Dumbest Repair Error

[911/Q45]

The recent thread on messing up the Tokico shock install got me thinking about mistakes I've made through the years. What's the dumbest thing you ever did while working on a car? I'll start: I was rebuilding a 460 Highway Interceptor to shoe horn into my 71 Mach I. I put the timing gear on the cam and tightened the bolt finger tight, then proceeded to finish engine assembly and installation without torqueing it! It had a happy ending, as I awoke at 3 AM somehow remembering it before I cranked it up. I was able to remove the fuel pump, insert a wrench and then turn the crank pulley bolt to tighten it properly.

[Omar]

When I put a headlight bulb into my J30, I put one with the higher wattage than the stock one and it melted my connector. Well as a result, I tried to tape it back together which made things worse.

Yeah, flame me.

Oh yeah, I fixed it with a NEW connector.

Later...

Omar

[1qckser]

I instaleed a 50 shot of nitrous on my 83 GTI and forgot to retard the timming, needles to say , KABOOOM:eek:

[Qdemption]

I always have extra bolts left over.

That is the most perplexing thing, you take time on rebuild to be sure of not making any errors, and when it is all said and done you have extra bolts. It is so weird.

A mistake I almost made but caught it at the last minute was when I was putting my plenum back on, I forgot to take out a paper towel I had stuck in one of the runners. I had the plenum on but not yet bolted and was connecting hoses when I discovered my error. I checked all of the runners after that.

[Mr1der]

The recent thread on messing up the Tokico shock install got me thinking about mistakes I've made through the years. What's the dumbest thing you ever did while working on a car? I'll start: I was rebuilding a 460 Highway Interceptor to shoe horn into my 71 Mach I. I put the timing gear on the cam and tightened the bolt finger tight, then proceeded to finish engine assembly and installation without torqueing it! It had a happy ending, as I awoke at 3 AM somehow remembering it before I cranked it up. I was able to remove the fuel pump, insert a wrench and then turn the crank pulley bolt to tighten it properly.

\

mwahahahaah, ford guy.

I put a messed up oil filter on my car, it had a freakin' cut in the gasket that I never noticed...

[Jeff Williams]

I was changing the oil, in my old Mazda PU, and the oil filter gasket stuck to the engine. When I put the new filter on, there were 2 gaskets. I drove about a block, before the gaskets slipped, and I dumped about 3 quarts of oil in about .05 seconds. It looked llike Rusty Wallace blowing a motor.

Scaed the crap out of me!:pface :pface :pface :pface

No damage, since I engaged the clutch and killed the engine.

[HeavyDuty]

Lots of oil change stories for me.

Me, 16 years old, subject, 71 SS454 Monte Carlo, 4 out of 5 quarts into an oil change, I notice the drain plug sitting on the cowl. :doh

Driving out of Roanoke, VA in a 12' Isuzu or Hino mini-cabover truck, it starts running warm. Pull over at a truck stop, check the oil, it's low. Buy a gallon of oil and promptly pour it into the remote radiator fill neck from the opposite side of the engine compartment. The rad & oil caps were the same type cap, both oil & coolant were remote fill & they were reversed.

91 Q45, smacked the CAS harness while loosening the oil filter from above. Finished the oil change, the car didn't start.

Observations from others:Idle Air Control Valve, Acura Integra, aftermarket intake manifold with no IAC provisions. The guy makes his own mount for the IAC, water runs through one half, vacuum through the other, he cross connected it & sent coolant into the intake manifold.

Jackson Racing S/C on a 95 GSR, AEM intake, Turbo XS BLOW-OFF VALVE installed on intake tube.

Another JRSC Integra, fuel enrichment relay wired into the O2 sensor.

97 Prelude, Gude head pkg, 11:1 compression, added FMax turbo system, AND nitrous. Never made it out of his driveway. Velocity Resources profiled in HCI magazine on that car in an article entitled "How to Fix Turbo Motor Meltdown."

I'm sure I have more, but don't want to hog the post.

[maxnix]

Hope this is remembered correctly as it was long ago and far away. Did a valve job on my 1967 289 Mustang after it blew a heater hose in south Texas. All went well until the lifters wouldn't pump up after reassembly. Discovered pump is driven by square shafted rod that wasn't enaging distributor drive shaft from underneath like it should.

After working on my Honda pre K-1 750 a few years afterwards, I decided Detroit iron is not where I wanted to be in engine technology.

[Need4Speed]

Just did the fuel pump on the Q...read all the posts thought i had everything down........Doh...forgot to undo the friggin gas cap....you guessed...fuel squirted out the fittings like old faithful. :rolleyes

Andy

[96q45t]

I was changing the head gasket (1st time with my trusty haynes manual guiding my way) on a 2300 mustang II. I had the head apart and ready to put it back together when I decided that it was getting late and I would resume in the morning. I did as the manual said and stuffed the cylinders with rags to keep the debris out, and I set the head on top of the block. The next morning I finished the job and tried to crank it over and it wouldn't crank. I pulled the no. 1 plug to check TDC and YEP, you guessed it! The rags were still inside!

[Touchdown038]

Where to begin...

Let's just say the one that's on the top of my head. I was doing the timing chain job, and I forgot to set the motor at TDC before I pulled the distributor and everything along with it. Front cover came off, and nothing was aligned. I didn't know that you can just loosen the rocker arm shaft bolts and turn each shaft to TDC, so I just did the most logical thing I could think of at the time and just counted the links in between the crank and cam sprockets and threw the chain on blindly. Stupid I know, but it's running fine.

[Q-less]

I was reconnecting the battery after working on a prelude I used to have. For whatever reason I put a socket driver on the battery, my elbow hit it and slid it into the brake lines nearby while contacting the posts of the battery. I melted about a decent hole in the line and put JB Weld on it (I know, not to smart with hydraulic fluid). A few days later I was leaving the interstate and pressed my brakes and the JB gives, my brakes lock up, and I barely missed sideswipping a BigRig. So, what does an 18 year old do? He puts JB back on it. A few weeks later I sare the hell out of everybody pumping gas as my tires are screeching towards a gas pump after it happens again. I get out of the car and everyone is just staring at me; needless to say I did not try JB weld again on brake lines.

[Q451990]

Just did the fuel pump on the Q...read all the posts thought i had everything down........Doh...forgot to undo the friggin gas cap....you guessed...fuel squirted out the fittings like old faithful.

Buy a bag of charcoal and put it in the trunk... it'll help absorb the smell.

Two of my stories...

When I was replacing the fuel tubes on "Q2" I discovered that gravity applies to fuel as well as everything else. I had a slow drip at the back of the car near the fuel tank and got a drop in my eye. Just for reference that stings and burns like hell! Went inside, took my contact lens out, rinsed my eye out with saline solution and went back to work with one red eye. Not ten seconds after I got back under the car, I got gas in my other eye! I quickly decided that safety glasses are a good thing.

Another story:

When I was installing the alarm and NEO MP3 player in Q2 I decided I'd get in the trunk with the remote and close myself in - just to make sure the wires wouldn't get caught up in the hinges. Just as I clicked the trunk closed I remembered that I forgot to plug the trunk switch back in. Luckily the package tray and trim was out, and I left a door open in the car - so I could at least stick my head through the hole in the rear deck (where the storage compartment drops down over the fuel sender) and look out of the back glass. The bad news was that no one else was home, it was the middle of the day on a weekday, and everyone who was in the neighborhood was inside because it was August and 95+ degrees! The only living creature I saw was a humming bird that was attracted to my red face looking up through the back glass! I was in there for about 30 minutes before I got out. 95 degrees never felt so cold.

Heath

[DJoker]

Worst ever not mechanical...more electrical. 16 Years old, 1982 or 3 Renault LeCar (remember those?). Installed a Pioneer stereo. Used masking tape to cover the wire splices (Dad was out of electrical tape, and what did I know?) Two days later, out in the country (well, most of Idaho was country) Brownish green acrid smoke BILLOWS out of all the vents. Wires overheated, and burned. Boy, that's a smell I'll never forget.

[ScottJackson]

my current project will probably be my worst mistake, attempting chain guide replacement on my 92Qa. The parts were on backorder so the car has been sitting with the front cover off, no chain guides, and zip ties holding them in place for about a week. I have a towel covering the oil pan opening so I hope not much has gotten in there. Other than this disaster waiting to be finished so I can find out it was stupid for me to try it, the dumbest thing I've done was try to cobble together my 69 Mach1 with a 351C and T5 5 speed trans. I went cheap on the parts and had defective NEW hydraulic lifters whos plungers wouldn't plunge, at all. And no, they weren't solid flat tappet lifters sent by mistake, I know what they look like. Anyway, after 4000$ it never ran right and I got sick of looking at the poorly rigged mess that I pulled it all out. Now I'm working on a twin turbo 514 big block stroker with TKO 5 speed that will be much more carefully installed and checked over. Oh yeah, and a C4 corvette front suspension for the mach... maybe that will become my biggest mistake.

[911/Q45]

So far I have to declare Heath the winner with the locked in the trunk saga!

[Rex]

One Memorial day years ago, I took the car I was driving (80 Cutlass) to the tire shop to have them rotate the tires. After getting the car back, I take off and get a couple hundred yards away and things "just don't feel right". As I start to pull to the side of the road, the back end starts to wobble. I get it stopped to step out and see the drivers rear tire has come off and is "holding" up the car.

Reminder to everyone, put the lug nuts back on.

Need less to say I never get in a car that's had the tires off, without inspecting the lugnuts.

[louiegz]

I'm glad my thread inspired so many posts of things we like to forget. I haven't done much to my car, but when I had my 86 Chevy Cavalier and I was changing a cracked headlamp. The lamp slipped and cut my finger. Man, blood al over the place.

I do have a funny one to add, but it's not a car story. It's a home improvment story. I was reinstalling the shower doors in my bathroom. When I had everything put together, but before caulking, I noticed that the bottom gutter in the doors, the weep holes were facing out of the tub. I'm glad I saw that before the caulk and my first shower.

[Nathan]

I decided I'd get in the trunk with the remote and close myself in - just to make sure the wires wouldn't get caught up in the hinges. Just as I clicked the trunk closed I remembered that I forgot to plug the trunk switch back in. Heath

This isn't a repair story, but I once did the same thing as Heath, however I was rather young and it was supposed to be a joke on my mom ("oh no, where'd my son go!" was the indended reaction) but I ended up locked in the trunk, in the dark, for a good 20 minutes during summer (texas...yahoo). I've been quite claustraphobic ever since, I hyperventilate and freak out in tight spaces, especially if they are dark .

[Checkered-Member]

so today i was messing around with the plugs and distributor, go back to test if the engine still works, doesn’t crank nothing...I’m like "crap…I messed something up”, spent an hour under the hood trying to figure out what was wrong....then my GF who knows nothing about cars pointed out that my battery wasn’t hooked up... :doh

:owned

[squeefoo]

I was 19 and asked my boss if I could fix my car in the shop.My gas tank leaked at the seam (crappy 1969 Chevelle), I was going to clean it out good and fill it in with fiberglass. So I discovered after cleaning the seam out with a screwdriver, power wire brush, and 5 inch grinder w/ 36 grit pad; that the seam was rotted right through for about a foot and a half and flopping. I still don't know how I made it through that unscathed.

[Toms240420]

i grounded my class ring with the alternator and kind got it stuck for a moment, it shot sparks everywhre and burned the hell out of my finger. my friends where dying on the ground laughing. i still have the scar, but it was funny.

[psychic_mechanic]

When much younger, my buddy and I set fire to his 76 Trans Am while fabricating / welding new exhaust hangers to accomadate his 455 Oldsmobile and full length headers.

There were 3 of us under the car when we here, "Where is all of that smoke coming from?"

[natsoundup]

I was changing out a gas filter on a 86 Honda stationwagon...in my garage.... i turned around to reach for a clothes pin to clamp the hose....and let go of it...gas spilled directly on my incandescent trouble light..... started a fire.... I had no extinguisher.....

car and garage burn up.... got the kid and the wife out of the house.... damage confined to garage and smoke throughout the house.... they had to paint the whole thing and put in new carpets...

for years i didn't work on cars...

[elwesso]

Damn nat that really sucks... Id forget about working on my car if something like that happened...

Stupidest thing ive done... We'll see, ive certainly had a brain fart while working on everything... Mainly with the transmission pan not letting it drain enough, and bathing in ATF, and not having a drain pan handy... Theres a huge stain where I worked...

This is kind of unrelated to working on the car, but I was washing my car, and i closed the door, and the damn thing locked itself with the keys in!!!!!!! Thank god for AAA membership!

Then there was the time I mis threaded a bolt on te Tstat housing.....

[matt4pl]

when i did some timing chain work, **** went wrong:1. forgot to mark the distributor, bad idea2. broke off a bolt that holds in one of the guides3. forgot that i forgot to mark the distributor4. electrocuted myself twice with the distributor(3" arc of electricity went into my arm, man it look crazy)5. somehow managed to mess up the crank position sensor on the distributor, and broke it, had to get a new distributor.6. bunch of other wiring mishaps and **** like that.

[SinceByMan]

Ive probably done a lot of stupid stuff working on cars, but the dumbest thing I can remember was changing the oil in my friends car and pouring 3 quarts of oil into the engine with the drain plug out, made a huge mess in her garage.

And always having leftover, or not enough bolts or screws when Im putting something back together.

The dumbest thing Ive ever seen was in auto shop though, there were 2 351 Ford windors we used as test engines and they had these really crappy tanks used for fuel that leaked. So there was a puddle of gasoline all around the engine, and this one kid unplugged a wire going to something and was hitting it against the bellhousing, making sparks, standing in a puddle of gasoline

[azskygod]

Funny thread. Mine? A 1987 Isuzu Trooper II about 10 years ago. Indestructible.

So, I'm charging an R/C car battery in the engine compartment and I accidentally leave it hooked up and go for a drive. I totally forget it's in there and stop at the Home Depot for some stuff. 45 minutes later, I'm standing in the checkout line with my arms full of home improvement goodness when someone very casually announces over the PA system, "Would the owner of a blue Isuzu Trooper please go to the parking lot -- your truck is on fire."

I drop and run. Seconds later, a fire truck rolls up and decorates my engine compartment with thick white foam. I smile and play dumb as they pull melted lumps of plastic and wire from the remains of the battery tray. After they leave, I replace the battery, start it up and drive back home. The charred paint and the smell of burnt plastic and battery acid still haunts me to this day.

It looked like I had a damn BBQ on the hood...

AZSKYGOD

[reggiegsd]

Nice thread!

While freshening up a Datsun Z L24 motor I put the crank bearings in backwards and didn't line the oiling holes up. The motor had GREAT oil pressure just no oil to the bearings.

I got almost two hours of track time out of that motor before it seized up.