In this Halloween Season we’re all about fear, and for some people there’s nothing scarier than a trip to the mechanic. That fear can be justified because take it from us, some scary stuff rolls through our doors. If you’re in the mood for some Halloween shivers then you’ll enjoy this selection of Automotive Horror stories. You’ll find mummies, stakes through vital organs, kittens in peril, bodies torn apart, ghostly brakes, and one of our favorite stories of a car brought back from the grave. 
Most are from our shop but all are true, and the ALL HAVE PICTURES! So turn up the scary music, turn down the lights, huddle up close, and prepare to be automotively terrified…
(just click any of the thumbnails for a larger image)
Horror Lurks Around Every Corner
Before moving to the uniquely ghastly we’ll start with the commonly awful… this is what we have to do to your vehicle when we repair things deep inside the engine compartment. The top pictures show a van in for an engine replacement. The second set is even worse, showing the dismembered body of a Honda Pilot in for a heater core repair. Why worse? 
While it’s not surprising that new engines are major surgery for any vehicle, small and inexpensive heater cores can generate the same horrifying bill. These systems are ‘just behind the firewall’, and it’s necessary to remove the entire steering and dash assemblies to get to them, meaning many hours of labor are needed to change a relatively inexpensive part. Scary!
The Mummy
If you’re a rat, your dream house is something dry, warm, and safe from predators. Unfortunately, that also describes a car’s engine. We occasionally find rats, mice, chipmunks, and other little furry creatures that have made a bad choice in real estate and paid for it with their lives. Here’s one that briefly made its home behind the vehicle’s bumper. Not much to say about this other than it’s vaguely interesting and that odd smell from your vehicle may not always be mechanical.
Haunted House
The Mummy Mouse above was a loner just passing through but we frequently run into vehicles that have become long term haunts for whole families of spiders, rats, and mice. These pictures come from a vehicle that had sat unused for years before the client decided to dust it off. The fairly elaborate rat nest in the manifold was an obstacle at first, but we were able to exorcise the evil spirits rodents and get him back on the road again.
Kitten in Peril
Our “Rodent of the Month” (the Mummy, above) made for our most popular Shop Talk column ever so we immediately followed up with this story about what happens to an adorable fluffy kitten that takes a 1000-mile trip… INSIDE a car’s engine. (Spoiler Alert: the story has a happy ending.)
Chipmunk On The Brink Of Extinction
Animal rescue really hit home at the shop when we were faced with saving the life of an endangered chipmunk. Chipmunks aren’t endangered, you say? This one was…
From the moment the Toyota Highlander slid into Andrew’s stall he knew he was facing a unique problem. The owners had seen evidence of rodents partying in their vehicle, but when they tried to break it up the rodents scattered like… well, like mice. Most got out but one took a bad turn and got stuck in the windshield pillar, nestled against the side curtain air bag. After waiting unsuccessfully for him to leave, the owners brought the Highlander in to us before the squeaking stopped. Getting Chippy out was no problem, but getting him out alive? The clock was ticking. Andrew loosened the cowling and gently prodded the very dazed chipmunk into an ASPCA-approved transparent polymeric small-animal transfer container. The whole Dwyer team helped transport the chipmunk to his new home in the blackberry bushes lining the Springwater Corridor. As Andrew opened the transfer container the chipmunk staggered out to the tune of “Born Free”, somewhat the worse for wear but ready to start his new life.
Bodies Torn Apart
An invisible killer stalks the highways and byways east of the Rockies, waiting silently on icy roads, reaching out to grab unsuspecting vehicles. Once it has a fingerhold it never lets go, and spreads a cancer through its victim that always ends in death. We’re talking about road salt, and the aggressively frame-killing rust it causes. We’re frequently asked to inspect vehicles that have escaped this terror of the East and all-too-frequently have to say it’s time to part with the vehicle when we find rust… rust damage to a vehicle’s frame can be deadly in an accident, and can sometimes kill the car without one. This picture isn’t from our shop, but from another that tried to revive a truck with frame rust… somewhat unsuccessfully.
Ghost Brakes
The invisible killer of rust claimed another victim, but we stopped it before it claimed the driver as well. This was another vehicle that a client had just bought from back East (without a pre-purchase inspection). The Dealer had bought the car at auction and must have noticed the brake system had almost completely rusted away, because rather than fixing it before sale they re-hung the original calipers and left all the other remaining corroded parts in place. The driver was left with a ghostly reminder of where brakes should have been but no actual brakes that could have stopped their car! This was a potentially deadly situation and one of the scariest reminders of why PRE-PURCHASE INSPECTIONS FOR YOUR VEHICLE ARE SO CRITICAL.
Stake Through Vital Organs
We quickly figured out why the windshield washer system wasn’t working; the end of the branch was a dead giveaway. The driver hadn’t even noticed when the limb pierced through their grille, crushed their washer bottle, and broke off to be an unnoticeable little stub; they’d only noticed their washer had quit. The fix was quick and obvious, but the dismembered washer bottle was a conversation piece in our lobby for quite a while.
Aliens Bursting From Stomachs
Few things are scarier than tire problems because if a tire fails while you’re driving then a “roadside breakdown” is one of the GOOD possibilities! That’s why we were so glad this tire failed so dramatically, and in our shop instead of on the road. The manufacturing defect in the sidewall popped out as soon as we aired it up but there was no help… it was off to the tire graveyard. (Just FYI, it’s usually possible to repair punctures on tires if the puncture is ON THE TREAD AREA. If it’s on the sides of the tire, it can’t be repaired and you’re going to have to buy a new tire.)
Zombie Car Returns From The Grave
This is the best kind of horror story, one with a moral that can help us all, but beware… it’s not for the faint of heart! A client (who we’ll call “Mr. X”) brought their vehicle in with a check-engine light, power loss, rough idle, and a severe oil leak. The vehicle had been running fine until all of a sudden the problems hit. We put the car on the rack and quickly diagnosed a leak in the valve cover gasket, likely caused by pressure building in the engine and pushing out the gasket. A little investigation gave more insight. Mr. X was overdue for an oil change… 20,000 miles overdue! Luckily, Mr. X brought the car in immediately before more major damage was done. We were able to clean the sludge off of the internal components, but not before we took the graphic and horrifying pictures below…
Before
Over the miles, the engine oil had broken down into its basic parts and formed a tar-like black sludge that coated the entire engine. The first two pictures show the top of the engine with the valve cover removed. The sludge had packed the engine such that the engine parts and oil had to fight through the goo in order to move. The second picture shows just how thick that goo was… that screwdriver is stuck into the sludge about 1½ inches!
After
It took a while, but we were finally able to clean everything out. In the third picture you can see the moving parts that were covered by the burnt oil. The last picture shows that same chamber that had the screwdriver stuck into it, now clean as a whistle. Once again, this is an engine that’s ready to run cleanly and efficiently.
Now go, enjoy your Halloween, but remember… automotive horror is always out there, waiting to HAPPEN TO YOU TOO! BWAAAA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HAA HAAA HAAAAAAA!
Update 11/14/18- Just when you thought you were safe, NEW HORRORS CAN STILL ARISE! This is what happened after one of our clients tried to drive through a very deep puddle in recent heavy rains. We drained the oil and blew out water from the engine, then refilled it and cranked it up. As you can see a little water still remained in the exhaust system, but it’s gone now and this is yet another car that we’ve returned from BEYOND THE GRAVE!
