I Suck Another Broken Part By Bob
 

Well It just wouldn't be saturday unless I broke a couple of hundred dollars worth of parts.

Last week I got off easy by braking my booster hose and washer motor. THis week I achieved braking the F#*()@G Vacuum pump while trying to remove the frozen booster line.

Times like this really challange my patience.

This new car of mine is doomed.

ALso my trans is leaking from the pan gasket. I just had the thing resealed so I cant wait to see what that is going to be.

I will take a look at it and see if at least I broke one of the bad pumps.

I am debating seeking a counselor for my automotive problems.

I have the 87 since august. I might drive it by next august.

I have been told in the past that I was no master mechanic. I am starting to believe that.

I am so agravated that I did not do my usual 15 minute barage of f bombs for all of chicagoland to enjoy. Usually the neighbors have to bring their children and pets inside.

I am going to go to a christmas party and make a fool out of myself.



OH well. I am going to the store to buy four pounds of shrimp.... That might help.



I will be ok.....


At least that suspicous rash went away.



Please learn from my errors




Merry Christmas


bob c

Bummer Bob!
 

Usually my torment is the project that is supposed to take one hour but ends up being 5 because a bolt shears off or you end up having to take most of the parts off the car to get to the one that you were trying to replace, because you stripped the head of one of the 12 bolts, due to the fact that you tried to get at it from the wrong angle which you knew you were doing, but tried anyway and then about then is when the wife asks if you're ready to go shopping (like you said you would) and knowing this was coming you thought "I'll get up at 5:30 on Saturday and get an early start on the project" that only took you 5 hours cuz it was supposed to be an hour and you were adjusting "just in case".

Sad thing really is that the project above was optional and everything was really working just fine but you thought "maybe I can make it just a little better if I do this..."

A couple of six packs and 10 hours sleep, fish all day, then you might be ready to try it again...:)

My repair projects are not usually accepted by the fates unless some amount of blood is involved. Usually not that much, but there HAS to be a blood sacrifice on some level.

:)

Ken300D

Agreed. That's you're problem Bob, blood sacrifice.

Go out to your car right now and slam the hood down onto your hand, make sure you shake your now profusely bleeding extension over the engine compartment. Everything will go fine after that.

Re: I Suck Another Broken Part By Bob
 

Bob, that has to be one of the funniest posts I have ever read.

I was laughing out loud so hard, that my wife came upstairs into my office to see what was so funny.

She laughed, looked at me, and said, "...uhuh, sounds just like you!".

And I thought I was the only one those kind of disasters happen to.

At least I'm not alone.

At least you have a sense of humor.

Bob:

If we were master mechanics we wouldn't be co-dependant on this forum.

Blood sacrifice? Yep on two levels.

I'm with you on the frustration level. Sometimes it just comes in waves.

Don

Bob

I have an "old style" OM603 vacuum pump I removed from my 300D 2.5 turbo. It is NOT the upgraded pump but it was working fine with no abnormal noises when I removed it at 110K miles. Its just gather dust on old parts shelf. If it would help you out of a tight spot I'll send it to you for the cost of postage.

Tim

We all do stupid things. So far I've been lucky. The only thing I broke trying to fix anything on this car is the hood release lever (under the dash) I was trying to remove the cover above the foot pedals, the dang thing got snagged... and 'snap' the cheap piece of white metal that holds the lever on the bracket broke. So I had to drill it out, machine it down a bit... pass a bolt -- and set it up with a nut and lockwasher. Now it looks and works good as new. If I was anal I would look for a black bolt, nut and washer... but then again, my sunroof drains are messed up, so I think I won't be worrying about the color of a bolt!!!

:) Have a happy day!

The Bob.

Sounds like you are having one of those days that plagues us all now and then. As of late this potential for unusual spiralling evil with a wrench in my hand has resulted in a broken shock on the son's 16 valve 190E, as well as bending a fastener that holds the camshaft to the drive sprocket while adjusting the valves. Both events were major crisis but the bent bolt actually fell into the engine, which resulted in a noise heard for several thousand yards in all directions. Luckily the population density is kind of low so I probably only disturbed a bunch of wildlife. I got the screw back out with a magnet, and found an exact replacement at the local hardware store. So, sometimes really bad luck leads to some good luck and things kind of even out. Don't ask my son about that though.

He is presently suffering from having been rear ended in the 190E 2.3-16, and having the insurance company decide they want to total the car. He was on Interstate 91 going South on November 14, in a big traffic jam due to a flipped over truck. There is an HOV lane that was apparently unaffected so the cars there were travelling at normal speeds. When my son approached the accident he was at a standstill in the left normal traffic lane, when some guy alone in the HOV lane concluded it was not wise to drive past a couple dozen cop cars without a passenger. So the guy crosses a median (marked no-man's land on the pavement about two lane widths with drainage features and typically a load of collected debris, like car parts and sand) to rejoin the legal-for-him lanes, and for some reason never slows down and runs into the back of the 190E. My son saw him coming but could only brace himself and jam his brakes on hoping to avoid being pushed into the stopped car in front of him.

He is in therapy for whiplash and lower back issues, but the car sacrificed itself for him and absorbed a lot of energy. The book value of the car is minimal, but he has spent about $7,000 or $8,000 dollars of his part time jobs in highschool and college restoring it (used to be my car from the day it was ordered, it is a Euro, and I drove it 215,000 miles in 16 years).

So he is not a happy guy right now. Sore neck, which the doctor says will be an issue for the rest of his life, sore back (likely to be ok in a month or two) and no car, which he was pretty passionate about. Lots of days where fixing something resulted in removal of the entire interior to get at something he broke (like the manual gearbox shifting linkages - big adventure, lots of new tools to learn to use, like easy-outs, taps, etc.), but he was always motivated to get the job done. He has yet to cost himself much more than a bunch of small parts and lots of his time and energy to grow new skin on his hands.

Well, that was a long winded welcome to the club of do it yourselfers. These days I can almost always trace the cause for a disaster to a deficit in experience or tooling or both. Good luck, Jim

Chill out! Things happen.

I have made enough mistakes over the years to fill volumes. About a year or so ago, I completely destroyed the engine in my daughters 300D. This was an engine that I had personally put lots of blood, sweat and tears into rebuilding. The rebuild came out great and then I destroyed it and can blame no one but myself.

You have to look at anything like this in its entirity. Over my lifetime I have saved tens of thousands of dollars by maintaining, rebuilding and repairing my own cars. Over the long haul I am very much to the good. Most likely you are too.

Merry Christmas,

I have a pretty good hangover
 

Yup,

I probably embarassed myself last night. I was the last one to leave the party. (my wife was the DD)

Thanks for finding the humor in my post. It was written to entertain all of you.

On a serious note, these problems with our cars are minor problems. Most of us could drive simplier means of transportation but where is the challange in that. So we enjoy the process of fixing and overfixing our cars. It is more a hobby for me than anything else. It is always good to remember that cars are not people and we should all be grateful if we have our health and the health of our loved ones.

I should be used to braking 300 dollars worth of parts in under a half hour. I can actually see it as an accomplishment.

I want to go out side and try some more buy I am still a little dizzy. I dont usually do jaeger Shots

Tim: Thanks I may take you up on that offer. I just have to decide if I should change it out the the new pump.

Jim: I am sorry to hear of your son.

As we all get older and experience some of the bad times in life we grow to understand "No news is good news"

My braking my car does not qualify as bad news.


Thanks everyone.

I am glad I made you laugh



Merry Christmas

bob c

Sympathies
 

My sympathies bob I just did the head on my SDL you would think just tear it down and put the new one on. OOHH NNOO start with get guide pins stuck, to break little inline vacuum filter, to not be able to mate turbo back up right, to not be able to get @#$%$#@ guide pins back in, to bent said @#$$%#@$% guide pin when it stuck half way so get new one, finally get it all together and bury it in the mud in the yard. Hope not everything goes this way but if it does comiserate.
BTW Thanks to all for the info in said head change.

Bob

Drop me a private note if you need the pump. Larry pretty much summed up my feelings about breaking things. We are WAY ahead of the game $$$ wise even counting the parts we sometimes break. BTW as you gain experience you will find yourself making fewer and fewer errors. The road to master mechanic status is paved with mistakes and broken parts...

I have a friend that has an $900 car payment EVERY month - This is how I justify my "investments" in tools and manuals. It may not be totally valid but it makes me feel better about my habit.

Tim

greetings, think of these situations in the positive, all these mechanical quirks bring us in contact with so many wonderful folks all year long not to mention that hard won pride and satisfaction once the project is done.... and the money we spend helps the economy as well as reinforcing that sense of quality and job well done....that percieved societal value of an object when you drop quite a bit of bucks on it, kind of thing. the way I figure.... all my hours and repair costs are the fraction of the car payments i'd be making. If i were really smart I'd be investing the difference... happy holidays...cheers, mark

Dear Bob:

Don't feel too bad. It could be worse.

There is a woman in my office who used to drive an Audi A6 because it is a fashionable and sporty and trendy. Nice cherry red car. She could not afford a new one so she got one used a year or so back. Luckily, it came with a warranty where if anything would break, they would fix it.

As the story goes, this car would have one or two 'big' things happen every month. This would fail, that would fail, this would fall off, that would leak, etc. She couldn't really claim it was a lemon because they were all different things everytime.

She bought it for $30k and the car's warranty would run out in Nov (2003) so she decided to get rid of it somehow before then since there was no sign the repairs will end. She went back to the dealer who sold her the car initially. They would only give her $8k. Some resale huh? She protested that identical used cars for sale in the dealers lot were still going for mid- $20's. I think they were going to give her more if she got another Audi. She said no and left.

She ended up with a Honda CRV. The honda dealer rolled over her giant negative equity into the CRV loan. Monthly= $850 for a CRV! She is basically still paying for the AUDI.

I can do a lot with $850 a month and so can you. Count your blessings and move on!

So far, this forum has saved me a few hundred clams already. Thanks guys. I look forward to the area GTG whenever that is.

Jen

PS. I am sure you guys know of many similar stories like this. It is entertaining to see people make really really bad financial commitments in the name of looking "good and trendy". I figure that I will just continue to plug money into my conservative mutual fund every month and someday not have to work so much in the future.