Oops,wrong diagnosis....

[Motu]

This is just between you and me ok? Mums the word....I don't want this to get out to the public.

A woman appeared on my forecourt last week saying her car had a horrible smell inside,and when she turned the demister on,the windscreen misted up! Pretty easy to diagnose a leaking heater core,but no time to fix it,so we bypassed the heater.She had really,really cooked her '97 Charade,and we fitted a funnel to the radiator and put some water in and ran it up.No geyser,but there were a lot of air bubbles coming up,but I couldn't really say if the headgasket was blown or not.So I told her to keep an eye on it and to be careful until she could arrange the time to get the heater core replaced.

She rung up the next day and said she had to put water in it,about 1.5 litres....that didn't sound too good so told her to let me know how it went tomorrow.The next day she rung and said she put 3 litres in,and when she started it,it made a horrible knocking noise and she turned it off.Oh dear,that's it then....so we made arrangments to get it towed in.So we had a look at it on friday - the oil is totaly creamed,so much water it has pushed from the breather into the intake manifold,so it was hydro locking - I hope there is no damage.We drain a sump full of water out.

We pulled the head on monday - I was expecting to see a badly blown headgasket,a cracked head or leaking frostplug.The headgasket looked pretty good....I expected to see some pretty serious signs of overheating.
So the head was down getting pressure tested today,they had it on for an hour,but no leaks....hmmm,that's no good.Then my engine man says - ''You don't think she was pouring water into the engine do you,that much water has to come from somewhere?...''

Uh oh.....

[SwanTiger]

Sounds like something markauckland would do oh that's right, he mixes petrol with oil.

Thanks for the laugh.

[BeakerRAT]

DOH! And she probably thought she was doing so well, telling the ladies down at the bingo hall all about it. lol

[Virago]

Bwahahahahaha!!!!!

How did she know when it was full?

[Ixion]

Not a problem. Put it all back together, have the apprentice spend an hour cleaning the engine and polishing the rocker cover (do him good, too) . Tell her you've sorted the engine, reset it all back to original new spec , show her the nice shiney engine , and charge her for everything. Turn the idling down a whisker, fit a lighter throttle return spring (cheapest tuneup there is), show her her old head gasket ("see how dirty it is"), show her the horrible black oil you took out of her engine, and contrast it with some nice new oil, and she'll recite your praises to the bowling club until your ears glow.

Those are the best jobs. Money for jam.

[scumdog]

Similar but from another angle, Uncle was in Army, one of the other members of his platoon FILLED a GMC truck engine up with oil - right to when he could see it almost flowing out the rocker cover.......though it was like the cooling system where you filled it to the top..

[Motu]

We had that a lot when Briggs & Stratton put an extended oil filler with dipstick on their motors.With owners being so used to filling their lawnmowers oil level with the fill plug,they did the same with the new extened filler...so right to the top!

I think in this case we both save face if I say nothing - I could put her on the mat and prove what a stupid bloody woman she is,but she doesn't need that sort of treatment from me.But we are also doing the heater core,which means pulling the complete dash out,this is going to be a very expensive job,like about 18 hrs labour - I'm going to feel guilty taking her money....

[Colapop]

Bloody mechanics! They give you the wrong advice just so they can push their bill up and charge you for stuff you don't need. What the bloody hell is a transmission, anyway??

p/t

[Flyingpony]

Bwahahahahaha!!!!!

Motu: Did you have a good laugh?

Now you have a choice. Charge her nothing for the engine or nothing for fixing the heater or some sort of combination.

[PuppetMaster]

''You don't think she was pouring water into the engine do you,that much water has to come from somewhere?...''

oh dear, oh dear oh dear oh dear....happens, I suppose. Like filling up with deisel by accident.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/stuff/0,2106,3736197a11,00.html


Do you think you should tell her, if you dont, she may do the same thing again.

[Paul in NZ]

Sounds similar to the problems I had with my recently divorced sister in law...

This was after I had provided a freebie HA Viva (Ultrabox) that used a bit of oil but ran well. "Make sure you top up the oil when you fill up with gas" not realising her idea of petrol was I need to make a $5 trip thus I will place $5 worth of gas in the car and top up the oil (without checking)... Sigh!

It still ran (barely) but it blew smoke like a CO2 fire extinguisher. Drained the oil, refilled with the correct amount and rean like a top (surprisingly)

She upgraded to a Sunbeam Rapier fastback Auto (Hilman Hunter) that was pretty well rooted. I had to synch the carbs every week just about and she came in one day telling me about this funny noise the car had been making last 2 days. You guessed it No Oil.... fark! Topped her up, ungummed the pressure bypass on the filter mount and it was a LOT happier and gave her a STERN lecture about checking the bloody oil with the dipstick like I showed her on the Viva and not just guessing....

A month later she ran and left a message saying the car was making a funny noise again and she was on her way over for me to have a listen (groan)...

Sure enough - no bloody oil AGAIN... ggggrrrrr.... Topped it up and got the poor old thing to sort of run again and I stormed inside to give her a right telling off about checking the bloody oil...

"But I DID check the oil - Its got lots - It never used ANY" Eh??? The lightbulb came on... "Show me HOW you check the oil" says I.... She marches over to the car and pulls out the dipstick for the automatic gearbox (clearly labelled) and tells me how awkward that this car has such a long one... D'oh.....

Never assume....

[Motu]

And because cars are so much more reliable these days they never bother to check anything.A lot of these SUVs have tyre pressures ranging from 10 psi to 40psi,and because they are big floatation tyres even at 10psi they don't look low on pressure.We pick this up a lot on sevicing,scary to think they are out there.

Well a hic up I never thought about with the Charade - gasket sets unavailable.No localy made ones,ex Japan from Toyota....shit! But I've just been down to Sedgies and found a gasket set from a different model that has the same head gasket listed,we are hoping the valve seals are the same too,we can manage the rest...steel shim inlet and ex gaskets,silicon for the rest.