“Anytime you’re having car issues in an unknown area bring it to a Walmart auto center.”
Long drives have a way of stacking small risks until one moment tips everything over.
For one man nearing the end of a cross-country road trip, that failure came in a Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, parking lot, and what followed turned into a costly, weeks-long ordeal that left his car stripped of parts and his savings nearly gone.
TikTok creator @allstatesnobreaks, who is documenting his attempt to drive through all 50 states and has currently completed 32 of them, shared the experience in a viral storytime video that has now passed 29,600 views.
“A one-night trip to Myrtle Beach ended up costing me $7,000 in just two weeks,” he says.
He explains that he had been driving for months and was coming off the tail end of a 15,000-mile road trip. On the way back to New York, where he planned to move into a new apartment after two months of sleeping in his car, he decided to stop for one night in Myrtle Beach. After checking into his Airbnb, he headed out for food.
“I usually check into the Airbnb and go to Chipotle,” he says, joking about grabbing what he considered an expensive $9 burrito.
“My brake line explodes in the parking lot,” he says. He explains that when a brake line fails, there is no loud sound and no visible burst. Instead, the car simply stops responding the way it should. “I hit my brakes, and, at best, the car starts to slightly slow down.”
He ran over a curb, pulled the emergency brake, and managed to bring the vehicle to a stop. Now stuck off Highway 501 in Myrtle Beach, he quickly realized he was not in an area that made getting help easy. “This is not a walkable city,” he says. The nearest auto parts store was about a mile down the highway.
Not wanting to pay for an Uber, he decided to walk instead. Between checking the damage and navigating traffic along the road, the trip took about an hour.
At the store, he bought vice grips and brake fluid and asked about renting tools. He admits that he had never replaced a brake line before and was exhausted after driving for ten hours that day.
The parts clerk discouraged him from trying to fix it himself and instead offered to connect him with a mobile mechanic. By that point, it was late, dark, and near freezing. The mechanic arrived and told him they would start work the next morning.
The next morning brought another complication. The parking lot where the car now sat, at a Red Lobster, would not allow work due to local regulations. The mechanic suggested towing the car to his home instead. “I’m sitting here with my last $5K in savings,” he says, but he agreed because he needed to get back to New York quickly.
At the mechanic’s house, they talked about cars and travel while inspecting the damage. The mechanic determined that the rusted brake line required a specific bubble flare union. They drove back to the auto parts store during what the creator described as a corporate visit, with district managers present. “They recognize him,” he says. The district manager placed a rush order from Tennessee, scheduled to arrive the following day.
With no repair possible yet, he walked back to his hotel and booked another night.
He shares what happens next in a follow-up video the next morning.
“I wake up to a text from the mobile mechanic saying my caliper is seized,” he says.
Still trusting him, he meets him back at the auto parts store to order a replacement and brings it to the mechanic’s house to install it. While they’re there, a woman shows up to cut down a massive oak tree on a nearby property.
An argument breaks out over who owns the land and whether cutting the tree is a terrible idea. “I’m sitting there awkwardly watching it unfold,” he says.
The conflict escalates, police arrive, and the situation turns tense. “This lady was extremely racist,” he says. He even vouches for the mechanic while officers look through reports and tax records. Then, in the middle of all that chaos, another issue surfaces. “The caliper we just bought is faulty because the boot is ripped,” he says.
At that point, he books a third night at the hotel. When the next caliper still doesn’t arrive the following day, it turns into a fourth night. By day four, he receives another message stating that the caliper is finally installed, but now the brakes supposedly need to be vacuum-bleed. “I’m gonna put this very bluntly,” he says. “My 2000 Buick LeSabre does not need to be vacuum bled.”
That’s when his trust finally cracks. “I knew something was fishy,” he says, so he calls a well-reviewed tow truck driver and explains the entire situation. The driver’s response only exacerbates the situation. “He tells me this is actually really common in Myrtle Beach,” he says.
They go back to the mechanic’s house with plans to remove the car. What they find shocks him. “There’s no brake line, no rear pads, the rotors are gone, the catalytic converter is swapped,” he says.
Even the brand-new front rotors he had recently purchased are missing. “I think he needed time to find a junk Buick LeSabre,” he says. “And I think he found it.”
By that point, most of his savings had been depleted. It was a Sunday, and the tow truck driver moved the car to a storage unit. The driver also offered to contact repair shops that could continue the work while the owner returned to New York.
He boarded a flight to Albany, New York, and left the car behind. The repair bill for the damage totaled $2,500, which he says was $500 more than he originally paid for the car itself. By that Friday, the shop completed the first round of repairs.
Then another financial hurdle appeared. Due to a previous tenant issue, his landlord required three months’ rent up front. That expense left him without enough money to fly back to Myrtle Beach to retrieve the car.
Mobile mechanics often feel like the easier option. They come to you, and they finish faster since they focus on one vehicle at a time. They also reduce overhead by eliminating the need for a physical shop. In most cases, this keeps prices competitive with those of local workshops.
That said, not all mobile mechanics operate the same way. Some work for larger companies and may still face pressure to recommend additional services, while others run independently.
For larger repairs, mobile mechanics often coordinate with traditional shops, which can drive up costs.
Airtasker reports that hourly labor rates for mobile mechanics in the U.S. range from $15 to $125, although the final price is influenced by a range of other factors.
Commenters flood the post with advice and disbelief. One person writes that insurance or AAA should always come first since those companies manage repairs and negotiate rates.
“They will tow it to the nearest repair place,” the commenter adds.
Another person reacts to the long chain of events with pure shock, writing that the story “took an insane turn of events.”
A third keeps the message blunt. “First mistake is going to Myrtle,” they write.
Motor1 has reached out to @allstatesnobreaks through TikTok messages for additional details. An update will follow if he replies.
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