What the dumbest car repair mistake you've made?
 

I'm sure the do-it-yourself-ers out there have all made some dumb mistakes....let's hear about them.

Mine has to be intentionally short-circuiting a timing belt tension warning light. When I was changing the timing belt on my 928, I noticed that the previous owner has spliced a wire in to keep the loose belt warning from occurring. I assumed that he must have done so because the warning light was faulty. The old belt wasn't loose.

I removed the short-circuit splice, finished installing the new belt, tensioned it, etc. Two days of driving and no warning lights. The third day the light came on. Being stupid, I figured there was no way the belt could be loose already since it was so recently-installed. I put the short-circuit wire back on.

After 2,500 miles, I decided to check the belt's tension. It was loose....really loose. For those that aren't familiar with Porsche 928s, they have intereference engines....the valves and pistons move in and out of the same physical space. So....a slipped or broken belt will pretty much destroy the engine......and I had been ignoring a legitimate warning.:crazy:

The belt is properly tensioned again (it had stretched, which is normal), and the warning light is now operating properly.

Flirted with disaster there.

What bone-head moves have you guys made????

I lost my keys to my old Land Rover while camping. I was really hung over and trying to hot wire the thing to get home. I touched a wire from the battery directly to the coil and watched all this ancient wiring glow red hot and turn to ash. It was kinda surreal. Now I was stuck.

My Dad towed me home 200km's behind his Escort GT. We used a old tire to cushion the jolt as the rope had no stretch to it. He would accelerate and I would do the braking. Problem was we couldn't make a hole in the tire and every time the tire hit the ground it would cut the rope. Every stop the rope would be a foot shorter and by the time we got home the rope was only 10' long.

Of course when my head cleared the next day up I realized I could have just unscrewed the dash panel and held the tumblers in lock cylinder by hand. Months later the key fell out of the bulkhead onto my feet while driving.

me, nothing so terrible yet, about a week after owning my first car I changed the oil and didn't expect it drain out so fast which dumped about a litre next to the oil catch pan I had centered under the plug. After that I overfilled the car with oil as I didn't think about the incline it was sitting on, no damage done though but before I drove it, it was taken to a mechanic and he latter explained it blew alot of smoke for a few minutes after he changed the oil. I think the only other real slip up iv made was when I did a very butchered speaker install, I have a porsche 924 which uses very hard to find speaker sizes and clearence depth. so I did what many others had done, I planned to dremel the whole bigger but It was too tough for the dremel and it was slow going and shredding discs, in the end, make some straight cuts and with a hammer banged the whole out and then bent the metal to hold the speaker in place with pressure. I added a little foam carpet padding to keep the metallic noise down behind it. Ugly as ALL hell with the panel off but no visual change with the rear panel back on. I probaly should have taken my time with it but I got fustrated and just wanted to get them in place. I think its a treatment alot of 924/944's have gotten.

I was changing an alternator in my old Blazer. I took the old one out and put what I thought was the new one in and it showed the same symptons, not putting out enough volts.

It actually took my buddy and I about 20 minutes to figure out the new one was still sitting in the box.

D'oh
/homer

:lol:

Last night I raked it up the hill to the garage in the BB. Joy unconfined.
As I turned into the last road I noticed the water temp. gauge was soaring. I turned off the engine and coasted up to the garage door. A pool of coolant was collecting underneath, and a trail of luminous green stretched as far as I could see. One of the hoses underneath was spewing its contents, and there was a loud and nasty gurgling sound.
Panic. Must cool it down.
I opened the back, and turned the coolant cap half-open as slowly as I could, pressing down hard.
Boom! A geyser of very hot coolant erupted into the left side of my face, and then many feet into the air as I staggered backwards. My face is still on, I thought as the liquid began falling on the adjoining garage rooves.
My next trick was to pour two buckets of water into the now empty reservoir, and inadvertantly (I couldn't see much, and it was a big bucket) all over the engine. ..
I didn't hear anything crack, my face should be okay by tomorrow; so all's well that ends well.

Hey, I've got loads like this...

Good stuff guys, keep it coming!

I think the best thing I ever did was just before leaving for Denver, CO, from central WI, I did the mandatory fluid check, and all that good stuff. We drive from Wausau to somewhere in Iowa, for the first fuel stop. As the fuel is being pumped in to the car, my wife noticed a small stream of water from under the car. No biggie, I thought...the A/C had been running the entire time, so I wasn't concerned. I hadn't seen it yet. I walk over to the left front of the car, and the stream is a river. And it's orange. Yeah, it was coolant. So, now to figure out where it's coming from. Open the hood, and the radiator cap was missing. And, of course, I found it. On the fuse box. I went and got some water from the gas station guy, and filled the radiator with that.

When changing the clutch in my talon (in the middle of November, in Iowa, in a college parking lot) it started to get cold and rain. So we packed it up fast and to get the shifter cables out of the way we just pushed them outof hte way. Well 1 weel later we finish. THe car shifts really good, but I cannot get in to 5th gear. We basicaly rip the car apart to find the problem. Finally in mid December I am going through the entire drive line and using a space heater so I can stay warm in the street I finally realize that there is a major kink in the shifter cable. That is what is preventing me from hitting 5th grear. So after a nice rain storm I head to a junk yard. Luckly it all froze. So I finally pulled the cable and then sold the car.

Red to black while jump starting.


Oooops! Fried the puter... That one was expensive. Ugh...

I am almost too ashamed to admit this one, but here goes.

I bought my truck and was taking it through some mud just for fun. Drove it out of the mud and all of a sudden the engine died. We spent the whole night looking for probs or shorts in the ignition and everything, then all that had happened was that a connector from the battery leading to the fuse box inside the cab was disconnected. I put the two end back together and then it fired right up... not one of my greater moments in life :(.

funny stories.. i don't have any though.. yet :-/

Mine's probably not the worst, but it's potentially can be.

over-torquing bolts from specifications!

I did this on my brake fluid line that goes to my caliper. Basically the bolt that holds the line has a hole through it, and when properly torqued the hole matches up and brake fluid passed into the caliper.

But the torque specs are so small that my click type torque wrench does not make an obvious sound. I was ratcheting pretty fast, and I must have passed it, because i just kept turning the bolt. Didn't strip the bolt itself, but the whole inside of the caliper was grinded down pretty badly. Lucky for me, the bolt still stays pretty firmly... I just had to manually match the bolt's hole for the fluid.

It would have sucked if i had to replace the whole caliper because of it.. or even worse, I could have been only utilizing three brakes if i didn't notice what I had done.

Was installing speakers in the back of my '69 Mustang fastback, drilling through the panel that separates the trunk from the passenger compartment.

In went the drill bit. No problem. Out came the drill bit accompanied by a strong jet of air. Problem! I had drilled right through the spare tire on the other side. Oops.

I replaced the water pump on my '86 Nissan pickup a few years back. I filled the radiator up with water, checked for leaks, and drove it around. It worked great. The next day I went and bought coolant so when I had some time I'd drain the water and put that in. Well, over time a forgot that a HAD NOT done this. If you asked me if I had put the coolant in, I would have said 'yes'. December rolled around and one morning it wouldn't start. It froze. After defrosting the engine I tried refilling it with coolant. It took way too much coolant so I pulled the oil dipstick. My oil and coolant had mixed. I cracked the block!

That's a great one God of Thunder. Mine was an alternator problem too. Had an older car that wasn't charging properly. It had a electro-mechanical voltage regulator that seemed to work just fine so I took the alternator out and checked everything...brushes, windings, and the diodes. I had to disconnect the diodes to test them and solder them back in place. It took quite a while. Everything checks out okay so I re-install and it still doesn't charge. A day or two later I notice that even though the alternator is in the fully extended position on the bracket... you probably guessed it by now...the belt wasn't tight!

one time while trying to remove the "glaze" from a set of front brake pads, I got out on an empty highway and got it up to 60 mph then slammed the brakes almost hard enough to lock em up. :D

j/k shark, actually, worse mistake I ever made was not trusting my instincts. had a cavalier start running real bad over the course of a couple of days. finally it wouldnt start at all. my first thought was plugged cat. converter (especially cause it had been making rattling noises). spend 2 weeks and too much $$ checking and changing all sorts of things like fuel injector, fuel pump, timing belt, etc. turned out to be the cat after all.

ouch.

I put motor oil in the transmission fluid receptacle. Do'h

I forgot to put 2 spark plugs back in...wow the noise scared the shit out of me.

I fixed the brakes on my car and forgot to torque the lug bolts. Ended up riding on three wheels and watching the fourth take off down the hill without me.

Took me a while to find it in the dark. Robbed lug bolts off the other three wheels, put the wheel back on and drove home.

Speaking of forgetting spark plugs...I had a 1984 Chevy Celebrity with the carb'd 2.8 V6. Did the plugs in that, and forgot to put the front three wires back on. It started and ran, but yeah, it sounded funny. Took about 5 seconds to figure it out once we lifted the hood up!

So I've worked on cars since I was old enough to tell the difference between a flat-tip and a Phillips-head (literally). I'm changing the oil in my Trooper, something I've done dozens of times, takes only a few minutes, can do it blind drunk, right?

I unscrew the oil filter and toss it in the pan to drain, and screw the new oil filter, with the proper amount of oil inside and a smear on the gasket for a good seal, on. Finish up everything else and toss the rest of the oil in the engine. I hop in the Trooper to starter her up and see an amazing look on my Pop's face as oil just pours out everywhere. Yeah, my Dad was there, the guy that taught me about maintainence, been working on cars since way before I was born, runs a body shop, etc.

When I pulled the old filter, the gasket'd stayed in place against the engine. I couldn't see it because the oil was dark and I didn't take the time to check. Two gaskets in the same place means no seal against the engine, and a lot of oil on the ground.

So I dumped almost five quarts of oil in my driveway and felt like an utter idiot. My Pop looks at me and says, "Don't worry, it's an easy mistake to make. Everybody's done it." "You ever do it, Pop?", I ask. "Well, now that I think about it, no." Yep, made me feel good about my mechanical skills.

I bet there was a nice light show going on.

I lost not one, not two, but three oil fill caps from an old 1st gen honda civic that way. I've never before or since lost anything like that. Only one of many reasons I hated that car. Maybe it was my subconcious trying to get of it.

Could have been worse - It could have been the gas tank instead of the spare.

The worst I ever heard happenend to a friend of mine on a mailing list:
Posted in his own words:

Last weekend I spent two days wrestling with my GT-350 replica, which you may recall is now running after a one-year period of dormancy while the motor was in pieces. While dealing with some subsequent problems, I learned some lessons that can all be directly applied to working on our cars.

* Upon startup of a new engine, if you hear a distinctive tic-tic-tic sound from your header-to-cylinder head junction, you will be told by all your friends that it is an exhaust leak caused by using the cheap manifold gaskets which come as part of the entire engine-overhaul gasket set, and you should have opted for high-quality $35 Fel-Pro header gaskets instead. The only solution is to remove and replace the lame gasket with a quality unit.

* The header bolts which didn't allow enough clearance to get a wrench or socket on them when you were installing them, haven't shrunk any, so removing the eight bolts will take an hour.

* Your hopes of simply backing the header away from the head, slipping the two-week-old, cheap gasket out and installing the new, $35 gasket will be dashed when you realize the existing gasket has adhesed itself firmly to the head. It will need to be scraped off.

* Immediately after commencing the scraping activities, you will be struck with both a revelation and a recollection. The revelation is that the header-to-fenderwell interference won't allow you enough clearance to scrape the entire gasket, so the header will have to completely come off the car.
The recollection will be that you were smart enough to trash the cheap
gasket that came with the engine rebuilder kit, and the $35 Mr. Gasket like-new gasket you forgot you had installed, and have now just destroyed, is of similar quality to the new $35 Fel-Pro gasket you bought to replace it.

* Spray-on gasket remover is highly effective stuff, but it is also highly democratic in its application. In this instance, it will make no differentiation whatsoever between the like-new $35 gasket you're trying to remove, and the new Ford blue engine paint you're not trying to remove--both will fall away from the motor in equal amounts.

* In order to remove the header so you can scrape the gasket, you will have to disconnect it from the collector. The collector bolts which were too long when you installed them have, like the header bolts, failed to shrink any in the ensuing two weeks, and the mechanical locking nuts (stove nuts) have, if anything, increased their tenacious grip upon the too-long bolts.
Furthermore, the inadequate clearance to swing a wrench hasn't grown any either, meaning that you will be able to turn the nut about 1/32nd of a revolution before the wrench strikes something solid, and needs to be removed and flipped around for another swing. The upshot is that it will take about 15-20 minutes to remove each bolt.

* After the header is finally removed, while lying underneath the car and scraping the gasket, when a piece of gasket-remover-laden gasket falls onto your forehead, you will instantly determine that the democratic nature of the gasket remover extends to human flesh as well, and the forehead is particularly sensitive to extremely caustic chemicals.

* When extremely caustic chemicals are suddenly applied to a large section of your forehead, the result is an instant and involuntary muscle contraction in the torso, causing you to suddenly sit up, normally about 24 inches or so.

* The average Mustang chassis, when raised on jackstands, is approximately 22 inches off the garage floor.

* The sudden and violent application of 2900 pounds of steel to a burning forehead does not, surprisingly, lessen the effect of the extremely caustic chemical reaction taking place, but instead augments the pain with a deep pounding inside the skull as your brain takes a good shellacking from the inside.

* When it comes time to open the exhaust gasket package, the expeditious way is to use a screwdriver to make a small tear in the plastic, then run your finger along the underside of the gasket, neatly opening up the package from one end to the other.

* Exhaust gaskets are made of various layers of fibers and steel, and as you're opening the package, an exposed and sharp steel wire will neatly open up your finger from one end to the other.

* 1966 Mustang Red and Human Blood Red are remarkably alike when the blood is wet and liberally sprayed across the top of the fender. However, when it dries it darkens considerably and thus can't be used as touch-up paint as you had perhaps hoped.

* Gasket remover is remarkably resilient stuff, and although you took great pains to wipe down the cylinder head with lacquer thinner before installing your new gasket, the forgotten gasket remover still coating the flange of the header will immediately go to work the minute the header is placed against the gasket. Fortunately the gasket makers are thoughtful enough to include a pair of gaskets in each package for just such contingencies.

* As you are holding the gasket-remover-soaked header in your hand and removing your now-ruined new gasket, you will feel that the skin on your fingers isn't nearly as sensitive to the effects of extremely caustic chemicals as the skin on your forehead. However, when you have sliced your finger open and the gasket remover gets in the open wound, the effect is much the same.

* Once the second new gasket is in place, the header bolts and header-to-collector bolts will be just as difficult to install as they were to remove, as they were to install the first time, as they were to remove the first time.

But the final, and undoubtedly the most important lesson learned from this two-day exercise is this:

* A clever engine-building trick is to loosely install the spark plugs on a new motor; if the head gasket leaks into the cylinders, this will allow the water to leak and spray past the threads on startup instead of potentially blowing up the motor with hydrostatic lock. However, if the engine builder then forgets to tighten the plugs once the engine has successfully started, then exhaust gasses may leak past the threads, making a distinctive tic-tic-tic sound from the neighborhood of your header-to-cylinder head junction. You will be told by all your friends that it is an exhaust leak caused by using the cheap manifold gaskets which come as part of the entire engine-overhaul gasket set, and you should have opted for high-quality $35 Fel-Pro header gaskets instead, and you will spend the next two days removing and replacing a perfectly good exhaust gasket when all you had to do was simply tighten the spark plugs!

Sigh.....

I've swapped plug wires by accident before. Car ran like $hit.

I've also had sockets fall into places in the engine bay where they shouldn't be.

I've also discovered that if you drive at least 50mph in the pouring rain with a mis-aligned sunroof (and of course stuck in the open position), you won't get wet. The problem is, the idiots in front of you won't go 50 mph in a downpour. :(

Driving a 928 is nice. Driving an old 928 when its sunroof is stuck open in the rain and everyone else in traffic is having a good laugh....priceless.

My friend was trying to change his oil, but instead of draining his oil and replacing it, he drained his auto tranny fluid and put more oil into the car.

The joy of replacing a blown tranny.....

Your friend is dumb.

Worst i've done...Hmmmm, can't really think of anything...My friends arn't stupid w/ their cars either...
Well, maybe this one thing.
It was w/ my friends Jaguar...an 01 Stype 3.0. We had a few other cars (Porsche Carrera, 2 BMW E46s, and this Jag) all lined up, and were taking some pictures before we went out to cruise, and we were gonna take some engine shots...
Well, lets just say, it took 4 of us 10 mins to find the Hood release (the 2nd one, under the hood.) Stupid jag.

when I bought my latest car, I was in the process of doing my usual maintenance whenever I buy a used car. Replacing spark plugs, oil, air filter - etc.

Nothing so much happened as I was putting in these pieces that was an error, but what I found was amazing! A literal treasure trove of tools!

- In the airbox, I found a nice ratchet handle and a 10mm socket

- In the front air intake I found one of those magnetic extender thingies that you use to pick up screws ( makes me wonder what the mechanic was trying to pick up)

- Underneath the windshield wiper arms I found a screwdriver like socket adaptor

- And wedged in between the fusebox and the firewall a pretty greasy, but still spendable $20 bill.

I actually made 3 bucks on that repair!

I've seen some cars where the combination of the trans pan location, and the trans pan being equipped with a drain pan make that a easy, yet unfortunate mistake to make.

I don't have any one incident in particular that sticks out, I have put the old part back in before once or twice, and every now and then I'll finish putting something back together only to realize I forget to put something back early in the process.

The best one was when I was an apprentice, it was my second day on the job. The guy I was working with was doing an oil change on a brand new Blazer with 2800 miles on it. Ten minutes later the customer called back to inform us that he had forgot to put oil back in the engine. We drove over to where the customer was, three miles away and filled it up with oil. The engine actually made it 8000 more miles before it developed a rod knock.

burned some wires while installing my car-radio

and even more stupid : my first car, after driving a while i noticed the pedal stuck sometimes, one time almost blowing my engine. so i returned it to the garage to get it fixed, they didn't find anything. 2 weeks later i discovered it was the carpet under my feet that sometimes caused the pedal to get stuck.

i felt quite stupid for that. still do actually

I can second that. I changed the oil in my Mom's Altima in her driveway. I was lazy and tried to do it without jacking up the car. I made one turn on the ratchet and realized it was the wrong drainplug. New tranny fluid would have set me back $60.

I was removing a bad fuel pressure regulator from my car. Just as I was loosening the last bolt which had broken the seal and caused a few tablespoons of gas to spill out, my wrench touched the positive terminal on the back of the alternator (its rubber boot had mysteriously vanished). There were sparks flying all over the place. I yanked the wrench away and chucked it on the ground, and it remained too hot to touch for a good 5 minutes. I still have absolutely no idea how that did not start a fire, but I consider myself damn lucky.

A friend of mine did the drain the trans fluid/dump in more oil trick as well. The engine was spewing smoke like crazy and the car wouldn't move, but miracuously it survived that ordeal.

I just remembered another one. I was changing wiper blades on a car, and one of the blades was being real stubborn coming off the arm. I had the arm pulled all the way up, and when the blade finally came off I wasn't holding the arm, and the spring tension on the wiper arm snapped the arm back down onto the windshield and broke the windshield.

My back box fell off going down the motorway, so i took off my shoe laces and used them to tie it back on! i left like that for 7 months

When I was a dumb-ass kid I bought one of those neon shift knobs for my car. I wired it up directly to the fuse that tied into the headlights. Long story short, I'm driving down the interstate doing about 75 when black smoke starts rising from below.

Found out in the dark that a plug wire had gotten knocked off a magneto by pushing down on top of it with an oil-soaked hand.

Welded a wrench/electrocuted myself by tightening the battery cable and grounding out the wrench to the radiator support.

The worst one though ruined a car. Had a 4 door malibu with the rear out to do a gear swap. Had the control arms off so I could box them in. Well, in a rush and tired (about 3 am) I had forgotten to replace the nuts on the front lower control arm mounts. Went in the street the next afternoon to "test" the 3.73's, control arms pulled out, driveshaft goes through the floor pans, control arms hit ground, rest of car leaps over rear end, rear end and tires end up underneath the trunk.

Had a $4500.00 small block 400 custom built for my 69 Firebird back in high school, Well I decide to get a chromed radiator...bought it...installed it...started the car.....went cruising........and Oh..........I forgot to add coolant and water :D

ouch. total loss?

Ouch. Reading these, especially War Wagon's rear end story and the Chrome Radiator post, I don't feel so bad about my own screw-ups.

i had a mate that to top up his coolant. Where did he put it? Took the oil cap off and poured straight in of course!! He's still living that one down.....

Give you three guesses and the first three don't count:D


Now heres a funnier one I forgot....you'll love this one.

After I had another engine dropped in my buddy added nitrous as a small gift.

Well there was this rich little fuck in high school who had to have the best of everything and NOBODY could have something better then him.....I mean NOBODY.

Well he had a Camaro that he thought was hot shit....until I blew his fuking doors off.

Well he found out I had a nitrous system in my car so of course he goes out and has one put in his.

Soooo...here we are at the Carls Junior after school one day hanging out bullshitting and here comes Billy badd ass and his new and improved Camaro talking shit.

So he keeps taunting me to race him again....lil fucker would not stop, so I said "ok bitch for pink slips" he agreed.

Well we all head down to an industrial area that night and EVERYONE came out for this one......the whole school showed up(nobody like his ass)

So we are sitting there waiting for the start and he yells to me"I have nitous now asshole...you're ass is mine"

Now let me stop the story here for a minute and explain something. He and his family were rich.....FILTHY RICH......but money does not always mean your smart(you'll see what I'm getting to) when he had the nitrous installed by Dave(my buddy) and Dave tried to explain how nitrous works his exact words to Dave "hey I paid you to install it...If I need lessons I would have asked" Seriously...I know this because Dave told me the day he did the install (he was a close friend) to warn me that this guys gunnin for me.

So here we are at the line and I hear this "I have nitrous too asshole" statement and I just smiled at him.

Well It was GO TIME.........I slapped that tranny into gear and punched it....tires screeching and as I am salpping it into second I hear a loud explosion.......I mean LOUD!! I look into my rear view mirror and all I see is smoke, fire and parts flying in the air.....oh and a Camaro on fire.

I made it to the finish line, turned around and headed back to see everyone laughing their asses off at Billy Baddass.

You see...right when they dropped the flag this dumbshit punched the gas, then hit the nitrous button........BIG MISTAKE.....KA-BOOOOOOOM....bye bye Camaro.

Sitting here remembering I can't help but LMFAO and I wonder where this dipshit is today.

I know this thread was about dumb mistakes in repair, but maybe this will be a lesson to those of you who may want to install nitrous:D

Been there, done that. First oil change on my brand new 82 Z28

I have been building engines and drag racing since 1973. I have done alot of very stupid things that have cost me alot money.

The worst mistake out of all these things was having an auto accident and letting my wife change the oil on her new car. She tightened the drain plug instead of loosening, stripped it out and instead of fessing up she mixed some of my JB Weld, put it on the drain plug and shoved it back in. Never told me about it and somehow it never leaked. The next time I went to change the oil I looked at the plug and said WTF!! I ended up having to replace the oil pan since the car was still in warranty and I didn't want to take it to the dealer someday and have to explain what happened.

Built a 426 cubic inch smallblock with all the good parts, Brodix heads, roller, 1050 Dominator, alum rods, steal crank. Was intending to put it in my Super Gas Vega. There was a Super Chevy Show coming up in a couple of weeks and I wanted to race the Vega in Pro and the take my 1972 Nova Show Car to race in street class. Since the Vega didn't have any engine problems I decided to take the almost stock 406 out of the Nova and put the 426 in. It was the most awesome sounding street car you ever heard (forget to say during the engine swap I put a new TCI 4000 rpm stall behind the engine). I eased it on the trailor after a short test drive around the block to check for leaks.

Got to the track, passed tech with both cars and took the nova to the staging lanes for a pass. Car had entirely too much power for street tires but still tripped the lights at 11.21 just pushing it hard enough to keep the tires under it.
Borrowed some 8" slicks from a buddy at the track, went back up and did a good burnout.
When I hammered it this time it stood straight up on the bumper and started easing it's way over to the wall with the wheels in the air...I thought hell, it will never make it to the wall before the front end comes down so I stayed in it. Grazed the wall about 110 feet out with the car still standing straight up. When I got off the gas it hit the ground so hard it broke the left front tie rod end. smashed a brand new set of custom made headers and the tach hit the windshield so hard it broke it. From hitting the wall I smashed the left rear quarter panel in above the rear wheel and bent the left side of the rear bumper. It's like anything else, when you're not scared anymore you can get hurt...but I was okay.

Note: After alot of suspension mods I did get the car to make some good passes at WOT to a best ET of 9.88 at 139 mph in a 3100 pound Nova without nitrous. This same engine in my Vega (2400 lbs at the time) went 9.30's at 144 mph.

If you want to hear some more of my stupid things let me know.

March, 2a.m. snowing and cold lots of slush and ice on the road. 1992 Jeep wrangler pulling a 4' X 5' utility trailer. Daughter asleep in front seat wife asleep in back seat with dog (big German Shepherd). I used all of my washer fluid keeping the windows clear. Quick (too quick) stop at gas station added washer fluid closed hood didn't latch side latches, I've forgot them before no problem. Back on the interstate hit 70 mph, yes probably way to fast for existing conditions. The center hood latch doesn't hold this time. Hood flies up bending itself over the windshield frame. now it is time to stop, daughter and wife screaming (not the way to wake them up) Dog barking right behind me. Visibility a small triangle to the edge of the front window between the frame and the hood. Hit the brakes trailer starts to pass, let off brakes trailer goes back where it belongs, ease on the brakes here comes the trailer trying to pass again (bad versions of poop and fornicate said repeatedly). Stiil can't see anything but white dotted line down center of road at 55-60mph. Cuss, brake, cuss, brake, cuss trailer, brake and on and on. finally stopped in middle of road lay hood down.
Wife: Holy Sh#t the window is shattered.
Daughter: It is all f#$ked up (Where did she learn that word way to young to be saying it)
Dog: BARKBARKBARKBARKBARK

I get in and get off side of road had better vision with hood up than I do now lights from oncoming cars really reflect weird through destroyed windshield.

Bent hood so I could get side hooks hooked and limp to next gas station. Lots of beating and bending so hood doesn't rub through radiator hose, man it is colder then #@!# out here. Dog still barking.

Daughter: Hey when you touch the window it moves back and forth.

Clear packing tape on inside and out of window (just in case). 3 a.m. back on the road get to moms house for vacation at 930 a.m. no more incidence wife and daughter tried to sleep but everytime I used wipers they made noise and startled dog awake (yes he slept some) when he is startled awake he tends to wake up barking until whatever woke him up is deaf. wife and daughter thinking of wrapping him in tinfoil and putting him on headers. My rejection of that idea almost causes mutiny. Luckily for dog I am only one brave (stupid) enough to drive., so the dog lives.

2 Chrome Latches: 22.00
Not hooking those latches: New hood, Windshield Frame, 2 windows (one replaced in CO broke it trying to get it out for replacement of bent window frame when I got back home to CA)

The thrill of a lifetime : Priceless

mvassek, Great story dude, glad the hear you made it through that ordeal safely.

oh yeah, been there done that.

Didn't tighten one plug up one time.......

Started the engine, ran it for a bit.

Ka fucking boom, the plug shot right across the garage like a bullet.

Won't make that mistake again...

Gasoline is actaully an amazingly hard substance to burn. You need Vapour (not liquid) gas mixed ith air in ~5% gas/95% air mixture. It's why carbs were such a pain in the ass in winter, hard to get the gas to vapourize at -40.

the first time i change the plugs on a car i took all the wires off first and couldn't remember which went where.
worst repair i ever saw was a guy who repaired a hole in his tire with two crossed band-aids( i kid you not)

Didn't happen to me, at a street race one night my friends 69 Camaro had a 60 over 350 with nitrous. The nitrous solenoid got stuck open after a race. We heard the engine running at about 5000 rpm when he pulled up and he almost couldn't hold the brakes hard enough to stop it so he shut it off. We shut the bottle off and let it sit for about an hour hoping the nitrous had cleared out of the intake and engine. When he turned the ignition on it blew the intake manifod right off of the engine. Awesome fireball shot out of both sides of the hood and a loud explosion. Destroyed the hood, 850 dp Holley and a new Victor intake. Bent the distributor, too.

ssander69: WOW! I wish my girlfriend knew what JB Weld was yet alone actually use it! :D

That's because gasoline produces vapor at and above -37°F :)

Many stupid things. The stupidest was pouring 5qts of oil straight thru to the ground.

Are you sure you want her to use it lol?

She had been around racing and helping me build engines long enough to know how to mix and use it.....not good idea though.:eek:

I had a '73 Dodge Charger that was in need of a new oil sensor. Picked up the part, removed the old one, put in new oil, closed the hood and started the engine. Hmm, something's missing in that sequence. Yup, I forgot to put in the new oil sensor. This was pointed out to me by a passerby, who pointed to the increasingly large puddle of oil underneath the car. Luckily, I didn't hurt anything but my pride. (These things look like old German WW 2 hand grenades.)

Crossed battery conections (in the dark). Fried the electrical system.

Lets see stupid stuff i have done....
About 3 years ago I bought a 83 T bird coupe for about $100 well the clutch safety switch was bad in it so the way I always started it was with a screwdriver on the solenoid. Well I was wrenching under the hood tidying up some wires and my friend was sitting in the car.....well I decided to give the a try at running....but little did i know my friend was playing race car driver and shifting through the gears.. So I jumped the solenoid and the car took off forward and right into the wall in my dads shop.....tilted the wall back a couple of feet and ripped a door right off of its hinges...well after banging the wall back with a sledge hammer and remounting the door with longer screws, it was as good as new.

Another time my friend had a old 83' olds firenza...well it was time for a plug change....well I ran down to a mechanics shop that sold spark plugs and I told him the make, model, year etc....and they gave me 4 new plugs....assuming they where the correct plugs we put them in...all of a sudden about 5 miles down the road we where thinking..."this car is running like shit now". Well we plugged out the spark plugs and the became bashed in by the pistons...thank god it didn't damage the engine. Then we preceded to go down to where we bought the plugs and asked for our money back.

Then one of my friends wanted his brakes changes...it was just the front pads no big deal so I said sure why not....well got the job done and backed the car up and ooohhhhhhfuck! no brakes!....I forgot to pump up the brakes....scared the shit outta me.....

Stupid stuff my friends have done..
One of my friends was drilling a hole in one of his friends honda civic for a power wire for a amp....right into the ac core he drilled into...nice stream of freon that came out of that.....

Helping one of my friends wifes change her oil....got it all ready and told her to start it.....she started the damn thing in reverse......almost drove right into the pit.......

One time I was helping my friend change the oil in his 1984 Monte Carlo....the dumbass thought to drain the oil you had to take the filler plug out of the differential.

note to self: dont let merker or any of his friends work on any of my vehicles.

j/k mg.

Sounds like a almost perfect wife. I mean right off the bat she was changing her own oil instead of mentioning one day after 40,000km that the "oil seems a bit thick when I checked it this morning". And then she knew how to fix it for 3000 miles anyways.

We did the pads on my friends Blazer, and he goes to park it in the garage and guns it (100hp 2.8 v6 blazer basically have to floor it to get anywhere) so he goes rolling into garage, realizes he has no brakes, and everyone is like OH S#%$ as he rolls towards the wall and shelves FULL of stuff. Luckily one of my friends jumped onto the door and dragged it to a stop inches from the shelves... haha

At this shop I worked at a guy did that and hit a truck parked in the bay across the aisle. The truck was in neutral and it rolled into another guys brand new $5,000 Snap-on tool box and dented the shit out of it.

Always remember to pump those brakes back up lol!

My wife has a habit of bumping in to things with the front of her car when she parks. She has hit other cars, the wall between two car stalls and an 18 wheeler.

two summers ago i bought a '68 impala convertible. i was so excited to have my new toy, i just HAD to do something to it......it had been so long since i had a car that was fun to work on (that is - anything pre '80s). so i decided to do an oil change. simple, good for the car, messy.....it had everything i wanted.

pulled the plug on the pan & red fluid started coming out. uhhhh.........what the fuck kind of oil did they use on this thing??!!
transmission. wrong pan.

no mechanic is in danger of losing his job to me.

1.) Did a spark plug change on an F3. Torqued them down right, set everything up right. Its a racing engine so the the plugs get changed pretty often. Well I forgot to coat the threads with anti-seize. 1 in the morning and im trying to remove a broken spark plug with an easy-out so we could race the next day.

2.) Same F3, about 3 months prior I was assembling the head, late at night. It was being re-shimmed and re-sprung to handle the new turbo for it. I assembled the entire exhaust side before i realized i forgot to install the oil seals. That job took a bit longer than expected.

I PUT THE FUEL CELL IN WRONG IN MY RACE CAR

You mean as the fuel line hookups facing the front?

Ooh, this thread needs some resurrection!

Two good ones for you.

One: Cylinder misfiring. Hmm, wonder if It's getting spark. Pulled the wire, inteneding to see if it would arc to the block, neglecting to notice that the shortest path to ground was through my right hand (holding the wire) and back down thorough my left hand, which was resting on the intake manifold.

Two: Repainting the dashboard on my car with the assistance of my brother, put everything back together. Two weeks later, I popped the airbag cover off for some reason, and found a pair of 8" pliers sitting right on top of the airbag. My brother isn't allowed to take my car apart anymore. There was also a chocolate bar sitting in the gap between the dash and the airbag. I got home, then threw it at him (the chocolate, not the pliers)

I screwed up pretty bad a couple of months ago on my mom's Grand Cherokee. She said the right window wouldn't roll up or down from the right window switch, but worked from the left window switch. I checked it out and thought it just needed the right switch replaced. I bought the switch, installed it and the window still didn't work from that switch. I then figured out that she had accidentally hit the lockout button on the driver door. I hit the button again and everything worked, except I had to pay for the $75.00, nonrefundable switch that I bought needlessly.

Latest mistake would be my van wasn't running at its best so I....Changed Plugs, Cap, Rotor and Wires and van ran worse....turns out the problem in the first place is the intake is clogged with shit, so I spent 130 on parts that where still good and now I need about 3000 for a new engine. Found out a week after just don't need a new Carb and Intake, the cam is fried, so why not get a long block 350 or 400(chevy)

I've done this before, but caught it when the oil coming out was red. The orientation of the engine was different than what I thought it was; I guess I should've checked.

Better a windshield than your finger. My dad was changing wiper blades on his Ford Ranger, and one of the blades shot out and lodged itself in the joint of his finger. :eek:

Saturn?

You decide.

;)

-SF

link

Apparently, it's a Bad Idea to not chock your car, or use the emergency brake or have it in gear, or SOMEthing.

That van story reminds me of what happened to a poor kid I knew in high school.

He left his car running while it was sitting on a muddy field. I don't know if he left it in gear or if it started sliding on the mud, but either way it started moving and he grabbed the door to stop it. He slipped and was dragged under the car as it slid. The catalytic converter on the still-running engine pinned him to the ground by his stomach where he laid for at least a half hour before anyone noticed.

According to a nurse I knew who was on duty when he came in, he was still alive when the firefighters scraped him off the exhaust. It wasn't the burn that killed him--it was septic shock when the cat burned through his intestines. And he was most likely conscious through most of the ordeal.

I really can't imagine a much worse way to go than that. :(

See that's what happens from keeping stuff too clean. :D

There was a guy in town that had a minivan fall on him...the hoist he was working on gave out, and the safety locks failed.

I owned a 1988 Chrystler LeBaron for a period when I was 17ish.
I figured there was something wrong when power steering fluid was quite literally spewing out of the bottom of my car.

Now, at the time, I don't think I had even changed my oil, but a friend of mine told me that it was likely that it was the rack & pinion. I call around and get some estimates, and it is in the $1500+ range, and it's only $180 for the actual part. I figure, ah, screw it, I'll fix the damn thing myself....

I bought this book that explained how to replace it on that type of car. Two weeks later, probably working 40+ hours a week on that damn car, I finally got everything back together and working. The biggest pain in the ass was lowering the bottom with the jack, and every time I lowered it, I lowered it too far and the "D" shaped joint got disconnected from the steering column. The most frustrating part was trying to align it correctly and jack the damn thing back up without it slipping.

Anyway, the dumbest mistake that I made was trying to fix that damn thing...

2 years ago I was behind the wheel of some type of semi-new BMW with a manual. Stopped for gas, checked the oil. Forgot to properly stow away the hood "arm".. 10 minutes later, driving down the road, pothole, BANG. look down, gauges not working, weird, look up, FIRE!!! SMOKE!!! HOLY SHIT!!!, fully to side of the road open hood to see fire coming to end. Turns out the hood arm hit the positive terminal on the battery. After that the car wouldn't idle above 2,000 revs, cooling fan didn't work, xmas tree effect. Turns out it "shorted" some of the grounds in the engine.

500 bucks later for not putting a hood arm in its damn place!

Years ago I owned a '78 DeVille... very nice. Started haveing problems with the lights. First the dash lights, then the headlights. I checked everything, I thought, even up to and including taking the dash apart to look for probs witht the printed circuit board. A new headlight switch didn't solve anything, and a new dimmer switch fixed nothing. Meanwhile, I've got my Caddy gutted, even unto disassembling the speedometer head (what a f@@king mess!).
I give up and start picking the brains of every experienced mechanic I know. Turns out that the wiring harness to the dimmer switch, about 8-10 inches up out of sight into the firewall, had shorted and melted.
I finally found and repaired the wires, but, hours of ball-busting frustration later, I could not get the dash reassembled in any way that would make the Caddy driveable.
I had always loved that car, but after this experience, I couldn't stand to look at it, let alone drive it anymore. Sold it way too cheaply very shortly afterward.

Man sucks to sell your baby like that:(