Reddit has a million “subreddits” on everything from trees to male fashion advice. Our favorite is “Just Rolled in the Shop,” a collection of photos from mechanics all over the world. We’ve had some rough days at the wrenches, but nothing like this. Here’s a sample from the last few weeks:
Grinding Noise When I Step on the Brake
Maybe I’ll just turn up the radio.
Epic Fail, or 50 Years of Success?
The repair on this BSA engine case has to be 50 years old. It’s hard to fault the Frankenstein approach. We’d just cram it full of Mighty Putty and hope for the best.
I Get a Shimmy Whenever I Go Over .5 MPH
I think those are supposed to be round.
I Don’t Have First Gear…
…I have more of a “second neutral.”
Hot Air Intake
You might as well just route the exhaust in a continuous loop.
Just Throw it Away
There should be a whole sub-subreddit that just catalogs photos of heater core replacement. This is from that darling of the rental lot, the Mitsubishi Endeavor. Clearly, this heap was never meant to be used for more than 50,000 miles.
Handles Great
The ride is a little stiff, though. Maybe we’ll switch to threaded rod instead of rebar.
Tire Won’t Hold Air
Cheap, Chinese aftermarket wheel companies should have to carry some kind of special insurance against catastrophe. Put 20″ wheels on and physics are going to work against you when you hit a pothole.
Still Leaking
All I had for tools were in my dad’s wood shop.
TH700R4 Exploded View
See, the trouble is, they installed the cutaway version.
(Image Source: Reddit/r/JustRolledInTheShop)
I inspected a Prius for a warranty claim that had a broken stock wheel like the one in picture 8. The inner bead of the wheel completely parted ways with the spider in the middle.
I used to be the manager of a Western Auto store and had a guy come in complaining that his car wouldn’t stop when he hit the brakes. Pulled the car into the shop and had the shop manager taek a look at it. He called me back, laughing that I had to see this. It looked just like first picture!! Took me a moment to realize what I was looking at!
I worked at a Western Auto also, back in the 80’s-90’s. Quite possibly, we saw the same car.
ha ha…that’s my rotor pic. 2500 +/- miles before this, the brakes were ‘completely reconditioned’ by a shop that actually charges money.son’s grandparents had it done,but the shop didnt grease the caliper slides,or even wire wheel the rust off.needless to say, our family will never use them again.did it myself,new rotors,calipers and pads.special attention was paid to the slides.
I have seen a lot of those cold air intakes installed similarly. I have also seen more than a few rotors worn like that and at least one that was just the hat, no disc left at all!
Once I had a girl come the gas station where I worked in south Florida. She said “The car smells bad and runs funny”. Her v8 Firebird was seriously overheated, 300 degrees probably. The radiator was dry, as in, no moisture whatsoever. The motor instantly boiled out any water I tried to put in it. When it finally cooled off, I decided to check the oil. None on the dipstick – totally dry. After some coolant and water (and 5 quarts of oil) she was back on the road!
Jay Bird ^^^
My sister used to do that to her ford escort about every 3 months. When it would finally die she would call me or my dad. we would go find it on the side of the road and refill the rad and oil, both always bone dry, and it would fire right up like nothing happened and she would continue on her marry way. Took about 3 years of this before it finally blew a loonie sized hole in the block. That had to of been the toughest little car i have ever seen. lol. If she had onlt listened to us and stayed on top of it, the little beast would probably still be buzzing around town today. ahwell, way she goes.
The linkage to the subreddit at the bottom of the article is incorrect, it should be..
http://www.reddit.com/r/Justrolledintotheshop/
When I was 15, my friend’s neighbor let us use his 84 Chevy Cavalier wagon that had been sitting to “learn how to drive a manual trans”. We got the hang of it the first day and then proceeded to bangshift the hell out of it for the better part of a year. Being young, stupid, and broke, we thought it would be too much of a big deal to replace the water pump after water started pouring out of the weep hole. Instead, we used to just run it until the temp light came on and then pull in for a pit stop to hose the motor down with cold water, or shovel snow on it! It managed to run like this, balls to the wall with no coolant, for a 3-4 months. Eventually we couldn’t even get the tires to spin with a clutch drop because it was so tired. Couldn’t believe how much punishment that little 4 banger took.
A buddy of mine was at a convenience store one night when my sister came rolling in with my moms 70 Ford Fairlane 500 (with a 351 Cleveland in it) and raised the hood. My buddy asked her what the problem was- she said it was making that noise again and needed oil. He added 3 quarts +. Funny thing is she went on to work for Autozone…. Hmmmmmm….
You should have included my other pic of that TH700R4. The Sun gear shell had a “exploded” look that had bore into the side of the case.
I can’t tell you how many JUNK Chinese wheels I welded up for students, when I was a welding instructor.
Re: the BSA
I had worked for a private antique car collection. The had a party with some of the old car buddies. One person had a 190? Pope Hartford that had competed in the Vanderbuilt cup race. The exhaust manifold on it was wrapped in what looked like modern exhaust wrap. “No-that was done in 1910. The ex. manifold cracked in practice for the race-so they wrapped it up with plaster of paris + cloth as a temp fix. Its already held for 100 years-I guess I’ll leave it.”
When I was in the Air Force a guy in my unit was having trouble with his car running out of oil. He told me he didn’t have the problem until he changed the oil over at the base hobby shop. I went over there with him to check it out. Both the drain plug and oil filter were loose. When I tried to tighten the drain plug it just kept spinning. The boy told me that he noticed oil leaking from it so he got a ratchet and tightened it.
I had a customer come into my shop saying that his brakes felt like they had just started grinding. Saw the fronts were ok. Looked at the rear drums and couldn’t believe my eyes. The metal backings of the pads had worn through an already thin drum. Needless to say that the customer had become more than a little worried when everyone had gathered around his car taking pics.
Been a subscriber to that sub since the day it was created. Amazing stuff sometimes.
The link and name of subreddit is incorrect. Should read
http://www.reddit.com/r/Justrolledintotheshop/
never forget the time the ex rolled into my driveway and her mazda 929 was making horrible grindy noises as she stopped. As my kids were about to climb on board I volunteered to take a look. took the wheel off and this weird blue little boomerang fell out… it was actually the remains of the brake pad… the cylindrical brake piston on the front disk had a 1/2 ” cavity `machined’ into it by the disk – seems the piston itself was doing brake pad duties for quite some time, while the pad itself was content to rattle around inside the wheel….
My brother in law ran a Phillips 66 service station back in Kansas. Lady pulls in and says something has been making the air from the heater smell bad and could he look to see what it was. He open ed the hood nad immediately slammed it shut. Seemed the lady lived on a farm and a cat had crawled on top of the engine to stay warm in wimter. She had just driven to Dodge City, 50 miles away, and back…..roasting the little kitty all the way.
She seemed a little preturbed that he did not pull the remains out!!!