The Art of Wild Repairs: A Ferrari Owner's Story

As I sat in my trusty old Ford Fiero, which had been my faithful companion for many years, I couldn't help but think that this might be the perfect vehicle to embark on a wild repair adventure. My speedometer, which had been acting up on our journey home, finally gave out and I knew it was time to tackle the problem head-on. I decided to take a closer look at the issue and discovered that the speedometer quit working due to faulty sensors.

I brought my Fiero to a trusted mechanic, who took one look at the car and declared, "Well, this thing's had its engine out for two years already! Let's get to work." The mechanic proceeded to take apart various components of the car, including the throttle body, to diagnose the problem. After a series of tests, it was discovered that the speed sensor had failed, causing the car to spin the wheels in a circular motion.

The repair bill quickly added up, with parts and labor costs totaling $2,390 and 67 cents. While some of the repairs were necessary, others could have waited until later. The mechanic told me, "It's not urgent, but having a working speedometer is kind of important." I couldn't argue with that.

As we began to work on the car, I realized that some of the issues were related to wear and tear over the years. For example, the brake pads needed replacing, and the valve cover gaskets had developed oil leaks. However, these repairs could be done at a later time, once the more pressing issue with the speedometer was resolved.

One of the most surprising expenses turned out to be the cost of a new thermostat. "That's like five dollars on any GM product," my mechanic quipped, as he quoted me $280 for parts and labor. While it may seem like a small amount, it added up quickly when combined with other costs.

Despite the initial shock of the repair bill, I couldn't help but feel a sense of satisfaction at having tackled the problem head-on. After all, that's what owning an old car is all about – getting your hands dirty and figuring out how to fix things on your own. And besides, as my mechanic told me, "Welcome to Ferrari prices. Dandy." Ah, yes, it seems that my trusty Fiero had a few secrets up its sleeve.

As I watched the repair work unfold, I couldn't help but think about the thrill of buying and owning a car sight unseen. It was like having a new adventure every time I got behind the wheel. And speaking of adventures, I received an unexpected visit from a mysterious stranger who claimed to be a mechanic from Omega Auto Clinic in Newton, Kansas. "We'll send someone over to fix your exhaust system," they said with a smile. Ah, it seemed that my trusty old Fiero had one more surprise up its sleeve.

In the end, as I drove off into the sunset with my repaired speedometer and newly-minted brake pads, I couldn't help but feel grateful for this wild repair adventure. After all, as any car owner knows, there's nothing quite like the thrill of taking on a problem head-on – especially when it comes to fixing a Ferrari.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enhello welcome to Huggies garage we are back in my 1990 Ferrari 348 the cheapest Ferrari 348 in the USA with nearly a hundred thousand miles I bought this thing in Florida for only $35,000 and drove it all the way home back to Kansas almost without any problems that is so impressive and given my bad luck I really didn't expect that to happen so I am super pleased buying this Ferrari was actually the first time I had driven a 348 since I was 17 years old I was in Las Vegas with my parents and when you're 17 in Vegas there's absolutely nothing you can do I guess my dad was up on the tables and he felt bad for me so he rented this Ferrari and we went out in the desert and just crashed this thing even though the only car that I had ever driven with a manual transmission before that was my buddy's Isuzu Trooper so I'm sure I did lots of damage to the gearbox of that car at the time I remember zinging the thing off the red line because I didn't remember to release the throttle when I put the clutch in and now 17 years later I own one it's it's awesome but now that I own one I have to face the reality of Ferrari ownership and that's fixing things I've never really gotten far with my other Ferraris fixing too many things because I didn't have them long enough whether they burned to the ground or I had to give the car back I know the wizard is very excited to see this thing and he's also really enjoying working on my Bentley Turbo R so there's some progress there that I can show you so let's get up to the car wizard it kinda looks like a 90s cocaine deals going down right here I've come for the stuff the good stuff some good stuffs happening here looky he has two of my nineties goodness together 1991 Bentley Turbo R it looks like you've torn right into this thing forgot that no over there done the window works perfectly now oh yeah that's nice yeah that's a lot better than just a bunch of thumping noises yeah oh I've forgotten the smell of a sink oh yes this is the kind of work you just whistle why you do it it's available so you're enjoying this car I don't get mad and curse and throw tools on my knees yes watching you work on cars is so soothing that's what everyone says the bob ross of auto mechanics right here ASMR really likes wrap their stuff in plastic huh yeah the motors are plastic wrap so they don't get water on them is that common I've seen this before I've seen plastic wrap a vapor here like that but I haven't seen window motors wrapped in plastic this part yeah that's common this part seems perfectly shaped for it there's a motor and a gearbox and then there's the sprocket that turns this chain up here that's a very over built window system there with a couple of relays and everything yeah it's serious I'm place the plastic gear inside there's also a black plastic coupling between this and this that breaks which is broke on this one rebuilding the motors looping all the chain and makes it like new again you've been saving me a little bit of money also from that original estimate right with some rebuild parts versus yeah on the brake pumps yeah this thing was hemorrhaging mineral oil which is mineral oil runs my brakes also the suspension so it's kind of important that this doesn't leak fluid everywhere in addition to the smell and the smoke and the prior hazard probably so well we know I've built that pressure whenever you the brake lights immediately go out break 1 & 2 so the pumps work so they just need to reseal them rebuild them I don't have to replace them let's say I'm gonna pull them off and check the little rod the push rod down in there there's your brake pump that's how it's the entire pump so what makes it go pushes on the bottom here a little push rod kind of like for the valves except it goes for the pump yeah look at that yeah sure push rod so it's straight is that what we're checking you sometimes these tips break off I see I wanted to have them on hand in case that happens we can just replace them this one looks okay I may just replace it anyways scored up pretty bad yeah this is what was leaking on the pump these two black black Oh rings big black o-rings I see and then you just stretch new o-rings over and gantt the housing fits on like this very nice wizard yep there's the big old turbo the big Gerrits ridiculous and you also got a rebuild kit for the power steering rack as well to save me some money yeah it comes to seals and bellows and everything just pull it apart there's certain seals that fail on it really all that needs to be replaced it looks like my typhoons back together too huh yeah I guess we do a short little poopy fleet update my 1992 GMC typhoon had a very leaky front differential which is no longer leaky no new output output shaft seals on the differential and how hard was it I had to pull the whole differential out it was kind of hard mm-hmm how much was it Oh would probably be three four hundred dollars to see labor now we're just waiting for an ABS computer from J&J Auto Wrecking then this will be back in business the 500 SL I've kind of put it on the back burner cuz I really wanted the Bentley back so it's still electrically weirded out it was ridiculous that's not my car that's not my car but this I I didn't buy this I actually bought this car about seven years ago and it's popped back up because my buddy Bob who's a dealer saw it at an auction and bought it's not knowing that it was my old car but the moment I saw it I knew and this is weird it is a 1993 Mercedes 300 SC which means it's the poverty spec s-class inline six you can see so much room for activities in here and really just a poverty spec s-class but still has the double pane glass and just way way over built they spent a billion dollars developing this chassis to have things like like a power rear view mirror which still works a lot of these get broken because people forget and they just yank on the mirror and break it this one this one still works I haven't seen this car for over seven years and it's held up pretty well Steve's a few little things huh just a few things ready for sale again I imagine Bob will sell it to you but free plug might as well you want to buy one of my old cars euro-asian Auto Inc on Facebook you can hit them up you'd probably give you a good price yeah let's get to the Ferrari now wizard let's do it what do you think what do you think of the paint I think the paint is not as bad as Jafar said it was thank you I can tell there's little waves here and there but no no I'm really enjoying the the roof off there's actually not a lot of wind buffeting it's nice I don't worry about my hair getting all tossed around not that you have to worry about that anymore but the seats I think I'm gonna do some kind of wild reupholstery to them not that you do upholstery but one thing you could look at is my speedometer the speedometer quit working on the journey home okay I don't know if there's something that we can do see if someone hooked or the cables broke perfect okay let's get on the lift wizard I kind of cheated on you a little bit with Freddie we kind of did a wizard segment in Florida before I drove at home I just wanted to make sure I wasn't doing anything really stupid what you kick oh we just looked it over he didn't know it a few things like the brakes are really need to be replaced yeah few other little things so you've hooked up something to something here it's an electronic speedometer I guess yeah anything coming out of the sensor that's why you're spinning the wheels yeah it starts to do something as you it goes to pass the Volt dies so the sensors did I think so we could try and they just I'm turning it too slow we can lower it down okay I guess while we have it up in the air though let's see how easy it is to reach this thermostat hopefully not engine out for a thermostat cuz this thing had its engine out just two years ago we don't wanna do that again I have to look up top really things from the top I think so okay no I haven't I don't know here's a couple of oil leaks yeah we we saw one here yeah on that drain plug and then there's another slight one up top just barely yeah you're gonna hear this exhaust for the first time it doesn't sound bad it just doesn't sound like really anything is undeserving of a Ferrari it's too quiet goodness I'm have to go begging for an exhaust off we go got nothing so the censors smoked okay well I have brakes I have a thermostat I have that sensor and then a few little oil leaks I guess the valve cover cover gaskets let's take a look under the hood oh well of course very nice no yacht payment out of this one no it doesn't look like a citation 10 out of this one well there's still a little bit for you to go in your office and chew on there is yes not perfect but I think it'd be pretty good yeah for a hundred thousand mile Ferrari flying out after buying it sight unseen I got pretty lucky I see you're shopping a little more modestly this time because that's just a normal steel band Submariner not any gold or diamond or bling on it wizard oh but it's so beautiful it's just a reasonable $10,000 there's no way they're $10,000 worth of stuff growing that Ferrari hey it's a good downpayment some of these prices are Ferrari prices rising huh the thermostat parts and labor a little bit of antifreeze gonna be $400 280 280 dollars for a little thermos is it made out of gold it looks like it oh that's a great start ok the brakes yes the 454 the front to 550 for the rear $1,000 for brakes which is well half of what it was for the AMG Wagon Utley so it is reasonable but it's weird that the backs are more expensive than the front the kit for the rear cost $100 more than the front that makes no sense but ok speed sensor for the speedometer mm-hmm parts and labor is 390 how much is this speed sensor the speed sensor was that's like five dollars on any GM product ok all right welcome to Ferrari parts valve cover gasket for both sides is 550 thank you jeez ok a little more labor-intensive that but I guess we never got this far with my Ferrari 355 because it burned to the ground before where we could took this they fester oh so we didn't get that far either because I turn it before okay yes sixty-seven cents are you just gonna spit on it and squeeze it back in is that what you're some teflon tape on it okay seal the threads and that'll take care of it well none of these things are urgent other than having a speedometer is kind of important but what's the grand total 2390 and sixty-seven cents two thousand dollars I mean that's not bad I definitely want this pedometer to work again I do need brakes the brakes do look pretty bad oh thermostat I definitely need heat during the winter so I guess we're doing I guess we're doing everything okay it made it home but welcome to Ferrari prices dandy can we just Fiero swap the thing no just swap it yeah probably do that it kind of sounds like a fear all right now the exhaust that's something we definitely need to figure out exhaust somebody please please send me an exhaust Omega Auto Clinic and Newton Kansas would love a random Ferrari exhausted show up please thank you for watching youhello welcome to Huggies garage we are back in my 1990 Ferrari 348 the cheapest Ferrari 348 in the USA with nearly a hundred thousand miles I bought this thing in Florida for only $35,000 and drove it all the way home back to Kansas almost without any problems that is so impressive and given my bad luck I really didn't expect that to happen so I am super pleased buying this Ferrari was actually the first time I had driven a 348 since I was 17 years old I was in Las Vegas with my parents and when you're 17 in Vegas there's absolutely nothing you can do I guess my dad was up on the tables and he felt bad for me so he rented this Ferrari and we went out in the desert and just crashed this thing even though the only car that I had ever driven with a manual transmission before that was my buddy's Isuzu Trooper so I'm sure I did lots of damage to the gearbox of that car at the time I remember zinging the thing off the red line because I didn't remember to release the throttle when I put the clutch in and now 17 years later I own one it's it's awesome but now that I own one I have to face the reality of Ferrari ownership and that's fixing things I've never really gotten far with my other Ferraris fixing too many things because I didn't have them long enough whether they burned to the ground or I had to give the car back I know the wizard is very excited to see this thing and he's also really enjoying working on my Bentley Turbo R so there's some progress there that I can show you so let's get up to the car wizard it kinda looks like a 90s cocaine deals going down right here I've come for the stuff the good stuff some good stuffs happening here looky he has two of my nineties goodness together 1991 Bentley Turbo R it looks like you've torn right into this thing forgot that no over there done the window works perfectly now oh yeah that's nice yeah that's a lot better than just a bunch of thumping noises yeah oh I've forgotten the smell of a sink oh yes this is the kind of work you just whistle why you do it it's available so you're enjoying this car I don't get mad and curse and throw tools on my knees yes watching you work on cars is so soothing that's what everyone says the bob ross of auto mechanics right here ASMR really likes wrap their stuff in plastic huh yeah the motors are plastic wrap so they don't get water on them is that common I've seen this before I've seen plastic wrap a vapor here like that but I haven't seen window motors wrapped in plastic this part yeah that's common this part seems perfectly shaped for it there's a motor and a gearbox and then there's the sprocket that turns this chain up here that's a very over built window system there with a couple of relays and everything yeah it's serious I'm place the plastic gear inside there's also a black plastic coupling between this and this that breaks which is broke on this one rebuilding the motors looping all the chain and makes it like new again you've been saving me a little bit of money also from that original estimate right with some rebuild parts versus yeah on the brake pumps yeah this thing was hemorrhaging mineral oil which is mineral oil runs my brakes also the suspension so it's kind of important that this doesn't leak fluid everywhere in addition to the smell and the smoke and the prior hazard probably so well we know I've built that pressure whenever you the brake lights immediately go out break 1 & 2 so the pumps work so they just need to reseal them rebuild them I don't have to replace them let's say I'm gonna pull them off and check the little rod the push rod down in there there's your brake pump that's how it's the entire pump so what makes it go pushes on the bottom here a little push rod kind of like for the valves except it goes for the pump yeah look at that yeah sure push rod so it's straight is that what we're checking you sometimes these tips break off I see I wanted to have them on hand in case that happens we can just replace them this one looks okay I may just replace it anyways scored up pretty bad yeah this is what was leaking on the pump these two black black Oh rings big black o-rings I see and then you just stretch new o-rings over and gantt the housing fits on like this very nice wizard yep there's the big old turbo the big Gerrits ridiculous and you also got a rebuild kit for the power steering rack as well to save me some money yeah it comes to seals and bellows and everything just pull it apart there's certain seals that fail on it really all that needs to be replaced it looks like my typhoons back together too huh yeah I guess we do a short little poopy fleet update my 1992 GMC typhoon had a very leaky front differential which is no longer leaky no new output output shaft seals on the differential and how hard was it I had to pull the whole differential out it was kind of hard mm-hmm how much was it Oh would probably be three four hundred dollars to see labor now we're just waiting for an ABS computer from J&J Auto Wrecking then this will be back in business the 500 SL I've kind of put it on the back burner cuz I really wanted the Bentley back so it's still electrically weirded out it was ridiculous that's not my car that's not my car but this I I didn't buy this I actually bought this car about seven years ago and it's popped back up because my buddy Bob who's a dealer saw it at an auction and bought it's not knowing that it was my old car but the moment I saw it I knew and this is weird it is a 1993 Mercedes 300 SC which means it's the poverty spec s-class inline six you can see so much room for activities in here and really just a poverty spec s-class but still has the double pane glass and just way way over built they spent a billion dollars developing this chassis to have things like like a power rear view mirror which still works a lot of these get broken because people forget and they just yank on the mirror and break it this one this one still works I haven't seen this car for over seven years and it's held up pretty well Steve's a few little things huh just a few things ready for sale again I imagine Bob will sell it to you but free plug might as well you want to buy one of my old cars euro-asian Auto Inc on Facebook you can hit them up you'd probably give you a good price yeah let's get to the Ferrari now wizard let's do it what do you think what do you think of the paint I think the paint is not as bad as Jafar said it was thank you I can tell there's little waves here and there but no no I'm really enjoying the the roof off there's actually not a lot of wind buffeting it's nice I don't worry about my hair getting all tossed around not that you have to worry about that anymore but the seats I think I'm gonna do some kind of wild reupholstery to them not that you do upholstery but one thing you could look at is my speedometer the speedometer quit working on the journey home okay I don't know if there's something that we can do see if someone hooked or the cables broke perfect okay let's get on the lift wizard I kind of cheated on you a little bit with Freddie we kind of did a wizard segment in Florida before I drove at home I just wanted to make sure I wasn't doing anything really stupid what you kick oh we just looked it over he didn't know it a few things like the brakes are really need to be replaced yeah few other little things so you've hooked up something to something here it's an electronic speedometer I guess yeah anything coming out of the sensor that's why you're spinning the wheels yeah it starts to do something as you it goes to pass the Volt dies so the sensors did I think so we could try and they just I'm turning it too slow we can lower it down okay I guess while we have it up in the air though let's see how easy it is to reach this thermostat hopefully not engine out for a thermostat cuz this thing had its engine out just two years ago we don't wanna do that again I have to look up top really things from the top I think so okay no I haven't I don't know here's a couple of oil leaks yeah we we saw one here yeah on that drain plug and then there's another slight one up top just barely yeah you're gonna hear this exhaust for the first time it doesn't sound bad it just doesn't sound like really anything is undeserving of a Ferrari it's too quiet goodness I'm have to go begging for an exhaust off we go got nothing so the censors smoked okay well I have brakes I have a thermostat I have that sensor and then a few little oil leaks I guess the valve cover cover gaskets let's take a look under the hood oh well of course very nice no yacht payment out of this one no it doesn't look like a citation 10 out of this one well there's still a little bit for you to go in your office and chew on there is yes not perfect but I think it'd be pretty good yeah for a hundred thousand mile Ferrari flying out after buying it sight unseen I got pretty lucky I see you're shopping a little more modestly this time because that's just a normal steel band Submariner not any gold or diamond or bling on it wizard oh but it's so beautiful it's just a reasonable $10,000 there's no way they're $10,000 worth of stuff growing that Ferrari hey it's a good downpayment some of these prices are Ferrari prices rising huh the thermostat parts and labor a little bit of antifreeze gonna be $400 280 280 dollars for a little thermos is it made out of gold it looks like it oh that's a great start ok the brakes yes the 454 the front to 550 for the rear $1,000 for brakes which is well half of what it was for the AMG Wagon Utley so it is reasonable but it's weird that the backs are more expensive than the front the kit for the rear cost $100 more than the front that makes no sense but ok speed sensor for the speedometer mm-hmm parts and labor is 390 how much is this speed sensor the speed sensor was that's like five dollars on any GM product ok all right welcome to Ferrari parts valve cover gasket for both sides is 550 thank you jeez ok a little more labor-intensive that but I guess we never got this far with my Ferrari 355 because it burned to the ground before where we could took this they fester oh so we didn't get that far either because I turn it before okay yes sixty-seven cents are you just gonna spit on it and squeeze it back in is that what you're some teflon tape on it okay seal the threads and that'll take care of it well none of these things are urgent other than having a speedometer is kind of important but what's the grand total 2390 and sixty-seven cents two thousand dollars I mean that's not bad I definitely want this pedometer to work again I do need brakes the brakes do look pretty bad oh thermostat I definitely need heat during the winter so I guess we're doing I guess we're doing everything okay it made it home but welcome to Ferrari prices dandy can we just Fiero swap the thing no just swap it yeah probably do that it kind of sounds like a fear all right now the exhaust that's something we definitely need to figure out exhaust somebody please please send me an exhaust Omega Auto Clinic and Newton Kansas would love a random Ferrari exhausted show up please thank you for watching you\n"