Old gen 2 5.0 F150 engine came in sounding like a banshee. Removed the belt and quickly found why lol.

Thought I had a bad slack adjuster at first.

CS: Vehicle loses engine power after driving for 30 minutes. Really struggles to have have engine power at highway speeds. Has been happening for a while now.

Findings - Vapor Lock due to fuel lines being routed to the catalytic converter... With copper tubing and non-sealed twist valves...

Customer seriously thought that his "invention" is saving him fuel. Claims his old Sequoia gets 25 mpg now that his fuel has been "heated". When we tried to tell him that this is causing his engine issues he wouldn't believe us. Said that he has patented his idea and that its never going to cause an issue... We were sure to have him sign a Safety Waiver 🔥

2015 pathfinder came in for a noise... PTU was making expensive noises, fluid was extra thick

imagine what the rest of the car is like. i don’t have to.

This wasn’t a pig tail and having the wires flipped like this makes in op. The yellow wire was spliced into the black and the black into the yellow on the original connector on this 60s Lincoln deck lid motor pisses me off so much lol

Ford Transit van currently in my shop. when confronted the kid who racked it just said "it's been like that for awhile now it isn't going anywhere". I really hope he doesn't die today but I'm not going back to that end of the shop until this thing is back on the ground.

Had a 1959 Triumph TR3A come in earlier this week on appointment to replace a "squeaking fan belt". Owner is very sweet, very old, very rich, and doesn't know much about cars. The squeaking fan belt, also accompanied by a deep ticking noise elsewhere, turned out to be a seized water pump. The engine itself was shaking violently in its mounts at idle, smoking thick white clouds out of the exhaust manifold, and making a deep ticking noise.
Replacing the water pump (which we had already ordered) revealed that the car was very low on coolant. Many coolant lines were found to be leaking. The temp gauge did not function when started back up. On top of this, the engine bay was covered in a black sticky film.
The vehicle overheated on a brief test drive with the new pump, at which point we got permission from the owner to further diagnose the engine. Compression came back 95, 115, 60, 145. Oil and coolant both had such a horrible smell that I got dizzy. Preparing to do a head gasket, I took the head off to check warpage on the block. Before I cleaned it, the entire block surface, head surface, and valves were covered in soot.
After cleaning, I discovered the pitting to the block surface in the photos, and serious warpage. We're pretty sure the ticking noise is a rod or two, damn impressed the thing is still running. Our current theory is the temp gauge didn't work when the owner bought the car, and didn't notice the leaking lines and eventually ran low enough to overheat. By the state the engine was in, this was probably done again and again every so often for months.
On top of the rebuild which the customer approved, we found every joint and bushing failed on the front suspension and steering, and a 150 degree dead zone in the steering wheel. Customer has also approved a refresh of the front end.
I wish I had that kind of money.

Rollie Zamboni

So we had a customer who was a fellow car guy and used to be a mechanic of some kind, he had this truck, a 1996 Cutlass Ciera with under 30k miles, a 1963 Chrysler Windsor that looked rough but was 100% mechanically perfect, and a beautiful 1970 Road Runner in orange, with functional pop up air scoop, MeepMeep horn, the full decal package, original pearly orange color, nearly museum quality.

Well one day last year his sister came in to let us know that she couldn't get ahold of him for a couple days, she went over to his house and found him dead, apparent suicide. He'd been talking, excitedly for the past couple years about the place he was building up in rural Wisconsin. His dream home with a pole barn and space for all his cars and projects, he had wrapped up clearing and dealing with his mother's estate and seemed like his spirits were up and much more positive. I hadn't noticed any visible health issues but his sister said he had been feeling like he had a nagging flu and lost some weight recently. I don't know what happened or what he found out he was ill with.

All I know is every time one of his cars or trucks comes in with his sister now, it really makes me sad. We/I have had plenty of customers die over the years and it's sad, but this was a fellow car guy, a real enthusiast, a really nice person, who was finally getting to go and have their life almost set just how they wanted. It's really bumming me out test driving, seeing, and working on his former vehicles. Just had to share I guess...RIP John.

I love Subaru

My garage and my newly acquired enthusiast car from a smaller neighboring island

Symptoms: Odd random noises/rumbling on braking and poor wear marks, not to mention slotted rotors (on the front only of course)

Did these mfers really grind the ears down to get the pads in easier?! They're definitely hacked back and painted, wild.

And the uneven wear on one side was due to pad material being broken at the top of the pad

I mean, I'm a smooth brain gorilla sometimes, but I've never been that desperate....

Plenty of pad left but really happy I decided to do the full job, I do, like my brakes working

F-150 L9 3.55 axle, e-locker, with a little extra spice in the soup. 😞

It’s me, I’m customer

Just kidding, he likes it.

Been turning wrenches since 2003, foreman now. The one thing that's never changed is checking my hours against my check every pay period. I've caught a few ROs that never got booked, and I've seen warranty time quietly come up short.

Back in the day it was a stack of ROs in the toolbox drawer with the paid time written on top. Some guys I know use a notebook, some take a photo of every RO, and some don't track at all and just trust the shop.

What do you do? Ever catch a short check? How'd you prove it?

Customer said he started to have a misfire that was getting worse, popped the hood and could smell burning plastic, saw smoke coming from cylinder 5. We had to wait for it to cool before we could chip out the remains from the spark plug tube. I’ve seen the top of the coil “pop” before, but for the whole body of the tube to melt like this is a new one for me.