Admit your Garage Mistakes

[mike_nofx]

A couple of years ago I was installing a new stereo into a 1990 Nissan Patrol, I wired it up quite easily (have done many head unit installs) but when it come to wiring up the earth/ground wire of the had unit to the Patrols wiring, I connected it to the incorrect wire.

What I do is, turn on accessories, then ignition, locate all my wires ( acc 12, constant 12, ground etc) mark all wires, then wire in the new stereo harness.

Now I'm still a little confused to this day, maybe someone can enlighten me. The wire I selected in the Patrol to be my earth wire was grounded with ignition on, but became 12v+ with the ignition off. (I possibly have this slightly confused, it may have been ground with accessories, but 12v+ with ignition on or vice versa??) In what situation would a wire need to be Grounded, then switch to 12v+??

The result once I had finally finished wiring up everything was a working stereo... Until I turned off the ignition and met a puff of smoke from the stereo, due to the stereo ground becoming 12v!

Ground Wire insulation had melted off, and required a new wire to be soldered to circuit board, and a correct ground to be located, then all sweet!

[elfutura]

When I was 18 (a long time ago) was filling the gearbox on my Corolla-yep, forgot the drain plug. Oil everywhere.
Another was when fitting a pair of twin carbs to it on a Christmas day. Too much beer and inadvertently dropped a spring washer into the manifold without realising. On start up couldn't work out what the noise was. My Dad wasn't impressed spending the rest of Christmas day removing the head where we found it embedded into the cylinder head!

[fordman351]

Replacing the timing chains and tensioners on my BA XR8, having been so careful to get everything 'bang on', after having refit the timing cover, cam covers, crank balancer, inlet plenum and everything else to get it to the point of being finished, then discovered, lying there in the lid of my socket set....the crank sensor chopper wheel. Old man points it out, "What's that"?, "Oh, that's the......FFFFFFFFFFFFF"!!

[BOON250]

Changed fuel sender in my XC. obviously didn;t have retaining ring turned properly. Filled it up and parked it in storage in a private car park building. Got out to leave fuel pouring out everywhere.

Lost a good jacket and my lined car cover before anyone noticed.. no one ever queried the missing white lines in that section of the car park though

[BroncosXR8]

When I was 16 a mate had an LH Torana that we used to work on, anyway he got me around to help put his gearbox in place and fill it with oil.

My head still behind the gearbox, oil starts going in...ooops no tailshaft and about a litre of oil right in my ear hole!

[Thornie]

Not really my mistake but... missus got me a new stereo for x-mas a couple of years back sub, amp headunit etc. wired her all in got it going tuned the sub all good, then after a few weeks I realised I realised I couldn't turn the volume up over halfway without the sub sounding like it was a cheap chinese knockoff with blown voice coils. Checked all my wiring all good, figured maybe it had blown a voice coil left it for another few weeks and just kept the volume down.

Decided one day while I was playing around to to change the speaker wiring over on the box, turns out the wiring in the box the sub came in was around the wrong way so the negative was the positive, works fine now.

[Fev]

On my ED XR6 - 2 days after getting home with it, found two electronic connections under the dash looked like they'd come loose and were hanging below the steering wheel. They fitted perfectly together with each, sitting right next to each other. Didn't know what they were for, can't remember now but thought "oh ok i'll just connect them." MISTAKE.

Next day I noticed Brake lights stopped working. After much thought and no ideas I worked out that the connections weren't supposed to connect and I'd fried wiring behind the dash up into the dash cluster. I never noticed the smell. It took a week and a half with my dad to find the right wires to replace without pulling the entire interior apart. Most aggravating thing ever as I'd only just bought it too
__________________________________________________ _____

Last time I had to drill out a snapped bolt was fitting Bride seats to the Bluebird. Whoever fit them to the last car snapped a bolt in the base of the seat (hole was a welded on nut) and used 2 screws on either side instead so I had to drill it out (wanted to do it right) - snapped the first drill bit which embedded itself into the hole - 10 mins to pry it out, then snapped the easy out as well and I had to drill the damn thing out again.
Tapping the welded nut again though luckily went smoothly.After about an hour and a half finally had the bolt re-tapped.

Pretty sure I owe dad about 15 or 20 drill bits since I was 13 now

______________________________________

Last oil change, took it for a spin around the backyard to settle it in after a timing chain kit swap. When I was done I checked for leaks and the oil and I saw that I'd filled it up way too much. I guessed the amount by the markings on the bottle but the bottle was a bit too full in the first place and the engine ended up being way over full. (5L instead of 4.5L or somesuch). Didn't wanna damage the engine so thought I'd drop some of the brand new oil.
The car was hot at this stage so I was trying to be careful and not burn my hands. I put the Oil catch under the car slightly in the wrong spot, slowly undid and bam - dropped the sump plug directly into the hole of the oil catch bottle and then lost the 5L of beaut clean oil into a filthy oil catch and all over the garage floor. I didn't have anything else so I had to refill it with that contaminated junk - all the while burning the **** out of my fingers trying to get the sump plug back out.

[MDS69]

Whilst pulling the gearbox out of my MkI Escort to change the clutch I dropped it on my head. During the same job I lost the circlip on the shifter for reverse gear so you had to watch it when you went back to first as if you got the angle wrong it would go straight into reverse. You didn't have to push the shifter down then across.

[superfly]

I've had a few but the most recent one was when I changed the BOV on the missus WRX. When I've screwed it back onto the intercooler, the gasket fell down on one side thus creating an airleak. So when you got on the power it felt jerky and crap. As it was due for the 200K service, I had the mechanics check it out as everything looked ok to me. They thought it was pretty funny when they found the gasket hanging down

[elfutura]

When my brother heard that I had to replace the headgasket on my EL Futura, he told me of his garage mistake.
His EL Tickford blew the headgasket just as he was returning home and pulling up his steep drive. Opened the bonnet, pulled the dipstick to find emulsified oil. Jacked up the car put a small container underneath & removed the sump plug to drain it.
Went inside to have a coffee & on his return the emulsified oil had filled the container, overflowed & ran down his driveway into the street!
He'd forgotten to take into account the extra volume from the coolant which had filled the sump under pressure!
Glad I wasn't the only dill in the family! (see post 572)

[Psi-Pop]

Did some cleaning up of ecu install after putting transmission back in for it to not even start. Starting to pull everything apart again thinking I broke a solder join, turns out I never installed the starter motor. Problem solved.

[ridzilla]

This is quite a read but it's probably one of my worst mistakes but it's more of an injury than garage mistake, but anyways here it goes...

I was at my old work trying to get this little spring out of a valve looking thing for one of the fitters (coincidentally my older brother) as he couldn't quite get it, so I grab my pliers and set of vice grips and waltz back over to his workbench thinking it's a easy job (had the mindset that boilys were better than fitters), and I grab this spring with the pliers and yank on in as hard as I can, unsurprisingly it doesn't budge. So I try out the vice grips and hang off the bench trying to rip this poxy spring out (without any eye protection) and it STILL doesn't move a millimeter, so I'm standing over the top of it and I kick the table out of frustration and low and behold it comes lose and flys out of this valve thingo at 1000kms an hour and scores me right in the nose, I starting swearing and blooding is gushing from my nose; i was in agony while my brother was absolutely ****ing himself laughing at me i run to the workshop door so I could get to the bathroom to clean up my wash, and as I wrench the door open and start walking through it a huge gust of wind grabs the door and slams it in my face; breaking my already sensitive nose and completely knocking me on my *** unconscious! safe to safe I took it easy for the rest of the day hahaha

[matty88]

A lesson I learnt yesterday

When pressing in front wheel drive wheel bearings SUPPORT THE INNER BEARING RACE!

I didn't, and when I was pressing the stub axle in the bearing came apart. Expensive mistake

[Bossxr8]

I pulled the plastic dash surround off the NL to have a look at the globes, to see which ones I needed for blue led dash lights, and for some reason the dash cluster lights no longer work. I didn't touch the cluster so buggered if I know why they stopped working. Might have punctured a wire with a screw putting the dash surround back on or something. It makes an electrical buzzing sound now when I switch the headlights on.

[grandpa_spec_F6]

Replaced the fuel filter on my v8, crank it over, fires up perfect.

Awesome says I..... about 2 seconds before I hear "fffffffffssssssssPPPPSSSSSSHHHHHHTTTTTTT" and the heavenly sent of 98 premium pouring down the driveway as the engine comes to a rather grumpy stop.

Id managed to crack one of the special anti tamper bits on the fuel line... a few hours later and much swearing id cut all the tamper devices off and replaced them with good old hose clamps and some larger fuel line.

[stev3n]

Laid the ol xl500 Honda on its side to re-weld the kickstand bracket. fuel had started to run from carbie onto the floor. I am welding away beneath the welding helmet, when the fire started. Find myself running around the fire flapping my arms, luckily my mate was there, he beat the fire out with his leather jacket. Very lucky as tank had about 10 litres of fuel inside

[Simple6]

Mine was only a few days ago.

Decided to replace the gas struts for the boot in my EL because the existing ones only just held the boot open at upright, no support anywhere else when opening or closing.

So I jump in the boot on my back (head under the parcel shelf) with my legs handing out the back of the boot and (purposefully) knock one of the struts off. A second later I have the boot lid swinging back down where it promptly slams on the knee caps with the boot edge. It's very difficult to get out of a boot with the lid almost shut, your head under the parcel shelf and when you've just been kneecapped! Needless to say it was then propped open for the rest of the job, and I will mention the car has one of the bigger Tickford spoilers too, extra weight in the swing momentum.

Hindsight is king.

[2011G6E]

Oh god, I felt that as I read your story...by christ that would have hurt!!

[The Yeti]

Originally Posted by Simple6

Mine was only a few days ago.

Decided to replace the gas struts for the boot in my EL because the existing ones only just held the boot open at upright, no support anywhere else when opening or closing.

So I jump in the boot on my back (head under the parcel shelf) with my legs handing out the back of the boot and (purposefully) knock one of the struts off. A second later I have the boot lid swinging back down where it promptly slams on the knee caps with the boot edge. It's very difficult to get out of a boot with the lid almost shut, your head under the parcel shelf and when you've just been kneecapped! Needless to say it was then propped open for the rest of the job, and I will mention the car has one of the bigger Tickford spoilers too, extra weight in the swing momentum.

Hindsight is king.

OMG my knees hurt as I read your post

[Jimwarlock]

The classic for me is not knowing which way to undo a nut.
You try both ways, doesn't budge an inch.
You tell yourself the lefty loosy righty tighty but start to doubt it for no reason
then just as your trying one last time, you realise you're going the wrong way JUST as the bolt moves and tightens that tiny bit further.

You just have to laugh

[grandpa_spec_F6]

Or as it sheers off in my case and you have to drill whats left of the bolt out

[jamies]

Changing a water pump on an old 1968 Xt everything was going smoothly and I thought gee this easy.. when ping a boldtsnapped off in the block it was seized in. I had to get the easy outs and a lot of patience to fix it. The job ended up taking three times as long.

Oh and another garage mistake I bought a Hj Holden once..

[Stagg]

Pulling the old AU series 1 calipers off, the nut connecting the caliper to the brake line would not budge. I had some spares, figured I may as well cut just above the brake line, run the nut onto the brake line and re-flare the brake line.

I used a single flaring tool instead of a double flaring tool, and when I had a mobile mechanic come around to help get the brembos filled with fluid again, I hear him say "Yep we got a big problem here", to see brake fluid gushing out of my first attempt at installing brembos. I had to embarassingly explain to him what happened... and thankfully he had a double flaring tool and was kind enough to show me how its properly done

[R1XSTA]

My brother in law just went through the pain of doing an oil swap.

He had the car jacked up on his VS Commodore, undid the plug and drained it.

Then when he started to refill he forget to put the drain plug back in - realized his mistake after about a liter of oil. So he then proceeded to put the plug back in, but the car was still jacked up when he just started to put more oil in.

He called me because his car was blowing constant blue smoke. He had put 9L of oil in a 3.8L commodore.

[elfutura]

Did you tell him not to worry because 4 litres would leak out in no time!

[Kable72]

Originally Posted by elfutura

Did you tell him not to worry because 4 litres would leak out in no time!

[dogphlap]

Interesting thread, it brings back memories of past fails.
Back in the early 1960s I had a motor bike. In those days it was cool to use caster oil rather than the normal mineral oil mostly because it made the exhaust smell great (that's where Castrol gets its name from). Changing from normal motor oil to castor oil required flushing the old oil out or you would get a sticky mess that would block the finer oil ways. I was young and foolish so I filled the oil tank (dry sump system) with petrol, took the plug lead off and gingerly turned the motor over with the kick starter for a full 15 minutes. The magneto was still fully functional during this extended period of dicing with death but somehow I got away with it.

A few years later I was into Minis. I had a Mini van that I was working on and for reasons I forget I had unbolted the drivers seat. I then went for a drive. Approaching a stop sign with a major busy road I trod on the brake. I guess I did not have a tight hold on the steering wheel because the next thing I know I'm doing a reverse summersault into the back of the van. By the time I'd scrambled back to the driver seat I was well down the road on the far side of the busy intersection. I was so lucky.

Later still, maybe in the early 1970s I bought a very second hand Lotus Elan. When I turned the steering wheel there was a loud clunking noise. I had no garage to work in since I had recently left home so I took the steering rack out in the car park at work and got it refurbished (which cost more than I really could afford at the time). I fitted the refurbished rack but the noise was still there. I looked down the steering column and half way down I saw a universal joint was touching a heater hose so that it made the clunking noise as the steering wheel was turned. Stupid!

I continue in the same way up to the present.

Best regards.

[xwgs302]

Funny stories!
My worst is when i was a 2nd year apprentice and doing an auto service on a little Laser or a Mazda. Lowered the two post hoist and filled the trans, jumped into the car to run through the gears. When i put it in reverse the car crept back so i pushed harder on the brakes, little did i know my brand new size 13 T-boot was also on the gas!
BANG!!!
Drivers door bent to near the front guard from the hoist!
I freaked out and went to put it into neutral and hit drive instead...
BANG!!!
Straight into the wall.
The boss went off his nut for a while but calmed down cause it was from a car yard so all was good, glad it wasn't a customers car.

My ED cab in the 90's came in with a real horrible knock. Decided to pull the motor and check it out, found nothing! Put new rings bearings etc and put it back in...
Still knocking!
After scratching my head inside the car i look down and find the gas switch on petrol.
The driver knocked the switch getting into the car and was running on stale fuel...
Had no sleep that day, 12 hours to rebuild the motor and back in over a switch. Couldn't hear the injectors over the knocking.

My brother... He took off for a test drive and forgot to take out the exhaust analyzer, the scope rolled out the driveway and crashed into the ground stuffing it right up.

[XW-BAXR6T]

One day i was doing a job inside on my hemi charger at dads garage, cant recall what job i was doing now it was many years ago. Any how i was putting my automatic stick gear knob back on & found i had lost the very tiny screw for the knob to secure onto the gear stick, i got so ****ed off that i kicked a bucket that was near by, my leg went high up ended kicking my face with my own knee in the process & was dizzy almost went unconcious also lots of blood gushing out, i had opened my face as a result right under my right eye ended up getting several stitches for it.

Had to go to work the next day they were ****ing them self's when i told them, also the nurses giggled at my explanation when asked how it happened.

[Kieron]

Had a burnt valve on my 68 Mustang (302w) so ripped the heads off, had them recoed, new set of Felpro gaskets and ready to bolt the gleaming beauties back on.

Borrowed a Sidchrome torque wrench from my brother, wacked a head on, started torquing the head bolts back up, first pass, sweet, second sweet, third pass first bolt - hmm, man this seems awful tight and still no click from the torque wrench???
better get serious so put my whole weight into it then suddenly BANG and me falling into the engine bay, skinning knuckles etc

Head bolt had snapped virtually flush with the block, man was I ****ed stormed off inside thinking I'll never get it out, had a beer for wisdom then went out, used my thumb on the stub and it turned around easy as!

Turns out the torque wrench dud so I killed my brother

Ended up buying a set of 5.0 head bolts (TTY's), apparently used once, used them on one side only but suffered a gasket leak after about two years.

Had an early model manual Telstar, sitting at the top of a driveway, flat battery. No worries, just roll it backwards down the hill and clutch start it - jump into drivers seat, one foot outside to get it rolling, drivers door flings wide open as I gather some speed, nice solid letterbox collects door, bends it backwards damaging door, hinges and front fender - rubbish car anyway