List your dumbest auto related screw up

[auxilary]

Tim240z. wheel chocks.

 

[jtmny1999]

I got one ......like 3 years back I tried on some 18's on my 240Z, just to see how it would look. Took a flew pictures then took them off putting the stock one's back. I only hand tighten the four lugs(I was in a hurry replacing my friends Mr2 Axles) .........Next day I drove my Z..... made it to the mall, got out and half way back I saw a porsche so I tried racing him then boom my back tire came off!!!! My car hit the ground, scrapped and my rim kept rolling past me.....That really sucked I was so embarrassed. Now that i think about it I have a flew more stories LOL.

[240ZR]

I wont list my many flubs, but my scarriest one was taking my dads VW Tourage out to see just how 4x4 it was.... So I went with my girlfeind to the hill where her Cj5 got stuck the week before, it was maybe a 45-50 degree incline and the dirt was pretty loose, normaly but was still a little wet from the rain storms the weeks befor, so i take a running start at it and it climbs up it like a billy goat, even with the stock radials, we get to the top, pop in a dvd and and both fall alseep. 4 hours later I wake up and notice its rained, I think nothing of it, so i start down the hill, well the tires dont have alot of grove, next thing i know I am sking down a 400 foot hill, in my dads new tourage I crank the wheel, trying to get some controll mabye turn the car at an angle to slow it down, pump the breaks (at this time i am sure they where caked with mud tho), Rock lodges under one of the front tires, just long enough to slow me down for, the car to turn sideways, BTW my Gf is still alseep, next thing i know the car is now sliding down the hill sideways and slowly becoming backwards, I panic and floor it praying to the tire gods that it will grab ahold of something, at this point she wakes up and starts wondering whats going on, now shes screaming at the top of her lungs, and we finish the trip down the hill and end up stoping with the help of a giant oak tree... and the rear bumper meets the back seat....... and my dad was PISSED... needless to say I dont do 4x4 anymore, and my dad dosnt not let me drive his cars...

[Cruez]

OK' date=' I have a real bad temper. You can see what this is leading to...

 

I had a '69 Hurst/Olds. Nice, very rare muscle car. I was trying to get the drive shaft bolts out because I was going to freshen the motor. Of course they were stuck like a mofo and I was loosing patience with the tight quarters. I rolled out from under the car and punched the door and left a huge dent in it, hurt my hand, and the bolts were still stuck.[/quote']

 

 

sounds like me... especially working on something that won't cooperate

 

Give me a little bit... I will remember one of mine..

[Sparky]

haha, ok I guess one more wont hurt.

 

 

few years ago I worked at a local shop that specialized in restoration and race preparation of some very high end vintage cars. well one day I was working on a very nice porsche 356R, the engine alone cost the owner upwards of 20K, I was fixing a cracked oil cooler adapter. well, I got the part back from the welding shop, put all the fittings back on, changed the oil and fired it up...sounded incredible but had 0 oil pressure and this HUGE red light on the dashboard was screaming at me! so I give it a few revs thinking it will build pressure in a second but it never did...so i shut her down and contort myself out of the cage and my jaw drops.......10 qrts of oil sprayed all over the engine compartment, the floor, my tool chest, and the wall....apparently I had forgotten one fitting on the outlet of the oil cooler and for some reason that makes a huge difference in how the car runs lol..ooops.

 

I cleaned up my mess, filled her back up and went home for the day.

[ZR8ED]

The story goes:

 

I have a killer L28 fully prepped, tuned to the nth degree. Fast, Reliable. Did I say fast?.. well it was FAST.

 

Ok so if it is fast with 40mm dcoe's, then a set of 45's would be faster right? So I thought.

During some tuning with them, go out for a drive, and only use a few screws to hold my air box lid on... Well that and I left a spring steel clip still on the air box...which vibrated loose and fell into the air box. Then into #5 cyl, then puked back out into the box, and then back into #6cyl. So much for my killer 6cyl.. it turned into an expensive 4cyl.

 

Dumb Dumb Dumb. After an expensive repair, on go the 40's again, because the car was faster with them than the 45's.

[silicone boy]

That's easy. Just when I had my 383 stroker just about completed, I dropped a nut down the intake manifold (it was in the car at the time). HybridZ members gave all kinds of suggestions, but wouldn't ya know it, the bolt went down one of the only open intake valves into one of the cylinders. I took the suspected head off and took the bolt out. I tightened down the head and cranked the starter just for fun. I heard a thud of metal against metal. Just great I thought. I couldn't figure it out (clearance issue?), so I took the motor out of the car, tore it down, and found another nut in the opposite side of the engine! Same miraculous misdeed twice in the same engine!

[Guest ON3GO]

ive done alot.

i have about 8 broken fingers from just the easiest of repairs lol.

 

worse was prob the built 300zx TT i did at my old job.

if you guys know Z32 TT's then you know how much a bitch it is to change the turbos on them. well the customer paided us to build his VG30DETT and upgrade the turbos to some nice T4 units, pretty much a 700rwhp daily driver.

anyways.. we build the engine, forged and pricey parts everywhere, only the best!

put the nice T4 turbos on, install the engine/tranny.

do all thats needed to be done.. right..

put the old tune on the ecu, safe tune that was used when the engine dyno shop dyno'ed the engine before we put it in.

well for some reason the boost lines coming from the wastegates werent hooked up.. sooooo MAX boost.... which the engine wasnt tuned for yet.

went for a drive, felt realllll strong.

nailed it.... boost went up... wayyyy up. heard a ping then heard lots of bad sounds.

smelt lots of oil, saw lots of smoke.. started to cry.

not only did i burn a few rings, but i trashed both brand new turbos, and everything else at that.

 

wasnt the greatest day of my life but man did that car pull hard for those few seconds lol.

 

other might have been back in my DSM days.

had a nice 1st gen GSX.. had a big 16G turbo, big injectors, big intercooler, big exhaust, big fuel pump.. also had a big ego as i thought a BIG nitrous shot would be fun.

2 hours later after installing the wet shot kit i forgot to put a pill in and sprayed on a "test" run.

engine threw a rod and threw up oil and coolent everywhere.

also threw my *** into debt!

 

mike

[80LS1T]

I've done a few dumb things in my career as a Auto Tech...

 

When I first started 3 years ago I forgot to tighten all 4 wheels and the drivers side rear came off about 10feet down the road. Luck for me I was driving and no damage was done!

 

A few years prior to to that I was doing a head gasket on a buddies Geo Metro. I broke a cylinder head bolt off and rather than doing it the right way and pull the head back off I tried to get it out with the head on. Ended up drilling into the block! Yeah my buddy just sold the car after that! Whoops!

 

2 years ago at work I let a Jeep Cherokee run for like a minute or two with out any oil in it! Yeah it didnt really make any noise either, I just happend to remember not putting oil it it! Doh!

 

 

That's all I can think of right now, LOL

 

 

Guy

[BrandonsZ]

haha' date=' ok I guess one more wont hurt.

 

 

few years ago I worked at a local shop that specialized in restoration and race preparation of some very high end vintage cars. well one day I was working on a very nice porsche 356R, the engine alone cost the owner upwards of 20K, I was fixing a cracked oil cooler adapter. well, I got the part back from the welding shop, put all the fittings back on, changed the oil and fired it up...sounded incredible but had 0 oil pressure and this HUGE red light on the dashboard was screaming at me! so I give it a few revs thinking it will build pressure in a second but it never did...so i shut her down and contort myself out of the cage and my jaw drops.......10 qrts of oil sprayed all over the engine compartment, the floor, my tool chest, and the wall....apparently I had forgotten one fitting on the outlet of the oil cooler and for some reason that makes a huge difference in how the car runs lol..ooops.

 

I cleaned up my mess, filled her back up and went home for the day.[/quote']

 

 

This is why if you have a 20k engine, you work on it yourself. Shheesh! [edit] And he's probably wondering why he can only get 120hp out of it, scratching his head. Good one. Nice story.

[Guest joelzcar]

my z31 started on fire and i didnt have a fire extinguisher.

almost started the mountain on fire.

 

now im stuck with a 79 280zx 2+2 auto until I get the funds to get a turbo.

[Sparky]

This is why if you have a 20k engine, you work on it yourself. Shheesh! And you never told him about the 3 revs and the idling you did with no oil. Of course you didn't tear the engine down and inspect the races. And he's probably wondering why he can only get 120hp out of it, scratching his head.

 

well hello Mr. Grinch,

 

as a matter of fact I did tell my boss but thanks for ASSuming I didn't. it was around the end of the season and it only had one more race before a complete tear down. the car performed flawlessly and had no visible damage and the tolerances checked out. and to think that story got your panties all ruffled...I was one of the good mechanics! I could tell you stories from some of the other guys that worked there but I wouldn't want you to have an aneurism.

 

:

[alsil]

Here's a good one.

My ex-girlfriend was getting rides from me back and forth to work. I drove her everywhere. She told me that it was because she didn't have a car and the bus didn't run when she needed to get to work.

So being the nice guy I am I decided to find her a car.

I found this NICE '72 510 for sale for like $500. It was so clean it looked new. Only problem was, blown head gasket (typical for 510's).

So my friend and I swapped out the gasket and drove it home.

She didn't know how to drive a stick. So she asked me to teach her.

Remember, this thing was CLEAN and STOCK. not a SINGLE DENT. There wasn't even rust under the hood by the cowl vent.

She got in, started it up. She let out on the clutch, and backed it up. Quickly.

Problem is she hadn't closed the door. And there was a pole.

There went straight.

the door went past 90 degrees by like 20.

We bent it back but the door never closed right again.

*Sigh*

[BrandonsZ]

well hello Mr. Grinch' date='

 

as a matter of fact I did tell my boss but thanks for ASSuming I didn't. it was around the end of the season and it only had one more race before a complete tear down. the car performed flawlessly and had no visible damage and the tolerances checked out. and to think that story got your panties all ruffled...I was one of the good mechanics! I could tell you stories from some of the other guys that worked there but I wouldn't want you to have an aneurism.

 

:[/quote']

 

Sorry that one caught me upside the head, I was not at all in the spirit of this forum. you ASSumed correctly that I'm an ***.

 

Humble appologies!

[Cruez]

Ok, thought of a small one..

 

When driving the SHO one day, the check oil light came on...but I was in a hurry going somewhere but I was near the house.

 

I pulled up to the garage, opened the hood (car still running) and put about a half a quart of oil until I was ready to change it.

 

While pouring the oil, (without a funnel) some went onto the exhaust manifold and promptly caught fire. Lotsa wires up front of the SHO, plastic fans, etc...

 

No fire extinguisher at my house.... so I did the next best thing... grabbed a solo cup and started dumping water as fast as I could on it from a nearby faucet (no hose in sight)..

 

It finally went out and the next day I bought a good fire extinguisher...I was going to be welding the floor panels in the truck that weekend )

[datsunan]

About 15 years ago I tour down my first Z motor thinking I was going to build a beast. After it sitting in peaces for a year or more I realized that I was a poor bastard and would be for some time, I put it all back together. Problem is the brakes no longer worked very well and after starting it I was all excited to take it for a drive. Put it in reverse to back it out and DOWN my driveway, went to hit the brakes cause I was going to fast out into the street but I did not slow down, did I mention that the seat was not bolted down? So as I push harder on the break my seat falls back, I'm going way to fast now and can't reach the pedal anymore so I grab the wheel and try to pull myself foward to get more pressure on the break when the steering wheel comes off in my hands! At this point the seat also falls back to a reclined possition and I feel like I'm in a rocket ship with a steering wheel thats going backwards! Stupid nuts and bolts! Thank god my e brake still worked, stopped just in time to not hit the car parked on the other side of the street.

 

Did I win???

[JMortensen]

Did I win???

Very Buster Keaton-esque! You've got my vote!!!

[grumpyvette]

lets just say I LEARNED alot of things ....the hard expensive way early in my career as a mechanic.,I REMEMBER INSTALLING A CLUTCH DISK WITH THE WRONG SIDE FACING THE FLYWHEEL BACK IN 1965, AND INSTALLING BEARINGS WITHOUT CAREFULLY CHECKING CLEARANCES BACK IN 1964. so I don,t feel like Im smarter than anyone else, just remembering back when I started out, makes me feel for the new guys, and realize that we all learn the hard way at first!

I remember installing my first cam without checking clearances back in 1964 also!

none of those worked out as well as Id hoped

[Wagz]

my z31 started on fire and i didnt have a fire extinguisher.

almost started the mountain on fire...

That's similar to an experience I had. Although, as far as I know the only boneheaded thing I did was not having a fire extinguisher in the car.

 

Just as I was pulling up to the gas pumps to fill up, I notice what I thought was steam wisping up from the front of my '87 300Z. Hmmmm? It was summer time and I thought the car was over heating. I popped open the hood to find flames coming from the vicinity of the a couple of the injectors. I frantically look for an extinguisher around the pump island. Nothing. Went running into the convenience store and loudly asked wherer their extinguisher was while pointing to my flaming car next to their gas pumps.

 

The attendants nearly knocked each other over running around looking for one. I finally realized I was standing next to it, grabbed it off the wall and ran out to extinguish the flames. The keystone cops followed me out to watch. After the flames were out, one of the attendants sticks his head under the hood to check out the burned carnage. Just as he did this something went "POP! FSSsshhhhhhh!!!" It scared the poor guy so badly, he banged his head on the hood pretty hard trying to get away. I think he had to go change his underwear after that.

 

Now, I always have an extinguisher in all my cars!

[80LS1T]

I've got one to add as of today....

 

I was changing out a short block on a Neon today and put the headgasket on backwards.

Yeah I put the front on the back and vise versa! Yeah it ran when I was done but oil got into the coolant and its a big mess that I get to fix tomorrow! Took me about 6.5 hours to do the whole job and then I thought I was done until the coolant started to turn yellow an milky! It only ran for 2-3 minutes so Im sure the new short block is ok but I sure felt like a complete moron! It just figured because everything else was going waaaaaaaay to smooth!

 

Guy