Not really a shop story, more of a factory story. In 2003, one of my staff bought a very clean 1991 Holden Apollo (Toyota Camry) with very, very low miles for $5K. Maybe a little too much, but it was in really nice condition, and as I said, had had very, very, low miles.
Anyway, a few months later, he told me he was taking it out to the Artillery range so the Arty guys could use it for target practise! I asked why, and he said he was buying a new car, and didn't want it any more. He explained that it had an electrical fault, and he'd taken it to two shops, (a Holden dealer, then a Toyota dealer) but they weren't able to fix it, so he'd given up and couldn't bear to even look at it any more. he was pissed.
I asked him if I could buy it, and he said I could have it for a carton of beer. Woohoo, I lashed out and bought him TWO cartons of beer! I drove it home, and it went like a new car. Next morning, it fired right up, and I was really enjoying my drive to work (60 miles of mostly freeway) when the engine suddenly cut out! Fcuk! Luckily, I was able to coast to the side of the road, stopped, put it in "Park", turned the key, and away it went! The remaining 30 miles were uneventful, but I needed to get some other work done, so I took it to the local garage, and asked the dude to find the fault.
$1000 later, I got it back, he'd replaced the distributor and the battery, plus a windscreen and a couple of tires. I drove it home, and once again, it conked out as I was overtaking a semi. Double Fcuk! This went on for some weeks, and one day as I was idly checking connections under the hood, my cousin rang from his job on an oil rig. My cuz is a really smart man, a "Bush mechanic" who can fix anything.
I mentioned the car problem, and he told me to check all the wires between the battery and the alternator. I pulled on all the wires, and one came straight off, but the connector stayed on the alternator! It turned out that the connector had never been crimped at the factory, and that wire had been loose for 12 years! (and at least 5 owners.........)
I crimped the connector on to the wire, and drove it trouble free for another couple of years until I made the mistake of giving it to my oldest son who boiled it on the freeway (cracked radiator tank) and kept driving it until he blew the poor thing up. Up until then it was a great little car though, with a simple electrical fault that eluded many, many "experts" until my cuz diagnosed the issue over the phone. Cheers, Terry.
