What's the dumbest mistake you've made while working on your cars?

[lootcorp]

As a pretty inexperienced mechanic, I'm constantly doing stupid stuff when trying to work on my cars. I read some of the projects you guys take on and I just shake my head in wonder! So I thought it would be interesting to hear some stories of when you guys were a bit more inexperienced and had some facepalm moments while working on your rides.

Here's my latest -- I checked my cam follower yesterday, and this was the first time doing this job. I followed the DIY very carefully, reassembled everything, and saw a leak when I started the car (turns out it is the flexible fuel hose). I thought I might have put everything back together improperly, so I took it all apart and started putting it back together. This time I was a bit rushed (mistake 1) and felt confident enough with the process that I didn't double check the DIY (mistake 2). Long story short, I forgot to put the pressure relief valve back on!!

I called my wife over to start the car so I could stay by the hood and watch carefully for the leak...she comes over, opens the driver's door, and I see gas start to shoot out of the gaping hole where the pressure relief valve should have been! [o_o]

I yell out to her, "STOP!" and she's completely confused because she hasn't even gotten in the car yet! I slammed the door and stopped the gas flow, put the relief valve back in, and decided I was done for the day.

Hopefully the gas didn't get anywhere it will do any damage -- from what I can see, looks like most of it just spilled out the bottom of the car...I was working outside so I just left the hood up and let it dry out.

Just another "I'm a f'in idiot" moment...anyone else have a good story?

[facepalm]

[S4Memphis]

well, mine wasnt on my audi, but on my Nissan Pathfinder... I had purchased some LED turn signal bulbs for $40.. They were the Switch back style where they turn from yellow to white.. Anyways, I was unaware that I there were two different style of bulbs.. And of course not knowing, I ordered the wrong ones.. anyways I got them, installed them, tried them out and 3 seconds later bam.. Lights out.. I lost the ability to use my headlight, turn signals, wipers, and one other thing that I cant remember. I looked at all the fuses etc etc and couldnt figure it out.. So I caved and took it to the dealer cause I was still under warranty.. I had to make up a lie about what happened cuz installing the LED would have voided the warranty work.. long story short.. 7weeks later I got my car back.. The mechanic could not track down what it was.. Finally he did.. lucky enough there was another pathfinder in the shop for some repairs and the mechanic took off a PCM module and tried it on my to find out that I had FRIED the PCM... total cost out of my pocket, $150 deductable. if I didnt have the warranty. would have been $3350 with parts and labor... sooooooo a simple $40 LED cost me almost that much just because I wasnt aware of the fact there were two different style of bulbs...

[Cnelson952]

I stripped the fuel pressure release valve on the fuel pump by turning it the wrong way...had to take the top off of the fuel pump just so I could replace the cam follower....[facepalm]


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[AsianA408]

using the widow maker to jack up my car. it tipped over and jammed into my door blade.

[FraggyA4]

While rebuilding my engine recently I had just gotten my crank back from getting balanced and was really excited so I started throwing parts on. Everything was going great and I was really impressed with my progress. I had managed to get the oil pan installed. I then decide to flip the engine right side up on the stand and then it hits me when I see the painters tape still covering the top of the engine. I HAD FORGOT TO INSTALL THE RODS AND PISTONS! [headbang] Yup I'm an idiot and shouldn't be rebuilding my engine. Well I can now say I'm really fast at doing oil pans and bottom end building.

On my jeep I installed new injectors. I start it up and quickly see fuel gushing out of one of the injectors that happens to sit right above the exhaust manifold. Luckily I got it turned off before anything could get to hot.

[B7Joe]

Convinced my wife (then girlfriend) not to pay to have her new Honda's oil changed after only a few weeks of knowing her. I mean come on, 'I can do it for you.' Big man brought his fancy bag of tools, drove her to the AP store, schooled her on what oil and filter to get, etc., etc.

Started the job as soon as we got back and said 'be all done in a few minutes'.

All went well up until the moment I started to pour in the oil. I was on my second or third quart when she walked in the garage and said 'Joe, is that supposed to be doing that?' I step back and to my horror, I see a big puddle of oil. Yup, forgot to reinstall the drain plug. She was very impressed. ;)

[KGB]

This thread is making me cringe pretty hard.. can't say I have a clean record though [:p]

[Firefox250]

My first week owning the car I washed the engine and didn't cover the coil packs enough so water got down and caused a small fire when I tried starting the engine. Luckily AOA covered it because this was during the coil pack recall. The valve cover was melted and had to be replaced. I think it was $1500 in parts and labor.

DOH!!!
http://img.tapatalk.com/d/14/05/13/e3e8uja7.jpg

[A-BlacK_MambA-4]

Convinced my wife (then girlfriend) not to pay to have her new Honda's oil changed after only a few weeks of knowing her. I mean come on, 'I can do it for you.' Big man brought his fancy bag of tools, drove her to the AP store, schooled her on what oil and filter to get, etc., etc.

Started the job as soon as we got back and said 'be all done in a few minutes'.

All went well up until the moment I started to pour in the oil. I was on my second or third quart when she walked in the garage and said 'Joe, is that supposed to be doing that?' I step back and to my horror, I see a big puddle of oil. Yup, forgot to reinstall the drain plug. She was very impressed. ;)

Got a good laugh at that one Joe [up] "Big man brought his fancy bag of tools" [>_<] Lol Reminds of an oil change I did on my wifes ford edge a year or so ago. Had all the oil drained, plug in, new filter installed and just filled with fresh oil. I start her up and check for leaks everything is fine for the first few moments and then "spshhhhhhh" oil starts spraying everywhere from the filter. So I run around and shut the car off crawl under and see why. The rubber gasket from the old filter came off and I cranked the new filter on right over top of it. Once the pressure built it blew the old gasket out causing a major leak. Wife just came out shaking her head...(felt like a total tool). Lesson learned and now I always check for those gaskets on a spin on filter.

[wildcat333]

Always forgetting to break my lugs free before jacking up my car.

[konarider94]

I was installing a subwoofer in my 1994 jeep cherokee. It had to be a clean install with wires tucked away(I was in high school at the time so I had to have a big subwoofer right?). After putting everything back together whenever I stepped on the brake pedal all kinds of crazy electronic things started happening like a fun house. Turns out I put one of the interior body panel screws right into the middle of the main wiring harness that runs down the drivers side of the vehicle. I think I had to repair about a dozen wires.

Same jeep as above. I had just spent 8 hours out in the hot summer sun in a parking lot across the street from my house installing a lift kit. After a long day filled with plenty of swearing, and even a flying coil spring I was finally done. Cruising down the road to test it out I feel the whole jeep shaking after only a couple miles. I had tightened all of the lug nuts except for one wheel. Pretty damn lucky it never fell off. Wildcat mentioned how dumb he feels jacking up the car before breaking the lugs free, its even worse forgetting to tighten them after you put it back on the ground.

More recently after completing a timing belt job on my A4 I had just finished putting on the bumper cover only to realize I forgot the intercooler ducts. For a brief moment I considered leaving them out.

[wildcat333]

Wildcat mentioned how dumb he feels jacking up the car before breaking the lugs free, its even worse forgetting to tighten them after you put it back on the ground.

LOL... don't you worry, I did that too once. I got lucky in the sense that I realized this after only a few miles, so I quickly pulled over and tightened everything up nicely.

[p0isin]

On my '99 A4 I replaced the upper control arms on both front sides of the car and tightened them down before applying a load onto the suspension.

Also on that '99 A4 I replaced my oil and then drove around for two days without the oil cap on. Found it wedged in the engine bay with oil sprayed everywhere.

On this A4 I installed my FrankenTurbo and then realized I hadn't tightened down the oil lines. Thankfully I hadn't started the car yet.

I'm sure there are plenty more but that's all that comes to mind right now.

[dws114]

Also on that '99 A4 I replaced my oil and then drove around for two days without the oil cap on. Found it wedged in the engine bay with oil sprayed everywhere.

Did this on my mustang once. Made it all the way from MA to FL without losing the oil cap.

[mr shickadance]

installed my cx racing fmic, finishing up the install i decided to take out my car for a test run doing 2nd gear WOT pulls. I needed to because i had to make sure the hoses were not going to pop off under max boost. I thought to myself, man, it would be pretty dumb of me to not bring my tools with me in the car incase a hose does pop off, so I brought my wrenches with me.

Pull # 1 - went fine
Pull #2 - went fine
Pull #3 - *POP* car dies....fuck

Open the hood, realize a hose popped off, we will now be entering my brain for the time being and all of the thoughts that ran through my head during this process.

Fucking great where the fuck are my tools eh? son of a bitch they are back home. *calls future wife* "yeah honey i am down the road i need you to bring my tools" "yea no honey they are in the garage, please make this happen fast I don't want to be out here all day" "what do you mean 'not there?' my tools are right where i left them" "well idk what to tell you babe, i left the tools on the floor of the driveway maybe the wrench elves came and took them away from me idk but thats where they are" "ok fine just bring the pliers I will make due with what I have" "hurry please"


*friendly neighbor appears* "hey do you need help?"

umm yea, my hose popped off do you have a 10mm wrench?

"yea sure"

[wrench]*fixey fixey* [wrench]

ok great thank you guy.

*wife shows up*

"oh thanks hun, but i am all set"

utter realization of what i just said, and her having to turn around and go home, i am fucked

Take the pliers she gave me and put them into my backseat with all the other too-SONOFABITCHWHYTHEFUCKAREMYTOOLSINTHEBACKSEA-ooooooooohhhhhhhhyeaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa.


not really a mechanical mistake, but for a hot hour my brain decided to have a vacation of sorts. I am reminded frequently about it.

[Fdny5772]

using the widow maker to jack up my car. it tipped over and jammed into my door blade.

I used that god damn thing, arm was stuck between tire and front fender, was certain I was going to lose my arm got a nice bruise instead

[d6lc]

Went to change the tranny oil on a 911, decided to remove the fill plug on the RHS first to be safe. Couldn’t believe how difficult it was to remove and what an odd size socket it was.

After a fair struggle I got it out…..but it didn’t look like your average fill plug, at that stage I realized I had removed the gear change detent, couldn’t get it back in as the mechanism had dropped.

$1,750 to get the care towed to an Indy, drop and split the tranny to replace the detent!

Realized the fill is the easy to get to 8mm hex on the LHS, not the difficult to get to odd shaped socket, designed not to be removed on the RHS….I have never been so embarrassed!

[A-BlacK_MambA-4]

I remember the first and only time I used a widow maker. I was out in the driveway working on something in the rear of my cavalier and I had the car jacked up and had just literally crawled out from under it for some reason and the jack slipped and the car fell. Both rear tires were off so the subframe was setting on the ground. My heart sank and I just sat there for a few minutes reliving what could have happened. I wen't out that day and bought me a nice jack and a set of jackstands.

[wildcat333]

I remember the first and only time I used a widow maker. I was out in the driveway working on something in the rear of my cavalier and I had the car jacked up and had just literally crawled out from under it for some reason and the jack slipped and the car fell. Both rear tires were off so the subframe was setting on the ground. My heart sank and I just sat there for a few minutes reliving what could have happened. I wen't out that day and bought me a nice jack and a set of jackstands.

wow.

[elsst3]

When changing my timing belt on my b6 3.0 avant 6 speed I didn't crank the engine by hand and just started it lets just say catastrophic failure Duh

[naiku]

using the widow maker to jack up my car. it tipped over and jammed into my door blade.

Had that happen not too long ago, still need to pick up a new blade/rocker cover.


I used that god damn thing, arm was stuck between tire and front fender, was certain I was going to lose my arm got a nice bruise instead


I remember the first and only time I used a widow maker. I was out in the driveway working on something in the rear of my cavalier and I had the car jacked up and had just literally crawled out from under it for some reason and the jack slipped and the car fell. Both rear tires were off so the subframe was setting on the ground. My heart sank and I just sat there for a few minutes reliving what could have happened. I wen't out that day and bought me a nice jack and a set of jackstands.

The widow maker is a joke, I cringe at the thought of potentially having to use it on the side of the road one day on anything less than perfectly flat smooth ground.

[JSwanny]

Tried to change my flat tire on an uneven surface. Didn't have much of a choice at the time and knew it'd be sketchy. Only a very slight slope is all it needed.

Timberrrrrr!

Wasn't my a4 though and no damage thankfully.

[DRAKLORE]

Caught my finger between the wheel and caliper...
Lost a bit of the bone, no biggie


http://i739.photobucket.com/albums/xx33/draklore/207c0793.jpg (http://s739.photobucket.com/user/draklore/media/207c0793.jpg.html)

[yeoj112689]

It is so funny reading these. I am fairly certain everyone has done the same as most here. Maybe not the forgetting to put the pistons in haha (although on my suzuki 600 I had forgot to put the shim buckets back on before I put the DOHCs in and they have to be tightened in such a way that takes an hour lol so I had to re do it all!)

Glad I am not the only one.

One thing I always fucking do is break the plastic clips on plugs and such. I can never do anything with electrical system without breaking a clip idk why.

[A-BlacK_MambA-4]

Caught my finger between the wheel and caliper...
Lost a bit of the bone, no biggie



Shane that's freaking nasty man. We need an updated pic though. Were they able to salvage your flesh at the tip?


It is so funny reading these. I am fairly certain everyone has done the same as most here. Maybe not the forgetting to put the pistons in haha (although on my suzuki 600 I had forgot to put the shim buckets back on before I put the DOHCs in and they have to be tightened in such a way that takes an hour lol so I had to re do it all!)

Glad I am not the only one.

One thing I always fucking do is break the plastic clips on plugs and such. I can never do anything with electrical system without breaking a clip idk why.

Agreed. It doesn't matter how careful I am, I always seem to break the plastic clips.

[DRAKLORE]

Caught my finger between the wheel and caliper...
Lost a bit of the bone, no biggie


http://i739.photobucket.com/albums/xx33/draklore/207c0793.jpg (http://s739.photobucket.com/user/draklore/media/207c0793.jpg.html)

Another mistake was one of my first big independent sales.
I brought a clutch to JT and he hosted me and flew me out to Cali, I had made some changes to the design and everything worked and fit mathematically and even on the test rig.. But when I got there the clutch had the wrong stack height. So we decided to add a 3/8s washer like the original design to get him on the road. In our "get it done" haste we ended up putting two washers as a "safer than sorry"
Well... We ended up being sorry because the stack height was so high at that point that the pressure plate ended up scraping the bellhousing..
Additionally his prior two flywheels were garbage and couldn't be reused, luckily Hugh@Europa next day shipped a DMFW for us at an awesome price.. Ultimately I felt extremely embarrassed, I'll prepared, and realized JT has more patience than most.
He's an awesome guy and great host. I've even been back again for vacation with the wife! [up]

Anyways, lesson learned.

[naiku]

One thing I always fucking do is break the plastic clips on plugs and such. I can never do anything with electrical system without breaking a clip idk why.

If it were not for the screws holding my coil pack harness down, it would be flopping around in the engine bay, I have managed to break all 4 clips on there.

[DRAKLORE]

Shane that's freaking nasty man. We need an updated pic though. Were they able to salvage your flesh at the tip?
.

They did a decent job, got an X-ray ford my carpal tune surgery and the bone seems to be floating as two pieces lol
http://i739.photobucket.com/albums/xx33/draklore/2BF0287A-3FF5-4C9A-8EDD-E22D2EC451FE_zpscynglf6t.jpg (http://s739.photobucket.com/user/draklore/media/2BF0287A-3FF5-4C9A-8EDD-E22D2EC451FE_zpscynglf6t.jpg.html)

[seal66]

Went stage 3.... Nough said.

Sent from the road

[drumnjuny]

Went stage 3.... Nough said.

Sent from the road

too. true.

but yeah i've fucked a lot of shit up.

[lootcorp]

Convinced my wife (then girlfriend) not to pay to have her new Honda's oil changed after only a few weeks of knowing her. I mean come on, 'I can do it for you.' Big man brought his fancy bag of tools, drove her to the AP store, schooled her on what oil and filter to get, etc., etc.

Started the job as soon as we got back and said 'be all done in a few minutes'.

All went well up until the moment I started to pour in the oil. I was on my second or third quart when she walked in the garage and said 'Joe, is that supposed to be doing that?' I step back and to my horror, I see a big puddle of oil. Yup, forgot to reinstall the drain plug. She was very impressed. ;)

This sounds exactly like something I would do! That must've been a bitch to clean up. But hey, she wound up marrying you so at least you didn't scare her off! :)

I know my wife's perception of my mechanical ability plummeted quite a bit after the fuel geyser. I didn't help things when I mentioned she might want to park her car far away from mine "so we don't lose em' both" [:D]

[B7Joe]

This sounds exactly like something I would do! That must've been a bitch to clean up. But hey, she wound up marrying you so at least you didn't scare her off! :)

I know my wife's perception of my mechanical ability plummeted quite a bit after the fuel geyser. I didn't help things when I mentioned she might want to park her car far away from mine "so we don't lose em' both" [:D]

LMAO!

[[email protected]]

Extracted the ECU and sent it away for a reflash, two days later it was nice and sunny so I decide I'll wash the car, I start spraying the car down then all of a sudden the wipers start going, fan turns on, lights start blinking... then I realized I left the ECU cover off! [headbang]

Pop open the hood and I see the relays taking a bath in a couple of inches of standing water in the ECU box and the driver side footwell is soaked.

Then the time the shop left a rag in the turbo inlet pipe... [facepalm]

Or the time I got the units mixed up when torquing down some caliper bolts... it was in/lbs instead ft/lbs and I wonder why the bolt snapped.

[seco007]

While doing an oil change , with the help of another AZ member who shall remain nameless, drained old oil..put everything back together (front was removed and several other items...)
BUT FORGOT TO ADD OIL!! ..started car (yes with no oil...) turned it off 30 seconds later when I saw new oil container sitting in garage!!!!

Thankfully no damage was done.....its been 20k miles since.....

[Inked]

using the widow maker to jack up my car. it tipped over and jammed into my door blade.

Lololololol Damn that would have earned you 10k on America's funniest videos or something.

[SLYCAT]

I stripped the fuel pressure release valve on the fuel pump by turning it the wrong way...had to take the top off of the fuel pump just so I could replace the cam follower....[facepalm]

Same damn thing [headbang]

[Der Konig]

Read in*lb as ft*lb, lost a bolt in my block on my old car. Pain in the ass.

[B72011]

My first Audizine inspired repair--hell, my first repair on a car in YEARS--since I was in my early 20's working on my Datsun 510. I redid the T Stat on our B6 Avant--I buttoned it all up, filled it back up with coolant. Started her up and pink fluid gushing everywhere from the Tstat which i hadnt actually tightened! Doh!
Good thing I didnt give up. Thanks to all the great folks on this site who contribute I feel like I can fix my own car. EMPOWERING!

[mr shickadance]

While doing an oil change , with the help of another AZ member who shall remain nameless, drained old oil..put everything back together (front was removed and several other items...)
BUT FORGOT TO ADD OIL!! ..started car (yes with no oil...) turned it off 30 seconds later when I saw new oil container sitting in garage!!!!

Thankfully no damage was done.....its been 20k miles since.....

30 seconds is nothing, there should be no lasting damage.

Apparently the proper way to destroy an engine during the cash for clunkers event was to remove all fluids from the engine, tranny etc, and fire up the engine until it seized. Supposedly cars would run for hours on no fluids, truly a testament to how far technology has come with oil

[FraggyA4]

30 seconds is nothing, there should be no lasting damage.

Apparently the proper way to destroy an engine during the cash for clunkers event was to remove all fluids from the engine, tranny etc, and fire up the engine until it seized. Supposedly cars would run for hours on no fluids, truly a testament to how far technology has come with oil

I knew a guy who did this for a job one summer. Apparently they would poor some fluid into the engine that would seize it, but it still had to run for a while before they would seize. So for fun they would drag race all the cars in the back while they would waited.

[mr shickadance]

yea, there are stories on the google machine of techs who just used to have a blast destroying these cars, drag racing, burnouts, behind the scenes destruction derbies. The government may have given guidelines on the proper way to dispose of engines, but the techs certainly let their creative ju-ju flow as well.

[seal66]

My actual dumbest mistake while working on a vehicle was when I started the SFA swap on my gf's 06 jeep liberty. I had used a y-link front CA system that ties into the belly pan. I forgot that it tied in and when I dropped the belly pan the front axle tried to walk away from me. Scary when 5k+ is sitting over your heard coming down on you.

[DRAKLORE]

30 seconds is nothing, there should be no lasting damage.

Apparently the proper way to destroy an engine during the cash for clunkers event was to remove all fluids from the engine, tranny etc, and fire up the engine until it seized. Supposedly cars would run for hours on no fluids, truly a testament to how far technology has come with oil

This was my job for a summer :)
some cars would run for quite awhile, others we would pour abbrasives. water or other shit into the engine just to see what would happen, by the end of that summer we were doing pretty much a demo derby with the "clunkers" lol

ah, i miss my dealer days some times

[A-BlacK_MambA-4]

That actually sounds pretty fun. Not many times you get to do that in life and not have to worry about the consequences lol

[DRAKLORE]

it was fun, and I got paid to do it!

there were initially a set guidelines for how to do it, drain all fluids, pour in the liquid provided, start car and run till it seizes. after the first week we ran out of the liquid we were supposed to use and it went downhill from there lol we would see if we could get the motor to pop instead of sieze, then we would jump them off a mound and bash them around till they wouldnt drive, unnatural amounts of Ether into the motor lol sand and water in the motor, we would see how long the motor would run on soda lmao hydro lock the motor at its rev limiter, drop a shit ton of bolts into the intake to see how many would pass without causing it to blow up! good times :P
and we got a shit ton, more than we could handle.. lots of clunkers in Maine apparently

[A-BlacK_MambA-4]

I know it's too late now, but videos would've been great lol

[lootcorp]

it was fun, and I got paid to do it!

there were initially a set guidelines for how to do it, drain all fluids, pour in the liquid provided, start car and run till it seizes. after the first week we ran out of the liquid we were supposed to use and it went downhill from there lol we would see if we could get the motor to pop instead of sieze, then we would jump them off a mound and bash them around till they wouldnt drive, unnatural amounts of Ether into the motor lol sand and water in the motor, we would see how long the motor would run on soda lmao hydro lock the motor at its rev limiter, drop a shit ton of bolts into the intake to see how many would pass without causing it to blow up! good times :P
and we got a shit ton, more than we could handle.. lots of clunkers in Maine apparently

That sounds so much more fun than my job lol

[mitsume]

Broke my side mirror while changing the mirror housing from OEM to this:

http://www.grd-auto.com/

[Solarsuplex]

Did my timing belt. Drove home on the freeway doing 70ish. lower rad hose comes off and 2 gallons of fresh coolant went all over the side of the car/road/engine. everything.

[ignus99]

Broke my side mirror while changing the mirror housing from OEM to this:

http://www.grd-auto.com/

My god that website is a nightmare to navigate.