Admit your Garage Mistakes - Page 18

george7 · 05-10-2010, 07:55 PM

when i was doing work experience at the mechanics, i was just watching the mechanic service a car. he wasn't really saying much.

He drained the engine oil and then was ready to refill it. So he started pouring in the new oil and i thought to myself, he didn't put the plug on from underneath did he? but i didn't want to say anything in case i just wasn't watching and i missed it so i thought surely he wouldn't have forgot it.

anyway, when he finished and went to check the levels, it was empty. he felt like such a ******** lol.

and guess who had to clean up the mess? me

74_XB_Ute · 05-10-2010, 08:01 PM

Many years ago I spent an afternoon washing and detailing my 74' XB Coupe. Nothing better than taking the nice clean car for a bit of a show off drive. Out on nice stretch of road and she was effortlessly cruising at around a 100! Then it happened...bonnet came up...sheared the hinge pins...smashed the front windscreen...caved in the front end of the roof and bent the bonnet right thru the middle. Yep!...forgot to lock the bonnet pins. Damn it!!

WMD351 · 05-10-2010, 08:24 PM

So when the auto choke on my mates thermoquad started causing grief he had a brainwave. Spun the aircleaner lid upside down and dropped the wingnut into the primary holes to hold the choke open. No worries, the nut is physically bigger than the primaries and can't fall down through 'em. Hits a bump and it bounced out and dropped down the big secondaries. It went through the inlet valve alright but kicked the piston sideways through the bore before it could come out the exhaust.

I told him to get 4V exhaust valves next time.

EDtickford · 05-10-2010, 10:57 PM

Just remebered a story my dad was telling me the other day.. a friend of his ( a mechanic for many years) was doing a quick service on his car before he had to a funeral out of town. As you can imagine he wasn't in the best frame of mind, but to make matters worse when putting oil back into the engine he put it into the radiator instead. He never made it to the funeral and think he had gto replace his radiator hoses etc

HULK EF · 06-10-2010, 01:56 AM

some here may know of this dude from fordmods..

But will never ley him live it down....

Till-lind climbed into the boot of his ef sedan and the bootlid slammed shut on him.. locking him in the boot.. He didnt relise there was a cord to pull to release the boot. He kicked,screamed and cried hysterically untill some oneone heard all the noise and car rocking.

He made a new thread telling of his misfortune.. and has never lived it down to this very day.

falconfemme · 06-10-2010, 09:03 PM

The battery terminals on my XE needed replacing. I was aware of this. But they usually gave me no dramas so it was one of those things that kept slipping my mind.
Until one day I was alone 100kms from home. I parked it on the side of the road on the main street of Geelong. Got back to the locked car to see keys hanging from igntion. Dammit. So the embarrassment of walking into Rays outdoors and asking for packing tape to break into my own car. Then the battery terminals played up. So then I had to jiggle and fiddle under the bonnet on a very busy street.

Same car. About to leave work. Car won't start. Damn terminals. Bashing and fiddling didnt work this time. So I go and get hot water and a scrubbing brush coz theres a bit of corrosion on there. It was raining really heavily. 20 minutes into it, I look down and realize the starter motor signal wire had disconnected itself. Weehoo.

pottery beige · 06-10-2010, 10:42 PM

managed to lock myself INSIDE my shed......... car outside.. me inside........

frd906 · 07-10-2010, 12:11 AM

Doing a engine swap on my au, had the other engine and box ready to go in, put it all in hooked it all up

started it up, then all we can hear is this huge rattle, we are like wtf, then after closer inspection, the fly wheel bolts wernt done up tight enough only finger tight

so out comes the gear box agian, does the bolts up put it all back in, took it for a drive, lost 3rd and 4th gear, lol

tyson_8238 · 07-10-2010, 01:47 AM

I was replacing boot struts in my old EF when I was 18. I was laying in the boot I took one off, all fine. Then I banged the last one and the boot closed on me. No keys as they were in the ignition so I had the music blearing in the car. It was in the middle of the day in summer while in the sun and no one else around. I had a mini heart attack and thought I was going to die so I had a mad panic attack and kicked down the back leather seats destroying the latches. Still a classic for me.

nipper575 · 07-10-2010, 11:17 AM

Reminds me of a story I was told about. (Not garage related but somewhat related to cars).

Long story short, a friend was storing his backhoe at our uncompleted house. One day he was moving it (had 0 experience driving a backhoe) and he hit the opened tailgate of an old falcon sedan (XE I think) with the rear bucket that was set out to the left, whilst there was somebody getting something out of the boot.

Apparently the boot slammed shut and wrapped itself around the owner, wedging him in there. Luckily he was ok, other than probably receiving the shock of his life.

The people who actually witnessed this event laugh about it now, but at the time they thought they killed him.

brismike · 07-10-2010, 02:18 PM

My first car was a Datsun 1000 Coupe. I had a problem with the head gasket so was replacing it in my garage. While the head was removed I thought It would be fun to see the pistons moving up and down the cylinders with the head off.

So I put in the key and just turned the motor over with the starter.

Thing is I forgot that the fuel lines were just hanging disconnected and I had left the spark plugs in the leads so I wouldn't lose them.

You guessed it . . Fuel spewing out the lines and spark plugs sparking was not a good combination. Instant engine bay fire.

Nearest thing I could grab was a blanket my girlfriend (Now my wife) had just washed that was hanging on a line. Threw it on the flames and managed to put it out. She was not impressed lol.

For a few seconds I thought I might burn the whole unit complex down as the garage was underneath 10 units. Thank God no-one else saw it.

4vdean · 15-10-2010, 05:32 AM

Didn't realise it was so common to forget the sump plug, years ago I was changing oil on a 71 escort at my rented shed at night, no one else around, a long walk to anywere open, anyway dropped old oil, filled engine with all of new oil then wondered why there was a pool of oil at my feet, had to put the old oil back in to drive up the servo to get more oil..

also at same shed, just got my newly fully restored XW GT back on the road, fired engine for first time, all good later decided to do a lap of the block, all going great until I reached about 40kmh and the bonnet flew up, forgot to latch it or needed adjusting can't remember, and had not re-installed the bonnet pins yet, gee i was peeved, drove straight to my spraypainter mate, we sort of forced the bonnet down and reverse kinked it if you know what I mean, and amazingly you could not see any damage at all and bonnet always worked well after that.

Yeh there's a rumour I jacknifed my trailer onto a jeep cherokee in my own driveway, twice......................forgot it was hooked up and couldnt see it in mirrors until it just appeared sideways very quickly.................

aussie muscle · 15-10-2010, 10:36 AM

while doing tafe on auto mechanics i was having issues with my mazda 1500 ss. it had problem with carburettor so i started by putting a carb kit into it. unfortunately it upset the balance of the dual carbs in it and took about 5 hours working with the teacher to get it to work right again.

sandmanls1 · 15-10-2010, 11:14 AM

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max_torq · 15-10-2010, 12:37 PM

I was running a ford escort as a club car in the middle of the season I changed the clutch and head and some suspension upgrades. Normally, the car gets every nut and bolt checked before a race, but I took it to a practise day at Wakefield Park. The Clutch kept slipping.. So I would tighten up the cable and go out for a few laps again until it finally ran out of adjustment. On close inspection, there were no bolts between the bellhousing and engine, as the gearbox crept away the clutch would lose adjustment. The clutch cable was the only thing holding the gearbox in. By the end there was an inch and half between the block and bellhousing. Lucky it pulled up then, because the brake caliper bolts hadn't been tightened up either and were finger loose. lucky I survived that one.

XESP351 · 15-10-2010, 03:57 PM

When I got my first car TE Cortina I thought the way to top up engine oil was through the dipstick tube

wrongwaynorris · 15-10-2010, 07:43 PM

Was doing the timing on my race car and forgot I had left a socket on top of the engine. Whilst revving it to about 4000 RPM the vibration dislodged the socket which found its way to the alternator cooling fins and flew up hitting me squarely in the middle of the forehead knocking me back more in shock than pain , that came later . Funnilly enough I never did it again .

Ozza · 18-10-2010, 11:08 PM

Jacked up the car when it was next to a pole in the carport. As one side lifted, the car rotated and put a massive dent in the other side front door. Not happy

paceman2 · 12-12-2010, 10:55 PM

The stupidest thing I ever did was instructing a mate from my lounge room chair, who knew *&%$ all about cars on how to change the battery. I said that if it is in the wrong way it would spark and you will know about it. About half an hour later while sitting in the lounge room, we noticed a strong burning smell and black smoke billowing from the shed. The car was on fire.

notice · 02-01-2011, 10:43 PM

coming back from a over state work trip and trying to start my effy and couldnt get it started charged battery no bought new battery no fuel spark all fine uncle comes around a day later with a parcel wrapped up saying here you go i put in a new alarm and kill switch in it for you while you were gone

didnt even notice it under the hood

blakeyBF · 04-01-2011, 04:54 PM

VK Commodore with a leak in the radiator...the wife put water in what she thought was the coolant reservior, only to realise it was the oil cap opening on the tappet cover.
I'm at work, she's twenty k's from home and a comment from her saying "gee, it took a lot of water...".

boss54 · 04-01-2011, 06:01 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Toolman

No. 1 of way to many...

Cutting the radiator hoses off a mates little Datsun, working like a bastard, it was taking ages, sweating, cursing, rolled the sleeves up and pressed on... to find I had cut through a **** load of wires. I dead Datsun.

that one's funny.

**redxm** · 04-01-2011, 06:55 PM

Changed the fan belt in the AU, forgot to plug the thermos back in. Call from wife.. the car isnt running real well and is off the dial on the temp gauge

93EB_SXR6 · 15-04-2011, 12:04 AM

*Spent six hours modifying a dodgy wiring job in my twin cam corolla - was the worst I'd ever seen.
*Put in loom for new cd player, got rid of ancient JVC unit.
*Ran new speaker wires, earth wire, constant wire and live... all works great (AWESOME).
*Checked and made sure all speakers worked, they did.
went to the shed and modified the CD player brackets to fit cd player and car.
*Come back to car to install cd player, put it in and turn on to ACC to check it works, nope.
*Check fusebox in driver's kickpanel - radio fuse is fine.
*Get my uncle out (he was living with us at the time) with his multimeter to check earth, live and constant as my test light wasn't super reliable.
He told me it had good earth, live and constant.
*He tells me I must have touched the circuit bored with the screwdriver somehow when putting the brackets on... impossible to do. "CD player is stuffed"

*I check fuse at back of cd player, its fine.
Massively ticked off at this point after spending all day fixing the wiring of the previous-gorilla-owner, then running new wires all over the car + installing new cd player...
*I called it quits, drove around for a couple of months minus any music as I was told it "must be the cd player".

*A couple of months later I got a decent paycheck and went down to autobarn bought a new unit.
*Got home in the pouring rain - Soldered up the new loom. DOESN'T WORK!!!
*Look at kickpanel fusebox again, fuse is fine. Have a sudden thought, open bonnet, look in fusebox - there is another "radio fuse" and it was fried.
*Replace fuse, turn to ACC - cd player turns on.

When pushing the bracket in, I must have clipped the earth wire and caused it to short the fuse out.
I later found out that it was NOT getting live... which is rather important.

*Get old cd player, take radio out of falcon and quickly wire up the new loom (was due to leave for the drive-in in less than half an hour), turn ignition to ACC... CD player works.
*send my uncle, now in WA a polite email*

Then the cd player I bought for the Corolla stopped playing CDs, everything else works though. Could not be bothered taking it back as I'm selling the car... to my uncle.

The original CD player is still in the falcon, going strong after a year and a half.

I felt like a massive nob after that.

craigrobinson · 15-04-2011, 08:27 AM

ok. here are some of my distasters with my first car i owned. a 1978 TE Cortina.

1. i blew the 4.1 cross flow up a week after i got it so thought it would be a good idea to put a 302 in it. after mucking around and playing with a few things. she went is great.......

was out driving when all of a sudden i hear this massive bang... the bonnet moved and now car is pretty much going no where. so pulled over, checked under the hood and the motor had sheered the left hand engine mount bolts... hmmmm me wonders why it did it and why not the right hand engine mounts bolts..... because there were none. i forgot to bolt it in properly. massive damage later....

2. replacing the gear box (used to cost me $100 from the wreckers), firstly it fell of the jack i was using under the car to hold it in place and landed on my knee... not fun... then i nearly cut my wedding finger off as it got stuck between the bolt housing and the gearbox as my brother in law was jacking it up... another trip to the hospitalll...

3. thought it would be a great idea to change the sparkplugs and leads... only problem is, i took all the leeds off at the same time... three days later i had a mechanic come out and reconnect them in the correct order.

and finally

4. because i was buying crap second hand gear boxes for the cortina to bolt onto my 302, i had one that didnt have a reverse lock( so you cant go from drive to reverse), i was showing off down the main street when i realised the brakes wernt going to stop me (crappy 6cyl brakes at that stage) so thought i would slip it into nuetral to reduce the engine torque..... yep, into reverse it went... half a gearbox sitting on the ground in the main drag!!!!!!!

I love cars!!!!!!!!!!!!!

shedcoupe · 15-04-2011, 09:01 AM

Heard a story about a very new apprentice at a small workshop -
Told to replace the oil in a car that a tradesmanperson had been servicing.
"Fill it up with oil".
Blokes go to have smoko but kid doesn't come in to the lunchroom for ages.
Blokes check on kid - he's put enough oil in to nearly reach the top of the rocker cover. Probably another 'garage myth' story.

Here's one of my many blunders -
Decide to be the world's fastest hippy and break the sound barrier in a Kombi.
Buy kombi with a bad big end knock, drive home.
Split cases, the crank is a two-piece - sheared through a counterweight.
Rebuild with oversize barrels and pistons, cam, mechanical distributor, Webber carby, oil cooler, blah blah blah.
Have great difficulty installing rear main seal, install using a handful of rubber grease, clean up, but don't clean up enough. Insert dowels into crank boss, push flywheel onto dowels, insert big hex-head machine screw into crank boss, torque to 280 ft.lbs, nearly break mate's torque wrench.
Drive a few thousand miles, engine has great power but is very hot, install high-volume oil pump and that helps.
Then driving between Mackay and Rocky hear a heavy rattle that's louder than the stereo.
Push in clutch to stop, notice that rattle disappears when clutch pedal is pressed, turn around.
Somehow drive straight to the only veewee workshop in town using blind animal instinct, pull out donk, notice that flywheel machine screw is nearly out - had torque released by hot runny rubber grease from main seal.
Crank boss dowel holes were barely okay but flywheel dowel holes - not so much. Yet another lucky escape.

someone else's -

**Kingsley** · 15-04-2011, 09:13 AM

Replacing a gearbox full of oil without a yoke or anything plugged in at the back of the box to stop the inevitable flow of gear oil. Spent an hour lying in gearbox oil through my own stupidity.... And I've done again since!!!
Replacing the diff oil in a truck. That went as well as the transmission and more friggin oil!!!!
Watched a mate put a taxi on a four poster hoist forgetting to apply the handbrake. At waiste height the taxi departed the hoist by rolling off and hitting two other cars while peeling it's drivers side door off...
Working in an older Ford dealership that had the old style pits under the car, one of the salemen drove a P76 into the bay only to disappear into the pit below!!! It was wedged in the hole that hard it took 4-5 hours to get it move using the tow truck!!
Watching in amusment a painter signwriting the load limit of the hoist on the tow truck. Instead of reading 'Max 2 Tonne' he wrote 'Max 2 Tone'.....

shedcoupe · 15-04-2011, 10:27 AM

Voice breaks, get pimples, buy old HR (hydraulic lifters).
Find an old workshop manual for a grey motor (solid lifters).
Decide that valves need adjusting. Remove rocker cover, start motor, start learning how to use feeler gauges, get covered in oil, mess up valve timing. Sigh. It would've been nice to have had an uncle .......

66FAIRLANE · 15-04-2011, 10:41 AM

As a young lad walking in thongs carrying one of those blue cheapie trolley jacks by the handle dangling vertically. Went down one step, trolley jack fell off on my foot, cutting open several toes. Having suddenly no weight, I then drove the handle into my own forehead nearly dropping me and of course opening me up there also.

Never carry em like that anymore.

93EB_SXR6 · 15-04-2011, 04:40 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by shedcoupe

Voice breaks, get pimples, buy old HR (hydraulic lifters).
Find an old workshop manual for a grey motor (solid lifters).
Decide that valves need adjusting. Remove rocker cover, start motor, start learning how to use feeler gauges, get covered in oil, mess up valve timing. Sigh. It would've been nice to have had an uncle .......

Uncles are priceless, especially to blame things on! LOL