I had a mechanic tell his wife to put a blanket on an engine one cold night. That morning I got a call to fix the car because there was a radiator leak. I got it into the shop. She forgot the blanket. Started the engine, hooked the large blanket into the fan (this was in 1979 and a non-clutch fan), which balled up the blanket between the radiator and the water pump. Blew the radiator, wrecked the fan, melted some belts, ruined the water pump, and I had to beat some radiator support metal into submission.

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Thank You!
Fred
2009 ML350
2004 SL600
2004 SL500
1996 SL600
2002 SLK32
2005 CLK320 cabrio
2003 ML350
1997 C280 Sport

How about, putting in extra long plugs, and advancing the distributor so far because you thought detonation made a cool sound?

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You don't need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows - Robert A. Zimmerman

I went to the NAPA once to buy spark plugs for my 87 300E and the guy behind the counter asked me, "gas or diesel"? I told him to think about it, 5 seconds later he said, "oh"....... DUH!

Way back when,,,I took my first car to midus to replace the break pads and rotors. I purchased the pads and rotors myself. .......... They kept my car for a week, blew my master cylinder, twisted my brake lines when installing, ripped out my pad wear sensor wires, Ripped out my ABS sensor wires, Smashed my undercarrage because they didn't know where to lift the car. And!!! Had the nerve to charge me $300.. From that point on, I have done all my own work on my cars.

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Current Stable:
01 ML55 AMG
92 500E (a few mods)
87 300E (lots of mods)
00 Chevy 3500HD Diesel Box Truck
68 18' Donzi Marine
06 GT i-Drive7 1.0 Mountain Bike (with GPS!)

PREVIOUSLY OWNED:83 300SD, 87 420SEL, 88 420SEL, 90 420SEL, 86 560SEL, 86 190E 2.3-16V AMG, 94 E320

Two Emissions test stories.

1. Took my 1991 Mits Eclipse GSX (read all wheel drive .. very important) for it’s yearly emissions test. He proceeds to put it on the load test roller things and lowers the center bar like he is actually going to put it under load. I ask him if he wants to verify that the car is not all wheel drive before he does that. I get the feeling if the computer does not tell him to wipe his a$$, he would not do it.

2. Took my 190 for emissions test. He rolls it onto the load test roller things. This guy forgets to lower the center bar to lower the wheels onto the rollers. Proceeds to put it in gear and start revving the car. It’s inching forward against the front wheel chocks. I am up front franticly waving for him to stop. I had visions of my car and concrete wall having intimate relations that I was not all that please with.

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Sent from an agnostic abacus

2014 C250 21,XXX my new DD ** 2013 GLK 350 18,000 Wife's new DD**

- With out god, life is everything.
- God is an ever receding pocket of scientific ignorance that's getting smaller and smaller as time moves on..." Neil DeGrasse Tyson
- You can pray for me, I'll think for you.
- When you understand why you dismiss all the other possible gods, you will understand why I dismiss yours.

In the late 60's I lived on a college campus in Upstate NY. The college had a station wagon used to run errands. Someone took it downtown, filled it up with gas and the rusty straps holding the tank broke and the tank dropped to the ground. When the mechanic was told of this, he grabbed some bailing twine, went dowtown, tied up the tank and drove it back into the shop which was in the basement of an apartment building. As he drove it in, the slight lurch coming up the ramp spilled about a cup of gas on the garage floor. His helper pulled up the car they had driven downtown to pick up the station wagon right behind the wagon, outside the shop.
About this time, the gas hot water heater in the adjacent boiler room whose door was inadvertently left open, turned on. The fumes from the spilled gas ignited in a flash. This by itself may not have been so bad, apart from scaring the bejesus out of the mechanics. However, it also ignited the liquid gas on the floor directly under the bailing twine. The flames licked up, burning the twine, which let go, dropping the full gas tank onto the garage floor spilling its contents into a raging inferno. The mechanics immediately tried to push the car outside, but the car parked behind it thwarted their attempt. They finally made a flying dash out the door as the whole building went up in flames.
Lots of lessons to be learned there.

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1977 300d 70k--sold 08
1985 300TD 185k+
1984 307d 126k--sold 8/03
1985 409d 65k--sold 06
1984 300SD 315k--daughter's car
1979 300SD 122k--sold 2/11
1999 Fuso FG Expedition Camper
1993 GMC Sierra 6.5 TD 4x4
1982 Bluebird Wanderlodge CAT 3208--Sold 2/13

Not a car story but a good one non the less.

My friend had his boat repowered with a new Mercruiser 5.0MPI about three years ago. So these past three years he was having the Merc dealer winterize it. This year he decided to do it himself and I helped him. If I find the previous idiot that worked on that thing I will smack him over the head with his _)(&*+(&_(&()&*+ filter wrench. I have never seen a fuel and oil filter on so tight, the guy must have torqued the living crap out of them with a wrench! If your going to wrench on engines learn how to tighten filters!

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2016 Corvette Stingray 2LT
1969 280SE
2023 Ram 1500
2007 Tiara 3200

when i was a kid, we were going to my aunt's house for thanksgiving dinner. the whole family was in the car. mom, dad, my three older sisters and me. i was at that time the babe. i was sitting on the armrest in the back of my dad's 53 studie lowey coupe hardtop.

did i mention that studies were pretty rust prone?

so dad hit a bump and plump! the gas tank strap broke and the tank dropped to the pavement. somehow dad knew what it was that happened. he glided to a stop and the tank was held by just the metal fuel line... but didn't break loose.

so dad got out and using a small screw jack jacked the tank up and fastened it into place with a set of tire snow chains. we went on to my aunt's house and then drove home with the temporary fix.

dad always came prepared.

did i mention that studies were rust prone?

tom w

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[SIGPIC] Diesel loving autocrossing grandpa Architect. 08 Dodge 3/4 ton with Cummins & six speed; I have had about 35 benzes. I have a 39 Studebaker Coupe Express pickup in which I have had installed a 617 turbo and a five speed manual.[SIGPIC]

..I also have a 427 Cobra replica with an aluminum chassis.

Getting new tires on my '88 Mustang GT. Car came with security lug nuts and some insane engineer at Ford decided it was best to attach the lug key to the lug wrench with a 12" length of cable. There was a groove in the key where the cable looped through allowing it to rotate for tightening. Cable was REAL snug around the key.

Idiot takes the locking lug, puts it on the stud and turns it by hand once or twice to make sure it's not cross threaded. Then attaches an impact gun to the key. I stopped him before he did the unthinkable....

A friend with the same type of car experienced the same situation - he also prevented disaster by stopping the worker. When he complained to the manager about the almost-disaster the response was "That type of stupidity tends to be self-solving"

Car was up on a lift. The mechanic lit a cigarette and threw the match into a pan that was catching gas from the draining gas tank. Everyone barely had time to get out before the whole service station burned down.

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1985 380SE Blue/Blue - 230,000 miles
2012 Subaru Forester 5-speed
2005 Toyota Sienna
2004 Chrysler Sebring convertible
1999 Toyota Tacoma

Had mine taken in for dealer sevicing last year.

After a couple of weeks, I popped the hood for some reason and there on the ledge behind the motor was a shop rag and a 3/8" socket extension just laying there!

Shop didn't put the oil filler cap back on after changing the oil in my '94 Honda. Noticed it runningout from underneath the car. Made them detail the whole thing because the engine and hood were covered with oil, plus change the oil again.

The same hoople who showed me the water trick used to pour a mixture of kerosene,Comet cleanser and rottenstone down the carb of a running engine to "reseat" the rings,called it his "liqui-hone"procedure,said old-time truckdrivers swore by it.

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I would have been like "Sweet free tools"..If the rag didnt make love to the fan and the extension didnt jam in the pulleys

hoople.....
...now there's something I haven't heard since high school in NYC.
(40 years ago!)
Funny.

Goodyear has issues..... I just bought a set of four and they had to balance the tires six times in two months. The wheel weights kept falling off, and they just gave me dumb looks when I asked them to use mag wheel weights. The reply was that they used a universal weight....

Total bs, and my first and last set of tires from Goodyear.