|
Slavvy posted:Wait, they made a v6 cavalier wagon? Don't worry, our Cavalier was a heap too.  Which Cavalier were you thinking of?
|
#
?
May 23, 2014 13:23
|
|
|
|
| # ? May 11, 2024 16:45 |
|
|
I like the well defined time of "bright-n-early" for a phone call. To me as a younger person that is probably 8am, but to the greyhairs in your shop that could easily be 6am. Awesome thread.
|
|
#
?
May 23, 2014 15:07
|
|
|
This thread rules so hard. I think my favorite parts are the stories of the drooling retards who can't/won't listen to reason, DrPain's disgusted reaction, and then the schadenfreude when those same idiots come crawling back asking for a repair twice as expensive as the initial diagnosis because they just wouldn't loving listen.
|
|
#
?
May 23, 2014 15:08
|
|
|
Just to echo, this is a great thread. I love learning about other chassis for better or worse.
|
|
#
?
May 23, 2014 16:32
|
|
|
Preoptopus posted:Its funny how a "new" car taking a poo poo at 60 or 80k is horrendous these days. I remember when at 60k you either started looking for a new car or collecting parts. Don't worry about the youngn's calling you out, I remember this too. Hell, my dad's 1975 Volvo was the first car he owned longer than a few years. Ended up owning it for 20.
|
|
#
?
May 23, 2014 16:56
|
|
|
Slavvy posted:Hahahahaha what. We need a That's GM!' emote or something. A little late but also Audi (B5 chassis)! Not that this fact says much...
|
|
#
?
May 23, 2014 18:15
|
|
|
Panty Saluter posted:Don't worry, our Cavalier was a heap too. The chevy/toyota cavalier blobcar piece of poo poo. I can't be hosed finding a picture, you know the one.
|
|
#
?
May 23, 2014 20:58
|
|
|
The Cavalier wagon: It was the generation prior to the one you're thinking of.
|
|
#
?
May 23, 2014 21:29
|
|
|
Timmy Cruise posted:A little late but also Audi (B5 chassis)! Not that this fact says much... And BMW e36. It probably saved assembly time.
|
|
#
?
May 23, 2014 22:18
|
|
|
Got off work, was excited for an update, and then remembered that DrPain's shop has sane management, and is thus closed on holidays. 
|
|
#
?
May 26, 2014 22:24
|
|
|
kastein posted:I love unit bearings for exactly that reason... 15 minute job at most (if you're familiar enough with the vehicle to know exactly which size/type all fasteners are) unless it's been on the bottom of the ocean for a few years. The miata fronts are just held on with the spindle nut. And you can pull the caliper/mounting bracket off as one piece, two bolts. Easiest job I've ever done.
|
|
#
?
May 27, 2014 01:24
|
|
|
MRC48B posted:Got off work, was excited for an update, and then remembered that DrPain's shop has sane management, and is thus closed on holidays. He doesn't want to post more regularly because "the shop is doing boring jobs"
|
|
#
?
May 27, 2014 08:24
|
|
|
This is the greatest thread in a long time. 
|
|
#
?
May 27, 2014 12:51
|
|
|
MRC48B posted:Got off work, was excited for an update, and then remembered that DrPain's shop has sane management, and is thus closed on holidays. Hey them are fightin' words round these parts!  But yes, we were closed Monday in honor of the holiday, and I took Friday off to get out of town for the weekend with my wife and celebrate our anniversary.  Road tripped to Temecula, CA. I insisted on driving back because I wanted to put the Acura through it's paces coming back up I-15 through Cajon Pass which is a moderately steep uphill climb. It'll eat your car if it's not in shape. I counted 7 cars pulled over, presumably overheating, before we made it to Victorville without incident. This always make me smile, because I know that those people could have saved themselves a ton of trouble if they had just dropped by a shop for a trip check before tearing rear end up Cajon Pass. A trip check is basically an oil change without the oil change, just a general once over inspection up on the rack of all brakes, belts, boots, hoses, tires, tire pressures etc... Tire pressures are my new  thing, since the Acura is AWD, and tire pressures are serious business where AWD systems are concerned.I wanted to even them out before leaving on our long trip, but the gauge I inherited with the shop sucked balls. This is true of many things I acquired in the shop purchase, I have discovered.  It was inaccurate as poo poo, and a pain to get a true reading, the sight glass on it is scratched from years of rolling around Mark's toolbox, and one must remove the hose from the valvestem, then recheck for your true pressure. I decided to give the snap-on tool truck a shot, and got one of these for $60 loving actual dollars.  Not my picture but identical. It's an OK gauge, but can only check and bleed off pressure. No ability to add air to a tire. This was good enough for me last week with my trip imminent, and I painstakingly finally got all my pressures evened out with the aid of the in dash trip computer. I was convinced for $60 I could do better, and I did.   Oh yeah. Check out its majesty. This baby both fills and drains tire pressure, and measures instantly on a digital read out to a tenth of a PSI. Found it on Amazon with prime shipping for the same price as the low function analog gauge off the tool truck. It got here this morning and I have been happily filling/correcting all tire pressures all day. I'll return the snap-on tool later this week, it's in perfectly fine condition and I buy other shop equipment from that truck so he shouldn't squeal too much.  I hopped in my Ranger this morning to drive to work, only to realize that I was planning on filling up on gas Friday, which obviously did not happen. Alas, I was sitting right on E and a few minutes behind schedule already, so I pumped a quick $5 just to get to work and fill up on my lunch break.  This is by far my proudest perfect pump, LLJK without even trying.   This fantastic piece of poo poo '96 Chevy 2500 pickup belongs to the foreclosure clean out company in my building.  His drivers spend months at a time on the road traveling from one job to the next in various west/northwestern states, so they rarely get back to us for some real mechanical love. I think the company could afford to run a little nicer fleet given the circumstances, but they pay us a lot of money to fix them, so I'm not complaining.  The drivers often make their own special... modifications... to suit their specific in the field needs. Some of them are a little more "THERE I FIXED IT" while others are a fabulous mix of lunacy and isolation, like this loving 110a power strip wired up under the hood, straight to the battery.  Pictures don't do it justice, this truck is hacked and scabbed to hell and back. The radiator bottle pictured here is held in place with zip ties and by the hoses to it.  More wiring of questionable necessity.  To power his CUSTOM GAUGES which do not turn off with key off   Anyway it needed an A/C service. Yep! That's their only complaint today, A/C inop, which just needed an evacuate and charge for now. We injected oil & dye for leak checks the next time it's in town. I am continually loving completely amazed what comes in the shop door in horrendous condition in need of numerous repairs, only for the express purpose of either A/C or smog check. This company in particular is one of the worst offenders. They've got a ton of really crappy trucks and even worse trailers.  This 96 GMC 1500 pickup does not belong to the same foreclosure clean out company, but it would fit right in with their fleet. It also came in with one solitary complaint, A/C inop. The customer states "I DO MY OWN MAINTENANCE!". Oh really?    The oil isn't low but it is black and about the consistency of mud. This customer does their own maintenance, you see.    This vehicle was designed to take a side post style battery. The customer has a different idea in mind, apparently.  He doesn't want us to replace this belt because "I DO MY OWN MAINTENANCE!"  Fixing a coolant leak from the bypass hose is, however, apparently above his pay grade, and so we are going to do that as well as the A/C work. Ordinarily, to drain the cooling system on a vehicle we just pull the lower rad hose, but seeing as we just need to drain it down a little to replace the bypass hose, we just tickled the petcock a little until it started weeping, then remove the radiator cap to allow it to drain and...  Oh...  OH...    Yeah, that's pure water coming out of it. Well, it went in pure, presumably years ago. Now it's mostly rust and calcification.  The offending hose in question. It'll be getting replaced along with a severely overdue coolant flush, a new radiator cap, and all new coolant. The story on this truck is the owner had lived in San Jose before moving out to the desert, and never used the A/C in California. The compressor is free and turns by hand, and the compressor short cycles after shooting a bit of refrigerant into the system, so we're going to put a full evacuate and charge on this truck, also with oil and dye for leak checks. I'll have to explain to the customer after letting a system sit empty for several years there is no telling how long this charge will last. It may be a day, a week, or well into next summer before a hose, o-ring, seal, etc... Will pop after sitting unused then suddenly being cranked up to several hundred psi and several hundred degrees. Lots of people don't understand the incredible pressures and heat an A/C system runs, so this is sometimes an interesting conversation when they come back a week later demanding warranty work because "YOU BROKE IT!!", when the reality is it was already broken. Do you guys really want to hear about every uneventful service we do?  This '05 Silverado Durmax diesel came by for an oil change.  A 2003 Subaru Forrester was about to get raped by a chain brake specialty shop, and they had the sense to bring it here instead. The chain shop wanted to do master cylinder, brake booster, brake lines, calipers, rotors, drums, wheel cylinders, shoes, the whole 9 yards. The front brakes have about 25% remaining, the calipers, lines, master cyl, booster are fine. The rear drums however are in bad shape. The wheel cylinders are indeed leaking, and the shoes are indeed ground into the drums. DrPain fucked around with this message at 00:56 on May 28, 2014 |
|
#
?
May 28, 2014 00:32
|
|
|
DrPain posted:Do you guys really want to hear about every uneventful service we do? Yup
|
|
#
?
May 28, 2014 00:40
|
|
|
revmoo posted:Yup Petcock. I'll do my best to be more inclusive with my postings.
|
|
#
?
May 28, 2014 01:00
|
|
|
DrPain posted:Do you guys really want to hear about every uneventful service we do? Kinda.
|
|
#
?
May 28, 2014 01:00
|
|
|
revmoo posted:Yup Agreed. loving awesome thread, and the more little bits of info I pick up, the better I'm an absolute moron, comparatively, but it at least helps let me know if I/friends are being hosed.
|
|
#
?
May 28, 2014 01:02
|
|
|
revmoo posted:Yup As if there was any other answer.
|
|
#
?
May 28, 2014 01:04
|
|
|
I'm partial to hackjobs, rare cars, and difficult diagnosis myself.
|
|
#
?
May 28, 2014 01:04
|
|
|
revmoo posted:Yup I miss being in a shop so much, I will happily read about other people working in a shop. Stockholm Syndrome got me hard.
|
|
#
?
May 28, 2014 01:05
|
|
|
Terrible Robot posted:I miss being in a shop so much, I will happily read about other people working in a shop. Stockholm Syndrome got me hard. I think reading about working in a shop is kind of like reading about people playing EVE, you get most of the fun of the stories of poo poo happening without all the hours of drudgery and frustration
|
|
#
?
May 28, 2014 01:06
|
|
|
It's kinda like an AI reality show, except it's real.
|
|
#
?
May 28, 2014 01:08
|
|
|
daslog posted:It's kinda like an AI reality show, except it's real. He'll be on A&E in a year.
|
|
#
?
May 28, 2014 01:35
|
|
|
Did newguy shape up after the talk?
|
|
#
?
May 28, 2014 01:46
|
|
|
iwentdoodie posted:He'll be on A&E in a year.
|
|
#
?
May 28, 2014 01:54
|
|
|
DrPain posted:
I have not heard this in YEARS.
|
|
#
?
May 28, 2014 01:59
|
|
|
Galler posted:yelling at your father-in-law I may not speak for him, but I enjoyed the arguments.
|
|
#
?
May 28, 2014 02:01
|
|
|
This is better because it doesn't have some fabricated reality show drama added in. Love the thread, love seeing the stupid poo poo people do (and fail to do) to their vehicles.
|
|
#
?
May 28, 2014 02:12
|
|
|
I love this thread because its what this thread was before it turned into people complaining about other drivers not using turn signals.
|
|
#
?
May 28, 2014 02:15
|
|
|
opengl128 posted:I love this thread because its what this thread was before it turned into people complaining about other drivers not using turn signals. I was kinda upset when that happened, I wanted to see 13" tear peoples idiot decisions apart. Then by page 3 it's nothing but traffic-chat. I freely admit to being just as complicit in that as everybody else here, but I do wish it had stayed on its original topic.
|
|
#
?
May 28, 2014 02:21
|
|
|
I don't get quite as much schadenfreude since I don't spin wrenches for a living, but hilarious thread, please never stop
|
|
#
?
May 28, 2014 02:37
|
|
|
You know those gigantic new toyota minivans that take cartridge filters and special 0w20 oil (or similar)? how much do you charge for an oil change on one of those?
|
|
#
?
May 28, 2014 03:19
|
|
|
What's some of the rarer cars you have had in the shop? (astons, rolls, etc)
|
|
#
?
May 28, 2014 03:24
|
|
|
With respect to A/C, the last (and only; the cars I've owned since have not had A/C) time I had a local shop do an E&R was in 1995, on a newly acquired '67 Catalina with a Sears aftermarket system, replete with Eaton 2-cylinder compressor. The system hadn't been operating in a while & appeared to be intact; I didn't have the required refrigerant license, so... Shop charged it up, and I was able to experience the glory of conditioned, cold air...for about ninety seconds, until there was a loud FREENK from under the hood, followed by an ungodly (belt) screaming. After popping the heads off, it was apparent that the shop didn't bother throwing a can of oil in with the R-12. They would accept no responsibilty. I never found another compressor.
|
|
#
?
May 28, 2014 04:09
|
|
|
BigHouseOfBooty posted:You know those gigantic new toyota minivans that take cartridge filters and special 0w20 oil (or similar)? how much do you charge for an oil change on one of those? They can take 5w20 fyi if your in a pinch. Especially in warm weather.
|
|
#
?
May 28, 2014 05:32
|
|
|
DrPain posted:Road tripped to Temecula, CA. I insisted on driving back because I wanted to put the Acura through it's paces coming back up I-15 through Cajon Pass which is a moderately steep uphill climb. It'll eat your car if it's not in shape. Sup mang, I live like 20 mins away in Escondido.! if you're ever around again, we could go for a drive, you could try out the NSX or something. Last weekend I was driving back from a Chumpcar race at Buttonwillow and my Scirocco waterpump started leaking badly. I limped it home 3 hours going 60 mph with the heater blasting, refilling the coolant along the way. Gotta love 30 year old cars.
|
|
#
?
May 28, 2014 07:26
|
|
|
revmoo posted:Yup I have to nth wanting to hear about every mundane thing. I have pretty much your job (but I work for A Boss) and the things you deal with, the vehicles and the general social environment is so completely different to mine that I have an absolute fascination with every little thing you do.
|
|
#
?
May 28, 2014 09:00
|
|
|
aventari posted:Sup mang, I live like 20 mins away in Escondido.! if you're ever around again, we could go for a drive, you could try out the NSX or something. DrPain do this for me.
|
|
#
?
May 28, 2014 12:08
|
|
|
|
| # ? May 11, 2024 16:45 |
|
|
Just chiming in that I really enjoy reading this thread, even if it does remind me how much I need to do on my own vehicle and the GF's 03 Jetta needing motor mounts installed.
|
|
#
?
May 28, 2014 12:51
|
|
