Repair success (for a student)
 

This is just a success story "off-topic tech" post:

A student of mine has a 2005 Subaru. He texts me asking for a mechanic recommendation, and I have none because I don't go to any anymore. I do all my repairs, relying on EM, honda-tech, d-series, youtube, my shop manual, and my willingness to make mistakes and learn.

So since he is an especially good student that I have worked a lot with, and since he asked, I dropped by to diagnose. I drove around with him. A loud scraping noise from wheels while rolling, joined by a low rumbling noise seemingly from the transmission when braking. I looked at CV joints and axles, considered the hub units, tested to see if the noise changed or emerged during any gearing combinations.

Concluded it was warped front brake rotors wiggling the inner and outer CV joints when the brakes were applied. We changed them. Problem fixed.

I owe that capacity mainly to this site. Thanks.

So, in return, I like to "pay it forward" with others who need help when I greet them, sometimes randomly on the road, sometimes people I already know.

Do you do things like this too? I'd love to hear stories of the aid you have given strangers and friends...

james

I stopped by the side of the road today on my way to Long Beach and let him use my phone to call AAA. Nothing I could phyiscally do to help, his poor VW has poured oil all over the road!

I jumped a lady's car at the mall parking lot a while back, she said she asked 3 previous people and they told her they "don't want to damage their car".

Helped changed my extremely inept friends transmission fluid on his 1991 Vic. Got a Transmission fluid bath, was nice and warm. Actually it burned the **** out of me but that's k, his 3rd and 4th gear stopped slipping so it was worth it!

And now for the most ridiculous story of them all, I honestly don't think you are going to believe it but, that's ok.

I was about 15-16, so this was 6-7 years ago. Black lady with 3 kids (2 very small, probably under 3) and one about 5 or 6. Her car wouldn't start. It cranked just fine, but wouldn't start, so I thought fuel problem. Removed spark plugs, which I was able to do with my hands, they were horrendously lose. I smelled fuel so I figured that wasn't the problem. I asked her for a rag, or something I could wipe stuff off with, and she handed me a kids sock. I wiped off all her spark plugs and wham! Engine started right up, what, the hell. I have never, and will never stop telling that story because it was the weirdest thing I have ever come across, I didn't even believe it when I saw it. And now that I think of it, maybe it was just a lose spark plug wire that I reseated when I put them back in, who knows.

Anytime I see someone broken down in the middle of the road I get out and push. You would be surprised how many people decline. And would rather sit in the road and wait for a tow truck.

Once I helped a lady put a spare tire on her benz . She paid me back with a special trick. ;)