Shop Shots Volume 78 Insider Pictures of Automotive Service

Happy Wednesday everyone. I hope that y’all are having a great week so far. Yesterday was the first day of fall. That means cooler temps, leaves changing, and prepping cars for winter. Before we get rolling with this weeks behind the scenes pictures, I have a few updates.

Video Podcast
As many of you know, I started a “daily” video podcast. I say “daily” because I will have a show coming out daily around late next week. I learned that the Internet at my house is painfully slow. It takes forever to upload videos. I am still recording new content, it is just slow coming out.

Show with Rusty from BRG
In addition to my podcast, I also started shooting a show with my buddy Rusty from Bench Racing Garage. We talk about many things in the auto world. It usually involves 2 buddies, having a few beers, and chatting about cars. I have a blast doing it, and I think that you will enjoy watching.

Okay, that should be all the announcements I have. Let the Shop Shots roll!

First up is something that makes me want to smack a technician. This is a drain plug that I took out of a VW last week. This drain plug was tightened so tight, the crush washer is folded over the “nut” part. I would guess that this is probably twice as tight as it needs to be.

I see this far more often than I care for. Not only does this make it a pain to get the crush washer off, it can put unneeded stress on the oil pan. If you have been around VWs, you know that many older pans were aluminum. Over torquing this much can damage the threads of the pan. This can result in the need for oil pan repair, or even replacement. So if you are a tech, and you are reading this STOP THAT CRAP!

I wish that I could say, I wont rant about this picture. But, I have to rant. You are looking at a picture of a broken timing chain, cam shaft, and cam adjuster on a 2.0 Jetta. I have posted pictures before of cam followers wearing out, but this one takes the cake. This is what catastrophic engine damage looks like.

I am not really mad at the failure. Cam wear, and follower wear are an issue with the BPY engines. That is why VW did a warranty extension on many of them. I am really mad at what the customer said.

The customer had the car towed in. He said that the car drove fine, then one morning it would not start. He told us there was no noise, and no check engine light on before it would not start. Now, I am not one to say something is impossible. I have seen enough crazy things in my days working on cars. But there is no way that this car didn’t have a check engine light, or make any strange noises before catastrophic failure. The follower was the most worn I have ever seen. The check engine light must have been on for many miles before this happened. In the end the customer traded the car, so it didn’t really matter. It’s just frustrating getting bad info from a customer. Or even worse when they lie to you.

So this is not really a “Shot Shot”, but I think it’s worth posting. My wife and I were leaving a store, and she pointed this out to me. WOW! I have seen people put “lemon” stickers on their cars, but this takes it to a whole new level. I asked the lady if that really happened. She told me that is flew off while on the highway. That is pretty scary.

Now, I know what you are thinking. This thing does not look like a top quality vehicle. I would agree. It also looks like that tire is almost flat. In addition to that, it is missing a valve stem cap, and has weights on opposite sides. I just keep looking at this picture with amazement. Does anyone have a funny caption? I would love to read some.

Well that wraps up this weeks Shop Shots. Thank you all for stopping by and seeing these pictures. Check back later today, I will be posting the video with Rusty. It is already live on the Humble Mechanic YouTube Channel.