So a customer comes in and complains about a noise...

In reply to cmcgregor:

Same happened to me.

gearheadmb wrote: In reply to Knurled: Exactly, or else I think there isnt much sense in doing the thorough inspection, they are only going to buy the bare minimum to keep it rolling.

Well, it's not a hard and fast rule, of course, and there are always exceptions.

I have $2600 in work lined up tomorrow on something I wouldn't consider sparing the $15 in parts to change the oil. So you never know. Some people are really attached to their cars, or at least their idea of what their car is. The difficulty comes when their idea is so far out of whack with reality that they refuse to accept that there's nothing that can be done. That's hard to explain to someone, both as a professional and as a car guy. It's like telling someone that their childhood pet has to be put down.

ebonyandivory wrote: In reply to Mazdax605: Normally I don't care as I know I'm far from perfect but it's a serial phenomenon. I don't mean to come off like a jerk here but when I stop reading a thread (not this one) because it's too difficult to comprehend... Ya know, it's just too easy to get right.

I get it, but I am a friend of Dean's and he catches way too much flack for his spelling /grammar. I know I'm not perfect and nobody else I've met is either so I give them a break. I think we all understood what he was saying.

Chris

belteshazzar wrote: I chased a noise in my '94 miata for weeks. tightening and re-installing suspension parts, etc.... Came to find I left a 3/8th's ratchet in that tray by the firewall/wiper-linkage. Man that made some confusing noises.

We joined in on the "Parade Laps" at The Mitty in the Mumpkin. They were a bit faster then I expected and we kept getting a transitional thunk thunk that switched from the inside wheel to the outside in every corner. It scared me as the front had been apart less than 24 hrs before and I could feel the thump in my feet. It was the hood prop- a length of pvc stored in the wiper tray.

Fortunately Paul figured it out before the end of the first lap so we could push our speeds in comfort.

Having owned a shop for more than 30 years, if a car came in dirty, it left clean. You would be amazed how grateful some of the owners of the messiest cars were. My perpective was that it was about being professional and having pride in the work we did.

In reply to Mazdax605:

I hear you. It's just that I'm in the medical field and I could never get away with that in practice. That carries over in all facets of my life. I'm fairly anal even texting my friends. So I'm a stickler for smooth, accurate communication but again, I'm not perfect!

Maybe it's my problem.

Wally wrote: As long as everyone was a concenting adult what you've done in the back of your Rondo is your business

Not in all 50 states Wally

The Rondo is its own realm, like Luxembourg or Monaco. Perfectly legal.

Talk about having "junk in the trunk"...

Appleseed wrote: The Rondo is its own realm, like Luxembourg or Monaco. Perfectly legal.

My grandfather had a Monaco. The Rondo is no Monaco.

ebonyandivory wrote: In reply to Mazdax605: I hear you. It's just that I'm in the medical field and I could never get away with that in practice. That carries over in all facets of my life. I'm fairly anal even texting my friends. So I'm a stickler for smooth, accurate communication but again, I'm not perfect! Maybe it's my problem.

I like spelling correctly and trying with proper punctuation and grammar as well, but I know I'm not perfect. This wasn't a dig on you, but I've seen a lot of people picking on Dean and I don't like it. He's a great guy whom I've known for many years. I just don't like seeing people I like getting picked on. Carry on.

Chris

I don't even have a Monaco

A couple years ago I just finished changing my water pump, seals and timing belt on my Miata. The next day I drove it half an hour to Kent Island. on the way back there's a great, fun 270-degree exit ramp. I throw the Miata into it and suddenly hear what sounds like bolts being thrown in the engine bay. The sound moves outside the car and goes away. Yep, something(s) just fell off. I stopped and went back to look and didn't see anything. Puzzled, I drove home with a sharp eye on my gauges. Once home, I opened the hood. looked everything over and wouldn't you know it, the timing belt cover never made it back on the car. Those 5? bolts were in the rain gutter behind the firewall. They must have flown out the gutter. I was very disappointed in myself.

In reply to Mazdax605:

Sorry if anybody is/was offended, but posting something that autocorrect turned into unintelligible gibberish deserves to catch a little lighthearted flak...And 'incorrecting' the errors, which I have been guilty of as well, is just funny. It's one of those "no matter how many times I cut it, it's still too short" moments.

http://s31.photobucket.com/user/chandlerGTi/media/1430922159_zpsce0eba06.mp4.html

This is where we need inspections, he drives this every day wondering about The noise it makes.

Do you approach your job differently if a car is spotless vs trashed?

On new-ish cars it's just a subconscious thought of "this is the type of person who will notice ANYTHING I screw up in here so I better not screw anything up". Which doesn't change anything most of the time because i'm not trying to screw up. If it's a really clean OLDER car then yeah, I actually feel like I have a part in preserving it and I actively try harder.

Most people would probably laugh at the way i baby some of the old stuff i own. To the point of asking people to take protruding objects out of their pockets before sitting on my antique upholstery or opening people's doors for them just so that they don't swing them hard open against their hinges etc. Once stuff is too old or uncommon for the local junkyard it's all worth money to me because hours and hours of my time trying to fix/replace a rare antique something or other is basically hundreds of dollars even if it's on a car no one else would pay hundreds of dollars for.

Yeah... and touching paint on anything makes me go ballistic. One of the surest signs that an idiot has been working on a car is fingerprints on the paint anywhere.

When closing doors, I push them closed with one finger on the lock mechanism.

noddaz wrote: So a customer comes in and complains about a noise in the back of their vehicle. And this is what was found.

Did you check the stow-n-go compartments?