looking back..ive made some dumb mistakes on my car :)

[greathuskie]

just started thinking about all teh dumb things ive done on my car...

once i just finished cleaning my engine bay, shut the hood and went inside
a few hours later i go to start my car and it starts then studders the dies
i am super scared because its a brand new motor and i thought i blew something up, so i keep trying to start it, then finally open my engine bay

my intake is covered by a plastic bag, at which point the bag is sucked completely around the filter, i felt dumb

a few days ago, i was taking my TB off with an extension and dropped my ratchet
well as we all know the battery is right there and i dropped the ratchet on accident, and of course it lands right on the positive battery terminal
next thing i know sparks are flying, and the socket is still on the TB bolt, so i sent power through my intake mani and out the intake manifold ground, in which it got super hot and burnt up VERY fast

i grabbed a rubber hammer and hit the ratchet off the post as soon as i could find one, then blew the fire out and cooled it off with water

the ratchet was EXTREMELY hot and never worked the same

just felt like sharing my stupidity

 

[cait sith]

Every time I work on my car I seem to make another dumb mistake.

Jacking up the car... Jack slips. OH LOOK NEW RADIATOR TIME!

Installing 3" downpipe on a restrictor removed stock Boost solinoid + Greddy Type S = T25 spiked to 2.0kg/mm (28 psi).

Hey my engine is making kind of a harsh rattly sound. Maybe I should try to limp home.

Wheelbearing removal = Snipped ABS sensors, broken balljoint boots, lots of screaming.

Turbo removal = broken turbo bolt, machine shop for removal

Clutch change + Don't put a new thrustbearing in = Oh look time to remove the tranny again.

Thankfully I've seemed to straighten myself out a bit more now.

 

[Ballin' GS]

After taking a wheel or wheels off my car when doing suspension things i ALWAYS forget to tighten down one of the wheels lug nuts ones its off the jack. :-/

 

[cuttheduck]

After taking a wheel or wheels off my car when doing suspension things i ALWAYS forget to tighten down one of the wheels lug nuts ones its off the jack. :-/

I used to raise my car up first,,, then realize I have to put it back down to loosen my lugnuts

 

[osiris]

Forgot to completely close my hood and had it fly up and crash my windshield ....twice...
What an idiot

 

[Julioluko]

At 2:00am I was doing a test and had the fuel pressure regulator off and I also had the spark plugs out trying to hunt down a problem. When I had my friend turn the engine over to see if the cam angle senor was working gasoline poured out the end of the fuel rail onto arching plug wires!!!! I don't know how I didn't blow myself up. Idiot

 

[Julioluko]

BTW I also am guilty of the last 3 posts, but who hasn't raised the car before they loosen the lugs I feel like if your the kind of guy who owns these cars you've done that like 10 times by now.

 

[LTUSPE]

BTW I also am guilty of the last 3 posts, but who hasn't raised the car before they loosen the lugs I feel like if your the kind of guy who owns these cars you've done that like 10 times by now.

I do this every time... then I grab my cordless impact.

 

[cs82685]

BTW I also am guilty of the last 3 posts, but who hasn't raised the car before they loosen the lugs I feel like if your the kind of guy who owns these cars you've done that like 10 times by now.

haha, same here, I always forget, but I don't remember until it's on jackstands

 

[GSXSixteenG]

Wheelbearing removal = Snipped ABS sensors, broken balljoint boots, lots of screaming.

+1 guilty of this twice. Dam ABS, no longer have it though.

I always forget to loosen the lug nuts too but it is always resolved by the impact gun.

I had a similar problem like the rachet one but it was on my winter beater, the battery was held in by chicken wire. I was twisting the chicken wire tighten the battery down and happen to hit the positive and negatives. Electrical burns across my palms and fingertips, not fun.

 

[RoninEclipse2G]

I've left the bag on my filter after cleaning the engine bay a few times.

On my cars with distributors I ALWAYS forget to mark which plug wire goes where on the dizzy, which leads to half an hour of figuring out what goes where.

 

[david-b]

Zip Ties... and lots of them

 

[Trav83]

Did an electrical test on my ICS motor sensor, later I went driving and I'm like "Wow this thing is idling like sh**" When I got home I popped the hood and realized I forgot to plug the ISC back in

Back when I had my talon, I got in an accident which caused my hood latch not to work anymore so I tied it down... went down the road and... SMACK! hits my windshield cracks it and bends the hood.

Forgot to put the oil cap back on, went for a drive... and you can figure the rest out from there

Put a coolant plug on without a clamp... pulling into work I saw lots of steam and I smelled the coolant really bad, popped the hood and of course the plug came off and coolant was all over my engine.

Had the pipe to the muffler break off due to extreme rust, so I used a couple of clamps and a thin aluminum pipe to hold it back together temporary... I was driving on the highway and all a sudden I hear scrapping from the bottom of my car... the whole damn thing came apart and my muffler was dragging.

Installing an underlight kit (don't worry I grew out of that) me and my friends dad used tap in screws to hold the lights on, after we were finished the car wouldn't start, we were so puzzled but then as we were inspecting everything we noticed that one of the screws went right through that main wire that runs along the left side of the drivers seat underneath the carpet... it of course shorted out many things

I was tightening the terminal on my battery with an all metal ratchet and it tapped the other terminal while I was tightening the one, made a few sparks fly

 

[Evo_This]

Got one
Took my car for a spin with the vac line to the wastegate unhooked...haven't driven it since

 

[frankozz]

I checked my dipstick, I needed to add a quart of oil. I add oil and drive home from work boosting ocassionally. I hear something go clack clack like something fell to the ground, I didn't pay attention to it. I get home and see lots of smoke and it smells pretty bad.. Pop my hood and realize that my stupid ass forgot to put the oil cap back on, there is oil everywhere and I had to buy a new oil cap... That sound I heard was my oil cap falling and hitting the ground.

 

[knochgoon24]

Ebay Type-S BOV - got rid of that as soon as I learned better.

Blue interior LEDs under the dash and seats. I built them with $5 worth of Chinese LEDs off eBay. I had a spectrum of different shades of blue. - Those have since been removed.

Cut ABS speed sensor wires (did this twice) to take the knuckle off while replacing a wheel bearing - ABS no longer works right. - Fuse now pulled.

Hit black ice and cracked my front bumper really bad in 2 placed. I fiberglassed it back together, then did a little bondo work. I tried to respray it with the rattle can "color match" stuff. I bought the wrong color of green. That was over a year ago, and the bumper is still that darker green.

Painted my valve cover and fuel rail with regular spray paint. It lasted about a month.

Spent 2 days trying to figure out why my car sounded like a diesel. I had the spark plugs wires mixed up, and it was only running on 2 cylinders.


I hope that I've learned something about these cars by now.

 

[cs82685]

Got one
Took my car for a spin with the vac line to the wastegate unhooked...haven't driven it since

ouch, gotta keep an eye on your boost gauge

I checked my dipstick, I needed to add a quart of oil. I add oil and drive home from work boosting ocassionally. I hear something go clack clack like something fell to the ground, I didn't pay attention to it. I get home and see lots of smoke and it smells pretty bad.. Pop my hood and realize that my stupid ass forgot to put the oil cap back on, there is oil everywhere and I had to buy a new oil cap... That sound I heard was my oil cap falling and hitting the ground.

I've done this ended up costing me several thousand dollars from the accident that ensued when I rushed in my brother's car (thank god) to go get a new one. I've since learned to put the cap right where the hood prop goes so the hood can't close if I don't put the cap back on.

 

[habitatguy187]

Forgot to unplug the battery (more importantly the fuel pump rewire) while changing the fuel pump. The ground sparked and a small flame ignited, I rolled out real fast and stared under the car, nothing.....then all of a sudden WHOOOOOSH! the whole underside of the car is on fire, grabbed a fire extinguisher and made a mess in the maint. shop at work.

Was pulling crap out of the engine bay and cut a wire I didn't think I needed, turned out to go to the headlight.

Spent countless hours doing boost leak tests over and over again, buying fuel parts, changing plug wires and plug gaps numerous times, and overall spending lots and lots of money tracking down a boost leak that turned out to be nothing but my egr valve, which I didn't even realize until I blocked it off just cause....

Unhooked my PS and let fluid drip onto my alternator, thinking that it'd be ok.....

Hacking up part of my engine bay with a sawzall to make a 2g intake pipe fit.

Rebuilding my master cylinder when it turns out there was nothing wrong with it in the first place.

Starting my car numerous times with wires/sensors still unplugged.

Shutting my hood with tools still in it plenty of times.

To sum it all up, I've learned large quantities of new things over the past year, with more to come, and more mistakes to be made, but by far the smartest thing I've ever done is buy another daily since I play with my car so often.

 

[blcknspo0ln]

While the engine was hot, I opened the thermostat cap thinking that if I open it slowly I could relieve the pressure without causing things to explode. I was wrong.

I think I may have a picture somewhere. I took it after I wiped all of the hot coolant from my body/face

 

[habitatguy187]

While the engine was hot, I opened the thermostat cap thinking that if I open it slowly I could relieve the pressure without causing things to explode. I was wrong.

, I just did this the other day, luckily I was scared enough to wrap my hand up in a sweatshirt first. EDIT: Mine wasn't that ^^^ bad !

Thought of another one, I was taking a picture of my drivers side motor mount which I'd just cut and I dropped it onto my radiator putting a hole in it. A big patch of jb weld took care of that problem.

 

[projecteclipse2]

well i changed the oil in my jetta and the drain plug was stripped from the previous owner so my 6 point kept slipping and then i got my other socket popped it off and realized i knocked over my oil container so the oil was going all over the driver which is down hill and i got covered in oil

 

[Fabian]

I ALWAYS put my car on the lift and raise it in the air without taking my tools outta the trunk.

used GORILLA TAPE to seal a crack in my 1g's radiator and it actually WORKED for 2days!

left my wife's camera under the hood after cleaning the engine bay, then later that night when asked to see "whats under the hood?", someone points out that I left the camera in there. Thank God I didnt lose that thing or I wouldnt have nuts.

 

[gofer]

... installed a RRE strut tower brace and left the (+) wires going to the battery rest on it. = FIRE!

christmas eve 2008

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4 co2 bottles, a cut (+) battery cable, & some water thanks to the SDFD the fire was out

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[RoninEclipse2G]

^^^^^

Actually probably the dumbest thing I've done is run the car without the timing cover. It looks good, until your alternator belt shoots into the timing belt and bends every intake valve

 

[crimsondragon]

Jacking the car up using pinch weld. Crushed weld and since it's already crushed, I kept using that spot to jack the car up.

Did this today: trying to figure out the previous owner's hack job on the Jeep. I pulled several things and a couple of wires shorted out. Had to buy new fuses afterwards. I did acquire speaker wires.