This is why my dad made sure I knew what was under a hood and how to fix basics on my own. He raised me with the phrase, “Being a woman is no excuse for ignorance.” I am so glad as I grew up in the 60s and 70s before that became a pervasive concept. Miss him.
Oh damn we need more of these commercials that also act as a 5 minute school espically for cars cause man are people stupid aswell as IT I don't even know how some people make it luckily most of them just need to hear it to learn what they previously were doing was stupid and the ones that still manage to fail at simple tasks you will atleast know there true idiots
My whole country has mandatory safety inspections every year (well, every 14 months). The first inspection for a brand new vehicle has to be within 36 months, and the second inspection has to be at latest 24 months after that. After that it’s after 14 months over and over
I am so happy my country has mandatory safety inspections. I failed them once and you know what? I don't care. At least I know that (almost) all the cars have had a baseline maintenance done.
My state has safety and emissions. On some new cars like mine, there's any number of faults that can kick on the engine light, and prevent getting a valid sticker, that aren't really related to safety or emissions. Also, if you ignore it, the state won't let you register your car. So you can be left without the necessity of a vehicle, for the crime of not being able to pay for increasingly extortionate prices.
I saw a video not too long ago of some idiot arguing with a mechanic that he thought changing his oil just meant adding more oil to his car. He drove hundreds of miles just topping it off with more oil and not taking it in to the shop. He had to spend a fortune to get it fixed and he kept yelling at the shop owner how was he supposed to know what changing his oil means? The kicker? The video was uploaded by said idiot. He thought the internet was gonna be on his side as he berated this poor worker.
Story 58 perfectly illustrates why I will never willingly own or drive a modern car. They choose to put critical electronics, without which the car WILL NOT RUN, in the side-view mirror. The part of your car most likely to get damaged. Never thought I'd see the day when a shopping cart can total a car.
My personal favorite is that video of some lady who opened her door to pay a toll or something and her car shut off The door was stuck open because of where the payment thing was, and she couldn’t put it neutral without turning it on which she couldn’t, because the door was open no idea how you get into that situation, but it being possible is dumb enough on it’s own
Grew up with a dirt track stockcar in the garage and took auto mechanics in high school. As a woman it amazes me how many shops think I'm stupid. Still change my own oil, much cheaper!
My dad was a mechanic for years when I was younger, probably upwards of 10 years. The worst thing he saw, that he told me, was someone without working breaks. Like the one guy in one of the stories, they had to use the emergency brake to stop. Biggest problem: it was a pregnant woman!! My dad said she wanted it fixed but they couldn’t do it immediately, she tried to take the car and drive home!!! They wouldn’t let her.
Re: your poll about car education in high school: I was in the very last semester of free Driver's Ed classes offered in public high schools (1999). The teacher strongly recommended that anyone who planned to drive a car should take a semester of basic Auto Tech, ESPECIALLY girls. I did so, and to this day I do my own basic car maintenance (I drive old cars). Both Driver's Ed and Auto Tech have been removed from most public schools. Succeeding generations of drivers neither understand how to drive, nor how their vehicles work. It would be exceedingly expensive to bring Auto Tech back. Contemporary cars have software that is proprietary to each make; while the mechanical bits work on the same basic principles, the software raises a prominent middle finger to anyone who wishes to DIY. Damn the man! We have a right to repair! #RepairManifesto
me too, felt a bit of nostalgia too, I had an old Nissan 300ZX myself I ended up selling for $500 to a person renting the house across the road, sadly the part I needed was more than the car was worth , the computer chip for engine management, (was a lot more wrong including a big dent where a truck hit me), I told him, but he still bought it thinking he could at least sell it for parts, one day he actually got it started but never again, fortunately they took it when they moved, was worried as I was the last registered owner and would end up abandoned. (no it was not a good car, I only paid 3K for it myself years before) that car was a money pit.
If someone had pulled that move on me, and then gloated about it like that, they would quickly find their name in the newspaper under the "recent deaths" section.
Confession time. I was helpin s buddy flush out his coolant as part of regular maintenance and at some point we ran of of containers to hold all the coolant. Sooo i used an old gas can i had to hold it. A few months late i had completely forgotten abt this and i went to clean out my truck. Decided the gas can was too old to rlly keep and thought hey ill just dump the little gas left in here in my truck. It was the can we used for the coolant. Within 2 minutes truck broke down wouldn't start. Then it hit me what had happened. Ended up needing a tow and had to drop my gas tank to empty it and rinse it out with more gas. Learning experience ig. ALWAYS label your gas cans when u pit something thats not gas in it. Better yet dont use gas cans for anything but gas.
lol that reminds me of when I had room mates. I had 2 jerry cans in the garage. I was reasonably certain someone was stealing gas, so I filled the gas can with diesel. One room mate's car mysteriously stopped working.
This video is both hilarious and terrifying! It's crazy to think people would pour oil into a radiator or add gasoline to a diesel truck. It's a good reminder to always double-check what you're doing or leave it to the professionals if you're unsure.
Im not a mechanic, but I'm also by no means financially strong. It costs too much to fix my car, as it needs a heater core replaced, fog lights replaced, the fuses all replaced, the coolant flushed, the oil and filter changed, and probably a priest to bless it.
Oil and filter change should be doable yourself, provided the filter is trivially accessible. Also, if it’s remotely modern (or at least, anything like the cars whose fuses I’ve looked at), it has a fuse box somewhere accessible and you can buy and replace them yourself. Might wanna grab needle nose pliers or spend a couple bucks on the dedicated tool so you can grip them. Made sure to examine them - if they’re the same kind of car fuse I’ve seen (translucent plastic, color-coded for amperage, with an arch of metal visible within) then you can see if they’re blown (gap in metal) or not (no gap). If they’re not blown, shove it right back where it came from. Also, if a bunch of the fuses are borked, (A) check the wiring for shorts, as most of the internal electrical should have a discrete set of possible power levels (simplified headlights would have off, on, and high) and thus only need the fuse for safety and (B) you might not need to replace the fog lights, just their fuse. If you have trouble understanding any of that, and it’s not because of poor phrasing on my part, well… I can only recommend spending any time you can spare learning.
@@PokeMageTech the car is almost held together with shoe string in some places. The fog light on the passenger side has definitely seen some sort of impact, the bumper is cracked. Part of the frame is held on by "custom" bolts instead of where the screws are supposed to be.
Where I live it is normal to learn all the functions of the car (including the engine) during driving lessons. And cars have been inspected for 2 years to keep them roadworthy according to the law. Hearing most of these stories is breathtaking.
I think schools should stop focusing on bullshit stuff and go back to teaching things like say....shop or home eco, we probably have people who know things about cars then.
My Jr High and High school required all students to take two quarters of life skills. Jr High entrance at 7th grade requirements of two semesters choice of Woodshop, metal s😮😮hop, home ex cooking, home ex sewing . High School entrance 10th grade two quarters requirement choice of Woodshop, metalshop, Auto shop, Cooking, sewing. These life skills classes were absolutely valuable over the years.
My grandpa isn't a mechanic (for some reason), but he has been just fixing cars his whole life for little to no money. He knows his stuff. He fixed my neighbors sons car, and this idiot put gas in the oil tank. I have no words.
That one story about the wildly, gorgeous woman pouring oil in her windshield wiper fluid reservoir had the creepiest narrator I’ve ever heard. What a weirdo. I’m sure that lady could tell he was a creep and that’s why she answered like that lol
And I'm sure she'll blame men for not stopping her putting oil in her washer fluid. But hey, he was "icky" right? How dare someone not be a social butterfly.
had a guy come in for a coolant leak, coworker starts driving it into the shop and the car does stop. He looks for the handbrake but there isn't one in this little sedan. There was a footbrake, but when he found it, it was too late. The guys failed to tell us they just did the brakes and never bled them, but drove it to us and didn't want us to bleed it. We found the coolant leak, didn't bleed the brakes and talked to the ACTUAL owner who showed up later not with the car, who proceeded to rip his buddies a new one after failing to mention the ONE thing he asked them to mention. I have plenty of other stories, but this one was the first one I remembered.
Update in life as of recent, close to a story 8 scenario. Just bought a 2006 Chrysler 300 SRT8 for half its actual value because it overheats. The previous owners say they replaced the thermostat, radiator, water pump, coolant hoses, and electric fans, but no dice. Drove it back home with temps going a few degrees above where I would like it, but it only overheated at idle. Easily diagnosed as poor coolant condition and flushed the coolant. Car runs like brand new, even shifts clean despite having a NAG1 transmission unlike my Charger R/T. Felt bad for them as they put so much time into it, but they said they cant put anymore time into it and just wanted it gone. Paid $5500, worth $8k-$12k.
A fellow mechanic was working on a Cadillac with a carburetor smoking a cigarette and it backfired through the carburetor. He lost all of his facial hair that day 😂
He and I chatted while I worked on the car, and he admitted it was kinda dumb to spend thousands modifying his forst car when he really wanted an ST and could have gotten one with everything he jad into it. He sold the car before I ever actually posted the story. He moved out of town, but I think instead of an ST, he got a Mustang that has a lot of the nicer parts from the Focus in it like the seats and steering wheel.
I am no mechanic but I’m pretty handy in a garage. My friends bring me there cars for small stuff. My best friend brought me her car because it wasn’t running and had other problems. She had never changed the oil, a friend of hers had modified the doors and ruined the powered windows and the doors no longer shut right and her brother tried to put a flame kit on the exhaust that had melted some of her bumper. It was rough and she had a few leaking lines that I didn’t have the time or tools to fix. She now takes better care of her car and talks to me before she lets other friends do things to her car.
22:19 Ya know, that was part of the theory behind auto shop in high schools back in the day. Year 1: basic repair and maintenance tasks Year 2-4: all the stuff to get someone up and running if they know they want this career In many ways it got phased out, like Home Ec, because schools started moving stuff to vocational and focusing more on academics while instead expecting parents to teach their kids the basics for stuff like this.
I think vehicle maintenance should be part of vehicle operation courses and tests (ie if you're learning to drive a car and going for your basic average car driving license, you have to learn/know basic car maintenance facts, motorcycle riding, same thing but for motorcycles, etc.) because not all of us want to or ever will (or should; I don't trust myself to drive a car due to certain issues that aren't a problem on a motorcycle) drive a car so making all of us learn how to do car maintenance is like making everyone learn how to take proper care of a dog. Sure, plenty of people get dogs in their lives, some even need them for various reasons, but not everyone has any use for it and while it may have some useful transference, it's not anywhere near universal nor does it have as much flexibility as more general subjects (which, I think they aren't all as useful as other subjects would be but that's another issue entirely).
When I was 16 I was able to take college courses with my high school classes. I was so excited about their automotive courses. The teacher kept asking why I wanted to be in the class. Eventually I gave up. I was too young to understand the sexism and too innocent to disagree with someone I assumed had my best interests at heart. I just listened when he told me to try a different field. Thus began my secretarial career. Anxiety, depression and GI problems later… It’s so good I can’t travel back in time. I would end up in jail and that wouldn’t be good either.😅
8:20 I honestly can’t believe how many wrecked cars are allowed to drive on the road in the US. In Europe there are annual checks your car needs to pass to ensure its safe for the road
The stories highlight the humorous and sometimes baffling ways in which people attempt to modify or fix their vehicles without proper understanding, showcasing a blend of ignorance and creativity that often leads to unintended consequences and bewildered mechanics
This is my car's time to shine! The only fluid it doesnt leak is power steering fluid, but ironically the power steering pump is failing. It also hasn't had an oil change in 35k miles, it leaks so much that it had 20 quarts of oil added in that time with a new filter every ~10k miles.
9:00 In many places it's illegal to even let that car get back on the road. You have to have brakes to drive a vehicle. If you don't have brakes, you can't drive even if you're just using your handbrake like this idiot was using. It's illegal. Car is not fit for Road
Want a good one? Here you go....Years ago i worked at a national chain tire store that also does full mechanical repair. Guy brings his car in saying brakes dont work well.... work well?! Try at all and neither does the parking brake. Stopped the car by slamming trans into park. Get thectires off and the front pads are gone, they fell out of the mounting bracket, all the hydraulics are blown. We couls fix it all 4 wheels for $300 which was less then half usual price because of coupons and rebates. Without missing a beat this guy refuses saying it costs too much and its ok, wife just uses car to takes the kids to and from school nothing important....
Listening to this made me really grateful that my dad taught me how to do not just basic maintenance like checking and filling fluids but i also know how to check sparkplugs (at least back when you could reach them) as well as how to change brakepads and other misc stuff. The most insane fix i ever had to do was replacing a heater hose in a truck. I ended up taking pictures of the engine as i couldnt figure out what the problem was and sending them to my dad who helped me spot the blown hose. I got it off, took it to Auto Zone where they got me a new one, went back and the only issue, i didnt have the right socket for the full fix. This is where things got entertaining as I went to my neighbors (who were mormons, this matters) and asked if i could borrow the socket size i needed (i knew it then so i had the number i just dont remember it now) and i remember the nice lady looked at me like i had 5 heads because well... i am a female. Her husband let me borrow the socket while also giving me that look of... BUT YOUR A GIRL!!! And i ended up bypassing the heater coil because the nipple for the hose into the heater had a TON of rubber bits stuck to it that hand sanding couldnt remove. That was a great truck and it served me for several more years before the keyswitch broke and i sold it to a mechanic who fixed and flipped it so fast he asked me to resign the title over to the person he sold it to. I am glad it is still going out there somewhere.
Story 9 reminds me of many times we've had to get police to tow vehicles that were unroadworthy away while the vehicle owner gets citations and has to call for a ride home. If the owner wasn't willing to fix the major issue we weren't going to be liable for what happens after it leaves our shop.
I've had an appalling number of people tell me they're "too busy" to remember car maintenance--you know, they have jobs and kids and they're just overwhelmed. Dude, the job you can't afford to lose and the kids you need to keep safe are the reasons you need to maintain your car! (Not a mechanic, just someone who does not F around with car maintenance.)
I was the service writer at a WalMart. Our oil change tech---he had been doing this kind of work for decades---came in to show me the base plate from an oil filter. The customer had changed his own oil and couldn't get the filter off, so he chiseled the filter's can off. The nipple that the filter screwed onto stuck thru the baseplate enough that he was able to screw a new filter on and it sealed against that baseplate. My guy cut a notch in the edge of the baseplate, and was able to remove it with a blunt chisel and hammer.
Former service writer and let me tell you. People use to tell me the customer is always right, and no, they are not. Had a woman come in and she wanted tires. Well this is post Covid era so we weren't doing tires then so we informed her of it, it was mainly due to staffing issues. She comes back a few days later a buys tires to be put on somewhere else, but doesn't bother to make sure they're the correct tires for her car. Now, our store has a policy that if someone else installs your tires, we are not responsible for what happens. I do think when I was with her the first time I told her the tires she wanted were wrong for her car and we wouldn't install them regardless of what she wanted. If someone just buys tires to be installed somewhere else, we don't check to make sure it goes on the intended vehicle. Well her mechanic was an idiot and decided to install these tires even though they were wrong. She then threatened to sue us because we sold the tires but I remembered her because of her attitude and told my boss the situation and he said she could try but she would lose. She was willing to spend thousands of dollars to get a $250 refund. Oh and there were the people who didn't understand that if you have a dexos engine, you gotta have synthetic oil. Or the guy that brought a freaking tesla to get tires at Walmart, which is where I worked
Nothing wrong with getting tires at Walmart. A Continental gt is a Continental gt regardless of store. Fun fact: Walmart is the only place to easily find vw 508 spec 0-20 oil for a reasonable price.
Years ago, I had a 1981 Honda Accord with a 5 speed manual. The hydraulic clutch was bad, so a friend and I replaced the master cylinder. We did this in the early evening and halfway through the job, the mosquitos came out in force. We worked as fast as we could, swatting mosquitos the whole time, but we got the repair done. The next day, I was driving the car and it was running horribly, misfiring and frequently stalling. I pulled the air cleaner cover and found out why: in my hurry the finish the job, I had left a screwdriver in the air cleaner, which had jammed the choke partially closed.
The NonExistent Break Story: Had a similar thing happen to a mechanic friend of mine, only difference? In my country the mechanics can keep the car off the road, since it is not safe to drive it. And if the owner still tries to drive off with it, the cops will be pretty fast to catch that person for endangering public safety and dangerous intrusion on traffic. And that is exsctly what happened. Don't know what came out of it but I know the car owner is only allowed to drive bicycles for the next few years, so... I guess it was not worth to him 😂😂
Yeah every 3000 miles is a bit exessive, then most cars would have a oil change every 3 months or so. VW factrory remonadation for oil changes is about 20k to 25k kilometers. But the first oilchange often has to be at around 5k kilometerts, because of the break in period of the engine.
thats for people who use 'regualar oil' rather than synthetic with the latter you can go anywhere from 5000-10000 miles depending on the egnine, oilf ilter and usage patterns
@constantins.2981 Lmao 20k on a VW?!?! Those burn oil more than snoop burns weed. My dad has one, and they told him 15k for oil changes. I had him check his oil early because it's a pos Euro vehicle, low oil. Turbo charged 4 cylinder engine still under warranty, still under 30k kilometers. He bought it brand new and has kept up with the maintenance schedule. Already burning oil. If he stayed at the recommended oil intervals it would be operating on low oil for several thousand kilometers every single time. A VW probably won't make it to 150k, but let's say it could hypothetically, the recommended 15k oil changes with 5k of it being low oil, by design, means to reach 150k, 50k of it would be spent driving on low oil by design from VW. Change it at 5k - 7k, especially on POS Euro vehicles that leak more oil than a head of hair that hasn't been washed in 4 decades
A required class for the basics of caring for a car would be fantastic. Also, my story was not me, but I observed it. Last time I went into a shop, it was for an alignment. I had replaced the front struts myself (wore out with age), and took it in to get everything straightened out after the job. They found that my brake pads should probably be replaced somewhat soon, but otherwise all went well, and they even complimented me on my DIY job. However, some other guy came in to investigate a noise on his SUV. Turns out his wheel bearings were just shot, and there was an issue with his suspension too. Declined the repairs and left. The guy in the lobby and I chuckled a bit as we saw him pull off into a gas station just a few blocks away, looking quite concerned, but not coming back to get it fixed.
Story 34: when I was little, like under 10 years old, my neighbor/babysitter had accidentally started a kitchen fire & burned herself pretty bad. She wasn't babysitting anyone at the time so no kids were in danger. but I remember hearing the ambulance & firetruck coming, running out to see what was up & watching them load my babysitter into the back of the ambulance. I cried A LOT. Her house was fine, just some damage to the kitchen cabinets. After a couple weeks she came home & 1 of the 1st things she did was come give me a big hug & show me her bandages to assure me she was ok. She had burns all over her arms but was otherwise ok. I still get a little worked up just thinking about that. She's a tough old lady & doesn't take any crap, but a total softy for her babies & kids.
22:09 that is such an american sentiment (yes canadians, you are included here) Only reason you'd need to know car maintenance is if you use and rely on a car, there are plenty of places where you can go your entire life without ever needing a car or a driver's license and just rely on other modes of transportation, like most places in Europe. Knowing car maintenance is not an essential skill but might be a good addition to Driver's Ed to get your license.
22:01 my high school ran a drivers ed for EVERY student in year 10, the class only lasts 1 trimester (a third of a year) but they teach you most basic road rules as well as how to maintain your car. Most of it was just teaching us the system to learn on L plates and actually get a license.
If you try to help a woman and she pulls the "I have a boyfriend" line, best response would be "Really? He must be blind or desperate. hat I was trying to tell you is..."
Mine would probably be “great? I don’t see how that’s relevant. Anyway-” If I thought to stop and actually respond instead of essentially going “irrelevant, anyway”, it would probably be “I don’t know you. Why would I wanna go out with you? You could be abusive. Even if it’s to service staff rather than your partner it’s a dealbreaker.” or “are you so full of yourself you think that’s the only reason a dude would talk to you? Some of us aren’t driven by hormones.” If she looked like it might be reasonable, then maybe “ma’am, while you look great and it’s easily believable that you’re used to people hitting on you and only talking to you because of it, I have many concerns that outrank such things.” or “ma’am, while I can see why you would expect to be hit on from past experience, I am not going to bother strangers like that.” and continue with what I was talking to her for.
That guy sounded like a skeeze so I can absolutely imagine he used the white knight voice. It sounded more like w fetish story than something that actually happened
I just got finished with an engine rebuild (in the engine bay, hardmoding) and was getting the transmission and engine back together. I noticed the torque converter was pretty far away from the flywheel and tried to draw it closer with longer bolts than the ones I removed. Managed to get the four original bolts back in place before starting it to roll it out of the garage and as soon as the engine turned over, it belched all the transmission fluid out onto the floor. I punctured the torque converter with the longer bolt, but the real issue was I hadn't correctly bolted the engine and transmission together and they were about a good 1/4" apart on the driver side. One $250 torque converter replacement and a very careful reinstalling of everything later and the whole car runs minty fresh. :)
Had a Honda civic come in for no brakes… upon opening the hood, I saw a very blown master cylinder and a home brew turbo kit. The stock cast iron manifold had been hacked at with a grinder and a turbo mig welded on to it. There were MANY little mig wire tags, and I doubt it was pressure tight. The coup de grace was the oil return line. a fitting was jb welded to the side of the oil pan with a chunk of garden hose clamped on. After he left “doesn’t matter about the brakes, he’ll never get that turbo spooled up anyway.
7:44 came with 2 gaskets and both cars used the same bolts? Yeah naw. as someone with a history in auto mechanics that's currently a journeyman machine repair technician I call BS bro. Companies aren't selling gaskets in two packs. That's ridiculous and you know it.
Many years ago I had a 70's chevrolet suburban and at one time going to fuel up there was another suburban ahead of me at the pump. We began to converse a bit but it came to a stop when I had mentioned that a diesel option for his particular year was unheard of. Blank stare. "Uh, it's not a diesel". "Please do not start the engine until we can get all the diesel fuell out of your gas tank". He was so greatfull to me for saving his day that he paid for a full tank of fuel for me. I am just greatful I had found his minor error befor he was able to ruin his engine.😮
So thankful my grandad and dad were mechanically inclined, though I’ve never been a car guy they taught me the finer points of keeping a car going…like changing the damn oil!
everytime someone talks about how its "just a crappy honda/toyota" im like bro thats the only reason it still runs after being abused like that any american car would break down if you even look at it funny
Customer came in with a complaint of engine noise on a 2018 Hyundai Sonata. Being a Hyundai, the first thing we wanted to check was oil level and condition. The tech gets in the vehicle and starts it up. Immediately the engine is knocking BAD. The oil change service light had been on for 16K miles and he was 4.8Qts low on oil in a 5Qt system. We added oil and informed the customer of our findings. I told him that after adding oil the knock went away but without tearing down the engine we couldn’t be 100% certain on the extent of the damage. We also recommended that he doesn’t drive it. Customer of course insisted driving it and to his utter surprise, the engine locked up within 24 hours of having the vehicle back.
I work on equipment, had someone get an excavator very stuck, like, tracks completely submerged in quick mud where a swamp used to be, something in said mud split the hydraulic cooler wide open, and burnt EVERYTHING up including the pump… the operator said “I saw a bunch of warnings and I was trying to hurry up and get out”
Basic auto maintenance used to be something of a thing, akin to home ec for guys, back in the day. It wasn't offered at all school systems, nor was it a required course, but at least it was something useful for the students if they wanted to be informed.
Not a mechanic, but a tow truck operator. Show to to a man with an overheating engine. He tells me he'd be fine to just drive it home if he could just get this cap off and put some water in the radiator. As I'm about to tell him he doesn't want that cap to come off right now because of the pressure blast and third degree burns, but before I could, he got the cap to twist off... BAM!!! Didn't get any in me, but had to stay with him until EMTs arrived to help him out. I don't know if it got all the way to third degree burns, maybe just second, but I can't really say because I'm not medical professional. Far as I know he was ultimately going to be okay. Man, driving a flatbed tow truck for AAA in a part of the US that gets gobs of snow in the winter means I have a lot of stories about crazy/stupid things I've seen people do. Maybe some other time.
Story 9, people in SE North Carolina are like that, slightest "funny" noise from the engine, it's garage time, brakes worn out completely, "I'll wait till next month". People, a car that runs rough or won't start is a pain in the neck, a car that won't stop WILL KILL YOU. Get your effing brakes fixed!
When me and my friends were just old enough to drive, my buddy wanted to lower his first pickup truck. He compressed the springs then wrapped chains around them even securing it with the padlock. We thought he was so smart LOL 😂
Ad story 23: I my home country, Czech Republic, Every driving school student must know how the engine works and how to take care of the car. Part of the drivers permit course is at minimum 11 hours in literal driving school where you get taught everything about the car from bumper to bumper. Checking fluids, mandatory equipment (first aid kit, reflective triangle, reflective vest etc) and possibly also checking tire pressure is part of the final exam, and the examiner has the option to kick you out of the exam if you don't know the basic principle of engine operation. Among other things, it's the same with a gun license. Before you get the opportunity to own any weapon, you must show that you know how to take care of a weapon, know its components and know how to disassemble and assemble it, handle it safely, and last but not least, you must know the laws regarding a specific type of weapon and general statutes. Not that we don't have people neglecting their oil change intervals, but at least they cant tell you that they didn't know. 😅
I had a 95 Geo Tracker when I was in my mid-late 20s. When i got it, I was told to keep the fluids up, especially the coolant, and that the squealing belt couldn't be fixed. I was not told that the "especially the coolant" part was bc there was a crack at the top of the radiator, nor that the squealing belt might randomly break due to whatever the issue was. When the belt broke i was stranded on the side of the road, at night, in January. When i managed to get it replaced, i also stopped the squealing...by tightening the alternator another fraction of an inch. That summer it overheated when i was out of town and when I asked what to do, I was told to just add water to the radiator. Oook. Did that, got a little ways and it overheated again. More water. Over heated. I limped it within 3 miles of home before it died and wouldn't restart. Got a friend to come take a look and he told me that the reason it overheated was bc the radiator was cracked. But worst of all so was the motor. See...when I was told to add water...no one said to do so while it was running so it would circulate. I didn't know anything about cars at the time, those of you that do knows what happened. I stupidity didn't invest in getting it fixed, opting to just buy another vehicle(which turned into a lemon at no fault of mine). I miss my tracker... Moral of the story, when telling someone whats wrong with a vehicle and/or how to fix it...be very specific as to why and how. $150 radiator replacement and a slight adjustment to the alternator could have saved me a lot of stress and money.
When i was physically able,,i changed my own oil, did plugs and wires and changed filters. I could change a tire as well. I am female and am completely aware that even a simple tune up isnt the same anymore. I always took anything more to a qualified,,QUALITY mechanic. I would still.do my own oil if i could,,price is insane nowadays.❤
About car maintenance class in school: I live in the USA and car maintenance should be part of the driving test to get a driving license, and people not knowing about car maintenance is also there parents/guardians not telling them about it when learning about driving a car.
Had some lady complain her car kept stopping, randomly, full on emergency stop. She had an air-fresher on the gear lever, and when you changed into second gear it activated the electric parking brake. Time for an emergency stop. The best bit, it was `Kevin’ from the minions movie franchise on the air-freshener. She had a little yellow guy wearing dungarees randomly applying the parking brake when she shifted into second gear. There were wear-marks on the cardboard that perfectly matched the parking brake switch. Moral, do not put bits of tat on your car’s controls.
I don’t do cars - I mean, I’ve never owned one and I’ve driven about five times this century - but this whole thread cracked me up just the way “Car Talk” did. The relationship between people and their vehicles is sometimes comical. And the funny thing is, I know a lot of stuff about cars, between my dad and Car Talk - certainly that you have to change the oil and that your tires all have to be the same size and you don’t put oil into the block. How do people not know that?
Your wheels all have to be the same size. I've seen cars on the road with different size rims but they've got different size tires to make the wheels the same size overall. It looks a bit funky, but they seem to ride OK.
I was raised in the car shop and my dad is a master tech and I do some of my own stuff, I once had to take a look at my moms car (this was a 2016 Chevy sonic that I later on bought from her) the second we get in I heard the front brakes were grinding so bad it was metal on metal and I told her to get that fixed immediately, it also needed a lot of body work like the front bumper was held in with nailing screws… and she didn’t even change the oil plus I also noticed some wires from the harness were cut when I was checking the ambient air temp sensor (I was diagnosing my AC) I did fix up what I could but sadly lost the car to a guy who ran a red light
21:52 I believe this is mainly covered in Driver's Ed, if a school offers it (which would be a no brainer in my mind). I'm not sure if other Driver's Ed schools, like the ones that are more geared to people who are learning to drive a bit later in life, offer that. I remember having to fill up the gas for the training car so that we'd (the other student learning and I) would know how to find the side wit the gas tank and how to use the fuel pump. While we were filling the tank we also learned a bit about certain parts of the car that were under the hood, this is what I don't know if other Driver's Eds do this with their students or not.
Oh now I get it. While I was in Driver's Ed the instructor had me pull into a gas station to fill up. I thought it was odd, but I went with it. I was already pumping the gas when the instructor got out of the car.
"just rolled in" os a channel on here that deals soecifically with this stuff. I watched a fall off of the car when the mechanic kicked it, ppl gluing knick knacks and plastic gems all over the interior, including the sterring wheel, and any number of those scam fuel saver mods...some even catch fire.
5 years Diesel Mechanic here that just recently move to new workplace. The lorries condition were horrible and my boss gave me a task to solve engine raising temperature and low powered as drivers complained for almost 10 years. I have a chief mechanic that is 10 years that.... Never change oil filters both oil and diesel and weld an free fan I have to clean all the fuel lines, unclog and wash all filter nuts, refill free fan silicone olis, do engine service and change all diesel and oil filters. Filed a complaint and reports to boss of how incompetent his 10 years chief mechanic. I have to unf***ed all his work of neglect and I got raise in 1 month time.
3:12 some people think cars are like microwaves or TVs. Supposed to go on and on with virtually no maintenance. But in reality, cars are really heavy machinery that needs a fair bit of maintenance. There's alot of cars that are called "unreliable" because people don't maintain them, and some of those cars are sensitive to a lack of maintenance.
I used to work at an auto parts store and we saw some crazy stuff. My all time favorite didn't actually happen to me, but happened to a good friend of mine who I worked with. He bought this mark 4 Toyota Supra for real cheap off Craigslist and it ran kinda rough. On further inspection, the guy had painted the inside AND outside of the engine. Neon green and school bus yellow. Needless to say that car got scrapped. I'm surprised the guy with two different wheel sizes didn't shred his transmission driving like that
Stories like these make me glad I never skip oil changes, recalls, or trips to the dealership if there's issues. I treat a car like I would a body needing surgery: leave it to the experts who know what the f they're doing.
15:08 For those who don't know ford engines the 2.3 he's referring to is the same engine out of the ford pinto which has around 88 horsepower on a good day. So he whent from around 200 horsepower to 88 horsepower. I bet money that the engine was screaming like R2-D2. I'm more amazed the engine bolted directly to the trucks transmission.
43:00 absolutely agree, my sister didn’t know how to open the hood & she also thought that adding oil was changing it. She is better now and if she has questions, she calls me. (Which is double funny because as a kid my sisters scolded me saying “you can’t fix everything” as I’d often remove the thing they just broke from the trash 😂. Now they both call me. Knowledge is built on experience. ) (Also, if she comes across this, she’s gonna be pissed 😆)
Tires change, listen to what the tire says, not what the door frame says. Thats how we ended up with tires that were 30psi above the rated pressure at amazon.
Probably the craziest thing i heard about from a former Chrysler / Plymouth mechanic was his brother inlaw dissatisfied with his big Chrylsers ride removed all four shock absorbers . He was convinced the car would ride smoother without them . 😂
My older son didn’t change/replace the oil causing the engine to be ruined. The lead my second son to be OCD about changing the oil, he notches 5000 mi each oil change
Worked at Valvoline. Had a guy in a squatted truck come in. We have to try to recommend maintenance. Now we don't try to sell them if they are done just if the Carfax says it hasn't been done. One of them was the diff. I told him about it and he said "oh I just replaced my diff like 3 weeks ago so the fluid is fresh" I say "oh okay I'll put in the notes" he then says "yeah it's the 4th one in a little over a year" he then floored it leaving the lot. I wonder why you go through so many with how you treat it and with it not getting proper fluid through it. I wonder what could cause it. So for me it's squatted bros. I don't know why they complain about trans and diff problems. Like your putting excess strain on it. Not only that. But it's a double whammy because while it has extra stress. It's also not being properly lubricated because it's squatted Another story: we had a lady in a early 2000s CRV roll in. She took it to grease monkey but noticed it was smoking afterwards and brought it here for us to check as she was on the road we were on. They put 14quarts of oil in it. Drained the oil filled it up. Ran like a champ. Blew smoke for about 30 seconds idled weird for that 30 seconds. Then ran perfectly fine. Here's the kicker. The CRV 380,000 miles on it on the original motor. That was the day I swore by Honda being the most reliable brand
The mixing oil with diesel thing CAN work, but it needs to be prepared properly. I’m not sure what types of oil can be used for it, but my grandpa used to filter spent cooking oil to mix with diesel for his pickup. He was a mechanic and the thing ran like new for hundreds of thousands of miles.
For Story 11: I don't even know how to air up tires without checking the pressure. I mean, every method I know has a pressure gauge in the system. And if you still find a way to do that without a pressure gauge, don't do it. Just go to your nearest gas station and check the air in all four tires.
I've got one. My old manager at TLE got into an argument with me because he was greasing break bleeder valves and he refused to believe me. The worst one I had in my shop was a 2006 Buick Regal that had a blown engine. The customer told me she thought it was because she forgot to do an oil change.
Removing the turn signal housing from the bumper, drilling 400 holes in it and cutting between the holes to rip out the circuit board and completely voiding the warranty on the part
I love hearing all these stories about people who don't change their oil and have issues. Makes me laugh knowing mine will never need an oil change. It's electric.
I can very much relate New drivers often want to have big useless spoilers I tell them the aeroplane uses them to slow down on landing And spoilers are only good four cornering fast with rear attraction The internet is full of dumb spoilers pictures
I own a big lifted truck with 35inch tires, but i have 2 pairs, 1 for street and one for offroad, i do some hobby wood work so will go totally offroad and trail to find trees i can cut down and mill. If your gonna spend thousands on tires regardless, best to just buy 2 specialized sets.
Other than your house your car is the 2nd most expensive thing you will own. Why people don’t bother to do any maintenance just blows my mind. Spend 40k on a car and never spend the $35 to change the oil. Brakes start to get low. Don’t spend the $80 for new brakes. Keep driving until there is so much damage to the brake rotors and calipers that now it’s going to be $500 to fix. Not to mention that driving with metal on metal brakes is extremely dangerous. The list goes on and on. If you just fallow the simple maintenance plan the car will last longer and run a lot better.
Story 33 (Banana in the tailpipe): I find that one hard to believe...Unless the idiot's exhaust system already had a serious leak in it (which is a whole 'nother problem in itself), blocking the tailpipe with a banana (or anything really) will NOT force the exhaust gasses into the passenger compartment and make the drive pass out...What it WILL do is choke the engine and cause it to run very poorly (if the blockage isn't complete and some gas can escape) or just die entirely (if the blockage is complete) because the exhaust gas can't leave the cylinder and the engine can't pull in enough fresh air to allow the fuel to burn...
It annoys me when people call it a freeze plug. It is not designed to pop out if the coolant freezes. The hole is designed to drain the sand out of the block after the *iron* block is cast.
This is my story. I had a break caliper lock up on my 89' Chevy 1500. I replaced the brake with lifetime replacement. I drove 30 miles. I took the brake pad off to take it in to get the replacement. In 30 miles, it had worn the abrasive out completely and started melting the steel pad.
Not on a car but my bike. Bled the brakes after replacing brake pads. Must have gotten brake fluid on the rotor in the process. So naturally, the brake was squealing like crazy and not working all that good. Took all apart and doused the rotor in brake cleaner. Also sanded it down a hair. New brake pads went in. Cleaned everything to within an inch of its life. All good, rode for an out 20 miles the next day. I go downhill approaching a stop. Suddenly loud squealing from brake and maybe 10% braking power. Luckily this happened half a block from a workshop. Much cussing. Picked up a new brake rotor, another set of brake pads and set to work. Again kept everything religiosity clean. Test drive went completely fine. This was a Saturday evening. Decided to have a super lazy Sunday. Next ride was to work on Monday morning. After maybe 20ft: loud squealing. More cussing. Took bike to shop and told them that this was the 2nd complete brake job I did in a week and the brake would still squeal like a mofo. Also told them that I thought maybe a brake line was busted or something but was at the end of my tether. Asked them to take a look and let me know what the deal was. Was later informed that I did had ever so slightly under-tighten the bleed screw. So brake fluid was seeping out veeeery slowly and dripping on the calliper. The fact that it was seeping so slowly was also the reason why it was OK at first but started causing issues the next day or the day after that. And yes, I was extremely cautious with the bleed screw since it is very easy to strip the threads of you overdo it, and then you’d need a completely new brake calliper. The more you know… 🙄
Close enough but when they need a key made and you ask what kind of vehicle is and their response is "a blue car".
I’d say “oh hell nahh I’m not paid enough for this”
This is why my dad made sure I knew what was under a hood and how to fix basics on my own. He raised me with the phrase, “Being a woman is no excuse for ignorance.” I am so glad as I grew up in the 60s and 70s before that became a pervasive concept. Miss him.
That’s even worse than giving the engine brand and no other information
I always get “I dunno I got it maybe 2 years ago.”
Thats great. I got my car 3 months ago but its a 2016 so
Oh boy
There's a line from an old commercial. "A car that won't start is not a problem, a car that won't stop is a BIG problem."
Oh damn we need more of these commercials that also act as a 5 minute school espically for cars cause man are people stupid aswell as IT I don't even know how some people make it luckily most of them just need to hear it to learn what they previously were doing was stupid and the ones that still manage to fail at simple tasks you will atleast know there true idiots
Next time you're bitching that there's mandatory safety inspections in some states. Blame these people.
My whole country has mandatory safety inspections every year (well, every 14 months). The first inspection for a brand new vehicle has to be within 36 months, and the second inspection has to be at latest 24 months after that. After that it’s after 14 months over and over
Not in my province - yet...
I am GLAD those exist, thank you very much!
I am so happy my country has mandatory safety inspections. I failed them once and you know what? I don't care. At least I know that (almost) all the cars have had a baseline maintenance done.
My state has safety and emissions. On some new cars like mine, there's any number of faults that can kick on the engine light, and prevent getting a valid sticker, that aren't really related to safety or emissions. Also, if you ignore it, the state won't let you register your car. So you can be left without the necessity of a vehicle, for the crime of not being able to pay for increasingly extortionate prices.
I saw a video not too long ago of some idiot arguing with a mechanic that he thought changing his oil just meant adding more oil to his car. He drove hundreds of miles just topping it off with more oil and not taking it in to the shop. He had to spend a fortune to get it fixed and he kept yelling at the shop owner how was he supposed to know what changing his oil means? The kicker? The video was uploaded by said idiot. He thought the internet was gonna be on his side as he berated this poor worker.
how did he change his clothes?
@@eichzoernchen good question. I'm amazed he managed to get his license in the first place.
@@onionbubs386makes me worried about the shape of his brake system not just the brakes but everything from the master cylinder on down
If you find it again, please link.
@@valenciageode25 will do 👍
Here is my story: my dad bought an old mustang. It had an electric leaf blower hooked up to the intake system for "forced induction" 😂😂😂
Jebus!😢
😂😂😂😂
Well did it work?
@onemintyrose hell nah that shit was wired up to like a light switch. Shit provided like 0.0002 boost 🤣🤣
@@AlphaPiggy man, would've been so cool if it actually worked lmao
Story 58 perfectly illustrates why I will never willingly own or drive a modern car. They choose to put critical electronics, without which the car WILL NOT RUN, in the side-view mirror. The part of your car most likely to get damaged. Never thought I'd see the day when a shopping cart can total a car.
My personal favorite is that video of some lady who opened her door to pay a toll or something and her car shut off
The door was stuck open because of where the payment thing was, and she couldn’t put it neutral without turning it on
which she couldn’t, because the door was open
no idea how you get into that situation, but it being possible is dumb enough on it’s own
Yeah, that’s a stunningly idiotic design decision.
4:17 - You've described 99.99% of truck bros in my city - a city that, if you travel in any cardinal direction for more than 7 minutes, it's rural.
Grew up with a dirt track stockcar in the garage and took auto mechanics in high school. As a woman it amazes me how many shops think I'm stupid. Still change my own oil, much cheaper!
what series are they racing in?personally i'm with a team in 358 modified
My dad was a mechanic for years when I was younger, probably upwards of 10 years. The worst thing he saw, that he told me, was someone without working breaks. Like the one guy in one of the stories, they had to use the emergency brake to stop. Biggest problem: it was a pregnant woman!! My dad said she wanted it fixed but they couldn’t do it immediately, she tried to take the car and drive home!!! They wouldn’t let her.
Re: your poll about car education in high school: I was in the very last semester of free Driver's Ed classes offered in public high schools (1999). The teacher strongly recommended that anyone who planned to drive a car should take a semester of basic Auto Tech, ESPECIALLY girls. I did so, and to this day I do my own basic car maintenance (I drive old cars).
Both Driver's Ed and Auto Tech have been removed from most public schools. Succeeding generations of drivers neither understand how to drive, nor how their vehicles work. It would be exceedingly expensive to bring Auto Tech back. Contemporary cars have software that is proprietary to each make; while the mechanical bits work on the same basic principles, the software raises a prominent middle finger to anyone who wishes to DIY.
Damn the man! We have a right to repair! #RepairManifesto
😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😅🎉😅
😊😊😊😊😅😅😅😊
😊
😊😊😅😊
we gotta become computer engineer and hack the car to diy
i feel so bad for the 300z guy. the "friend" was an actual ass for that
I saw ur comment and started looking thru the transcript trying to find this story. When I heard it I said "wowwwww"
me too, felt a bit of nostalgia too, I had an old Nissan 300ZX myself I ended up selling for $500 to a person renting the house across the road, sadly the part I needed was more than the car was worth , the computer chip for engine management, (was a lot more wrong including a big dent where a truck hit me), I told him, but he still bought it thinking he could at least sell it for parts, one day he actually got it started but never again, fortunately they took it when they moved, was worried as I was the last registered owner and would end up abandoned. (no it was not a good car, I only paid 3K for it myself years before) that car was a money pit.
If someone had pulled that move on me, and then gloated about it like that, they would quickly find their name in the newspaper under the "recent deaths" section.
Confession time. I was helpin s buddy flush out his coolant as part of regular maintenance and at some point we ran of of containers to hold all the coolant. Sooo i used an old gas can i had to hold it. A few months late i had completely forgotten abt this and i went to clean out my truck. Decided the gas can was too old to rlly keep and thought hey ill just dump the little gas left in here in my truck. It was the can we used for the coolant. Within 2 minutes truck broke down wouldn't start. Then it hit me what had happened. Ended up needing a tow and had to drop my gas tank to empty it and rinse it out with more gas. Learning experience ig. ALWAYS label your gas cans when u pit something thats not gas in it. Better yet dont use gas cans for anything but gas.
lol that reminds me of when I had room mates. I had 2 jerry cans in the garage. I was reasonably certain someone was stealing gas, so I filled the gas can with diesel. One room mate's car mysteriously stopped working.
1:55 the captain of slowness once said: it is more fun to drive a slow car fast than a fast car slow. No valid point.
OP of that story here. It sucked to drive. My ST is much better.
Story 65, that wasn’t your friend… that was a vulture.
This video is both hilarious and terrifying! It's crazy to think people would pour oil into a radiator or add gasoline to a diesel truck. It's a good reminder to always double-check what you're doing or leave it to the professionals if you're unsure.
Im not a mechanic, but I'm also by no means financially strong. It costs too much to fix my car, as it needs a heater core replaced, fog lights replaced, the fuses all replaced, the coolant flushed, the oil and filter changed, and probably a priest to bless it.
Oil and filter change should be doable yourself, provided the filter is trivially accessible.
Also, if it’s remotely modern (or at least, anything like the cars whose fuses I’ve looked at), it has a fuse box somewhere accessible and you can buy and replace them yourself. Might wanna grab needle nose pliers or spend a couple bucks on the dedicated tool so you can grip them. Made sure to examine them - if they’re the same kind of car fuse I’ve seen (translucent plastic, color-coded for amperage, with an arch of metal visible within) then you can see if they’re blown (gap in metal) or not (no gap). If they’re not blown, shove it right back where it came from.
Also, if a bunch of the fuses are borked, (A) check the wiring for shorts, as most of the internal electrical should have a discrete set of possible power levels (simplified headlights would have off, on, and high) and thus only need the fuse for safety and (B) you might not need to replace the fog lights, just their fuse.
If you have trouble understanding any of that, and it’s not because of poor phrasing on my part, well… I can only recommend spending any time you can spare learning.
Buy the Haynes or Chilton's manual for your make, model and year. Best $30 you'll ever spend.
Half of your list is an easy DIY. Maybe not the heater core though
@@PokeMageTech the car is almost held together with shoe string in some places. The fog light on the passenger side has definitely seen some sort of impact, the bumper is cracked. Part of the frame is held on by "custom" bolts instead of where the screws are supposed to be.
@@heroman2372
Mmmh. Okay. That’s… not great.
Where I live it is normal to learn all the functions of the car (including the engine) during driving lessons. And cars have been inspected for 2 years to keep them roadworthy according to the law. Hearing most of these stories is breathtaking.
I think schools should stop focusing on bullshit stuff and go back to teaching things like say....shop or home eco, we probably have people who know things about cars then.
But that would educate children to be independent. Can't have that!
What’s bullshit stuff?
My Jr High and High school required all students to take two quarters of life skills.
Jr High entrance at 7th grade requirements of two semesters choice of Woodshop, metal s😮😮hop, home ex cooking, home ex sewing .
High School entrance 10th grade two quarters requirement choice of Woodshop, metalshop, Auto shop, Cooking, sewing.
These life skills classes were absolutely valuable over the years.
My grandpa isn't a mechanic (for some reason), but he has been just fixing cars his whole life for little to no money. He knows his stuff. He fixed my neighbors sons car, and this idiot put gas in the oil tank. I have no words.
Would love to see and hear the 'KABOOM' his engine made lmao.
How in tf does this even happen.
I have many questions
That one story about the wildly, gorgeous woman pouring oil in her windshield wiper fluid reservoir had the creepiest narrator I’ve ever heard. What a weirdo. I’m sure that lady could tell he was a creep and that’s why she answered like that lol
I got the same feeling, he seems like the type to have a hard time making eye contact
And I'm sure she'll blame men for not stopping her putting oil in her washer fluid. But hey, he was "icky" right? How dare someone not be a social butterfly.
@@Nick-ue7iw it’s one thing to be socially awkward but that guy had major creep vibes 😅
had a guy come in for a coolant leak, coworker starts driving it into the shop and the car does stop. He looks for the handbrake but there isn't one in this little sedan. There was a footbrake, but when he found it, it was too late. The guys failed to tell us they just did the brakes and never bled them, but drove it to us and didn't want us to bleed it. We found the coolant leak, didn't bleed the brakes and talked to the ACTUAL owner who showed up later not with the car, who proceeded to rip his buddies a new one after failing to mention the ONE thing he asked them to mention. I have plenty of other stories, but this one was the first one I remembered.
Update in life as of recent, close to a story 8 scenario. Just bought a 2006 Chrysler 300 SRT8 for half its actual value because it overheats. The previous owners say they replaced the thermostat, radiator, water pump, coolant hoses, and electric fans, but no dice. Drove it back home with temps going a few degrees above where I would like it, but it only overheated at idle. Easily diagnosed as poor coolant condition and flushed the coolant. Car runs like brand new, even shifts clean despite having a NAG1 transmission unlike my Charger R/T. Felt bad for them as they put so much time into it, but they said they cant put anymore time into it and just wanted it gone. Paid $5500, worth $8k-$12k.
Oh, I wholeheartedly agree with that statement. All kids at 15 should have a class on basic vehicle maintenance.
or make it part of getting a DL
Bad drivers never miss their exit.
dude asked for beer and you brought bud light? what a terrible friend you are
Thank you ! that i what i said. I mean come on at least get a pacifico or modelo. Yea thats a terrible friend.
is bud light like shit beer or something?
@@tacticallemon7518bud light tastes like actual urine. Hell, all light beers taste bad lol
Not a mechanic but putting water in the gas tank
What do you mean not a mechanic? What setting did you see someone put water in a gas take? A fucking waterpark?
Setting was me I was that guy that put water in the gas tank to be fair I was 7
“And that car never ran correctly again”
How pissed were your parents
@@catfoy8888 I don’t remember but probably extremely
A fellow mechanic was working on a Cadillac with a carburetor smoking a cigarette and it backfired through the carburetor. He lost all of his facial hair that day 😂
I woke up my house laughing from reading this 😂😂😂😂
That's some cartoon level physics 😂
I’ve seen that once or twice 😂😂😂
I am pretty sure he also needed new pants.
"Focus Bro" just sounds like a guy who enjoys his car and customized the way he wants it
Probably kept the engine stock to keep the insurance low.
He and I chatted while I worked on the car, and he admitted it was kinda dumb to spend thousands modifying his forst car when he really wanted an ST and could have gotten one with everything he jad into it. He sold the car before I ever actually posted the story. He moved out of town, but I think instead of an ST, he got a Mustang that has a lot of the nicer parts from the Focus in it like the seats and steering wheel.
People need the read the owners manual of the car they just bought, that would solve alot of these stories
All I can think while listening is "goddamn this guy sucks at this game"
I am no mechanic but I’m pretty handy in a garage. My friends bring me there cars for small stuff. My best friend brought me her car because it wasn’t running and had other problems. She had never changed the oil, a friend of hers had modified the doors and ruined the powered windows and the doors no longer shut right and her brother tried to put a flame kit on the exhaust that had melted some of her bumper. It was rough and she had a few leaking lines that I didn’t have the time or tools to fix. She now takes better care of her car and talks to me before she lets other friends do things to her car.
22:19 Ya know, that was part of the theory behind auto shop in high schools back in the day.
Year 1: basic repair and maintenance tasks
Year 2-4: all the stuff to get someone up and running if they know they want this career
In many ways it got phased out, like Home Ec, because schools started moving stuff to vocational and focusing more on academics while instead expecting parents to teach their kids the basics for stuff like this.
I think vehicle maintenance should be part of vehicle operation courses and tests (ie if you're learning to drive a car and going for your basic average car driving license, you have to learn/know basic car maintenance facts, motorcycle riding, same thing but for motorcycles, etc.) because not all of us want to or ever will (or should; I don't trust myself to drive a car due to certain issues that aren't a problem on a motorcycle) drive a car so making all of us learn how to do car maintenance is like making everyone learn how to take proper care of a dog. Sure, plenty of people get dogs in their lives, some even need them for various reasons, but not everyone has any use for it and while it may have some useful transference, it's not anywhere near universal nor does it have as much flexibility as more general subjects (which, I think they aren't all as useful as other subjects would be but that's another issue entirely).
When I was 16 I was able to take college courses with my high school classes. I was so excited about their automotive courses. The teacher kept asking why I wanted to be in the class. Eventually I gave up. I was too young to understand the sexism and too innocent to disagree with someone I assumed had my best interests at heart. I just listened when he told me to try a different field. Thus began my secretarial career. Anxiety, depression and GI problems later… It’s so good I can’t travel back in time. I would end up in jail and that wouldn’t be good either.😅
8:20 I honestly can’t believe how many wrecked cars are allowed to drive on the road in the US. In Europe there are annual checks your car needs to pass to ensure its safe for the road
The stories highlight the humorous and sometimes baffling ways in which people attempt to modify or fix their vehicles without proper understanding, showcasing a blend of ignorance and creativity that often leads to unintended consequences and bewildered mechanics
This is my car's time to shine! The only fluid it doesnt leak is power steering fluid, but ironically the power steering pump is failing. It also hasn't had an oil change in 35k miles, it leaks so much that it had 20 quarts of oil added in that time with a new filter every ~10k miles.
9:00 In many places it's illegal to even let that car get back on the road. You have to have brakes to drive a vehicle. If you don't have brakes, you can't drive even if you're just using your handbrake like this idiot was using. It's illegal. Car is not fit for Road
Want a good one? Here you go....Years ago i worked at a national chain tire store that also does full mechanical repair. Guy brings his car in saying brakes dont work well.... work well?! Try at all and neither does the parking brake. Stopped the car by slamming trans into park. Get thectires off and the front pads are gone, they fell out of the mounting bracket, all the hydraulics are blown. We couls fix it all 4 wheels for $300 which was less then half usual price because of coupons and rebates. Without missing a beat this guy refuses saying it costs too much and its ok, wife just uses car to takes the kids to and from school nothing important....
Listening to this made me really grateful that my dad taught me how to do not just basic maintenance like checking and filling fluids but i also know how to check sparkplugs (at least back when you could reach them) as well as how to change brakepads and other misc stuff.
The most insane fix i ever had to do was replacing a heater hose in a truck. I ended up taking pictures of the engine as i couldnt figure out what the problem was and sending them to my dad who helped me spot the blown hose.
I got it off, took it to Auto Zone where they got me a new one, went back and the only issue, i didnt have the right socket for the full fix.
This is where things got entertaining as I went to my neighbors (who were mormons, this matters) and asked if i could borrow the socket size i needed (i knew it then so i had the number i just dont remember it now) and i remember the nice lady looked at me like i had 5 heads because well... i am a female.
Her husband let me borrow the socket while also giving me that look of... BUT YOUR A GIRL!!! And i ended up bypassing the heater coil because the nipple for the hose into the heater had a TON of rubber bits stuck to it that hand sanding couldnt remove.
That was a great truck and it served me for several more years before the keyswitch broke and i sold it to a mechanic who fixed and flipped it so fast he asked me to resign the title over to the person he sold it to. I am glad it is still going out there somewhere.
Story 9 reminds me of many times we've had to get police to tow vehicles that were unroadworthy away while the vehicle owner gets citations and has to call for a ride home.
If the owner wasn't willing to fix the major issue we weren't going to be liable for what happens after it leaves our shop.
I've had an appalling number of people tell me they're "too busy" to remember car maintenance--you know, they have jobs and kids and they're just overwhelmed. Dude, the job you can't afford to lose and the kids you need to keep safe are the reasons you need to maintain your car! (Not a mechanic, just someone who does not F around with car maintenance.)
. . . okay, the hood scoop on the Corvair is hilarious, though.
I was the service writer at a WalMart. Our oil change tech---he had been doing this kind of work for decades---came in to show me the base plate from an oil filter. The customer had changed his own oil and couldn't get the filter off, so he chiseled the filter's can off. The nipple that the filter screwed onto stuck thru the baseplate enough that he was able to screw a new filter on and it sealed against that baseplate. My guy cut a notch in the edge of the baseplate, and was able to remove it with a blunt chisel and hammer.
Former service writer and let me tell you. People use to tell me the customer is always right, and no, they are not. Had a woman come in and she wanted tires. Well this is post Covid era so we weren't doing tires then so we informed her of it, it was mainly due to staffing issues. She comes back a few days later a buys tires to be put on somewhere else, but doesn't bother to make sure they're the correct tires for her car. Now, our store has a policy that if someone else installs your tires, we are not responsible for what happens. I do think when I was with her the first time I told her the tires she wanted were wrong for her car and we wouldn't install them regardless of what she wanted. If someone just buys tires to be installed somewhere else, we don't check to make sure it goes on the intended vehicle. Well her mechanic was an idiot and decided to install these tires even though they were wrong. She then threatened to sue us because we sold the tires but I remembered her because of her attitude and told my boss the situation and he said she could try but she would lose. She was willing to spend thousands of dollars to get a $250 refund.
Oh and there were the people who didn't understand that if you have a dexos engine, you gotta have synthetic oil. Or the guy that brought a freaking tesla to get tires at Walmart, which is where I worked
Nothing wrong with getting tires at Walmart. A Continental gt is a Continental gt regardless of store. Fun fact: Walmart is the only place to easily find vw 508 spec 0-20 oil for a reasonable price.
A guy actually put a banana in the tailpipe, lol. Have we learned nothing from Beverly Hills Cop?
I was dumbfounded on the reasoning behind that until OP mentioned he was in India at the time. I thought this mf was fishing for monkeys in Cleveland.
Years ago, I had a 1981 Honda Accord with a 5 speed manual. The hydraulic clutch was bad, so a friend and I replaced the master cylinder. We did this in the early evening and halfway through the job, the mosquitos came out in force. We worked as fast as we could, swatting mosquitos the whole time, but we got the repair done. The next day, I was driving the car and it was running horribly, misfiring and frequently stalling. I pulled the air cleaner cover and found out why: in my hurry the finish the job, I had left a screwdriver in the air cleaner, which had jammed the choke partially closed.
The NonExistent Break Story: Had a similar thing happen to a mechanic friend of mine, only difference? In my country the mechanics can keep the car off the road, since it is not safe to drive it. And if the owner still tries to drive off with it, the cops will be pretty fast to catch that person for endangering public safety and dangerous intrusion on traffic. And that is exsctly what happened. Don't know what came out of it but I know the car owner is only allowed to drive bicycles for the next few years, so... I guess it was not worth to him 😂😂
Change oil every 3000 miles? Must be a typo thats around 4800km lol
Yeah every 3000 miles is a bit exessive, then most cars would have a oil change every 3 months or so. VW factrory remonadation for oil changes is about 20k to 25k kilometers. But the first oilchange often has to be at around 5k kilometerts, because of the break in period of the engine.
thats for people who use 'regualar oil' rather than synthetic with the latter you can go anywhere from 5000-10000 miles depending on the egnine, oilf ilter and usage patterns
3000 miles is for city cars that spend a lot of time idling at stop lights.
3000 miles is kind of an old school recommendation. It definitely was the standard for conventional oil, though.
@constantins.2981 Lmao 20k on a VW?!?! Those burn oil more than snoop burns weed. My dad has one, and they told him 15k for oil changes. I had him check his oil early because it's a pos Euro vehicle, low oil. Turbo charged 4 cylinder engine still under warranty, still under 30k kilometers. He bought it brand new and has kept up with the maintenance schedule. Already burning oil. If he stayed at the recommended oil intervals it would be operating on low oil for several thousand kilometers every single time. A VW probably won't make it to 150k, but let's say it could hypothetically, the recommended 15k oil changes with 5k of it being low oil, by design, means to reach 150k, 50k of it would be spent driving on low oil by design from VW. Change it at 5k - 7k, especially on POS Euro vehicles that leak more oil than a head of hair that hasn't been washed in 4 decades
The difference in voice from past videos is really throwing me off
A required class for the basics of caring for a car would be fantastic.
Also, my story was not me, but I observed it. Last time I went into a shop, it was for an alignment. I had replaced the front struts myself (wore out with age), and took it in to get everything straightened out after the job. They found that my brake pads should probably be replaced somewhat soon, but otherwise all went well, and they even complimented me on my DIY job. However, some other guy came in to investigate a noise on his SUV. Turns out his wheel bearings were just shot, and there was an issue with his suspension too. Declined the repairs and left. The guy in the lobby and I chuckled a bit as we saw him pull off into a gas station just a few blocks away, looking quite concerned, but not coming back to get it fixed.
Story 34: when I was little, like under 10 years old, my neighbor/babysitter had accidentally started a kitchen fire & burned herself pretty bad. She wasn't babysitting anyone at the time so no kids were in danger. but I remember hearing the ambulance & firetruck coming, running out to see what was up & watching them load my babysitter into the back of the ambulance. I cried A LOT. Her house was fine, just some damage to the kitchen cabinets. After a couple weeks she came home & 1 of the 1st things she did was come give me a big hug & show me her bandages to assure me she was ok. She had burns all over her arms but was otherwise ok. I still get a little worked up just thinking about that. She's a tough old lady & doesn't take any crap, but a total softy for her babies & kids.
22:09 that is such an american sentiment (yes canadians, you are included here)
Only reason you'd need to know car maintenance is if you use and rely on a car, there are plenty of places where you can go your entire life without ever needing a car or a driver's license and just rely on other modes of transportation, like most places in Europe.
Knowing car maintenance is not an essential skill but might be a good addition to Driver's Ed to get your license.
22:01 my high school ran a drivers ed for EVERY student in year 10, the class only lasts 1 trimester (a third of a year) but they teach you most basic road rules as well as how to maintain your car. Most of it was just teaching us the system to learn on L plates and actually get a license.
If you try to help a woman and she pulls the "I have a boyfriend" line, best response would be "Really? He must be blind or desperate. hat I was trying to tell you is..."
Mine would probably be “great? I don’t see how that’s relevant. Anyway-”
If I thought to stop and actually respond instead of essentially going “irrelevant, anyway”, it would probably be “I don’t know you. Why would I wanna go out with you? You could be abusive. Even if it’s to service staff rather than your partner it’s a dealbreaker.” or “are you so full of yourself you think that’s the only reason a dude would talk to you? Some of us aren’t driven by hormones.” If she looked like it might be reasonable, then maybe “ma’am, while you look great and it’s easily believable that you’re used to people hitting on you and only talking to you because of it, I have many concerns that outrank such things.” or “ma’am, while I can see why you would expect to be hit on from past experience, I am not going to bother strangers like that.” and continue with what I was talking to her for.
That guy sounded like a skeeze so I can absolutely imagine he used the white knight voice. It sounded more like w fetish story than something that actually happened
I just got finished with an engine rebuild (in the engine bay, hardmoding) and was getting the transmission and engine back together. I noticed the torque converter was pretty far away from the flywheel and tried to draw it closer with longer bolts than the ones I removed. Managed to get the four original bolts back in place before starting it to roll it out of the garage and as soon as the engine turned over, it belched all the transmission fluid out onto the floor. I punctured the torque converter with the longer bolt, but the real issue was I hadn't correctly bolted the engine and transmission together and they were about a good 1/4" apart on the driver side. One $250 torque converter replacement and a very careful reinstalling of everything later and the whole car runs minty fresh. :)
21:51 I think it should be in the driving lessons. But I agree, it should be mandatory to learn that, at least if you're gonna drive.
As a former parts guy I was amazed by how many people wanted "only one side" of their brakes fixed.
Had a Honda civic come in for no brakes… upon opening the hood, I saw a very blown master cylinder and a home brew turbo kit. The stock cast iron manifold had been hacked at with a grinder and a turbo mig welded on to it. There were MANY little mig wire tags, and I doubt it was pressure tight.
The coup de grace was the oil return line. a fitting was jb welded to the side of the oil pan with a chunk of garden hose clamped on.
After he left “doesn’t matter about the brakes, he’ll never get that turbo spooled up anyway.
7:44 came with 2 gaskets and both cars used the same bolts? Yeah naw.
as someone with a history in auto mechanics that's currently a journeyman machine repair technician I call BS bro. Companies aren't selling gaskets in two packs. That's ridiculous and you know it.
Many years ago I had a 70's chevrolet suburban and at one time going to fuel up there was another suburban ahead of me at the pump. We began to converse a bit but it came to a stop when I had mentioned that a diesel option for his particular year was unheard of. Blank stare. "Uh, it's not a diesel". "Please do not start the engine until we can get all the diesel fuell out of your gas tank".
He was so greatfull to me for saving his day that he paid for a full tank of fuel for me. I am just greatful I had found his minor error befor he was able to ruin his engine.😮
So thankful my grandad and dad were mechanically inclined, though I’ve never been a car guy they taught me the finer points of keeping a car going…like changing the damn oil!
everytime someone talks about how its "just a crappy honda/toyota" im like bro thats the only reason it still runs after being abused like that
any american car would break down if you even look at it funny
Customer came in with a complaint of engine noise on a 2018 Hyundai Sonata. Being a Hyundai, the first thing we wanted to check was oil level and condition.
The tech gets in the vehicle and starts it up. Immediately the engine is knocking BAD. The oil change service light had been on for 16K miles and he was 4.8Qts low on oil in a 5Qt system. We added oil and informed the customer of our findings. I told him that after adding oil the knock went away but without tearing down the engine we couldn’t be 100% certain on the extent of the damage. We also recommended that he doesn’t drive it. Customer of course insisted driving it and to his utter surprise, the engine locked up within 24 hours of having the vehicle back.
I work on equipment, had someone get an excavator very stuck, like, tracks completely submerged in quick mud where a swamp used to be, something in said mud split the hydraulic cooler wide open, and burnt EVERYTHING up including the pump… the operator said “I saw a bunch of warnings and I was trying to hurry up and get out”
Basic auto maintenance used to be something of a thing, akin to home ec for guys, back in the day. It wasn't offered at all school systems, nor was it a required course, but at least it was something useful for the students if they wanted to be informed.
Not a mechanic, but a tow truck operator. Show to to a man with an overheating engine. He tells me he'd be fine to just drive it home if he could just get this cap off and put some water in the radiator. As I'm about to tell him he doesn't want that cap to come off right now because of the pressure blast and third degree burns, but before I could, he got the cap to twist off... BAM!!! Didn't get any in me, but had to stay with him until EMTs arrived to help him out. I don't know if it got all the way to third degree burns, maybe just second, but I can't really say because I'm not medical professional. Far as I know he was ultimately going to be okay. Man, driving a flatbed tow truck for AAA in a part of the US that gets gobs of snow in the winter means I have a lot of stories about crazy/stupid things I've seen people do. Maybe some other time.
Story 9, people in SE North Carolina are like that, slightest "funny" noise from the engine, it's garage time, brakes worn out completely, "I'll wait till next month". People, a car that runs rough or won't start is a pain in the neck, a car that won't stop WILL KILL YOU. Get your effing brakes fixed!
When me and my friends were just old enough to drive, my buddy wanted to lower his first pickup truck. He compressed the springs then wrapped chains around them even securing it with the padlock. We thought he was so smart LOL 😂
Ad story 23: I my home country, Czech Republic, Every driving school student must know how the engine works and how to take care of the car. Part of the drivers permit course is at minimum 11 hours in literal driving school where you get taught everything about the car from bumper to bumper. Checking fluids, mandatory equipment (first aid kit, reflective triangle, reflective vest etc) and possibly also checking tire pressure is part of the final exam, and the examiner has the option to kick you out of the exam if you don't know the basic principle of engine operation. Among other things, it's the same with a gun license. Before you get the opportunity to own any weapon, you must show that you know how to take care of a weapon, know its components and know how to disassemble and assemble it, handle it safely, and last but not least, you must know the laws regarding a specific type of weapon and general statutes. Not that we don't have people neglecting their oil change intervals, but at least they cant tell you that they didn't know. 😅
I had a 95 Geo Tracker when I was in my mid-late 20s. When i got it, I was told to keep the fluids up, especially the coolant, and that the squealing belt couldn't be fixed. I was not told that the "especially the coolant" part was bc there was a crack at the top of the radiator, nor that the squealing belt might randomly break due to whatever the issue was. When the belt broke i was stranded on the side of the road, at night, in January. When i managed to get it replaced, i also stopped the squealing...by tightening the alternator another fraction of an inch. That summer it overheated when i was out of town and when I asked what to do, I was told to just add water to the radiator. Oook. Did that, got a little ways and it overheated again. More water. Over heated. I limped it within 3 miles of home before it died and wouldn't restart. Got a friend to come take a look and he told me that the reason it overheated was bc the radiator was cracked. But worst of all so was the motor. See...when I was told to add water...no one said to do so while it was running so it would circulate. I didn't know anything about cars at the time, those of you that do knows what happened. I stupidity didn't invest in getting it fixed, opting to just buy another vehicle(which turned into a lemon at no fault of mine). I miss my tracker...
Moral of the story, when telling someone whats wrong with a vehicle and/or how to fix it...be very specific as to why and how. $150 radiator replacement and a slight adjustment to the alternator could have saved me a lot of stress and money.
Car knowledge should be a class, surely an option if not required.
When i was physically able,,i changed my own oil, did plugs and wires and changed filters. I could change a tire as well. I am female and am completely aware that even a simple tune up isnt the same anymore. I always took anything more to a qualified,,QUALITY mechanic. I would still.do my own oil if i could,,price is insane nowadays.❤
About car maintenance class in school: I live in the USA and car maintenance should be part of the driving test to get a driving license, and people not knowing about car maintenance is also there parents/guardians not telling them about it when learning about driving a car.
Had some lady complain her car kept stopping, randomly, full on emergency stop.
She had an air-fresher on the gear lever, and when you changed into second gear it activated the electric parking brake. Time for an emergency stop.
The best bit, it was `Kevin’ from the minions movie franchise on the air-freshener. She had a little yellow guy wearing dungarees randomly applying the parking brake when she shifted into second gear. There were wear-marks on the cardboard that perfectly matched the parking brake switch.
Moral, do not put bits of tat on your car’s controls.
I don’t do cars - I mean, I’ve never owned one and I’ve driven about five times this century - but this whole thread cracked me up just the way “Car Talk” did. The relationship between people and their vehicles is sometimes comical.
And the funny thing is, I know a lot of stuff about cars, between my dad and Car Talk - certainly that you have to change the oil and that your tires all have to be the same size and you don’t put oil into the block. How do people not know that?
Your wheels all have to be the same size. I've seen cars on the road with different size rims but they've got different size tires to make the wheels the same size overall. It looks a bit funky, but they seem to ride OK.
Tires don't all have to be the same size....I have a staggered setup for example
@@sutherlacd27 That's also true. I guess the main thing is that all 4 wheels have the same diameter or at least both pairs do.
I was raised in the car shop and my dad is a master tech and I do some of my own stuff, I once had to take a look at my moms car (this was a 2016 Chevy sonic that I later on bought from her) the second we get in I heard the front brakes were grinding so bad it was metal on metal and I told her to get that fixed immediately, it also needed a lot of body work like the front bumper was held in with nailing screws… and she didn’t even change the oil plus I also noticed some wires from the harness were cut when I was checking the ambient air temp sensor (I was diagnosing my AC) I did fix up what I could but sadly lost the car to a guy who ran a red light
21:52 I believe this is mainly covered in Driver's Ed, if a school offers it (which would be a no brainer in my mind). I'm not sure if other Driver's Ed schools, like the ones that are more geared to people who are learning to drive a bit later in life, offer that. I remember having to fill up the gas for the training car so that we'd (the other student learning and I) would know how to find the side wit the gas tank and how to use the fuel pump. While we were filling the tank we also learned a bit about certain parts of the car that were under the hood, this is what I don't know if other Driver's Eds do this with their students or not.
Oh now I get it. While I was in Driver's Ed the instructor had me pull into a gas station to fill up. I thought it was odd, but I went with it. I was already pumping the gas when the instructor got out of the car.
"just rolled in" os a channel on here that deals soecifically with this stuff. I watched a fall off of the car when the mechanic kicked it, ppl gluing knick knacks and plastic gems all over the interior, including the sterring wheel, and any number of those scam fuel saver mods...some even catch fire.
5 years Diesel Mechanic here that just recently move to new workplace. The lorries condition were horrible and my boss gave me a task to solve engine raising temperature and low powered as drivers complained for almost 10 years. I have a chief mechanic that is 10 years that....
Never change oil filters both oil and diesel and weld an free fan
I have to clean all the fuel lines, unclog and wash all filter nuts, refill free fan silicone olis, do engine service and change all diesel and oil filters.
Filed a complaint and reports to boss of how incompetent his 10 years chief mechanic.
I have to unf***ed all his work of neglect and I got raise in 1 month time.
3:12 some people think cars are like microwaves or TVs. Supposed to go on and on with virtually no maintenance. But in reality, cars are really heavy machinery that needs a fair bit of maintenance.
There's alot of cars that are called "unreliable" because people don't maintain them, and some of those cars are sensitive to a lack of maintenance.
I used to work at an auto parts store and we saw some crazy stuff. My all time favorite didn't actually happen to me, but happened to a good friend of mine who I worked with. He bought this mark 4 Toyota Supra for real cheap off Craigslist and it ran kinda rough. On further inspection, the guy had painted the inside AND outside of the engine. Neon green and school bus yellow. Needless to say that car got scrapped.
I'm surprised the guy with two different wheel sizes didn't shred his transmission driving like that
Stories like these make me glad I never skip oil changes, recalls, or trips to the dealership if there's issues. I treat a car like I would a body needing surgery: leave it to the experts who know what the f they're doing.
15:08 For those who don't know ford engines the 2.3 he's referring to is the same engine out of the ford pinto which has around 88 horsepower on a good day. So he whent from around 200 horsepower to 88 horsepower. I bet money that the engine was screaming like R2-D2. I'm more amazed the engine bolted directly to the trucks transmission.
43:00 absolutely agree, my sister didn’t know how to open the hood & she also thought that adding oil was changing it. She is better now and if she has questions, she calls me. (Which is double funny because as a kid my sisters scolded me saying “you can’t fix everything” as I’d often remove the thing they just broke from the trash 😂. Now they both call me. Knowledge is built on experience. ) (Also, if she comes across this, she’s gonna be pissed 😆)
Tires change, listen to what the tire says, not what the door frame says. Thats how we ended up with tires that were 30psi above the rated pressure at amazon.
Probably the craziest thing i heard about from a former Chrysler / Plymouth mechanic was his brother inlaw dissatisfied with his big Chrylsers ride removed all four shock absorbers . He was convinced the car would ride smoother without them . 😂
My older son didn’t change/replace the oil causing the engine to be ruined. The lead my second son to be OCD about changing the oil, he notches 5000 mi each oil change
Worked at Valvoline. Had a guy in a squatted truck come in. We have to try to recommend maintenance. Now we don't try to sell them if they are done just if the Carfax says it hasn't been done. One of them was the diff. I told him about it and he said "oh I just replaced my diff like 3 weeks ago so the fluid is fresh" I say "oh okay I'll put in the notes" he then says "yeah it's the 4th one in a little over a year" he then floored it leaving the lot. I wonder why you go through so many with how you treat it and with it not getting proper fluid through it. I wonder what could cause it. So for me it's squatted bros. I don't know why they complain about trans and diff problems. Like your putting excess strain on it. Not only that. But it's a double whammy because while it has extra stress. It's also not being properly lubricated because it's squatted
Another story: we had a lady in a early 2000s CRV roll in. She took it to grease monkey but noticed it was smoking afterwards and brought it here for us to check as she was on the road we were on. They put 14quarts of oil in it. Drained the oil filled it up. Ran like a champ. Blew smoke for about 30 seconds idled weird for that 30 seconds. Then ran perfectly fine. Here's the kicker. The CRV 380,000 miles on it on the original motor. That was the day I swore by Honda being the most reliable brand
The mixing oil with diesel thing CAN work, but it needs to be prepared properly. I’m not sure what types of oil can be used for it, but my grandpa used to filter spent cooking oil to mix with diesel for his pickup. He was a mechanic and the thing ran like new for hundreds of thousands of miles.
The sad thing is that people post the headline "run a diesel on vegetable oil" and other people never look into all of the steps that go into it.
I understood that case to be about people mixing Diesel fuel with moter oil and other "herbs and spices" to be used in the crankcase.
For Story 11: I don't even know how to air up tires without checking the pressure. I mean, every method I know has a pressure gauge in the system. And if you still find a way to do that without a pressure gauge, don't do it. Just go to your nearest gas station and check the air in all four tires.
I've got one. My old manager at TLE got into an argument with me because he was greasing break bleeder valves and he refused to believe me. The worst one I had in my shop was a 2006 Buick Regal that had a blown engine. The customer told me she thought it was because she forgot to do an oil change.
Removing the turn signal housing from the bumper, drilling 400 holes in it and cutting between the holes to rip out the circuit board and completely voiding the warranty on the part
I love hearing all these stories about people who don't change their oil and have issues. Makes me laugh knowing mine will never need an oil change.
It's electric.
I can very much relate
New drivers often want to have big useless spoilers
I tell them the aeroplane uses them to slow down on landing
And spoilers are only good four cornering fast with rear attraction
The internet is full of dumb spoilers pictures
I own a big lifted truck with 35inch tires, but i have 2 pairs, 1 for street and one for offroad, i do some hobby wood work so will go totally offroad and trail to find trees i can cut down and mill. If your gonna spend thousands on tires regardless, best to just buy 2 specialized sets.
Other than your house your car is the 2nd most expensive thing you will own. Why people don’t bother to do any maintenance just blows my mind. Spend 40k on a car and never spend the $35 to change the oil. Brakes start to get low. Don’t spend the $80 for new brakes. Keep driving until there is so much damage to the brake rotors and calipers that now it’s going to be $500 to fix. Not to mention that driving with metal on metal brakes is extremely dangerous. The list goes on and on. If you just fallow the simple maintenance plan the car will last longer and run a lot better.
their mentality is “if it breaks i’ll just trade it in and get a new one” and the cycle will continue
Story 33 (Banana in the tailpipe): I find that one hard to believe...Unless the idiot's exhaust system already had a serious leak in it (which is a whole 'nother problem in itself), blocking the tailpipe with a banana (or anything really) will NOT force the exhaust gasses into the passenger compartment and make the drive pass out...What it WILL do is choke the engine and cause it to run very poorly (if the blockage isn't complete and some gas can escape) or just die entirely (if the blockage is complete) because the exhaust gas can't leave the cylinder and the engine can't pull in enough fresh air to allow the fuel to burn...
It annoys me when people call it a freeze plug. It is not designed to pop out if the coolant freezes. The hole is designed to drain the sand out of the block after the *iron* block is cast.
To that snow storm car without brakes. A car that won’t start is a headache, a car that won’t stop is a death wish. Careful out there people
This is my story. I had a break caliper lock up on my 89' Chevy 1500. I replaced the brake with lifetime replacement. I drove 30 miles. I took the brake pad off to take it in to get the replacement. In 30 miles, it had worn the abrasive out completely and started melting the steel pad.
Not on a car but my bike.
Bled the brakes after replacing brake pads. Must have gotten brake fluid on the rotor in the process. So naturally, the brake was squealing like crazy and not working all that good. Took all apart and doused the rotor in brake cleaner. Also sanded it down a hair. New brake pads went in. Cleaned everything to within an inch of its life. All good, rode for an out 20 miles the next day. I go downhill approaching a stop. Suddenly loud squealing from brake and maybe 10% braking power. Luckily this happened half a block from a workshop. Much cussing. Picked up a new brake rotor, another set of brake pads and set to work. Again kept everything religiosity clean. Test drive went completely fine. This was a Saturday evening. Decided to have a super lazy Sunday. Next ride was to work on Monday morning. After maybe 20ft: loud squealing. More cussing. Took bike to shop and told them that this was the 2nd complete brake job I did in a week and the brake would still squeal like a mofo. Also told them that I thought maybe a brake line was busted or something but was at the end of my tether. Asked them to take a look and let me know what the deal was.
Was later informed that I did had ever so slightly under-tighten the bleed screw. So brake fluid was seeping out veeeery slowly and dripping on the calliper. The fact that it was seeping so slowly was also the reason why it was OK at first but started causing issues the next day or the day after that.
And yes, I was extremely cautious with the bleed screw since it is very easy to strip the threads of you overdo it, and then you’d need a completely new brake calliper. The more you know… 🙄