Nicked rubber seal or broke a clip during DIY car repair
Non-mechanic car owners attempting DIY part replacements often accidentally nick rubber seals or snap plastic connectors during the process. This leads to anxiety over whether the accidental damage creates a major new repair job or if it can be easily fixed.
What people tried
Every workaround mentioned in the threads below. We haven’t tested any of them — and nobody here is claiming they worked.
- 1leaving the damaged part installed while monitoring vehicle performance
- 2waiting for a scheduled professional garage visit to properly diagnose and fix the issue
- 3Finding an old motor to take replacement rods from or buying a new motor entirely.
- 4Run it if the drive shaft is good and the seal your good
In their words
Unedited, grouped by where they were said, most upvoted first within each place, each linked to the thread it came from.
“Decided to buy a replacement evap valve to fix it (only to find out that the previous one was stil working as i couldn't blow through it).”source ↗
“Threw the new valve on there regardless but noticed i have nicked it as seen in the image.”source ↗
“I never work on cars as i am not a mechanic i went into this knowing full well isues could happen.”source ↗
“I’m assuming that hole isn’t supposed to be there. Are there any cheap repairs or do I just need a new tail shaft housing”source ↗