Last Tuesday was my worst day in the shop all year

I had a 2017 F-150 roll in with a rough idle and a check engine light. Codes pointed to a bad VCT solenoid on the driver side bank, easy money right? I got the valve cover off and found the solenoid bolt was seized so bad it snapped off flush with the head. That ate up two hours of drilling and tapping while the owner is texting me every twenty minutes. Then I put it all back together and realized I forgot to plug in the camshaft position sensor. Fired it up and it ran worse than before. Had to pull the cover again to get that plug connected. By the time I was done I was covered in oil and the shop AC had been broken all day. Has anyone else had a simple fix turn into a six hour nightmare for no good reason?

2 comments

2 Comments

davidwright1d ago

Oh man, that's brutal. Nothing worse than an "easy" job turning into a whole day's fight. Bet you thought about that shop AC all afternoon.

the_sean21h ago

Nailed it dude. Spent half the afternoon daydreaming about that AC unit like it was a lost lover or something. Pretty sure I hallucinated the sound of it kicking on a couple times. By the time I finally got home I just stood in my own driveway for a solid five minutes staring at nothing. Should have just charged them double for the mental anguish fee.