Mistakes when/after working on your car?!

[volvodspec]

It's a common thing for those who work on their cars to forget something once in a while such as tightening a bolt; losing a tool etc, it doesn't matter if your a novice or advanced; sooner or later you WILL forget something while you're at it!

i love hearing such various storys; i do tend to forget a thing once in a while ; here's a start:

i lost my feeler gauges, didn't remember where they went so bought a new set. then after a few months it was time to swap the belts on my red 340 CVT and while i removed the gearboxcover; my old set of feeler gauges dropped on the ground!

after adjusting a cvt clutch the first crank came up... followed by a loud and scary BANG when the wrench 19 wich was still on the crankshaftbolt hit the bonnet

i got really enthousiastic changing pads + discs and brake shoes and cylinders on the rear, then lunchbrake came up so all work stopped. after that it was time to drive the car off the bridge and i drove it nearly to the parking lot, i braked but stepped onto a dead pedal (forgot to push the pistons out to their original position with the brake pedal); the handbrake saved a crash into the wall at that point..

now; what things did you forgot when working on the cars; and what happened!

[jtbo]

Starting while having flywheel locked into position with a bolt has happened few times, that bang is quite scary sound

Once replaced front tire bearing, put tire back on and started reversing off from garage, I just forgot to take car off from jack first.

Decided to replace burn out bulb when it was raining snow, thought that I will leave car to warm up, however forgot to turn off lights, that resulted my finger get arch welded with clip that holds bulb at place, clip was so hot that it did melt into something without any shape.

When installed megasquirt, I did forgot to plug in vacuum hose and did wonder how car runs so shitty.

Tools and bolts I always forget somewhere, best have been that I put down some tool to swept dirt from eye shield, next 30 minutes I did spend finding that tool and it was even plugged into wall, can't remember if it was drill or angle grinder though

Once I had a box where I did put all the bolts when taking apart front part of B200 motor, still 2 bolts got missing even I did for certain put every bolt into box.

I keep saying that memory and great brain can't reside in same head

[Chris_C]

I could be here for ages....

i got really enthousiastic changing pads + discs and brake shoes and cylinders on the rear, then lunchbrake came up so all work stopped. after that it was time to drive the car off the bridge and i drove it nearly to the parking lot, i braked but stepped onto a dead pedal (forgot to push the pistons out to their original position with the brake pedal)

This took me about 5 years to learn to remember... the "manic pump the pedal a million times hoping it'll work this time" dance wears thin quick! Luckily I didn't use to have to take cars onto the road straight away.

Once broke a car on the lady who owned it's drive, which had 2 good tyres that I swapped for my wheels. I was hugely careful to make sure her cars wheels were sorted as it was going to be driven onto the low loader. Guess who's wheels I didn't tighten, and driving down her drive hearing a rumbly grumbly noise for a good 10 secs until it clicked!

Finishing working on the car and going to drive it a couple of hours later but it doesnt start. It takes ages to find a not put back king lead.

Right, I'll stop now and let someone else have a go! The handiest thing ever is a bit of private land to test the car on after you've worked on it.

EDIT: Actually, one other one. When I had even less of a clue than I do now and Kar's engine went ping, Andy came to my grandparents where I was staying to help me take the head off (in the rain, in the winter, on the roadside ) We were super careful, and took the pushrods out and laid them, in order, in Andy's bonnet vent grill thing. We then realised we needed some big washers to hold the liners down so we could turn the engine over. So, off we drive, hearing a random tinkling noise on every corner for the first while. Luckily the noise stopped... then we realised we'd littered my pushrods round the roads of Watford

[Speedy88]

Surprisingly I'm not that bad although I'm one to cut corners which end up costing me more in the long run (the most recent of these being not replacing my diff oil). I usually know where my tools all are and I'll do tasks one by one so I don't forget where I am. My main problem is probably injuring myself, being quite clumsy I'll cut/bruise/burn myself about 3 times each hour. Currently smarting a nice 3rd degree burn on my arm from my blowtorch

[griffo20022]

God i've been in a good few situations like these although fortunately I can't remember them all!

One that always sticks in my mind was me and my dad were bleeding the rear brakes on my old MK3 Astra. The back was in the air and on axle stands. For whatever reason my dad got in to start the car and didn't realise he'd previously left it in gear.... Car jumps forward, back end comes off axle stands and fall on the floor lol. My dad ranted and threw a crowbar across the road lmao!

Another one (with my MK3 Astra again lol) I went to use it one day and it didn't want to start, didn't even spin the starter motor? Looked around for AGES! Changed the battery over etc. Etc. Now take into consideration my Astra had an Immobiliser fitted....... You guessed it, I forgot to disable the immobiliser ffs lol!

[whiskeyonesix]

I rebuilt a Land-Rover 2.25 petrol engine yrs ago - carefully cataloging every part, and when I finished putting the thing back in the vehicle I ended up with 3 nuts left over....
Didn't seem to bother the Landy though.....

Another one from when I used to work in the MoD Disposals Trade....
One of our sales guys was after some petrol to take a buyer for a test drive in an ex-army landy. The jerry can he used to fill the motor up with was actually full of paint, thinners, diesel etc - stuff we used when we wanted paint taken off etc....
Ever seen an engine painted on the inside? I have

And another one, Hagglunds BV206's are amphibious... when you fit the rubber plugs and erect the bow shield......otherwise they tend to sink. It's a fairly gradual process mind... quite often you get to the middle of the lake before you realise that you aint gonna get out dry

I started a car once..... It was a lovely old bentley that belonged to the boss - he just wanted me to check all the levels,look at the steering/suspension bushes and see if there were any leaks...
Pity it was three feet in the air and on a set of ramps at the time! Guess I d]should have left it out of gear..
No damage done fortunately!

I could tell numerous stories........ all this is mainly why I try not to work too much on my own cars any more....... I know what I'm capable of

[Jos360]

I was working on my 360 at a friends house. I used his tools to change the radiator.
I drove for 2000 miles until i needed to work on the waterpump. I got my grille and radiator out and found a ratched with socket 10 there (on the front valance), that belonged to my friend

[CBA]

Er... not so funny this one.
reno 5, running terrible - black+white smoke... headgasket/misfiring, simple enough.
Took off head, took out valves - put on new stem seals (may as well at 65p each), grid valves in, just fine paste, they were pretty good -
all done, head back in one piece, put gasket on, put head on gasket, put bolts in, torqued down in right sequence 75nm if i remember...
Sent car out as fixed...
one day later, black, blue, white smoke, running like a bus...
What did I forget...
Yes 75nm is the right torque, but in manual i missed "then turn each bolt 180 degrees tighter"...

Lot of work for no reason, except to ruin a perfectly good gallon of oil, coolant and a headgasket.

[Ride_on]

I'm pretty careful....now.

My main blooper was my first car welding attempt (after learning at school) on my first 84 GLT, which was a little rocket compared to later cars.

Bought it from our famous Volvo scrap specialist in N.Ireland, now passed away. Anyway some filler fell out of the chassis near the radius arm mounts revealing wrinkling and tears in the chassis, and somehow I talked myself into welding it up in his garage. Some of you will know that the fuel pipes pass quite close to this area and I quickly set the car alight with the gas welder. A mechanic was also there and saw flames coming out of the bumper vent and managed to put it out. However after going outside for a change of trousers and looking for spare parts to fix the car with, we noticed the car had caught fire again, this time it wouldn't go out, no happy ending unfortunately except the car needed to be put down anyway. The seller replaced the car with a GLS identical to Mchudds but with more rust that I learned to weld with a MIG more carefully.

[tommysb]

I managed to gradually nudge the car off the jack it was supported on today, so it fell with about a 30 cm gap between it and a wall. Luckily, I'm small enough to fit in those sorts of gaps and managed to sort it out.

After arseing about with my brakes all day today, finally got them behaving themselves. Started putting the wheel nuts back on, tightening one nut at a time. One of the (modified, longer) wheel studs was rotating inside the hub. Making it impossible to tighten or loosen. Managed to get it undone eventually. I've got to take everything apart tomorrow in order to put a spot weld on the back of the wheel stud now. Grrrr!

[volvosneverdie]

Ive never made any mistakes working on a car (as I usually get someone far better qualified to do it) but I did nearly kill the 340 once through stupidity.
parked it a sloped overflow car park made of pepples and dirt at the royal quays shopping centre, i got out and realised that id left the back end sticking out a bit.
Id already put the crooklock onto the steering wheel and couldnt be bothered to ondo it, so I just dropped the handbrake and pushed from the drivers door.
Mistake.

the car rolled into a rut, picked up enough speed to bounce out the other side and away from me and set off toward the back of a jag.
headfirst dive to the handbrake saved the day. Locked wheels on loose pebbles made for a dramtic finish though. Stopped milimeteres off the jag.

Wont be doing that again.

[Fuse]

I was changing the motor mounts and when I started to lower the engine with a jack, new mounts attatched etc... I began to wonder why the engine sits lower than it did with the old mounts... I had completely forgotten to put on the upper nut of the mount in place.

Many times I've forgotten some of the ignition leads unplugged when working with something and I've removed the leads to make some room.

[RobT_75]

When I was 15 (so I blame my inexperience!) I topped up all the fluids on my Dad's Renault 18 but forgot to put the oil cap back on. Mum then drove the car to the shops and noticed the black stuff trickling down the sides of the wings. Can't think of any other horrors thank goodness!