Shop Shots Volume 24 Insider Pictures of Automotive Service
It’s time again for Shop Shots! The behind the scenes look at automotive service. As an auto mechanic, I see some crazy things from time to time. This is your chance to see the crazy things too. Okay, let’s get down to business.
You are looking at the bottom of an oil pan on a VW Beetle. The customer came in for an oil change. They had mentioned that there “might” be an oil leak. When I got the car up in the air, I found this. Yep, there was an oil leak, not doubt about it. It was pretty obvious that someone had attempted to fix the leak. There was some type of sealer on the pan. It looked like a rock popped up and hit the pan. This is actually a really common thing on MK4 cars. This is one reason that VW went to a steel oil pan. Luckily we had the pan in stock, and I was able to get the customer taken care of that day!
One thing that I try really hard NOT to do, is judge what people do to their cars. It can be really hard sometimes because I see some dumb stuff. 😛 All that being said, I have not been a huge fan of wheels on the newer GTIs. That was until this wheel came out. I LOVE LOVE LOVE this wheel. It has a slight gunmetal finish. It is an 18″ wheel with 225/40/18 tires, or Tyres since we are talking about a VW. If you want to learn more about tires, check out, Understanding Your Vehicle’s Tires.
HAHA, sometimes things happen that make me shake my head. This customer came in for a service on their car. When I get in the car and start it, the “Low Fuel” warning started dinging. I looked down and found that the range was “0 miles”. That means you probably have about 10 actual driving miles. (don’t blame me if you run out of gas because of that) I also noticed that the gauge didn’t even move.
The good thing is, I didn’t have to take the car on a long test drive. So free tech tip, make sure you bring your car in for service with some gas in it. If you have a good service department, you wont have to worry about them driving your car all over town.
READER’S RIDE
Last week we talked about adding a “Readers Rides” section. Well, the first person to submit was Joe. This is Joe’s 2004 Audi S4. Here is what Joe says about his car.
2004 B6 S4 imola yellow (ly1c paint code) I’m a loser. 4.2 liter chain driven v8 (350 hp) 6 speed trans couple to Audi’s Quattro system. All leather Recaro seats. Love the non flashiness (beside the color of course) of the s4 platform. The sheer “get up and go” of a v8 keeps me smiling every time I drive it. Having a car that I’ve always drooled and dreamed over in my driveway is like a lil gear heads dream come true. Being that it’s a very intricate design maintenance is very very important. The right oil and the right parts (Oem) are very critical to me and most importantly the car!!! Plans include a nice free flow exhaust from Labree and cat-less down pipes from JHM, some altitude adjustment is needed for those that have seen my previous vehicles. 😉
I have to tell you all that I LOVE this car. I also want to point out that Joe and his wife have a Cabby, a GTI, and a Rabbit. Total VW Love in that house 😉 Thanks for submitting Joe.
If you would like to submit your car just shoot me an email Charles(AT)humblemechanic(DOT)com. Send me some pics, and some information about your car. Also, don’t forget you can follow the site on so many of the cool places like Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest. All you have to do is click one of the pictures to the right. 🙂
“altitude adjustment” eh?
So I’m going to go out on a limb and assume that soon he’s gonna slam it to the ground to impress all the non-driver-forum-whore-parking-lot-pimp-kids. What a waste.
Imola Yellow happens to be my all time favorite color for an S4 too.
It’s named after this: . And NOT a parking-lot filled with ‘stanced-out’, slammed, blacked-out-emblem-having posers.
[First car: ’96 A4 2.8q manual in optional pearl white with winter pkg]
Will mos def be mailing you soon with some pics of a properly maintained (STOCK) MKV GTI (lol)
@VII
I know he will not be slamming that car. Even if he did, it’s his car, he can do what he wants, for whatever reason he wants.
Oh, thanks for the info on Imola info. I love learning stuff like that.
Wow, so it HAS been *that* long since I used HTML tags lol
(feel free to burn me at the pejorative stake now) -_-
Never said slammed, just a inch drop to rid of the wheel gap
NICE CAR! that V8 looks so good in that car its you going WHOA! love the refueling picture. PLEASE refill your VW, its thirsty!
Much love for the s4.
Beautiful ride man. I’m not a big fan of yellow but it looks good, an boy would i love to have that under my hood!
I don’t think you’ll be disappointed by dropping it…in very glad I lowered mine a lil. Looks better an handles better.
I can only imagine what that thing will sound like an feel like once you get your exhaust. Made a world of difference for me 🙂
Oh an Charles, those rims are sweet!