Dumbest things done while working on a car

[darkwolf]

I've decided today to change my oil. All good.

So I remove the sump plug, remove the oil filler cap, remove the oil filter.
Oil drains away.
I then put on new oil filter and begin filling oil.
New oil drains away. Turns out it works better if you put in the sump plug.

Just outta interest has anyone else ever done this too?

[B ROWDY]

Only our rummy apprentice at work (x4)

[Adydas]

Wrong cam timing on the starlet, i remember blowing a spark and fuel mixture out the intake burning the hairs on a mates hand ( soz Oizo )

Wheres hanre, he has a wicked story..

[Silent Knight]

[postfach]

:oops:

someone elaborate

[Silent Knight]

:oops:

someone elaborate

Me and Dave did a manual conversion in the Supra.

Started work early in the morning and finished around 12/1AM with everything. Now after the car being off of the road for about 2/3months I was fairly eager to take it out for a drive right after... as you do.

What I hadn't noticed of course is the car had an oil leak and it was bone dry when I started it. Took it down the road and gave it some shit. Ended up with bent rods, horribly metal scraping noises, rooted rear turbo (Which was the new turbo I replaced that same day) etc.

After that the car went straight back off of the road for the next 5 months.

[postfach]

heh, i think you may get the gold medal

[B ROWDY]

Yeah thats awesome guys

[solitaire]

Worst i did recently was think i could remove the dizzy from my small port so i could get my big hands at the oil filter... undid the 2 nuts that hold the dizzy at the right rotation for timing... realised what id done but it had already rotated.... screwd my timing up and now shes running like a skoda - fixing it tomorrow

[Leon]

I've decided today to change my oil. All good.

So I remove the sump plug, remove the oil filler cap, remove the oil filter.
Oil drains away.
I then put on new oil filter and begin filling oil.
New oil drains away. Turns out it works better if you put in the sump plug.

Just outta interest has anyone else ever done this too?

I've done that!

Also failed to tighten wheel nuts on a car. That was a bit of a team effort though, as we had a couple of people working on the car.

Most painful mistake while working on a car was getting very very angry (working on a Mini, say no more) and kicking a cardboard box. Turned out cardboard box had a gearbox in it. Broken toe. Sigh.

[Quint]

Turns out it works better if you put in the sump plug.

Just outta interest has anyone else ever done this too?

Yea, i've made that rookies mistake.

Also put the bellhousing on... with one of the bellhousing bolts inside the bellhousing, Forgot the flexi plate as well once >_<.

Put some vacuum lines on reversed and coulding figure out why it wouldn't start

Upplugged a mysterious black box and didn't know why no errors were showing up but why it wasn't starting, turned out to be the immobilizer.

Dropped a flywheel on my head and an intercooler.... and a driveshaft and the one that takes the cake, dropped my w57 onto my stomach, ouchie ribs.

Crushed my foot trying to hold the crank wheel with my feet while undoing flywheel bolts.

Ohhhh and i put directionals on the wrong way before taking it to a wof, guy thought i was a freakin idiot... doh.

Maybe i should stop playing with cars.

[Punter]

failed to tighten wheel nuts on a car. That was a bit of a team effort though, as we had a couple of people working on the car

I've done that twice. Never on my car though so it's ok.

I've put a gearbox/engine into a car all finished and fired up, then for some reason the clutch would work. Turns out we hadn't installed the clutch bearing and we couldn't get the arm out with the gearbox in.

[Arthanon]

Man, you guys need to stop playing with cars!

Never had much of a problem with pulling them apart or putting them back together...

The only oops I've had was putting an oil seal (front drive shaft seal) in the wrong way.

And setting my pants on fire while welding up my mates exhaust...

ooops.

[Stealer Of Souls]

Had to top up the oil...
Removed the filler cap, cleaned the dipstick. Added oil...
Shut the bonnet. Drove off... Wondered just where all the smoke was coming from... Found my exhaust wrap covered in oil (along with the rest of the engine bay) and on fire... yes actually flames...
Luckily cap fell between the cam covers... So fire doused. Cap back on. Finished driving to work...

Recently got a reconditioned engine in the car. Had to check the oil and add a bit to top it up.
Removed the filler cap, cleaned the dipstick. Added oil...
Shut the bonnet. Drove off... Got to my mates place and decided to see if i could see any oil dripping (had another very small leak i was trying to locate). Wondered wny a significant quantity of oil was dripping out the bottom of the bay... Opened the bonnet. Once again everything was covered in oil... But cap was still there. So back on it went...

God I hate cleaning oil up...


Final story...
Towing a trailer to pick up a friends car. Fine. Got to the place. Rolled the car on the trailer and set off... The trailer sure seemed heavy considering it was just a shell on the trailer. Dropped the car at his place in Stillwater. Then set off to return the trailer.
It seemed awfully hard to maintain speed on the way back... Got from Stillwater to Tristram ave, where we got off the motorway.
Thought, gosh I can smell something burning... Thought the car in front of me was very smokey or something. Looked in the side mirror and saw a lick of flame from the hub of the trailer... HOLY BEEP! Pulled around the corner and stopped in the first driveway we found... it just so happened to be a petrol station! So with our flaming trailer to one side of the forecourt someone rushed to grab a watering can!!
Apparently we'd left the handbrake on the trailer on since we'd picked up the car...

DOH!

[Barks]

I think one of the best ones I've had was when a mate was giving me a hand to do the engine swap in my Trueno. Got everything sorted and back together, started and ran the engine, all sounding sweet. Got in and drove down the driveway, sounding good. Then I put my foot on the brakes.

Got a hideous combination of squealing and grinding out of the front of the car......

Drove back into the garage, up on stands, front wheel off and had a look.

Not great when your mate puts the brake pads in with the backing plates of the pads against the rotor is it?

[Cahuna]

Also failed to tighten wheel nuts on a car.

Been there, done that. Wheels fly an amazingly long way when they fall off at 100km/h I now have one of the bent wheel studs on my keyring to remind me of my stupidity!

Someone (not me) recently assembled a motor to take on a certain large rally as a spare, when we needed it and bolted it in the car we found it had an oil leak. Quite a few in fact. Actually, about as many as you would expect to find when both the cam seals and the oil pump seals were still sitting in the gasket kit in the back of the van...

[rxtoy]

i've forgotten to do wheel nuts up tight, did them fingertight and it took about 5 minutes of driving before they came loose enough for me to notice the banging. thought i had messed up the brake pad change i had just done for a bit, felt like an idiot when i worked it out.

i've done the oil cap one too, had just finished an oil change on my g/f's car, drove it into the city afterwards, car started smoking really badly, pulled over, opened the bonnet, oil everywhere at least the cap was still sitting on the cam cover so cap back on, top up with oil, gave it a steam clean later and all sorted.

thats about it which is pretty sweet considering how much stuff i've done.

cheers
Matt

[Xyrath 86]

Went to start an engine that we'd just rebuilt and couldn't figure out why it wouldn't start. Ripped the sump off and found a cup in there. Not sure if we put it there and forgot to take it out when putting on the sump or if someone took the sump off and put it there .

[3VLTOY]

Friend who knows nothing bout cars decided she needed new oil so poured in 4 litres without removing old oil.
She saw oil coming up decided it was full.
Needless to say car refused to work and oil started leaking from all sorts of places.

Yes she was a blonde

[Adamal]

Friend who knows nothing bout cars decided she needed new oil so poured in 4 litres without removing old oil.
She saw oil coming up decided it was full.
Needless to say car refused to work and oil started leaking from all sorts of places.

Yes she was a blonde

Is she as well lubed up as her car was?

As for me, whenever I do oil/filter changes in my car, I seem to have a really bad habit of forgetting to put the dip stick back in . Don't know WHY the hell, but I forget almost EVERY time! Take it for a drive, come back, see it hanging there and think 'Uh oh...'. Look in the engine bay and theres a bit of oil splattered around the area!
Can't say that I've ever forgotten the sump bung though! My dad used to do some distributing for Amsoil, and sold some to a mate of his (Back when it was WAY more expensive than anything on the market). He left the sump out and then watched his super expensive oil go down the drain haha.