Remote repairs, repairing remotely

[Outlander]

So, the daughter (28) got stranded 2 hours from home due to freezing rain and general impossible road conditions. She calls me from the gas station 2 hours away that the gas cap (wife's car) won't undo. Argh.. Even the guy at the gas station could not get it off. Argh... do I head there? I explained it may need to be pushed in and turned hard and if that doesn't work, find a Canadian Tire (yes, I know what I said was wrong on some level).

Calls back and she got it off (but I need to go and get a replacement which is OK).

Anyone else expected to perform repairs from a distance, or got a similar holiday tale?

 

[Firebrick43]

A friend of mine will drive from Indiana to Pennsylvania to fix his sons car. Take off work, drop everything, and go. Complains about the whole shebang but can't tell his 40 year old son no. His daughter, son in law and 4 grand kids live with him as well for the last 15 years so he doesn't have to travel to fix theirs.

 

[sberry]

We are pretty good at this. My wife solved a problem with a wheel on the road was pretty good.

 

[Kent_B]

I've driven a couple hours to work on a loose crank bolt on my son's car. It turned into a timing belt job. We did it in a college dorm parking lot. Good times...........

 

[Hal]

Got some friends/customers who will call for repair advice. Latest one was," Can we drive the ?90? VW 40+ miles with no power steering fluid? It leaks out as fast as we put it in." I told him that if the PS belt is only for the pump, to take it off and go, otherwise he will be buying a PS pump, and maybe other parts, if it seizes and burns up the belt. If it also drives the water pump, he would never notice that until the engine overheated .

 

[LS6 Tommy]

Not really a remote repair...
My wife once drove 30 miles on a flat tire when she had a year of free roadside service. Destroyed an $80.00 tire. When I asked her why, she said she wasn't going to stop at the roadside on Orange Street in Newark. I asked her why she didn't just drive the 5 minutes back to the secured, guarded parking garage at work and call the service. She just gave me a blank stare. She did almost the exact same thing again about a 2 months later...

Tommy

 

[58Yeoman]

My 2012 Ford Escape doesn't even have a gas cap. There is a rubber flap inside the door that seals the filler pipe when you close it.

 

[LEVE]

I drove from St. Paul MN to Dallas Ft Worth one Christmas to R&R my daughters Mustang II transmission... It was good to get out of the frigid winter in St. Paul...

 

[Bondo]

Anyone else expected to perform repairs from a distance, or got a similar holiday tale?

Ayuh,..... I do this quite regularly, with my tree guy,....
I barter(my mechanicin') with him for my firewood,....

A few weeks ago, he headed south with another tree guy in that guy's tree truck,....
Somewhere, 'n I still don't know where, the belt broke on his motor, so they pulled over, found another belt, put it on, but it wouldn't start,....

Frank calls me askin' what to do, so I ask, What motor, what vintage,..??
We figure out it's a DT466, of the newer electronic version,....
I google it, 'n find the cam position sensor is next to the crank pulley,...
I call Frank, 'n he says, Oh Ya, I see it,.... no wires on it though,...
I tell him to find the wires, hook 'em back up, 'n I'm bettin' they'll be good to go,....

No call back, so I figure they're all set,....

Next day, Frank calls, the motor is overheatin', where's the t-stat, so they can remove it,..??
My 1st question to him is, "Did ya get the Right belt, or just a close enough belt",..??
Of course, it's the wrong belt, but just a couple inches to long,....
I tell him to get the Right belt, 'n don't worry 'bout where the t-stat is, it ain't the problem,...

No more calls in the last couple weeks, so I Guess they're gettin' along just fine for now,....

Along the same lines,...
I fix 1,000s of boat motors 'bout everyday, remotely, from iboats boatin' forums,.....

 

[theoldwizard1]

A couple of years ago my niece had a "crank, no start" on her pickup. It was diagnosed as a a bad fuel pump. Towing and replacement were about $1,000.

A few weeks later she was visiting her parents (2 states over) when the same thing occurred. She kept saying it won't "turn over", which to her meant it would not start. After we got straight on terminology, I realized, the engine was flooded because the idle air bypass valve was clogged.

I explained how to clear a flooded engine and it started right up.

They thought was a miracle worker !

 

[Doug Arthurs]

I sometimes try and repair customers equipment remotely to save them a service call but usually is doesn't work out and we have to come out anyway. Every once in a while it does work and makes you feel pretty good.

 

[Outlander]

They thought was a miracle worker !

I only get that when my wife pushes the wrong button on the remote and I bring the movie channel back to life.

For the inquiring minds, yes I did drop by the dealer and picked up a new gas cap and changed it today.

Thanks for the stories, guys.....

 

[Iron-Iceberg]

Get them AAA and don't call me.

 

[wake74]

I'm convinced stuff only breaks at our house while I am away on business. The further away from the house the better. I know as soon as I board a flight to North Africa, Singapore, etc., something is going to break. Then the misses calls (or texts) at like some horrible time locally, that the heat in the house is not working, and she has the thermostat off the wall. I now just tell her to call someone and cut the check.

We have long since come to terms that our marriage will not survive me trying to trouble shoot a problem with her from a distance, so let's not even try. I love her, but I would not define her as "handy". On more than one occasion when I had her push the brake pedal so I could bleed the brakes at the track or in the shop, I couldn't get fluid, and she was complaining of the pedal hitting the floor. Hmm..you are pushing the one in the middle right?

 

[Chief919]

All the time for my mom. Usually its is "the car did X, could this be because I did Y" and the two are not at all related, like the tire is low and did her overfilling the washer fluid cause it.

 

[Jinks]

A friend calls me from 600/700 miles away. "I just put a new ignition in my Harley. It started right up & sounded great! I shut it down, grabbed a beer, & now it won't start! Any idea what's wrong?"

I've been fixin' his wiring nightmares for years, so I told him to just trace all the wiring from the module to the battery & the plugs.

He called back 30 minutes later & told me one of the battery leads had burned in two on an exhaust pipe. Cut it, spliced it, & everything was good. I've seen his wiring before, neat is not his thing! I asked him if he'd taken the slack out so it wouldn't happen again. He said he had, & hasn't called back, so I guess it's good.....

 

[AJ.]

I know its not quite what you were asking, but I have done repairs in some pretty remote places

Earlier this year we were heading across the Simpson Desert in Central Australia which is the largest parallel sand dune Desert in the world. We came across a guy who had snapped the drawbar on his camper trailer. I "repaired" it for him. Hooked 3 batteries together and got some jumper leads and welded 4 spare spring hangers on the sides of the drawbar. It wasn't pretty but it was effective as it got him all the rest of the way across the Desert

https://postimage.org/

https://postimage.org/

Cheers Andrew

 

[Outlander]

@AJ. - not what I was looking for, but a repair on the wild side for sure!! Love the welding mask!

@wake74 - I hear ya! Had furnace issues at home this fall and finally had my wife take pictures of the panels and thermostat so I could diagnose. Needed a repair guy (I have a maintenance contract), so I told the Mrs to call the number on the wall. Turns out the plumbers number is there too as the water tank is beside the furnace. Luckily, he recommends waiting as it is a holiday and will cost an arm and a leg - I do the follow up with the Mrs and we finally call the right person and get it fixed under the contract. I come home a few days later and it is 82* in the house (Yes, I use Fahrenheit on my thermostat), turns out there was a short in the wiring after the repair guy was there and it would not shut off. Yes, he came back and fixed it!

 

[Throbbin Rods]

Daughter#1 in Tennessee, Daughter#2 in Texas, Dad in New Hampshire. Bought them both AAA Memberships and they call me before agreeing to any repairs. Both drive 2014 cars so not a ton of problems but when they drove older cars I did a fair bit of long distance diagnostics and even found family of friends in their area to do the repairs.