I had the instrument panel out of my '75 300D while I was replacing my blower motor. I got in the car to go somewhere and I still had the cluster out. I didn't think anything of it until about 100 feet when I realized that my leg was getting wet, and it was quickly getting warmer. I quickly realized what it was and placed my thumb over the oil tube to stop the flow. Boy! that oil was HOT by then. I turned around but I had to stop the engine (in the middle of the road) when it got too hot for my thumb. I had to put the cluster back in before I could move the car.

15 years ago I was working on my Turbo Escort. The fan belt was squealing slightly and I noticed that if slight pressure was put on the belt toward the inside (rear), it would go away. Unfortunately, I found this out by touching it with my finger. I had these great big thickly padded winter gloves. After a couple of touches, my finger was drawn with the belt and into the pully. Luckily, not all the way. But D*** it hurt! I turned the car off, closed the hood, went inside, and promptly lied down on the couch and about passed out from the pain. Finger ended up being just fine.

I stay away from moving parts now.

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Michael LaFleur

'05 E320 CDI - 86,000 miles
'86 300SDL - 360,000 miles
'85 300SD - 150,000 miles (sold)
'89 190D - 120,000 miles (sold)
'85 300SD - 317,000 miles (sold)
'98 ML320 - 270,000 miles (sold)
'75 300D - 170,000 miles (sold)
'83 Harley Davidson FLTC (Broken again) :-(
'61 Plymouth Valiant - 60k mikes
2004 Papillon (Oliver)
2005 Tzitzu (Griffon)
2009 Welsh Corgi (Buba)

Yeah, I touched a hot rotor once. I have no idea what I was thinking.

Alex

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1983 300D (parked for four years)
2012 VW Sportwagen TDI Manual
2001 Miata SE
1962 Chevrolet Corvair Rampside

Oh, where to start?

Biggest auto goof was in buying a French car. To show you how dumb I was, I did it twice. I was in college about 30 years ago and a film major who loved french films. If you love french films and are also car crazy, what car do you think I lusted after? A Citroen of course! I bought a DS19 (maybe ID19, I forget) for $300 from someone who posted an ad in the paper. All he had to do was turn the engine on and have the car lift itself up like some camel getting up from its nap and I was sold. The test ride was merely a formality. Unfortunately, when I went to have that car inspected so I could register it, the mechanic pointed out the almost rusted through frame. That car sat in front of my parents house for about a year. I would sit in it for hours at a time, dreaming about what could have been. I ended up selling it to a guy for parts for $100.

The second french car I bought was a 1985 Peugeot 505 wagon. Quite a handsome and comfortable car it was. Unfortunately, even though the engine, transmission, and clutch were all very nice, the rest of the car was not put together very well or with very robust materials. So, eight years later and with only 43,000 miles on the odometer, it went. It's somewhat ironic that my newish 300D is also an '85 with over twice that mileage but seems half as worn.

The dumbest hands on thing I've ever done was in carving a model airplane wing out of balsa wood with an Xacto knife while not wearing shoes. I of course dropped the knife into the top of my foot. Lots of blood which needed lots of paper towels. Luckily no permanent nerve or muscle damage.

Dan

A few years ago I was hauling some paint to put in storage. It was a 5 gallon can my roommate had been using to repair some shoe marks on the stairs. Being over educated and lacking in some common sense skills, he pried the entire cover off instead of using the spout. I set the can on the back seat of my 300D, not knowing that the top was barely on. I turned a curve, heard a thump and a gurgling sound...stuck my hand in the back seat and got a GREAT surprise! It took two days with a water hose to get approx. 3 gallons of WHITE paint out of the seats, door panel, and carpets. The inside of the car couldn't have been ANY cleaner, albeit with a few white spots.
The second best...bought some acid for the pool. The pool place gave me a faulty bottle (it had been previously opened). It turned over in the back floorboard of my mother's NEW Volvo. Ate through the carpet and insulation...almost to the metal. The pool place replaced all the carpets in the car.
I won't even begin on the mechanical stuff...like dropping a socket down IN the fan assembly and having to disassemble the front of the motor to get it out (was a Mazda with a timing belt...even broke that in the process).

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R Talley
88 BMW E32 735i (make it go away)
95 Volvo 960 "Inga" (valve problems)
95 Nissan Maxima (the indestructible)
89 Ford Ranger XLT (ugliest truck in the South)

Found this OOPS on the net and I think it deserves a mention in the Oops hall of infamy

http://www.balkanpeace.org/cib/alb/alb01.html

Major diplomatic embarrassment,poor sod!! Bear

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W123 '82 300D red 202,000 miles

G460 '83 280 GE LWB 69,000 miles

Mercedes-Benz Club member
http://www.mercedes-benz-club.co.uk/

S Klasse Club Deutschland
http://www.s-klasse-club.de/

While I was in the Marines in CA, a friend of mine was welding hangers for his exhaust on his 70's 340 Duster (a nice hi performance car) and the carpet caught on fire, burning his carpet and back seat. It was hilarious! We had to call the base fire dept and almost got demoted over it! Afterwards evertime we went riding in that car, we always raised his blood pressure by asking him what was that smell? and yes I broke my winshield wiper arm the other day putting on wiper blades.

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2000 Ford 7.3 Powerstroke 4x4
2006 Mazda Tribute
1983 Black 300 D (donated to charity)
1993 Teal 300 D (160K) Sold
"I love the smell of burnt diesel fuel in the morning, it smells like ....VICTORY"

Semper Fidelis
USMC 1973-1976

The biggest Oops Ive had was when I was hammering away(I hammer a lot of stuff with my trusty ball-peen) at the lower ball joint to pop the steering knuckle off. Well I half expected the thing to just sit there and let me bash away at it to relieve anger. Instead it came off pretty darn quick...... directly on my toe. Lets just say I said a lot more than just oops (good thing I had the garage radio on). My 2nd toe on the left foot sits funny now as a result of that.

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2005 Audi A4 1.8T CVT -Silver/Black "Siegfried"

1982 300D - Silver/Blue "Ralph" -For Sale:
http://www.peachparts.com/shopforum/mercedes-benz-cars-sale/119226-1982-300d-sale.html#post852260

1989 VW Diesel Jetta Blue/Blue "Bodo" RIP

Actually mine was yesterday. I was waiting to get out of a parking lot. There was a car in front of me, and I didn't stop completely and bumped him. The guy got out of the car, leaving the car in reverse, the it bumped again.

We pulled over and exchanged info because it was a rental car. There was almost nothing there to see, but the guy wanted to make sure and I respect that. Of course my w126 500SEL had no scratch on it.

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1985 500SEL 124k miles
2001 Honda Civic EX

While replacing my oil cooler lines, the lower fitting on the oil cooler stripped (fully expected, but I did hope and pray, to no avail). I went to a local used part guy (50 cars in his back yard!!) and he didnt have any good replacements (all with stripped lower threads!!). But he showed me how he has them repaired. He had some good upper fittings removed from NG oil coolers....he grinds off the bad fitting and welds the good fitting into place (aluminum weld). I had the stuff to do this so I figured I'd give it a try. I brought the oil cooler down cellar, clamped to to the bench, and "went to town" with my hand held grinder. After grinding about half of the fitting off, I realized I ground off the good one!!! #$&*+?##@!!!

I'll get a good used one on Monday for $150 at another local junkyard!!

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1984 300TD Wagon, 407,800 mi (current daily driver)
1985 300DT Sedan, 330,000 mi (gone to that great autobahn in the sky)

One time my wife bought some new iced-tea glasses. They had these big paper stickers underneath them with a UPC code. I like to run new glasses through the dishwasher but I decided to try to get the stickers off. So far so good, ok? Well, the closest tool around was a razor scraper that I had been using while scraping some paint. So, here I am, holding this glass, scraping the sticker off, and the razor slips and *almost* cuts off the knuckle of my right index finger. It did slice a pea-sized chunk of flesh, and I probably said a lot more than "OOPS" when it happened. I still have a scar from that one.

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Bob Roe
Lehigh Valley PA USA
1973 Olds 88, 1972 MB 280SE, 1978 Datsun 280Z, 1971 Ford T-Bird, 1972 Olds 88, 1983 Nissan Sentra, 1985 Sentra, 1973 230.6, 1990 Acura Integra, 1991 Volvo 940GLE wagon, 1983 300SD, 1984 300SD, 1995 Subaru Legacy L wagon, 2002 Mountaineer, 1991 300TE wagon, 2008 Murano, 2007 R320CDI 4Matic 52K, some Hyundai, 2008 BMW 535xi wagon, all gone... currently
2007 Honda Odyssey Touring, 2014 E350 4matic

Oops = fix it and move on.

Oh He## = will take a while to fix.

Uh Oh = you're going to have to talk to the boss, wife, banker, etc.


Today's first oops: Plugged coffee pot in and started it without any water. What was that burning smell?

Wrenching oops: Too many to list. Most recent was welding with a pant leg inadvertently tucked in boot. A big spark fell in and started my sock on fire at the top of my foot. Kind of stung, too.

daBenz

Blowing up the gas tank on my BMW. I thought after filling it with water and draining it twice the thing was ridden of fumes. I guess not. When i had to weld i did not feel comfortable being so close to it while i was welding. So i tested it to see if it was. I touched the flame into the hole where water was still draining out and the tank exploded while still on the car. Good thing for having rinsed it twice and a good amount of water still in the tank. I had drilled a new hole higher up to keep water in the tank while welding to make it safer in case of an explosion and it worked. The water dissapated the explosion a little.



Bedros

To bdemir:
One trick I learned from an old man I saw welding a gas tank was to take a hose off the exhaust of a running car and attach it to the inlet pipe of the gas tank and let it exhaust out the other holes. It removed all the oxygen from the tank and he brazed away. Personally it seems a little risky so I'll stick to epoxy.

Two days ago a buddy of mine (better not mention his name) came over to show me how to replace wheel bearings. We got talking instead of paying attention and pounded the race back into the hub. We kept talking and went to fit the bearing in when we noticed that we'd put the race in the wrong way. And now, due to the taper, there was no lip to remove it with. It was completely flush as were our faces. About an hour later.....

Don

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DAILY DRIVERS:
'84 300DT 298k (Aubrey's)
'99.5 Jetta TDI IV 251k (Julie's)
'97 Jetta TDI 127k (Amber's)
'97 Jetta TDI 186k (Matt's)
'96 Passat TDI 237k (Don's
'84 300D 211k Mint (Arne- Undergoing Greasecar Conversion)

SOLD:
'82 240D 229k (Matt's - Converted-300DT w/ 4 speed

I thought of a couple others I've done...

I was putting a new starter in my first car ('74 VW Bug - the car lasted me two whole months ) and was thinking that I had gotten one of the mounting bolts tight enough. I asked my dad if he thought it was tight enough, and he asked me if I could get it any tighter. I told him that I thought I could, so I went ahead and put a bit more force into it...and immediately snapped the plastic outer ring right in half. Had to go buy another new starter.

This is probably the OOPS that did the most damage to me. At a job I was working at, I was trying to remove a hose from a thermostat housing. The hose was nothing we cared about and it didn't wanna come off, so out came my trusty Swiss Army knife to cut the hose so that most of it would come off. I sunk the knife into the rubber and proceeded to push down...somehow, the knife bounced off the side it was cutting, hit the other side, and folded...right into my right thumb.Took off a nice flap of skin and two Band-Aids couldn't stop the bleeding, so I had to wrap the wound up in duct tape. I kept the bandage on for 3 days and when I pulled it off, it was still bleeding. This time I let some blood flow while I finally cleaned out the wound some, put two more Band-Aids and another layer of duct tape (it was also the time when it occured to me that I may need stitches, but I assumed that it had already healed too much to make the effort worthwhile) and left it on another 3 days...and when I pulled the bandage off, it was fine...I still have the scar, though, although the layer of skin that the knife took off has grown back (took about 6 months for that)...

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2001 VW Jetta TDI, 5 speed, daily driver
1991 Ford F-350, work in progress
1984 Ford F-250 4x4, 6.9l turbo diesel, 5 speed manual
Previous oilburners: 1980 IH Scout, 1984 E-350, 1985 M-B 300D, 1979 M-B 300SD, 1983 M-B 300D
Spark-free since 1999