Finding the Other Guy's "repairs"

[Detective D]

We have all had this scenario:
You go to do a repair on a vehicle you bought used. As you dig into it, you discover some odd things, some things that make you scratch your head, maybe some things that tick you off.

Today was one of those days.
Yard sale Dakota I bought, has 54k miles on it now, 318 Magnum. 1200 miles ago when I bought it, there was a very tiny vacuum leak, but a couple other things going on with the exhaust and such so I put it on the list. Well it has gotten worse to the point I decided no time like the present and rolled it into the garage to begin doing the plenum gasket repair. Had vacuum on the valve cover on the PCV side, obvious symptom.
I work on this after work, maybe an hour at a time, not every day(I am tired after work, I run a manufacturing facility) but I have other transportation, it will get done eventually

Today, after what seemed like endless errands and some helping of the in laws etc, I got out there at 3 in the afternoon. I had left: remove fuel injectors, move wire harness out of the way, take that little water bypass hose that goes from the pump to the manifold off. (That little guy was STUCK) Then I can remove the manifold.
Get stuff out of the way. Begin to loosen manifold bolts, manual says reverse order. Here is what I find:
Middle bolts(all 8 of them) were not particularily tight.
Front two bolts, well they snapped off the heads as I tried to get them out. This is common on these motors, the manifold factory bolts are not particularily high quality.
Back two bolts....
Oh yeah. Back one bolt. Where is the other one?

So you see, at this point I am wondering "WTF, this truck had 53k on it when I bought it!" See I was thinking for once, I had found a used vehicle with so low miles and so babied I was working with a clean slate, factory stock everything(besides maint items)
At this point, I figured someone must have done this repair before.
They did. Really, really BADLY.
The missing bolt was there, just not the head. WHO NEEDS THAT!! LOL, I wonder why there was a vacuum leak?
You are supposed to put a smear of RTV on the corners where the front and back seal go, and a dab around the water ports.
Previous used silver.... somthing(it cured like epoxy) so much it smooshed all the way around the intake port in front and up and out into a little bit by the valve cover.
Oh yeah, and they SNAPPED A BOLT OFF AND SAID F IT AND PUT IT BACK TOGETHER.

So I am soaking things with penetrant for now, and eating pizza and beer and will enjoy my evening. I had thought for sure this time this was going to be an untouched by humans since assembly, but there is always something isn't there?

What awesome things have you been surprised with over the years?

 

[Kern Dog]

Whether it is cars or buildings, if someone has owned it before, you may find shade tree repairs that will test your faith in humanity.
I've seen substandard work after pulling drywall from a house remodeled years ago.
I've seen globs of RTV around intake ports.
There have been some tricky repairs made to rusty chassis parts.
Have you seen the YouTube channel Just Rolled In ?

 

[eldubb440]

 

[HawkRod]

I have found lots of weird electrical problems due to people not understanding what they are doing, but a recent issue has me scratching my head:

So I was working on a 69 Corvette coupe with an automatic transmission. It would start in any gear so there must have been something going on with the neutral safety switch. Now a neutral safety switch is a pretty simple thing. When in park and in neutral, it allows the 12v start voltage from the key switch to pass through and go out to the starter. Conversely, in reverse or any drive gear, 12 volts won't be passed to the starter.

Now, in this car, the neutral safety switch was indeed broken, so it obviously wasn't allowing the car to start. OK, so what to do? Well, Bubba must not have had money to replace it, but all he needed to do is short out the two wires that connect to the neutral safety switch.

But what was done to this car was the neutral safety switch wires under the dash were cut. Then they dug up into the steering column and butchered the wires to avoid that circuit altogether.
WHY??? They did A LOT more work destroying the wiring for a workaround than if they just shorted the wires at the plug!!!

What baffles me about this is they somehow figured out enough to butcher and cut the neutral safety switch wiring and run some custom wiring to make the car start. But if they figured out that much, why not just take 10 seconds and short the wires together at the switch???

 

[moparedtn]

What awesome things have you been surprised with over the years?

Basically....everything mechanical on Fred.
It's only taken a dozen years - and it ain't over yet.

 

[eldubb440]

I recently looked at a repair I did to mine about 33 years ago; on my driver side frame rail ..... I was impressed, it took me a while to find it

 

[1STMP]

I've heard of a few horror stories, but
really have not rum across anything
blatant, except maybe mustard
being used to stop a radiator leak.

 

[moparedtn]

I was reminded of previous owners' shortcomings/shortcuts just yesterday when we had Fred out and about:

He had the heater box out and spruced it up some back in 2009 - but I was reminded yesterday that the main flapper
door in the thing is rotted out at the bottom on its' pin, so when you try to move it with the dash control, it just goes
wonky. I have to pull the box out and repair it properly now....which won't be easy, given my medical state.
I rigged a ball valve in one of the heater hoses a little while back to help with the situation...

 

[padam]

Picked up a 96 Toyota RAV4 last month. My son needed a winter car and he got it cheap but we knew it would need some work.

The big issue I thought is that it would barely run, but my experience with these Toyos led me to believe it would not be a big deal, and I was mostly right. Turned out to be a bad throttle position sensor.

However, there were not 1, but 2 security/remote start systems installed over the years. Of course no key fobs. “The brake lights stay on sometimes so you have to pull up the pedal.” Yeah with 10 lb of extra wires wrapped around the mechanism.

So, I had a few too many one day when I was working on it. Locked myself in the damn thing. I could not unlock the doors, and had to climb out the window. Once I sobered up I realized I could have unlocked the door with the key. (That’s so embarrassing I don’t know why I’m writing it. I guess because maybe I give the impression of being perfect, I want you guys to know I’m human.)
If you inspect a car and the doors lock and unlock anytime you turn the key, suspect an aftermarket security system. Also the drivers door and window were both scarred up from multiple break in attempts.

So I jump into fixing the door locks. All that locking and unlocking over the years just wore out the mechanism. So both front door locks were purposely disabled in different ways. In addition both front switches were bad.

So on this one problem, there were actually 3 or 4 causes depending on how you count.

And remember those other issues, TPS, brake lights, and here I’ll throw in “sometimes it won’t shift out of park, you have to stick this screwdriver in here.”

When diagnosing TPS, it would be ok till the engine warmed up and then it would get erratic. You could see it plain as day on the scanner live data. Back in the garage I found that wiggling the connector caused the reading to jump around. But my son also said that there was a solenoid underneath the shifter that would actuate. Weird huh. The wiring diagram shows a wire that runs there, to the cruise control computer. This vehicle doesn’t have cruise control. Wierd.

I think that wire actually tells the solenoid that the throttle is closed, if it’s open it locks the shifter. So not only did the bad TPS cause the engine to run poorly, I think it caused the shifter to lock in park at times. Here’s the hack job. There is another lock solenoid for the shifter activated by the brake pedal. PO’s solution? An improper adjustment of the brake light switch.

So I feel pretty good having all that fixed. Now on to the bad oil leak seller neglected to mention. It’s behind the timing cover so we are going to do the timing belt water pump and all seals on the right side for good measure. Should have another 100k miles in it after that.

Sorry for the long post, but it is a reminder that an obvious issue may not be the real cause of a problem you are trying to solve.

 

[1967coronet]

That's is one thing I am not going to miss.
We used to work on several deer hits each year.
As a car / truck ages most have some kind of fender bender in their past.
As a bodyman once they blast a deer you get to find all sorts of previous repairs while stripping down your victim.
Mechanical, body, electrical, lost tools ect.
One of my favorite repairs is elongated holes in every dry part you can think of.
At that point you have to slap your brain into reverse. Figure out what structure wise has moved and correct it before moving on with the current repair.
Lol, fun times.

 

[AR67GTX]

I did a complete tear down restoration on a 66 427 Corvette in the early 90s that had been rode hard and bandaged up considerably. It was a lot like Forrest Gump‘s box of chocolates. My favorite was a bent spindle that placed the rotor off-center in the brake caliper - solution, just put a worn out pad on that side. I couldn't see it until I rebuilt everything and tried to put new brake pads in it.

 

[YY1]

Removed some receps the previous tenant installed without permission in the garage of one of our houses.

Neatly tapcon-ed into the block with way too many tapcons...

...and they used 20A receps with #14 wire on 20A breakers.

 

[YY1]

House we live in was built by a licensed master electrician/electrical contractor.

I constantly find entry level electrical mistakes.

All receps are "quick wired" and in series.

Really?

 

[68BabyBlue]

I've avoided a lot of this by buying cars that were previously owned by people with known mechanical expertise. Baby Blue and my Hemi GTX were two best examples, no surprises with either. My A33 GTX was the total opposite - car was restored as a charity project by a dozen different folks with limited knowledge working together. Anything that wasn't essential to make the car drive was messed up. Best example was heater defroster cable hooked to temperature control switch, and temp control hooked to heater/defroster. Anything that needed to be grounded was painted over. Took a year, but I was lucky, in the end it was all nuisance stuff that I sorted out.

Fact that current GTX was owned by a Plymouth dealer for 15 years helped a lot, all the work was done with factory parts by the dealership's top guys. But the last owner was a Corvette guy, who installed the the driver's side brake caliper upside down on the passenger's side, and vice versa.

 

[Scott Engelhardt]

House we live in was built by a licensed master electrician/electrical contractor.

I constantly find entry level electrical mistakes.

All receps are "quick wired" and in series.

Really?

I watch an electrician on youtube, I have learned a lot from him

 

[cosgig]

I wish I had pictures of all the things I come across at work, but I’ll try to explain as much as possible…..

Contrary to popular belief, a 30a breaker out to a fuse box with two 30a fuses, one building on one fuse and one building on the other fuse does NOT equal 30a to each building. Secondary belief that an entire building can run on 30a, with A/C, a compressor, lights and plugs. Oh, and when one building pops the breaker, neither building has power. Got that?

How about running plugs all the way down the walls, but when you come to a corner, no need to drill a hole and continue wiring into the next wall. You simply need to put 2 outlets in each wall right at the corner, and make not one, but two male to male pigtails and plug one into the top plugs and one into the bottom plugs, of EACH corner. Correcting that yielded me 8 brand new male plugs!

Back to car repairs, my RR had a bad drivers floor, and the very end of the crossmember was soft. What to do? I got a piece of original stub, cut out the offending end, grafted in the new piece, gusseted the inside, welded it inside and out, and to the front frame rail end, POR15, new floor on with plug welds, and called it a good fix. Mentioned it in a thread somewhere and got a reply that once the “abortion” broke and sent me in the ditch where I was to die, he would take it off my families hands and part the port piece of junk out, where it should’ve gone in the first place! Nice sentiment I think! That was 5 years ago, and I ain’t died yet!

 

[Ron H]

Probably the most often irritating thing I’ve come across on used rides I’ve had over the decades, involved backyard stereo system and other add-on installations. In a few cases causing shorts affecting other electricals. Worse is cutting up the dash and interior for speakers. Wiring taped together instead of using connectors that eventually dry out and separate, etc. Multiple spades stuck in the fuse block encountering wiring connectors being mashed in contacting other circuits, speaker wire ‘routing’ that had disturbed/stressed other wiring. Goes on into engine bay, brakes, etc.

No new-news here; but having done installs and repairs, like a lot of us, drills down to the correct or better way to do stuff as opposed to the quick, cheap way. Period. Yeah, the better way takes MORE time and PATIENCE. I need to go to the auto store to buy the CORRECT stuff if I don’t have it. I like to do stuff when it’s possible, that if time may come, I can reverse it…like it never existed. Building stuff, I use screws, rarely nails such as the deck I built 25 years ago and replaced the deck boards in no time unscrewing the boards and putting down new ones.

Ok granted, I get kidded around for being a nit-picky sort. Have a close friend from HS who’s the opposite, knows his stuff, but damn we’re like oil & water when we work together. One example of several, installing new garage doors, he broke I don’t know how many lag-bolts and I’m saying again and again – drill friggin pilot holes for those bolts first hey! He’s like on piece work and ask wtf is your hurry; you gotta be somewhere? I get nervous watching him work, lol.

My dad was a nit-picky sort and would tell me do it right or don’t do it.

 

[Detective D]

Probably the most often irritating thing I’ve come across on used rides I’ve had over the decades, involved backyard stereo system and other add-on installations. In a few cases causing shorts affecting other electricals. Worse is cutting up the dash and interior for speakers. Wiring taped together instead of using connectors that eventually dry out and separate, etc. Multiple spades stuck in the fuse block encountering wiring connectors being mashed in contacting other circuits, speaker wire ‘routing’ that had disturbed/stressed other wiring. Goes on into engine bay, brakes, etc.

No new-news here; but having done installs and repairs, like a lot of us, drills down to the correct or better way to do stuff as opposed to the quick, cheap way. Period. Yeah, the better way takes MORE time and PATIENCE. I need to go to the auto store to buy the CORRECT stuff if I don’t have it. I like to do stuff when it’s possible, that if time may come, I can reverse it…like it never existed. Building stuff, I use screws, rarely nails such as the deck I built 25 years ago and replaced the deck boards in no time unscrewing the boards and putting down new ones.

Ok granted, I get kidded around for being a nit-picky sort. Have a close friend from HS who’s the opposite, knows his stuff, but damn we’re like oil & water when we work together. One example of several, installing new garage doors, he broke I don’t know how many lag-bolts and I’m saying again and again – drill friggin pilot holes for those bolts first hey! He’s like on piece work and ask wtf is your hurry; you gotta be somewhere? I get nervous watching him work, lol.

My dad was a nit-picky sort and would tell me do it right or don’t do it.

Radio stuff.... UG, I haven't had that in a while but you are right on those. Everyone is a pro lol. padam touched on the remote start stuff too, similar deal.
Bought a 2003 Impala for my son when he got his license(w body GM is safe, and super easy to drive, and bullet proof)
Older guy that bought it from retired couple. Car was clean and nice. Remote start. The guy gave us 4 key fobs for the remote start(4!) and two factory fobs(I have 6 keys for this car lol) Son used it the first year he had it.
We had to change out the turn signal lever(multi switch) and discovered the installer had used a constant hot for power for the remote start: the button for the trunk release on the dash lol. And had not extended the harness, so it was drawn tight like a bow string. We unhooked it.
Then the next year tail lights act oddly, and other oddness. Ended up needing to remove, with much pain, the entire remote start thing (with alarm mind you) and repairing the wires which they had mostly used those clamp on type wire splice things.
I will never buy a remote start to add to a car in my lifetime. Too many horror stories.
Seems car wiring in general is mysterious and incomprehensible to a lot of people, based on the radios and remote starts.

 

[padam]

That reminds me of another of my vehicles.
My wife does craft shows in the fall and uses a full size van.
The last one I bought her is a GMC Savanna 3500. I used it to pull my car on an open trailer before I got my truck.

Previous owner was a residential electrician and used it for his work truck. He was also a volunteer fireman so he had a bunch of stuff wired into it, light bar, radios, etc. That stuff was all gone when I got it, but the problems remain.

Good thing she puts less than 1k miles on it per year.

 

[Some Car Guy]

I bought a 71 cuda that I crawled under one day after owning it a few months and saw something just didn’t look right about the fuel line going into the pump. Turns out they jammed a 3/8 hose over a 5/16 barb. Not sure how it didn’t split or blow off. Car had headers. Could’ve been a bad day right there.