Stupidest mistakes you've made working on a car?

[Welly]

I remembered earlier about a mistake I made whilst working on her indoors' car years ago and wondered what stories you all have to tell?

Mine was a simple case of 'nipping' up the wheel nuts but forgetting to murder them up on the ground (que: one wobbly wheel later).

Also tried to remove the oil sump of my XR2 to retrieve a valve collett (dropped in an oil-way by my mate) and got stuck so put it all back unknowingly trapping the sump gasket (que: self-emptying sump 10 miles from home with no recovery).

Also frigged up a jump lead negative to a suspension top mount without noticing a small earth wire in connection (que: mini fire).

Time to reveal all...........

[Bailes1992]

I was once working on a Fiesta in Birmingham and saw a 406 Estate up for sale Biggest mistake I've ever made!

[sirwiggum]

Managing to break the ceramic off a spark plug taking it out, straight into the cylinder

[steve_earwig]

One of my brightest moments has to be when I got confused turning the adjusters on the back of my D8 and locked the wheel up (in my favour the back plates were disintegrating and the holding spring clips were on the loose), I was having a right old ding-dong with it and finally I thought perhaps driving it a little would work some play into it so I drove it up the driveway (quite a slope), jacked it up on the old trolley jack and, as it started to roll backwards on 3 wheels and the jack, I remembered I hadn't chocked it or anything... No point in diving in to put the handbrake on (that's what I was trying to fix) so I had to dive under the back of it and let the jack down. My armpits are still prickling.

Mind you, there is the time when I was about 14 when I decided to push a Solara my dad had bought to sell out of the garage so I could do something, I put a lump of wood in the way but it went straight over that without slowing and headed down the slope towards the horse chestnut tree. Fortunately it wasn't badly damaged as I managed to get something in the way to soften the blow. Me.

Cleaning valves up on a rotary wire brush in a vice-mounted drill that didn't have an on-off switch 'cos it broke, whilst wearing a big baggy jumper. The wire brush grabbed hold of the jumper and it was actually starting to strangle me when I finally managed to wrench the lead out of the plug.

I was welding up a underneath mate's old banger while lying on a lump of foam. His brother walked past, did a double-take - "Steve, you're on fire!!!". And I was.

[Doggy]

Spent an afternoon doing plugs, filters, oil change, timing and finally tappets on a 1.9 Cavalier Coupe, then took it for a serious 10-mile blast. All good, parked it back on the driveway. Noticed a slight whirring noise on tickover, opened bonnet and there was my ratchet & 19mm socket still sitting snuggly on the crankshaft pulley.

Burnt my hand on the ratchet mechanism when I took it off.

[Bailes1992]

Thinking about it, few weeks ago when I serviced the Focus I started filling it up with oil with no sump plug

[CountryPug]

Can't really say I've made any mistakes when working on a car YET! Probably the dumbest thing I've done when I was a youth was to develop an induction kit for my 107, this was when they were new out and there were no aftermarket bits and bobs for them. Using some spouting downpipe and a universal cone filter I designed a great rasping induction system. However as a youth I did not understand that excessive heat near the intake was a NO NO! I had designed my induction kit to sit in the only place I could find space for it in the 107's tiny engine bay, across the top of the cylinder head it made a great noise but yes I'd made it slower...

The only other mistake I can remember making as a youth was on the ride-on lawnmower engine. I'd given it an oil change and believed I'd topped it up to the correct level, I somehow got it badly wrong and 10mins later I had a nicely siezed engine

[trem1]

once had all four wheels off my cortina to sort the brakes and void bushes for mot.only put all 16 wheel nuts on hand-tight...............few miles down the road ON THE WAY TO MOT STATION got a very strange wobbly feel most of the nuts were on the last thread, there are more but it'll take time for them to come back to me.............oh wait, there was that time i took my 406 through a 6 inch deep ford

[teamster1975]

oh wait, there was that time i took my 406 through a 6 inch deep ford

Snap! Although mine was a flooded road

My stupidest moment was working on the bike. Up on the centre stand cleaning chain with a rag, decided it would be much quicker with the engine running and you can guess the rest. Thumbs and sprockets do not mix.

[jasper5]

My stupidest moment was working on the bike. Up on the centre stand cleaning chain with a rag, decided it would be much quicker with the engine running and you can guess the rest. Thumbs and sprockets do not mix.

I can concur with this, I have had many silly moments in 40 years of working on cars, but the one I remember most is from 1986, I was working on a Nissan sunny with the engine running, I dropped something, shoved my hand forward to grab it and touched the fan belt with my finger, the belt took my finger round the inside of the alternator pulley and smashed my finger to pieces, I was very lucky not to lose it

[mandelbug]

I was swapping shocks and springs on a focus a few years ago, and unfortunately the rear came off the axel stands, result



and one crushed can of WD40, and the leg of an axel stand through the fuel tank later:



Was not a pleasent experience with about half a tank of fuel spilling all over the driveway

Have done an oil change on the same car and forgot to tighten up the oil filter properly, result - 4.5 litres of magnatec on the floor.

I had an XR2 years ago, swapped cam and sump gasket, was breaking the new cam in when dad comes home and states a rather large puddle of oil on the floor, sump gasket not fitted correctly, re-did it, went for a drive, and ended up getting a lift back on the back of a low loader, did it a third time and all was good

[FarmerPug]

I had a vitara before the samurai as the jeep for the farm, the thing was rotten it had been used on the beach, and i was standing on the door sill of the drivers door to set on some spot lights, and the door sill which was completley rotten just gave way and i fell through it, the same jeep never came with the bonnet props so i just used an old mop shaft, and while i was pulling at the the fuel filter to get the thing off the bonnet fell on my head, and i bit my tongue. The stupidest thing though was putting a new battery in my 309 i had the car 2 days and the battery died, so got home that night and really wanted to get going in it and instead of wasting time finding a torch i just put the battery in , closed the bonnet, and all this smoke come out the bonnet, i wrecked the altenator and had to wait a week to drive the 309 should have checked the terminals.

[Welly]

...so i just used an old mop shaft...... the bonnet fell on my head, and i bit my tongue.....

Is it wrong to chuckle at that bit?

[puggy]

No it's not wrong welly !! hehehehe

Stupidest mistakes ?? in 40+ yrs of loving everything mechanical lots from stupidly not
fixing a dripping fuel tap on a very old triumph motorbike prefering to go for a ride instead
and when the bike back fired it set the leaked fuel on fire which resulted in me standing at
the side of the road pissing on it ( ok in public if you are hung like a horse , i aint ) and finally
realising petrol and water dont mix so had to smother it with my jacket
Car wise , so many but funny wise taking the whole interior out of a granada to clean it properly
replacing it when dry then going for a run , this involved me pulling off at full bore and suddenly
finding out i hadn't bolted the drivers seat in ,result, car shot forward i shot backwards ended
up looking upward at the roof , car slowed down mounted the kerb and stopped in neighbour's hedge

[StevieboyTD]

First time i changed the clutch on my mk2 'scort, i just pulled the prop out of the gearbox and showered myself with gearbox oil.

Lovely stuff.