c/auto-mechanics

23

williams90•1d ago

Started out using a pry bar on every stuck bolt, now I just grab the torch first

Man, I look back at how I used to fight with rusted bolts when I first started in the shop back in 2012. I'd spend 20 minutes with a breaker bar, swearing and almost rounding off the head before giving up. Now I just hit it with my little Bernzomatic torch for 30 seconds and it usually comes right off. Learned that from an old guy at a shop near Portland who told me 'heat is your friend, kid.' Changed my whole workflow after that. Saves me so much time every week, especially on exhaust work or suspension parts. Still get nervous with the torch near plastic lines but you learn where to aim. Anyone else switched to more heat and less muscle over the years?

10

the_phoenix•2d ago

Had a timing belt snap on a 2010 Civic last Tuesday, total mess

Last Tuesday I was finishing up a timing belt job on a 2010 Civic, 1.8L engine. Got it all lined up, tensioner set, turned the crank by hand a few times to check clearance. Then I made a stupid mistake. Forgot to torque the tensioner pulley bolt down all the way. Started the engine and heard this awful clatter for maybe two seconds before it stalled. Pulled the cover off and sure enough, belt had jumped three teeth. Bent at least two intake valves. Customer was standing right there, saw my face go white. I've been doing this for eight years, never messed up a timing job before. Anyone else have a brain fart like that and end up pulling a head they didn't plan to?

1

terryb11•2d ago

Old timer at the shop swore by brake cleaner for cleaning MAF sensors, I called him crazy

So last month I was working on a 2014 Ford Focus that kept throwing a P0101 code. Had this crusty old mechanic, probably 60 years in the game, walk over and grab my can of brake cleaner. He said 'kid, this is better than that fancy MAF spray you got.' I laughed and told him no way, everyone knows brake cleaner eats through plastic and rubber. He just shrugged and said 'not if you let it dry before you start the car.' I was desperate after two days of chasing vacuum leaks, so I gave it a shot. Let that intake air temp sensor sit for a solid 20 minutes after spraying it down. Put it back in, cleared the code, and the thing ran smooth as butter. No damage, no issues. Now I'm wondering if I've been wasting money on MAF cleaner for the last five years. Has anyone else tried this or am I the only one who got proven wrong by an old timer with a grease rag?

35

adam_hernandez•3d ago

Why does nobody talk about how easy it is to mix up brake fluid types in a hurry

I was doing a brake job last week on a 2012 Civic and my buddy handed me a bottle he swore was DOT 4. Turns out it was DOT 3 (he grabbed the wrong one from the shelf) and I didn't notice until I had already topped off the reservoir. Now I gotta flush the whole system, which is like an extra 45 minutes of work plus the mess. That stuff can damage seals if you mix incompatible types, especially in newer cars with ABS modules. I always thought I was careful, but a dimly lit garage and a similar looking bottle caught me off guard. Has anyone else ever mixed up brake fluid types and gotten away with it, or am I the only dummy here?

11

blairj55•20d ago

Lost $200 on a cheap scan tool that couldn't read ABS codes

I bought one of those $50 generic OBD2 scanners off Amazon last month to diagnose a customer's Honda Accord with the ABS light on. It read engine codes just fine, but when I plugged it into the ABS module it just said "no communication" and did nothing. I spent three hours chasing wiring issues and swapping relays before I borrowed a buddy's Autel that cost $800. The first thing it did was show a bad wheel speed sensor. I could have saved all that time and frustration if I'd just bought a real scan tool upfront. Has anyone else been burned by those cheap scanners not handling manufacturer-specific systems?

3

tarajenkins•20d ago

Spent $150 on a cheap timing light and it died after 3 jobs

Picked up a no-name timing light off Amazon last month to do my buddy's Ford Ranger. Worked fine on the first two cars but on the third job, the inductive pickup just quit reading. I had to borrow my neighbor's Innova to finish the job. Anyone else had bad luck with those budget timing lights?

3

claire_butler1•20d ago

Had a customer argue with me for 20 minutes that his brake job didn't need new rotors because they 'look fine'

He was at my shop in Austin last Tuesday, a guy in his 50s driving a 2015 Ford F-150. I showed him the rotor measurements with my caliper - they were 2mm below spec. He kept saying I was trying to upsell him. Finally I told him to feel the vibration when he stops on the highway. He came back 3 days later asking for the rotor swap. Has anyone else dealt with customers who trust their eyes more than the numbers?

16

jesse_nguyen•21d ago

Tried using ATF in my diesel fuel like the old guys swear by

Ngl, I figured it was just another old mechanic myth and kept using standard additives. Last month I got curious and dumped a quart of ATF into my F-250's tank right before a 400 mile trip to Flagstaff. Truck actually ran quieter and my cold starts the next week were noticeably smoother. I still think it's a bit sketchy but the results surprised me enough that I'm gonna try it once more and see if it's consistent. Has anyone else here actually run a fuel filter inspection after doing this?

5

theaward•21d ago

Can we talk about the difference in engine bay cleanliness between modern cars and 90s models?

I worked on a 1996 F-150 yesterday, and then a 2022 Honda Civic today. The difference in how the engine bays are laid out is crazy. On the Ford, I could actually get to the spark plugs and belts without pulling half the intake off. That Civic had plastic covers over everything, and it took me 20 minutes just to find the dipstick. Has anyone else noticed how much harder newer cars are to work on because of all the shrouding and covers?

29

noranguyen•22d ago

Spent 4 hours on a 20 minute brake job yesterday

1998 Civic came in for rear drum brakes. Simple job right? Took one look at the adjuster and wanted to cry. Previous guy had put the star wheel on backwards. Couldn't get the drum off at all. Had to torch the drums off in the end. Four hours for something that should've been done before lunch. Anyone else find those backwards adjusters way more often than you'd expect?

21

linda_wood•22d ago

That time I tried a vintage torque wrench on a head gasket job

Picked up an old Snap-on clicker at a garage sale for $10, figured I'd give it a shot on my buddy's 350 Chevy. Thing was way off, ended up overtorquing three bolts before I caught it. Lesson learned, has anyone else had a classic tool let them down like that?

7

terrywilson•23d ago

Old timer was RIGHT about using assembly lube on main bearing bolts, not oil

I ignored Bob from the NAPA counter when he said to use the moly paste and instead just soaked them in 30 weight like I always do, and now I'm pulling a spun bearing out of a 350 Chevy I built 300 miles ago, so has anyone else learned this lesson the hard way?

15

juliahall•24d ago

Vent: Spent 2 hours chasing a misfire that turned out to be a $6 vacuum cap

Customer brought in a 2012 Honda Accord with a rough idle and a P0301 code. I swapped plugs, coils, even ran a compression test, nothing fixed it. Finally noticed a tiny crack in the vacuum cap on the intake manifold, the one nobody thinks to check. Put a new cap on and it ran smooth as butter. Has anyone else wasted half a day on a part that costs less than their lunch?

11

morgan.mary•25d ago

Old timer at NAPA told me to stop using impact guns on lugnuts

He said hand torque only or you'll stretch the studs. Blew it off for 2 years until I snapped a stud on a 2015 F-150 last month. Now I hand torque everything. Anyone else ditch their impact for lug nuts?

5

hernandez.morgan•26d ago

Three years ago a master tech showed me how to read spark plug color and it changed my diag game completely

I was working at a shop in Portland back then and this old guy named Chuck came over while I was scratching my head over a misfire on a 2005 Civic. He just pointed at the plug I pulled and said "that's lean, check your injectors". I thought I knew how to read plugs (brown is good, black is rich, white is lean) but he walked me through the whole thing. The carbon fouling patterns, the little blisters on the insulator, the way the ground strap tells you about timing. It was like someone turned on a light bulb. I spent that whole week pulling plugs on every car that came in just to practice. Has anyone else had a moment where some simple old school trick totally changed how you work?

2

miles_jones39•26d ago

What do you do when a valve cover gasket fails twice in six months?

My 2013 Civic started leaking oil again last night after I replaced the gasket back in March with a Fel-Pro, so should I go OEM this time or am I missing something else causing it to blow out?

21

adam_nguyen7•27d ago

Remember when we used to gap spark plugs by feel?

I was doing a tune-up on a '95 F-150 yesterday and caught myself eyeballing the gap on a new plug. Back when I started in the late 90s, my old boss would hand me a feeler gauge and make me check every single one before it went in. Now I just pull them out of the box and trust the machine, but I swear I had fewer comebacks when I double checked. Anyone else still bother with the gauge or am I just stuck in the past?

3

linda_wood•27d ago

Customer brought in a 1999 Civic with a 'mystery smell' - found a half-eaten burrito under the back seat from 2018

Dude brought his Civic in last Tuesday complaining about a weird sour smell that got worse in summer. I popped the rear seat cushion and there it was, a dried out bean and cheese burrito wedged under the seat frame. Took me 45 minutes to scrape out the mess and the whole car smelled like a taco gone wrong. My coworker dared me to touch it and I almost gagged. Has anyone else found something that old or nastier in a customer's car?

14

smith.ray•28d ago

Hit 300 diag jobs in a row without misdiagnosing and nobody warned me it would mess with my head

I hit 300 diagnostic jobs in a row at my shop without a single misdiagnosis last Tuesday. It was just a random number on my clipboard tally but I stopped and stared at it for a solid minute. Three hundred is a lot of cars where you didn't send someone down the wrong road swapping parts they didn't need. I work over on Route 9 in a little 3 bay place so it's not like we see Teslas all day, mostly old pickups and family sedans with weird electrical gremlins. The closest I came was a 98 F150 where I almost called a bad ECM but it turned out to be a corroded ground strap behind the battery tray. Nobody at my shop even keeps count of this stuff, I just did it for my own sanity after getting burned on a Nissan pathfinder back in 21. Has anyone else ever kept a personal streak like that and realized later how easy it is to slip up on simple stuff?

25

the_blair•1mo ago

Tried using a breaker bar on a rusted bolt and snapped the whole thing in half

I was wrestling with a lower control arm bolt on a 2005 F-150 last Tuesday, put my whole weight on a 3-foot breaker bar, and the head just sheared off clean. Now I'm drilling out the remains and questioning every life choice that led me to this point. Anyone else ever have a bolt just give up like that?

15

ellis.susan•1mo ago

Noticed a ton of people replacing alternators when it's just a bad ground

I was helping a buddy with his 2010 F-150 that kept dying on him, turns out the ground strap from the engine block to the frame was completely corroded and loose. Three different shops quoted him for a new alternator and battery before I took a look. Has anyone else seen this get missed more often than it should?

3

jesse_craig26•1mo ago

Just hit 250k miles on my rusty 99 F-150 today

I bought that truck with 82k back in 2005 and it just rolled over into a quarter million on my way to a brake job. Anybody else got a beater that just wont die on em?

18

hugo_nelson•1mo ago

Old timer told me to use brake cleaner on O2 sensors

Guy at the shop swore by it. Said it cleans them good as new. Fried two sensors before I figured out it ruins the ceramic element. Cost me $180 to learn that lesson.

0

wesleyc75•1mo ago

Saw a guy at a shop in Phoenix use a zip tie to hold a fuel line together as a temp fix

Two days later I got a call from a customer whose car caught fire on the I-10 because of that same trick, so now I throw away any zip ties near fuel lines on sight has anyone else seen this kind of shortcut go bad?

24

rosek44•1mo ago

Hit 200 cylinder head rebuilds last month and realized something weird

I crossed into 200 head jobs last month and noticed half of them were from the same 5 engine families. The other half were one-off weird stuff like old Saabs and lawnmower heads. Do you guys see patterns like that in your own work or is my shop just cursed by repeat customers?