Happy Wednesday everyone! We are coming off the last “unofficial” weekend of summer. Being that it is 95 today, I am not buying that 🙂 . Now is the time we need to start thinking about getting our cars ready for winter. Over the next few weeks we will be looking at all the things we can do to be ready for the cold weather and snow(yikes). But first, we have to rock some Shop Shots!
Oh, one quick thing. There was some type of update glitch with WordPress. That knocked out some of the features I have installed on the blog. It should not impact any of the content, but some of the little things I have installed may not work. Just hang in there, I am working on getting all of it fixed.
First up is something that I see a lot. It is also something that I like to poke fun at. This customer has their Craftsman garage door opener clipped on to the visor. No big deal right? Well it just so happens that It is clipped right next to the built in garage opener.
You might be wondering why the heck someone would do something like that. Well, the truth is, new openers can be a pain to program. I said that I poke fun at this, but I was guilty too. I owned my Passat for about 6 years before I finally programmed that dang built in opener. That was mostly me being lazy 😉
Next up is one of those stories that comes around from time to time. First off you are looking at a big hole in the intercooler of a TDI Golf. This causes air to leak in, or leak out depending on driving situation.
This customer had the diesel fuel system replaced about 2 years ago. The car had a HPFP(High pressure fuel pump) failure. The customer called back saying that the car was acting funny again, and that it better have a warranty from the last repair. The customer was convinced that it was related to the repair we did.
When my tech pulled the car in, we could hear the boost leak. After some inspections, we found that the car had impact damage to the lower front of the car. The impact also damaged the radiator, condenser, and core support. I hate that the customer needed so much work, but I am sure glad it was not our fault.
Last up is one of my LEAST favorite repairs to make, a broken window. This GTI came in with the window glass broken. Replacing the glass is not a hard job. It is the working with all the broken glass that is awful. If you have had a glass break, post which window it was in the comments.
If you have never had a broken window in a car, consider yourself lucky. Glass from the window goes EVERYWHERE! Glass in the seat track, under the carpet, in the door, under switches, and the worst jammed in the window track and seal. This car went back to clean up 3 times to get the glass out. I don’t think I have ever replaced a broken glass with out getting at least 1 cut.
That wraps up another volume of Shop Shots! Remember that just about all of these pictures come right from me. They are not searched in Google, or skimmed from another site. They are the real deal from a VW dealer tech.
The first picture come to us by way of a complete hack mechanic. You are looking at the the cowl panel of a VW Beetle. That is the trim right at the bottom of the windshield. You will notice that someone has drilled a hole in the trim. Talk about a hack move.
This type of picture makes me feel a bit like a curios kid. When ever I see an engine or a transmission taken apart, I get excited. Especially when I am not the one taking it apart. 😉 Not that I mind doing this type of work, it just doesn’t pay that well.
I feel like this is the things that mechanics have nightmares about. You are looking at a wiring harness in a 2014 Tiguan. The customer had about 400 miles on their car. They brought it in because the 12v outlet wouldn’t work. When I got the car the fuse was blown. Each time a new fuse was installed, it would pop. That could mean the power wire was shorted to ground(which is the brown wire in the picture).
The story behind this picture could be a post all by itself. It is the typical “You messed up my car” story, that is just a matter of a problem showing itself at a bad time.
Next up in the “this is a total bummer” series, a failed clutch. Well it was not really the clutch that failed, it was the release bearing. The bearing is the part that pushes on the pressure plate when you push the clutch pedal.
I feel like this is a picture that I have to post way too much. The story is about the same. Car comes in with the oil light on. We check it out and find that the pickup tube is clogged. We spend a few hours cleaning the crud from the bottom of the oil pan.
We have heard that all VWs have electrical problems or wiring problems. This one was a good one. This Jetta came from one of the rental car companies. I think the original concern was rear lights not working. The tech went round and round with chasing wires, and he even replaced the main electrics module(Body control module). The car was blowing 1 certain fuse in a strange way.
This might be one of my all time favorite Shop Shot picture of all time. This customer brought their car in for a minor service. On this service we add a fuel treatment. I was working on something else when I hear the tech next to me laughing. I walked over to see what was up, and this is what he found.
I didn’t realize that it has been over 3 months since the last volume of Shop Shots! That is just insane. Well let me tell you guys about what has been going on around the Humble Mechanic garage lately.
I always love a great DIY repair. There are times when you can hodgepodge parts together to fix a problem. I am a big fan of that. I did plenty of that type of thing on the Cabby. This is the exact opposite of a good DIY. This is a nightmare.
This is one of those things you see happen to a car and think “how in the world did that happen?” This is a small hole in a transmission. You would not see this hole with the transmission installed in the car. Something on the inside of the transmission broke. That break caused inside parts of the transmission to become outside parts.