Previous Owners / Shady Tree Mechanics…

[unclebilly]

I’ve spent most of my life fixing stuff that others have misdiagnosed or repaired badly. My ability to sort things out has allowed me to afford some nicer cars than I would have otherwise been able to. I got my then 9 year old corvette when I was 17…

The 04 Cayenne S that I got this past June was riddled with 2 bit patches from a shady tree mechanic previous owner and getting most of it sorted was not fun. I’ve put quite a few miles on it the past 4 days and it’s behaved itself nicely (and the AC blows ice cold).

I had hoped to rebuild the engine in my son’s KX85 dirt bike yesterday but a hamfisted idiot didn’t install the piston rings correctly on a prior overhaul and there are 2 bad grooves in the cylinder. The idiot must have forced the cylinder over the piston with the cylinder bolts… fixing this is just another waste of my time because someone was with too dumb or lazy to do it right in the first place.

Im getting to the point of thinking maybe I should just buy new and avoid these frustrations.

[manbridge 74]

Wait till the first DIY guy goes to put a battery in a Taycan. First, you need a forklift. Then a $5K table and corresponding attachments. Then a special computer to interface with control units. Then infinite patience to sort through all the faults, replacing various CUs that decide not to function,.

[GH85Carrera]

One advantage of owning my El Camino for 31 years, no problems with previous owner bad repairs. The disadvantage is any issues, I can’t blame the previous owner.

[mattdavis11]

I'm one, kind of. I'll sometimes fix it in such a way that the next guy doesn't have to go through what I did. Take for instance your condenser repair, I would have done something different if I could.

[speeder]

I buy vehicles that need work all the time, (projects), but I have a very strong preference for situations where no one has worked on them already or tried to fix them. The old MG I am working on at the moment benefits from the fact that it's mostly untouched except from the factory and the dealer decades ago.

Another acquaintance was considering buying it at one point and removed the ignition coil, (no idea what he was doing), he managed to lose two small connectors the factory used for the wires. It's almost the only thing missing on a 47 year old car. The average person is an absolutely horrible mechanic...do they just throw stuff on the ground or in the trash?? Makes my OCD boil over.

[id10t]

Found some fun stuff that pissed me off when I finally got into the engine bay of my 356... the mechanic dad had working on it was a turkey... Bad 6v connections and a slow starter motor? Run a 8v battery ...

[matthewb0051]

Daughter's Land Rover Disco II purchased a little over a year ago needed a bunch of love.

The thing that got me the most was several nuts of varying sizes behind one of the headlights, with wire, to try and put the headlight at the right orientation. It was like the PO didn't have the internet because the plastic bits that hold the headlights and adjust them are a dime a dozen and readily available. I even had a box of them in the garage.

[LWJ]

Oh yeah! Previous Owner syndrome.

Crap work on cars, houses, everything.

But, being a DIY is what allows me to drive Porsche’s, Dirtbike’s, own investment real estate, and generally live far better then I should.

[911 Rod]

You can tell when I've been working on something because I give it a good cleaning. Hate dirt/grease.

[GH85Carrera]

Just a photo from the internet. Maybe OK just to get it back home, but not a real fix for sure.

[MBAtarga]

Originally Posted by GH85Carrera

Just a photo from the internet. Maybe OK just to get it back home, but not a real fix for sure.

So THAT's where I left my 10mm socket!

[oldE]

How about the po putting bondo over the torsion bar access holes in the old E I bought. Or the fact the rear bars were indexed so low the tin on the heat exchangers had holes worn through.

By contrast the po of my VW Cabriolet merely used a bit black tape to hold the end of the front fender trim. That 50 cent clip must have been beyond his means.

On the other hand, someone has probably looked at some of my work and wondered WTF?

Best
Les