Luckiliy smell-o-vision doesn't exist yet

..otherwise you would all hate me. I have the honor of working on this wonderful piece of machinery. Apparently the customer lives in this 2000 Audi A8 with her cats. The smell. Oh my god the smell. Sometimes I really hate my berkeleying job.

Luckily it's just a belt and fan clutch replacement. If it were ANY type of interior work it would be back on a tow truck and leaving my shop.

This is why I keep a respirator in my toolbox. Not to protect myself from the dangerous fumes and chemicals related to my job, but to protect me from vomiting in customer cars.

Welcome to the glamorous world of automotive repair.

I like working in an office where basically no customers ever visit. It's nice.

They don't visit because you guys all smell like the inside of a fake leg.

In reply to Appleseed:

lol

That is one of the worst ones I have seen. There was one car that came for inspection and I would not get in it. Just NASTY!!!!

At least the rainbow duct tape fixes make it look happy...

Just when I was considering a career change...

wow that's just upsetting. When I appraised cars for the Max, I'd run into this far to often. It was horrible, especially in the summer and no ac and having to do the 2 mile test drive. shudder

That is vile.

When I wrote service, we didn't have a full time porter, and often didn't have a porter at all if they were driving the shuttle van. There were a few occasions where I drew the proverbial line in the sand. Cars were so nasty, even with paper floor mats, plastic seat covers, and plastic steering wheel covers, I refused to get in them.

Last year I was supposed to replace the seatbelt on a Z3. When I went to unbolt the seat I found a pile of boogers stuck to the carpet. I sublet that job to the upholstery shop.

Methinks there's some mental illness at work there, unfortunately.

Tom_Spangler wrote: Methinks there's some mental illness at work there, unfortunately.

I'd take that bet, I appraised my fair share of hoarders vehicles in my time. It was always rough, not only for the state of the vehicle but seeing the people as well.

its been nearly 35 years... but I remember working on a Datsun 610 that was disgusting... and I HAD to work on the interior

After Dad retired he was handyman around the old neighborhood, carpentry, yard work n the like. One lady had her '81 Coupe De Ville at the dealer for a bad smell which they found nothing. Got worse over time.. like friggin' death. Images of Goodfellas body in the trunk scene 'bout now. Dad found a small ham had somehow fallen in a crevice in the trunk. Green, gooey n swelled up by then.

To this day I am paranoid about hauling groceries in the trunk and always do a double check. Still snicker tho.

Ohh things found in customer cars is always fun.

In reply to The Hoff:

So....she was temporarily homeless? Did she have a herd of cats on strings?

I replaced a water heater for a hoarder a couple years ago. It's surreal to go into a home and not be able to identify the room you're in from all the "treasures" they've piled up on every surface. No pets thankfully.

Mental illness is scary, it seems to creep up on some people.

KyAllroad wrote: I replaced a water heater for a hoarder a couple years ago. It's surreal to go into a home and not be able to identify the room you're in from all the "treasures" they've piled up on every surface. No pets thankfully. Mental illness is scary, it seems to creep up on some people.

I had a buddy in high-school who grew up in a house like that. I was over there several times, and his parents were not self-conscious about it at all. One day he got sick of all the E36 M3, and cleaned out the garage - took their 25 years worth of old newspapers and other trash to the curb. His parents got home from work, freaked on him, and made him carry it all back into the house.

bigdaddylee82 wrote: When I wrote service, we didn't have a full time porter, and often didn't have a porter at all if they were driving the shuttle van. There were a few occasions where I drew the proverbial line in the sand. Cars were so nasty, even with paper floor mats, plastic seat covers, and plastic steering wheel covers, I refused to get in them.

Hmmm, I always thought the floor mats, seat covers etc were to keep MY CAR clean from the mechanics greasy mitts. I never thought about the opposite scenario... yikes.

In reply to JamesMcD:

I had an aunt who was borderline like that. When she died in the mid-'80s, we cleaned out her apartment. She had unopened cans of tuna from the '50s, bales of neatly-clipped proofs of purchase from cigarette brands that had gone out of business in the '60s, untold newspapers, etc.

The absolute kicker was a bag clearly labelled PIECES OF STRING TOO SHORT TO SAVE that was, you guessed it, full of uselessly short pieces of string.

We had a customer that brought in an Excursion that they had been living in. The smell was horrendous. Turns out there was a bucket amongst the detritus that was the bathroom. We declined to work on it until it was cleaned out. It never came back.

mndsm wrote: In reply to The Hoff: So....she was temporarily homeless? Did she have a herd of cats on strings?

So she just picked up the car. Didn't see any cats with her, but she did have a dog. I think she parks at a nearby city park and lives in the car.

Have to wonder what led to this scenario. Driving an A8 you would assume there was money at one time. Mental illness and/or the death of a spouse is my assumption. Feel bad because the fan clutch bearing alone was $500. Add labor and a belt and it was a stupid expensive repair. The car still has a half dozen warning lights on and only runs on 6 or 7 of the 8 cylinders.

Pretty sure it just gets driven to new parking spots occasionally to avoid being towed.

i drive disability transit locally and i had a guy piss himself before i picked him up and then went on to E36 M3 himself while on my bus... what made it worse, there was liquid residue left on the seat when he go off my bus...

i had to air out the bus for 20 minutes and it still smelled so bad...

How soon till Wall-E confirms this?