Dumbest thing you've done working on your vehicle

[kimcrwbr1]

Too many to count but it usually involves a big frackin hammer and blood.

 

[nitrofan1]

Too many to count but it usually involves a big frackin hammer and blood.

TFF!!

 

[shane96ranger]

Wait 'til Lil_Blue_Ford chimes in about that one.

LOL, Oh boy, I can't wait.

I guess it really wasn't MY vehicle, but it was one I was responsible for.

 

[b411sac]

great stories everyone! I think for my first post on here I did a pretty good job. (I am borrowing from vw forum though )

 

[lil_Blue_Ford]

My first job out of high school was working for the water company. One day I was the last one leaving the job site and it was my job to take a 18 foot long piece of 12 inch pipe (the blue plastic/fiberglass stuff) back to the shop. Well, one of the other guys put the thing on the back of the truck and I figured he had cinched it down. Wrong. All was fine until I turned the corner........I remember seeing the pipe go sliding in the rear view, and the next thing I know it slams into a car's open door on the side of the road. So I get out and find out I've just hit an undercover cop car. The cop was cool as hell about it, but holy piss was I embarrassed. And not checking my load.....that was a dumb idea.

Wait 'til Lil_Blue_Ford chimes in about that one.

Lol, I think that story beats my personal experience with losing a load... I shoved a 4'x8' sheet of 1" blue house foam in the back of my Ranger when I had a cap on it. Just left the tailgate up, opened the cap door, shoved it down in and pulled the cap door down on it. Figured it'd stay put, I mean, what could go wrong with that, right? Yea...

Got where I was going and no foam in the back. Not sure where or how it came out but I wasn't sure I wanted to go back and look for it. Now my theory is "if it looks like it's tied down well enough... add another strap or couple turns of rope." And I carry enough tie-down gear to secure an M1A2 tank.

I do know of a guy who tipped a 10-ton dump once because of an improperly secured load. Guy got a bundle of 1/2" rebar (a bundle is a couple hundred 20' rods and weighs over a ton) set on the truck. Figured it was heavy enough to stay put so he didn't tie it on. Went around a bend and the bundle slid to one side and took the truck right over. The rebar bundle hit the ground and must have bounced or something and exploded into a giant mess of pick-up sticks.

I've done my share of boneheaded mistakes working on vehicles, most of the time it's nothing epic though. It's the things I do behind the wheel that generate the more interesting conversation pieces.

 

[holyford86]

Wait 'til Lil_Blue_Ford chimes in about that one.

haha...

My stupid moment is not using proper jack stands when I was swapping out an axle, it ended up with my truck landing on top of my leg. Luckily I did not break any bones but I ended up with a nasty infection because it peeled about 1/4 of the skin off my shin. I now have a nasty scar to remind me of how stupid I was...

 

[heptofite]

I was changing the oil in my B2, and didn't check for the little rubber o-ring on the old oil filter, just screwed the new one on.

long story short, i sprayed an entire engine's worth of synthetic oil on the ground, and ran the engine for a good five minutes wondering why my oil pressure wasn't coming up.

The knocking gave me a clue, so did the smell of burning oil.

It's getting a new engine put in it now.

 

[Snoranger]

Me and my buddy Jay were changing the rear shocks in my moms E-150. The phone rang and he rushed to get out from under the truck to answer it. I said "watch you dont hit head on the trailer hitch!" He jumped up from underneath, hit his head on the corner of the open rear door, and knocked himself out!

It wasnt funny at the time, but now when we look back, Its funny as h3ll.

 

[MountainMike]

Al least he didn't hit the hitch

 

[feellnfroggy]

I got two, I changed the oil in my expedition, did the kerosene flush and everything. bolted her up and put my oil in, went to eat lunch and came back out to a rather large pool of golden fluid in the drive. I forgot the filter.

Then recently I went to change my ring and pinion in the rear diff, we decided to cut the bearing off cuz we couldnt get it off with the bearing puller, thinking we had to remove it to get the ring off, dont ask!. Eventually we found a vid online where the guy just unbolted and smacked the ring off, so naturally 13 hrs later we were rather pissed. Then we got the shims backwards, but all is well now.

 

[RustedRanger]

I just remembered one...it wasn't working on something but rather towing. I bought a Pinto off my uncle and one of cousins brought over his Scout to tow it the 5 miles to my house. We was using a chain and of course it was jerking me around pretty hard in the Pinto. Right before we got to where we was supposed to turn I was motioning him to stop so I could tell him to let me do all the braking. we came to a stop,I got out and started walking up to the Scout....and he drives off! For some reason he thought I was motioning him to go straight. So when I hear him hit the gas I start running and just got to the Scout in time to slap the quarter but he was gassin it. So I stand there in complete shock as he goes flying down the road with the driverless Pinto behind.....he gets about a 1/16th of a mile and the Pinto starts swerving back and forth and then they both go flying off the right side of the road. I ran the whole distance in what seemed to be 10 seconds. Thank God when they left the road the chain came unhooked and came to rest in someones yard I went to school with and didn't hit a thing and didnt damage either vehicle......thats one I wish I had on video.

 

[LearjetMinako]

Here is one that I just did yesterday and fixed today. I go to work at midnight and need my headlights for this. So I take care to make sure my headlight lens and bulbs are in high working order. Lately, I noticed them turning a shade of yellow. So I figured no problem, a little polish and it will buff right out. Got the polish and a cloth and started on the driver's side lens. After cleaning it, the lens was now a solid fog white. Turns out I grabbed the wrong polish and was using a rubbing compound. I drove it to work and noticed that I lost a good 50% of lighting quality out of the driver's headlight. So after work, went to Advance Auto and picked up a 3M headlight restortation kit and restored my headlight lens. Now my headlight lens are glass like and clear again. It was my fault for not checking the bottle label and it costed me $22 for that mistake. At least on the bright side, I went easy enough on the kit's pads that I can do a second vehicle.

 

[country0001]

Tearin down a 390 in my old 72, I was unbolting the flex fan. Wrench slipped, ran my thummb up the razor sharp blade.Took six stitches, barely missed the tendon in my thumb.I wear gloves most of the time now because of that.

 

[JohnnyO]

Back in the late 70's I read a tech letter in a car magazine where the writer was advised to replace the rocker nuts in his GTO with small-block Chevy adjustable nuts. I had some valvetrain wear issues with the Firebird I had at the time, so I tried the same thing (I was 17 at the time). The nuts go on fine, start it up to adjust them, and there's friggin' oil spraying everywhere and I look like I'm friggin' Al Jolson in blackface. Check the directions in the letter, yup, I'm doing everything just the way it said. Put the valve covers on finger tight and drive a few blocks to the service station with a cloud of oil smoke behind me to see if they can figure it out. Between the smoke and the noise I figured I blew up the motor. They 'splain that hi-perf GTO's have adjustable rockers but the plain ol' 350 in my Firebird does not. They put the old nuts back on, torqued the rockers down, and it was a little bit better. Later on a guy my dad knew put in a new cam, lifters, pushrods, and replaced a cracked rocker arm while I watched, helped, and learned.

 

['99 EB Explorer]

First time I ever did brakes was on my '93 ranger.

It was a cold day at -30C and I was doing the job in one of those temporary tarp garages.

While I was at it, I re-packed the bearings.

Finnished the job, got in the truck, start it up and pull to the end of the driveway...where I found out the hard way that you're supposed to pump the brakes a few times after a brake job.(the ditch across the street told me so)


Another one was when I was working at the GM dealership. I was changing a fuel filter on a Grand Prix.

Grabbed my needle nose pliers....stand directly behind the filter....grabbed the quick release fitting and gave it a pull.

The next thing I know, my eyes are burning and I've just swallowed a few cups of gasoline....and the damned thing was still spraying.

So now I'm blind and puking everywhere and the assholes in the shop just stood there and laughed.


Another one was just after I got my drivers licence...me and a friend took a 1990 Prelude for a ride to check it out for fitness before buying.

We got it to his grandpa's house and we proceed to pull the rear wheel off to have a look at the brakes.

Once we were satisfied, we tried to put the tire back on....but it wasn't lining up. We figured out what the problem was when we noticed the pile of rust forming around the scissor jack.

So I cranked furiously while my buddy put the tire and nuts back on.

Needless to say, we returned the car to the owner and didn't look back.