Guy named Larry showed me this method using a piece of aquarium tubing and a check valve from a fish pump. Took me 3 tries on a 1998 F-150 before I admitted it actually worked better than my $200 pressure bleeder. Anyone else have a seasoned mechanic prove you wrong with some backyard hack?
Last Tuesday I had a customer bring in a 2004 Civic with a busted radiator hose and no money until Friday. I patched it with a sliced soda can and two heavy duty zip ties just to get her to work for three days. She came back on Friday smiling with cash and said the fix held like a champ. That same afternoon a guy with a BMW got mad I wouldn't take his expired coupon from 2017. Guess which one made my week worthwhile? Has anyone else had a ghetto fix that actually outlasted a proper repair?
I saw three cars this week with crushed oil pans because someone zipped the drain plug back in with an impact. That extra 2 seconds with a torque wrench saves you a $400 pan replacement.
After 8 years I broke down and bought a $150 scanner off Amazon to compare against my ancient Snap-On Solus. The cheap one missed a random misfire code on a 2014 F-150 that took me 2 hours to find with the Snap-On. Has anyone else tried the budget scanners and regretted it?
I was working on a timing belt job for a 2012 Honda Accord at my shop in Birmingham last Tuesday. Had everything lined up perfect, torqued the crank pulley bolt to spec using one of those $20 torque wrenches. Drove the car out of the bay, heard a nasty clatter three miles down the road. The bolt backed out and the pulley came loose. Turns out that cheap wrench was off by 25 foot-pounds. I had to pull the whole front of the engine apart again and replace a damaged keyway. Now I only buy used Snap-On or Precision Instruments from pawn shops and eBay. Has anyone else had a torque wrench fail on them at a bad time?
I've always been a brand name guy when it comes to suspension parts. But last month a customer was on a tight budget for his Civic and brought in a set of no-name coil springs he got off Amazon for like $60. I figured they'd sag in a week or ride like crap. Installed them anyway just to get the job done. Drove it around the block after and honestly couldn't tell much difference from the OEM ones I usually put in. He's been back for an oil change three weeks later and said the ride is fine and alignment still holding. Still not totally sold on using them for every car but for a beater that's just gonna get driven to work? Might be worth the savings. Anyone else tried the super cheap suspension parts and been surprised?
Spent 2 hours chasing a no-start on a 2002 F-150, throwing parts at it. Finally gave in and called him, he said check the ground strap. Sure enough, it was corroded to nothing. Cost me $4 and 10 minutes. Anyone else have a boss or coworker who's saved your butt with a simple tip like that?
I was at a garage sale in Portland last weekend and spotted a beat-up set of Snap-On socket trays for $10. Brought them to work and they dropped right into my cart without any modification needed. Has anyone else found random garage sale stuff that actually works better than new organizers?
Guy at the shop said just spray brake clean into the intake on a cold diesel. Did it last week on a 7.3 Powerstroke that wouldn't fire and it started right up after cranking for 10 minutes. Anyone else do this or am I asking for a fireball?
Guy comes in with a 2015 Ford Focus that's jerking hard between 1st and 2nd. I'm ready to quote him $3,800 for a remanufactured unit. He says 'hold up, have you checked the TCM yet?' I laughed it off at first but decided to humor him. Ran the diagnostic and sure enough the transmission control module was throwing a code. Reflashed it for $150 plus labor and the car drives smooth now. Makes me wonder how many times I've jumped to the expensive fix without checking the cheap stuff first. Anyone else ever get shown up by a customer like that?
I always used to think those $30 Bluetooth OBD2 dongles were junk. Figured you needed to drop at least $200 on a real scanner to get anything useful. But last month I had a Honda Accord come in with a weird intermittent misfire. I was chasing it with my old code reader and getting nowhere. So I grabbed one of those cheap ELM327 clones for $22 on a whim. Plugged it in, paired it with a free app, and got live data for all four cylinders. Found a bad injector in about 10 minutes. That one job paid for the tool and then some. Has anyone else found a cheap tool that actually surprised them?
It hit me that we spend way too much time ordering parts online and waiting for shipping when there are rows of perfectly good OEM parts sitting 30 minutes away, has anyone else actually had good luck with junkyard transmissions or am I just seeing the one success story?
I used to buy the cheapest oil filters I could find for my own car changes. Then I visited a small independent shop near Music Row last month while waiting on a friend. The owner showed me a cut-open cheap filter next to a Wix one, and the difference in the pleating and bypass valve was just obvious. I spent an extra $4 on my last filter after seeing that. Has anyone else had a shop owner show you something like that that stuck with you?
Picked up a cheap vacuum brake bleeder from AutoZone a few months back. Worked okay for the first job, but the plastic reservoir cracked on the second use and left me with a mess. I should have just saved up for the Motive Products pressure bleeder at $120 or so. Anyone else have luck with those cheaper kits or am I just unlucky?
Had a 2012 Civic come in last Thursday that kept killing batteries overnight. Everyone in the shop said it's probably the bluetooth module or the trunk light. Spent 6 hours pulling fuses and checking circuits. Turned out the aftermarket radio install from 3 years ago had a bad ground wire that was barely touching. Hooked up a multimeter to the battery first and it would've taken me 10 minutes. Has anyone else wasted a full day on something that obvious?
I was at a shop in Denver last Tuesday, talking to this old timer who's been wrenching for 30 years. He was saying flat rate makes guys rush through jobs, skip torque specs, and ignore little stuff like greasing fittings. But then a younger tech argued flat rate pushes you to stay efficient and earn more if you're fast. I'm torn. I've seen both sides. What do you all think?
I pulled a head on a 5.3 Vortec based on that cheap gauge only to find the rings were fine, so has anyone else had a tool give a bad reading that cost them real time and money?
I always grabbed my impact gun for everything, even putting panels back on inside cars. Last week I was doing a door panel on a 2019 Toyota Camry and stripped two of those little plastic retainer clips before I even got the panel off. My coworker Dave watched me cuss for five minutes then handed me his old ratcheting screwdriver. I felt stupid but I tried it. Man what a difference. The control you get with hand tools on interior stuff is night and day. No more cracked trim or stripped screws. Now I keep a little set of hand drivers in my box just for inside the cabin. Anyone else made the switch and never looked back?
Ngl, I always thought the $20 Bluetooth ones were fine for reading codes, but that $150 Autel I borrowed from the shop next door actually showed me a failing fuel pump sensor instead of just a generic misfire code, has anyone else had a budget scanner totally miss a real issue?
I bought this vacuum brake bleeder kit online last summer because I was tired of the two-person method. It claimed to work with one hand and make flushing brakes a breeze. After three tries and still getting air in the lines, I realized the damn thing leaked at every connection. Ended up just paying a shop $80 to do it right and tossed the kit in the trash. Anyone else had bad luck with those one-man bleeder kits?
I was reading an old shop manual from the 70s at the library in Springfield and it said a standard 18-wheeler has 40 lug nuts per axle. That's 160 total for just the drive axles, not counting the trailer. I had no idea the number was that high, it just seems wild to think about tightening all of those. Has anyone here actually had to do a full re-torque on a set like that?
He told me 'anything under $80 is a clicky ruler' after my Harbor Freight one was 15 ft-lbs off on a head gasket job. Anyone have a solid mid-range brand they actually trust?
This was about three months ago. The guy said it was his grandpa's old farm truck and he just wanted to see if it could run again. The fuel in the tank had turned to absolute varnish, and the brake lines were dust. I spent a solid day just cleaning out the fuel system and replacing those lines before we even tried to turn it over. When we finally did, it started on the third crank, which honestly shocked both of us. The look on that guy's face was worth the whole messy job. It got me thinking, what's the longest you've brought something back from the dead that the owner had zero hope for? I'm talking real basket cases.
I was looking through a 1978 Ford truck service manual I found at a garage sale. It said to adjust the carburetor idle mixture with the engine at normal operating temp, but also with the headlights on and the A/C blower on high. I've always just done it at temp with no load. The manual's point was to simulate a real electrical load for a stable setting. On one hand, that makes perfect sense for driveability. On the other, it adds steps and most guys I know skip it. Has anyone else tried this older method, and did it make a noticeable difference in how the vehicle ran?
I was putting a new tire on a Ford Ranger rim yesterday and kept fighting the bead. I was using a regular air chuck, sweating and cussing for twenty minutes. An older mechanic from the next bay walked over, grabbed my starter fluid can, gave a tiny spray near the bead, and lit it with his lighter. The tire popped right on. I had always been told that method was unsafe and never tried it. What's your go-to trick for stubborn beads that doesn't involve a cheetah?