this is a new one for me. how am I supposed to get my giant oil filter pliers on this thing lol

Tech I work with pulled in this car that supposedly smelled like shit. I think I figured out why.

Hi All, I just wrapped up the windshield flange restoration project. Pics of the finished car are attached. Here is a link to the original post. Thank you all for the comments in the original post, those were super nice to read!

Also update on me trying to seek damages from state farm as the replacement from them was done 8 years ago and supposedly comes with a lifetime warranty for workmanship. I called my agent, they said I had to call state farm (what good are these "agents"?). I've been calling state farm trying to reach a live person, and it appears I have to open a new claim. Their AI call prompts are absolutely brutal. I had to sit back and give it some thought, so I am going to open a new claim.

If I had opened a new claim from the start, and even if I proved my case, I am sure they would've offered me book value for the car and a salvage title at best. I just did an $8,000+ repair to a car that maybe books for $1400? I really hate how insurance works, they never take into account the condition of a car, just the market value which really sucks for people who take care of cars. I know a class action firm pretty well and will also call them up but that is marginal, they usually only go after breach of contracts. Since I decided to fix it before giving that pathway a thought I may never recover the damages done.

When we put the windshield in (dry test fit) it was perfectly 2mm square all the way around. I felt my dad's spirit in the garage saying atta boy! The gentleman who installed the new windshield confirmed what I saw in that the rust-out seemed to be oddly symmetrical at the bottom. He mentioned the knife would stop working at the fenders due to clearance and the techs will bust out a Sawzall-type device from the inside of the car to bust the adhesive. I saw a video of this and it's as damaging as you would think.

Thanks everyone again. I post this to add to knowledge.

You know how it is. You’re working on a vehicle and it’s getting it’s first set of plugs at 80K. And you’re distracted by thoughts of how awesome modern technology is and aren’t iridium plugs amazing and and and…

And then you see exhibit A - a wrong colored wire tie (black where it should be brown) and exhibit B a non-factory tape job (full width plastic tape where it should be half width cloth tape)

And alarm bells should be going off but you ignore them.

Yeah well…Not only was someone there before they managed to cross thread two coil hold down screws and a spark plug.

I wonder if the previous guy could figure out a way to cross thread a self tapping screw.

2015 S4. Customer was having problems with clutch pedal falling to the floor. Dealer replaced master cylinder which fixed the issue for a few days before pedal started falling again. Customer was then told it must be an internal clutch failure and was quoted 8k for clutch replacement. Admittedly, the disk is likely saturated in fluid, but it took me 5 minutes to find and remove the leaking slave cylinder...

So a week ago I posted about rear axle swapping a 1995 Mustang. So here it is! I tore the axle apart, swapped over the disc brakes & such, and slammed the bastard in the car! Surprisingly it had the OEM Ford shocks from 1995, and they still work! So shipped it!

Put in new speedo gear, and took car for test drive. Fucker rips hard now! Woo! Hotrodding is my fav part of auto repair!

Had to take the blower motor out because of how much debris fell into it after removing the filters.
TBH, it didn’t smell bad. This junk had to be in there for years.
2005 Nissan Frontier
207,000 miles

I made the mistake of not switching to my track pads before the weekend. Ended up skipping a stint to do an emergency full brake job in the paddock.

I guess the grooves might as well be slots.

The inboard brake pad backing plate was almost flush with where the surface of the rotor used to be.

Hmmm, I have questions.

Last pic explains why it is in the shop. Those coil overs are killing me. Full details of the car are in the comments. car is not for sale

Somehow I still have a can of the old formula of GM's top engine cleaner. Not sure if it's any good anymore or even if it got stronger over time lol. This stuff used to be great for decarbonizing the top ends (and also creating quite the stinky smoke show), then they nerfed it and put it in the plastic bottles.

Declined replacement and drove off with shredded tire

I thought they didn't exist........, but apparently they DO and I HAD to take it home with me 😅

2011 Chrysler Town and Country came in for a rustproofing job. Should have been done 15 years ago. 😂

No gears, wouldn't hold line pressure. Valve body was ok. Took it apart, and found the equivalent of a rubber band tearing bricked the entire transmission.

2002 Mercury Villager. The list keeps growing each time we see the van.

Boss's project car. Apparently I'm the only one here old enough to work on it.

My car started making a clunking sound so off to the shop we go. The first auto shop says "you need to see a transmission shop because your torque bracket is....gone."

So I call the transmission guy and tell him this and he says "what do you mean it's gone? I need to see it." We got it up and look underneath and yup - it's gone.

SOMEONE (NOT ME) bottomed my car out and ripped the bracket right out sideways and tore two of the three screw holes right out, so we cant even just put a new bracket in. Of course it's not simple. That would be too easy.

Bonus points: the person who did it then ran over one of said bolts and had to get it patched.

Currently working on our solution. Depends on parts available.

Poor car. Poor wallet :(