Stupid things that PO's did to your car

[gearheadE30]

I'm the 3rd owner, and the previous owner was a semi-enthusiast. He actually spent the money on the car, and I managed to save it from his son. Only really 2 things from him: used drywall screws to screw a GPS mount arm into the center console and the crap window tint that ended with me replacing the rear window a good 4 times before I managed to get one with a working defroster...

[SpecM]

the PO on my '88 eta used STEEL WOOL to seal the threads on a leaky oil drain plug

seriously, he could of just used a $3 oversized plug that took 5-10 minutes to install, but no...

[SamE30e]

Tried to wire rear fogs, in the process fucked up the actual front fog light wiring. Now there is red wiring everywhere (P.O used the same colour wiring for everything.)

[marcreid]

My car's PO was strange. He was pretty meticulous about taking care of the engine and keeping the bay clean, yet he:
-Cut off the bottom of the airbox and said it was like a cone filter
-Put an eta tach in an iS
-took the iS front valence off and got rid of it and the foglights
-Put that nasty blue purple bubbling tint crap on the windows
-removed ABS and cruise control
-had one bottle cap and three basket weaves (oddly, the tires matched)
-installed Carquest shocks and struts
-sat on the sunroof and broke it
-ripped (yes, ripped) the check control panel out
-and left beer caps, cigarette butts, french fries, vomit stains, and so much more inside.

Thankfully the car was cheap, and now that its all sorted out, I have a rust free, mechanically sound 325is

[FredK]

-he didn't believe in gaskets. However, he was pastor in the Form-a-Gasket church. (First Reform-a-Gasket?)

[flyguy91318]

Had temp wire and oil pressure wire backwards. Cheep ebay racing seats, put nice hole in dash for some ricer tac

[phi]

i got the car for 500. but this is what stupid things people could do....
idiots! ooh well was only 500.
- PO cut the stock shifter to make it shorter and put on a ugly universal shiftknob.
- Horrible speaker wiring and only rear speakers work.
- replaced the sunroof seal and filled with some sort of hard clear gel stuff.
- really really bad custom exhaust job.
- used zip ties to hold on ripped boots on steering rack.
- heated springs to make the front of the car lower.
- 5% window tint that was done horrible.

[Gooch]

I got pretty lucky, my car was completely stock, however, the previous owner of my car decided to:

-disable the power antenna (cut every wire, including the antenna wire itself...wtf?) and the central locking. I still don't know how he managed to disable the central locking and I'm STILL trying to figure it out. He disabled both because "they're prone to going bad." Good one.

-there was some ridiculous and completely non-functional alarm installed in the car

-dildo/pickle shift knob

-cigarette burn in the back seat

-drilled holes in the center console for a Husco arm rest

...I think that's it.

[Hick]

tapped into the cluster plugs to wire the stereo

[dannyyisntt]

may or may not have put it into a pond at sometime....Then parked it under the only tree in a gravel yard for 1-2 years.

[RainierHooker]

The PO took it to Les Schwab... shitty store brand struts/shocks (3 of four blown when I got it), copious amounts of blue locktite on every bit of the suspesion, except the rear swaybar which was left un-attached on one side.
Then he let it sit for who-knows-how-many-months before he sold it to me; nasty gas.
Oh, and the damn Chico State sticker in the back window...

All in all though, I didn't have it too bad.

[JT325is]

my car was pretty clean all i had to do was replace the volvo lip. other than that it was all gravy :)

[StereoInstaller1]

I quit counting dents at 30...on the drivers door
Balljoints so bad the car was unsafe to push
Struts were so worn that they collapsed all by themselves
Glovebox never opened until I took it out
Every fluid leaked copious quantities
Typical wear items: belts/hoses/mounts/bushings, etc, all repaired before it ever was started...poor little thing!

It is still shabby as fuck though. Now on 4th windshield, next one will be new. Gonna get something for a fresh motor, I fucking swear. Interior is falling apart still, seat rails broken, just all kinds of shit.

However, reading what some of you guys got stuck with makes me feel way better!

[bmwsun]

1.) overtightened the oil plug and went to change the oil after driving the car for several thousand miles and one quarter turn the plug falls out.
2.) he somehow he bent the hood next to the emblem and didnt damage the grills..dont know how he managed to do that
3.) he installed an aftermarket alarm system with a kill switch in the console
4.) he decided to run the front spoilier up on a parking curb
5.) PO slid the car in to a snowbank and dented the gas cap cover and the body (only slightly)

[SpecRaceM5]

I have had my fair share of "fun" discoveries between my cars, my brothers, and my dads. My most resent purchase has been pretty clean. Only a few small complaints. It has about 20 years of dog hair in every crack of the interior. Purple bubble tint which I removed. 4 wires going from the dash to the trunk for a cd changer. The worst part of that is that they stabbed the rear firewall to make a hole for the wires to pass through. Also found it odd that they cut the rear speaker wires in order to install 3 feet of aftermarket speaker wire which was then spliced back into the stock speaker connectors. Otherwise I have been very happy with the car. PO was pretty upfront and honest. The work he said was done to the car (which he did not have recipts for) was actually done! Usually when I hear "the timing belt was just replaced", I later find it was replaced at 60,000 miles on a car that is going on 200,000 miles.

Great thread btw.