Lets hear about your worst auto repair experience.

[fastfredracing]

I enjoyed lendaddy's thread about fighting shocks apart. I have been doing this for a long time, and I have seen ( and done) some whoppers in my time. I figure this should make for a good read.
So lets hear about the hardest, most horrible job you have ever tackled, and how it turned out.

[924slover]

lets see that would have to be welding in a new rear frame on an old toyota truck i had. I didnt know how bad it was untill i was working underneath and poked a screw driver through the frame! all i remember is days of trying to find solid metal left and every piece i welded in seemed to rust by the time i finished. I swear that frame was built out of old pepsi cans. after a few weeks, an angle grinder that bit the dust, multiple tanks for the torch, and ending up in the er at midnight after flashing myself, and a tetanus shot, the frame was solid but still questionable. That truck met its end a few weeks later when it kissed a tree.

[DanielDudley]

Well, my first full restoration, I could not get the alternator to charge, for a full year. I changed out the alternator several times, the regulator, the battery, and several times I thought I had it, only to be caught dead in the middle of nowhere.

Turns out I had wired the fuse box from left to right instead of right to left, and there was no power going to the field wire...

I did figure it out myself though, with the help of a book on auto electrics.

[Willem Fick]

Ooh, I have many....

Decided to service my wifes (BMW) Mini myself after having it serviced by BMW for the first 4 years and 50k miles. Was surprised at the state of the air and oil filters, the former disintegrating during removal and the latter really caked in thick sludge. With them out I proceeded to drain the engine oil, but for the life of me couldn't get the oil draining plug loosened.

After trying any conceivable tool and method for several hours I still couldn't get it to budge and ended up having to resort to removing the entire sump. My heart fell into my shoes when the first line in the sump removal section of the Haynes Manual referred me to the section on how to remove the air conditioning pump, and that in turn referred me to the section detailing how to remove the entire front clip.

Turns out that what I thought would be a walk in the park, turned into a 6 hour curse fest to get the sump of, followed by a visit to a machine shop, in turn followed by another 6 hour curse fest. No good deed goes unpunished I guess...

Interesting note:

With the sump finally out I saw that the drain plug (which according to BMW records was replaced at every service) still had its original green factory QA mark on it, which suddenly made the state of the filters and oil very clear to me - BMW probably never once serviced the car!

[Rick V]

Being in the same boat as you Fred, I have been through some crap projects but the worst one was personal. 92 Nissan D21 4X4. Punctured oilpan, broken frame, rolled, lifter failure, gas tank rot-out, hub failure. I refused to let this little truck get the best of me so I kept on fixing it. I finally sold the thing a few years ago to fund my 944S cylinder head rebuild. It is still alive and running around just south of me. Great little truck that I cussed on a daily basis.

[yetibone]

Replacing the High pressure oil pump and oil rails in an E450 6 litre diesel. Getting the feed rail out of the passenger's side cylinder head meant I had to undo the motor mounts, and rotate the the engine block about 8 degrees so the rails would clear the body.

The only good part of the job was the ergonomics afforded me when I took the seats out of the cab to start taking off the turbo, in/ex plumbing, HPOS cover, oil cooler, etc... Much easier than leaning over the grille of an F Super Duty truck.

[Icemaster]

Auto repairs so far haven't been overly challenging. Some difficult, but I've learned to leave the really hard stuff to the guys with lifts and more time than I have.

The hairiest repair I ever did was re-wiring a Bobcat out in BFE 20 miles from any hardware store in -10 degre weather. The guy running it jammed the wrong key in the ignition so it stuck on "Start" the entire time he was in it. Burned up the starter then fried the wiring. How that thing never caught fire is beyond me. Had to re-wire it with bits from local Sears to get it on a trailer. 3 hours to get it running doesnt seem long until you realize your beard has icicles on it.

[asphaltgambler]

A few years ago working at another Euro independent shop. New customer brought in a BMW E38/740 sedan with @150K on the clock. The vehicle clearly had no love in the last 70-80K. It needed everything. One of many iusses addressed was intake/oil seperator/valve cover gaskets. Upon tear down there was an odd head-size bolt in the last spot on rear of intake.

Now after doing many of these, I know that bolt was removed sometime prior and dropped or lost. I go on a search mission w/mirrors and lights - cannot find it. I remove the intake assy and then crawl up into the engine compartment with my flash light to do a CSI on all of the intake ports to make sure there is no debris hanging inside there. When I come to last rear port (where the odd bolt was) nothing there but remember seeing both valves just open.

I clean and install all the new parts, hit the key and awefull sounds are coming from the engine, then dead miss. .........................guess I found the missing bolt. I pull the spark plug and using a bore-scope I discover that not only bent valves, but a hole punched through the cylinder wall. I go to the manager and give him the whole story.

Later it is decided that we will 'split' the cost of fixing this. If I do the labor the shop will pay for the parts. I R&R the engine assy and tear it down to the last nut, I send the block off to a friend who makes a one-off sleeve for the cylinder. It is pressed it cleaned and returned. I find a piston and rod assy on Ebay, shop gets all the gaskets and hardware and gaskets.

I get everything thing back together and running all is well. My total actual time was over 60hrs. My next paycheck they docked me the full amount of parts..................................

[Tim Hancock]

As a teen, I bought an '72 Mustang with the unibody rear leaf spring mounts rusted out allowing the rear leaf springs to push up and into the trunk. I removed the rear seat and cobbed up some awful looking channel iron structure that I welded in place with a stick welder. Pretty nasty, but it held for a couple years.

In recent times, I replaced an engine in a 2000 GMC van which was fairly difficult.
I replaced a 944 turbo clutch.
I rebuilt a 911 SC engine.
I put a new headliner/carpet kit/window seals in a 911.
I put a new clutch in my 325 BMW.
New exhaust manifold on a 924.
Head gasket on a 924.
Heater blower fan on a 325 BMW.
924 AC compressor rebuild.
944 power steering rack rebuild.
New rings in a Honda Civic with engine still in car.
VW new beetle water pump.
240Z transmission, clutch and head gasket.
I worked on an Audi A6 2.7T quattro which included new sport suspension and various repairs to the front of the engine.

The Audi job sucked the worst followed by the van engine then the 944 turbo clutch.

[wdfifteen]

I fought with a starter problem on my Speedster for years. I installed probably 6 rebuilt VW starters and 3 or 4 new batteries in 3 years trying to get this thing to start consistently. I would get about 25 starts out of a rebuilt starter before it would only grind over ssllooowwwllllyyyy and then die completely. I was really pulling my hair out.
I had concluded that the rebuilds were defective so I bought a NEW Bosch VW starter. I was installing it when I noticed the solenoid was touching the body (under the rear seat) before I'd tightened the bolts all the way. I took the starter back out and looked at the car with a strong light and sure enough, there was a shiny spot worn in the steel of the body where the previous solenoid had been rubbing. All the previous starters had all been "bent" when the mounting bolts were tightened causing the bushings to bind. I compared my new Bosch VW starter with an old original Bosch Porsche starter and realized the solenoid is mounted on VWs at about the 1 o'clock position (looking at it from the engine end) and the one on the Porsche starter is mounted at about 2 o'clock. I had always thought Porsche and VW starters were identical. I took a large drift and "adjusted" the body by about 1/4 inch and haven't had a starter problem in 10 years.

[vash]

not physically challenging..but it gave me fits.

1996 chevy S10 -ZR2 package. battery was losing a charge sitting in my driveway. brand new optima from pep boys. i had the new battery tested..said it was good. i fussed with that thing for two weeks. i cleaned up wiring..traced things..blew up 2 radio shack multimeters. i was obsessed. sleeping, if i got an idea on a possible thing to check, i jump out of bed to try it. wife drew up divorce papers.

i finally cracked and took the truck in to the dealer. he found a messed up wire harness and fixed it for $300. i got home and went to bed blissful and peaceful. next morning..truck.."bzzzzzz"..no start. battery dead. i just about torched the thing. one final attempt..i took the battery back in to get recharged. tech repeated that the battery was fine and proceeded to charge it. right before full charge..he got an error. WTF? he said..this battery is bad!! he gave me a new one, and all sins evaporated. i wasted several weeks, and some money. truck was perfect again.

[john70t]

I didn't know squat about anything mechanical until well after high school.
On a far-away road trip I heard some very upsetting news, and then randomly decided to change the oil before returning.
Wasn't thinking straight at the time.
Ten hours later, I got back into town reving it in 4th gear.....with eight quarts of oil in the trusty Toyota.

It's strange. Most of my "difficult" jobs went off without a hitch, but the "easy" ones always had some major complication.

[john70t]

There was the time I tried to figure out a mid-range misfire on a CVCC Accord. The vaccum hoses on that engine look like black spaghetti.

[Burnin' oil]

Originally Posted by Tim Hancock

. . .

New rings in a Honda Civic with engine still in car.

. . . .

That sounds like something that would suck, suck, suck.

I dislike any job that is hard to get to and requires flexible arm bones.

[HardDrive]

Have you tried getting the shift knob off an SC? Its a mother.

[WolfeMacleod]

Years ago I had a 924. It was my first Porsche.
Took it in for an oil change, and the idiot left the filler cap off. Spayed oil all over the underside of the hood, every freaking drop. I didn't notice it because it hadn't started to smell or smoke.. By that time, it was pretty much too late....long drive...
I think it led directly to the head gasket blowing, which happened just days later.

[Tim Hancock]

Originally Posted by Burnin' oil

That sounds like something that would suck, suck, suck.

I dislike any job that is hard to get to and requires flexible arm bones.

Yeah that was not fun.... I had decided to sell it, but it was going through over a quart of oil a week and the rear of the white car would look charcoal color after a couple weeks of daily driving to work. Hondas had always been good to me, but I beat the crap out of this little plain jane economy Civic four banger typically running it wide open for 5 miles at a time on our little back roads trying to beat the time clock at work when I first moved out in the boonies. I could not sell it the way it was smoking, so it got a new set of rings.

[VincentVega]

Head and intake come off together. Drop the pan. Undo a rod at a time... btdt.

Taking the heat exchangers off my SC just about had me in tears. Between banging my head, getting rust in my eyes, with PB plaster, burning my hands.... and still breaking a few studs. Then, while drilling out 1, I slipped. I remember just laying there for a while staring at the bottom of the engine. Sad day.

[legion]

Worst DIY story:

When re-doing the main ground on the 951, I bought a 13mm wobble socket just for the job. The clutch inspection hole is just to the right (when looking at the engine from the front). When I was done tightening the main ground, and I went to pull the socket off of the ground bolt, the socket stayed on the bolt and the extension detached. I went to reach for the socket, but it was a tight squeeze and I ended up knocking it off the bolt. Well, it just so turns out that the clutch inspection hole is the exact right size to let a 13mm wobble socket through.

After swearing at the top of my lungs for a good ten minutes, my wife came out to ask what was wrong. I told her that I was not prepared to answer that question in a civil manner, but that she needed to go out to the auto parts store and buy as many telescoping magnets as possible.

After three hours of trying to fish out the socket, I had almost given up. I could get a magnet on the socket, but I couldn't orientate it to pass through the hole. I decided to give it one last try, and with two telescoping magnets, I managed to fish out the socket. I was going to have to have the car towed to a shop to have the clutch replaced (major surgery on a 951 with a one-piece crossover pipe).

Worst shop story:

I was 17. My '85 Plymouth Duster had started to overheat. On the advice of my non-car guy dad (I had no mechanical know-how at the time), I took the car to Pep Boys. They charged me $500 to change the radiator. Pulling out of the parking lot, the car started to overheat. I went in and complained that they had not fixed the problem that I described, and demanded they fix the problem at no charge. I finally left after they threatened to call the police on me. My dad stopped payment on the radiator (it was on his CC), and I took the car to another shop. $40 later I had a new water pump and a car that didn't overheat.

[Burnin' oil]

Originally Posted by VincentVega

Head and intake come off together. Drop the pan. Undo a rod at a time... btdt.

Taking the heat exchangers off my SC just about had me in tears. Between banging my head, getting rust in my eyes, with PB plaster, burning my hands.... and still breaking a few studs. Then, while drilling out 1, I slipped. I remember just laying there for a while staring at the bottom of the engine. Sad day.

Yup. That was not too fun.