A Man Made failure can be very hard to find. I get two or three a year that make me pull my hair out. Most of the time I know something is rotten, because it looks like some one has man handled the area in question.
A man-made failure is still a failure, but a man-made failure will cause many more issues during the diagnosis.
Someone caused the failure, it did not happen on its own.
What did they do or not do right…
Man made failures are not a normal condition related to age or heat. A man-made failure is caused by an owner doing DIY repairs or a junior mechanic working on the car the wrong way.
The part pictured above is from a Nissan. The Nissan was at a car wash for an engine detail and two days later it would not run correctly and set a lean code (P0171). Yes, the check engine light came on.
Issues after an engine detail are very common.
I have many car owners that have skills, and they bring the car to me when the job is outside what they can do. I am Ok with that. Doing your own repairs is fine, just do not bring it to me in a basket and expect it to be cheep to put back together.
The image above and just below are from a 6.0 V8 Chevy engine. The two Chevrolet knock sensors, live in a well under the intake manifold. The ash look on the sensors is due to an engine detail. The hot water under high pressure went into the well area and worked its way into the sensor. Boo Hoo, it set a code and it was only four days after the engine detail.
If your car is 8 years old or older, I would not recommend to do any high pressure washing around the engine and engine harness. The damage high pressure water will do, can cost you more trouble than its worth. I wash my engine bays with hot low pressure soap & water. Then I blow dry everything before re-starting the engine.
Car owners can cause more issues than a junior tech, because they just do not know any better. The next image below is just that case. The owner installed a fancy gauge kit on his Toyota Supra and then odd things started to happen about a month later.
Clients lie, yes I said it, they lie. It is just like a little kid getting in trouble, they did something that caused a problem, and now they need a bail out, but they do not want to admit they did it.
The normal story I hear often is a friend installed it for me or I had a shop install it and now it does not work.
With more Q&A you find out that they never had a friend or shop install it. Go figure.
I have worked with many junior technicians and every one of them had questions. I like it when they ask before they jump right into the fire. The image above is from a man-made failure that an 8 year tech made.
I worked with him for 4 months and never questioned his work. One day I had a Toyota Camry pop in that had an odd issue. It was running rich and had an odd flutter upon acceleration. I had never seen anything like this before.
After 2 hours of tests I had my answer. I did not like what I found. The cam shaft gear was touching the signal wire to the #1 injector. It was causing extra injection pulses, causing the rich fuel mixture and engine flutter.
The tech had just replaced the valve cover gasket the week before.
When I showed the tech the findings, he had a I don’t care response. When I asked him why he felt this way, he said, look at the car, it’s a P.O.S.
The tech quit that Friday.
It does not matter how old a car is or the condition the car is in. Every repair needs to have the same quality. Service above self. Doing your best every time not just some of the time.
P.O.S. defined: pile of shit
It’s all good under the hood. Anthony Xavier ASE Master Technician
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