What happened to my car was that the battery died. Okay, so it’s bad. No big deal so I bought a new one then the next day, it died again. It turns out I had a bad alternator so I guess more money spent on fixing my car. Then the alternator belt ripped off due to old age so I had to buy a new alternator belt but autozone gave me the wrong size so I was there for like about an hour trying to get the wrong size belt inside so I had to drive back to auto zone and they said sorry about the mistake and gave me the right one.
This costed me like $500 for a new battery, alternator and belt.
What’s the most annoying car repair you’ve ever had to deal with?
I spent about $15K on a valve stem. The valve stem broke, so I bought another one. I got a good metal one for about $15. I figured I could just pull the tire off the bead, push it to the side and put in the new valve, but I wasn't able to push it that far over. Bought a large C-clamp ($10) to push the tire over, but that was just cutting into the tire. Bought some metal bar stock ($10) to place under the clamp, but that just bent the metal. Bought two more C-clamps ($20) to even out the pressure, but still just bent the metal. Bought some angle iron ($10) and tried it that way, but was still unable to smash the tire enough to get the valve in. Decided I would have to remove the rear wheel. Discovered that the center stand didn't hold the bike high enough to remove the wheel. Bought a bike lift ($350) and lifted the bike high enough to remove the wheel. Decided that while I had the wheel off, I might as well replace the tire ($150), the brakes ($50) and the wheel bearings ($50). Had to take it to the shop because I couldn't get the wheel bearings out. Got it all back and re-assembled. Started the bike and it barely ran. Swapped out plugs, wires and coils ($100) and it still ran like crap. Needed to clean carbs. Bought carb cleaner and tools ($20). Disassembled as far as I wanted to, cleaned the best I could and re-assembled. Still ran like crap. Bought a new bike.
Reminds me of all the guys who plumb the clear plastic fuel filters with rubber hose right in front of the carburetor. Yikes ! Those plastic filters up top like that cause more fires than ex wives !!
I have a tire pressure sensor that was damaged by a mechanic when getting new tires put on, and it dinged an flashed lights in my face forever, saying there was a fault with the tire pressure sensor. The mechanic denied anything being wrong, several people tried to argue with me about it just being a fluke with the temperature causing the pressure to lower (yet my car has two different messages for a fault with the sensor and low tire pressure, and it was telling me there was a fault with the sensor), I took it to a couple of different places trying to find someone who knew what was wrong, and finally was told it was something only the dealership could fix, so had to pay $500 to replace the sensor. Now a few years later, this sensor does it on and off, especially on longer highway drives.
I was hit by a semi doing 50mpg. The shop all stopped work to watch the inspection, and had bets on if my alignment was off. The airbags didn’t trip. If they had or the alignment was off it would have pushed it into the ‘totaled zone’ in my insurance eyes. Turned out not only did my awesome truck allow me to walk away with minor injuries, it wasn’t but barely out of alignment. Further the smog check was due while in repair. It went for it’s test the day after the $11,000+ damage was finished, and passed the smog check with flying colours. It will never be the same. Lots of quirks now. Love my truck.
I had decided to sell my old car (this was years ago), and the guy was coming to look at it in the morning.
It was the middle of winter, there was snow on the ground, and a blizzard on the way, so I went to move it into the garage for the night. Go outside to start it, and the battery is dead. It's already starting to snow, at this point.
So I pop the old battery out, and head to the local auto parts store. They have no batteries that are the right size. Drive to the only other auto parts store in town, and they are closed early, because of the blizzard. So I drive 25 minutes to the next town, buy a battery, and drive 25 minutes back.
I've been gone for almost two hours, at this point, and it's been snowing hard the whole time. When I finally get back, I have to put the new battery in, while standing in two feet of snow, and -30° windchill.
I finally got it all done, dug the car out, and parked it in the garage. A simple repair that turned into a freaking huge PITA. I was never happier to sell a damned car than I was the next morning.
I had a Chevy Blazer and I was selling it myself. The battery was on the way out so I just kept it on the trickle charger until I knew somebody was coming to look at it.
@exitseven Unfortunately, this was one of those unexpected events. No indication at all that the battery was going out (I drove it frequently), until the sudden cold.
That, and the guy buying it was kind of a last minute thing, too. It wasn't even "technically" for sale, but a friend wrecked his car, and was like, "Heeeeey, do you still have that extra one? I'll pay you way more than it's worth."
For me i had a 2005 Chevy Impala and i knew nothing about cars i was young and it was used with 170k miles on it, what even attracted me to it was the rims so bought it and that thing was a huge headache.
The tires tread started stripping, battery died twice cause of some electrical issue, the oil was leaking from multiple holes in it, and then it started overheating. Took it to a mechanic Midas (Scammers!) Over charged me 600$ to fix the issue but it was not fixed they said it was the thermostat and water pump so i let them change that then the next day it worked for one drive then it started up again, i took it back and they said it was the radiator and they need to flush my coolant system & i need to pay another 300$ and maybe more depending on what it could be. I said hell no and walked out and went to another radiator spot who showed me everything wrong with my vehicle and told me it was a lemon and im better off getting rid of it and refer'd me to another mechanic and they replaced some stuff for 150$ and said it would only last 6 months and it will become broken again.
I used those 6 months left until my taxes came in and went to a new car dealership and got a new car, i learned everything their is to know about the basics of cars and more now i argue with mechanics and get them to do their jobs correctly if ever any issues i come across & i will never drive GM after learning all those issues are common with their brands.
Headlight assembly… fuck my 2018 Hyundai Elantra’s headlight assembly… I spent hours with my brother trying to get a cracked headlight assembly off this bastard… The replacement was $500 but I can’t get the docking light off… YouTube’s tells me every make and model but mine and when I call Hyundai… bastards tell me that’s company information and they can’t help me unless I bring it in for work…
I’ve gone through 4 lightbulbs in 6 months because of a small crack and some condensation… like fucking for real?
Changing out all four struts on my 1995 Nissan Maxima. I decided to save money by not getting coil-over strut assemblies and reuse my old coils. Got the front struts out only to discover that my tie rod ends were shot. At least tie rod ends are inexpensive. Getting the spings off the old struts was way more of a pain than I thought it would be, and I already knew it was going to be a pain. Everything was rusted out. Putting them on the new struts wasn't too bad, at least. Got the front struts back in, and everything I had heard was the rear struts should be a breeze after those. Wrong. You have to take out the entire trunk liner, and on the passenger side you can barely turn the ratchet without hitting the automatic FM antenna assembly, and every bolt is just as rusty as the front. Once all the tires were back on, I backed it out of the garage only to remember that new struts and new tie rod ends means... I desperately needed an alignment. Of course its after hours on a Sunday...
Some of the most annoying car repairs I've had to go through were: 1. Bad brakes that could not be fixed. 2. Nagging oil leaks. 3. Head gasket issues: one time I had to change three head gaskets within two months, on the same vehicle. 4. Radiator problems.
I tried replacing the old booster and master cylinder with a new set once and another time with an OEM foreign used set. Neither proved to be any use because the brakes still wouldn't respond.
Probably when the fiber timing gear on my 84 Fiero wore out. I had to disco all the engine wiring, unbolt the subframe, lift the car off the engine/trans/subframe assembly, and drag it out from under the car to get enough space to pull the engine apart and replace the $10 part, then put it all back together again.
I have to admit, getting the driver side header off this Camaro is starting to get on my nerves. Damn steering box is in the way... pitman arm has been on that box for 50+ years, and she isn't wanting to come off. The next couple joints in the steering don't want to come off the tapers either. I'm now 75% of the way done putting it all back together with the old header, and it's going up to my buddy's shop where he has a 4 post and a better assortment of torches and hammers !
Not car, but motorbike (V-twin). After replacing the main cylinder gaskets I had mounted the motor back where it belongs. When I figured that I hadn't aligned the piston rings correctly... and had to do the same job one more time :D All this in my improvised workshop.
Aligned the rings? You didn't tear it back down just to clock them some particular way, did you? The first time an engine is run, those would no longer be clocked the same.
No, the lower cylinder gaskets left the cylinders in open air. For some reason I took off the "oil rings" too. Hayne's book told me later that the gaps need to 'jump' towards each other. I overread that initially It was my first time to open the engine. On the tropical Island where I was at that time there was no workshop that ever saw a bike bigger than 150ccm
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I had a Chevy Nova and had to have the automatic transmission rebuilt 3 times in the 6 years I owned it. After that I bought vehicles with standard transmissions. They really do not make them anymore. I had a Chevy tahoe and as soon as the transmission began to slip, I got rid of it
@DCooper I don't know what it was with that transmission but it was a real POS. The car only had a little over 100K on it. Then it would die every 18 months. I should have dumped it after the first time it started to slip but I really liked the car.
@Fuentes Back in the 80s i was true but I had good luck in the 1990s and 2000s. I had two Tahoes and each had way over 200K on them. I traded one because the transmission started slipping at about 230K and the last one I was just ready for a change.
@Fuentes I actually switched to Fords. My wife bought an Escape and it is just the perfect car for her. It seems very solid and drives like a much bigger car so I bought an F-150. It is like a living room on wheels. I figured that you see so many of them on the road they must be doing something right.
I'm surprised that Autozone didn't do a test after you installed the battery or they would have found the bad alternator. If you installed the belt you probably should have inspected the belt before putting it back on. Sorry, you had such problems.
I was driving in a flooded street. I mean like water was touching my hood. When cars came from the opposite lane, waves would go over the roof. Interestingly, the engine didn't flood before I could get out of that mess. Half-clutched outta there!
The electrical parts went haywire like 5 mins after that though. A whole lot of electrical boards and wirings needed replacing. The battery died a few days later.
I don't have a car but my mom has one and once we were driving and BOM our behind right tire broke down and we didn't had one so we had to wait like 3 hours to get our tire and replace it with a new one because the roadside assistance didn't help us it took them just the time we put on the tire in fact we were 50km away from the city :) that is like 50min driving only
That's easy to deal with. My car transmission is dead and it has ac freon leak it's nightmare. My other car have jump teeth on timing chain I had to rebuild my engine. With today's knowledge I would only get 4 cylinder car much easier to work on and cost less
Head gaskets, injectors and transmission were all on their way out on my old Powerstroke. Sold the truck, 15k in repairs for a 10k truck wasn’t worth it at the time
I’ve had two buttons break on automatic shifters on two different cars within 4 months. The cars won’t shift without the button, and if they’re not in stock at the local parts store you have to wait for Amazon.
Replacing 3 jeep grand Cherokee transmissions in the same vehicle all in one month. Don't ask how or why it's a very long story but my pinky finger will never be straight again. 😂
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