Dumbest thing I did attempting to repair my car.
 

I ended up getting the bearing extracting tool stuck on my Subaru wheel hub. It's supposed to sit on the hub flange, now I have to cut it off.

Worst weekend ever and now I have to take the bus.

Yikes! Sorry to hear!

stuff happens. sorry to hear it, since time is money don't be afraid to tow it to a shop so they can man handle the car into submission.

It's gotten worse, the wheel bearing assembly from autozone DOESN'T FIT, even though it's the right part number.

It's getting forcibly towed tomorrow because inoperable vehicles are not allowed at apartments, I don't get paid till Thursday. I'm flat broke, unbelievable. Wasted 3 days of my life on that car.

GAH .

It happens although few ever admit it .

My heart goes out to you. I've lived in many different apartment complexes and none of them are DIY/mechanic friendly. IMHO, they should be more understanding when you have a mechanical issue with your car.

You might talk to them and give a specific date it will be gone and see if they will cooperate.

I think my aunt saved me, she had a family member who knows a mechanic towed the car before they did, and all i owe for the tow is $50 for the tow.

I think he is a shade tree, I'll just let him fix the damn thing.

At least that's what I hope happened.

She was too late, costed $307 to release it, and $150 to tow it back.

Now I have to put everything back together in the cold rain. Fun times.

Sorry to hear about that. Again, the apartment complex should be more understanding when a tenant has a mechanical problems with their car.

Rentals & Vehicle Repair
 

Showing that you've never been a landlord .

The messes created by the average DIY'er have to be experienced to be believed .

Oil, coolant and fuel spills that destroy laws, flowers and trees along with any asphalt paving....

Massive divots from jack stands placed without proper support that remain years later .

Greasy hand prints all over the walls, elevators, railings and so on .

I really think you live in a bubble sometimes .

NEWS FLASH: if a tenant can't get to work they can't make any $$$$ to pay the rent!!!!

IMHO, it is best to save up and buy a single family house with a garage. Why pay rent to a care nothing do nothing land lord when you can put $$$$ into your own place? If you get a little grease or oil on your own garage floor you don't have worry about the landlord screaming at you to clean it up!

Father of Giants. Sorry to hear of your troubles. Best of luck with it all.

I am also sorry that there are some on this forum who wish to kick you while you’re down. I’m sure you are learning from the whole experience so just hang tough and consider the source.

The only people kicking him financially is the apartment management. They don't care about their tenant's car troubles, thus the high dollar tow.

All cars require brake jobs, steering, suspension, tune-ups, etc. According to the apartment people, you best take your car to the repair shop and fork over $80+++/hour in labor costs.

Changing my motor mounts on my w126 om617.951 I pounded for hours with 3 foot long pipe,and log splitter as a hammer.Only to find out motor mount had a allen screw only reachable from underneath car. Bad arse part,as it never moved or tore up.

Of course they dont care. They dont care where or how you repair your car, they just dont want it done in their parking lot for obvious reasons. Repair at your own risk, these policies are clearly spelled out in the lease agreement

Hopefully the OP got it back together, but having it towed right back to the apartment complex lot was pretty unwise. Now the manager will be gunning for the OP

Which is why, IMHO, apartment living is a bad deal for a car owner. They certainly are not pro-car minded. In addition, both condominium HOAs and some single family home HOAs go stark freakin' crazy over car repairs.

It doesn't appear the OP has any other options but to tow it back to the apartment complex. They literally have him over a barrel and they know it.

It is as though they don't recognize that a car is a mechanical device and mechanical devices require service and repair from time to time. Or, they hold stock in Midas, Meineke, etc. and wish you to fork over $80/hour for mechanical labor costs so their stock prices don't take a dive.

One would think they would want people to have cars with functioning brakes, steering, etc.

For once you're right .

I missed the part where anyone dissed the O.P. ~ it's a ***** to rent and have to repair your own vehicles where you're renting .

I did this for decades and always made damn sure I cleaned up and left things nicer than when I moved in but no joy ~ the instant the land lord discovered I was working on my vehicle (even if just a small Motocycle) I was evicted, time and time again, why I worked my behind off to buy my crappy little Ghetto house, so I could live more or less un bothered .

Non Gear Heads will never grasp this simple thing .

I always rented duplex,trailers,or houses.Never had to face that. Not right if you clean up,a alley,or carport.Hate land lords,there all slum lords,if I ever rent again it will be from a corporation.

I lived in apartments for years and never had any sort of problem working on my cars while living there. The difference is that I was *PREPARED* for the job at hand and didn't leave my car all torn apart in the parking lot for days or weeks at a time.

Most places don't care if you work on your car so long as you aren't blocking access, making a mess, or leaving a derelict car sitting there for days or weeks. Other people live there and nobody wants to deal with your jalopy dumping oil on the ground or sitting up on jack stands. A little bit of common sense and common courtesy goes a LONG way in this day and age.

The OP is habitual about buying derelict cars, basically ruining them, letting them sit where he knows they'll get towed, then whining on this forum about how oppressed he is or how expensive his repair turned out to be because he tore something up without asking for help or advice first. "LOOK AT ME! LOOK AT ME!"

Renting from a corporation will have zero flex in stated policies for the apartment manager to follow. Likey thats what the OP is renting from.

JB3 well renting from older people I've run in to trouble when they die,and kids get there property,and they want to sell.You have to move,or old folks to old to perform maint. or cash poor to fix anything. With a corporation,they don't get old.

Right. The corporation never gets old, but the hovel you live in literally falls apart around your ears due to a total lack of maintenance and unanswered/bodged repair requests until they get sick of it and their investors vote to sell, then it goes to some slumlord until the building is condemned and torn down. Yep, that's an upgrade alright!


Nothing beats owning your own place if you can afford the taxes and upkeep, but if you have to rent find a good landlord and you'll have the next best thing. Renting is a 2-way street, if you respect the landlord and their policies, they'll respect you back. Corporations don't care, pay the rent on time or GTFO.

Well next time get yourself written into the will before killing off the elderly landlord

Been buying since 2000,had two other homes before this one.I hope next one is in Ecuador

Bad for a car owner? Is there anything GOOD about apartment living for anyone other than in the big, stacked up cities where it is the only option?

I totally agree. Shared wall living (loud music next door, parties in the parking lot which keep you awake until 4:00 AM, etc.), no garage, etc. About the only thing I ever liked about it was the swimming pool.

That said, an apartment dweller best be prepared to have their car worked on at a shop. No, wrenching in the parking lot allowed!

Apartments & Gear Heads.....
 

I always tried to rent a duplex or rear house, in general it worked out O.K. .

I've known many who lived happily in apartments, they were not Gear Heads and mostly had no crummy neighbors .

Those late night parties and endless trash throwing occurs in detached houses too .


Where I live if you call the cops @ 2AM about a noisy parry, the cops talk to the partiers first then go directly to your door so the bad people know exactly who to blame / hassle....

I'm not afraid to confront my neighbors , most are so this is a B.S. move by the police to prevent you from calling again .

I towed the car to a public street and wouldn't dare put IT BACK in the same spot to get it towed again.

Diseasel, I did come prepared, purchased a bearing puller and installer. I would have put the car back together but I had two problems.

#1 the old bearing fell apart, was destroyed upon removal, literally in pieces. Also the race was shattered somehow.

#2 The part autozone gave me didn't fit at all whatsoever, it didn't even fit in the hub and if it did there where no splines inside the hub to accept the axle shaft.

So I was stuck and could do absolutely nothing about it. I don't leave my cars on Jack stands over night. If I feel like I might not finish I pack everything up.

As of NOW, my brother just called me and had to do a hack job temporary repair. The right rear caliper was leaking and the car had NO BRAKES. Told my brother to pull into a autozone and buy some vice grips and pinch off that caliper. Now he has brakes. Parts come in Monday.

To date this Subaru has been the most dreadful car to repair.

I do all of my work in the public street now.

The apartment complex gave me 24 hours to fix my car.

My brother's E320 with a flat had a 10 DAY notice to fix his flat. The city/police move a lot slower than landlord's.

Curbside Auto Repair
 

Be careful when working in the street ! .

I've done a lot of that over the decades and I've sen many smashed parked cars , this always makes me worry .

A few years ago I was working on my brother's 300SD passenger door lift curbside, it was parked across my driveway, I was sitting on the driveway apron with my legs under the car when the nice lady across the street backed out hard into the driver's side door, I nearly peed my self, good thing it as an old S Klasse not a Toyota that would have pushed sideways over my legs :eek:.

Damn, that's scary as hell. I need a damn house with a garage.

This subaru is cursed, I changed the thermostat and air wouldn't get out of the system. I fought with it for 5 hours, then just ran it without a thermostat.

Good god this car is cursed.

Bleeding Cooling Systems
 

The water jacket gets air locked on lots of vehicles, one way is to open the heater and go drive the damn thing and keep a weather eye on the temperature gauge if so equipped, or just drive it a bit then stop and add coolant as necessary .

In the warmer climes it's a simple thing to drill a 3/16" (tiny) hole in the flat non moving part of the thermostat, this allows the air to slowly work through but not the coolant .

Running any engine without a thermostat is bad, VERY BAD , avoid this at all costs .

I like that the W123 Mercedes has the cute little electric auxiliary water pump for the heater, I made up a sub harness with battery clips on it, this ensures perfect cooling system bleeding always .

Subarus have some interesting quirks, once you learn them you'll either love them (my son) or hate them (others I know) .

Take it to a mechanic already, yeesh

If a person can reliably pay rent buy a house as soon as possible. Few ever regret it. Rents will always increase with time. Although in the area you live in this may already be out of reach. In that case look at the economics of buying a four or six unit building.


This is the era of almost unlimited cheaper money looking for places to enter the economy. Like most things in life this may not last.

Buying A Home
 

Interestingly, during that last period of supposedly easy home buying credit, I was only ever offered variable home loans and those do change the monthly payment, always upwards, never down wards....

I finally had to threatened legal action against my credit union before they'd give me a fixed loan, I never missed any payment on anything ever and had an 850 rating to my credit .

15%, Now I see "easy to qualify" 3% home loans advertised....

Sheesh .

I agree, even buying a condo is the smart move if one can possibly swing it but not going to be so good for the average Gear head .

for sure on the gear head part. Most two car garages have an eight foot ceiling which makes installing a two or four post car lift virtually impossible. Yes, there are some mid-rise lifts on the market, but as far as I'm concerned, why go half way?

If you are going to spend the money, might as well purchase a lift that allows you to walk around under your car or truck. A full rise two or four post lift requires a minimum of a 12 foot ceiling height.

My dream is a six to eight car fully heated and air conditioned detached garage with a fifteen foot ceiling height to allow for a full rise lift.

I lived in apartments from 1978 to 1989, during a period of record interest rates that locked me out of home-buying for a decade. Eventually, my earnings improved and interest dropped below 10% so I was able to buy. Though by then, prices had increased so much, I couldn't afford anything with a garage.
At least I have a flat lot and a generous driveway.

Many years after I bought, a co-worker was able to sell his parent's desirable-location North Arlington home for enough to buy a big house, with an attached 3-car garage, out in Haymarket Va.
That property had been built by a contractor, who added a huge paved parking area in back for heavy equipment, and a detached 6-bay brick two-story garage. I don't remember the ceiling height or whether there was heat or AC, but that garage's second story housed a walk-up, stand-up storage-area with about as much square-footage as my house!
It had a huge lot, landscaped with plants & trees, so view of the equipment parking area and detached garage was mostly shielded from neighbors and the street.

My parent's home sits up on a crawlspace, but has a ground-level two-car garage deliberately framed so the ceiling drops down at the entry from the kitchen, which limits the height. If it had that extra height, it wouldn't make a 15-foot ceiling, but it would still add significant storage space.

OTOH, a lady I know lives in a townhouse with a two-car garage that actually has a 15-foot ceiling. But even if she was a gear-head, I'm sure her HOA would have something nasty to say about installing a twin-post lift!

Happy Motoring, Mark

Working Space
 

Some decades back I spent a year working in a tiny indie VW shop that was set up in an old dry cleaners shop, it had two single post hoists, we had to be *VERY* careful not to lift the cars too high else they'd hit the ceiling .

The boss had badly dented a roof before I worked there......