What silly mistakes have you made?

[Philyc]

Inspired after my test drive today... After changing my steering rack and rear beam i took the fiesta for a short drive. Only to realise i hadnt bled the brakes, woops!

 

Also my steering wheel is now pointing 90 degrees left when the wheels are straight.

 

Any tales from you lot or am i the only fool?

 

Sent from my GT-I9195 using Tapatalk

[steve_earwig]

Umm, probably loads but the first thing that springs to mind is changing the front pads on my Cortina and forgetting about it when I next drove it. Coming up to the end of the road I put my foot on the brakes and... floor. Pump them up just in time to slam on and hear the crunch as the valence hit the (quite a camber to it) road.

[willswitchengage]

Buying an old car

[Bren]

Buying a vectra.

[PiperCub]

Plenty

[jakebullet]

Changing the oil on my capri, closing the bonnet and going for a drive. I got surprisingly far before the oil pressure went to nothing. Nice walk back for more oil after tightening the filter properly.

[JohnK]

2009, changed the front hub on a Volvo 460 I owned.

 

Lobbed second hand hub on, bolted up. Test drive, had put the caliper on but forgot to actually tighten it up. All I heard was bang bang bang screeeeech and then slammed into the kerb to stop myself, damaging a wishbone. Cue having to work on the same side again!

[320touring]

In case you hadnt noticed, i've just bought a CX that has been off the road since 2011..

 

classic one is not pumping the pedal before setting off after changing pads/pushing back pistons- first press= brown trousers!

[brickwall]

I did the steering wheel thing, although only 45 degrees.

[catsinthewelder]

Me and two friends changed the front discs on my old Calibra.

 

When we put it back together we all assumed that somebody else had tightened the wheelnuts.

 

No harm done but we very nearly lost a wheel.

[RichardK]

Marriage.

 

Oh, and bleeding the brakes on a CX without putting a hose on the bleed nipple. Stream of LHM reached about 15ft in the air.

 

See also:

 

Doing brakes on W124 200TE. Factory jack in rear jacking point. Chocks on front wheels. Car in gear.
Remove wheel, easy. Go to remove disk. Will not budge.

"Aha. Left the handbrake on". Reach in through window, release handbrake.

Sit down at back wheel with legs under car, ready so simply slide the disc off.

Disc won't budge. Use a bit of force. Car begins to lean back on jack. Doesn't stop.

Both hands up and holding wheel arch, support falling car long enough to swing legs out and lower it gently onto the towbar.

 

Make jokes that I will never let than happen again.

 

First W124 I get after it, I'm changing the wheels. Lack it up on big trolley jack that I've had for years. Wheel is stuck to hub. Yank wheel, Car rolls backwards twisting the jack.

I think W124s don't like me.

[Uncle Jimmy]

With cars or women?

 

Not long ago I nearly came a cropper when I left a socket on a cam gear. Thought I'd be tidy for once and put all the sockets away when I noticed one was missing- glad that I found it!

[RichardK]

With cars or women?

 

Not long ago I nearly came a cropper when I left a socket on a cam gear. Thought I'd be tidy for once and put all the sockets away when I noticed one was missing- glad that I found it!

 

This is exactly why I am insanely stressed if I can't find all the tools to fill the spaces when a job is finished.

[twosmoke300]

Put a short motor into a 4wd tractor and my boss told me to check for missing core plugs etc and spend half an hour checking for differences etc . Put it all back together , axle back on etc . Fired up lovely but oil light on at low revs . Oil pressure test showed the same . Further investigation showed that there was a missing oil gallery core plug behind the timing gears . Front axle off , strip out timing gears etc and reassemble . Over a days extra work ! Boss wasn't happy but I did about 6 hours foc cos I felt such a cock .

[sierraman]

Overtightened the scuttle panel on Mondeo mk2 during filter change, left something in the way, cracked screen...

[Arthur Foxhake]

Did an engine swap on my last 306, old one had slipped the timing belt.

Front end assembly including slam panel, bumper, lights and all removed for easy access.

Upon finishing the job,filling up with oil and coolant, I close the bonnet, go for a test drive and return feeling triumphant I have won the battle.

Pull bonnet release to check levels.

Nothing.

Forgot to reattach the cable to the release. Penis.

Cue many hammers and vandalising the grill and bonnet before finding the bit that just needed a gentle push in the right direction.

[scaryoldcortina]

Pulled someone else's recovery truck into the garage for front axle work without checking if the scrap C15 van on the back of it was secure. It wasn't. Only held with the winch, and it dropped the hook and fucked off backwards through the yard and out the gate into the road.

 

Was loading a Micra onto my truck by driving it up, the handbrake on the truck slipped and it started to roll downhill. I just sat there trying to use the micra's brake pedal to stop it. Thank fook I always turn the wheels kerbside before loading.

[Tamworthbay]

Signing up to here, I now have empty pockets, a full drive and no time.

[robinmasters]

Filling up the oil without putting the drain plug back is the only thing I remember doing.

 

There are many others, but my brain seems to intentionally repress those memories.

[Parky]

Dead battery - replaced

New battery died- must be alternator, replaced that

Few days later, car won't start, must be starter motor. Replaced that

And again a few days later the same issue. Has to be ignition switch.

 

Only when reinstalling the battery after replacing the ignition switch did I notice the earth strap twixt block and wing was flapping loose......

 

Moral of the story, always always check earth strap first! Would have saved a couple of hundred quid if I had done that

[Twiggy]

Last week, checking the oil, getting distracted and forgetting to put the filler cap back on...  drove 5 miles and stopped at trafficlights and wondered why there was smoke (lots of) coming from under the bonnet. Engine covered in oil and smoke everywhere. Found the filler cap down by the radiator, cleaned the oil away and checked the oil - just under full. Methinks I was very very lucky.

[Junkman]

I did not push the possessed Rover through the garage back wall into the river when I had the chance.

[Shep Shepherd]

I drove from Southend to Leeds at motorway speed in my erstwhile Volvo V70 in summer 2012 with the nearside front wheel's bolts done up finger tight after I'd changed the front brake pads; I wondered what the knocking noise under acceleration was...

 

No harm done, thankfully, and all was well once I'd tightened said bolts.

[twosmoke300]

Helped an ( Aussie) work mate who couldn't get a front disc off a clio hub . It was pretty well seized on but I said to get out the way , man not a mouse , hit it don't tickle it , that's not a hammer etc . First swipe I made missed and snapped the caliper lug off the hub ! Nice !

[twosmoke300]

Cambelt on dads a4 tdi . All done and back together , went to start , horrible noises . I'd left the big thick timing pin in the inj pump gear . No damage luckily as it just dragged the belt over the gear and kept the valve timing ok . New belt and reassemble again . Then weld bolt to end of the pin so covers won't go back on with pin in .

 

It must sound like I'm the worlds worst mechanic but I suppose it comes down to quantity of cars I work on . Some cock ups do occur .

 

Oh another one comes to mind , my own vectra dti this time . Battery went so new one fitted , thought I had better check charge rate . Bloody hell 17v ! That will be what killed the battery then !

 

Alternator removed and overhauled with new regulator . Refitted and charge rate tested , 17.5v now . Bloody hell what could that be . A moment of doubt made me put my multimeter on a battery I had on the floor -15.5v . Arses , turned out that a flat battery on meters can make them read high . Ffs

[Junkman]

I did not push the possessed Rover through the garage back wall into the river when I had the chance.

 

Entirely btw, it's this garage I keep referring to:

 

The back wall is literally the bank of the Torkington Brook.

[derskine]

Recently, I changed a Hillman Imp head gasket.

On that same occasion, I also forgot to fit a rubber o ring in the head gasket.

Several days later I had to redo the head gasket change.

[captain_70s]

Re-did the 1300's head gasket. Filled the coolant up, took it for a spin, overheated. Turns out I hadn't pulled the coolant through the system properly. Oops.

 

Also, topping up the oil, started the car, ran like a bitch. Attempted to drive to the shop, spluttered to a halt at the end of the street, open bonnet. Oil cap perched on top of the exhaust manifold. Oops.

 

Also, while doing the headgasket notice that the bolts are surprisingly hard to torque down. Realise I've trapped the power cable for my work light twixt the head and block. Oops.

 

Suffering from poor running for weeks, couldn't work it out. Carb dash pots were empty. Oops.

 

Bought a Triumph Dolomite, it wasn't very good. Bought another one. Oops.

[gordonbennet]

Did a bottom end job on me Mk 3 Zodiac...i was 18 at the time so that's me mitigation for me cock up, not buying the car that is...put the oil pump back without checking the distributor drive fully, it was about a third of a trun out, so got me junior hacksaw out and cut a fresh keyway for the rotor arm, worked too.

 

Bought a Hillman Super Minx  when i was 17 with a holed piston, the car that is not me silly, saw a 1600 engine for sale in a broken standard Minx bought it home some 100 miles, tried to fit it and it was entirely different, ended up buying a new piston and doing what i should have in the first place.

[inconsistant]

This thread is reassuring.

 

I'm waiting for someone to admit to changing a clutch on a Porsche 924 and trapping the cold start valve cable between the bell housing and the engine block.