when i was a teen, i had convinced a buddy of mine that to solve his solve his squealing brake issue, all he had to do was to go get his brake pads greased. i told him to take it to the local mom-n-pop garage, have them remove the pads, and smear a layer of grease onto the friction surface.


apparently, they laughed him outta the shop bc he was WAY pissed off at me

Anytime I interview a young lad for an automotive position, I always take them into the shop and get under a car that's on the hoist. To test their automotive basic knowledge I ask them to point out a few very basic components... alternator, starter, calipers, ball joints, tie rods etc.

part of the "test" is to locate components such as Muffler bearings and door lock drive belts. The looks, and sometimes the answers are absolutely priceless

Posted by oddspot Anytime I interview a young lad for an automotive position, I always take them into the shop and get under a car that's on the hoist. To test their automotive basic knowledge I ask them to point out a few very basic components... alternator, starter, calipers, ball joints, tie rods etc. part of the "test" is to locate components such as Muffler bearings and door lock drive belts. The looks, and sometimes the answers are absolutely priceless

i fucking love you!
it's good to know that you guys are as evil as I.

this reminds me of so many blond headlight fuel jokes....

it amazes me how many people know absolutely NOTHING about their ride. Guy I work with has a 2004 Silverado and he knows nothing about it. He's always asking me questions about its operation and maintenance... sometimes i feel like I should be charging by the hour for my expertise.

Posted by Samurai i fucking love you! it's good to know that you guys are as evil as I.

Thanks honey



I'm generally not an evil person, but i do like to have fun with shit like that. When I was doing industrial supply we had a "slow" kid working for us who loved the jokes and the fun we gave him.
Every Tuesday we'd tell him it was Safety Tuesday. So we all wore safety glasses at our desks. We made him wear the fall arrest harness, glasses, hard hat and gloves all day in the warehouse, just in case. Then we'd have fun with him and tell him to go find something in the basement (no basement existed) or to find the plaid paint. Good times good times

My first day as a parts clerk at Canadian Tire, I was asked to look up a lower rad hose for a '73 Beetle, and piston rings for an Rx-7.

I passed the test... I owned both of those cars!

LOL i forgot about that one. water pump for 73 Beetle

Posted by bandi My first day as a parts clerk at Canadian Tire, I was asked to look up a lower rad hose for a '73 Beetle, and piston rings for an Rx-7. I passed the test... I owned both of those cars!

we had this guy that worked at the NAPA in my town (long since closed). We'd call him up...

"Jimmy, i need a lower radiator hose for a 67 Corvair, a radiator for a 72 Super Beetle and valve cover gaskets for a 350 Ford."

...and Jimmy would try to find these things...

Jimmy, however, got his revenge a short time later.

Posted by Samurai we had this guy that worked at the NAPA in my town (long since closed). We'd call him up... "Jimmy, i need a lower radiator hose for a 67 Corvair, a radiator for a 72 Super Beetle and valve cover gaskets for a 350 Ford." ...and Jimmy would try to find these things... Jimmy, however, got his revenge a short time later.

'Dukes's father used to be a manager at a NAPA in Utica. 'Dukes himself worked in there for a bit and he would get legitimate customers asking for parts that don't exist on their cars (aka not realizing their cars are fuel injected)

Posted by Yield this reminds me of so many blond headlight fuel jokes....

Also reminds me of the '710' joke.

I had a Datsun 710, '74, good car. The piston return springs never needed replacing, and all repairs could be done with a left handed crescent wrench.

Posted by A. Lien ... a left handed crescent wrench.

only if it was a metric one. the standard ones were always just a hair off

CT issues similar digit license plates to vehicles registered around the same time.

1000 cars have the same last three digits.
for example 000-AAA to 999-AAA and then the next thousand would have
000-AAB to 999-AAB

Around December/January 2008 there were at least two fourth generation 2.5i silver legacy sedans registered to two people who live within 20 miles of each other. I know this because I saw a 'neighbor' checking his mail one morning.

I have not only the same last three digits on the same color, same generation car, identical looking cars, but we also share the number 2 in the same position on the tag.

##2-TAG

Which is great if one of us ever runs into trouble with the law and they only get a partial plate.

I have an alibi for anything short of murder.

Posted by Samurai it amazes me how many people know absolutely NOTHING about their ride.

THIS. I don't even know an impressive amount about cars, but I die a little inside every time I hear the girls at work talking about taking their vehicle to the dealership to get a bulb changed...or I try and explain how to do an oil change and they can't comprehend it...etc.

Posted by shadowedsmile THIS. I don't even know an impressive amount about cars, but I die a little inside every time I hear the girls at work talking about taking their vehicle to the dealership to get a bulb changed...or I try and explain how to do an oil change and they can't comprehend it...etc.

If you can't change your oil, rotate your tires, and top your damn fluid (I'd even say replace your breaks but people tell me this is dangerous.....) you don't deserve your car.

Right after high school I went into an Auto Zone and asked for a part for my '79 Sedan de'Ville, the guy looked at me and said

"Toyota makes those right"?

I said, "Uh, no Cadillac".

He rolled his eyes and said back in an aggravated tone, "Yeah, Cadillac, Toyota
makes those right?"

He only lasted a few (Why?!?) months.

I loathe imbeciles like that. The guy at Crappy Tire sold me 4 packs of plugs for my 80 Malibu. I get home, put them in, two are a longer style. (Could have put a hole in the piston) I took them back, he says, yeah someone put the wrong pack on the wrong hanger. His job to check the product, mine to double check for his stupidity. He wouldn't take any responsibility for not checking. The good news, he was gone within a month.

Even worse at the Chrysler dealer. I needed a rubber pad to cover the clutch pedal on my Cherokee. "That's a special order item, you need to pre pay" The part cost less than ten dollars. A. They didn't even stock it, B. they want prepayment on a ten dollar item.

Imagine if I never came back, they would be stuck with having something in stock that someone else might need one day. Another time, same dealer, the guy was a d-bag when I asked if there was a recall or service bulletin giving a free replacement for a gear shift knob that disintegrated in my hand. It turned into rubble. I don't do Chrysler anymore. If this is how they handle small problems, imagine if my trans went.


You got it Durdan, has to be metric...

Posted by A. Lien Even worse at the Chrysler dealer. I needed a rubber pad to cover the clutch pedal on my Cherokee. "That's a special order item, you need to pre pay" The part cost less than ten dollars. A. They didn't even stock it, B. they want prepayment on a ten dollar item. Imagine if I never came back, they would be stuck with having something in stock that someone else might need one day. Another time, same dealer, the guy was a d-bag when I asked if there was a recall or service bulletin giving a free replacement for a gear shift knob that disintegrated in my hand. It turned into rubble. I don't do Chrysler anymore. If this is how they handle small problems, imagine if my trans went. You got it Durdan, has to be metric...

Its the Chrysler/Dodge/Jeep/Ram dealer's option as I recall if they want to pre-pay on special order parts. Usually if the dealer only gets one shipment a day for parts they will. Around here, Portland has a Chrysler Parts DC so my local Jeep dealer gets parts actually can have parts delivered 3 times a day.

And I am guessing that dealer was not a Five Star dealer...

Chryslers' parts department is a fucking train wreck. Back in 2000, i had an 86 Dodge Daytona Turbo Z. Anyways, i needed some dealer-only parts. Basically the vacuum lines that ran from the passenger side inner fender to the manifold... the plastic lines had dry-rotted and collapsed and were allowing the computer to get false readings. Eventually, it kept burning up the power module. I went to the Dodge dealer in Dayton TN and tried to order the parts... the fuckface behind the counter laughed and told me that it was no longer available and that I should just buy a Neon.