Funniest Repair Orders you've seen?

[thegoat4]

I was sent on a road call. Customer stated batteries were dead and truck would not start.

I rounded up four new batteries (18 wheeler), an alternator, a pair of belts, my DVOM, some hand tools, and a mess of fuses and other crap. Drove sixty miles, which included right through Austin midday. When I get there, the idiot driver is sitting inside, key on, fans blowing, radio blaring, headlights on. No wonder the batteries are dead.

So, I whip out my meter and check the remaining voltage, 12.8. Batteries aren't dead. So I ask him to try cranking it for me. He turns the key and the starter motor just spins that engine over like it's nothing. Shaking the whole truck side-to-side.

I ask, "I thought your batteries were dead."

"Yeah, it won't start!"

I get to looking around, it's out of fuel. Tanks are both completely empty. I hop in the seat and turn on the key, the fuel gauge shows empty and the idiot light shines brightly.

"Does your fuel gauge work?"

"Yeah."

"How long has it shown empty?"

"Since yesterday."

The kicker: he was parked literally forty feet away from the fuel pumps at the truck stop.

His boss made him go buy a one-gallon gas can from the truck stop and make fifteen trips back and forth until he had enough fuel to get it primed. It took about four hours, they almost called me back out there, but he got it started again.

When I was on the phone with his boss he commented: "Just between you and me I think I'm going to fire that dumbass as soon as he gets back home."

I said, "Just between you and me that's a really good idea."

 

[Wicked_Sludge]

haha, that reminds me of the time this elderly lady paid to have her car towed in because it wouldnt start. same deal, out of gas.

i dont think you should be allowed to drive if your unable to read a fuel guage.

 

[BLOODBANE]

Ever fix one by taking the gas cap off and putting it back on. That one gets some of the elderly(hell some of the younger crowd)too......

 

[rickcdewitt]

i replaced a steering column in a "the mechanics are all out to rip you off" customers cherokee after it was stolen.got a call the next day near lunch from her that it won't start and its all my fault.says she wants to call a tow truck and have the shop charged for it.
i went down to her(2 miles) since i was going to get lunch anyway.dumb b#%ch's boyfriend had swapped the battery and left it loose so it would just click.

i should have let her tow it and then charged her for the fix too.

 

[Legend]

The company I worked for built a new building next door. The engineer in charge of the project sent in a purchase order for:
2 Kotex Dispensing Machines
5 Gallons of Asphalt Crack Filler

We sent the P.O. back to him with the comment that he shouldn't need both. Either one or the other, but not both. He had no sense of humor at all and was quite upset when he told us they had nothing to do with each other.

 

[fishunterx]

I was sent on a road call. Customer stated batteries were dead and truck would not start.

I rounded up four new batteries (18 wheeler), an alternator, a pair of belts, my DVOM, some hand tools, and a mess of fuses and other crap. Drove sixty miles, which included right through Austin midday. When I get there, the idiot driver is sitting inside, key on, fans blowing, radio blaring, headlights on. No wonder the batteries are dead.

So, I whip out my meter and check the remaining voltage, 12.8. Batteries aren't dead. So I ask him to try cranking it for me. He turns the key and the starter motor just spins that engine over like it's nothing. Shaking the whole truck side-to-side.

I ask, "I thought your batteries were dead."

"Yeah, it won't start!"

I get to looking around, it's out of fuel. Tanks are both completely empty. I hop in the seat and turn on the key, the fuel gauge shows empty and the idiot light shines brightly.

"Does your fuel gauge work?"

"Yeah."

"How long has it shown empty?"

"Since yesterday."

The kicker: he was parked literally forty feet away from the fuel pumps at the truck stop.

His boss made him go buy a one-gallon gas can from the truck stop and make fifteen trips back and forth until he had enough fuel to get it primed. It took about four hours, they almost called me back out there, but he got it started again.

When I was on the phone with his boss he commented: "Just between you and me I think I'm going to fire that dumbass as soon as he gets back home."

I said, "Just between you and me that's a really good idea."

This reminds me of my friend, I couldn't get his 89' Chevy S10.... I know I said a bad word. To start, I could get an occasional hit with starter fluid but nothing else. Finally on some chance I decided to pour a gallon of gas in his tank, Turned it over a few times and within 3 minutes it started. Turns out for some reason over the last 2 weeks his gas mileage had sky rocketed as his needle never left full. Needless to say the gauge was broke and he is a dumb ass.

 

[Danger06Ranger]

This reminds me of my friend, I couldn't get his 89' Chevy S10.... I know I said a bad word. To start, I could get an occasional hit with starter fluid but nothing else. Finally on some chance I decided to pour a gallon of gas in his tank, Turned it over a few times and within 3 minutes it started. Turns out for some reason over the last 2 weeks his gas mileage had sky rocketed as his needle never left full. Needless to say the gauge was broke and he is a dumb ass.

That happens though. The shop I work for bought a Neon at auction, gauge didn't work and it was out of gas.

 

[fishunterx]

That happens though. The shop I work for bought a Neon at auction, gauge didn't work and it was out of gas.

I will just say, it happened to me on my ranger, at 1/2 tank. I noticed and threw a 2 gallon in the bed to make sure. A few days later, I was out of gas.

 

[badblue]

thanks alaskan155 my spelling sentence structure suck!!!

He melted two pistons much they where not round any more.

that is 18,000$ in parts and labor.

 

[ZMan]

Either a 3.4 or a 5.7.

It was the 5.7L. The car was abandoned at the shop, after the lean came threw, we sold it for body parts and whatever we could get for it, and had it sent to the crushers, it was in bad shape.

Hey 90-92 counts as early 90s too lol. How was I to know it was the new body style? That is funny though.

 

[pillen140]

Had a customer drive a car into the shop my buddy owned that took 2 days to drain the oil. Just globs of greasy looking crap would come out. Spray with carb clean let it sit till another gob came out then repeat the whole process. Remember this car drove in under its own power......

by any chance would that be a toyota? they have had a ton of problems with the oil gelling up.

anywho..... one repair order stated, walnuts in heater....tech removed blower motor to see it full of walnuts!!! it was funny as hell! must have been a mouse storing them.

we find dead mice all the time in blower motors, always entertaining.
i will write more as i can remember them.

 

[poweranger84]

had a guy come into one of the shops i use to work in. said his gas guage sticks on 1/4 of a tank. swore up ond down he filled it up right before droppin the car off.
so we ordered a new sendin unit, and after droppin the tank and pullin the old one out...come to find out it only has a 1/4 of a tank in it. the old unit still worked fine.


also have another one. same shop.
a kid i worked with(total idiot) did a motor swap on a 99 silverado. had everything "finnished" called in sick the next day, so me and the owner's son, went to go see it it was done right. well after 1/2 a day of staightenin out all the connectors, we finnaly get it to crank (runs like shit) loud grindin noises.
sut it off...ty to crank it again...nothin, sounds like the starters mis aligned.
check that(nothin wrong) turns out he put the flywheel on backwards.
so i had to pull the tranny, and replace the flywheel before we closed that night.

 

[Dddaviso7]

I had a guy refuse to buy a set of tires because the white wall had a protective (pink) coating. He insisted that he wanted a white wall tire not a pink tire. I couldn't get him to understand that it washes off......

 

[4x4mike2004]

had a lady come in complaining of a strange noise. she didnt know what it sounded like or when it did it. we spent the better part of an hour taking turns driving it and couldnt hear anything. our manager also drove around with her in the car, but she couldnt hear the noise then.

another time we had a guy come in with a pickup truck complaining of a loud rattle from the back of the truck. turns out he had a lose fitting trailer hitch that bounced around.

 

[Crunchy]

turns out he had a lose fitting trailer hitch that bounced around.

HAHA - that got me going for a while on my truck, but I didn't have to bring it in to figure it out.