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

Rollie Zamboni

I love Subaru

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

It’s me, I’m customer

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

Just kidding, he likes it.

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

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

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

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

Context: 1998 Accord V6 two very distinct knocking noises from engine, figured it needed a timing belt tensioner (and the rest of the timing system which should have been changed 100k miles and 21 years ago). I changed the tensioner but still had a tremendously loud knocking noise coming from the engine. I checked the timing using the marks three times and checked the valve lash twice. Finally I got smart and compression tested the front three cylinders. All three front cylinders had almost no compression. Borescoped the cylinders to find valve marks on the Pistons. Check the timing once again and finally came to realize what exactly happened. Not totally sure if this was caused by an improper previous repair or just the fact that the timing belt tensioner failed and allowed the cams to be jerked back and forth for who knows how many miles.

Had a customer drop off a car with an exploded battery and a few other issues. Found the 2 on the windshield and the 0 in the battery tray. Can anyone speculate on what they are and how they got there?

Heads up for Volvo drivers.

Volvo is recalling 3,858 VAH, VN, VHD, VNL and VNR trucks because the steering arm fasteners may not have been tightened enough at the factory.

If they loosen, it could lead to loss of steering control.

Dealers will inspect and tighten the fasteners for free.

NHTSA 26V-444 / Volvo RVXX2607.

Worth checking your VIN if you’re driving one of the affected model years.

Toyota corolla with a hybrid.

Egr cooler plugged solid

Inter axle drive shaft from a crane truck.

Why not have them all in seperate bags?