Guys.
Dealing with the return shipment of our car was hands down the hardest thing we've ever had to do regarding a PCS since my husband joined the army over ten years ago.
No. JOKE.
This day was dreaded, but inevitable.
It seems that right before you're about to do something, everyone wants to give you their two-cents about how they did it, what they did, or what they didn't. Or at least that's how it was for us.Especially when it comes to shipping a car back to the states.
For the past month or so, we've heard it all:
"My car failed shipping inspection because of dog hair stuck in the carpet."
"My truck failed because the engine area was dirty."
"Our SUV failed because there were bugs stuck on front bumper."
But then the success stories...not many people go into detail about those.
The most I've heard about cars that pass inspection for shipment is that the person spent a buttload of money having it detailed OR that they spent countless hours doing it themselves. Both may be true.
Let's rewind time.
Two weeks ago, we spent a Saturday pre-washing our car. Yes. We were that adamant on getting it done and right.
We cleaned every crevice, door jamb, every compartment, every inch of the car in places most people wouldn't imagine they'd need to clean. Some of those places required a flashlight to see better in.
*Not all of these are after pictures, but give an idea of where to focus that people normally forget about.
:NOTE: During our pre-wash, we used bug-off cleaner, meant to help remove stuck on bugs. Avoid this crap. It cleaned the bugs off the bumper BUT it ate the paint where they were stuck on. I tried degreaser, magic eraser, a natural fiber scouring pad. Nothing got this nasty stuff off. So after the second cleaning, I realized it ate my paint in the spots the bugs once were. It is clean AF, but still appears dirty in some spots because of this bullshit product.
Now fast-forward:
This past Sunday, the day before inspection, I was grateful that we did most of the hard work before. We dedicated the entire day to the car, skipping out on normal Father's Day activities, but hey, life goes on.
Sorry, I didn't take random cleaning pics for the second cleaning. I wish I would've for at least the engine area. Oh well.
First, we washed the exterior, knowing that water would drip in tight places creating more buildup inside door and window areas.
I paid extra attention to the front grill/bumper; scrubbing off every bug and bug remnant. Don't forget the top of your vehicle or the wheel wells, too.
After a shiny exterior cleaning, we moved to the inside. We wiped out built up dust in the tracks under ALL seats, in the crevices of the air vents, the steering column, the seat handles, the stow and go compartments, the sliding door tracks, glove compartments, etc,. We also wiped the walls of the car (the Simple Green degreaser works great on stubborn markings and scuffs). I even busted out q-tips for teeny tiny spaces.
The vacuuming was the worst part, even though we pre-cleaned the car. Sand is the devil. Once you think you've got it all, you realize there's more.
Guys, the last time we went to the beach with our car was in April of 2016 to Normandy, France. It's not as if we went to the beach last week! The car had been vacuumed multiple times since our beachy vaca.
After I vacuumed, I'd slap the carpeted ground, and more sand would pop up! My final treatment for this was to wrap packing tape around my hand and hit the ground as the sand would stick to the tape.
You name it, we cleaned it. From the rear gate handle to the gas pedal. It was spotless clean. No piece of our interior went untouched.
The extra fun part:
Under the hood.
We hand cleaned EVERY SQUARE INCH THAT WE COULD REACH under the hood with various tools. Toothbrushes, q-tips, paint brushes, old rags, etc,.
During our pre-cleaning, we used Simple Green degreaser on a cool car that hadn't been driven overnight. We didn't want to burn ourselves trying to reach tight spaces.
The degreaser works great if you spray and let it sits for 10-15 minutes.
NOTE: Avoid spraying degreaser on important under the hood stickers (like EPA, emissions, etc,.). The degreaser will remove stickers easily. When I noticed our engine sticker lettering was disappearing before my eyes, I quickly wiped the degreaser off. Yikes. Some stickers are REQUIRED to be on your vehicle in order to ship it. Luckily my faded sticker wasn't an important one.
So after our final day of cleaning, there wasn't much to be done that we could see. We wiped out some areas that had gotten dirty from our exterior wash and called it a day.
This isn't my photo, BUT it's basically what under our hood looked like. Same make, model, year, and super clean looking. Right?
In total, we spent 7 hours outside on Sunday working on a pre-cleaned car. I am SOOO sunburned right now. Stinging skin as I type. It was 87 degrees under the sun for 6 of our 7 hours of cleaning. At least I put sunblock on my face...
I swear y'all, after all was said, done, and cleaned, this car looked as new as the day we bought it from the lot with only 9 miles on the odometer. It was THAT clean before inspection time.
INSPECTION / SHIPPING DAY
On Monday, our appointment was at 9am in Grafenwoehr.
I placed a 1/2 folded clean old bath towel on the driver's side floor board, scared that my shoes would dirty up hard work, and left my house in Vilseck in the clean car as the husband lead the way in a friend's car we borrowed.
I still had a little over 1/4 of gas in the tank, and this was the only time I've ever been frustrated to have great gas mileage. I'd slow down and gas it, slow and gas it, all the way to Graf. When I made it to Graf around 8:20am, we still had a little over 1/4 tank.
**1/4 tank or less is required for shipping for safety reasons. Anything more and they won't ship it. Even a tad bit over the 1/4 line and that's a nope.
So I thought of the one place that gets my RPMs up and headed to it:
The Netzaberg Hill.
That's not it's real name, but if you've ever been to Netzaberg via the post gate, you know what I'm talking about!
I'd let the car roll down to a steady 30 mph and gas it to 70, repeating the process all the way up the longest hill in Germany.
It worked!
I drove back to the VPC area parked the car in the VPC waiting line with 10 minutes to spare before our 9:00am inspection time. We used that 10 minutes wiping down small spots on the exterior where I hit a bug or two on the drive over.
First they took all of our paperwork, verifying that it was all there and in order.
Check.
Then a lady walks over and does a "pre-inspection" before we were asked to pull it into the inspection bay. She looks outside of the car, inside of the car, and under the hood. Tells us it's good to go into the bay.
Once we were asked to pull it into the bay, where the actual inspector would look it over, the guy checked the inside, the door jambs, everything.
Clear. Not a single problem with the interior or exterior.
But then he pops the hood...
"This is dirty, that is dusty. You have a few tiny pebbles down in here." Blah blah blah.
This dude looked at EVERY single thing under the hood and from every angle possible. These "dirty areas" he pointed out were tucked in places that the common eye wouldn't see or bother to look at, and that a mechanic would laugh at.
My husband gets pissed (or as my kids say, "triggered") and yells "So do you people have different standards of how an inspection is done because the lady who looked at it outside said it was good."
The man tells us "No" and goes to find the originally lady who then says it was hard for her to see everything while out under the sun.
They both tells us to go power wash it out and come right back. So my husband goes to the car wash down the road, does a power wash under the hood and back in line we go.
We pull it into the bay again. At this point it's about 10:30am.
The same inspector dude looks at it and says "No-go, there's a small piece of tree leaf here, dust here."
I thought my husband was going to lose his shit.
So we both go back to the car wash where I, with the keen sight for detail, point out the areas he needs to closely spray under the hood. Four quarters later, we're back in line for the third time and at this point, it's 11:15am.
I decide to take over and tell the husband to go sit inside. His blood pressure is high enough as it is on a normal day (he has meds for this, not kidding).
The man inspector that denied us twice is nowhere to be found. The original girl looks under the hood, glances at me and says "All good. Pass," and begins filling out a sheet before assessing interior and exterior dings, chips, marks, scuffs, etc,. It took her about a good half hour to walk around the car, looking at every inch.
My husband walks into the bay area and gives me the "look". I give him a thumbs up back, and his face changes for the better! *blood pressure drops* He begins removing the license plates while I take off the antenna (which is required to be removed).
When the lady was nearing the end of the inspection, I started talking to her for the sake of my readers. I wanted to know the inside scoop of what goes on at the VPC. She was nice, young, and looked like an Irish war princess.
I asked her if there was a certain type of car that fails more often than others. She said no, but she did say the number one reason for failures is found under the hood. Go figure!
I watched another person fail under the hood with his pristine, new Dodge Citadel three times in the same day, just like us, but he paid $300 for a full detail. Another couple failed with their Mustang, but I don't think they really tried to clean under the hood. I saw it. It looked dirtier than mine before we ever attempted to clean it. They failed fast, before the inspector even bothered to get past the surface of it.
But then she tells me people fail for really obvious reasons that most people should have common sense about.
One person last week shampooed their car the morning of inspection. The carpets were so wet that when she placed her hand on it, water enveloped the top of her hand. Big fail. And the inspection sheet does say that no part of the interior can be damp or wet.
Another guy failed because the cracks in his windshield were considered too dangerous to ship.
And she does go on to say that pet hair is a common issue, too.
Here's the deal.
The inspection sheet does have a small list of what paperwork you will need and what needs to be clean. But it doesn't say in depth how clean. It just states the basics:
Engine and under the hood must be debris free.
Carpets must be vacuumed. Not wet or damp.
Dirt and debris removed in all door jambs, and tailgate areas.
I am here to tell you that if it looks dirty in any way, clean it. Then clean it again.
I wanted to avoid pressure washing my engine and surrounding areas because of the horror stories I have heard from people we know. One guy short circuited his truck, another lost the emissions sticker. One guy blew his alternator. We hand cleaned it like crazy people and it still failed. We ended up having to pressure wash it anyways. Le sigh. But if you do it right, you shouldn't have issues. We focused on the areas the inspector pointed out, blasting only areas that required the spray. We didn't drown every square inch with water.
I seriously thought the carpet would be what would fail us, but it wasn't. But the inspector lady did say that pebbles, pet hair, dust, dirt and sand are what get people under the seats of the car. They don't think to look or clean there, or they think the inspector won't look there. They do. They put a flash light on EVERYTHING inside and out. I promise.
A little trivia:
Which of these clean cars will pass the engine compartment/under the hood inspection?
Answer:
Maybe both. Maybe neither.
Let me stress that the VPC checks beyond the surface level. Just because it looks super clean doesn't mean they'll pass it.
After hours of pain at the VPC, the shipping sticker was slapped on the windshield and copies of paper work were made. We left at 12:20 ish pm, feeling like a huge weight was off our shoulders and on it's way to St. Louis, Missouri!
A much deserved Taco Bell lunch followed.
MY TIPS:
*If your car is like mine and being financed, you will need a lien holder authorization letter, even to ship it back to the states. I was worried because I called USAA to get this document and when I printed it out the day before our appointment, I realized it was not signed, notarized, or even dated. The VPC here did not question this. BUT when we shipped the car to Germany from Atlanta, it was required to be notarized. I think the difference is that the car is going to it's home country, not a foreign country.
*You can make the shipping VPC appointment for whatever date you want (granted it's not a weekend or holiday), but know that you MUST go through the transportation brief first. The paper work from that brief is part of the paper work you'll need to turn in your car for shipping.
*As of April 2017, your vehicle cannot have any open safety & dangerous recalls if you plan to ship it.
*You can pay an auto detailer if you want to avoid hard labor. Most guarantee their services, but that does NOT mean it will pass. It just means your auto detailing dude will fix the problem if it fails...that's if he can get you in the same day or in the near future.
One lady I spoke to while waiting in line paid $250 to have her van done. It ended up passing no problem, but she had to leave it with the detailer for five days for them to get the job done. And like I said, the dude behind me with a pristine Citadel failed three times for the same reasons we did, even though he paid someone to professionally clean the entirety of it.
The rumor that you can show the inspector a receipt of cleaning services to guarantee an inspection pass is NOT TRUE, AT ALL.
*Don't fret over getting stains off of your carpet or upholstery. They don't care about stains. But if you spilled ketchup on the passenger seat on your way to the VPC, you'll fail. Stains cannot be 'fresh', if that makes sense. Cleaned up and dried.
*Products I found to be helpful in aiding the interior/under the hood cleaning of our car: Simple Green degreaser (works great under hood, on stubborn scuffs and marking on plastics, and removes sticky crap like a dream. No elbow grease required).
A box of q-tips was crucial for tiny spaces that fingers wouldn't fit in. Windex. A bucket of water, old toothbrushes, small watercolor paint brushes, rags, and a few razor blades help. We also bought a shop vac and paid extra for the tiny attachment tools sold separately. That shop vac worked better than our household vacuum and wayyyy better than the vacuums at the shopettes and car washes around here (the shop vac has super power suction). It is 110 volt, so we plan to take it home with us. Not money wasted. And for the annoying areas on the carpet, I used a roll of packing tape to grab up bits of sand stuck deep in the carpet.
* Avoid using car polishes, especially if you have to drive a ways to the VPC. You may accumulate dirt and dust on the drive there.
*Every small space, nook and cranny under the hood WILL be evaluated. Don't walk away from cleaning the hard to reach places thinking "It's good enough". Good enough fails. I would know! If it looks the least bit dusty, dirty, greasy; if there are tiny sticks, leaves, pebbles, sand, anything under that hood, even deep down in unreachable areas, you will not pass. Use a flashlight, park under a shaded area, and go over every inch of your engine compartment before assuming it will pass. Use a second set of eyes if it helps. Note: Small paint brushes help reach narrow, dusty spaces that your fingers can't.
*Set aside a block of time for your inspection. You might need it, like we did, and others there did, too.
*If you are shipping your car during the summer surge or 'peak pcs season', expect it to arrive at your stateside VPC in about 2-ish months time. We shipped ours on June 19th. ETA at St. Louis is August 22nd. We purposely shipped early. Our car should arrive a week or so after we do.
*Many people don't have a choice but to wait to ship right before they fly out, but if you car fails inspection in this case, you will need to leave a friend with a PoA to handle it later. The army and VPC do NOT care if your car fails but you are flying out tomorrow. We saw that guy at the inspection center yesterday, too...
*They will test your emergency brake in drive and reverse. If it jumps too far, fail.
*You can leave certain, clean items, in the car, but they don't sit in a normal place in the car during shipment. I watched them box up a baby car seat, and some randoms for another person that pertained to vehicle safety and maintenance. This box was then taped up, and set in the trunk of the car. But they won't let you keep everything in your ride for shipment, especially personal items of value.
Yes, I had to have my antenna and license plate screws boxed for shipment. It was a huge box just for those few things. Almost laughable.
*Once you leave the VPC, you can take your German plates to registration, de-register your car, and get your temp plates for stateside driving. These temp plates should be hand carried and on the plane with you, not in your household goods. Once you pick up your ride stateside, these temp plates will cover you for only a certain amount of days before you must register your car in your new duty state.
However, we learned yesterday that you do not have to turn in your German plates the day you drop car off for shipment, and you may not want to. Once you receive the temp plates, time starts counting down until they expire. It does not start the day you affix them to your car. We chose to wait until right before we fly out in August to pick up our temp plates, knowing there'd be a chance they could expire before our car even arrives to America if we did it now. If you're shipping right before your flight, you shouldn't worry too hard about this. It's fuzzy, but I've heard the temp plates last 90 days, but then the lady at VPC yesterday said 60 days. I'll find out soon enough and correct this post at that time.
Next post:
Government Housing: Pre-inspection for PCS
One step closer!
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