Worst (most retarded) mistake working on a car??

[Marty]

bleed nipples always go at the top

I shall not wind you up about that to much Sunday honestly

[Dave]

bleed nipples always go at the top

I shall not wind you up about that to much Sunday honestly

That wind up may have to wait a while i'm afraid.

Can't make the meet.

I start a new job over at swaffham, and need to use my car on the first day (to collect my work van. Get to work in my car, then have to drive my car back home to peterborough, with somebody else in my van behind me etc), so i can't afford the fuel to do pretty much the same trip twice.

Cheers
Dave

[Marty]

It may be best to cancel then

[mar-TI-n]

I've had my fair share of "retarded " mechanics too. My old mk2 xr2 had a blocked sunroof drain causing the back seat to fill with water.. Mechanic stuck a screwdriver through the drain cap to pry it out and drain the pool of water. A week later the car stinks of fuel after filling the tank.. You've guessed it he pierced the tank too, back seat was saturated.

Also had an ABS fault on my primera eGT, got it sorted and picked up the wife and 3 month old baby.. While driving the wheels were making a squeaking noise.. Got it into a quick fit we were passing just before they closed.. all 16 wheel nuts were finger tight

[vitesse]

I serviced my brother in law's 1996 Escort once - at home, on ramps with axel stands propping up the front. Changed oil, plugs filters...no problem.

Got him to reverse the car off the ramps but forgot about the stands and he didn't half give it some coming off the ramps

He sold the car not long after with two "fog light holes" either side of the front bumper.

Needless to say, I didn't go near his new car

[russ220]

We were down our friends farm workshop working on the P6. We had the back end up on some of those metal framed ramps so we could work on the inboard rear brakes, chop out the middle silencer and find out which UJ was slack.

Come end of the day, i go to drive off the ramps, put the car into ´1´ on the autobox, release the brake pedal and before i knew it the car dropped on one side and the newly unleashed V8 sound is interrupted by a massive load of metal clanging. I get out the car to see my mate on the deck a good 10ft behind the car and my other mate is laughing his head off. I´d literally shot one of ramps out behind the car and took my mate off his feet

then the penny dropped.....the choke was fully out

[peteT16]

I upgraded my old R25 to vented 262mm disks/calipers etc.

Everything went really well, all went back together great.

Then it was time to bleed them.

I tried every way possible, and the brake pedal would still basically go down to the floor, couldn't get the air out at all.

Eventually, i gave up, and got a garage to pick the car up on a transporter, and let them fix it.

Got a call a couple of hours later, telling me that they had fixed the problem, and the brakes got bled.

They also told me what the problem was...................

I had fitted the brakes on the wrong wheels, the left was on the right, right on the left!!!!

That was a very expensive mistake!!

Cheers
Dave

lol, I did that on a Cortina years ago, we had the bleed nipple on the bottom of the caliper, I dread to think how much fluid we used trying to get the air out.

[cas_uk]

And on-topic, I can't really think of anything really bad, rounded off and snapped my fair share of things, but nothing important. Done the wheel bolt thing on a TI I stripped (crash damage)..

BMW fell off an emergency jack (twice) today when I had a flat if that counts..

I was using a trolley jack on a car to change bottom wishbone but couldn't find the bar to pump it up and down so was using a pretty big flathead screwdriver. Forgot to out handbrake on and car rolled forwards almost squishing me, the worst part though the big screwdriver got spun by the now falling trolley jack and hit me in the face with the flat end bit splitting my toplip clean in half up to the edge where it joins to my teeth. Passed out twice at home and once on the way to hospital due to blood loss and shock. Had to have plastic surgeon to stitch my lip back together. The pain of them putting general injections into my lip were one of the worst pains I've ever felt in my life. Lips are sensitive lol.

Just thought I'd share with u guys

[David-Ti]

And on-topic, I can't really think of anything really bad, rounded off and snapped my fair share of things, but nothing important. Done the wheel bolt thing on a TI I stripped (crash damage)..

BMW fell off an emergency jack (twice) today when I had a flat if that counts..

I was using a trolley jack on a car to change bottom wishbone but couldn't find the bar to pump it up and down so was using a pretty big flathead screwdriver. Forgot to out handbrake on and car rolled forwards almost squishing me, the worst part though the big screwdriver got spun by the now falling trolley jack and hit me in the face with the flat end bit splitting my toplip clean in half up to the edge where it joins to my teeth. Passed out twice at home and once on the way to hospital due to blood loss and shock. Had to have plastic surgeon to stitch my lip back together. The pain of them putting general injections into my lip were one of the worst pains I've ever felt in my life. Lips are sensitive lol.

Just thought I'd share with u guys

That is bloody scary!

I must admit there are times I'm at my garage on my own and often wonder how easily It could all go tats up and I dont always have my phone to hand when shuffling around on the floor like some beached sea creature..

[Sheaf]

Changed my fuel filter.

Caught the excess/spilt petrol in an ice cream tub.

Left the tub on the worktop in the utility room.... went off for a cuppa, not thinking.

Came back to find the plastic melted and petrol over the worktop, dripping on the washing machine. The whole room stank.

Oppsie!

[Phoenix3dfx225]

Forgot about the clutch bearing, so all rebuilt only to press the clutch pedal once and it do nothing Its amazing how quick you can strip it down again once you've only finished learning where everything goes!

[mike88]

I must admit there are times I'm at my garage on my own and often wonder how easily It could all go tats up and I dont always have my phone to hand when shuffling around on the floor like some beached sea creature..

I think the same when I'm laid under a car..

[ptomo]

Putting a cam pulley on wrong mark and wondered why the fecker wouldn't start an nearly ripped it all apart again after doing a hg also after servicing the Ti and fitting new timing belt an aux belt fired it up to a blast of oil squirting out all over cam side of engine up over bottom of windscreen an all under bonnet cause they gimme wrong oil filter but my fault for not checking it right I jus climbed under spun it on an thought hey presto lol

[617sqn]

When I was 17, I was rebuilding my Lambretta engine in my Dad's shed. I'd put the whole thing back together again, including the side panels etc and had even cleaned up the shed and put the tools away, wiping them as I went. I pushed the bike out of the shed, turned the key and was about to stand on the kick-start when I noticed the small brown envelope containing two gudgeon pin circlips sitting on the top of the seat Doh !

Andy G.

[Marty]

When I was 17, I was rebuilding my Lambretta engine in my Dad's shed. I'd put the whole thing back together again, including the side panels etc and had even cleaned up the shed and put the tools away, wiping them as I went. I pushed the bike out of the shed, turned the key and was about to stand on the kick-start when I noticed the small brown envelope containing two gudgeon pin circlips sitting on the top of the seat Doh !

Andy G.

That explains your MOD avitar then. My mate runs Norwich Mods Scooter Club

[617sqn]

Haha I've been sussed

Andy G.

[Marty]

He has one with all the lights and mirrors on buy yet he says he cant see sod all behind as they wobble to much

[1994 BRG Coupe]

My first car was a Mini 1000 which I spent a lot of time fixing. Mostly because I usually broke something while trying to fix something else, like the time I snapped all the studs holding the thermostat housing flush in the cylinder head and then broke the stud extractor on the first one. It had a straight through exhaust and the most stupid thing I have ever done was after an afternoon hooning around town deciding to check out the rattle on the exhaust. I drove the front onto a pair of ramps, crawled under and grasped the exhaust firmly at the down pipe to give it a good shake! Fortunately it had cooled a little but still gave me a sore hand for a few days

[mharrodine]

Rebuilt the top end on a Merc 190, after lining up all the timing marks I left a socket and a large ratchet on the crank shaft pulley. Then I thought I'd have a go at cranking it to see what happened. It fired just enough to spin the ratchet around, ripping the hoses out of the bottom of the radiator, cracking the integral auto box cooler, smashed the fan shroud and ripped a fin off the cooling fan. The bang and the sudden puddle of coolant running out from behind the drivers side front wheel was enough to alert me that something had gone very wrong.

I must have stood there for 10 minutes staring at the mess cursing myself....

A mechanic friend told me everyone makes this mistake. Maybe he was just being kind. Trouble is, I did it again on the same car a few weeks later while investigating why the bloody thing wouldn't run properly. I got lucky that time as it jumped off the nut before causing any damage. I'm happy to say I've not done it since...

[David-Ti]

Most recent and I do believe I went full retard on this one.. Left a locking dowel in the flywheel, totally forgot and tried to start the car. Lets just say lady luck was on my side that day!!

[WonderSheep]

I found out last week that not all oven cleaners are equal. That'll teach me to skim read cleaning threads Definitely my worst mistake to date.

[volf]

Checking the HT leads where ok on my mini... Whilst it was running...

*BZZT*OUCH...

Added to the stupid, by doing it again...

*BZZT*OUCHSONOFA-

More coffee was needed that day!

[mg-richard]

I think we should start moving this thread into 'Lucky Escapes'
I have loads of those.

Like the time a ratchet was left on the crank pulley.
The engine started and ran, and just span the ratchet gears until they wore out and bust it.
New one under snap on warranty

[dave_6785]

A few years ago now, two weeks into owning one of my Coupes i heard a clunking noise whilst travelling down the motorway with a little steering wobble, it only happened at cruising speeds, accelerating and braking stopped the noise. Naively not having a clue what it was but knowing i was late for work i drove quickly from 50-95mph and then applied the brake continuously for about 10 miles of a motorway journey, decided to take the A roads instead but at steady speeds the car got worse. Carried on driving and assumed it was a knackered driveshaft, until the wheels fell off whilst pulling up to a junction!!!!!

The car slammed dead into the ground and the wheel carried on down the road. Luckily this wasn't during the motorway part of my journey! and the wheel only hit a garden wall thank god.

A nice lady in the house next to where i was stuck had to lend me her jack from the Micra she owned as the car was to low for the Coupes to get under it without a second to assist, ridiculously embarrassing, she made me a lovely brew though and supplied plenty of biscuits

Got the wheel back on and drove off, only noticable damage was a slightly warped brake disk.

Work would not believe me on the phone or in person, until i showed them the photos i took of the incident.

That day i realised i left it to a friend to tighten the wheels up after changing the alloys, ever since then, I do the final tightening of any bolt

[ptomo]

Touching ecu wi + jump lead 1st time for everything