Confessions of a mechanic

[RickM]

Kind of along the lines of the "Stupidest things we'll admit to" here's a site with confessions from pro and not so pro mechanics. I've never heard of the first one happening....

http://www.cartalk.com/content/features/confess/confessions.html

"From: Harry Rose

Several years back I was standing in my driveway admiring my brand-new 20-year-old Porsche 912.

As I looked into the engine bay, I noticed two disks the size of jar lids, on each side of the engine, with rubber donuts sandwiched in between them and a bolt running through the middle. The rubber donuts looked a bit worn and cracked.

My thought process went like this: I'll take out the bolts, take out the rubber donuts, clean them and replace the bolts. Out came the ratchet (these were big bolts). Out came the bolt.

The other bolt came out just as easy, until the very end when it resisted. No problem. I stepped closer to the job, firmly planting my feet under the car for leverage and continued to turn. When the bolt finally gave way it stopped doing what it was supposed to do, which was to HOLD THE ENGINE IN THE CAR. The back of the engine fell on to the driveway and on my FIRMLY PLANTED FEET.

Screaming was out of the question because of my reputation. Once free I hobbled to the garage, retrieved my jack and performed the two-man job alone."

[Dantilla]

A while ago a friend of mine wanted help changing the oil pan gasket on his wife's mini van. He got underneath, and decided that "this big bar thing" had to come out to get to the pan.

Good thing I stopped him. Front suspension crossmember. I suggested that he snug up the exsisting bolts and call it good enough. He was still unsure, so I had him call the dealer's service department and ask how much labor was involved. It was several hours.

He snugged the exsisting bolts, and called it good enough.

[kach22i]

Just about tops any of my stories.

[yasir]

While re-checking the dipstick after an engine oil change i realized that i had overfilled the engine so i said no biggie,loosened the drain plug and drained some oil out.
Well checked the level again and had to drain some more oil and even after the 4th time the damn dipsick still showed it overfilled,confused and not able to comprehend,i finally decided to take the car to my toyota mechanic who immediatly started laughing and told me that instead of checking the engine oil dipstick i had been checking the transmission dipstick lucky for me that the engine still had some oil left in it,so nothing serious happened,car still runs fine.

[Rob Channell]

Uh....Changed the oil once in my 911 and drained from the case, but not the oil tank.

Added my 9-10 quarts back in and took her for a drive. Smoke was everywhere. I thought I had really messed up bad. I got out and checked the oil and realized I had forgotton to drain the oil tank. It was waaaaaay full. I went back home and drained it and replaced with new oil in the right quantity. When the car ran fine and didn't smoke up a storm I was very relieved.