I use to rebuild VWs when I was younger, did all of the work on my motorcycles, and try to pick my battles now that I'm older. It's hard to find the time to do the time consuming repairs, but sometimes that's just how things end up :^) The last time that I replaced the brake pads on one of the sedans I found a scored disc. It was Sunday, the dealer didn't have one in stock so I didn't get one until Monday afternoon, and ended up taking a day of vacation to get the job done. A lesson that I should have learned is not start on Saturday morning so that I can get parts if needed, but that's hard with three kids to run around on weekends.
My recent favorite 'stupid shadetree mechanic' trick was adding some power steering fluid to one of the sedans. I looked at it, noticed that it needed topping off, got a bottle fluid, and when I opened it the paper/foil liner in the cap dropped out and fluttered down to the open power steering fluid reservoir, while I'm frantically swatting at it. I spent about an hour trying to retrieve it, gave up, and a few days later while driving into town the power steering gave out while crossing a bridge. I REALLY had to wrestle the steering wheel to keep the car pointed in the right direction. I ended up being able to remove the reservoir without removing the pump from the car, and found the evil cap liner.
Juts one of those things that makes you mean, and then humble :^)
