Admit your Garage Mistakes

[pajoda]

I had a family car Laser that needed the handbrake adjusted, was so bad in the end it had no bite whatsoever. Never really found the time to get around to it, and just parked it on a flat surface and left it in gear. I was the only one driving it at that point so was conscious of the situation and made sure I allowed for it. Parked at the top of the driveway after getting home from work (flat area) but forgot to leave it in gear, came out about half and hour later and the bloody car was gone, in a rage some ranting to the wife someone stole the car ensued, we came out to survey the situation and after having a loud conversation the wife says, whats that in the backyard across the road? I looked to see the front of the Laser sticking out of a fence. Walked over and found the Laser had rolled down the drive, across the road, neatly navigated the neighbours carport (it was a double), through the fence behind the carport, and landed in his lovely coi carp fishpond. Note: no fish appeared to die from this incident once car was extracted.

[oldersox]

Me too has dumped 5 litres of new oil out of the sump plug hole.
Biggest mistake, trusting my drunk mate when he confirmed he had done up the engine mount bolts after a late night midweek engine changeover. The 340 in the VE (Valiant) coupe rotated 270 degrees when I put my foot down to give it a rev. Wish I had taken photos, would probably be funny now (30 years later)

[stevepet]

First car was a HT GTS with the big 186s. Quickly got tired of this so I decided to drop in a 308 with aussie 4spd. After much cutting of crossmember got it all running beautifully. Test drive time ran beautifully for first 20 kms or so by this time i was out in the middle of nowhere. Then the noise started dreadful racket and slowly losing drive until i would put foot down and nothing would happen. After much scratching of head i crawled under car and had a look. Luckily aussie gearboxes have an inspection cover pulled this off and some bolts and washers fell out. Turns out I hadn't tightened up the clutch to flywheel bolts. Took a bit of time but got them all done up and was on my way again. Ended up putting a 350 in that car P platers could have fun then. I now have a checklist whenever I do major work on my cars.

Cheers

[Swathe]

Not me but a friend from school rebuilt an old 253 his stepdad had in their shed as a project to learn about motors. He has never again forgotten to fill piston rings.

Naturally he never told us about it but his step dad made sure we all heard about it haha

[turly]

put a battery charger on a car and blew all the control modules

[FAT245]

Almost lost the tip of my finger cutting braided lines under the valiant with a grinder w/ 1mm cutting disc!!

[danzvtil]

a newly mobile 16yo me was under the bonnet of my KB laser tightening EVERYTHING in which a phillips head screwdriver would fit.Car would then not idle.Realized that those screws on the carby arent supposed to screw in tight if you want it to idle properly.

[CoupeKing]

This thread is awesome. I see a future reality television show where all the above,and more, get re-enacted.

[Andrew S]

Biggest mistake was trusting the fuel range readout. I once ran out at the 25klms remaining and from then on believed that was the critical reading.
Which proved to be totally wrong when I ran out at the 34k mark in the M1 quick lane.

Second mistake was putting in Nolathane bushes which gave me a ride harsher than an old MGB I had years and years ago.

But the height of stupidity was driving 50ks to my wrecker to buy 3 new electric window switches. Got home and none of them worked. And then I remembered the drivers side unlock switch. They promptly started working fine as did the old ones when I tried them again....

[coupedup]

I sold a diff centre to someone and later they told me that they thought I had given them the wrong one until they had another go at putting it in, this time the right way up.

[Spurious]

Originally Posted by Andrew S

But the height of stupidity was driving 50ks to my wrecker to buy 3 new electric window switches. Got home and none of them worked. And then I remembered the drivers side unlock switch. They promptly started working fine as did the old ones when I tried them again....

I hear that. My AU2 is a classic example, I always bump the rear lockout switch when I grab my drivers door handle & shut the door. I've pulled over many a time on the roadside trying to solve the problem after my son tells me his window won't work. Heck I even removed all the switches a couple of weeks ago to clean them only to have the rear window switches "fail" the following day.

[Spurious]

Here's a couple of laughables for ya'...

I was friends with a 4x4 mechanic in Queanbeyan NSW years ago & he told me this.
He had done a full service on this ladies vehicle, all done (or so he thought), she paid the bill & off she went.
Next day he got to thinking that he'd forgotten something, then it dawned on him that he hadn't refilled the transfer case with fluid. "DoH"!!!

So he rang her up & asked her to return the vehicle for a "follow up" inspection. Upon inspecting the transfer case it was indeed empty. He fixed it & afterwards inquired as to how far she had driven the vehicle after she picked it up the previous day.
She had driven home (some 20klm) to her rural home home in Captains Flat, then she had gone bush to cut a trailer load of wood for a friend (another 5 klm), then she towed the loaded trailer to Belconnen to deliver the wood (another 80klm round trip, then drove to his workshop again.

His only words to me to describe what saved his butt...."Thank god for Slick50" !!!

Next is my own funny incident,
I had an XF that mysteriously refused to turn over one day, funny 'cause I had only just pulled up at home minutes earlier.
I rang my local mechanic who knows ALL of these fords & he suggested it may be the ignition switch.

So out to the car I go to do a final test before stripping parts, no go, so I start the tear down. Steering column cover, ignition switch, inspection, put it back together, out with the tester screwdriver, prodding all wires at different points of turning the key but still no go.

Then whilst sitting in the drivers seat & contemplating my next move (& a big electricians bill) I noticed that the tranny shifter wasn't all the way in "Park" properly. I shoved it in, (with the inevitable audible "Click") & turned the key again...."Vroom vroom". Man I could've kicked myself if my foot would've reached that far!!! My mechanic had a darn good laugh over that one.

[sct911]

tried to undo sump nut while car was hot, ended up threading it. Had to take it to a mechanic to get it off and drain old engine oil

[290v]

one of First car was a VC valiant i go told by a mechanic if you want to lower the front of them just undo the two bolts on the bottom of the front wish bone, so i did looked great front lowered but the new tyres i had on lasted 2 weeks before they blew out i raised it back very quickly

[damo6]

climbed under my vl turbo to do an oil change when i was 20 yrs old,used a trolley jack to support the car,after a while i could feel the car leaning on my chest,"better climb out from under here and have a look", climbed out then about a minute later the jack collapsed! stupidity at its best.i learned a lesson that day.

[Kable72]

Originally Posted by damo6

climbed under my vl turbo to do an oil change when i was 20 yrs old,used a trolley jack to support the car,after a while i could feel the car leaning on my chest,"better climb out from under here and have a look", climbed out then about a minute later the jack collapsed! stupidity at its best.i learned a lesson that day.

Jeez, I'd still be screaming.

[Davehoos]

had quiet a few cars start up unexpected. and runnaways.
probing around wires or checking glow plugs.
had a C200 merc do its start up procedure travelling across the workshop with A/C station in tow into the wall.

Most common Forgotts is replacing gear oil. normally so happy its all back in and nothing left over. cino did 2 weeks before the before the 5th gear melted. replaced the gear set and cleaned out the metal sparks. Gear box never swapped cogs that good before.

cranking over a V8 with valley off and fuel and fire and coil lead in hand.
singed hair.

Biggest drama I ever had was a early jackaroo AUTO.
Some fool gave me stag to seal the gasket free PAN. 2 weeks cleaning later, modified Toyota cresida clutch packs and a straight drive plate it had all 4 forwards and reverse..

Had a great time reading some of these posts.

Had very few bosses do their nana at me--when they do it was over dumb things like interstate customers headlight protectors left off or the wrong number plates fitted.

[Squalo]

My best car-related effort was when I was 17, when I took an unregistered hot EH I'd been building up for a quick spin to the shops to buy christmas wrapping paper... having overlooked the fact that I had not put the two lower engine mount bolts in. I could have walked it and soon enough I was wishing I had.

So, I get to the uphill T-intersection where you turn right to go into the main street of the small town I live in, wait for traffic to pass, then let the clutch out - she stalls. A competition clutch and a Waggot 44/74 solid cam will do that... clutch in, under-dash handbrake on, start her again - then stall again and get honked by the guy behind.

I fire her up again with an almighty rev and dump the clutch, the triple SUs open up and she lays rubber right through first gear. Big rubber too, 14x8 Cheviot Armorlites with 245/50 Eagers on the back, 14x7 front with 205/60s, so the sound is accompanied by a heap of tyre smoke.

I shift to second and keep on it, but then back off as we're heading into the strip of shops along the main street, and it's a Saturday morning with all the locals doing their last minute Christmas stuff. A few heads are already turning, and more start to swivel, because the motor has jumped clean off its mounts and landed on the front crossmember, pinning the SU throttle linkage wide open... the SUs are sans aircleaners, and the noise is astonishing.

So she keeps accelerating like a demon towards the redline and I have to go for third, and during the shift the motor goes to about 7k with the 2-1/4" exhaust system screaming, and me finally getting a handle on what is going on... now with the whole street of people completely stopped and staring with mouths open I push the clutch in, the motor revs its tits off, and I turn the key off... all the noise and fury ceases immediately and now I'm coasting through town at nearly 80mph. To make matters worse, a hose has split so there is also a massive stream of steam billowing from the engine bay.

I have no traffic in front of me and I was damned if I was going to stop right in the main street after that, so I coast past all the shops and pull over a few hundred metres later. Sprint the 300m down a side street to my parents hardware shop and call a mate who comes down with his trolley jack, and a pair of bolts and lower radiator hose out of his HR project. We put it all back together on the side of the road, praying that the police are busy elsewhere, and I take it straight back home, I never did get that christmas wrapping paper.

I was well known in the town because everyone knew my parents, but luckily that was the first time the car had ever left my shed - so no-one had a clue who the mad bastard in the primered EH sedan was...