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As an owner of second, third, or even fourteenth hand automobiles- what is it that annoys you about the previous owners? It can be anything. I'll start with a few of my pet peeves: 1) Stealing the little insert that covers the cigarette lighters. Ok, fine. The car doesn't come with lighters by default- but what exactly do you think you are going to get by taking the covers? A whole buck on eBay? You had them in your eBay/CraigsList/tindr post. Leave them. 2) Unkempt leather seats. How hard is it to get your fat rear end off the leather couch inside- and go out and condition your cars' seats once every three-to-five years? Really!? Thanks for the $10 covers you found at the back of Target that don't fit at all- but if you can't take care of something this easy- why should I trust you to have done your stated oil changes? 3) Leftover food detritus. I don't really expect to have a superfund site when I pull the seats (unless you have kids). Why the hell can't you manage to find your mouth with these limp fries from the last decade? Even more- why do they still look edible?
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Dec 24, 2014 04:04
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| # ? Apr 23, 2024 12:55 |
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I don't care so much about those little aesthetic things, it's the little mechanical or electrical "what the gently caress were you thinking"s that always get me. Vampire taps everywhere, or twisted and taped wires, or poo poo welded that shouldn't be welded, or the wrong bolt stuffed into a hole. How the gently caress hard is it to go get a fastener of the correct thread and pitch??? 
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Dec 24, 2014 04:09
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Bad electricals are a given, I'm afraid. I don't think I've had a single CL purchase without a random wire trailing off hot to nowhere  within the last decade. Usually it is just a lazy eq/sub delete.One time I gave up trying to find the proper size bolt on a never-seen-ium before. I stuck what I had of the proper width, stuck a ton of washers on it, and then just did a best-effort clamp twist. Sorry about that.
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Dec 24, 2014 04:24
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I have a debit card that got lost in the interior of my last car. The rest of my PO issues arent a big deal because I buy cars that are turbo hosed and I basically junkyard build them back up to not lovely.
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Dec 24, 2014 04:40
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Oh, god, food. I recently found Reeces' Peanut Butter Cups in my XJ. BEHIND THE GLOVE BOX. 
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Dec 24, 2014 04:50
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I doubt that first one in intentional - I know it took me ages to track down the lighter for the car I'm selling because I'd taken it out and put a phone charger in there when I got the car five years back.
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Dec 24, 2014 04:51
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dissss posted:I doubt that first one in intentional - I know it took me ages to track down the lighter for the car I'm selling because I'd taken it out and put a phone charger in there when I got the car five years back. Most of my purchases have a minimum of two covers. They're ALWAYS missing. ALWAYS!  Liquid Communism posted:Oh, god, food. In my '96 fix-for-a-friend project, I found some McDonalds tokens (Monopoly) that I didn't recognize. I also eventually found a 3" tall purple Grimace.
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Dec 24, 2014 04:56
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My general pet peeve comes from lovely improvisation solutions. Yes you can stuff solid rotors you sourced from the junkyard into calipers made for vented rotors. But please just spend the $50 extra dollars and save me the trouble of figuring out why the hell you jammed in one anti rattle clip on one side and none on the other and its impossible to get that one clip back in. Also if you do any sort of wiring, loving tidy it up at the end. Just because you did baby's first engine swap doesn't entitle you to leave the engine bay looking like a bomb went off. Tony quidprano fucked around with this message at 05:25 on Dec 24, 2014 |
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Dec 24, 2014 05:15
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I used to have lots of PO stories, but then I got into fixing commercial vehicles for a living and it's got me kind of jaded. Nothing like vehicles with factory marrettes, scotch clips and twist-n-tape splices. Heat-shrinkable butts that haven't been shrunk. Wood screws holding entire dashes together. RTV holding dash panels on. HVAC systems rendered inoperable by way of the pile of exploded lighters sitting up against the heater core blocking it entirely. Trucks with double-boot shifters where the lower boot is full of sunflower seed shells and old french fries, level with the floor. Snacks and chocolate with expiry dates from before Courtney killed Kurt () in bizarre places. Battery terminals gobbed with NLGI #4, over top of the half pound of corrosion. Oil leaks plugged with literal Hubba Bubba bubblegum (to the guy's credit it did stop the leak  ). That's what I remember off the top of my head, I could go on but 
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Dec 24, 2014 05:29
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57 cars later. lovely radio, light, accessory installs, lovely rear end wiring "mods", lovely rear end mods in general. lovely mcshitfuck food and other garbage left in places. I've found everything from used condoms to french fries from the 90s in cars. halfass or noass fixes. "uhaul" trailer light harnesses ducttape doubling as electrical tape. Oh god the list goes on and on. do not get me started on bikes or buses.
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Dec 24, 2014 06:00
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I'll cross post my Jeep's PO's attempt to fix the rear view mirror.    Not pictured is most of the glue and paper towel mess the guy used to try to glue the mirror in place. In his defense, it worked until I tried to move the mirror. There's also this lovely mess from the dashboard protector:  That took a lot of Goo Gone, a flathead screwdriver, and about an hour to remove. There were roughly 20 of them all over the dash and cowl. You can still see where the glue was in the right light. So much for protecting the dash. Seems pretty tame, but I haven't owned enough used cars that weren't already known basket cases before buying them. (parts cars, flips, etc)
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Dec 24, 2014 06:10
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Holding the clutch slave onto the engine block with a wood screw is pretty screwed up and could have left me screwed literally on the side of the road and probably got me gay married in my man catching miata.
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Dec 24, 2014 06:40
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My PO greased the outside of my Miata's speedo cable then refused to allow a highway speed test drive or one longer than 10 minutes. Same dude sold this Miata to make money to LS swap his other one.
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Dec 24, 2014 13:34
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This was my favorite.  This was a close second 
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Dec 24, 2014 13:40
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"We only carried the dog in it occasionally since the AC didn't work."  This was behind the plastic trim in the cargo area of my V70R. Not pictured: the clouds of dog hair that took flight from under the seats the first time I drove it on the highway with the windows down.
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Dec 24, 2014 18:01
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Among other things, I found a gallon of used motor oil, empty seafoam bottle, and empty rattle can behind the seat, and three non-fitting tires and some unfitting exhaust pipes in the bed. I know you had to do some things to make it drivable enough to sell, but why didn't you take out the garbage?
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Dec 24, 2014 18:47
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On my old Ranger, the PO did a water pump replacement. On the 2.5L Lima engine, the gaskets all around it are just rubber O rings that should be installed dry. Fucker RTved them all. Including the one that holds a $50 plastic tube into the pump, giving me no way to remove it without destroying it. It also caused the original leak hat I had to go into fix in the first place. Also, as I bitched about elsewhere. The shop that last did work on my WJ for the PO apparently couldn't manage to fully engage an axle or transfer case plug, so they were all partly stripped. They also used an ungodly amount of RTVED on the front diff cover.
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Dec 25, 2014 06:48
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I'm not the cleanest guy, I think I've vacuumed my car out about every two months on average, but disgusting interiors get me. Wifes car yielded a literal couple of pounds of fries, sweets, pet hair, loose change and a couple of poo poo gameboy games first time I cleaned it. My e46, week, let's just say I thought that was an odd factory texture, turned out to be accumulated coffee. I stripped the seats and centre console out and scrubbed everything. It took me an hour to remove something because I couldn't see the last couple of screws, the congealed coffee was like organic biohazard filler over them. One day I'll own a new car, then I'll be the PO.
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Dec 25, 2014 09:09
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Eh - I'm probably someones future PO. The way I put speakers in the dashboard and damaged one of them in the process, having them wired out of phase of each other so the bass is negated completely. Vampire taps everywhere for added lights, switch installed poorly. At least it's all fused properly. The only thing the PO of my IH did that really upset me was use gear oil in the transmission and transfer case, which was bad for the synchros. It wasn't in there long but there were some serious metal flakes in the oil, it looked like expired Goldschlager.
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Dec 25, 2014 17:59
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The first car I ever bought with my own money was a 1993 Camry XLE. The PO was a good friend of mine named David. A year later, the passenger side headlight bulb went out. When I went to replace it, I discovered that all the plastic mounting tabs on the headlight housing had snapped off, presumably during a previous accident. As a lazy repair, the headlight was held in place by a baby's shoe wedged between the housing and the radiator support. Ever since then, my mom refers to the PO not by his real name, David, but as "baby-shoe-in-the-car-guy". Also gently caress lovely aftermarket alarm systems. Just gently caress them forever.
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Dec 25, 2014 18:50
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Oh where to begin? is it the dash that's missing half it's screws because of the lovely stereo install, or the damaged rear sub frame that i had to replace because when they installed the eBay rear toe arms, they left out the washer that... you know.. kept that from happening. Oh, maybe it's that every suspension bolt on the right side of the car someone went apeshit on with an impact gun, where the left side seems to have been properly torqued. No, I think it may be the slime. Literally gooey slime that i spent hours removing panels and loving scooping out of the entire rear hatch area. I don't know what it was, but i'm given a little bit of solace when I imagine it's the previous owner, murdered and liquefied into his own car.
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Dec 25, 2014 19:05
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Just discovered one on my relatively new Mazda - the PO broke the plastic tabs that hold the key together and decided that super-gluing it back together was an appropriate repair. All well and good until the battery goes flat.
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Dec 26, 2014 00:07
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The previous owner of my Corolla hacked the goddamn catalytic converter off for god knows what reason and replaced it with a length of pipe. I didn't know this because the fucker reset the computer when he brought it to me. Slowly getting my Craigslist crapcan whipped into shape. Getting rid of all the DTCs on a used car is always fun. Had a P0135 with the old sensor, the new one works even more poorly - Got P0130 and p0133. (And the p0420 of course because there is NO GODDAMN CAT) Waiting for a Denso 234-4205 O2 Sensor to come - I tried the Bosch 13051 which is listed as compatible and it didn't work - stutters and stumbles like a bastard. I'm glad there is no inspection here. I always fix anything that causes a code but it's talking me a while to do it. Thanks a lot, guy.
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Dec 26, 2014 16:02
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Cigarettes. Nearly every Audi I purchase has cigarettes crammed in the shifter well or under the seats. My Audi 4000 Quattro had about 50 Dodge bandannas and a really lovely subwoofer and amp.
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Dec 26, 2014 16:12
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The mustang PO left me with some lovely led strips in the wheel wells, lovely halo headlights, and a lovely exhaust install. The explorer PO left me with a $25 Applebees gift card. Also a lovely transmission.
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Dec 26, 2014 16:18
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Viggen posted:3) Leftover food detritus. I don't really expect to have a superfund site when I pull the seats (unless you have kids). Why the hell can't you manage to find your mouth with these limp fries from the last decade? Even more- why do they still look edible?
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Dec 26, 2014 17:35
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Not to hijack the thread, but which cars have the worst POs? I'm thinking: Cheap BMWs WRX S2000 IS300 240SX Miata Civic/RSX/TSX Not putting VW in there because they can't get any worse than they came from the factory.
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Dec 26, 2014 18:03
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blk posted:Not to hijack the thread, but which cars have the worst POs? Anything American from the '70s/'80s is guaranteed to have Terrible PO stuff in some capacity,
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Dec 26, 2014 18:15
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Cone filters, randomly blocked or unplugged emissions components, random messing around with intake and exhaust tracts, holes drilled in the air box, basically every gimmick Chinese part you can find on Ebay. The thought process feels like "Sure there were millions of dollars in design and engineering put into this by a whole team of people...but I know better". I'm really not bothered by trash build up because that can happen by accident and cleaning might not be a priority, but people doing that stuff are taking an active part in destroying their cars.
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Dec 26, 2014 18:21
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craig588 posted:Cone filters, randomly blocked or unplugged emissions components, random messing around with intake and exhaust tracts, holes drilled in the air box, basically every gimmick Chinese part you can find on Ebay. The thought process feels like "Sure there were millions of dollars in design and engineering put into this by a whole team of people...but I know better". I'm really not bothered by trash build up because that can happen by accident and cleaning might not be a priority, but people doing that stuff are taking an active part in destroying their cars. Along those lines, people who turn up the fueling in their carb/diesel injection system with zero knowledge of how it will affect the entire engine's health and performance.
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Dec 26, 2014 18:27
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On review I have to say I think the baby shoe thing is an example of the "if it looks stupid but it works - it isn't stupid" rule.
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Dec 26, 2014 21:07
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My little brothers vectra had a block of wood jammed under the fuel rail, to stop it rattling we thought? No, turns out you can squeak through an mot if you apply a certain amount of pressure to the head over the pcv system, but either the system blocks completely or the head cracks after a couple of weeks. Twats. He ended up spending a couple of grand on basically a new top end after both of the above happened. Stonking fast diesel afterwards but it soured him on the car for months.
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Dec 26, 2014 21:34
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My radio/acc fuse is wired to the battery, instead of on only at ignition. PO was a rotten bastard. Now I need to find a decent ign power source. E: I take it back. It's simply not possible that someone could be so loving boneheaded as to bypass a switch like that. No loving way. There's got to be a stuck relay somehwere. JukeboxHerostratus fucked around with this message at 01:16 on Dec 27, 2014 |
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Dec 26, 2014 22:36
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PO used the intake and puny 2bbl carb from the old 307 on the crate 350 that he installed. I'm guessing he managed to mangle the old battery cables in the process because he used the opposite colors when he put the new cables back on. I don't even know.
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Dec 27, 2014 00:35
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My buddy bought an FC RX7 from the ghetto (because RX7 sales are overrepresented in the ghetto for some reason). After all was said and done we pulled up the shift boot to refill the shift turret with delicious gear sauce. The entire turret was stuffed to the brim with weed shake that had fallen inside there over the years. Kinda glad we didn't drive past any K9 units on the way home. Ended up sucking it all out with a car wash vacuum. On the return trip one of the mufflers fell off from rust and bounced into someone's front yard.
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Dec 28, 2014 17:10
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The PO of my Celica had given the car to his son, who promptly crammed a ridiculously over-powered stereo system into it. When I went to remove all of this and return it to mostly stock I discovered that he had completely destroyed the factory dash harness, so I just drove around for 2 years with no radio. When I finally got around to fixing it, I had to completely gut the interior and run all new wires as well as replacing the entire dashboard and wiring harness. Hate POs, hate their children more.
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Dec 28, 2014 18:33
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Used condoms in the map pockets. Six of them. Fucker.
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Dec 28, 2014 19:16
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buttcrackmenace posted:Used condoms in the map pockets. Six of them. This was 4 months ago, and he still has them in there. Gross.
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Dec 28, 2014 19:41
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buttcrackmenace posted:Used condoms in the map pockets. Six of them.
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Dec 28, 2014 20:04
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Hot glued the license plate to a euro car because it didn't have the holes for a north american style plate.
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Dec 28, 2014 20:06
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