Wow thats all I have to say.

[bear]

Over the past week I have had a new job to do at work instead of throwing around lumber all day. I might as well start at the beginning of this wonderful adventure, after a 12 hour shift me and the other people from work decided to go out and eat somewhere so we leave the parking lot and go about 500 feet and the car decides to crap out on us so I had to call the owner and have him come pick us up and limp the car back to the shop if it can make it that far when he shows up we look at it and it is 2 quarts low on oil (this is a little 4 cylinder Toyota so total capacity is 4 quarts) so when the other guy runs to get some oil so we don't do anymore damage to the motor we look at the coolant and it looks like it has never been changed the coolant in my fire truck was cleaner than this stuff and its been sitting for who knows how long not only that it is way above normal operating temp in just that short little distance. Anyways we limp it back to the shop and it is making some pretty bad noises and the owner wants me to look at it so I said I would look at it and see how bad it is tomorrow. That's day one so the next she drives in the other car she has which her parents drive and this car as I soon find out is very poorly kept as well, back to the Toyota I pull off the valve cover after finding oil in 3 of the 4 spark plug tubes I knew it wasn't going to be good and I was right, there was oil burnt onto every possible surface in there and large deposits of it built up in many places so I break the news to the owner and it looks like it can only get worse as I go further down and the coolant it has oil in it. At the end of the day she doesn't want to drive the Saturn (the other car) pulls it into the shop for the night so now I have that to look at check pretty much everything on it. Next day we go to move it out of the shop and we cant the thing wont shift out of park so I start working on it in the shop (much better then working out in the sun here) tranny fluid is burnt and low and the filter is still the original one, oil needs to be changed, coolant there was none just water, tires in the front pretty well worn rears just fine, struts and springs look like they were replaced a long time ago if ever, so I take care of everything except for the struts and springs because she needed a car so I had to get it to a good running condition. And for the tranny not shifting there was a pin on the shifter mechanism that worked loose and was bent beyond belief and they ruined a solenoid in there as well. So it is up and running for a day and the owner wants me to replace the O2 sensors in his truck so I go get those and as I am working on that I get a call from her that the Saturn died on her, get there and find out the alternator is dead and so is the battery I am following her back to the shop as it died out a few times getting it there. Took care of that today replaced the alternator and battery. finished putting in the three o2 sensors in the truck and as we are on our way home I get a call again that something else has gone wrong with the car its leaking tranny fluid and from when I drove it I knew the CV joints and everything up there was gone (horrible grinding when moving) so now I know what I will be doing tomorrow and with my luck the timing chain will snap or something once I am done with all this work. I have a feeling I will never win with this car but it got me a new toy and ODB1 and 2 code reader for free. And that has told me some not so nice things. But I have made some new friends over at NAPA and I learned the new cars suck there's no room to work on them. And don't worry I'll get some pictures of the engine as soon as I go back to working on it if ever at the rate things are going with the Saturn.

[Dave22443]

Sounds like an old boss I once had.  He drove a Nissan Sentra and one day he couldn't get it to start.  He admitted he knew nothing about cars and asked some of us more mechanically inclined people to look at it.

After trouble shooting for a few minutes and determining that it had both spark and fuel, we pulled one of the plugs.  When we did, we found the plug to be completely burned up.  We all started laughing and the guy was starting to feel a little embarrased because he had no idea what we were talking about.  So I asked him if he had ever changed the plugs?  He sheepishly admitted that he never had and that he was pretty much a gas & go driver.

Of course, we were all laughing at his expense and I jokingly asked when was the last time he had changed his oil?

His response was, Oil?

We all suddenly stopped laughing, realizing that this joker had never changed his oil!  I peeked inside at the odometer which was reading a little over 87,000 miles (he purchased the car new).  We then told him that he needed to do two things immediately.  First, get some new spark plugs, and second, trade this car in on a new one.   That weekend he did exactly that and we educated him on the finer points of car maintenance.

You may wish to consider giving the same advice to these owners.  You will spend untold hours trying to fix one thing after another only in the end to have the car die anyway.  And then you will have pissed off owners who will try to blame you for their cars failure.  If they are real jerks, they might even try to take you to court.

Working on cars that have been that badly neglected is a loose-loose situation.  Proceed with extream caution.

My 

[Old Moparz]

Maybe there's a shortage of good mechanics in Hawaii?   

Fixing some cars while you're there isn't so bad, but like Dave22443 said, I hope they don't start blaming you for the break downs caused by lack of maintenance on their part. Keep at it though, because like you said, you're getting some new tools & you don't have to toss lumber.

[bear]

Maybe there's a shortage of good mechanics in Hawaii?   

Maybe because I am always seeing cars broken down on the side of the road or getting towed somewhere. And so far I have been praised for what I have done so far and sure enough as I was driving the Saturn it starts to over heat when its in traffic but I know there is a fault somewhere for the connection to the fan I just have to find it. I think I'll be getting another new tool.

[squeakfinder]

Maybe there's a shortage of good mechanics in Hawaii?   













Hmmm Sounds like things haven't changed much. I grew up in Waimalu in the 70's. We had a Buick Opel that had two one barrel carbs. There was only one mechanic on the Island that could tune it.

[500hp_440]

Sounds like an old boss I once had.  He drove a Nissan Sentra and one day he couldn't get it to start.  He admitted he knew nothing about cars and asked some of us more mechanically inclined people to look at it.

After trouble shooting for a few minutes and determining that it had both spark and fuel, we pulled one of the plugs.  When we did, we found the plug to be completely burned up.  We all started laughing and the guy was starting to feel a little embarrased because he had no idea what we were talking about.  So I asked him if he had ever changed the plugs?  He sheepishly admitted that he never had and that he was pretty much a gas & go driver.

Of course, we were all laughing at his expense and I jokingly asked when was the last time he had changed his oil?

His response was, Oil?

We all suddenly stopped laughing, realizing that this joker had never changed his oil!  I peeked inside at the odometer which was reading a little over 87,000 miles (he purchased the car new).  We then told him that he needed to do two things immediately.  First, get some new spark plugs, and second, trade this car in on a new one.   That weekend he did exactly that and we educated him on the finer points of car maintenance.

You may wish to consider giving the same advice to these owners.  You will spend untold hours trying to fix one thing after another only in the end to have the car die anyway.  And then you will have pissed off owners who will try to blame you for their cars failure.  If they are real jerks, they might even try to take you to court.

Working on cars that have been that badly neglected is a loose-loose situation.  Proceed with extream caution.

My 

Holy sh**
87k miles on the original oil??? Did you drain it just to see how it looked?
That has to be one of the worst neglected oil changes I've ever heard of!

[squeakfinder]

Probably poured out like water. No viscosity left....

[69_500]

Reminds me of 2 girls from college actually. First off I was working on my 74 Plymouth Duster in the parking lot, starter had went out. When i hear from the side of the car "Since you are working on this car, mind taking a look at mine"
As I peek out from under the car I see a girl standing there, so to be nice I say sure. We go over about 6-7 cars and she points to a 1997 Avenger sitting there, and I ask what the problem is. She says, "it smokes a lot, and doesn't run like it used to when it was new". I peek inside and odo shows 16,000 miles on car, which puzzles me so I ask her to fire it up. Sure enough as soon as she hit the key smoke started coming out of the exhaust, have her shut it down and pop the hood.
Pull out the dipstick and there is engine oil nearly up to the handle. I shake my head, wipe it off, put it back in and check again. Again about 1" from the handle. I turn and ask her who changed the oil last in the car, and she said her dad did right before she came to school (this was about half way through a semester). The she quickly adds this note, "But I'm really good at adding oil on my own. I do the same thing I did for the car I had in High School, I add 1 quart of oil everytime I fill the car up with gas, just like my dad said."
Long story shortened a bit, pulled over a drain tub, pulled the bolt out of the oil pan, and it filled a 12 quart pan. I have no idea how much oil she had in that thing but it was WAY too much.
The other girl was the exact opposite, said car was running rough. Pulled the dipstick and it was dry with BLACK almost baked onto it. Pulled drain tub under her car, pulled bolt out of oil pan, and nothing came out. Wound up dropping the oil pan and having to practically scrape the muck out of the pan. Seems unlike her roommate with WAY too much oil, she never checked hers or added any since high school.

[Dave22443]

We weren't brave enough to actually check the oil.  We were afraid that if we changed it at that point that the engine would blow up.

I bought an old truck once with an owner that never changed his oil.  When I pulled the plug, nothing came out at first.  After a few minutes, it began to ooze out slowly.  I let it sit there like that for 3 days trying to get as much of it out as I could.  Put in clean oil, a new filter and a can of STP and promptly sold the truck.

Old oil actually gets thicker with age, I assume due to the increased dirt?  I never let mine go over 3,000 miles.

[500hp_440]

We weren't brave enough to actually check the oil.  We were afraid that if we changed it at that point that the engine would blow up.

I bought an old truck once with an owner that never changed his oil.  When I pulled the plug, nothing came out at first.  After a few minutes, it began to ooze out slowly.  I let it sit there like that for 3 days trying to get as much of it out as I could.  Put in clean oil, a new filter and a can of STP and promptly sold the truck.

Old oil actually gets thicker with age, I assume due to the increased dirt?  I never let mine go over 3,000 miles.

My problem is, is that I usually drive a 05 dodge 3500 dually diesel, and it cost about $70 to change the oil and how I drive it thats about 1 month between changes, and my parents dont like that ($70 adds up) how long can I go between changes in my truck?  (it take 12 quarts if that means anything) I'm not trying to be cheap but over $850 a year in oil changes for 1 truck, thats alot, no explanation needed just how many miles? (I have 250 before I hit my 3000mile mark for a change and I do it myself)

[1969chargerrtse]

When we were kids my brother had a 65 Olds cutlass conv.  My older brother told my younger brother if you had a quart of oil we can take a ride.  My younger brother is missing for about 15 min.  We go to the car and there he is dribbling a small stream into the dip stick tube.    He's the one who is a police man now.
I bought a 70 Chevy Caprice 454/390hp from a guy that had put 70,000 Miles on it and never changed the oil.  It still ran great.  Even after it's first oil change in decades.

[Dave22443]

My problem is, is that I usually drive a 05 dodge 3500 dually diesel, and it cost about $70 to change the oil and how I drive it thats about 1 month between changes, and my parents dont like that ($70 adds up) how long can I go between changes in my truck?  (it take 12 quarts if that means anything) I'm not trying to be cheap but over $850 a year in oil changes for 1 truck, thats alot, no explanation needed just how many miles? (I have 250 before I hit my 3000mile mark for a change and I do it myself)

It depends greatly on your type of driving.  If your miles are mainly interstate miles without a lot of stop and go, then you can probably go 5000 miles without concern.  Aimsoil (a full synthetic) claims 7500 or more between changes.
If you do a lot of stop and go, short trips or towing, I'd keep it at 3000.  Of course, I'm talking gas engines as I have no experience with diesel's. 

The best advice I can give is to check your owners manual to see what they reccomend.  Just remember, their "Normal" driving means all interstate/highway miles.  The stop and go short trips I described is classified as "harsh" driving in your owners manual.

Thats a pretty serious truck your driving there.  Serious trucks are going to have serious expenses that go along with them.  Unless you really need that much truck on a daily basis, you should consider getting something smaller to drive daily.

[Troy]

We weren't brave enough to actually check the oil.  We were afraid that if we changed it at that point that the engine would blow up.

I bought an old truck once with an owner that never changed his oil.  When I pulled the plug, nothing came out at first.  After a few minutes, it began to ooze out slowly.  I let it sit there like that for 3 days trying to get as much of it out as I could.  Put in clean oil, a new filter and a can of STP and promptly sold the truck.

Old oil actually gets thicker with age, I assume due to the increased dirt?  I never let mine go over 3,000 miles.

My problem is, is that I usually drive a 05 dodge 3500 dually diesel, and it cost about $70 to change the oil and how I drive it thats about 1 month between changes, and my parents dont like that ($70 adds up) how long can I go between changes in my truck?  (it take 12 quarts if that means anything) I'm not trying to be cheap but over $850 a year in oil changes for 1 truck, thats alot, no explanation needed just how many miles? (I have 250 before I hit my 3000mile mark for a change and I do it myself)

Check around on the diesel forums - I think most guys recommend 7000-7500 miles between changes. Don't forget to change the fuel separator filter every other oil change and the air filter every fourth. (So that's oil filter every 7,500 miles, fuel filter every 15k, air filter every 30k.)

Troy

[Magnumcharger]

Reminds me of 2 girls from college actually. First off I was working on my 74 Plymouth Duster in the parking lot, starter had went out. When i hear from the side of the car "Since you are working on this car, mind taking a look at mine"
As I peek out from under the car I see a girl standing there, so to be nice I say sure. We go over about 6-7 cars and she points to a 1997 Avenger sitting there, and I ask what the problem is. She says, "it smokes a lot, and doesn't run like it used to when it was new". I peek inside and odo shows 16,000 miles on car, which puzzles me so I ask her to fire it up. Sure enough as soon as she hit the key smoke started coming out of the exhaust, have her shut it down and pop the hood.
Pull out the dipstick and there is engine oil nearly up to the handle. I shake my head, wipe it off, put it back in and check again. Again about 1" from the handle. I turn and ask her who changed the oil last in the car, and she said her dad did right before she came to school (this was about half way through a semester). The she quickly adds this note, "But I'm really good at adding oil on my own. I do the same thing I did for the car I had in High School, I add 1 quart of oil everytime I fill the car up with gas, just like my dad said."
Long story shortened a bit, pulled over a drain tub, pulled the bolt out of the oil pan, and it filled a 12 quart pan. I have no idea how much oil she had in that thing but it was WAY too much.
The other girl was the exact opposite, said car was running rough. Pulled the dipstick and it was dry with BLACK almost baked onto it. Pulled drain tub under her car, pulled bolt out of oil pan, and nothing came out. Wound up dropping the oil pan and having to practically scrape the muck out of the pan. Seems unlike her roommate with WAY too much oil, she never checked hers or added any since high school.

So - did you pour the excess oil from the one girls car into the others?
I'm guessing maybe they were both blondes?

[bear]

I have pictures of the valve cover from the Toyota somewhere, I'll have to find them, it was not pretty in there. The engine was replaced by somebody else.

  Serious trucks are going to have serious expenses that go along with them.  Unless you really need that much truck on a daily basis, you should consider getting something smaller to drive daily.

I have found that out the hard way with my truck and I'm sure it didn't help that it was used commercially before I bought it.

[500hp_440]

My problem is, is that I usually drive a 05 dodge 3500 dually diesel, and it cost about $70 to change the oil and how I drive it thats about 1 month between changes, and my parents dont like that ($70 adds up) how long can I go between changes in my truck?  (it take 12 quarts if that means anything) I'm not trying to be cheap but over $850 a year in oil changes for 1 truck, thats alot, no explanation needed just how many miles? (I have 250 before I hit my 3000mile mark for a change and I do it myself)

It depends greatly on your type of driving.  If your miles are mainly interstate miles without a lot of stop and go, then you can probably go 5000 miles without concern.  Aimsoil (a full synthetic) claims 7500 or more between changes.
If you do a lot of stop and go, short trips or towing, I'd keep it at 3000.  Of course, I'm talking gas engines as I have no experience with diesel's. 

The best advice I can give is to check your owners manual to see what they reccomend.  Just remember, their "Normal" driving means all interstate/highway miles.  The stop and go short trips I described is classified as "harsh" driving in your owners manual.

Thats a pretty serious truck your driving there.  Serious trucks are going to have serious expenses that go along with them.  Unless you really need that much truck on a daily basis, you should consider getting something smaller to drive daily.

Look in my picture
< Thats a horse trailor about 50ft long and weighs ALOT (I forget the exact amount) but I need the truck to pull the trailor up to Tn every once in a while, gets about 21-24mpg which is pretty dang good for a new car!
I would usually be driving my jeep, but its my mud truck and I spun the axle (I need bearings and seals before its driveable)
I definaitly hear you and if I didnt use it for some serious work, I wouldn't have it.
Thanks for the info! and
Thanks Troy!

[69_500]

Reminds me of 2 girls from college actually. First off I was working on my 74 Plymouth Duster in the parking lot, starter had went out. When i hear from the side of the car "Since you are working on this car, mind taking a look at mine"
As I peek out from under the car I see a girl standing there, so to be nice I say sure. We go over about 6-7 cars and she points to a 1997 Avenger sitting there, and I ask what the problem is. She says, "it smokes a lot, and doesn't run like it used to when it was new". I peek inside and odo shows 16,000 miles on car, which puzzles me so I ask her to fire it up. Sure enough as soon as she hit the key smoke started coming out of the exhaust, have her shut it down and pop the hood.
Pull out the dipstick and there is engine oil nearly up to the handle. I shake my head, wipe it off, put it back in and check again. Again about 1" from the handle. I turn and ask her who changed the oil last in the car, and she said her dad did right before she came to school (this was about half way through a semester). The she quickly adds this note, "But I'm really good at adding oil on my own. I do the same thing I did for the car I had in High School, I add 1 quart of oil everytime I fill the car up with gas, just like my dad said."
Long story shortened a bit, pulled over a drain tub, pulled the bolt out of the oil pan, and it filled a 12 quart pan. I have no idea how much oil she had in that thing but it was WAY too much.
The other girl was the exact opposite, said car was running rough. Pulled the dipstick and it was dry with BLACK almost baked onto it. Pulled drain tub under her car, pulled bolt out of oil pan, and nothing came out. Wound up dropping the oil pan and having to practically scrape the muck out of the pan. Seems unlike her roommate with WAY too much oil, she never checked hers or added any since high school.

So - did you pour the excess oil from the one girls car into the others?
I'm guessing maybe they were both blondes?

actually both were brunettes but it would be a better story if they were both blondes.