Worst bodge you have seen
Discussion
not true bodges but some bad mechanical ideas.
had a neighbour who decided to service his own car (filters and fluids only) as it was so exspensive, then he said to me that he couldn't understand how the garage could make money as it had cost him a fortune for oil. when i looked he'd filled the engine up to the filler cap with oil. had to drain and refill it, smoked like a b
d for a while but settled down and he drove it for years till i moved. having learnt more about engines since i'm not sure how we managed not to trash it even after draining it as i guess the bores would have been full of oil.
ex wife had a spitfire that conked out with black smoke coming from the car, her friend put in some oil as it was empty and she cranked it over and drove it for years after that. this was before me, she never mentioned it till we sold it to a mate.
i've used the plate and exhaust paste on a land rover to get her through an mot as it was the monday after i came back from a week in wales off piste.
still use the same mot place, and as he commented on it, the next year with a new exhaust on i stuck a coke can round it with paste to glue it in place, and wrote just kidding beside it. i had forgotten about it, till last year i had a hand written note with the cert saying as an advisory, the felt tip pen writing was wearing out
one of my headlights was glued in place with araldite for a while. i have a new one now.
on one off road / greenlaning trip, one of the misty-bushes out with us sheared 2 bolts on his front prop, he got home using 2 cable ties to try and take some of the strain
had a neighbour who decided to service his own car (filters and fluids only) as it was so exspensive, then he said to me that he couldn't understand how the garage could make money as it had cost him a fortune for oil. when i looked he'd filled the engine up to the filler cap with oil. had to drain and refill it, smoked like a b
d for a while but settled down and he drove it for years till i moved. having learnt more about engines since i'm not sure how we managed not to trash it even after draining it as i guess the bores would have been full of oil.ex wife had a spitfire that conked out with black smoke coming from the car, her friend put in some oil as it was empty and she cranked it over and drove it for years after that. this was before me, she never mentioned it till we sold it to a mate.
i've used the plate and exhaust paste on a land rover to get her through an mot as it was the monday after i came back from a week in wales off piste.
still use the same mot place, and as he commented on it, the next year with a new exhaust on i stuck a coke can round it with paste to glue it in place, and wrote just kidding beside it. i had forgotten about it, till last year i had a hand written note with the cert saying as an advisory, the felt tip pen writing was wearing out
one of my headlights was glued in place with araldite for a while. i have a new one now.
on one off road / greenlaning trip, one of the misty-bushes out with us sheared 2 bolts on his front prop, he got home using 2 cable ties to try and take some of the strain
We had a cheap Saab 9-3 tid for a while as the family wagon, took it into work and had a look underneath and thought the exhaust looked a little small for the gap, realised the dpf had been removed and a random bit of pipe welded in. Was fine apart from knocking on the body going over bumps, I priced up a new one then px'd the car before the mot was up!
These are the two worst I've experienced. Second on the list is the old headlight washer pump on my B5 RS4. Rather than fitting a new one, a previous owner had covered the old pump in sealant and put it back. It was a giant black blob of sealant and it wasn't even obvious what the sealant encased. This explained why my RS4 failed its MOT as a result of the headlamp washers not working....
The worst was my old Pulsar GTIR. It turned out it was completely rotten, but the "gentlemen" who sold it to me had filled both sills with expanding foam and sealed over it. As the seal was applied so thick, it actually didn't look too bad in the end and it wasn't until I noticed the sills looked a bit odd when doing some work to the car and put a screwdriver through one of them that I realised what they'd done. I have pictures of the sills after I'd removed the foam and if I can find them I will post them later. The running gear was actually very solid, so it all got put into a near perfect shell and I ended up breaking even when I eventually sold the car (I'd paid little enough for the car that I knew I could comfortably break it for more).
The worst was my old Pulsar GTIR. It turned out it was completely rotten, but the "gentlemen" who sold it to me had filled both sills with expanding foam and sealed over it. As the seal was applied so thick, it actually didn't look too bad in the end and it wasn't until I noticed the sills looked a bit odd when doing some work to the car and put a screwdriver through one of them that I realised what they'd done. I have pictures of the sills after I'd removed the foam and if I can find them I will post them later. The running gear was actually very solid, so it all got put into a near perfect shell and I ended up breaking even when I eventually sold the car (I'd paid little enough for the car that I knew I could comfortably break it for more).
Cerberaherts said:
Nope. It isn't a lined spherical joint. It is a worn rose joint that has had waxed paper wedged in it, an attempt to stop it knocking...
That is not waxed paper, it's the remnants of a self lubricating liner. It looks a little like wax paper (though much thicker) because the backing is a glass fiber/phenolic resin composite, which gives the brown colour.hairyben said:
shake n bake said:
I filled the seem of an ldv van roof up with bathroom sealer to stop a leak. I ended up doing most of the roof seem with it!
No word of lie, the ldv dealer was doing this to brand new vans in the 90's...We had a policy of buying British products wherever possible (most of our company cars were Rover even in 2008 or 2009) but we couldn't go for those things. They were amazingly gutless with the non-turbo Peugeot engines. I think we went for Iveco Turbo Dailys which weren't brilliant either!
RobinBanks said:
hairyben said:
shake n bake said:
I filled the seem of an ldv van roof up with bathroom sealer to stop a leak. I ended up doing most of the roof seem with it!
No word of lie, the ldv dealer was doing this to brand new vans in the 90's...We had a policy of buying British products wherever possible (most of our company cars were Rover even in 2008 or 2009) but we couldn't go for those things. They were amazingly gutless with the non-turbo Peugeot engines. I think we went for Iveco Turbo Dailys which weren't brilliant either!
gutless noisy rotboxes.
Mr2Mike said:
That is not waxed paper, it's the remnants of a self lubricating liner. It looks a little like wax paper (though much thicker) because the backing is a glass fiber/phenolic resin composite, which gives the brown colour.
Of course. What would I know. I've only been a Ferrari Technician for twenty years. How many Ferrari spherical joints have you replaced that are fitted with this mythical resin liner? None. Because Ferrari use rose joints. Bonded Into the arm and covered with a boot either side. They wear and knock, it is a very very common fault on 360 and onward models. It was waxed paper. I changed the joint. Please do your research a little more carefully.RobinBanks said:
hairyben said:
shake n bake said:
I filled the seem of an ldv van roof up with bathroom sealer to stop a leak. I ended up doing most of the roof seem with it!
No word of lie, the ldv dealer was doing this to brand new vans in the 90's...We had a policy of buying British products wherever possible (most of our company cars were Rover even in 2008 or 2009) but we couldn't go for those things. They were amazingly gutless with the non-turbo Peugeot engines. I think we went for Iveco Turbo Dailys which weren't brilliant either!
Best bodge though was my mate's Mk1 Escort. The rear spring hanger fell off one day, so we wedged in a plastic gallon can between the axle and the body.
Edited by gazza285 on Wednesday 22 October 20:09
Cerberaherts said:
Mr2Mike said:
That is not waxed paper, it's the remnants of a self lubricating liner. It looks a little like wax paper (though much thicker) because the backing is a glass fiber/phenolic resin composite, which gives the brown colour.
Of course. What would I know. I've only been a Ferrari Technician for twenty years. How many Ferrari spherical joints have you replaced that are fitted with this mythical resin liner? None. Because Ferrari use rose joints. Bonded Into the arm and covered with a boot either side. They wear and knock, it is a very very common fault on 360 and onward models. It was waxed paper. I changed the joint. Please do your research a little more carefully.I must confess that I thought it looked like the resin/cloth inner liner of a rose joint too.
How did they get the paper in there?
The radio was also wired in such a way that it would only work when the lights were on. 
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Not quite a botch just Italian electrics, but my on my brothers very old fiat, to switch off the headlights you had to open then close the boot. no idea why and he couldn't find the issue before getting rid of it.
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Not quite a botch just Italian electrics, but my on my brothers very old fiat, to switch off the headlights you had to open then close the boot. no idea why and he couldn't find the issue before getting rid of it.
longshot said:
I'm not disagreeing with you as it would seem that you are the expert but I can see where Mike is coming from.
I must confess that I thought it looked like the resin/cloth inner liner of a rose joint too.
How did they get the paper in there?
They don't have any kind of liner. The boot had been pulled out and paper slid in the gap between the ball and socket. For the avoidance of doubt, below is a pic of a brand new one I took from our stores....I must confess that I thought it looked like the resin/cloth inner liner of a rose joint too.
How did they get the paper in there?
Cerberaherts said:
Of course. What would I know. I've only been a Ferrari Technician for twenty years. How many Ferrari spherical joints have you replaced that are fitted with this mythical resin liner? None. Because Ferrari use rose joints.
They are spherical bearings, though it's unlikely they are made by Rose as they haven't existed for many years (they are now NMB Minebea UK). However even Rose/Minbea make lined bearings, and it's unlikely a road going car would be fitted with unlined bearings as they wouldn't last long.How on earth would you insert thin waxed paper into the minuscule gap of a worn spherical bearing? To be fair it's an easy mistake for a technician to make, but you'll know for next time.
Mr2Mike said:
They are spherical bearings, though it's unlikely they are made by Rose as they haven't existed for many years (they are now NMB Minebea UK). However even Rose/Minbea make lined bearings, and it's unlikely a road going car would be fitted with unlined bearings as they wouldn't last long.
How on earth would you insert thin waxed paper into the minuscule gap of a worn spherical bearing? To be fair it's an easy mistake for a technician to make, but you'll know for next time.
See above pic. No lining. How many times.....there isn't a lining on Ferrari's ball joints. They wear to an extent that up to half a mm movement can occur. Industry standard is to fit units from a company called hill engineering as they are harder wearing than the crap original Ferrari ones. They also have no lining. For the hard of understanding know-it-alls, You can see them here;How on earth would you insert thin waxed paper into the minuscule gap of a worn spherical bearing? To be fair it's an easy mistake for a technician to make, but you'll know for next time.
http://www.hillengineering.co.uk/catalog/lbj360-p-...
Edited by Cerberaherts on Thursday 23 October 08:55
Have a look at some of these, absolutely horrendous.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2114836/Hi...
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2114836/Hi...
Cerberaherts said:
longshot said:
I'm not disagreeing with you as it would seem that you are the expert but I can see where Mike is coming from.
I must confess that I thought it looked like the resin/cloth inner liner of a rose joint too.
How did they get the paper in there?
They don't have any kind of liner. The boot had been pulled out and paper slid in the gap between the ball and socket. For the avoidance of doubt, below is a pic of a brand new one I took from our stores....I must confess that I thought it looked like the resin/cloth inner liner of a rose joint too.
How did they get the paper in there?
Is it that the part is very expensive or is it that they a PITA to change?
If they don't have a liner, how are they lubricated?
ETA. I am not a hard of understanding know-it-all, I'm just asking questions.
Edited by longshot on Thursday 23 October 10:32
TooMany2cvs said:
So, umm, how come you have genuine crap original ones in stock at work?
Because some customers only want original parts fitted, and because some vehicles that are still under manufacturers warranty can only be repaired using genuine Ferrari parts.They aren't lubricated at all. Water ingress causes corrosion on the original units and accelerates wear, which creates the excessive movement. It's an alluminium chassis'd car and every noise is transmitted to the cabin, they sound like the wheel is falling off when sufficient wear has occurred. It's a terrible component to be used on a car that is designed for road use, but hey, that's what they've used since 1999.
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