Your dumbest mechanizing screw up

[123mike]

sometimes people think We are pretty good at fixing cars. I do good 99% of the time. Please tell a few of your repairs gone wrong.


I will start, I had a 2 speed 63 falcon and a rivet that held the air cleaner came out. I used a cheap bolt an nut to correct. A week later the bolt came loose and was embedded in a piston. Sounded like a bad rod. I had to pull the head to get it out

[Angel]

Once, I screwed the oil filter on enough to contact the base, but no further (I'll go back for it when I've cleaned this up...")
I forgot. The car ran fine and leaked nothing(?) for a test drive and a 30 minute drive to work the next day. But on the way home, I barely got 60 seconds down the road before the oil pressure light went on and I pulled over to look at what happened.
My boss left right after me and pulled over to help - he jokingly noted that he was glad the leak happened on the side of the road, and NOT the company parking lot, where the company would have had to report the spill to the EPA...
(I, of course, took all proper spill clean up procedures on my own....)

Lesson learned - double check every threaded something that holds oil in your car.

-John

[E150GT]

I installed a mechanical oil pressure gauge on my truck and I didnt tighten down the hose to the block very tight fearing I might crush that little compression cone. Well it held fine for a few mile but when I started the car up when I was about to go home, it came undone and sprayed oil everywhere. I didnt realize what was happening yet because it was dark and I hadnt turned on the lights yet. When I switched the lights on I saw the oil pressure gauge read zero. I had sprayed out about 4.5 quarts in a matter of seconds all over the ground and under my hood.

[ILUVMILS]

After working on cars for almost 40 years I could fill a library with stories.......

[cornemuse]

Water pump on 6.2l Blazer, unbolted pump bolts from plate beneath (pump bolted to plate, actually, through plate). Wouldnt come off, tried prying, bent plate. Have to remove pump with plate, several bolts through back side of plate into pump body. Oops, , , ,

$8 at truck salvage yard, its about 1/4" flat plate, machined both sides.

-c-

[123mike]

i had a 71 Datsun truck. Dropped a screw driver down the front part were the timing chain was. Truck ran fine. Never new it was there. I just wondered were my yellow screw driver was. Blew head gasket due to sucking a gallon of swamp water trying to scoot it over a swamp hole. Gat my screwdriver back fixing head! Mike

[Mike D]

Became a professional mechanic!

Was told once, "Know how God created a mechanic? He took an idiot and beat his brains out"!

There were many, many days which led me to believe this statement was true.

[123mike]

my brother said he had a slant six ford falcon. I said bs. Turned out he had a broke motor mount an the engine was tilted.

[INSIDIOUS]

You still win, that was a 'slanted'. Hill parking could do that as well

[123mike]

We had a 94 camry. Oil pump was leaking. Any way , oil pump died or kid neglected oil level. Car died. So kid got Saab 900 , it was acting up. So he added more and more oil. At least he learned the oil lesson , Car. sounded like a sewing machine till we leached out a few quarts. Saab still going. Mk

[mgburg]

BACK IN '73...

Replaced the hood hinges on my '63 Chevy Impala SS (first car, parts salvaged from a junked-out '64 Chevy).

Took the whole afternoon, no help from any family/friends.

Pretty proud of myself. Hood worked PERFECTLY, all aligned and snug.

HOWEVER...

Since it was past "bed time" for the younger brothers & sisters, I decided to "sneak" the car closer to the garage w/out starting it. A 327ci w/Lake Pipes is just a tad too loud for the neighbors after 9PM.

So...I decided I'd "bump" it forward with a little "quick flick" of the ignition switch while in 1st gear...

Damn...that 327 CUBIC INCH just turned right over and by the time I "UNBUMPED" the ignition, I was about 6" into the garage with the garage door vertically split into a few dozen pieces.

Pride cameth...ass got kicked.

Hood Hinges (free)
Labor (free)
Garage door (which didn't match the rest of the house...now) - $278.00

[TwitchKitty]

Way, way back in the seventies I left a battery mount off of my corvair and the battery grounded out. Lucky it did not set fire to the leaky engine, oil leaks. I learned a lot of hard lessons with that car.

[Nate Stanley]

First car was a '63 Ambassador 990 wagon. I pulled the heads, did a valve job and reassembled.

On the shakedown cruise, I failed to notice the positive battery cable was draped across the exhaust manifold. 5 minutes later I figured out what I did wrong, smoke was everywhere until the cable burned in half.

I played with 'Vairs for 15 years. I bet Twitch and could write a book together.

1. Stacked oil filter gaskets

2. Idiot at machine shop pressed on cam gear cold instead of heating it per factory manual

3. Judson supercharger meltdown

4. Paper towel left in head port under carburetor (wanted to keep foreign objects out of the intake runner while I rebuilt my carbs...)

5. Mouse in crankcase

[Mark DiSilvestro]

Back in the mid '70s, when we were in our teens, my best freind and I volunteered to flush the coolant in his older brother's '74 Peugeot 504 sedan. I went ahead and spliced a coolant-tee into what looked like the most convenient heater hose, then hooked up a garden hose, took off the radiator-cap, and turned on the water. After a couple minutes, we started wondering why the old coolant wasn't gushing out of the radiator. We waited a bit longer until we heard splashing at the rear of the car. To our horror, we saw water pouring out the tail-pipe. Being unfamiliar with French automotive plumbing, I had spliced the flush-tee to a Smog-pump hose.
So with a big knot in my stomach, I disconnected the garden hose, capped the tee, then cranked the engine over. It cranked very slowly at first, then finally caught and revved up, blowing a huge blast of water out the tailpipe like a fire-hose! We let it run for awhile and the engine seemed to be no worse afterwards. So we proceeded to drain and refill the coolant. No extra charge for the exhaust system flush!

Happy Motoring, Mark

[Delibes]

Breaking the radio dial glass on a 1930's Delahaye...



...I could not forgive myself for weeks.

Later on I found that was a $50 fix to redo it.