Dumbest things done while working on a car

[RED TOP MR 2]

wasnt me but someone missed a bolt in my flywheel when doing the clutch.ended up with the whole thing blowing but then drove a lil longer as it was getting caught on the rivets.

[RomanV]

What engine needs taking out to get timing covers off?

My MR2 with the beams engine.
The gen 2 3SGE fits nicely, in fact I've done a cam belt change with the engine still in. (never again though )
But the beams engine has a hump in the cam belt cover, to fit the VVTI pulley under it. So it's pretty much hard up against the strut tower. I dont know if it's any different for a genuine gen 5 SW20, perhaps they modded the side of the strut tower or something.

You must be an angry man to break a clutch like that

Hmm, perhaps I was unclear...
I didnt get angry and decide to smash it up or something.
The spline diameter on the clutch plate was slightly larger than that of the input shaft of the gearbox. (too big, as it turns out)
So when I started the car up, the clutch plate spline ended up rounding off all of its teeth, and spinning independantly of the input shaft.
It seems stupid, and it was.
Luckily the input shaft of the gearbox was fine, obviously made from a harder material.
However in my defence, I was told that they were directly interchangable, so I didnt think twice about it when I put it in.

[B1NZ]

Did the classic, (forgot to tighten the wheel nuts) in my TA61 Celica, Funny thing is they didnt bother me untill i dropped the clutch on seal one day, then it was making a clunking noise all the way home, I thought i had broken my diff but it was the wheel trying to takeoff into the scenery haha

On my AE92 club car I broke 2 studs on the same wheel in the same day, I guess I was just overcompensating for my under tightened ones a few years earlier ahha

[79rolla]

my mate works at shell in tekuiti ans oneday sum chick puled in to full up when my mate noticed smoke belowing from behind the wheels
she didint even notic!!
terns out she drove from aulcland (2 and a bit hour drive) with no oil cap LOL
the poor engin was dry

[Chickenman]

Umm...

Sphincter ses wat?


I haven't done anything too stupid yet, apart from the attempted engine transplant with no experience (turns out it's a niggly process on occasion).

[gmacrae]

For the first year or so of owning my supra, almost every time i'd be doing something on it somehow i'd accidentally hit the start button on the remote in my pocket - so all i'd hear would be "BEEP" then it would start up about 3 seconds later.

This really freaks the shit out of ya when you're underneath the thing, and I'd keep telling myself "dont work on the car with the keys in your $&#$% pocket!"

Anyway so one time im doin oil/filter change. Oil is drained, im under the car putting the sump plug back in, and i hear "BEEP" ..... F U C K !!!!!

.... someone was looking out for me that day coz it was just the arm/lock button that got pushed, not the start button. Needless to say, i NEVER work on the car with the keys in my pocket anymore

But yea, Silent Knight wins, no question

[RedMist]

Probably the worst and most expensive mistake I have made so far was last month on the rally Celica. Brand new driveway laid, with an exposed agrigate, a car length, against the garage and seal from there out to the entrance. Had the Celica pushed out of the garage so that I could get around her. Washed out the inside with fuel to get rid of the tar rich sound deadening. The floor seals leaked spilling fuel and tar onto the concrete. I noted this and washed it down, washing the fuel out of the fuel / tar mix and sealing the tar to the concrete. Switched off the water and began to attempt to scrub up the tar mess (to no avail) then noted that the fuel I had washed from the concrete had hit the seal and simply chewed through a 20cm section.

Chewed through $800 worth of CV cages by assembling them into the CV incorrectly.

Broken two Summers stub axles at $360 US each, by not torquing them correctly.

Done the bonnet pin thing on my AE86 rally car, thankfully only destroyed the bonnet didnt smash the windscreen.

Did the bonnet pin thing, without bonnet pins, (IE didnt latch the bonnet correctly) on my SW20 road car.... twice. Broke the windscreen both times, had a nice little score on the roof where the bonnet finished. On the same car I also spent 6 months climbing out the drivers window as I couldnt figure out how to get the doorcard off while the door was closed, in order to fix the door release. That car just plain hated me.

[AE86less]

On the same car I also spent 6 months climbing out the drivers window as I couldnt figure out how to get the doorcard off while the door was closed, in order to fix the door release.

How do you take the door card off while the door is closed?

[SUBARUCONVERT]

Ive had a couple but i work on cars everyday so i should. Once i had an accord up on the 4 post, i needed to jack up the rear to adjust the hand brake/rear drums. Any ways i get the bellows style air jack (this thing is danger) , place it under the jacking point and hold the handle and start going up. i failed to see the sway bar hanging under the jacking point and proceed to jack the car up on my fingers. The up valve is sticky and when i released it, it continued to rasie the car untill the wheels were off the ground supported by my fingers. Now i have both hands being crushed but to lower the car i need to disconnect the airline luckly a mate walked in the workshop within 15 second and let the line off to reveal my very crushed fingers that i was surprized werent broken

[SUBARUCONVERT]

On the same car I also spent 6 months climbing out the drivers window as I couldnt figure out how to get the doorcard off while the door was closed, in order to fix the door release.

How do you take the door card off while the door is closed?

Ive had to do it at work, ended up munting the door card

[FXGTV]

Probably the worst and most expensive mistake I have made so far was last month on the rally Celica. Brand new driveway laid, with an exposed agrigate, a car length, against the garage and seal from there out to the entrance. Had the Celica pushed out of the garage so that I could get around her. Washed out the inside with fuel to get rid of the tar rich sound deadening. The floor seals leaked spilling fuel and tar onto the concrete. I noted this and washed it down, washing the fuel out of the fuel / tar mix and sealing the tar to the concrete. Switched off the water and began to attempt to scrub up the tar mess (to no avail) then noted that the fuel I had washed from the concrete had hit the seal and simply chewed through a 20cm section.

Chewed through $800 worth of CV cages by assembling them into the CV incorrectly.

Broken two Summers stub axles at $360 US each, by not torquing them correctly.

Done the bonnet pin thing on my AE86 rally car, thankfully only destroyed the bonnet didnt smash the windscreen.

Did the bonnet pin thing, without bonnet pins, (IE didnt latch the bonnet correctly) on my SW20 road car.... twice. Broke the windscreen both times, had a nice little score on the roof where the bonnet finished. On the same car I also spent 6 months climbing out the drivers window as I couldnt figure out how to get the doorcard off while the door was closed, in order to fix the door release. That car just plain hated me.

You win in my books mate!

[Loudtoy]

Helped a guy won't name names (strap on)move his battery to his boot so he could copy my cold air box desing. pretty much only left him with one small job to do which was hooking up batery terminals. Managed to get them crossed, fried ecu, ecu main fuse plus another fuse which i can't think what it was. Same guy without any help this time thought no more nails would be strong enough to hold his battery bos to a piece of wood in his boot. Helps if you bolt the wood down first apparently but not a nice thing to see the car in front of you going down vic hill in wellington about 8pm on a winters night sudenly loose all it's lights as the battery rips it's terminals off flying across the boot.

Another thing i managed to do myself with a little help from others was during a manual conversion on the missus's starlet forgot to tighten the front lower aram bolts on one side all the way up. Took me a couple of drives to figure out where the funny noises were coming from, could have been a disaster if the bolts had of come any looser which would have been all the way out

[strap-on]

In my defence i didnt use the no more nails untill AFTER the battery box went flying , the no more nails held the box down untill after i sold the car.

NO excuse for crossing the wires over though, i have no idea how i did that one. must have been a brain fart.

[HachirokuGTV]

One time. While removing the carb of my 12a KE25, I dropped a washer down the intake manifold.
Polished the carb, reassembled it and thought nothing of the washer. When I turned the engine over it fully locked up and stripped out the housing, so had to get a rebuild...Awesome! (well I was only 17)

[strap-on]

Also been working under the bonnet and gone for a test drive, only to come back and find half the tools I was using still lieing around the engine bay. (x too many to remember)

Crap, I've done that too. Lost my 10mm spanner the other week

I think i have a spare one if you want it, i usually have heaps cos 10 mm spanners seem to be the ONLY ones i drop in the engine bay, i dont know why ive never dropped another spanner but 10 mm's

[badidas]

i was about 18 on one of my ae82 fx's doing an oil change so cars nice and hot because id just driven to get the oil and filter jack it up, undo the sump plug hot oil burns me and i drop the plug into a bucket ... then there is more oil in the car than the bucket can hold it overflows all down my mums driveway meanwhile im sticking my arm in boiling hot oil tryna retrieve the sump plug in the end i got up and let it all piss down the drive while kicking things and swearing

oh and when i was 16 lend my mate my 323 to go to the shops throttle jams wide open so he drives it back like that shutting it off at lights ect, by the time he got home the clutch was fryed so badly it wouldnt move, we had seen an abandon 323 behind the shell gassy so off we go to get a clutch undo every bolt take to the starter motor with a hammer because the bolts were rounded off smash that off spend 4 hours wondering why the gearbox wont come off then realise theres a peice of starter left on and the bolts were holding the gearbox on this is in the middle of the night too

[Bumpy]

I was towing a trailer with my g/f's car, cause I dont have a tow bar on mine, and left the coupling undone. Just about to the top of the hill and herd the trailer scraping on the ground.

Stopped the car, just got out in time to run and stop trailer rolling backwards down the hill ... I was soo lucky it was empty!

[strap-on]

That reminds me that i have seen someone try to drive a trailer with the handbrake still on, had to wait for ages for the brakes to cool down

[Infinite]

i was about 18 on one of my ae82 fx's doing an oil change so cars nice and hot because id just driven to get the oil and filter jack it up, undo the sump plug hot oil burns me and i drop the plug into a bucket ... then there is more oil in the car than the bucket can hold it overflows all down my mums driveway meanwhile im sticking my arm in boiling hot oil tryna retrieve the sump plug in the end i got up and let it all piss down the drive while kicking things and swearing

oh and when i was 16 lend my mate my 323 to go to the shops throttle jams wide open so he drives it back like that shutting it off at lights ect, by the time he got home the clutch was fryed so badly it wouldnt move, we had seen an abandon 323 behind the shell gassy so off we go to get a clutch undo every bolt take to the starter motor with a hammer because the bolts were rounded off smash that off spend 4 hours wondering why the gearbox wont come off then realise theres a peice of starter left on and the bolts were holding the gearbox on this is in the middle of the night too

so u smashed up some ones stolen 323 for its clutch?

[DriftSpecStarlet]

i was about 18 on one of my ae82 fx's doing an oil change so cars nice and hot because id just driven to get the oil and filter jack it up, undo the sump plug hot oil burns me and i drop the plug into a bucket ... then there is more oil in the car than the bucket can hold it overflows all down my mums driveway meanwhile im sticking my arm in boiling hot oil tryna retrieve the sump plug in the end i got up and let it all piss down the drive while kicking things and swearing

oh and when i was 16 lend my mate my 323 to go to the shops throttle jams wide open so he drives it back like that shutting it off at lights ect, by the time he got home the clutch was fryed so badly it wouldnt move, we had seen an abandon 323 behind the shell gassy so off we go to get a clutch undo every bolt take to the starter motor with a hammer because the bolts were rounded off smash that off spend 4 hours wondering why the gearbox wont come off then realise theres a peice of starter left on and the bolts were holding the gearbox on this is in the middle of the night too

so u smashed up some ones stolen 323 for its clutch?

Wow... thats Really low man u smashed up a STOLEN 323 to STEAL a STOLEN Clutch