Had a guy with a datsun pu and heater core vent out. Sooo..he took a piece of galvanized water pipe, screwed to top of dash board and heater hose on each end. I think he worked on Porsches when not doing hvac.

I had a customer use a piece of wood instead of a spring! (Har, har, oh I crack myself up.)

Quote
heymagic
I'm sure everyone has some stories. When you do this everyday you get to see more.

Brand new brake pads install metal side to rotor.

Hey, I actually DID that one. Slapping old pads onto the car, one of the pads fell out before I coulod slap the caliper down over them, pads were so worn that the shim and friction material were about the same thickness... It took a day for it to start grinding. I figured it was just a rusty pad and it'd go away. (The "turn the radio up" school of auto repair) A week later, it's still kinda grinding, so I take a look...

I still catch crap for that.

A "repair gone wrong" (and not just vehicular neglect like the Mercedes that ate a water pump hard, shredding the belt, and they kept driving it until the battery died) that sticks in my memory was a project car brought to us to "finish putting together". Of course a lot of the actual components were missing. On the engine itself (which was a "rebuilt" SBC, I think a 307), there were no tight fasteners. The carb was held on loosely, with no gasket, the exhaust manifolds were held on loosely, various threaded plugs on the heads and intake manifold were missing, the bellhousing was held in by three bolts, etc.

We installed an oil filter, pulled the distributor to prime the engine. Pulled the valve covers to check for oil flow from the pushrods and - surprise surprise! - all of the rocker nuts were installed about a half-turn. (I hasten to point out that the valve cover bolts were among the very few fasteners that were actually tightened down) I wonder what would have happened if someone would have tried to start the engine with 3/4" of lash. Probably bounce the pushrods out and have them land in the rotating assembly... Anyway, after I adjusted the valves, I pop in the dummy distributor and a mechanical pressure gauge and start to prime the engine. After five or six seconds the drill loads down nicely, no oil pressure yet. Drill is workin' hard. Still no oil pressure. Drill still workin' hard. Drill spins freely. Ut-oh. I should across the shop: "Hey, do I have a large-and-growing under the car?" He looks down, eyes go wide, nods, and runs for the rag bin.

Five quarts of yummy expensive break-in oil exited the engine from the three core plugs that were SUPPOSED to be in the back of the block. The oil destroyed the clutch disk, as well.

Engine out, flywheel off, flashlight through the oil galleries, and we can see timing gear. None of the internal plugs were installed.

Extra bonus points is that, looking through the plug holes, we could see that it had new standard-size pistons in it, little shiny dingleberry-hone crosshatch marks, and HUGE vertical graunch marks in the bores like the engine'd tried to chew something big and got bits stuck in the pistons. I hope he didn't pay much for that "rebuild"...

---

Pete Remner
Cleveland, Ohio

1984 RX-7 (rallycross thing)
1978
Silence is golden, but duct tape is silver.

Quote
Doivi Clarkinen
I had a customer use a piece of wood instead of a spring! (Har, har, oh I crack myself up.)

They do that here in the ghetto to lift the suspension a few inches to clear the 26" rims. 2x4's or phone books wedged in the springs.

Quote
Doivi Clarkinen
I had a customer use a piece of wood instead of a spring! (Har, har, oh I crack myself up.)

Oh, you knotty boy...

Automotive stuff I've seen wrong...





Pontiac Aztec


Sean Gallagher

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2WD...Less Traction More Action!



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/20/2013 08:00PM by stgallagher.

Better than a Nissan Juke. Those look like a toad.

Tim.

Not exactly a one-way street. I've seen and heard of some absolutely astounding stuff coming out of 'reputable' shops as well.

Lots of small stuff
- wheel nuts not torqued, flying off on the highway
- wheel nuts over torqued, can't budge them with normal lug wrench
- Wrong battery put in car (worn out battery back in car)
- 710 cap left off
- dipstic left on fender
- tools left on fender/elsewere

Bigger ones:
- hood damaged when it hit the ceiling on a hoist being raised (700 series volvos at the dealership when they first came out. 90deg hood opening...
- cars falling off hoists
- cars returned to the customer without engine oil / coolant

I've seen all of the above, this one I can't verify but have from a good source.
- An engine rebuild being put together with the wrong intake manifold. Started and ran on a dry start and hydrolocked instantly when coolant was added.

---

First Rally: 2001
Driver (7), Co-Driver (44)
Drivers (16)
Clerk (10), Official (7), Volunteer (4)
Cars Built (1), Engines Built (0) Cages Built (0)
Last Updated, January 4, 2015

Quote
john vanlandingham
Blame is for idiots. losers.

I've had the oil thing happen in a shop where I worked. Four times in one summer.

What would happen would be, Tech A would be pulled off of a car in order to do something even more important, then Manager B would see the car on the ground and helpfully back it out for him without first asking if it's done.

A shocking number of cars don't turn the oil pressure light on right away. Some take 10 or more seconds.

My solution is simple: I absolutely, positively refuse to walk away from a vehicle until I'm done adding fluids/torquing wheels/doing whatever. I'm never told that there's something more important than that, so we have an understanding.

---

Pete Remner
Cleveland, Ohio

1984 RX-7 (rallycross thing)
1978
Silence is golden, but duct tape is silver.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/21/2013 07:23AM by Pete.

The no oil thing.... I have never done it in 20 years, but I worked at a shop where a tech forgot to put oil in a chevy truck, the truck died 2 blocks from the shop on his test drive. I went and towed him back, then he spent an hour trying to figure out why the starter would not crank the engine! I walked over, recomended that he put a wrench to the crank, and maybe check the oil.....

I had a car come into the shop when I still lived in Vegas with a funnel and garden hose taped to the A pillar so the customer could fill the radiator on the go due to the leaking radiator.

I left rear lugs loose once. Got pulled off the job before I could tighten them. Lot boy took the car to deliver it. He felt a wobble and went back to the dealership told the service manager. The SM told him he was stupid and hurry up get the Jeep delivered. Wheel fell off about 3 blocks later. I didn't even get yelled at. Service manager did...

How about the leave the drain plug out and pour oil all over the shop floor or the old gasket stuck on the motor under the new oil filter and resulting oil spray.

Dealership service managers...(and I was one )... New SM pulled truck into hoist too fast (showing off) blew rf tire. Special order Goodyear took 3 days too get. SM was back in shop being an annoyance, stepped backwards into drain pan of anti-freeze. SM hit auto shut on overhead door...while customer was waiting for trafic. Pushed back of car down to within 2 inches of cement. SM got caught playing with RC car in alley while people were standing at service counter. SM got caught watching porn upstairs instead of factory training film. SM was sitting in car hitting on customers wife in the service drive. 3 techs flagged 1/2 hour each because we couldn't get cars out..we got paid and I don't think he got laid.

Vented yo...



With the rise of the "tech schools" the quality has gone down. Green techs, combined with the DIY dubber(dumber) crowd, makes for some interesting days in our shop. The noobs are so proud that they graduated from UTI(sounds painful) and are ready to make the 6 figures they were told so much about in school....

After seeing all that goes on at shops, even brand dealerships, I'm so glad I can work on my own cars...

---

Less talk. More rally.

Quote
Ckgtimk2
Vented yo...



With the rise of the "tech schools" the quality has gone down. Green techs, combined with the DIY dubber(dumber) crowd, makes for some interesting days in our shop. The noobs are so proud that they graduated from UTI(sounds painful) and are ready to make the 6 figures they were told so much about in school....

After seeing all that goes on at shops, even brand dealerships, I'm so glad I can work on my own cars...

Seen it a few times of street cars, common denominator for this equation was a chick's car.

Also seen it at the track, NASCAR races happens often, when the pad material delaminates the backing plate starts to do that, and if its close to the end of the race they just keep going vs going in to fix it.

Quote

Seen it a few times of street cars, common denominator for this equation was a chick's car.

Common denominator when I've seen that is they were boys who smoke da spliff, Eye mon.

Quote

Also seen it at the track, NASCAR races happens often, when the pad material delaminates the backing plate starts to do that, and if its close to the end of the race they just keep going vs going in to fix it.

Yikes! (but truth is I did it once myself)

---

John Vanlandingham
Sleezattle, WA, USA

Vive le Prole-le-ralliat

www.rallyrace.net/jvab
CALL +1 206 431-9696
Remember! Pacific Standard Time
is 3 hours behind Eastern Standard Time.

I have only been in auto service as a service advisor for 18 mo. but this is a few of the good ones:

Brake pad shims came loose and one end cut through the rotor hat turning it into a two piece rotor.

Both outer tie rods in a blazer put in upside down.

Filled brake resevoir with washer fluid.

Calipers upside down.

House light switch wired into a car, not sure what it did as tech was scared to flip it.

Super glue over hole in tire sidewall. It was working.

Spare tire on backwards.

Restaurant to go box lid used in place of broken headlights lense.

Hood chained shut.

Need to think more.