Stupid Mistakes I've made working on stuff, thread..

[whenmunkysfly]

Not really a screw up but I was desideing I've had enough brake in on the supra even thought I was suppose to keep babying it. I am next to a dodge neon and I step on it and take the fuck off away from him as he trys to keep up. then my gf is like you car is smoking I look back I it looks like smoke is just bellowing out the back so I hit nutral shut the car off and coast to the side to find out it was only a water hose. I thought I blew the fucking rings out of my new engine.

 

[CampbellsChunkySoupra]

ive have also gotten my ass kicked by the factory anti theft. its a bitch!

 

[starscream5000]

:werd: When I first set mine off, I didn't even know I had factory theft deterent! Then it took me FOREVER to figure out how to get the damn car to start after that. I think I ended up closing the door, locking it with the key, then unlocking it, and it started back up .

 

[akito]

yup! that factory alarm is a f-ing bitch!!! i dont even have it anymore. I followed shaeff write up and disconnected that bitch for good!!

 

[Scot]

Wow, no stupid episodes for nearly two years? I had one last night... I finished up doing a turbo swap from a CT26 to a GT35r. No leaks, everything seemed normal. I take for a test drive and after a few calm pulls at low boost, I decide to hit it a little bit harder and I see the 1 bar warning light come on and immediately shut down and see that I hit 1.8 bar.... Since it just started raining I had to call it quites and went to bed... Then it came to me as clear as day... I connected the pressure hose to the wrong nipple on the WG! STUPID STUPID STUPID! If it had not been raining, no telling how high I would have boosted and what damage could have been done....

BTW, I was going to start a new thread about stupid things done, did a search on "stupid", and wow, the search button really does work! I found this thread! Some funny stuff....

 

[benchwarmer]

Right after I did the MAFT-Pro conversion I was doing some work on the motor and left my ratchet sitting on the radiator. I started the car and as I was getting out I hear a "CRACK CRACK BANG!!!!!!" I dove back into the car to turn the motor off then ran to see what the hell I did. The ratchet had fallen off the radiator and broke three blades off the fan. The fan, now pissed off apparently, threw the ratchet at my air filter, crushing it. After switching to MAF my air filter was where the AFM used to be so it could have been worse.

 

[Who]

I bought a can of engine degreaser and grabed the garden hose. I sprayed down the engine and got everything real shiny and purty. I went to start the car and it ran like it was on two cylinders. I had to take off the 3000 pipe the coil pack and suck all the water out of the spark plug wells. What was supposed to be a 30 minute job turned into a 3 hour nightmare. Thanks again 7m.

 

[LilMissMkIII]

My significant other wired in some purdy new gauges for me awhile back, and went to start the car to see how they looked at night... Tried to start her up about 5 times and thought he had broken the 7M...


He then realised that the ecu wasn't plugged in.



I have never LOLd so hard!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[Mo87NA]

I had a pretty good scare a few years ago.

I took some parts off to prep and paint. During reassembly I wasn't exactly sure how some of the vacuum lines went. I ended up connecting the coolant line from the ISC control to a vacuum port coming off the head. After about 30 secs of running like shit and massive amounts of white smoke coming from the tailpipe, I realized how bad of a mistake i made.

I ended up changing the oil about 10 times within a 2 day span to make sure all of the coolant was out of the oil. Yep, I was pretty embarrased.

Mo

 

[toy fanatic78]

When I first got my mk3 the intake gaskets needed replaced.I end up saying fuck it and replace all coolant and vac lines,scrub the engine bay clean,and have the injectors cleaned & balanced while I'm at it.Get the car back together and it's missing a little,so I leave it idling and pull plug wires one by one to see which cylinder is missing,third one in is the one missing,also the one that shocks the piss out of me trying to plug it back in.The plug came off the injector on that cylinder.Get it running smooth so I go out for a test drive,no hood on the car,get about ten miles down the road and lay into it and around 4 grand in third it blows a power steering line off,(forgot to tighten the clamp) lucky I didn't wreck it 'cause it blew power steering fluid all over the windshield, had to drive home w/my head hanging out the window to see.
Had someone else make a mistake that sucked good for me.Put a centerforce clutch in my car,don't know what I did to it but my car quits shifting into 1st & reverse,after getting nowhere with the master/slave cylinder I pull the tranny, and as I slide it back my clutch disc falls out in a hundred pieces,so I just go buy a stock clutch from south bend clutch put it in and go play.After 48 miles of driving around,run it up to about 110 mph,push the clutch in and clang clang BANG.Shut it off and coast to the side of the road.Pop the hood and look and one side of my bellhousing is gone.The new pressure plate exploded.Go back to south bend to buy another clutch,they ask to see the old one.Come to find out the guy that built the pressure plate didn't smash the rivets that hold the straps that go from the cover to the plate of the pressure plate.They gave me an upgraded clutch and got me a new bellhousing for free.

 

[SideWinderGX]

That's a really good idea. I keep second guessing myself, trying to remember if I put the oil cap back on after I close my hood.

I do this every time I get gas, whether I visibly check myself (to avoid this situation) putting the gas cap on and shutting the door, or even when I TALK TO MYSELF, "Your putting the gas cap on. It's on. It isn't on the spoiler. Click click, it's tight. 100% fine."

I get in the car......."did I *really* put it on? I can't remember..."





Stupid stuff here, nothing major yet. The miscellaneous parts left under the hood, rags and stuff too.....once I forgot to plug in my AFM, I was so confused :lol:

 

[simia]

Haha some funnies in here!
simple yet stupid and dangerous mistake!
changed over my brake pads.. forgot to bleed brake lines after... slowly reversing out of the driveway.. go to brake and!! NOTHING! i immediately knew what i forgot so i rip the e-brake on and correct the problem.. lucky i brake before i leave the driveway!! haha

 

[Fozbo]

I took off the transmission in my old N/A back in the day to replace the throw out bearing. Got everything put back together and had just tightened the last mounting bolt when my dad asks "what's this?" and holds up one of those little washer pieces that goes on the spline... I had to take the transmission back off.

Another time with the turbo, I was tightening the battery terminal and the wrench was the perfect length and angled the perfect direction to line up with the wire terminal of the alternator. I ended up shocking the crap outta myself, burning my fingers, and blew the 100 amp fuse. My wrench still has the little weld mark it left.

 

[NashMan]

here is 2 stories the best ever

here is one that i saved the day

car ( old school lotus can't remmber the name of it ) came to the shop to get dynoed we he was swaping jets and droped one

so every one was looking for it and chould no find it but there was this nice hole in the bell house were it must have ended up

so boos wips out a magnet ( say jack ass it's brass ) that ended that

so i sujested the not soe fule way drill a hole ino the bell houseing from the bottom a nice 1 1/2 well drill drill drill shaveing falling down my back (ichy) punched though stuck finger up grab the jet


this car is classic as well wiht nash man jet reciveing hole in the bottom


next i feel this has to be one of my biggest misstake as in 5 car pile up

at the shop a 3rd gen rx7 came in for clutch well i done 1 of these befor no big deal

well got all the tranny off slipped the clutch cover on the tranny and shit i for got i had a hand appoint ment so i had to rush out of there

came back boss was saying she ready to go back on after installing the fly wheel so grabed the tranny slaped it in did up every thing

started car car whould not move i for got to put the cluthc disk on
reson i got throw off is he said ready to go in and just plum just forgot and went on installing

sad part is the customer was there at the time so i felt umm pretty dumb

so opps nummber 2 same car now i have to in out really stuiped fast wiht this so i had the tranny in and out in about 22 mins to putting in trans fulid i was rushing so fast new time record too that i ahve herd of but i forgot some thign again drove out and notice smell in all my rush i forgot to put the fill cap on the tranny
lost 1 qurt of oil

dame

that day i was stuiped beat tried and felt dumb most worst thing ever

 

[tekdeus]

Was installing new brake rotors on my Mk2, and could not understand why the rear rotor was SO hard to pull off. After using excessive force by tightening a pair of bolts to pull it off, I realized I forgot the parking brake was on... after I noticed that I broke some parts in the process!!

 

[Suprafast0422]

Doing a service on a prius at work, and was cleaning and adjusting the rear drum brake, so i had put one of the metal drums we use as trash cans underneath it so all the crap doesnt end up on the floor. Wellll, finish that and put the tires back on and go to let the car down when i notice the car isnt coming down level, so im like wtf and peer around the lift post and realize i forgot to pull the trash can out from under the rear wheel :biglaugh::aigo: very... very quickly raised the lift back up. lol. I ALWAYS take a quick peak now every time im lowering a car down now... and watchout for those pesky trashcans:biglaugh:

 

[fixitman04]

Okay, the guy that left the locating pins out of the head and didn't realize it until he had the engine back together has inspired me to fess up a mistake or two and see if anyone else is as dumb as me sometimes.

Here's one i hate to admit to:

Once after working 16hrs and then diving into an engine, i put the head on and couldn't find my shoprag. Pulled the head back off [cussing myself the whole time] and pulled the rag out of the piston hole at BDC. I need to print out a 'Backyard Mechanic' certificate and hang it on my garage wall after that one.

I tell me friends that one so they wont ask me to work on their cars/jetskis/whatever :aigo:

ive got a doosy myself, i was port matching a manifold for my boss's sprint car, had rags stuffed into the manifold to keep the shavings out of the resonation chamber of the manifold(some very experimental methanol stuff)

did a before and after rag count....or so i thought. 11 rags in and 11 counted out. we then assembled the motor(my boss put the manifold on) , then proceeded to do a 30 min warm up on the dyno before running it hard to see what we had. it made it through the warmup just fine, my boss then did a wot snap to see what kind of power we were making..


it instantly scattered the engine all over the dyno room!

seems there was a shop rag in the resonator......oops there goes a 15000 fuelie motor.

amazingly he wasnt mad at all, he just looked at me and said s@#t happens lets build another one.

 

[KMinAF]

Years and years ago I was doing a tune up on a V6 El Camino and while removing the spark plugs one of the insulators broke off. Assuming that it had just fallen to the ground I installed the new plugs. When I tried starting the car the engine locked up! The stupid insulator had fallen inside the engine through the spark plug hole and when I turned the engine over it embeded itself into the piston. So much for making a little extra money on the side, that job cost me an engine rebuild.

 

[slidebabyslide]

Shop rags...lol
I to have a shop rag story, I had just R&R a motor out of a sea-doo and i had forgotten to remove the rag out of the exhaust. I was WTF.... how come it does not run! i troubled shoot the thing for one our. Then i remembered were is my orange rag at? so much for flat rate...lol

 

[mk3tattoos]

i was checking all my fluid levals early in the morning and when i drove to work it started over heating. this was 20 min into the drive, on the freeway, pulled over and pooped the hood to find out i forgot to put on the radiator cap. that was stupid!