Justrolledintotheshop
Today's episode of step away from your vehicle
Discussion
I understand most people aren't mechanically inclined and don't expect everyone to know a lot, but I feel like there should be a bare minimum of "if I'm pouring fluid into something, I should double-check its in the right place", especially when its written on the cap.
You mean like how people double check red is positive before connecting jumper cables?
It makes sense that if the spicy pixies (short, leather jackets, dyed pink hair) come out of the red one, you need to pump them into the black on on the dead battery so the long queue of spicy pixies inside the battery is filled up again.
Current flows from negative to positive.
Pixies don't like currents, they're too mainstream
I'm seeing a potential difference between these two comments.
Yup, I say it out loud every time even if I've already said it thousands of times. If someone NEW hears me say it they usually say "yeah I know", but people who KNOW usually repeat it back to me.
I accidentally reversed the polarity on my subwoofer amp once. I've wired up countless amps, even that one in particular more than once. I didn't notice until I finished the install and it wouldn't power on. I'm still scratching my head to this day about how I fucked that one up. The wires were color coded too. Luckily the amp had polarity protection and was fine but I still feel stupid about it.
Eh, people make mistakes. And it does seem like he noticed and requested help. You can't really criticize someone for making a mistake and then doing the right thing to correct it.
Let he who hath not brain farted cast the first stone
The ride to the shop must've been wild.
Agree. A bit off topic, but one time I was really sick and craved pickles and iced tea. I got a cup of ice, then proceeded to pour my iced tea into the brand new pickle jar. Ate them anyway and couldn’t taste any tea lol
I'm surprised a company doesn't make stickers that state in plain english what goes where.
For customers like this, just give them a bunch of NO! and one Washer Fluid
I could get behind this idea.
Don't tell me what to do, it's my car! /S Moments later, your cars are shit, it's not my fault that your labels are "unreadable", and you are going to fix it for free!!!
"I poured Gatorade into multiple reservoirs under the hood because they all had stickers on them saying iON... now could you sell me some 710 for the last one?"
Some cars do this with covers lol
Bold of you to assume they going to read that. I know way too many people who boast about not reading instructions.
Maybe a child lock would deter them, but then they would show up with a shredded reservoir cap...
You never used DOT 4 washer fluid before? Smh my head
My ex-wife's father - while driving 300 miles from his city to ours - decided (no idea why) he needed to add transmission fluid to his 5 year old car (i.e. not some beater he'd been maintaining). He added it to the brake reservoir. By the time he got to us, his brakes barely worked. He was not a smart man in general. But, holy shit!
Know enough to know what you don’t know…
You overestimate most people’s common sense and underestimate their confidence
Had someone blow up a wrangler 4xe. Lost coolant, and just kept driving it. It even gives a warning right on the display if it runs hot with a red background 🤷♂️
Ugghhhhh, you're right, but I still feel attacked....I was rushing right before a trip and put wiper fluid in the coolant reservoir by mistake. I knew what I did as soon as I closed the lid so I was able to shop vac it all out before running it and topped everything off correctly. Shit happens when you don't think about what you're doing
I did this once with my washer fluid and coolent. Luckily, I just had to drain the washer well.
You guys have ads on your work orders?
Aimed at people that cant afford the repairs, not really designed for maintenance work. More aimed at some of the more costly repairs, I guess to make sure they know its an option
Reminds me of the care card for vet bills. Make sense when people need their cars to keep going to work and a breakdown could easily cause things to start spiraling out of control.
I'd rather a customer spread their new tires out over a few pay cycles vs "I can't afford 4 new tires. I'll come back the next pay day" as they drive off with their cords showing never to be seen again.
Honestly I could have used a financing option like this a few times! Instead of having to take out a credit card or figuring out other ways to get around while I try to save up enough. Went 4 years without AC cuz it was a 1000$ repair.
I’ve used sunbit to pay for the repairs on my Nissan frontier like 6 years ago. Without it I’d have been without a running truck.
Dealers want to take as much money as possible. From everyone, not just customers.
I'm gotta say i respect the client for owning up to his mistake and telling you what he did.
I've had multiple clients say "i dunno, something's wrong. No, i didn't do anything to it" to only then find diesel in the petroltank, or water in the engine oil, vacuumlines disconnected, or even an airfilter still wrapped in plastic.
That's crazy. I expect that from a 5yo, but when an adult looks you in the eye and says "it wasn't me" even when caught red-handed, it is beyond stupid. It's almost like they think that if they just say the words, then they have the power to undo responsibility.
The longer it takes me to figure out, the more it's going to cost you. You honesty works in your favor, even if it makes you look dumb.
And I promise you,no matter how dumb you think your mistake is, some mechanic working in that shop will always have a story of someone dumber. Maybe.
Did you reverse flush by pushing new fluid through the calipers and into the reservoir? I would hate to pull that wiper fluid through the system to get it out
I’d suck all the contaminated fluid out of the reservoir first either way
Yeah I agree. First step either way is remove as much from the reservoir as possible
Shit, I do that anyway.
Emptied out the reservoir completely, filled it back up then ran 64oz of brake fluid through the system. Didn't wanna risk any extra issues with a reverse flush. Some of our actuators are finicky and cant even be vacuum bled
Correct me if I’m wrong but I don’t like the idea of sending dirty fluid back through seals especially with sensitive stuff like ABS
I totally agree and I'm not a huge fan of reverse bleeding but given the choice between dirty fluid or wiper fluid, I'd rather push the dirty fluid backwards.
sometimes customers rely on visual cues, it dont help if every cap is black. lol
Very little surprises me anymore
Not to defend an idiot but that’s a weird looking brake fluid reservoir. It’s clean as hell, it should have a yellow cap, and it looks completely devoid of brake fluid.
Most Asian vehicles have a black cap for brake fluid. But it also says clearly on top that it is brake fluid.
It has a brake symbol right on the cap. Its not that cryptic.
I've never seen that symbol before in my life, and I'm at least somewhat mechanically inclined.
Nothing about that symbol says ‘brakes’ to me but I’m not a mechanic. As a driver though that does not say brakes to me.
What about as a washer-fluid-pourer? Does it say "washer fluid goes here?"
Because to me, I think it kinda does.
Same
If you have driven a car manufacturered in the last 30 years, a couple of these symbols should come on during bulb check. In both red and yellow.
I'm with him. I've never seen that symbol for Brakes before in my life. My most modern car is a 2011 Scion xB though.
Cars I've driven that I've noticed all have a red BRAKE light.
Guess its my day to learn something.
Maybe its an america thing, but every car i have owned uses a red symbol like the one on the cap as a brake warning lamp. A yellow one with letters abs for abs fault. And a red symbol with P for parling brake.
You're not as mechanically inclined as you think, I guess.
I'm inclined to make mechanical mistakes, does that count?
Automating mistakes saves a lot of time!
Seriously, tho, symbols like that one are ISO standard. There's a couple hundred of them for cars and trucks: https://galleryz.online/iso-symbol-169403098143828/
They'll also appear in the owner's manual.
I've never seen a yellow brake fluid cap but I'm pretty sure I've seen a yellow washer fluid cap lol
Ok I think you’re right on the washer fluid ha
Worst version of ATE Super Blue.
RIP
Client states they put washer fluid in the brake fluid reservoir.
Recommended services:
- Check installation of driver's floor mat
Yeah, yeah: I know. It's just the auto-generated recommendation. But it's funny seeing them together, as if the recommended service was based on the customers problem. The idea is to just ignore the customer (until they get their wallet out) and to go with boilerplate stuff.
I knew someone who poured PSF into his master cylinder - he said it said Prestone on the bottle. Dude.
I don’t talk to the dude anymore, I told him he should ride the bus as a closing argument.
I did that.
Except it was the power steering fluid reservoir.
I was in a hurry and messed up on the side of the road. Realized it immediately. Ultimately it cost me two steering pumps and two weeks without a car.
Measure twice, cut once.
sunbit ads on work orders😭
'Engine Concern': haha yeah the engine saw it go down and now it's concerned!!
At least it wasn't washer fluid in the DEF tank again...
Better than motor oil or transmission fluid. A good flush with alcohol followed by a thorough flush with brake fluid and good to go.
Everyone makes mistakes. Being on hard times but still making an effort to take care of things whike you get to batter times is commendable. Hopefully the customer will be on better days and their car keeps them going tk where they need to be. Good customer.
I had a body shop that couldn't figure out why the clutch didn't work well and leaked. They had replaced the master, and I think the slave (internal throw out bearing style) Then they filled the clutch reservoir...with gear lube!!! Luckily it was a separate reservoir than the brakes.
I actually had to fight with the owner of the shop I worked for, the owner of the vehicle, and the body shop when I told them I wanted to replace the master, slave, and the line (it had rubber sections that were gooey and bloated from the gear lube) I finally just told them they either trust my experience and let me do it the right way, or I refuse to touch it. Plus they still owed me for diag...
Pick a reservoir… any reservoir!
My missus put washer fluid in the power steering reservoir and royally screwed things up.
Had a customer put power steering fluid before. Ruined every piece of rubber in the system. Had someone put def in their radiator too. That smell was the most horrible smell ever
Like 30 years ago I put power steering fluid in my brake reservoir. I made it a block before my brakes failed.
At least it wasn't oil.
Although it would be harder to clean it all out I feel like that would do less damage if it was driven in…
Oil in the brake lines means replacing every rubber component. Master cylinder, calipers, wheel cylinders if applicable
Washer fluid where I’m located contains methanol, so the same would be true. Pretty nasty either way
I had a customer with an 01 Porsche Boxster put washer fluid into their oil. They drove it into the shop... Drained it, did an extra oil change, filled it back up. Thing was still driving fine two years later.
The local Lexus dealer also offers Sunbit. You at Lexus of Concord?
Going to have to come up with an industry standard of color coded caps on vehicles and fluid bottles.
Put the red quart container of fluid where the red cap is. Put the yellow quart container where the yellow cap is. God I hope that never comes to fruition...
Gee if only that reservoir had a universally recognized symbol for brakes...
True, but people aren't taught anything about cars anymore, at least not mandatory basic maintenance.
It's literally push button and go. Damn it's frightening when it's simplified like that...
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Car stopped completely fine, no warning lights on. Guy lives like 4 blocks from the dealer. Though I don't know if he drove it straight to us or not
I've sold a couple of cars in the past before getting inro service. I always popped the hood and asked if there was any questions they wanted clarified before driving off. I would then say I'm just going to go over everything you need to check for as far as fluids go.
Almost all were super grateful to know on the new vehicles.
Mmm shrek piss
Reminds me of the time I had “C/S accidentally put gas in washer fluid reservoir, check and advise”
did you get the washer fluid all over the repair order? why is it BLUE lmao
Light and physics
Had a customer put fabric softener in her coolant. Why? The bottle matched the blue shade of her coolant
Had a customer come in because of a power steering issue once. Told us he kept topping it up but the problem didn’t go away.
Turns out, vehicle had an electric steering rack…..
Turns out he’s been putting power steering fluid in brake reservior for months….,
Not the best outcome…..
I had a customer who did that...on a 2024 jeep. And didnt realize until a week later. Of course, the actuators got set off and couldn't be flushed and it turned into a nightmare.
I genuinely want to know how this happens.
Is that coolant in the brake reservoir?
c/s put washer fluid in brake reservoir please fix
Those epdm brake seals are screaming.
And it's coolant
Sunbit is actually pretty legit. As long as you pay it off in the 30 or 90 days., past that its like any credit and hits hard. We have people that use it alot and seem to like it. Many people may not be able to swing 2000 unexpected, but can budget for 500 every 2 weeks.
I actually had a Lexus customer do this back in 2005. At least they admitted their "kid" topped off the fluids incorrectly.
Though master cylinders and reservoirs are easy enough to sell (you want to STOP the car, right?) jobs like this made your day as a service advisor. You could probably sell them cross-drilled brake lines, headrest rotations, and wiper-arm transmission lubrication services and they'd go for it at that point.
Dumb customer sure but spreading maintenance payments over months seems like a sure fire way to end up nonstop payments when the service intervals end up closer to each other.
Yea that is stupid, the service writers have to put that line on every repair order, almost Noone uses that service
Well not at Lexus. But if the dealer-group also has a Nissan store or basically any Stellantis brand...
Bold of you to assume anyone with a nissan performs any maintenance or repairs.
They make replacement parts for Nissans? Like all of them or just the trucks?
I don't know if I've ever seen a Nissan car repaired with actual parts.
repair parts for a Nissan are just another Nissan
Nissan of Thesus
Duct tape on layaway?
Yeah, and fluids, too. You can buy Altima energy, but only in big containers.
I force my wife to do so, being that the car is (unfortunately) in my name.
Those Nissan drivers would be very upset if they could read.
Can you please ask them to keep months as one word and not weirdly broken up with the last two letters being on a second line?
mont
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I don’t get it - why would you use Washer Flud with your payments? Everyone knows that you pour oil all over the cash that you throw at them.
Funny part is at my old dealership group, Nissan and Dodge stores gapped every other brand in Sunbit performance EVERY SINGLE MONTH.
That’s the game. Everything is structured to extract as much money from consumers as possible.
Charge it! Pay over time! No payments for 90 days! Payday advance! $9.99 for the first two months!
Profit is now all about interest, not just services. How can we wring every last drop of blood from that stone?
That’s and software as a service. Adobe Photoshop, Lightroom, Acrobat…. You don’t own it. You rent it.
I have a Carly for my BMW. Gotta have an annual subscription for it to work. Fuck that. Into the trash it goes. I’ll just pay my shop to do the work.
Anything AutoDesk. ESRI. Microsoft. And a bunch of proprietary design tools I use for my specialty.
Speaking of Autodesk, Bentley Systems promised they would stay perpetual… until MicroStation Connect/OpenRoads/OpenBridge needed Bentley Connect licensing. They’re trying to be Autodesk so badly.
Heh, seeing Bentley's name gives me flashbacks to a few years back when a salescreep for Bentley used to troll the AutoDesk Civil 3D forums. Someone would post their problem, a few users would try to help, then the Bentley salescreep would pounce, dissing everything AutoDesk and claiming Bentley /Inroads or whatever didn't have that problem. And everyone would beat him up until he'd lose his temper. It was an amazing time. I should check in and see if he's still up to his shenanigans...
I made sure I bought an Innova scanner, no subscription.
20/20 hindsight. Ah well.
👍
Got the carly when I had my e90 since it was more user friendly than my download of ISTA. Bonus, I could do stuff to my dad's Mercedes and do more thorough checks on cars I was looking to buy when I was in the market for an f30. That little gizmo saved me from buying a car with a laundry list of problems.
And yet when you pirate the software that you're not allowed to own, somehow that's stealing
Keep throwing the stones and throw it harder , so I've heard.
I know people that finance doordash.
We are a debt society headed towards a cliff.
Even DoorDash itself is a consequence of our addiction to debt. So many of these headline-leading "Big Tech" companies aren't "businesses" per se so much as very large experiments funded by debt
Kind of a friend of a friend of a friend thing, but my wife knew a woman who admitted to ordering door dash for the Starbucks that was in her building. Like just take the elevator, no need to even get out of your jammies. And not like one time when she was super sick or something, nope, basically every day.
Gonna be a real fun next couple of years while we fall right off of that.
at my shop people regularly sign up for those things with 130%+ interest rate and I die a little each time I have to process one. but hey every 5 contracts I get to pick a $25 gift card.
I didn't do it for maintenance but when I had to get my radiator replaced suddenly last year I used sunbit. Hated paying it off over time but it was either that or I wasn't going to be able to afford to fix my car.
All of the buyout pay later companies are crazy. I watched some videos on them and they are basically little banks, but they are using loopholes so they don’t have to follow any banking regulations. How money works on YouTube has a pretty good video on it.
Yeah bro but how else are you going to check the placement of your floor mats