Free Vehicle Inspection Checklist: What to Look For

What a free vehicle inspection checklist needs before you print it

Five checks take about two minutes. Run them on any free sheet before you hand it to a tech.

Each one is covered below. Skip the ones your shop does not need.

Check 1: your name on the sheet

Generic checklists have no shop on them. Your customer gets a page with no name. If the sheet has no room for a shop name and address, it is a worksheet for the tech.

Look for a header you can type into before you print. You want the name, address and phone to show up once and stay put.

Check 2: a mark and a note for every row

A checklist with only a tick box says "checked" and nothing more. At a bay, a row needs three states. Pass is OK today, Attn needs attention soon and Fail needs repair now. Each row should have a note cell, so the tech writes the number or the finding that supports the mark.

Check 3: space for work done and work still to do

Stopping at the inspection leaves no room for what the shop did and what it recommends. If you want the customer to leave with both, look for a second sheet, or a free space to add it. The free sample has no such page. Findings and estimate is a separate sheet in the paid Multi-Point Inspection Kit.

Check 4: tires, with tread and date

Tread in 32nds of an inch at each wheel position tells you wear. The DOT code tells you age. The last group of the code is a four-numeral date code, the first two for the week and the last two for the year of manufacture, according to 49 CFR 574.5. So 2319 would mean week 23 of 2019.

A free checklist that has only "tires OK" cannot hold either one. If tires matter to your customers, and for most shops they do, the sheet needs a place to write both numbers.

Check 5: written for a shop

Some free sheets were made for other jobs, such as state inspections, fleet pre-trip checks or a buyer looking at a private sale. They share words with a shop inspection and little else. One made for a state station will ask for things your bay does not do.

The Car Care Council, a non-profit that teaches motorists about vehicle care, puts tires, brakes, lights and fluids in its motorist checklist. A shop sheet covers those and adds the battery, the vehicle, the customer and your findings.

What the free sample holds

You get a two-page PDF in US Letter. Page 1 explains how to use it. Page 2 is the Multi-Point Inspection, Side 1, as a fillable page. You type the shop name, address and phone, then mark each row Pass, Attn or Fail and write a note.

Side 1 has fields for customer, phone, year, make, model, plate, VIN, odometer, an RO number and a date. The VIN has 17 cells. Under the federal VIN rule in 49 CFR 565.13, a VIN is 17 characters and never uses I, O or Q, so a typo in those letters means a misread.

Then come the checks: under hood, lights and electrical, wipers and glass, HVAC and the battery. There is a legend where your shop sets its own thresholds for tread, brake pads, shoes and battery. A free text box at the bottom takes other findings for the service writer.

A sheet earns its place by what the techs write on it.

When a free sheet is enough, and when it is not

You can stop at a free sheet when you only want to see how a layout feels at the bay. It also covers you if you check a few things on a car and do not hand anything to the customer.

Skip the free sheet if you need tire and brake measurements recorded per wheel position, a findings sheet for work done and work to do, or A4 paper. The sample has none of those. It is Side 1 only, US Letter only, with no logo tool. Your logo cannot go on it.

Try it on one car

Download the free two-page multi-point inspection sample, print one copy, and run it on a real car. Mark every row. If your techs keep writing on the back, you know which rows to add. If it works, the paid kit gives you the rest: Side 2, shop standards, findings and estimate, and filled samples.