silbershark

The topic of bad PO tricks came up on another thread and it made me curious enough to start this one.

What kind of stupid stuff have you seen people do to their sharks? I know there are some interesting stories out there. Please post them here so as to condense them for those of us who need a good laugh. Please include pics if you have any. Thanks.

hacker-pschorr

Here is a good one:

https://rennlist.com/forums/928-forum/341660-yet-another-reason-to-hate-the-po.html

Nicole

My PO always took the car to Mercedes mechanics - after all, the 928 also comes from Stuttgart; therefore, a mechanic who knows Mercedes must logically also know Porsches - right?

Well, when I bought the car, the timing belt light had been on for a while. I took it to someone with 928 Experience and had this and a whole lot of other things redone. The timing belt was way lose, but best of all, there was no bearing in one of the rollers, and the waterpump bolts were wrong and forced hard into the block... I had to pay the mechanic some extra for all that trouble.

My prevous 928 had "professionally installed" door speakers. I bought the car through the Internet, so when I got it, I also got a taste of what that means... Big holes cut into the inner sheet metal of the doors, then the heavy speakers secured in the door panels only, with four screws each. If someone slammed the door, the speaker came lose.

Podguy

On one car some one had replced the radiator temperature switch with a Honeywell adjustable thermostat. You know the big industrial ones with the long probe and the temperature dial on the front. The car still overheated.

Dan the Pod Guy

docmirror

When I did my first TB on the car, I hesitated to buy the flywheel lock for the job. Finally borrowed one, and set to work. So, about third thing I find while working up front is HUGE pipe wrench jaw marks on opposing sides of the front pulley. I guess I'm not the only one that didn't want to get the flywheel lock.

When I test drove the car, I made a few quick shifts, and after one of them, there was a loud scraping noise from the front tray. So I pull over as fast as I can, and get out. The oil cooler is hanging from the hoses and dragging under the front of the car. I look up under the lip to the brace where it is suppose to mount and see a few shreds of zip-tie left over. Arrrrrggggghhhhhhh!

Nicole

Whoa, Dan, that's some serious 'redneck engineering' right there... (how this doesn't offend anyone - I don't mean to)

Doc: Isn't there a saying in the US that goes like 'you get what you pay for' - or something like that?

rixter

ahhh... dismantlers have the best stories

Imo000

NICE! The Vise Grips must have doen it's job, looks like it's been there for a while.

Rusted out breaks line (one of the rears) was cut, pinched and held shut bu a small needle nose Vise Grip. The breaks felt fine and didn't notice untill I lifted it to have a look at the bottom of the car. This was not a 928 but still a good PO mickey mouse fix.

silbershark

Whoa, rixter! Those pics just might win you the "rednecked" award!!

docmirror

I got a running, stopping, AC working 90GT for $6k. I think I did okay. Many years ago I bought an aged motorhome from a goober out in San Fernando, CA. I drove it some, and the brakes were kind of weak, but I though it was just the heavy chassis. So, I get it home, start doing the general check out. I wanted to look at the brakes because I thought the vac booster wasn't hooked up. It was working fine, but as I work my way back the rear, sure enough, the right side brake line is folded over several times and pinched off about 6 inches from the drum. I had to disassemble the whole thing, get new parts for the slave cyl, put it all back together and bleed it. Worked fine after that.

dr bob

Nicole--

You neglected to mention the halfshaft that fell out...

VehiGAZ

My PO installed the air filter upside-down, made a lone PS mud flap out of binder clips and some sort of plastic board, and installed a crappy battery disconnect that almost killed the battery (more on this in an upcoming thread).

That is all I've found... so far. ;-) I think that's the worst of it, actually, which is pretty good!

bronto

Around Thanksgiving of last year my clutch developed a little "kink" when in use.. you know, a spot of resistance at a particular point when both depressing and releasing the peddle. I took it to my mechanic for a quick check, and he checked it out for normal reasons and concluded that the last clutch job on it might not have been greased well enough and that the sleeve was worn. Since the clutch had plenty of wear left on it he recommended just rotating the sleeve to wear on a different place when I brought it in for it's next service.

So in March I bring it in and he gets to the clutch.... no grease, bolts loose and a plate on backwards. Not sure I can blame the PO directly because I have a receipt for a clutch job from a Porsche dealer in North Dakota, but I think I can blame him for taking it to a guy who didn't know what he was doing.

SteveG

I'm sure I'm not the only one who has found a tensioner wire disconnected. That results in the light after 3 minutes. Worse, some have been grounded to the block which will never give you a light no matter what the belt is doing.

SMTCapeCod

Brass NPT fittings, pipe and a drill to plumb the PCV system...