Dumb things you've done working on a car?

[Tom_1569]

An interesting read lol.

I was putting the battery back in my sisters scorpion and checking the colours on the terminals of the leads i hooked it up went to start by the time i got to the driver door their was smoke. So i ripped the burning lead off and burnt meself. Seems the previous owner had put tap on the leads for some reason but put red on the negative and black on the positive WTF?

Putting the head unit im my VK, wired it up but when i turned the car on their was no lights, unlike the other ones i have wired up they have a flashy standby crap. So on a 36 degree day i spent 5 hours tracing all the wiring looking for a break and couldnt find it, so thought the head unit must be dodgey. When my bro inlaw came round i got him to check it, he plugged it in, turned the ignition on, TURNED THE STEREO ON :bangs:

Also undone a sump plug with the oil still being hot, didnt hurt but sure made my skin grafts go funny lol.

Cheers Tom

[PaRaDoX]

The very first night I drive the VP GTS I stuck my hand into the metal engine fan, luckily I kept most of my fingers, I had 2 larghish gashes and it hurt. So beware any new 5.0L owners, the fan sticks out past the shroud on the 5.0L unlike the ****y small plastic V6 one which I was used to.

HAHHAA i still have the scar from my encounters

when i insepcted my car before i got it, i lent in with my hand on the fan shroud, i heard a CHING CHING CHING CHING CHING and looked down to find a part of my hand missing and blood everywhere lol

worst ive done is connect a transmission breather hose to the throttle body then boost it blowing a seal outta the trans, but what happens when people replace the breather with ones that look like heater control vac hoses and make them long enough to reach :P

[Matt0]

I replaced my link bushes once on the front of the car by using a set of vice grips and a spanner and drove about 3000K's until I found the vice grips still clamped to the link rod! I couldn't believe it.
I also lost a 9/16 spanner which I thought had fallen from the car onto the road. Months later I found it stuck behind the headlight in the engine bay. I was happy to have a complete spanner set again.

[VNexecutive]

i took my old cd player out a few days ago. it still had a cd in it.


i think ive posted too many times in this thread. someone needs to keep me from working on cars. haha.

[Wrayza]

Drove off a few days ago with a wheel nut key still attached to the front passenger side wheel. Searched the whole garage for it, then walked around the block (probably a 1.5km walk, including a bit of springvale rd), and found it!

Jacked my car up from under the K frame a few days prior to that with the bonnet open and accidently wedged it up against a big loft beam, bent the old bonnet strut and hurt the paint a tiny bit on the nose. It wasnt the first time either, but the worst.

Haven't done the oil drain plug trick yet

[Bilbs]

This isnt exactly a DUMB thing as such, but any mechanics in here have most probably had this happen, ok, get in commodore/ford - late-ish model, drive into workshop, put on hoist, lift bonnet, setup on hoist, raise hoist, go under car and start draining oil, then KABANG!!!!!! The bonnet strut hasnt held, and the hood has came crashing down, it scares the absolute BEJESUS outta, especcialy the first time it ever happens to you, ya think the hoist is about to come crashing to earth in a hurry lol. BTW just to make some people here feel a lil BETTER, the ones saying they removed sump plugs with oil still hot, thats the way it is supposed to be done, your just supposed to get your hand outta the way before you get the hot oil all over it lol

[ProphetVX]

I wasn't working on my car, but on my boat with an outboard the other day.

Had the engine running and touched a lead.... Won't ever be doing that again. Left a nice blister on my finger and left my body with a nice tingling sensation from head to toe.

[Not_An_Abba_Fan]

Who ever has done extractors on an XD-XF Falcon will know this one.

After removing the heat riser pipe fitting from the manifold and putting it on the aircleaner, you proceed with the rest of the job, lift the car up on the hoist to do underneath and the gas strut fails to hold the bonnet up, it comes crashing down only to land on the bit you put on the aircleaner, when you let the car down again, there is a nice little raised bump in the middle of the bonnet.

[jas98]

well ive snaped a water pump bolt off in the timeing cover once lol (small one) other then that nothing major has happened (YET!!)

but (this aint about cars though ) dont u hate it when you are mowing the lawn and something happens to the mower and u have to diconnect the spark plug then when u are about to start it again it doesnt!!! and you are pumping away at the fuel primmer thing for a while wondering WTF did i do now, only to relise that ,for an engin to start you need fuel + SPARK!!! lol

well ive done it heaps of times hahaha

[jet_pilot]

today i was stuffing around with the centre console and c'd player
anyway before ive got it all back together i go to turn her on to make sure the hu's hooked up properly..... nothing not even a kick anyway i freaked out swearing and what not (upset the neighbour's ....again) checked all the fuses and most of the wiring
later on i put the interior back together and as i was tightening the 2 screws for the console i noticed as i slid the console forward that it was in D but it said P when the console was pulled back..... to say the least working on your car hungover isnt fun
stupid little thing's are sometimes easily overlooked and you jump straight to the conclusion of something major

[VNexecutive]

lmao jet_pilot ive done that except i wasnt working on the car.. i freaked out when my car wouldnt start cos it was in D when i pulled over to take a phone call. forgot to put it into p before turning the car off lol.

[Kikki]

We had a (backyard) business for about 3 years, I'm not going to write all the silly things he has done here, lets just say I made him go find a job somewhere he would get life insurance.

[vnv6s]

One thing i done was installing a new complete air filter onto my 350 holley and it was all good and gave some nice power and air intake until i lose a cylinder and started running on 5 and a loud tapping noise coming from the engine.

I took the head off to find one of the valves was seized and a screw was stuck in it.

The screw had come loose out of the air filter, got sucked through the carby and manifold straight into the head and got stuck under a valve. No damage done except a new gasket but if it had of went into the piston it would have been a different story.

[NORTI]

i took my old cd player out a few days ago. it still had a cd in it.


i think ive posted too many times in this thread. someone needs to keep me from working on cars. haha.

I know HEAPS of people that have done that!!!!

[scrabet]

well the other day i was working on my car had the left rocker cover off a because of a noisey rocker and i was turning it over with a big spanner any way i went to start it and it would turn over a tad then go clunk and yeh i did tried starting it abotu 3 times when i got iritadet because i thought the starter motor had died because it sounded the same as my old starter motor , i went in side to cool down cos i was boiling and came out half an hour later when i saw that i had left the spaner on lucky the starter motor i got was a slow cranking 1 from the wreckers anyway it was turning a little bit then hitting the front sway bar i think lol wich sounded the same as my old studft starter motor

[snappy05]

I know HEAPS of people that have done that!!!!

A couple of weeks after I bought my statesman I had the 10 stacker going and decided to put my pioneer cd player in there due to better sound. anyway I've lost 10 of my fav cd's(all legit copys ofcourse) now because the stacker needs the eurovox to power it unfortunantly.

[Just_a_stocker]

This ones a bit strange.

After changing the alternator I drove down the shop and started to notice the power steering was going.
Had a look under the bonnet and realised I had forgot to put the belt back on.
It was dragging underneath the car.


Don't ask me how it started.
It must have grabbed and tugged it just enough to turn it over once and fire it up.

[eurekamad94]

im sure at least one of us has put the battery in backwards like me eh

[jas98]

This ones a bit strange.

After changing the alternator I drove down the shop and started to notice the power steering was going.
Had a look under the bonnet and realised I had forgot to put the belt back on.
It was dragging underneath the car.


Don't ask me how it started.
It must have grabbed and tugged it just enough to turn it over once and fire it up.

the car will still start withough the belt on

[Dirbatua]

hmm lets see.

put 2 lock nuts on the front wheels and didnt do em up enough, wheels start wobbling at 60km and im almost ****ting myself thinking im gonna loose a wheel.

i had the car on the jack, just slid the mag under the wheel arch and the car slipped and landed on the mag buckling it, what i get for being in a rush...im still driving on it though 6 months later without problems but it looks like the wheels wobling.

went to fill up my oil and the cap was still on the bottle, (was hungover at the time) cracked the ****s and threw the bottle and it broke and ****ed oil everywhere.

my dad had to change the water pump in a pajero, its in the centre of the motor, he took half the engine apart, put it bak together, pump wouldnt work, took it apart again, got it working then put it bak together but forgot to put the timing belt back on, so he had to pull it all apart again to put the timing belt back on properly, just as well woulda been one hell of a whoopsy if he had started the car without it, engine replacement for those who dont know.

[DANNY8]

I've left an oil can in the engine bay after doing a compression test....was there for a few days, sitting on the chassis rail, couldn't believe we didn't lose it coz we drive around heaps.

After putting the EFI 4spd in PEAKN6, we were driving it for the first few days without any boot around the shifter, ya could see the ground....but yeah, hit a puddle and all water splashed up and got us.

Oneday while I was workin (servo) one night, some mates come in and told me my bro just stuffed sumfin in PEAKN6, coz it was makin a banging noise and he had to drive home doin like 20k's. Turns out him and some mates all went out of town in their cars to have a bit of fun draggin each other. Brad did a warm up skid and he had it in reverse instead of 1st...then when he took off dragging his mate, a few bolts in the tailshaft come out....we guess it was from the reverse burnout......the first skid PEAKN6 did with the manual was in reverse.....it's on youtube somewhere lol.

Oh yeah and in the old PEAKN6 VK auto, after it got broken into and the thieves pinched the shifter, the shifter button and the surround, we were driving it around without the button in for a while....so u could just slap the shifter up and down between gears...well oneday I drove passed a mate and I went to put it in neutral and give him a rev, and well I hit reverse for a split second and it locked up haha....was funny as!

When I went back to school a few years ago, I was in the same automotive class as my little brother.....and him and the teacher (who was a dumb sh**t) were always arguing with each other, I'm pretty sure it's coz we knew more then him (we corrected him a few times)....but yeah oneday he was ****in Brad off real bad, and as it was one of our last days, we decided that we'd dodge the 202 up that we were putting back together. We did the bottom end up finger tight, left a few lifters out and just shoved card board down the holes so the rods still sat up, didn't tension the head, left rings off a few pistons, and that might of been about it......would of been good to see his face (and the students) when he pulled it apart haha. A few weeks b4 I went back to school he thought he'd be a funny bugger and accidently put a bolt down the spark plug hole on one of the 202's....anyways one of the other teachers was teaching another class and they started it up.....I'm sure u can guess wat happened lol. Lucky they got lots of 'em....coz yeah Brad wasn't a very nice student to the teachers.

[maginoodle]

i have a camry(freebie about 88 model) for a back yard car, just to push trailers and other cars around.
put some petrol and battery in it 2 days ago, went to start it today, no go- so i checked the spark-plenty of it, checked that the petrol pump was working- all good.
take fuel line off at the filter- no petrol pumping.
go to tank and pull out the pump- ends up being the fuel guage sender, no petrol in the tank, must have been stingy with the jerry can the other day.

about 10 years ago i helped my dad(qualified mechanic) put a new black motor in his vk. Had to go to work so once the motor was in and all the bolts in the flex plate and all other underneath stuff was done i left.
I get a phone call after work that night, dad saying he cant work out whats wrong i have spark and petrol but it wont go, can you have a look at it.
So at 5.30 next mornin i rock up to his place and just by looking in the engine bay something didnt seem right. I didnt know what so i started checking all the wireing etc.
Asked him if the plug leads were in the right order, he said yeah of course they are. So i took the dizzy cap off and got him to crank it, he put the leads in the correct order but in reverse, it kicked straight over once i re-did the leads.

[KRUPTD]

At work once i got covered in gear oil and stunk for most of the day,was refilling a rear diff on a patrol and had one of those 60litre drums on a trolley with those pumps in the top of the drum i had put alomost a litre in and the hose decided to split and cover me from my shoulders to my knees and boy i wasnt a happy chapp,that day.
Another time a i got a mouth full of coolant,trying to syphon coolant out of a falcon,to replace a water pump,boy was that yummy,i quickly made myself towards the sink to wash my mouth out,then had that nic zing in my mouth for a few days.
Thats just some of the things i have done and also have witnessed.I'll tell you guys a good one when i was a 2nd year apprentice i witnessed a fellow qualified mechanic do a timing belt on a honda civic,but what was soo funny was help didnt end up replacing the old timing belt with the new one he put the old timing belt back on and once he had finished putting it back together my foreman came up to him and said whats the go with this belt,that was a funny day.This same bloke who replaced the old timing belt with the old timing belt also burnt off both his eyebrows,this also happend on another civic he was washing with a petrol gun around the distributor area above the gearbox (whilst the engine was running how dumb,lol)and it caught alight and he tryed blowing it out with his mouth ha ha haaa and then it engolfed his eye brows it was hillarious.And one more for the road.
This same mechanic what a funny guy,but a good bloke he knocked himself out cold for 5 mins trying to undo a sumplug on a honda crv,he had a long 17/19mm snap on spanner one of those long ones/flank drive i think they are called and he pulled it straight towards him and sconed himself in the head and mann was he out.That could have one a golden globe,lol.cheers

[UNKNOWN]

After puting my new engine and gearbox in, went to fill up the gearbox. Put a hose in the filler hole to up the top with a funnel. Started pouring... Then after 1 and 1/2 ltrs realised the tailshaft wasnt on! Oil everywhere!

[LeojVS]

he put the leads in the correct order but in reverse, it kicked straight over once i re-did the leads.

yup, done that one!