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We have a thread going that talks about your biggest repair screw ups, how about one that talks about other people’s screw ups you have had to deal with?
I’ll start with this one:
I had my tires changed at a local tire chain store. Months later I go to rotate my tires and on one wheel I had 2 different size lug nuts. What the heck? Then I remembered, I had new tires put on. They must have lost or stripped mine and replaced them – unfortunately the replacement they used was a different socket size than the rest.
I can only imagine how that would have worked out if I got a flat somewhere and only had the factory lug wrench to work with.
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I’ve got several stories that will fit well in here. Some of these are things that I was asked to fix, but wound up referring the person to the dealer, others were things that I was able to fix.
First generation Dodge Ram 2500 with the Cummins engine: Customer had read in a magazine that by adjusting the fuel screw you could make more power on the early Cummins diesels. This is true, but what you have to watch out for is turning the screw too far, which will cause the engine to go into a runaway condition. He apparently didn’t know about that part, and he turned the screw too far. He tried to use a shirt to choke off the engine, but that didn’t work. The engine did eventually shut itself off, part of the timing set let go and the engine destroyed itself. It showed up at my shop on a rollback, and the guy asked if we could fix it. Before he said that it ate his shirt, I was willing to take a look at it, but once he said it went into runaway, I told him to take it elsewhere.
Mid ’90s Nissan Pathfinder: Group of people drive up to one of the bay doors at the shop where I was working, and asked me if I could identify a car part for them. The pointed at the front swaybar endlink and asked me what it was. I told them what it was, they said thanks and drove away. A couple hours go by and I get handed a work order to check for a noise on a Nissan Pathfinder. It turns out that the Pathfinder I’m now supposed to diagnose is the one I looked at earlier that day. Turns out they had gone and bought new endlinks, and for some reason had removed the struts to replace the endlinks and then never put the top three nuts back on. The noise they were hearing was their front suspension getting ready to fall off. 6 flange nuts later, the noise is all gone.
Honda Accord: Customer attempted to replace his rear brake shoes by himself and then he couldn’t get the drums to go back on. Rather than calling a tow truck, he decided to drive his car, with no rear drums on the brakes, to my shop. On the way, he blew out both wheel cylinders and got brake fluid all over his brand new shoes. It took me all of 30 seconds to diagnose his problem once I got the car up in the air and the rear wheel off. He didn’t bother to turn the adjuster in so that the drums would fit over the new shoes. After I replaced everything from the backing plate on out, everything was right with the world.
I’ll post some more stories later as I think of them.
My friend went in to get his tires changed and they lost a whole set of lug nuts from his tire so they toke one from each tire and now he has four on each tire instead of five (never go to big-o tires)
Honda Accord V6 – Jiffy lube stripped out the oil pan and oil pressure light went on after a week of driving. My friend took it back to jiffy and they told him that his rear main seal was leaking the oil. So he came over and asked me to lower the transmission so he could change the transmission. When I inspected the car, I did not see any rear main seal leak. However I did see fresh oil on back of the oil pan, suspension components, and the oil pan thread was repaired with rubber gasket (which I think is improper way of fixing the oil tank)
89 BMW 535i – person who changed the oil on this car stripped the aluminum oil pan. I thought about the tapping the thread, but the metal was way too soft and the stripping was pretty bad. So I decided to replace the oil pan – it turned out that this car does not have enough clearance between the engine and the subframe to slide the oil pan out – I had to lift the engine with the hoist to get that replaced.
88 Volvo 740 – car was stalling at every stop. The owner went a mechanic and it was ok for two weeks and was stalling again. I suspected the clogged throttle body but didn’t know what the previous mechanic did until I open the system up – he just tighten the throttle cable. These are the people who gives mechanics bad image. The car needed throttle body cleaning and the previous mechanic just adjusted the idle.
94 Volvo 940 – car was leaking gas through the brand new fuel filter. When I lowered the fuel filter, I found a hole in the fuel filter that was patched with JB weld.
Here’s a few more that I remember.
200? Ford Econoline 350: Customer bolted the spare tire onto the passenger rear backward and proceeded to tear the brake caliper, the caliper bracket and the ears that hold the bracket to the axle tube clean off. He tied the caliper/bracket to the exhaust pipe with a bungee cord and then drove it to my shop. I wound up having to pull the rear axle shaft out and replace the brake backing plate, which has the mounting ears attached to it. Customer was mad that the repair cost so much, but sometimes you have to pay for your own stupidity.
Early ’90s VW Corroded: Complaint of grinding brakes. Car has no brakes at all. What I mean by that is all of the ports where the brake lines should be going into the master cylinder have bolts in them, rather than brake lines. I find out from the customer that he had been using the parking brake to stop with for the past several months because he didn’t have the money to fix his leaky calipers. I tried to remove the bolts from the mater cylinder to see if anything had been damaged, and all the heads snapped off, as the bolts were cross-threaded. I wrote an estimate for a master cylinder, four loaded brake calipers, four brake hoses, e-brake cables (the one on the passenger side had rusted through and the driver side didn’t look much better), four brake rotors, with the understanding that the steel lines may need replacement if they won’t unbolt from the brake hoses. Customer declined having the work done and the car left on a tow truck. I never saw it again.
My father works at a quarry that also fabricates stone countertops. He told me about a repair that the delivery van needed. This is that story as told from my father’s point of view.
Early ’90s Ford E-350 box van: Overheated due to a weepy water pump, head gaskets blew out before the water pump could get replaced. I diagnosed what was wrong with it, and told one of my assistants to replace the head gaskets and the water pump. I would have done it myself but I had to get a front-end loader up and running again. After the head gaskets/water pump and stuff got replaced, the van ran worse than it did before. I limped it over to a local shop to have them take a look at it, as I simply had too much other stuff to repair. I got a call saying that it needed head gaskets. I picked the truck back up and pulled one of the heads off of it. The head gasket was installed backward. Big-block Ford engines have a large cooling passage hole and a small cooling passage hole on opposite ends of the block. The large hole faces the front of the engine, and this gasket had the large hole at the rear. I made my assistant replace the head gaskets again, the right way this time. Van ran OK after that.There’s always someone working in a field they have no business in. In this day with the internet though, some of the basics of mistakes that have been discussed already should be eliminated by all but the select few ignorant/stubborn ones that think they can understand the engineering of an automobile they’ve never worked on by pure brain power and brilliant under-engineering.
i am a third year auto shop student and i se some amazing things that teachers do and epically students do. for example
2005 ford focus comes in on a tow truck. i suggested to this teacher to do an oil + filter change. so he has his son do it.let me just start off by saying freaking idiot he gets a new oil filter and a quart of oil. a ford focus 2.0 dohc engine take 4.5 of those 1 quart bottles. SUM PEOPLE SHOULD Not WORK ON CARSSSSSSee if you can spot a pattern here,
2008 Dodge Caravan: Came in on a tow truck with a cranks but won’t start condition. According to the customer, she was driving across an intersection and the engine quit. After removing a ton of stuff from in front of the guage cluster so I could see all the guages I start my diagnostics. It’s got plenty of spark, and indicated quarter tank of gas, but no fuel pressure. I can hear the pump running when I roll the key on, but nothing is making it to the engine. There’s nothing wet under the van, so it doesn’t appear to be leaking gas anywhere. Fortunately for me, the way this gas tank is angled removing the fuel pump assembly is fairly simple. I pull the pump half out of the tank and I immediately see the problem. To quote Billy-Bob Thornton from Sling Blade “It ain’t got no gas in it” Apparently she would just drive it until the low fuel light came on and then go get gas. Well, the arm on the side of the fuel pump assembly was getting sticky so it wasn’t reading accurately anymore and she ran out of gas before the light came on.
Late 90s Dodge Caravan: Came in complaining of poor running and excessive smoking out the exhaust. I have a suspicion what the customer had done before I even brought the van into the shop, based solely on the smell of the exhaust. It had the sharp scent of diesel fuel. I get the van up on my lift and pop one of the fuel lines off and am rewarded with a cascade of green-dyed number 2 diesel fuel. We told the customer to take it to the dealer to get it repaired, as we weren’t sure what kind of havoc running diesel in a gas engine would cause, and the corporate office has decreed that we will not, under any circumstances work on engine internals.
2003 Dodge Caravan: Complaint of check engine light on, no power assist to the brakes and a high idle. Customer has just replaced their own spark plugs. I open the hood and repair the high idle problem as well as the non-powered brake problem. They had knocked the vacuum line off the brake booster and I reattached it. I pull the codes out of the system, and it’s got a misfire on all 6 cylinders. He’s got the wires going to the correct plugs, so I pull out one of the spark plugs. It’s a brand new Bosch +4 plug, the kind with the 4 ground electrodes, which is not the right plug for this application. It’s also got a ton of anti-seize compound on it, including between two of the 4 electrodes. After replacing the Bosch plugs with Champions (as recommended by Chrysler) and cleaning the anti-seize out of the cylinders, the van ran great.
Quoted From FastestECHO:
My friend went in to get his tires changed and they lost a whole set of lug nuts from his tire so they toke one from each tire and now he has four on each tire instead of five (never go to big-o tires)
An ex girlfriend of mine had a tire replaced and they only finger tightened the lug nuts. The next day the car was wobbling all over the road and the nuts had almost completely backed themselves off. Her hot-head brother yelled at the guys there and threatened to beat their a$$es for almost killing his sister.
I broke the headlight stalk on my 3rd gen accord combo switch so i had to find the headlight wire and make a quick and dirty work around by putting it through an old switch.
Got the combo switch replaced the next week.
1996 Geo Prizm: Changed the oil filter and forgot to take the old gasket off. Oil spewed all over the road, luckily I noticed it before any serious damage was done.
1999 Honda Civic: I was working on the rear brakes. I had the drum off and accidently stepped on the brake. Needless to say brake fluid spewed all over the place.
Chevy Corvette: Put the oil cap back on and apparently didn’t tighten the cap. Oil spilled all over the engine. No damage was done thankfully.
Quoted From Tony01013:
I have a good one. I was working in a tire and battery shop. Around 20 minutes before close somebody comes in with a bad battery. No prob, pop one in and call it a night. Needless to say, the battery hold-down was severely corroded and didn’t wanna budge. So everybody jumped on it so we could all get out of there on time. One guy put some penetration lube on it, that didn’t work. Then the other guy uses brake cleaner to clean of the lube. Then another guy brakes out the torch to heat up the bolt. It was going fine until a red hot piece of rust fell to the ground and caught the brake cleaner on fire. WOOSH. Remember the movie Backdraft? That’s what it looked like. I ran one way to get a fire extinguisher and another guy ran the other way to get one. We met at the middle and doused the car with that powder stuff. I thought I was literally going to suffocate.
We put out the fire, nothing burned except the brake cleaner. The lady that owned the car was in the waiting room which has a window into the shop and the battery bay is right in front of the window. She freaks out screaming bloody freaking murder. I’m trying to calm her down. She is inconsolable. Now get this one, she calls the cops on us! So we’re washing off all the fire extinguisher stuff off of the car, basically gave her a free car wash and engine bay wash. I’m still trying to calm her down. The car actually looked better than when it arrived. Then the cop shows up. He asks her what happened. She said we lit her car on fire. Then he asked us if we did it on purpose. I said of course not. He looked at the lady with a scowl on his face and said it wasn’t a police matter. The cop sounded like he was pissed because she was wasting his time. Inside I was like, Yeah right on, bitch.
Finally, we ended up giving her the battery for free and a 50 dollar gift card. We were supposed to close at ten but I didn’t end up getting out until like midnight because I had to count out the money and run the end of day reports. That was a crazy night!!!That made me laugh!
I have a good one. I was working in a tire and battery shop. Around 20 minutes before close somebody comes in with a bad battery. No prob, pop one in and call it a night. Needless to say, the battery hold-down was severely corroded and didn’t wanna budge. So everybody jumped on it so we could all get out of there on time. One guy put some penetration lube on it, that didn’t work. Then the other guy uses brake cleaner to clean of the lube. Then another guy brakes out the torch to heat up the bolt. It was going fine until a red hot piece of rust fell to the ground and caught the brake cleaner on fire. WOOSH. Remember the movie Backdraft? That’s what it looked like. I ran one way to get a fire extinguisher and another guy ran the other way to get one. We met at the middle and doused the car with that powder stuff. I thought I was literally going to suffocate.
We put out the fire, nothing burned except the brake cleaner. The lady that owned the car was in the waiting room which has a window into the shop and the battery bay is right in front of the window. She freaks out screaming bloody freaking murder. I’m trying to calm her down. She is inconsolable. Now get this one, she calls the cops on us! So we’re washing off all the fire extinguisher stuff off of the car, basically gave her a free car wash and engine bay wash. I’m still trying to calm her down. The car actually looked better than when it arrived. Then the cop shows up. He asks her what happened. She said we lit her car on fire. Then he asked us if we did it on purpose. I said of course not. He looked at the lady with a scowl on his face and said it wasn’t a police matter. The cop sounded like he was pissed because she was wasting his time. Inside I was like, Yeah right on, bitch.
Finally, we ended up giving her the battery for free and a 50 dollar gift card. We were supposed to close at ten but I didn’t end up getting out until like midnight because I had to count out the money and run the end of day reports. That was a crazy night!!!Mid 2000 BMW 5 series: Customer brings it in complaining that the headlights won’t turn off. After reconnecting the battery and jump-starting the car, I drive it into the shop. Sure enough, the headlights are on regardless of the position of the headlight switch. I open the hood and see non-factory wires running between both headlights, as well as obviously aftermarket HID ballasts. He apparently ordered a HID conversion kit from eBay and attempted to install it himself, and managed to screw up the wiring. I told the boss what had been done to the car, and recommended that we send the car to the dealer. The boss agreed and we told the guy, nicely, to take his car elsewhere. In true cheapskate fashion, the guy attempted to fix it himself again. I know this because he brought it back several days later for an oil change. His “fix” for the headlights that don’t turn off was to simply unplug them and not drive at night.
1998 Subaru Forester: Came in for an oil change. The FNG (f***ing new guy) brings the car in and proceeds to do an oil change. After adding oil to the engine, it smokes like a chimney and won’t move under it’s own power. I tell him to shut the engine off and I pull the dipstick. It’s got way too much oil in it, and right away I think I know what he had done. I tell him to pick the car back up and show me exactly what drain plug he pulled. He had drained the transmission, replaced the engine oil filter and then added another 4 liters of oil onto the 4 liters that were still in the engine. I showed him where the engine oil drain plug was and made him re-do everything while I went and found a transmission funnel and some ATF. After refilling the transmission and the engine to their proper levels, I told him the same thing I say to all the newbies when they make a mistake. “Mistakes are tolerated, so long as they are not repeated. I’m not going to yell at you this time, but don’t do it again.” Time will tell if he’s learned his lesson, but hopefully it sank in.
2000 Hyundai Sonata: Little old lady brings it in for an oil change and a set of spark plugs. Written on the work order is a note saying “check timing belt”. At that time, no one at the shop knew how to do timing belts, so we simply didn’t do them. The salesmen at the front counter knew that we didn’t do timing belts, nor did we have any way of checking them. Long story short, the car comes back on a tow truck the next day the car shows up on a tow truck. It won’t start. It cranks OK, but it sounds strange. Holding the throttle wide open will allow it to run at idle, but as soon as you let off the throttle at all the engine stalls. It had jumped time. After talking to several of the people who owned the car, I was able to ascertain what happened. Grandmother had given the car to grandson the night before, and grandson decided that he was a race car driver, and proceeded to beat the snot out of the car. He apparently thought that shifting an automatic manually was a good idea, and he managed to over-rev the engine, causing it to jump time. The owners of the car didn’t like hearing that their now dead engine was their own fault, so they sued the shop because “Right after we touched the car, the engine broke”. The court agreed with the customers, so my shop had to buy them an engine.
1992 Humvee: Bought from a military auction. Customer brings it to my shop for tires and an alignment. The truck won’t fit in the shop with the mirror attached, as it’s too wide. We use the 5-ton jack to replace the tires out in the parking lot, one corner at a time, as it’s simply too wide for our tire bays. After removing the exterior mirrors, we carefully drive it onto the alignment rack. The rack is unable to lift the truck. This rack is rated for 10,000 lbs, and it can’t pick this truck up. Apparently, the customer had added armor plating to it for reasons unknown. He was a nice enough guy, with more money than sense. I wound up using jack stands, string and a machinists rule to set the front toe on that big green monster.
1999 Toyota Sienna: Towed in with a no crank condition. Jump starting has no effect. Tapping the starter with a hammer while turning the hey has no effect. We push the van inside. The battery tests fine. I remove the starter and test it on the work bench. It spins just fine when we feed it 12 volts from an old battery used solely for that purpose, so I know the starter’s good. The wiring checked out OK, as well as the fuses and relays and such. I put the starter motor back on and pull the oil dipstick. It’s bone dry. I put a breaker bar on the crank pulley bolt and try to spin the engine over. It won’t turn. The engine’s locked up. I overheard the boss talking to the customer who owned the thing, and he was asking her if any of the lights on the dash were on before the engine stopped running. She said that the “watering can” was lit up, which didn’t make sense because it had plenty of washer fluid in it. Apparently, the bright red oil light looked to her like a watering can, which as far as she was concerned meant that the washer fluid was low.
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