Worker Drops Bolt During Oil Change. Then She Dismantles the Car

An apprentice made a mess of a simple oil change: "That’s a lot of work for a cabin filter!"

Photo by: Unsplash.com

Stacy Fernandez

By: Stacy Fernandez

Aug 28, 2025 at 9:00pm ET

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Sometimes, one tiny mistake can snowball into a massive project.

That’s what happened to this eager mechanic apprentice who was just trying to get the job done.

Mechanic Takes Dedication to the Next Level

In a trending video with more than 6,000 views, autoshop owner Norm (@mechanicofthestars) shared the surprising thing he walked in on in his shop.

“God[expletive] apprentices,” Norm says at the start of the clip.

In the video, Norm is walking around the shop when he notices something unusual with a car his apprentice is working on—the entire dashboard has been removed.

Curious, he looks in and finds his apprentice squeezed into a tight corner inside the stripped-down interior, actively working on a repair.

When asked what on earth she was doing, the sweaty apprentice sheepishly admits she dropped a bolt, and it seems this was the only way to remove it.

“It’s only here for an oil change; what are you doing?” he says, jokingly upset.

“Never a dull moment when working with apprentices!” Norm adds in the caption.

Is This a Big Deal?

For non-mechanics, removing a dashboard isn’t a small job.

It means unbolting the steering wheel, disconnecting the AC and vents, unplugging wiring harnesses, and pulling out the entire front of the car’s interior. It’s a task usually reserved for major repairs, not a single missing bolt.

A mechanic explained that the task could easily take six hours of labor.

Tell us what you think!

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Comments

“It's not usually difficult, but it can definitely be tedious figuring out what pops into where and why there's a screw in some dumb location,” a person in a car Reddit group said.