Whats the most retarded thing you've ever done while working on your car.

[na_turbotalon]

Oilpan gasket was leaking, pulled it off, changed it, put it back on, used a bolt that's a little too long on the timing belt side, drove the car for a few days with the bolt wearing away at the belt, BANG. Worst designed flange ever, why it's even possible to do, I don't know, lesson learned.

 

[Arrow_Runner]

Was changing the starter on my '81 Merc Cougar, bent down to grab something and hit my already cracked tooth on one of strut bolts.

Forgot to put the oil cap back on my wife's friends car after I added some oil to it for her. She ended up with a huge mess and I look like an idiot.

 

[azkikr10]

AHHHHHH fun times. Well, I put my car back together after a turbo rebuild I was driving home and forgot to put on the oil cap..... no big deal just a huge mess of oil in an already dirty engine bay, but no oil cap to be found. Made it home, got a new oil cap and enjoyed the rent of my day. The next day my buddies and I headed to a comedy show at the shorline. If anyone is farmiliar with this place there is a dirty road you take to get to the parking lot. while in line to park my friend says

"dude your cars smoking"
Me: " no way its jus the dirt from the road"
Him: "no dude look at your temp guage"
Me: " FUUUUUUUU CCCCKKK"
So we had to pull over while everyone at the comedy show was laughing at us and my overheating car... guess i was the opening act

After the show I fill my car with water and limp it home. The next day I look and find that DAMN OIL CAP WEDGED IN MY RADIATOR FAN. Made my fan motor burn up so there was no fan cooling my car.. fun times Oh yah, my new turbo seals were blown too

 

[azkikr10]

Don't think i'm done, i got one more. I was installing my comp cams. No big deal VFAQ here i come. Well i did the install, everything looked to bein time but my car shouldnt start. if i gave it a little gas it would run but then die when i let my footoff the gas. I'm sitting there cussing up a storm, tear the whole thing apart, rip my valvecover gasket and redo the whole install. start it up again and same sh!t. GO to bed frustrated that my car won this battle. Next morning i wake up, call my dad thinking he can help me. so he watches me tear the whole thing apart FOR A 3RD TIME and says everything looks good. I crank it and STILL THE SAME ISSUE. My pops looks at me and say "you have no FAIV, your car never idles cold" sure enough, take it around the block and it purrs like a champ. fun DSM times.

 

[greentrbo_95gst]

Don't think i'm done, i got one more. I was installing my comp cams. No big deal VFAQ here i come. Well i did the install, everything looked to bein time but my car shouldnt start. if i gave it a little gas it would run but then die when i let my footoff the gas. I'm sitting there cussing up a storm, tear the whole thing apart, rip my valvecover gasket and redo the whole install. start it up again and same sh!t. GO to bed frustrated that my car won this battle. Next morning i wake up, call my dad thinking he can help me. so he watches me tear the whole thing apart FOR A 3RD TIME and says everything looks good. I crank it and STILL THE SAME ISSUE. My pops looks at me and say "you have no FAIV, your car never idles cold" sure enough, take it around the block and it purrs like a champ. fun DSM times.

we all know the reason for that.

 

[Jslove1408]

I have one to easily top all of these. For some reason my passengers side window wasn't going down after taking apart my door and testing the motor and several hours of looking at wiring diagrams I found out I put my window lock on. Yup I definitly felt really really stupid after that one.

 

[azkikr10]

I have one to easily top all of these. For some reason my passengers side window wasn't going down after taking apart my door and testing the motor and several hours of looking at wiring diagrams I found out I put my window lock on. Yup I definitly felt really really stupid after that one.

oh i've been there too. how about replacing the control unit to the powerwindows only to find out you just popped a fuse. turns out i was reading the fusebox cover sideways

 

[FORMONTOYA]

I was old enough when I bought the Eclipse that I've done nothing totally stupid to it.

However, when I was younger...16, I bought a 70 'Cuda/383/727 slapstick. During the negotiating on the price from my boss at that time I was able to knock off $500 (a lot of cash in 1980, especially for a 16 year old) if I swapped out the rear gears. My dad street raced so I grew up around cars and new it was a simple, straightforward job so I did it. Well I didn't tighten down the clamps that hold the U-joint on good enough. My dad took me to pick the car up and as we were leaving we stopped at a light and my dad starts revving on me ('79 L82 Vette), so I drop it into first. Light turns green and we're off. Leaving the line was no problem, but when I went for 2nd the clamps broke on the U-joint and the drive-shaft started bouncing around the underside of the car and ground. Sounded like the whole car was coming apart. Had to tow it home. It busted the tail housing and the tranny had to be removed. We didn't even make it 3 miles from my bosses house. Decided to yank the engine and my first "hot rod" was this '70 'Cuda.

Another 16-17 year old experience...I was in the work program in school and would leave early. One day I didn't have to work so I went over to a buddy's house a smoked a little to much green stuff. I was driving my dad's country truck, '70 Chevy PU, 3 speed on the column, bald rear tires from me burning them off. The front of my buddy's subdivision there was a light that turned yellow, which we all know means floor it. Dropped it down a gear and did just that. Well I was young and dumb and really didn't have my AJ Foyt skills down yet and clipped another truck and hit a phone pole...totaled the truck. Told my dad that I was at a light and my foot slipped off the clutch, he said OK and walked off. Years later (when I was about 25 or so) I owned up to the truth. Of course my dad said: "Just because I smell like a turnip, doesn't mean I feel off the truck yesterday, I knew your foot didn't slip. I just couldn't say anything after all the crazy sh!t I've done".

And I have many other retarded, hair-brain, WTF were you thinking kind of stories.

Oh yea, I was 17 in my dads Vette, it was raining.........

 

[Nautica985]

I was installing my new UICP and elbow and when i was tigehting the elbow with a rachet, I was wearing a ring and my ring was toutching the ratchet and then i hit the postive battery temrminal by accident with the ratchet. It melted part of my ring and burned all arounfd my finger

 

[AWDDSMCRAZY]

Here's another one. After trying to solve my boost leak problem I wanted to see exactly how much it would hold. I started hearing a small hiss at 35psi so I lean over trying to find the hiss. Turn up the pressure to 40 and it becomes a little louder. Get my ear the the spot and BAM. Pipe blows off sounds like a shotgun. The pipe smacks me in the side of the head, and I lay there wondering what happened .

 

[96Eclipsed]

Mine involve locking my keys in the car...twice.

The first time it happened I had got in my car to warm it up but I left the door opened. I started the car then remembed somehing in the house. So I close the door and run in. I come out to remember that when you start the car the doors automatically lock! Of course my transmitter is on the key ring. In the car. So I call up my GF at work and ask if she has my spare. She has the key, but she took off the transmitter cause the battery is dead. So I run into the house find the tranmitter and no worky. I run the block to Walgreens and get battery and still doesn't work! So this russian guy in my complex says he works for a locksmith and wants to help for $10. I'm really thinking this is a bad idea..but agree anway. So while he's working I'm messing with the transmitter. After about 20 mins he says he has to get another tool...as he's in the house, the transmitter works and I get in..whew...gave him the $10 for helping anyway.

The second time I had jsut dropped my gf off at bart and with my son in the car I go to the ATM. Idiot me I leave my keys in my lap as I get a pen and stuff ready for the atm. So I get out, lock the door and realize My keys are in the seat. I tried to get my son, 3 1/2 at the time, to get out of his car seat and open the door. He could get the chest clamp open but he couldn't figure out the button on the crotch area harness...I could tell he was getting pretty freaked as Daddy wasn't getting in the car and driving off. So I had to call a locksmith to come and get me in. $50.

Since that last time I have removed both transmitters from my neon and RS ingnition keys and put them on separate key chains...

 

[cs82685]

Just remembered this one. Did an oil change filled her up and forgot to put the cap back on. Discovered this the next day, no harm no foul, except I left it under the hood and now it's MIA. No big deal I decide I need one that night so I can use my car in the morning. I take my brothers POS saturn to advanced get the new cap and rush out trying to get home for dinner in time. I wait and wait b/c its rush hour and a pain in the ass to get across the road. Finally a break in the headlights, I start to pull out and see it, a car with no lights on. Bam totalled saturn (at least it wasn't the eclipse or his new camaro or my moms new jeep) 3 years later my insurance finally lowered b/c apparently it was my fault the woman didn't have her headlights on, most expensive oil cap ever, oh and didn't make it home in time for dinner.

 

[ricktb]

taking a test drive with loose bolts or tools laying somewhere in the engine compartment, oops

awesome! been there

 

[SOADweskey]

I just got my fresh TRE transmission installed on my car and I'm re-attaching all the accessories, I'm almost done and I go to attach the speed sender unit. I reach down into the engine bay to pull the little plastic plug that TRE put in the hole that I left there so nothing could fall in my new trans while I was working on it. As soon as I touch the plug it turns sideways and starts to slip down into the transmission. I made an attempt to grab it but all I did was knock it the rest of the way in. So i had to completely remove the transmission by myself and luckily when i turned it on it's side I was able to shake the plug out. Then re-install all by my lonesome and these AWD transmissions are not that light.

 

[BringBackDSM]

Drop a socket in my intake manifold, because I was using it to keep the throttle open.

 

[brandt]

friend of mine was doing a coolant flush. got all the old coolant out. put the new stuff in. i go out open the rad. top and look in and it is red. so i asked him what he used so he went and got the bottle. it said transmission fluid on the bottle. dumbass.

 

[voodoogsx]

Hrmmm...I rerouted the wire bundle that goes from the engine bay to the inside of the car. I only moved it a couple of inches due to a shortened wire. It was right under the battery tray which had sharp edges and ended up cutting into some wires that controlled the transistor for the ignition coil packs. 1 tow service call, 1 fried coil, 2 replaced transistors, 2 weekends(and several hours during the week before heading to work) of learning the wiring diragrams and tracing wire connections later, I found the problem....

I hanged my head in shame as I stepped back away from the engine bay. Talk about feeling like an idiot for that one....

 

[92_talon_awd]

This is one of my favorite car tales and it involves my less than mechanically inclined brother and his first car. My dad told him he needed to check his oil, so he went and did so, then returned and announced it was low. He drove on down to the local advanced, bought some oil, filled his car up, and drove home. He said his car seemed to be running very poorly with no power after the oil fill up and my dad went outside to look at it. My dad noticed an oil trail leading to our driveway that continued to the beginning of our street and actually went all the way down to the advanced. Seems when my brother checked his oil, he did so at the valve cover. When he went to advanced to buy oil, he bought a couple of the 1 gallon containers, went out into the parking lot, and proceeded to add oil until the oil level was roughly flush with the valve cover cap. He then drove home. I'm the one that had to replace the oil pan gasket and oil pump . Good times.

 

[Hideki]

I was prying off my valve cover with a flathead screwdriver and the car alarm went off I flew back a few feet. I forgot to disconnect the battery

 

[voodoogsx]

I was prying off my valve cover with a flathead screwdriver and the car alarm went off I flew back a few feet. I forgot to disconnect the battery

been there, done that....ed at this one for knowing the exp you went through. I nearly jumped outa my pants when the alarm went off.....

 

[rich3389]

been there, done that....ed at this one for knowing the exp you went through. I nearly jumped outa my pants when the alarm went off.....

Why did the alarm go off?

 

[GofaST4life]

this isnt that funny, but it still sucked...

i was working on my car, beautiful 70 plus degree weather day so i had her in the driveway...i was just doing some regular tune ups, new plugs, wires and then i was putting in my new Type RS BOV (recirced)...so i started the car, and let it run, gave her a little gas to make sure the BOV was working, then wanted to go out for a drive...so i went in the house to change out of my dirty clothes, sat done at my deska dn saw that i had some replies to a thread here on tuners...

3.5 hours later my mom walks in,

mom: you know your car is running in the driveway right?
me: DAMN IT! MOTHER F..... (well you get it)

almost a half a tank of 93 octane gone, and 93 octane is NOT cheap here in NY.

 

[voodoogsx]

Why did the alarm go off?

My dad thought he turned the alarm off on my truck and closed the door afterwards. I was under the hood at the time in the middle of saying "don't close the door you'll set the alarm off....." it was a very loud alarm

 

[nfernotalon]

left my cellphone in the engine bay, took it for a test drive and never saw it again

 

[-TunedDSM-]

Replaced the thermostat, poured coolant in and drove around the block with the radiator cap sitting on the valve cover.

Another time I put new IC piping on and forgot to tighten a few clamps. Needless to say I blew off the uicp within 5 mins. Sorry nothing that exciting.