volvoclearinghouse wrote:BrokenYugo wrote: There really should be licensing requirements for buying RTV.There also really should be licensing requirements for buying basic automotive tools.
I work as a Sales/Tech for ATI and sometimes the people you talk to make you want to bite your tongue when you realise they don't have a clue. I get off the phone and and say please step away from the toolbox!
all hammers should have serial numbers, ever seen rtv in a sundstrand hydrostatic unit? still have shivers .
So today, I'm doing intake gaskets on what is probably the last TBI van in the state. Ignoring my current burning desire to send in drone strikes to wipe Elkhart, IN off the map:
Thermostat had been replaced. This is the type that seals the thermostat with a captivated O-ring that has a groove that the thermostat sits in, and there is a recess in the intake manifold to accept this O-ring.
What there was, was the thermostat sans O-ring was plopped down loosely into the hole. The purge solenoid bracket was sitting on the intake manifold, and a cheapo E-Z-Fail plastic composition SBC (not Vortec) style gasket was over the bracket. Then the thermostat housing was on top. So about three different reasons why it was wrong. Oddly enough, it was leaking, despite about a tube's worth of orange silicone. Given the way the silicone came off by lifting, no cleaning was done before the caulking/spackling was performed.
Just another example of someone working very hard to do a bad job.
(Also, the reason the intake was leaking was all of the bolts were finger tight. Torque spec is 35ft-lb, which is somewhat scary on those teeny little bolts, but that's what Chevy said, so that's what Knurled did, since if they cared enough to give a spec then I'll care enough to follow it)
Latest, Mazda 3 PO complaint. So I decided to get the ac squared away this weekend since the PO said when I bought it the ac worked, but all I'm getting was hot air with the ac on. I figured it was just low on refrigerant so I hook up the recharge hose and notice the pressure is in the red. So didn't add any and let some pressure out on the high side, do that until it was in the add (green section on the gauge). Add a little and it goes straight to the red section again. I guess that it needs to have all the pressure out so I do that but it still keeps doing the same thing. Then I notice the clutch is not engaging and make a mental note to find a replacement part online fearing the worst I would have to replace it. Before I do that however I check the manual and find that the first thing to check is the fuse. So I go to check the fuse and notice that the slot is empty but there is a 10amp fuse in a slot that shouldn't have one in it and sure enough it was the ac fuse......WTF! First why would you remove the ac fuse if it were not blown in the first place? Much less put it back in the wrong slot afterwards? Anyway long story short I put the fuse where it was supposed to clutch works fine and I was able to add refrigerant ac works great but only after a couple of hours of head scratching that I shouldn't have had to do just because of the incompetent PO.
No one has the time to do it right, but everyone has the time to do it again.
I once had an engine loose oil pressure and toast itself because whoever replaced the oil pan used way too much rtv and large chunks broke off inside the pan and completely blocked the oil pickup. It was a VW 1.8t so I figured it was a sludge problem, when I tore it down to rebuild and saw what actually happened I wanted to harm somebody
Latest one...last weekend I went to change the oil for the first time after putting some seafoam in the crankcase to dissolve all the old sludge and varnish (worked fantastic by the way really quieted the engine down and the oil came out black as midnight) when I went to get the old drain plug out Mr. RTV had been here too....luckily this was much easier to remove although the old bolt was mangled and I replaced it with a new one. Guess this guy didn't realize that you just need a drain plug crush washer to seal this at least the threads were not messed up like I thought they might be due to the unneeded sealant. Maybe this guy just liked adding silicone to everything.
Did you read about where the PO for my Accord wired the left headlight to the right side circuit by running a wire along the top of the radiator support because he blew a fuse?
I also saw one when I was shopping for Tunawife's first car a decade ago. It was a Civic with goofy idiotic headlights. I figured it was clean enough and I could just swap them out, so we took it for a drive. I popped the hood with it idling at some parking lot, and saw twist ties, like the ones you close a bag of bread with, holding the new headlight wires to the harness, and when we walked around to the back, we could hear the engine missing every time the hazard lights blinked on.
I just handed the keys back to the guy and left. I didn't even bother explaining what he did.
There also really should be licensing requirements for buying basic automotive tools.
Really hope you're joking. I screwed up things a million times when I was 16 but holy hell did learn a lot. I'm still learning. Let em screw it up. I hate doing things twice but I get a lot of satisfaction maintaining my fleet.
OK since we're talking about previous hackjobs:
'03 Kawi Z1000: drove 3 hours to look at this bike, only to find that not only had it been repainted ("never down", 2000 miles), the paint shop clearcoated over the break-in sticker. I wish I was joking, but the PO actually tried to convince me that that's how the bike was sold from the showroom. I couldn't believe it. Luckily he dropped the price so drastically I ended up selling it for more than I paid a few years later.
'97 Kawi ZX-6R. "The Rear Brake doesn't work" This was a race bike. Why? Rear brake wasn't bled. That's it. 10 seconds of work. ON A RACE BIKE USED FOR YEARS ON THE TRACK.
'06 Yammi R6. This is one of the worst I've ever seen. Bought this with a small leak from the right engine cover - guy swore it just needed a gasket. Got it home, found out that that not only was part of the case broken off (replaced cover only), but to compensate the PO overtightened half the remaining screws to the point of pulling out all the threads in the case. Fixed with careful aluminum putty and several helicoils. God this makes my blood boil.
'02 WRX: Mechanic overtorqued the bolts on the timing belt guide to the point where it broke the timing cover and then the guide started rubbing into the belt. I caught it before it gutted it, thankfully.
Funny that I look back most of the hackjobs were on bikes.
Since we're on motorcycles. In 2008 I bought a Shovelhead ridgid frame. Guy sold it as kick start only but he'd put lots of money into a high torque starter, upgraded battery, upgraded charging system and other things. When I got to looking at it I saw a tiny 20 guage wire was the ground for the engine. Got a heavy guage wire out of my stash and it button started minutes later.
Same guy hands me the keys and there's a 1/4 inch wrench on it. Something tells me to ask. He says oh it probably won't happen to you but sometimes the front brake starts applying itself. Just crack the bleeder to relieve the pressure and it's fine. Of course it happens on the way home. He had put the rotor in backwards causing it to rub. As the heat built up the fluid expanded ...
I brought a car home after fixing the "drive noise" the seller talked about. The fix involved tightening all 20 lugnuts, most of which were 1 or 2 turns loose. When I got home, I decided to do some checking... and ended up torquing almost Every. Single. Fastener. On the car. Engine mounts, shock tower bolts, seat rail bolts, all subframe bolts, it was friggin crazy. Like the whole car had been taken apart and then reassembled finger tight.
Ive seen copper pipe siliconed into a drain plug hole with a ball valve om the end. Sounds genius until you realize it was the lowest point on the truck buy a good 5 inches.
Stripped drain plugs held in by silicone are rather common. Seen an oil pan that started rusting coated in silicone. Looked like a diaper full of oil.
On the POS Jeep Patriot (which if I'm fortunate will be someone else's problem as of this evening...) that had a rusted-through front sway bar mount, some PO in lieu of fixing it properly and replacing the subframe (like I had to do) jury-rigged a conglomeration of bolts and angle iron to make a very loose bracket to hold that side roughly in place. The problem was that they bolted it to the subframe where another factory brace also bolted- and doing so make removing EITHER of them a nightmare due to clearance issues. I had to remove two decent-length bolts. One. Click. At. A. Time. on the ratchet.
Stampie wrote: Since we're on motorcycles. In 2008 I bought a Shovelhead ridgid frame. Guy sold it as kick start only but he'd put lots of money into a high torque starter, upgraded battery, upgraded charging system and other things. When I got to looking at it I saw a tiny 20 guage wire was the ground for the engine. Got a heavy guage wire out of my stash and it button started minutes later. Same guy hands me the keys and there's a 1/4 inch wrench on it. Something tells me to ask. He says oh it probably won't happen to you but sometimes the front brake starts applying itself. Just crack the bleeder to relieve the pressure and it's fine. Of course it happens on the way home. He had put the rotor in backwards causing it to rub. As the heat built up the fluid expanded ...
GAAA!! SHOVELHEAD!!! KILL IT WITH FIRE!!!
Sorry, I was having a flashback to shovelhead dazes. Did it have "Harley Rider Electrics?" That is, 3 or 4 wire tap crimp thingies in series to replace something like the brake light wire under the fender?
Been helping my stepson with his MK2 MR2. Man, it is like some 17 year old kid owned it last. Stereo only played through 1 speaker, of the 6. A little google-fu and we find it was a $19.97 head unit at wally world. Start tearing it apart. It looks like they tried to hook all the front speakers to the left channel sub woofer output and all the rear speakers to the right channel sub woofer output. How one speaker made any noise at all is beyond me, as there are 3 amps in that car that are fed by the head unit. Just not that head unit. There was a wire running from the battery positive to a inline fuse through the front firewall and then jammed into a fuse at the fuse block. It went into a fuse that is always on anyway. The head unit was jammed into the mounting bracket. No screws, just jammed in there.
Dr. Hess wrote:Stampie wrote: Been helping my stepson with his MK2 MR2. Man, it is like some 17 year old kid owned it last. Stereo only played through 1 speaker, of the 6. A little google-fu and we find it was a $19.97 head unit at wally world. Start tearing it apart. It looks like they tried to hook all the front speakers to the left channel sub woofer output and all the rear speakers to the right channel sub woofer output. How one speaker made any noise at all is beyond me, as there are 3 amps in that car that are fed by the head unit. Just not that head unit. There was a wire running from the battery positive to a inline fuse through the front firewall and then jammed into a fuse at the fuse block. It went into a fuse that is always on anyway. The head unit was jammed into the mounting bracket. No screws, just jammed in there.I hope you did what I would have done and just ripped all that garbage out and installed better stuff from that point. Makes for an excellent hack job post though.
Ashyukun wrote: On the POS Jeep Patriot (which if I'm fortunate will be someone else's problem as of this evening...) that had a rusted-through front sway bar mount, some PO in lieu of fixing it properly and replacing the subframe (like I had to do) jury-rigged a conglomeration of bolts and angle iron to make a very loose bracket to hold that side roughly in place. The problem was that they bolted it to the subframe where another factory brace also bolted- and doing so make removing EITHER of them a nightmare due to clearance issues. I had to remove two decent-length bolts. One. Click. At. A. Time. on the ratchet.
LOL! this reminds me of how the rear wheel on my mini bike was when I first got it! The wheel had been bolted together with odd bolts and didn't have the center bearing in it causing the spacer outside the wheel to eat into the swing arm. that thing was a horror show.
Stripped drain plugs held in by silicone are rather common. Seen an oil pan that started rusting coated in silicone. Looked like a diaper full of oil.
This is what I was thinking the reason for the Silicone when I saw it had been applied. so I got a new bolt at the same time anticipating having to get an oversized one and figuring I would have to tap the hole out for an oversized bolt. Luckily that was not the case and it was just a case of silicone addiction.
Yeah, I'm working on it. He bought a MechLess Kenwood that I'll wire up. Another problem is that the factory harness plug has about half the wires cut and reattached with crimp butt connectors. And many of those were not done right whenever they were put in. So I need to make a new harness from the Kenwood to the factory plug and pull all that crap off the back of the factory plug and repair it properly. Then we can find out if the 3 factory amps are still working. I suspect they are, because we dug into this to fix a parasitic battery drain that I think was because the 3 amps were powered up all the time instead of switched via the head unit.
Helped a friend put an idler arm on his 4x4 Blazer, the worn one that came out was an aftermarket unit, mounted with the bracket flipped the wrong way, with no grease in it beyond the minimal amount of E36 M3 grease the Chinese factory puts in them. One end didn't even have the zerk installed.
Jay_W wrote: I brought a car home after fixing the "drive noise" the seller talked about. The fix involved tightening all 20 lugnuts, most of which were 1 or 2 turns loose. When I got home, I decided to do some checking... and ended up torquing almost Every. Single. Fastener. On the car. Engine mounts, shock tower bolts, seat rail bolts, all subframe bolts, it was friggin crazy. Like the whole car had been taken apart and then reassembled finger tight.
I bought a car from a good friend. After about a month of driving it, I put it on an alignment rack because it felt funny.
All of the castellated nuts in the steering (and as a recirculating ball system, it had plenty) were tightened finger tight then backed off 1/8 turn or until a cotter pin hole lined up. Fortunately none of the tapers were wallowed out, everything tightened down just fine.
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