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Barbara’s van is certainly a unique specimen. I think you would agree that the Chrysler products of that era were substandard. I’m not saying bury it out in the back, but it’s hard to win when you start with a substandard product to work on in the first place. I think it was in your 2nd “Day at the shop” video where you got pretty visibly angry with the van and Chrysler. You said something along the lines of “Congratulations, Chrysler, you made your vans disposable!” I forget exactly what you were referring to on that van, but that’s what you said. This might even go back to engineers hating mechanics and mechanics hating engineers, who knows. I don’t want to get too far afield. In my limited experience in repairing cars, I usually just work on my own. I did have a problem with my old Toyota (RIP) where a shop put on the lug nuts too tight with an impact and I couldn’t get the nuts off for a while. The covers on the nuts would come off and with the tin covers gone it shaved off 1mm and the lug wrench wouldn’t fit and then I would round the nut off. I had to borrow a special tool from a shop to get them all off. What a nightmare. To this day I refuse to let any shop bolt tires to any of my vehicles.
Nick from Pittsburgh
You are correct. There are some models that seem to be jinxed. You diagnose a problem, and then repair it. Then the same (or similar problem) comes up with the next piece down the line. And it seems forever that you work over and over and over on this thing before it is finally corrected. That’s when you realize you have spend more time and money doing this repair than if you simply replaced the entire system (like a/c) in the first place.
But a lot of times it is just parts failing one at a time because the entire unit is bad. I once had a vacuum leak on a 350 ci Chevy that kept me going from one vacuum line to another. In the end I replaced every vacuum line and gasket on the intake of that engine. As I replaced one hose, another would bite the ghost. And eventually the gaskets started. I did an complete intake manifold gasket replacement only to finally realize that it was all old and dry rotting.
You got to love them, but they can drive you crazy. (And families are like that too.)
JD
[quote=”Hockeyclark” post=148371]Barbara’s van is certainly a unique specimen. I think you would agree that the Chrysler products of that era were substandard. I’m not saying bury it out in the back, but it’s hard to win when you start with a substandard product to work on in the first place. I think it was in your 2nd “Day at the shop” video where you got pretty visibly angry with the van and Chrysler. You said something along the lines of “Congratulations, Chrysler, you made your vans disposable!” I forget exactly what you were referring to on that van, but that’s what you said. This might even go back to engineers hating mechanics and mechanics hating engineers, who knows. I don’t want to get too far afield. In my limited experience in repairing cars, I usually just work on my own. I did have a problem with my old Toyota (RIP) where a shop put on the lug nuts too tight with an impact and I couldn’t get the nuts off for a while. The covers on the nuts would come off and with the tin covers gone it shaved off 1mm and the lug wrench wouldn’t fit and then I would round the nut off. I had to borrow a special tool from a shop to get them all off. What a nightmare. To this day I refuse to let any shop bolt tires to any of my vehicles.
Nick from Pittsburgh[/quote]
Those cheap ass lug nuts are the bane of everyones existence. It has nothing to do with who’s servicing them. They just rust up and the covers come off. Dumbest design ever. They did it because they couldn’t afford the metal for the entire lug nut, so they just made the outside shiny and used cheap metal underneath. This is one of the things I was alluding to in my Domestic vs Import videos.
[quote=”Evil-i” post=148379]Calling that thing a boomerang is an insult to Australian Aboriginal culture.[/quote]
Apologies. 🙂
[quote=”jdmeaux1952″ post=148385]You are correct. There are some models that seem to be jinxed. You diagnose a problem, and then repair it. Then the same (or similar problem) comes up with the next piece down the line. And it seems forever that you work over and over and over on this thing before it is finally corrected. That’s when you realize you have spend more time and money doing this repair than if you simply replaced the entire system (like a/c) in the first place.
But a lot of times it is just parts failing one at a time because the entire unit is bad. I once had a vacuum leak on a 350 ci Chevy that kept me going from one vacuum line to another. In the end I replaced every vacuum line and gasket on the intake of that engine. As I replaced one hose, another would bite the ghost. And eventually the gaskets started. I did an complete intake manifold gasket replacement only to finally realize that it was all old and dry rotting.
You got to love them, but they can drive you crazy. (And families are like that too.)
JD[/quote]
No good deed goes unpunished. 🙂
I usually deal with difficult ones like this: After a few attempts to targeted fix the issue, I’ll give the customer two choices: Take your junk somewhere else, or I’ll have to replace the entire system involved. I remember this one guy who came in every other week with slow leaks in his tires. He had an old 1990s Impala SS and he had these ugly big alloy wheels on it, Made in China, no less, and he’d come in with bent rims or corrosion on the bead, or his tires would be full of Fix-A-Flat eating away at the aluminium. Finally after we tried to fix the issues for a few weeks, my manager gave me permission to advise the service advisor that we would no longer work on this car and its wheels unless he elected to get new OEM rims. He of course was mad, but regardless, we fired a customer who was a serious PITA.
I gave a name to my difficult one. It started with some editing and I did this:
Then a friend took my picture and did this for me:
It’s going to get anodized in gold on the bowtie and then the base behind the lettering will get dyed black and it’ll be the only part on the truck that works.
[quote=”no_common_sense” post=148583]I gave a name to my difficult one. It started with some editing and I did this:
Then a friend took my picture and did this for me:
It’s going to get anodized in gold on the bowtie and then the base behind the lettering will get dyed black and it’ll be the only part on the truck that works.[/quote]
Love it.
The foundational hallmark of good engineering design is that everything fails at once. The lifespan of every part is identical.
For the perfect car, there tires will wear out, the engine seize, the paint blows off, the wheel bearings rumble, the serpentine belt breaks, the door locks fail (etc.) all at exactly the same moment. Not a single good part is towed to the crusher.
The Chrysler minivan was apparently perfectly engineered.
Machines holding onto bad energy is a real thing. I have seen it. Irrational as it sounds, some of them just seem to have personalities. Not all of them good. We used to term these Monday or Friday cars, but I have never figured out whether whatever these problem cars have going is something in the actual construction of the vehicle, or acquired bad energy along the way. I have seen “bad” vehicles that caused repeated trouble for multiple techs, and my conclusion is to rid ones life of these problem child cars however it has to be done. I had a car once that was just like the one in the picture and it had a 351 and an FMX, and it had this bad stumble (engine layed completely down randomly), and generally problematically shifting as well electrical gremlins, and even after pulling the engine and having the engine rebuilt, it got more and ornery and problematic with each step. 3 other Techs scratching their heads later I had somebody trailer it off to a different state and it was the only solution. The engine ran so hot during break in that it actually dieseled to the point of running fully on its own with no spark. (yes kids, enough detonation will turn a gas 351 into a diesel) Electrical fires, carb problems with different parts, it’s like it was permanently pissed and needed to put to sleep. The person I bought the car from had mechanic attempt to tune it and finally gave up on it before I got it and should have known right then and there it was complete and utter lemon. At that point in time I just figured he was not well versed in Fords or something, but that wasn’t the case at all. I will always wonder to this day if I would have thrown all the running gear from one to the end to the other in the trash and start over fresh with a different engine, C4 trans and 9 inch if the car would have been savable, but my hunch was that whatever creepy crazy energy that horrible machine held was on a what would be considered a molecular or cellular level. A tainted object, not just parts. My proof that cars do hold an energy of sorts is James Deans Porsche. Creepy story worth reading up on. George Barris finally threw that one in the ocean, and rightfully so.
I feel your pain. Every time I try to do a favor for someone, the car turns into a nightmare. Starters turn into flexplates; belt replacements turn into harmonic balancers, water pumps, and power steering pumps; headlight jobs turn into wiring harness jobs.
It only happens when the owner can’t afford to have a shop do the easy job. “The shop wants $350 to change my starter and i just don’t have the money.” Sure. I’ll do it. I have at least a half hour open this week. Hey! Look at that! Your ring gear has no teeth. I’ll take care of it. Just drive my Altima until it’s finished.
Then the temperatures drop into the teens, the magic tissue paper holding some parts together has decided to dissolve, while other parts are inexplicably stuck, and the loaner Altima has developed a MIL and lost its idle. A half hour job has turned into a four day ordeal, the parts bill exceeds the original bill that the owner couldn’t afford, and there’s a ticket on the car because it has been on jackstands in your driveway for too long. You finish the job, only to have the owner call a week later to ask if the work you just did has anything to do with the brakes, because they werent making this noise before.
Good communication with the customer, whether directly from the technician to the customer or through a SW or SM, is crucial to how this goes. Some cars come in plain worn out, some come in with multiple problems. The issue comes where doing this one repair will make the vehicle like new again is implied or even right out promised, in the spirit of making a sale. However, it can backfire and unfortunately the technician gets bit the hardest.
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