Worst DIY maintenance stories

[Rusty_Rocket]

A customer of mine put alloy wheels on his 206 himself . When it came in for a service I noticed he had used the old normal nuts not the special flat faced washer type pug alloys use. The nut almost pulled right through the holes !!

 

I've seen that before too.  I told the lad about his error and he seemed quite unconcerned- he was just off on a motorway journey too 

[PiperCub]

Recall many years ago in local breakers yards on several occasions folk scrabbling round for used brake pads/shoes. Not just used but making up a full set from several different cars.............

[Volksy]

A VW bay window camper I traded in got 'restored' afterwards, The base of the windscreen - amongst other areas - was completely rotten, the cure? Flatten some empty ribena cartons, push into the offending holes (in the case of the windscreen base, six in a line) and re-inflate using the handy straw provided. This creates a sound* base for covering with filler!!

[chaseracer]

Fitted a new manifold-downpipe gasket to my volvo 240 while very drunk. Forgot to tighten it up and wondered why it still sounded like a fighter bomber the day after

 

The swan-neck on my first Dyane snapped.  I liked the resulting roar so much I may* have avoided fixing it for a while.

[Lacquer Peel]

Recall many years ago in local breakers yards on several occasions folk scrabbling round for used brake pads/shoes. Not just used but making up a full set from several different cars.............

 

I HAVE DONE SOME OF THIS.

[fordperv]

Recall many years ago in local breakers yards on several occasions folk scrabbling round for used brake pads/shoes. Not just used but making up a full set from several different cars.............

 

when i used to work in parts, the place used to be the old premises of a french car breakers, i used to answer the phone loads to people asking for brake pads for...... then when i told them the price was lets say £12 they used to say all 4? to which my reply was  yes all 4 brand new in the box, the line would go quiet for a few seconds then they would say no im ringing for used ones, i got that annoyed with how one arsehole customer was quite abusive towards me when i told him we only did new ones, i told him id take them out of the box kick them around the warehouse if he wanted, that way they would be used!

[spike60]

The swan-neck on my first Dyane snapped.  I liked the resulting roar so much I may* have avoided fixing it for a while.

When I had BMW 540i the collector box rotted some smallish pepperpot holes in it, resulting in a huge improvement from my point of view. Coming back from the Lady friends at about midnight I gave it the beans on a deserted, wide 30 limited coast road close to my house then noticed the traffic car parked on the grass. I sailed past at about 60 with the exhaust crackling and popping on the over-run, cringing. I have no idea why they didn't stop me. Exhaust sorted ASAP.

[Bren]

The N/S rear wheel arch of my SD1 had filler applied that had retained the finger prints of the person who applied it.