PeachParts Mercedes-Benz Forum - View Single Post - Temporary Fixes and Jerry-Rigged Repairs. Whats your best/worst?

JamesDean · #16 01-08-2010, 02:48 AM

i like the ingenuity with the fan.

I have another one sort-of...

I was working on my dad's one 300SD (the work car) trying to diagnose a charging system issue (theres a thread in the diesel discussion forum) and I was going out to check some voltages and get something to do drink. I walked out of my house into the garage, checked the voltage grabbed my beverage and then found out that the door had locked.

I had no keys, no phone or anything else to get back in...my parents's bedroom is right above the garage and I usually get yelled at pretty good for making noise in the garage at night..so I figure some horn action from the van would wake them up and let me in.. that didn't work.

Next I found some oranges/grapefruit. I figured the classic "throw stuff at the window" trick would work. I re-examined this and decided I would aim for the siding rather than the glass. I don't want to break the glass. That failed and as an added bonus there is now around a pound of fruit on the roof.

My next plan was ingenious, but flawed. I knew I could startup the SD and potentially drive it to my grandma's house (she sleeps at odd hours and would be awake) and then phone home to get the door open. I got the engine running and was all set...however I couldn't bypass the steering lockout and driving in a straight line was not going to work.

Finally I was able to use a combination of long horn honking and beating the ceiling with a 4' lead pipe (which consequently cut the garage door wires--which I had to fix) that finally woke someone upstairs.

30 minutes later...

That really doesn't qualify as jerry-rigged but it was interesting and worth sharing lol

Hopefully some on gets a laugh out of it.