Dumb, dumber & dumbest
 

Walked outside to get the newspaper this morning and heard a weird noise coming from the 240D

Dumb:

Sounded like the trunk area, popped the trunk and decided it was the antenna.
Pulled back the black plastic cover looking for wires, found a couple wires going to the antenna, cut one.
Apparently is was some kind of cable other than the antenna, problem persists.
Another wire, looked like a ground, cut it. Same problem.

Ran inside to see if there were similar situations on this board, found nothing specific.

Dumber:

Opened the fuse box, started popping out all the fuses to see which one would stop the motor noise. Found it.
After I found it I also found the schematic on the inside of the cover.

Dumbest:

Not wanting to leave the fuse out, it controls too many things, I ran inside to check out the Haynes. Radios are there, antennas are not.
Out of desperation I looked at the owners manual, usually kind of useless for diagnostics.
Lo and behold, the antenna switch has an off button. Cured it.

come on
 

You heard a noise and cut a wire? I know one can feel better after a confession, but it's truly unbelieveable that you would admit this here. Sort of like vandalizing your own stuff. Respectfully submitted.

I've seen guys hit their Camaro's carburetor with a hammer in a Pep Boys parking lot.

Sounds like same school of thought to me.

Hahaha...I picture some sort of "2001: A Space Odyssey" scene with one of those apes with a wrench.

I can't believe you just snipped random wires in the trunk.

I wonder if you cut the actual antenna wire (the thick one), that would be a bummer.

good laugh
 

I'm sorry but despite everything said above I got a pretty good laugh out of the first post. Thanks for sharing.

Kevin
1979 240D manual
1984 190D manual

I agree.

He's hard enough on himself and had the cojonoes to post his adventure.

We don't need to abuse him any further!

You have my sympathies, Greg. All of us have made some gaffes in our wrenching carreers that we don't want published.;)

Everyone has their moments of automotive stupidity. Mine were opening the radiator of an overheating car, or trying to remove a mercedes coil w/ a 12 dollar Harbor frieght compressor. Both created unpleasant results.

I'll share one from a week ago. I was adjusting the valves on a 300dt. I always use a remote starter to bump the engine over. The guy who owned the car said "that thing is going to start and throw oil every where" I replied " these things don't start that well" Guess who was wrong! It was a white car and I turned the fenders black. I can be a jackass!:freak:

I spent $20 on a light switch, and drove around for a week with a dissassembled dash, and no lights in the truck... Reason? When I hooked up my tach, I replaced all the fuses (I do that with every vehicle I've ever owned)...

Forgot one:freak:

~Nate

I bought a $35 hazard switch because the left turn signal kept blowing the fuse. Turned out to be a shorted light bulb socket in the instrument cluster.

Looks like a lot of us have gone thru a 'Seinfeld' episode.

A buddy of mine, an electrical engineer, had his tail-lights fail.
Used his wifes car until the electrical diagram arrived from the dealer.

Traced all the wiring in the car, tested everything engineer style.
It was the fuse.

PS - Radio still works, searchbar doesn't. Now I know what the wiires were for.

confession
 

Since you've taken the grief here pretty well, I'll admit my own wire-cutting episode. Dad decided to convert electric start lawnmower to pull start. I thought I'd get a head start and started clipping wires. I cut every wire I could find. How was I supposed to know? I was ten. Best of luck. Respectfully submitted with a smile.

I think my favorite story of mechanical "jeenyus" was when one of my buddies pulled his dash on his w123, and then started the car without the dash. He got a facefull of oil from the sender tube!

My 528E is my winterbeater. I was behind a plow truck at night last winter and it splashed some nasy sluch which covered my headlights and made them dark. I drove the last 2 blocks to work. I cleaned the headlights in the dark and reached in and no headlights. I took the company van home, not having time to mess with it. The next 2 days I had to drive to work in the dark and go home in the dark so i continued to use the company van, Finally I had some daylight time and I looked under the hood for the fusebox. It had a separate fuse for each side. They tested good with a continuity checker. I pulled the two bulbs and tested with jumper wires. They both lit up. The ultimate discovery was that on a 88 BMW the engine MUST be running for the headlights to be on. If you stall the engine, or just have the switch on the healights will not go on. Imagine that... leaving your car at work for that.:freak: