It could be literally anything related to cars or the automotive work field. From not changing the oil filter when you change your oil, to guess-torquing rod bolts.

This is not a thread to argue, call people out or make mean fun of each other, but rather a fun way to share stupid things we've done when working on these cars (or any other car).

Let me start first:

I have only one torque wrench, it goes from 28Nm to 220Nm. When the FSM called for anything between 20 and 28, I would unwind the handle below the lowest 28 mark and count the steps, to make it equal, say 20. I actually did this to the rod bolts, where you torque to 20 then do 90 degree turns...

I ran an engine once without coolant then realized it after a minute or two. It did no damage at all.

I built a SBC in a '70 Chevelle SS LATE into the night/morning. At 2am I am finally firing it up. Starts up and rumbles like a true race motor but.......no oil pressure. Look under, forgot the oil drain plug. Fire her right back up....no oil pressure. Fug... Look under the car, 5 MORE qts of oil, so a total of 10. No oil FILTER. SOOO.....5 more qts and we have a go Houston!. Ran so well to 8k that a local front engine rail man bought the whole car. I swore after that not to work late like that. Start fresh before a fresh start!!!!

I ran my old EVO X for about 10 minutes after changing the oil, without the oil cap.. other than the mess, it was fine. Doh.

I’ve over torqued my fair share of stuff on my car, cracked the valvecover, broke off one of the fuel rail bolts in the head, and broke the broke the tensioner pulley bolt. Thank God for bolt extractors and proper torque specs

1cleangsx said:

I’ve over torqued my fair share of stuff on my car, cracked the valvecover, broke off one of the fuel rail bolts in the head, and broke the broke the tensioner pulley bolt. Thank God for bolt extractors and proper torque specs

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Cracked the valvecover on my MR2 turbo as well. Stupidly easy though, basically you shouldn't even use a wrench, just a screwdriver with a 10mm attached.

Swapped a small block 327 into an '82 Camaro. Installed the open headers, and an HEI ignition wired into the car's engine harness. We were so psyched to fire it up as soon as we finished, we didn't even realize it was 3 a.m.

The engine barked to life on the first try and idled at about 2k. The echo of the open headers blasted the neighborhood, but the real trouble happened when we went to shut it off. There was no wire provided in the harness to shut off an HEI distributor, and the engine was so loud, we couldn't hear ourselves shouting. We had to let the engine rev while we frantically grabbed tools to disconnect the distributor without getting fried by the spark plug wires.

None of my neighbors said anything about it. Come to think of it, none of them talked to me after that...

Was trying to remove my rear view mirror once and ended up cracking the glass, whoops.. At least it needed replaced anyways!

my 1st DSM I bought after deployment to Iraq in 09'. It was a super riced 1g. body kit, neon underglow, painted interior etc. It also had a t28, safc, front mount ic etc. Anyway my dumb@ss starts buying parts like fast and furious just came out.. all without doing maintanence and tune-up basics. . . spent alot of time on the side of the road trying to fix hoses and belts

I once put 1of the 2 pulleys that go on the water pump backwards (the one closest to the strut tower) blew a belt at Canadian tire for my alternator and threw my spare on and then I figured out that night I put the one pully on the wrong way

That night I got pulled over by the viu (vehicle inspection unit ) and they said my motor sounded rough belt squealed from.the pulley!! she runs smooth now though!

Boy there are too many. How about this. I was part of the lowered mini truck craze in the 80s. 3" lowered Mitsubishi mighty max. Monochrome white. Everything white. 195/50 tires were at least a 12%gear reduction. Bad idea.

Way back when I was 16, decided to replace the rod bearings. With the engine still in the car. While I was underneath it. With no light.

Ended up putting the rod cap on backwards for Cylinder 3. Locked up within like 10-30 miles. Lol.

Good times. Was living in CO at the time, immediately had a dude in a turbo 240 stop and ask if I wanted to sell it.

In my old V6 New Edge ‘Stang I snapped the thermostat housing bolts over torquing them. Lol and then with my 98 GST I take out the dipstick to replace the alternator to make it easier and once I did it super early in the morning before work and forgot to put it back in. I start driving to work and as you would expect.. Oil EVERYWHERE and smoking like crazy. Haha scary experience I thought my car caught fire

Over/under torqued stuff, broken glass, mis-wires, sneeze while under a car too close to the ground...the list is endless. But a couple of my favorites are:

Left shop towels in the intake of my 92 mx3 v6, noticed it wouldn't idle and realized my mistake as blue shop towels came shooting out the exhaust. It was good fun digging towels out from between the valve and seat, luckily it didn't bend valves.

Helping the bro-in-law put his 4Runner back together, he ordered the wrong clutch (Supra disc) and I forgot to check before installing the transmission. Get it all done and it tries to lurch across the shop when he starts it. Disc was big enough to get clamped by the pressure plate outer diameter, and pushing the clutch to start it did nothing to stop things from rotating, luckily he was quick with the brake and ignition.

Damn good stories everyone.

About 9 years ago(was kinda new to cars) I changed the oil on my wife's honda civic. Drained, changed filter, put tools/jack away blah blah blah.. Didnt start it up or anything. We were at my parents house so later that night we left.

Started to rain, so we hurried up and got in the car and started it. Not even a minute passed and the oil pressure gauge light turned on.. I'm like damn what happened.

Step out the car and see a flood of oil so got the jack and lifted the car. I checked the oil filter and it was tight but dripping. Took it off and there was the old o-ring still on it hahahaa

So wasted some good new oil but the best part the rain cleaned up everything for me

Broke one of the plastic vacuum tubes on the rear when painting my intake manifold. Tried to fix it with electrical tape, I could still hear the air being sucked in! had to get a new one... Ladies and gents, electrical tape is for electricity, not air.

When I first got into cars I was doing a turbo swap and needed to drill the pan for an oil return line. After I sent the pan to get welded I realized that the high pressure fuel line had to be released by starting the car. I took off the gas cap and cycled the car until it died. (Maybe 5 seconds.) Got out and realized the pan was off...Lawl. Not to mention, this was on a dirt floor.

Long story short, it didnt ruin a thing. Made me feel pretty dumb though.

Cracked a valve cover, used RTV on the underside of a bolt to stop leaking. Worked for a while before started leaking again