Working on friends/family car

>Father in laws truck is running rough/sputtering/misfire etc
>calls mechanic for "full tune up" (turns out it just covers plugs, wires, rotor and cap, air filter, fuel filter, pcv valve and oil change with filter)
>500 bucks quoted
>over hear this and say hey man I'll do it all for you, and I'll get the parts through work at 20 percent off, no labor charge too
>buy all the shit for 130 dollars
>pop hood
>Oh my fucking God
>nissan frontier with 3.3L engine
>all the "tune up" gear on truck except for oil and filter appear to be factory
>oil filter and drain plug were torqued on by walmart tech to 900ft/lbs
>plug wires wrapped in electric tape and badly frayed
>fuel filter completely fucked, and no way to de pressure system aside from removing fuel pump fuse and then cranking engine until lines are empty
>pcv valve hasn't worked in God knows how long
>air filter black like tar
>ngk double platinum plugs completely fucking shot probably broken down to like half inch gap between electrodes
>took all fuckin day because everything was seized up
>removed fucking hood just to get to last spark plug which is in the fire wall basically
>covered head to toe in oil, fuel and grease build up
>wonder how the fuck this truck has ran for 18 Years like this

So this is the 5th or 6th family/friends car that I work on only to discover how much they fucking neglect their shit. Do u guys still work on people you know's cars or is that like the first thing you learn not to do once you become more serious at cars?

who is this fluid druid?

No, I pay other people to do that. Fell for the meme one time a few years back and I don't plan on doing it ever again

Some random bitch I saw on here, I have that same car so I saved the pic

So you don't do your own car either?

Anyone else got stories about working on family cars

>nissan frontier with 3.3L engine
oh my fuck. i had an xterra with the 3.3 (literally a frontier except suv instead of pickup) and fuck that manifold. i feel your pain.

>fluid druid

Mein fucking sides

Might install a strut tower bar for my ancient chinese neighbor. Should I?

How did u get to that rear plug? I got giant gorilla hands and it's hell for me. I just did everything else and waited for my father in law to get home since hes a smaller man

Went to visit my girlfriend's parents at their house. One of the headlights in her father's Camry went out. I had a spare bulb in my trunk so I said I could go out and replace it for him. Came back 10 minutes later and her family thought I cured cancer.

>mum buys second hand car
>neglects it for 6 fucking years
>brake pads are down to the backing plate
>car shakes at any speed
>dents all over it
>engine still runs because ford tuff, runs like shit though
>exhaust drops off while she's driving
>wants me to list it online for 4 grand
>me - uhhh no one is gonna buy that for 4 grand
>stop being so negative
i like working on my grandmas car though, hyundai really thought about ease of service when they designed it

I don't think I would ever want to work on my families cars besides immediate family.

anything that goes wrong in the future they will blame me for it since I was the last person to work on it.

I wouldn't mind lending a hand though as long as they are the ones mainly working on it

Besides my wife's car I don't work on anybody's cars except my car buddies who are doing performance mods and not boring maintenance shit.

>hyundai really thought about ease of service when they designed it
That's because they knew it would break down often.

I wish my buddies would call me to do performance stuff and not just "hey bro wanna help me swap a cracked exhaust manifold?"

Father I law putting in that last plug, talked to him and apparently I was right everything except the oil and filter were oem from the factory. Then my stupid ass mother in law complained that "now things aren't gonna be good anymore because it's no longer factory original. Dumbass bitch. I guess the Nissan 3.3 is a God machine if it can go 18 Years without a tune up.

hose that engine bay out it looks rank

>implying no car breaks

A manufacturer designing a car for ease of maintenance gets a fucking reward for not being like BMW.

Kek, my sisters old as fuck Hyundai Excel is one of the most reliable little cars i've ever come across and all my fleet vans have been switched over to Hyundai I-loads because they absolutely shit over all over everything else commercially available from a reliability, cost and servicing stand point.

I do small things like helping friends/family change bulbs, flat batteries, and very occasionally help with basic services, brakes etc but for the most part it's not worth my time, especially if they're one to neglect their car. My mother is notorious for neglecting her car insisting she takes it in to get serviced ever six months....what she really means is someone does an oil change every six months and gives her a huge list of shit that needs to be done/is overdue which she ignores until something catastrophically fails then bitches about the cost to replace/fix whatever.

>I wouldn't mind lending a hand though as long as they are the ones mainly working on it
this never happens and you end up doing most of the work while they fuck off or it just doesn't get done
what you need to do is make them pay you upfront or agree to payment even when dick all gets accomplished
i usually charge a pizza and a 6 pack, or two pizzas and a 12 pack if they want to have some
usually for just standing around
>they don't get jewed, i get free pizza and beer while i chuckle about how shit they are

>anything that goes wrong in the future they will blame me for it since I was the last person to work on it.
bingo

Grandparent's 2004 dodge grand caravan. they would rack about 20,000 miles on it a year and get it serviced once a year on the same day.
Rotors: Warped
Engine mounts: Cracked
Suspension: Collapsed on rear driver side
MAP sensor: Fucked
Electrical: Chewed by rodents
Tires: To the wire
Subframe: Rusted and falling apart
Body: Rusted
Rear headlamps: Epoxied in place
Cylinders 3 and 4 weren't getting spark so it was driving as a V4 for about 10,000 miles at least.

Holy fucking shit