had a lady brought me an s-10 4x4 last year. i had to fix some screw ups that a backyard mechanic did, in order to get the truck to pass inspection.
just a few weeks ago, the truck appears on my lot, no keys, no note. i called her, and a few hours later, her daughter and daughters boyfriend show up. the boyfriend comes at me with massive attitude, and tries to "ever since" me. you guys that work on cars know exactly what that means. he tried telling me that ever since i worked on the truck it was making a rattling noise, and that it had an oil leak. yet i touched nothing to do with the engine.
i stayed polite and calm, took the keys, and told them i'd call the mother, since the truck was registered to her, when i found something. so....know what i found? oil. everywhere. except in the engine. it was seized. i looked at the oil change decal, and found it to be to another local shop, and showing about 100 miles overdue. i know for fact that that shop didn't cause this problem though, as i know the owner, and the kind of people he hires.
i called the trucks owner, and asked her who did the last oil change. she asked why i wanted to know. i explained that the last oil change was done improperly, the filter fell off, and the oil spewed out. wanna guess who did the last oil change?
the daughters boyfriend.
so i get her estimates on a reman. engine, and a used engine. she says that they're both too high. so what does she do? she's having the truck towed to another backyard mechanic that says he can do the whole job for about 1/3 of what a used engine was gonna cost here.
so.......backyarder screws up the suspension bad enough it can't pass inspection.....then a backyarder screws up the engine.......now she's taking it to yet ANOTHER backyarder to install a used engine.