FUN THREAD: What was the dumbest thing you ever did when working on your car???

Changing the oil in my truck on day, my buddy calls me... all messed up because his girl ripped his heart out (I'll leave my jaded thoughts on women for another day)... Well... I had just finished draining the oil and had gotten the drain pan out from under the truck.

So an hour on the phone and I'm back to the oil change... I get two and a half quarts of Valvoline full synthetic 5w30 into the truck before I see a lake expanding out the passenger side. At that moment my eyes lock onto the drain plug sitting infront of the truck. I too had to make a mad dash to take care of a plug... just mine was to keep the oil IN the truck!

Hey, it was only a $12 lesson... if you stop halfway through... make sure you check the drain plug!
 
Changing the battery in my truck that had shaved door handles, wanted to make sure the battery didnt hit the hood because it looked bigger and I was a little nervous. Placed the battery in and didnt hook it up and carefully closed the hood to make sure nothing hit so I closed it all the way just to be sure and the doors were closed and the windows were also :)

Came real close to breaking the window to get in but a friend thought of an idea of cutting the hood cable and trying to pop the hood like that, ..............he saved me a new window and tint.
 
After changing the coils I put stuff back and then only put three screws back on the coil cover on one side while the others were sitting in the crease on the front bumper. I started it up to see if the car would stutter and it didn't. I was so happy I shut the hood and drove off to test it. Meanwhile slinging the screws somewhere. I pulled back in the driveway only to remember that the I left the screws off. Yep only 3 screws holding the cover on.
 
when i first got my LS, it overheated out in the deserts of Joshua Tree and i found a gas station to buy some coolant. well i thought the reservoir was where it was on my last car - on the f'in radiator! so i spent 20 minutes trying to pry off the engine cover - two bolts were stuck in there really good and i nearly snapped the cover trying to get it off. had no tools with me except a wrench. after much frustration i decided to look in the owner's manual. reservoir located in the far right corner of the back of the engine. LOL. opened the cap, poured in the fluid and was up and running 3 minutes later. god i felt like such a moron. never again would i do trial and error work on this car!
 
Well this happened just before i went to work! I decided to test the starter on my 1988 GMC Suburban. I got underneath and tried to direct wire it, I touched the power and the starter went crazy. the engine kept turning over and over scared the :q:q:q:q out of me!
 
ok so i was replacing a cracked head on my girlfriends saturn in from of my grandmothers it was snowing and about 10degs outside i was on a hell bent on breaking the world record for a head replacement everything went soooo perfect it was unbelivable less than two hours in i was done and quit proud of myself. long story short i drove the car about 1/2 mile and started hearing a noise that turned into a horrible noise i forgot to tighten the cam gear bolt ouch!! off the car went to the junkyard
 
Okay okay this is my story.

Had a friends car and I was racing one day, I had it WOT for about 10 minutes needless to say it started white smoking like crazy and would die. I couldn't figure it out. So friend gave me the car and I started tearing it down trying to figure the problem. Never seeing the inside of a motor and only doing light mechanical work previously. I didnt know how things were supposed to look. I pulled out the head gasket yep looked good, tore down further pulled out the main/rod bearings well these look alright too (as I peeled the copper off of them)

A seasoned friend of mine pointed the burnout on the headgasket and showed me that I spun every bearing on the crank. I felt like a dumb poop.

I put the car together all rebuilt whoot! and after figuring out all the kinks started it up. In troubleshooting various problems with F/I I hear grinding noise from my lower end. yep spun all the bearings again! CRAP! Tore the motor down and I forgot to place a plug in an oil galley so the oil was cycling from the pan through the oil pump into the filter back into the pan. :( :(

So, I pulled the motor again and rebuilt the bottom end with new crank and new rods I put it back together and as I was putting on the crank pulley I was torquing it and snapped the head right off! You can't drill or easy out that trust me I TRIED! For hours!!

New crank later, got the car running and donated it to a lady with cancer. I was freakin done! Never wanted to see that thing again!


But least intelligent, placing a fuel T in the factory plastic lined LS fuel hose and twisting the T on thus plugging my lines in 2 spots. :( DOH!
 
one time when i was putting my fat mat in my trunk (sound deadener) i accidentally put a piece where it was not suppose to go. so i had to get it quick because once the tar is in place it's a PITA to get out and leaves a black stain. so i put the heat gun down and remove the piece, guess where i put the heat gun? on my back bumper, right where the chrome piece is at! felt like such a tool. i suffer from over looking the small details...i hate it when i'm done working on the car and i leave a tool on the fenders and accidentally close the hood. more than one time i have dropped the oil plug (screw) into the container that was holding the oil, lol. like i said, it's the small details that get me. great thread, i actually read through all of them
 
The first time I changed the brakes on my 98 Monte Carlo I forgot to prime the piston before attempting to drive. Got the job done and it was just starting to rain. I cleaned up all my tools, brought it down off the jackstands, started it up, put it in gear and nearly rolled into a parked car down the street. I pushed the brake to stop and it went to the floor! OMG I yelled and pumped the brakes like mad while rolling down the hill and it finally stopped.
This was my first ever brake job and did it by myself too. I was sure to be more careful after that.

And like any of us I have closed the hood on many tools, luckily with no damage.
 
A few things over the years... My dad has been a mechanic in various Ford dealers for 30 years and has worked for Land Rover for the last 10. And he's always encouraged me to do my own work.

Anyone who has ever owned a GM vehicle for any length of time has had to deal with the tilt assembly in the steering column coming loose. It's held down by 4 reverse torx bolts and you have to tear the column completely down to get at them. I've had to do this on my old Jeep and my present one still needs some work. You can cheat and just get 3 of them without tearing the whole column down. I tore mine apart on a Sunday afternoon and got the bottom two bolts tight and got greedy going after the third. I was using a 1/4" socket that fit the reverse torx heads and as I was going in after the bolt the socket fell off and landed way back behind the tilt assembly. I tried for about an hour to fish it out then just said screw it. I needed it back up and running for Monday. I still need to go get the right tools and go back in a do it right.

My LS ate my 10mm socket when I took the coil covers off to take pictures to demonstrate to the dealer that there actually WAS oil in the wells.

On my last oil change I read the manual wrong and put in 7 quarts. (V6 takes 7 V8 6). Dad said it would be fine though. It's been about 2000 miles and no signs of the "foam".

I put the jack in the wrong place under my LS and I dented the body pan really nicely....

I put a chrome air cleaner on my Mustang II and neglected to cut the piece of all thread that you put in the top of the carb to facilitate the thicker air cleaner. Went right through the hood.

When I rebuilt the carb in my II I used the wrong year top section of the carb and created a huge vacuum leak that took me months to find. I also broke a stud off the intake manifold... not just the stud, the little tab it was set in.

The success out weighs the :q:q:q:q ups though :D
 
The LS eats everything. Dropped a bolt it disappeared, dropped the 7mm for the coil covers ;) and it disappeared. So in the search I found a different one that it ate earlier. Lost an 3/8 to 1/4 adapter in there somewhere too.. A roll of electrical tape that fell under the intake is still there cause I can't reach.

Not that I am a messy mechanic, I just cant find the crap. Oh and the fuse puller for the fuse box fell down into the kick panel.

Catch my drift? Lincoln is HUNGRY!
 
The Hotness said:
The LS eats everything. Dropped a bolt it disappeared, dropped the 7mm for the coil covers ;) and it disappeared. So in the search I found a different one that it ate earlier. Lost an 3/8 to 1/4 adapter in there somewhere too.. A roll of electrical tape that fell under the intake is still there cause I can't reach.

Not that I am a messy mechanic, I just cant find the crap. Oh and the fuse puller for the fuse box fell down into the kick panel.

Catch my drift? Lincoln is HUNGRY!
Click to expand...

Damn dude, that must have made for lots of trips to sears for new sockets.
 
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