Originally intended as a showcase for customers of our workshop and staff’s abilities, this page has evolved in an interesting and informative teaching tool, and one of the most popular pages on our site!
By nature, these are rather extreme examples of failures, and not what we typically find during service. Our goal at Atlantic Motorcar is to prevent these from happening to you and your car. But rest assured, if we can fix these challenges, regular maintenance is breeze!
We like to call this our “YES WE CAN!” page. You can also view many of these concerns on our Facebook page. Each photo can be enlarged by clicking on it.
With only 22,000 miles, rodent damage on the ABS rear wheel speed sensor data cables.
Somehow a mouse found its way inside the car, under the seat, under the carpet, under the foam padding, and into the rear wiring harness conduit for a quick snack. Required extensive work to diagnose and then removal of the passenger seat and carpeting to service.
A fun and rewarding job, installing a stainless steel sport exhaust on a brand new BMW M3 coupe. Looks pretty and sounds even better!
Audi/VW timing belt replacement is a bit of a project as it requires the removal of the front nose of car. When replacing the timing belt it is critical to also replace the engine water pump and thermostat as they are located behind the timing belt, requiring belt removal to access. Not the most technician friendly design. It is also strongly recommended to replace the tensioner roller, serpentine belt and inspect the tensioner seals for oil leakage.
A/C Evaporator Core Service, requires extensive dash removal.
Car suffered repeated loss of refrigerant, testing dye did not indicate external leakage but internal to dash. Note the yellow dye stains on the removed evaporator core, lower right photo.
Engine oil leakage from timing chain tensioners. Previous service facility had replaced the timing belt but not checked/serviced the tensioners seals. The new timing belt had been ruined by oil leakage and required replacement. Continued use of the car with the oil leakage and damaged timing belt would have resulted in severe engine damage. The timing chain tensioner seals should always be inspected for leakage during timing belt service.
Failed engine water pump, requires removal of the front nose of car.
The engine water pump and thermostat are located behind the timing belt, requiring belt removal to access. Not the most technician friendly design. Always replace the water pump and thermostat when servicing the timing belt.
Failure of clutch release bearing damaged TDC pin in flywheel.
Early replacement of the clutch release bearing would have avoided this expensive failure.
Aftermarket HO2 sensor spliced in by previous servicing facility, note nylon wire tie securing to sway bar! Any wonder why the Check Engine light was on? That’s why we use only Original Equipment parts on our client vehicles, aftermarket parts cost both the owner and workshop time and money.
Water entry into trunk filled and damaged the pneumatic body control module.
Believe it or not we were able to repair this unit, saving our client hundreds of dollars.
Our service facility is equipped with a state of the art electronic service workshop.
More importantly, we were able to find and correct the water leak preventing expensive future problems.
Defective evaporator core requires removal of the dash and center console.
Quite a project, the dye stains on the evaporator core provide confirmation of the leakage.
Although this part often fails from age, its cheap insurance to keep the cabin air filters clean and free of dirt and water, water and debris will enter and will cause corrosion to the evaporator core. Although a V70 is pictured here, the procedure is the same on the Volvo 850 and S70 models.
