Watched a guy at a local shop in Portland try to fix a brake line with vice grips and tape last Saturday

I stopped by a friend's garage to borrow a jack and saw one of his customers trying to patch a corroded brake line with electrical tape and a pair of vice grips. Said he'd been driving like that for a week. I had to step in and explain that's a straight path to losing your brakes at 60 mph. Has anyone else run into scary shade tree fixes that made you question how some people are still alive?

2 comments

2 Comments

king.dakota2d agoMost Upvoted

MAN, I gotta push back on this a little. Look, I get that vice grips and tape is a BAD idea, no argument there. But calling it a "straight path" to death feels like a stretch. I've seen way sketchier stuff that people somehow survived - like a buddy of mine once drove a truck 200 miles with a fuel line held together by a chewed up piece of gum and a zip tie. That thing was a fire hazard waiting to happen, but he made it. I think people underestimate how much junk can limp home if you're careful and lucky. Not saying anyone should do it, but slapping a label like that on a shady fix ignores how many of us have gotten away with borderline insanity.

finley_walker572d ago

Makes me think how we all skate by on luck more than we want to admit, honestly.