Dumbest thing you've ever done while working on your/someone elses car?

[240sxDann]

Well the "here are the similar threads we found:" didn't have anything like this so I'm posting it! What is the dumbest thing you've ever done while working on your car or someone else's car? Knocked it off jackstands? smashed a window with a wrench by accident? lets hear them!

I dont know if this was the dumbest, but it was way up there and I wanted to hurt myself afterwards lol. I had my first 240 hatch up on jack stands. I put the jack under one side, lifted it up, pulled the stand out, then let the jack down, except I didn't move the stand far enough and the car landed with the rocker panel being smashed in by the stand. I was quite upset about that!!!!

So lets hear them!

Feel free to tell other peoples stupid stories to! hehe

[teh DIRT]

put an engine 90% into the car (didnt bolt tranny on yet), only to realize the clutch was sitting 10 feet away. Won't happen again, thats for sure.

[blkZ06]

I watched my buddy get pissed and slam a 24mm wrench off the ground only for it to land on his hood and leave a huge dent

Not stupid but scary, I had a motor on a hoist and I was going to put jack stands under it and the chain on the hoist broke and the motor slammed into the ground and my hand ended up in the spot between the sump of the pan and the flat part and the motor didnt even touch me.

I was cranking down on a lower control arm bolt and my hand slipped off the I punched myself in the nose and pretty much knocked myself out.

[240sxDann]

haha "YOU GOT KNOCKED THE F OUT!...BY YOURSELF!"

[russiankid]

I was replacing my exhaust hangers, and one of them was a tight fit near the rear wheel. So I was wrestling with it trying to get it on, then finally it ripped. Then after it ripped, I realized I needed to lower the exhaust a little bit so the middle portion could slide in.

Another would be when I was replacing the gear selector seal on my BMW. I got the rubber part out, but didn't realize the metal casing was still in there. So I started to press the new seal in with no luck. I was all red trying to push the ****er in, no luck. I then got a mirror since it was a tight spot, and the metal casing is the issue. After yanking it out, seal went right in.

[Erik]

leaned against my car while it was on a scissors jack. after completing the last caliper set. I replaced the rotors the following day because of this issue.

Rested my arm across my battery while sweating. My head hurt for about an hour.

[Nick 95 6sp]

Many years ago I couldn't start my car and found corrosion on the battery terminal, so I tried to loosen the nut on the connector to get it off and clean it, but the connector on the battery post wouldn't move. So I put a screwdriver on the connector right by the post and hit the back of the screwdriver with my palm...which must have made a spark which immediately made a big explosion and blew battery acid in my face and all over the front of my clothes....I quickly ran into the gas station where I was parked since my buddy worked there, and flushed my eyes and luckily no damage to my eyes. The next day when my clothes came out of the wash it looked like somebody hit me in the crotch and chest with a sawed off shotgun. It was all full of holes where drops of acid ate away the cloth. I thought it looked sort of cool so I wore them that way for a long time. Motto: hydrogen gas emitted from a battery is HIGHLY EXPLOSIVE!..."remember the Hindenberg" ...oh, the huge manatee!!!

[dubjinc]

this del sol was on a stock jack, and the car wasnt in gear, when it went up the whole rear went with it, and there was a can of paint under it then it bent the jack and squashed the can almost killed seabass

[OPZ]

Anytime I touch either of my car's could probably be said to be something dumb that happens. Ha.

[probevette]

Pulling the rear bumper off the bmw the other day I was laying under the back of the car pulling on a stuck clip with pliers. Pulling the hell out of the clip I slipped and whacked my knuckle on the pavement. Didn't hurt or anything just bled a lot so I finished the job and didn't pay much attention to it. When finished got in the house and cleaned up to find out there was a bone showing and it was a pretty bad cut. Just pulled out the stitches the other day lol

[SovXietday]

Originally Posted by blkZ06

I was cranking down on a lower control arm bolt and my hand slipped off the I punched myself in the nose and pretty much knocked myself out.

Did something similar to that one. Was spinning a swivel ratchet to thread a long bolt faster and my hand slipped off the ratchet and it swung around and hit me square in the temple. Damn near knocked me out.

[DSMidiot]

Saying to myself:


"Righty tighty, lefty loosey"


lol we've all done it.

[Sykopathik]

Changing the thermostat in my buddy's Camaro, broke one of the bolts. Spent the next 9 hours trying to get the damn thing out. Finally after drilling and re-tapping the hole, we finally got the housing on. Checking the hood area for leftover tools and what not, what do I find but the brand new thermostat sitting there.

Another time, same bud, trying to put a motor in his truck, we're struggling with everything we have to get the engine to sit properly in the bay. I'm jumping up and down on the thing, he's got a prybar in behind the motor. Turns out he forgot to change the cradles on the motor to the older style for the truck. We nearly took it to a shop to have the mounts relocated.

Those are the two biggies but there have been many over the years...

[Glick]

Did an oil change for a friend. Her dad was all concerned about his driveway so I did it as cleanly as possible, even wiped everything down when I was done. Start the car up, go to pull it out of the driveway only to find it spraying oil everywhere. Immediately tell her to cut the motor, get under it with a towel and proceed to clean up. Meanwhile right in the middle of it, her dad gets home and is absolutely livid. It was a very awkward situation for everyone involved.

The cause, the rubber gasket for the oil filter was stuck on there and I was to stupid to check for it. Won't be making that mistake again.

[teh DIRT]

Originally Posted by Glick

Did an oil change for a friend. Her dad was all concerned about his driveway so I did it as cleanly as possible, even wiped everything down when I was done. Start the car up, go to pull it out of the driveway only to find it spraying oil everywhere. Immediately tell her to cut the motor, get under it with a towel and proceed to clean up. Meanwhile right in the middle of it, her dad gets home and is absolutely livid. It was a very awkward situation for everyone involved.

The cause, the rubber gasket for the oil filter was stuck on there and I was to stupid to check for it. Won't be making that mistake again.

haha, thats awesome. You were all nuts about not spilling a drop only to have a ton of oil shoot out of the engine. priceless.

[justinlansdale]

while swapping a motor into my old MR2, i decided it was a good idea to sit under the car while we lowered the motor under the car so that i could guide it onto the creeper. it dropped a little too fast and the oil pan section landed on my hand with the entire weight of the motor. i have a pretty gnarly pink scar on my hand that reminds me to be more careful next time!

[DropTopChevy]

Once replacing the clutch on the camaro I forgot to bolt the starter back in place all the way and I thought I was all finished. Went to start the car and heard the starter spin but got nothing.

[redline]

I am always sure to do the job right the first time, except when I mounted my wheels backwards. Didn't even notice but the Tq specs and psi were spot on!

[lownslow95]

Originally Posted by Glick

Did an oil change for a friend. Her dad was all concerned about his driveway so I did it as cleanly as possible, even wiped everything down when I was done. Start the car up, go to pull it out of the driveway only to find it spraying oil everywhere. Immediately tell her to cut the motor, get under it with a towel and proceed to clean up. Meanwhile right in the middle of it, her dad gets home and is absolutely livid. It was a very awkward situation for everyone involved.

The cause, the rubber gasket for the oil filter was stuck on there and I was to stupid to check for it. Won't be making that mistake again.

Hahaha thats always a classic. No matter how careful you try to be about not getting oil over the place, you manage to do so any way.

Originally Posted by DropTopChevy

Once replacing the clutch on the camaro I forgot to bolt the starter back in place all the way and I thought I was all finished. Went to start the car and heard the starter spin but got nothing.

I'm surprised you didn't mention your oil change story that happend to be pretty damn hilarious. I ended up going to his house to see what he was up to. He was just getting ready to do an oil change on his Passat. Had all the tools out needed and every thing. He goes under the car, and proceds to try to loosen the oil pan drain plug, and nothing happens. He tries this for about another minute or so, and still nothing. He gets up and basically says "**** this". I'm getting something out of my truck, and I hear an air compressor turn on. I'm like "oh no, he isn't doing what I think he is going to do is he?" He comes back out with an impact gun, socket set and a big ass grin on his face. He goes under the car, finds the right socket, and proceds to take it off, and it did. He had forgoten the drip pan to put the used oil and and was coverd in motor oil.

The other one was he broke his transmission in his camaro. He had this thing out at least a half a dozen times. He finally gets it out, and was like heres the problem. I follow him into the garage, and he has this table set up with parts and tools and such. He looks at me and all he said was "here is the throw-out, and here are the bearings". As I am watching this, I'm seeing all the little bearings run around the table. It was priceless.

[TGilb2007]

Working on my buddies VW, we had to jack the front end up for something. Now, his ebrake has not worked in quite some time, and we forgot to block off the rear wheels. During the point of getting the front end up, we had the lug bolts removed, and the rim was totally lose from the caliper. Right after this happened, the car rolled back, and somehow, the inside of the rim caught the caliper while falling, but also got my buddies hand stuck between the rim and the wheel well. Oddly, he didnt get hurt, and only had a couple of light scratches on his hand.

Moral of story, make sure that the ebrake works, and you block off the rear wheels.




Ninja Edit: Also, after a motor swap on my buddies VW, we got EVERYTHING reattached, new fluids in the car, and went to start. One thing we looked over, putting gas in the car. DOH!