business card for a mobile mechanic. He drove some huge old car.

He flushed her radiator by draining it into the gutter.

I used to have a cookie sheet oil pan and I keep saying that I am going to buy another one because I always spill, although I feel this is user error.

I'm less concerned about oil spillage these days, and more concerned with how nobody has invented a way to prevent food spillage from highchairs.

My solution has a gasket going around the midsection of the child, surrounding them and funneled inward. Any food thrown would just roll back toward the child.

Got its front end clipped by someone making a left turn from the rightmost lane. That's me replacing all the metal parts bent towards the driver's side with junkyard stuff.

Idiot drivers!

Insurance money or 'roadside settlement'?

Did any of you actually read the article? According to the statute, you can't work on YOUR OWN CAR in YOUR OWN GARAGE. Not outside in the street -- inside, behind a door, on your own property. Not allowed by law.

There may be problems with people running ersatz car repair businesses in their driveways, spilling fluids, etc., and they should certainly be dealt with. But this law is excessive intrusion and overreach writ large.

Their insurance money. There was too much structural damage to settle it right there on the road.

It seems that everyone read this: WDB, did you read this far, from the same post:

Close your garage door, and SCREW 'EM!

I'm not even supposed to wash my car. :confused:

Nothing funnier than a trailer that contains a barking dog and an owner shouting "Shut up! Shut up! Shut up! ".

Not surprising for California, but a bit surprising for Sac-town? At least when I was there, it wasn’t a very progressive city, despite being the capitol of arguably the most progressive state in the US. I’d have to agree, though, that it would probably depend on neighbors calling it in. If you got nosey rosey neighbors, you’re unfairly screwed.

https://media2.giphy.com/media/3o6Yg...sxyg/giphy.gif

Behold! My next million-dollar idea [for someone else]! https://i.imgur.com/t9ITarE.png

My last one was a celebrity slap simulator.

My work iPad came with Talking Tom and apps featuring some of his friends. You can play various games with Tom and you need to feed him, take him to the bathroom, and put him to bed.

My kids spend most of their time slapping the animals, but if they can talk they say things like "Cat poop," which he repeats in a high voice.

https://thenypost.files.wordpress.co...8&h=410&crop=1

Nothing surprises me in CA. I'm not for big nanny state government, but that said, I am for local government making whatever laws they want so long as they don't conflict with the constitution.

The federal government has far too much reach, when the original intention was for local government to govern themselves. If people don't like it, they can vote to change it or leave.

Californians seem to be more willing to trade peace of mind illusion of safety for liberty than others, something which they are entitled to do.

Do I think the environment will measurably improve with the passing of this law; no. It was probably intended to protect jobs, and possibly to protect real estate prices.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Temporary_Autonomous_Zone

edit:
Sacramento all over again:

https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-6joTD3cfh...40/qw34t23.JPG
justacarguy.blogspot.com/.../hoa-sues-pver-1965-ford-f250-pickup.html

They make something for that. For a badly placed filter, I've used an aluminum foil funnel to get the slop into the drain pan.

That’s how I read it. Californians, even in their coldest markets, have such a big buy-in if they buy a property, that I think they do get a bit paranoid about protecting their property values.

On the flip side, it was my observation growing up that the Everyman is too busy affording life there to have much left over for political engagement, so the ground got taken up by the progressive, wealthy folks who could afford to spend some time on it, not unlike how conservative oil wealth still dominates in Texas. Even growing up in the 90s and early 2000s, I think it would have been rather intimidating to be a conservative or libertarian voice in California.

If it’s a job preservation thing, Texas, like many states (and UNlike California), requires annual safety inspections, something which struck me as very non-Texan when I moved here. I suspect it has less to do with safety than making sure shops get an annual chance to scare folks into marginally needed repairs they just so happen to be able to perform right there!

So like you, I fail to be surprised when something like this pops up in CA, a place I still love and miss dearly. But it only gets press because of its own reputation; I am sure there are other cities across the nation with something similar, and I’ll bet if you don’t like this, nearly any HOA would make you gag.

The oil pan drain plug on the Prius is right smack in the middle of that access door; I've never had problems with spillage, and only remove the whole pan to change the transmission fluid (which does spill on the axle if you remove the fill plug first; it comes shooting out of there). The oil filter tends to spill, but there's nothing under it so it can go straight into the bucket.

The Viper's oil filter pointed straight up, so it came out vertical after you unscrewed it. I always thought that was a nice touch.

Check out where the oil filter is in my neighbor's new Subaru Ascent:

https://ecomodder.com/forum/attachme...1&d=1564037478

On my Hondas I always need to look for a bit to find the filter. Mom's oil filter screws vertically into the oil pan, but you cannot remove it without a tool, and then it spills on you.

Property values are kind of like the lotto.

I'll pay more attention next time, but I thought the drain plug was angled, causing it to either overshoot the bucket, or undershoot as the pressure drops.

My plastic is a bit messed up too. There's mounting tabs towards the front that have been entirely ground off from driving logging roads.

I don't know why it's so difficult to have easy access to both the drain bolt and filter, and position the filter such that unscrewing it doesn't spill the contents. I like the practice of filling the filter prior to installing it just so it reduces the time spent with zero oil pressure, not that it probably matters at all.

Here you can see the yellow oil filler cap below and to the right of the filter:

https://ecomodder.com/forum/attachme...1&d=1564070093

This seems standard on modern Subarus.

I forget where it was on mine, but I was able to remove it without lifting the car.

Well they had to do that since they placed an intercooler where the oil filler would normally live. Don't know why they don't sandwich it in the front grill like everyone else. I suppose it does make for a shorter run. Reduces turbo lag perhaps?

I was impressed with how low the engine is, but on a vehicle the size of a minivan? My neighbor showed off all of the features and it seemed like an extremely well-designed vehicle, but when he opened the hatch I remembered what SlowMover (?) said to that hybrid Tahoe cultist about how unnecessary high SUVs are.

A van would have had a much lower platform. That sound important when you are carrying heavy things. He convinced me that if I ever win Publisher's Clearinghouse (or somehow obtain financial independence on my own--ha!) that I would purchase a van for hauling stuff.

Do Toyota or Honda make cargo vans? :)

The HOA concept should be banned

I despise HOAs... and to make my wife happy am currently under one. People have the right to form HOAs, just as workers have the right to collectively bargain. We have the freedom to associate and contract how we wish, and that entails the freedom to set restrictions on ourselves (counter-intuitive).

That looks like the pickup my dad had when I was growing up, except his was a step-side. I'd ride on the step holding onto the rail as he drove short distances. It also didn't have seat belts.

Anyhow, Sac can do whatever they want because people don't have to live there. The only thing though, is that if new rules are implemented that diminish the value of property for someone, they need to be compensated. Oregon passed a law saying that if rezoning diminishes the value of property for someone, they are either grandfathered in to their original zoning regulations, or must be paid diminished value. So, if I purchased a place in Sac and worked on my vehicles, then the law changed banning it, I would seek compensation for the loss of my ability to maintain my own property (lawsuit). Seems like an easy one to win, I wouldn't even hire an attorney. You just have to prove that you were harmed by the new law.

Some people want total government control over their lives, even if they have to make their own fake government full of unelected hacks. Then they get power hungry and want to force more people into it.

Others just want to ***** about everything trying to impose their views of other people’s personal property on them


I walked through the “wealthier” neighborhood the other day and
It was silent, cars parked in open garages and in driveways, no one driving on the road, no people outside, no lights inside, no people in windows or mowing, no animals no sound.

It went on for miles that way, was thinking what hell have I entered?

Felt like the last man on earth scenario.

I remember noticing this on the Toyota 86 (Scion FR-S at the time), which is a Subaru underneath. The oil filler cap seems in an awkward place, but I suppose it isn't that bad if you just use a funnel. I like to try and freehand it just to see if I can do it without spilling.

One of my older brothers lives in a brand new subdivision; it's the same sort of place, no kids running around, everything perfectly manicured by low-wage laborers in the early morning hours, no character. But what creeps me out the most is when every house looks the same. Same with his last house, in a slightly older subdivision--I had to use GPS every time I drove there because every house and every street looked exactly the same.

Sounds like Heaven! Opposite of the $hithole "neighborhood" I exist in.

You have entered total control utopia.