well all my little green bars are gone and the inspection light came on and i was wondering what it needs for inspection at 158,418miles any hints would be nice, because if it's stuff already done i'll just reset it now.

Do you know what the last Inspection entailed? There are two "Inspections" (1 and 2), where the second is a little more in depth than the first. If you can find out which you had before, you'll know which you now need because they just switch order w/ an oil change in between (i.e. Ins 1, oil, Ins 2, oil, etc.). If you already knew this, then never mind. :)

on 3/8/05 this is what was done with my car new vanos unit, valve cover gasket, grommets(whatever they are),front cover gasket(upper), lube and oil filter, thermostat and thermostat housing, coolant. those were all done on that date totaling $1,086.95. would that be anything to do with what my inspection thing might deal with.

None of that's inspection-related, except the oil change. Your service booklet lists the operations to be performed. Ideally, all scheduled maintenance ever performed on your car is recorded there.

An Inspection II is the big one and performed every 30,000 miles. So if you haven't replaced the spark plugs and air, fuel and microfilters in the last 30,000 miles, it's due. No reason why you can't go longer, say 40,000, if it's running ok and you change the oil, which you just have.

The grommets are the rubber rings that seal the bolts on the valve cover. They'll leak oil if they don't get replaced.

when i got the car it had to go through inspection and they changed the spark plugs, air filter, new guibo, etc.

My Inspection light was on when I bought the car not too long ago. I'm pretty sure it needs the Inspection II. Any ideas how much this would cost on a '98 323?

Edit: Nevermind... I did a search and found what I was looking for.