Mechanic TERROR stories.....

[mrvette]

there should probably be another section of threads devoted to why you don't let someone else work on your vehicles. bubba strikes again!



Above pirated from another thread.....so anyone with terror stories???

Mine was paying a week's take home wages to get a starter replaced on my '60 vette in '66......at that point, I figgered if I can built electronics crapola I have to buy tools and learn about cars.....


BTW, the starter failed in 6 months...again...

:twitch:

 

[SmokinBBC]

Had the upper a arm bushings replaced. The shaft bolt somehow came off when turning a corner and the wheel cocked forward.

Man I wanted to kill that SOB who did the job:cussing:






...................then I remember that it was me who did the job:suicide::smash:

 

[73 Mike]

I have a good number of these, but the one that pissed me off the most was on my 77 Camero. When I changed my fuel pump, I ended up getting crap in the fuel line. As a result, the carb started flooding at random intervals though typically at highway speed where it would accelerate uncontrolably until it flooded and died. Very exciting. :crap:

I was working 16 hours a day at the time and couldn't afford to be without the car so I kept driving until it got well beyond dangerous. I had the rebuild kit but simply didn't have the time to do it so I dropped it off at Canadian Tire and told them EXACTLY what I wanted them to do, a carb rebuild. I then walked home so I could sleep 5 hours between shifts.

I walked back and was handed a report that said I had low compression in 3 of the 8 cylinders. It was fairly amazing, and probably the result of sleep deprivation, that I didn't kill someone then and there. When I finally calmed down enough to insist on seeing the store manager, I ended up with no charge and $100 in gift certificates (presumably a reward for not killing his mechanices).

As an aside, I ended up rebuilding the carb on the side of highway 401 right near the 400 (Torontonians will appreciate this) on a Friday afternoon before a holiday weekend when the car died in traffic and simply wouldn't start again. A cop that checked to see what I was doing on the side of the road couldn't believe it though he did let me finish.

 

[clutchdust]

a good friend of mine got bit by the bug a few years back. i told him to find a car and i would inspect it for him. he calls me two weeks later to inform me of the good news. he brings by his freshly purchased '81/auto and all i could say is :cussing:
the wiring was just hashed, in fact it caught on fire (very slightly) when a frayed battery cable shorted to the frame. there was so much small stuff wrong it was just scary. but the very worst problem was some dumbass had been working on the rear suspension and put one of the cam bolts in strut rods backwards. the result was a bolt that stuck into the fiberglass spring 3/4". he called a couple weeks later to tell me that as the car was just sitting in the garage one day, the spring failed and it dropped hard on the stops, causing the rear glass to break. (i'm still surprised it failed with that catastrophic results while just sitting)