OH COME ON! Really???

[OzFab]

Based on a condition I discovered on my new (to me) car today (which I will get into in a minute), I want to hear about the best/worst (however you choose to look at it) jerry rig, jury rig, redneck, bodgy, dodgy (whatever you want to call it) fix you've seen; examples MUST be accompanied by photographic proof: pics or it didn't happen...

Now, on to my amazing discovery...

As you may know, I recently purchased a used car. When I bought it, the previous owner made me aware that the rear passenger window doesn't work...

Thinking it would probably be a switch or something silly like that, today I removed the door trim to investigate; the pic below is what I found inside the door... needless to say, it's no wonder the window doesn't work...

 

[Poboy kartman]

It wooden surprise me!!!!!

 

[landuse]

Now HOW did that thing get in there??? It looks like the door panel inside would have had to be off for tha to get wedged in there.

To get it out you might have to cut it out. You get these string saws that you can hold in your hands. If you can loop it around the stick you can cut it in half and try get it out

Is that stick doing anything constructive in there. Could it have been put there by someone to stop the window falling down etc.....

 

[Axx3d]

Is that stick doing anything constructive in there. Could it have been put there by someone to stop the window falling down etc.....

Yup.. i bet the PO rigged it to keep it from falling.. Pull it out and back on track..

In 92 I drove a Suburban to AK with duct tape holding the rear window together.... It made it and i sold it as is for 4X what i paid for it here in MN.

 

[ML-TOYS]

I wish i had pics of the strange fixes i saw when i worked at body shop

 

[fowler]

Yea I wish I had pics of some of the bizarre stuff I find


Theres a whole "department" called pit fitters

People who go down into the pit and "fix" the gear
Basically get it going by any means as quick as possible

So u get some real dodgy fixes

 

[itsid]

only one solution to me... get a windowlift from a junk yard.

Now where do I have a junkyard pic...

'sid

 

[BirdFanatic]

lol wow

 

[OzFab]

It wooden surprise me!!!!!

:toetap05:

Now HOW did that thing get in there??? It looks like the door panel inside would have had to be off for tha to get wedged in there.

There's a large hole in the inside panel... where the regulator should be...

Is that stick doing anything constructive in there. Could it have been put there by someone to stop the window falling down etc.....

It's holding up the window... & it's a bit more than a "stick", it's a 3x2...

Theres a whole "department" called pit fitters

People who go down into the pit and "fix" the gear
Basically get it going by any means as quick as possible

So u get some real dodgy fixes

I can understand that; even my mechanic said he's been known to do something similar "to get a customer out of trouble" but, they're not meant to be a permanent fix, this obviously was...

only one solution to me... get a windowlift from a junk yard.

Cheapest I've found is $75... One guy wanted $120 for used, I found new aftermarket cheaper...

 

[itsid]

$75

that doesn't sound plausible...

yes, any universal might be cheaper, but be sure it's the correct one, some (most that are available around here) require the manual lift to be present.. and that's where it obviously gets tricky for you

So a power lifter and the original mechanics.. and you're back at the junk yard paying 75 bucks

what car btw? (make model year) maybe we can find you a cheaper one

'sid

 

[Poboy kartman]

$75

that doesn't sound plausible...

yes, any universal might be cheaper, but be sure it's the correct one, some (most that are available around here) require the manual lift to be present.. and that's where it obviously gets tricky for you

So a power lifter and the original mechanics.. and you're back at the junk yard paying 75 bucks

what car btw? (make model year) maybe we can find you a cheaper one

'sid

I already have one....it's made of pine.....

 

[Unit 91]

As a mechanic at a dealership, you would be amazed at the things I have seen. Once saw someone use what looked like a whole roll of mechanics wire in place of a suspension bolt. They must have looped the wire around like 40 times, then came in complaining of a noise over bumps. Or the guy that drilling into his center console of his f350 to mount a cb radio and drilled right through his air bag module.


And then they always ask, why isn't this warrantied......

 

[firemanjim]

 

[OzFab]

$75

that doesn't sound plausible...

yes, any universal might be cheaper, but be sure it's the correct one, some (most that are available around here) require the manual lift to be present.. and that's where it obviously gets tricky for you

So a power lifter and the original mechanics.. and you're back at the junk yard paying 75 bucks

what car btw? (make model year) maybe we can find you a cheaper one

'sid

It's an all-in-one unit; 6 nuts & 2 bolts & the whole unit falls out...

2000 Toyota Avalon

Well, after ringing around for over an hour I finally found someone who had a complete car in the yard so I could buy all the small (& larger) parts I needed, he gave me a good price on the whole package...

Window now works fine, took about 15 minutes to fit the mech... well, 3 minutes to fit the mech & 12 minutes to R&R the door trim...

As a mechanic at a dealership, you would be amazed at the things I have seen.

No I wouldn't

Once saw someone use what looked like a whole roll of mechanics wire in place of a suspension bolt. They must have looped the wire around like 40 times, then came in complaining of a noise over bumps. Or the guy that drilling into his center console of his f350 to mount a cb radio and drilled right through his air bag module.


And then they always ask, why isn't this warrantied......

Dang amateurs! They should just leave things along & get someone who knows what they're doing to do the job...

I have one more small job to do, I need to replace a broken check strap (the little bar on the front of the door that hold the door open) but some moron amateur put the switch bank in the door the wrong way & I can't get it out; it's LITERALLY a 3 second job but, I've already spent close to an hour getting NOWHERE! The worst part is there's a screw behind the switch bank that needs to come out to remove the door trim... one screw!

 

[Poboy kartman]

You know....this reminds me of the time my wife woke up to find the passenger window on her 93 Corolla smashed and her stereo gone.....the cassette player didn't work....so the radio was worth about $2.....

So I had to get a new window....and spend an hour replacing it an cleaning up glass...and installing the new window....an hour and $35 getting it.....3hours to fix the trashed dash and put in another radio and find the mounts.....3 weeks before I finally found said mounts in a junkyard.....

......If I could have found that dipstick....I'd a put a REAL HURT on him.....

 

[machinist@large]

The guy that just retired (and had my new job) complained to maintenance that the coolant system on one of the metal cutting lathe's in my new work shop wasn't working. Maintenance asked if the machine was down; the guy basically told them off for asking for details. I got the same response when he told me in the three hours he decided to give me in the hand over process for the entire department (yes, I'm once again an army of one).

So what was the problem? The head of maintenance gave the one unintelligible write up and asked me to look into it (he's got the entire plant to deal with).

The problem? Former employee demanded a digital readout be installed on that machine ~5 year's ago. To do it, they removed all of the plumbing and bracketry for the coolant system, and used the mounting holes for same to attach the readout.

He was complaining because management handed him work to do; the sudden lack of the coolant system gave him an easy out. The fact that I just found today the major part of another coolant system buried in a corner under a pile of junk just made my day.

Short and sweet; I was asking maintenance if they knew where/why that machine didn't have the system. What I found was that the pump and tank were still there, and work just fine. It's the final two feet of the system that I need to pick up this weekend at the hardware store. And that's what I wasn't able to scrounge from the loose ends in maintenance. Probably twenty bucks. If the hadn't been so half at covering his tracks, I'd have the old part's for source material.

Let's just say that between this type of , and a whole lot of precision tool's that the audit team couldn't find, he won't have to worry about being asked to come out of retirement.....

 

[Denny]

The best one I ever saw while wrenching at a dealership was when I was brought a White Cadillac Eldorado to look over for the used car department. They had just taken the car in on trade I put it up on my rack (hoist) and noticed a slight drip from the flywheel inspection cover. I pulled out the 4 screws holding it on only to discover some one had stuffed half a box of pampers in there to hide the fact the rear main seal was pissing oil like a race horse. Salesman lost his job over that and the sales department lost $4,000.00 when the car was taken to the auction. This was in the days before cellphone cameras so no pictures. I got a million stories like that one.

Denny

 

[BirdFanatic]

How much wood can a wood chuck chuck if a wood chuck could chuck wood lol

 

[Unit 91]

The best one I ever saw while wrenching at a dealership was when I was brought a White Cadillac Eldorado to look over for the used car department. They had just taken the car in on trade I put it up on my rack (hoist) and noticed a slight drip from the flywheel inspection cover. I pulled out the 4 screws holding it on only to discover some one had stuffed half a box of pampers in there to hide the fact the rear main seal was pissing oil like a race horse. Salesman lost his job over that and the sales department lost $4,000.00 when the car was taken to the auction. This was in the days before cellphone cameras so no pictures. I got a million stories like that one.

Denny

Can't believe they would fire the salesman for that, not his fault the customer pulled a fast one.
We had a guy trade in a truck, during our recent construction, that had no reverse. When he pulled onto our lot he parked on the side of the building and as the construction guys to help him push it backwards into a spot. Manager goes out to appraise the truck pulled forward out for the spot, assumes it has reverse since it was backed into a spot.........the general manager was pissed but no one got fired.

 

[fowler]

Dont know why the salesman got fired for a rear main leak

Its not his job to climb under the car



Buying a car without reverse however
Thats a pretty basic pretty serious stuff up