What mods have you done that failed

[Tokyo Geoff]

Pacemaker header back exhaust! Egads it sounded awful IMO but thanks to KPM it's now friggin awesome!

Lenso 19inch wheels from TEMPE. Please shoot me if I go anywhere near them again.

[Erko]

Massive thumbs up 2011G6E

I'll add to this catalogue of crimes....

GC Meteor Ghia (!) my first car.

- Fitted a sports exhaust with rotary style dump pipe
- Stuck a "NOS" sticker on the rear windshield......there was no NOS
- Fitted awesome white 5 spoke hubbies from Kmart which looked like mags from 200m
- Had C&V (this was when they were in Matraville...looong time ago) "Tune" the carb...lol. The thing made 56kw stock...at the engine.

These are just some of the automotive crimes i have perpetrated

[Nikked]

Originally Posted by XRDeeze

hey thats exactly what I was gonna do, after my clutch is gonna go, why isn't it a good idea?

Too much stress on all the other componants...

[last fairlane]

Hi try lowering an old FX Holden by reversing the main leaf
that drops the whole thing by about 4 inches boy it looked good
but after a couple of days the uni hit the transmission tunnel
to fix that I got a cold chisel(not Barnesy) and cut the tunnel away
a couple of days on you couldnt open the back doors
epic fail yes
another one A mate was an apprentice plumber and he "found"
a length of two inch copper pipe well I fitted this to a Mk1 Zephyr
straight through copper pipe
it sounded awesome but cop bait
it cost me $30 for excessive noise at the time half a weeks pay
thanks John
still love em low and loud

[scottyg938]

Putting a turbo onto my EF XR6, sure it went quick... really quick, but that was only when it was actually running every 2nd week. every other week it was in the shop getting fixed again.

[Nova 8]

Ive been caught out a few times with rims, also fitted a loud exhuast which had incredible drone which was removed within a week.

[my_gxl]

Put some coilovers in an N16 pulsar.

It was great on twisties at high speed.

The babies cheeks were bouncing when she was in the back at anything below 80kph. 40 kph was woeful.

They came out the next day.

[jpd80]

6,500 rpm in top gear is not the time to find out that your bell housing bolts weren't torqued up properly
and the C4 decides to break from from the torque converter, turn left and exit via the rear of the car...

[dieseltrain79]

Had a modded EA 5 speed , ran 14.9 with chiptorque chip , 14.7 removed .

[XARATE]

Put a $600 set oh headers on a 1990 2.2efi ford telstar. Gained 100% increase of ****** all

[Dezza]

Pulling the dash out on the EA. After stuffing up the wiring putting the new dash in, I got over it and the EA has sat since! I'm only now at the point (after about a year) where I'm getting the motivation to fix the mistake and get it running again.

Originally Posted by Nikked

Too much stress on all the other componants...

Yep agreed there. Since going manual on the EA with a HD clutch, I snapped 2 clutch cables, bent the pedal box, and cracked the firewall!

[Benny D]

Originally Posted by jpd80

6,500 rpm in top gear is not the time to find out that your bell housing bolts weren't torqued up properly
and the C4 decides to break from from the torque converter, turn left and exit via the rear of the car...

holy crap what a ride that woulda been.

must have been a priceless moment tho, when you see your gearbox bouncing down the road behind you.

[Bossxr8]

Fitted a set of EBC Green Stuff pads to my Ed Ghia, they totally shagged the discs within a few thousand k's and had to replace them. They were brand new slotted discs too.

[Franco Cozzo]

Originally Posted by Bossxr8

Fitted a set of EBC Green Stuff pads to my Ed Ghia, they totally shagged the discs within a few thousand k's and had to replace them. They were brand new slotted discs too.

... Was going to get these fitted to the Focus.

WAS.

[calais]

Had a few good ones, when my mates and I started driving....

First, a mate of mine had a 1st gen festiva which copped a spray can harlequin paint job, cannon, 'pod', shopping list, and 15" steelies off a volkswagen of some kind. Apart from being a complete sh**box this car was also one of the most singularly annoying cars I have ever had the displeasure of being seen with.

Second, chopping the roof off an '82 GH Sigma. Thought it would be great have a paddock convertible. Wrong. It went from bad to god awful terrible. Ended up cracking the chassis clean in two from the apsolutely insane body flex. We thought it was like a rock crawling hilux or whatever.... (17 year olds hey??)

Third, another mate had a '93 VR Executive... in white. Throw in a set of nasty ebay cat back, dump tip, neons, 18" chromies (a visual abomination) and a seriously crap set of ebay racing seats (the non-adjustable kind). And a home-made tint job. That car copped more than a fair share of canaries at Penrith Macca-Nats. Reading street commodores does this to young blokes I hear.

What a trip down memory lane....... Im sure there is plenty of others, but I was lucky than my own old man would always talk me out of doing the dumbest things to my own car. I still thank him for it today.

[HULK EF]

once apon a time when my Ef fairmont was new to me (purchased around 2002) i quickly installed red/green/blue neons EVERY WHERE. -underneath the car.. strobes under the bumpers firing onto the ground a nice red and blue cop clours.. Had HEAPS of interior neons too!! and a big shiney disco ball not much smaller than a basketball from the roof mirror. (thats still awesome!)
All the interior neons were wired up to the cigerette lighter!!! WIN!! lol

Cant forget the awesome "Bullet hole" stickers i had over the car.. got quite a few people too! lol

-And cant forget the plastic chequer plate bolted onto the fuel flap door. Extra 10kw's.

[wicko]

Chasing a nice rocker cover for my 2 Litre Motor (suits Cortina, Escort, Capri etc). Pretty hard to find in Australia but got put onto 1 in the UK via a forum/Ebay etc.

Paid a poltus for it (read a lot - 2 x what it would cost for something of known quality etc). Bought is cause it had 'Ford' & 'RS' etched into it - ie: Looked good.

Used thickest casket we could find and tried covering the holes with as much gunk as we could to seal it - still had a hole(s) you could poke a paddle pop stick through.

No to give up (cause it should look good) dropped it onto the engine and thrn the engine into the car. Rocker cover now rubbing against lip in firewall. we still didn't give up.

Deciding factor was when you looked across the top of the guards the oil filler cap was going to be taller then then bonet. Promptly took it off and put the factory one back on.

Send abusive email to the seller who promptly did nothing.

PS - Does anyone want to buy a rocker cover to sit a 2 Litre - nice lounge room ornament. Mint condition never used

[jcxr]

I had a brand new XA GS 351 Fairmont. decided that FoMoCo didnt know much about dual exhausts and cut the balance pipe out of the dual system. Sounded like 2 four cylinder tractor motors. New balance pipe welded back on the next day.

[BPXR6T]

Originally Posted by Bossxr8

Fitted a set of EBC Green Stuff pads to my Ed Ghia, they totally shagged the discs within a few thousand k's and had to replace them. They were brand new slotted discs too.

More likely you got a crap soft set of rotors. I've ran EBC green stuff pads a few cars now with slotted RDA rotors and had insignificant wear.

[homegrown]

This will be embarressing but some of the stupid things I can remember
Putting in 3" lowering blocks and having the shocks almost touch the ground, would have been screwed if I got a flat.
Mounting a filter alone under the rear bumber so it looked like I had a fuel system installed.
Using gutter down pipes to make a cold ram air set up.
Painting on flames (rubbing the old paint off so they looked like flames) adding racing stripes with electrical tape and then the paint peeling off when you took the tape off. and all those other performance enhancing add ons
Cutting springs. Not being able to get a jack under the car without some mates lifting the side of the car.
Try your own de-boring when you have no idea.
Pull a motor apart and put it back together and wonder why you have some pieces left on the floor.

[BPXR6T]

- Lowered my Mercedes 8". Yep, that's not a typo. Handled like crap with basically no suspension. Looked good though.

- 3" single system from a previous forum sponsor on my AU XR8. Louder and slower.

- Decided I wanted some bling bling gold cross drilled and slotted rotors on my brand new BA XR8. Cheaped out and bought ebay rubbish that warped after a few thousand kays. I also painted the calipers red, another fail.

- Lowered stiffer springs and 19" rims on my XH van on country roads. The rear doors rattling drove me nuts and I cracked the firewall.

- "Hi-flow" 2.5" exhaust fitted to my V6 Nissan Navara with extractors. Exhaust fitter didn't bother with a muffler and just whacked a straight pipe with a resonator. Sounded awesome but not even approximating legal. Even after the exhaust was fixed it was still a fail. Most restrictive exhaust bends I have ever seen.

- Buying a swap meet thermoquad carb that was meant to be in good condition. Only bought it to get me home from Melbourne to Canberra. Pouring petrol down the carb at the servo to get it running wasn't looked on kindly.

[mike_nofx]

Originally Posted by Benny D

partial shelf.

Originally Posted by Mr Hardware

parcel.

No, he's right. It started as a parcel shelf, but now it's only a partial shelf.

[blackf6]

I put some nice new carpet into my old HZ windowless pano. But in the process must of squashed a accessory wire than ran into the tray area. Car had a little electrical fire . I was lucky the whole car didn't catch fire, the wire was stand alone installed by a previous owner, lucky it wasn't in the harness. And one more stupid one I sanded back perfectly good paint and got the patches done in primer to attempt to toughen up the look of my car.

[tex]

Originally Posted by homegrown

Mounting a filter alone under the rear bumber so it looked like I had a fuel system installed.
.

So much WIN with that mod that you,re surely at the pointy end of the field so far!

Good work!

But you're under some serious pressure from Teak81 who sanded back his perfect paint to add primer for the tough look, there's a pot of gold in that one as well!



I'm loving this thread, keep em coming guys!

[supershifty]

I've had a few epic fails, but this one is etched into memory. Back in the 80's when I was a apprentice mechanic I had a stock XB 250 automatic with the cast in log intake manifold. I fitted a 465 vac sec Holley by screwing a 4 barrel adaptor to a 2 barrel adaptor to the single Stromberg intake manifold - started her up and it ran like a chaff cutter, no worries I thought, we'll fix her up Monday at work. Fitted my brand new you beaut 14" chrome air cleaner and shut the bonnet. FAIL! Destroyed the air cleaner and dented the bonnet.

I scrapped the 465 idea and bought a 350 Holley. This fitted to the 2 barrel adaptor plate and cleared the bonnet no worries and ran much better. (that's debatable though) Problem solved? Nah, read on. The auto trans kickdown cable is there for a reason - it needs to be hooked up, not just for kickdown, but for the trans to work properly. FAIL: the trans lasted about 2 months before I could only get 1st and reverse gears.

I was so a dick back then!

[2011G6E]

Over-carburetting used to be a simply huge problem in the good old days...plenty of people thought the bigger the carb, the more power it must make. People who had the simple formula revealed to them about working out CFM were shocked that you didn't actually need an 850 double pumper on a relatively stock 302 V8...

I had a 350 Holley on the 4.1 x-flow in our TE Cortina, jetted properly and it was fine. However, the 265 Hemi in the VH Charger had a Cain Hemi manifold with a 500 two barrel Holley, but it was jetted down to suit the 265 cube motor. Later on I tried a 350 jetted to suit, and it ran heaps better...and didn't drink fuel like there was a hole in the tank...well...not quite as much...

[K93George]

Back in my 2010 XR6 I had installed these insane subs that left absolutely no room in the boot and bolted over the spare tyre.

It required the back seat to be folded down or else the pressure built up in the boot to the point of the spoiler flexing beyond its ability to remain in one piece.

I figured the day I got it I would "show off" at the lake, so off I go and set some car alarms off, impressed the chicks and that. As I drove off my rear tail lights fell out with the nuts no where to be seen -_- Needless to say I was known as the guy whose tail lights fell out. My rearvision mirror also fell off and the car stalled at a roundabout when the bass hit. EPIC FAIL

[BaraFGXR6]

spending money on extractors without telling the mrs...

backfire is a mechanical word that comes to mind.

[atec77]

Originally Posted by LG17

I guess it would be fitting a 4" down pipe as the exhaust from the extractors back on a mate's mini in about 1968.
Looked good!!

I fitted twin su cards to a mini way back , impossible to start cold without a squirt , used so much petrol it was drinking about 15mpg and went 3mph faster , dumped them and tried a 40mm dcoe , was a bit better on fuel but wouldn't start cold (was in unzed) , trimmed the rubber cones to lower it and raised it a week later , I was young

[jamesson1980]

Went to all the trouble of transplanting a 5.8lt and 4spd into an old XE panel van. A month later the roof literally fell off. (owing to the fact that it was held together by 80% Rust/ 20% bog).. From this, I learned to fully inspect the condition and integrity of everything before i throw time/money at it. However it did make a sweet topless paddock ute, the XE dune buggy!