knowbenz

So as i have been reading through the forums i have realized there are a lot of people on here that do really nice work and have have a ton of knowledge. Those people are often willing to write up DIY threads and share what they know. I have also realized that there are a lot of DIYers that seem eager to get in over their head. Also seems that the forums help turn people into diagnostic specialists by repeating things that have been posted elsewhere.

So lets here some stories from those of you that have been inducted into the hall of shame. Who has tried to follow a diy thread only to mess things up worse and need bailed out? Who has spent hundreds of unnecessary dollars chasing a problem instead of having a proper diag done? I know there has to be a bunch of you out there so lets here some.

Or techs, what have you seen come through the shop?


I had one come through the other day that got towed in no start and the guy said it cant be the battery because he just changed it and its new. Dude didnt take the protective caps off terminals and clamped down over the plastic caps lol

Countless vacuum routing issues, connectors undone, people buying junk used part the. Go on to replace everything else related to concern before bringing in for diag to find the first part they replaced was bad

Z_de_Suisse

I'm not sure what's the purpose of your post ? Building an horror stories catalog to encourage people to go to professionals like you rather than trying to solve the issue themselves ?

StarvingArtist

I think the purpose is amusement.


I got my oil cap on wrong once, almost wrote up a thread with pictures asking were this oil is coming from.

knowbenz

No it's not actually. I am all about people wanting to learn and diy but let's face it, we aren't dealing with an old VW bug, it's easy to get in over your head quick when dealing with any modern car. Thread is purely amusement for anybody. Techs get in deep sometimes as well

Z_de_Suisse

Cool then !

If that's for amusement, I can share my own shame the first time I tried to change my rear brakes on my Lotus Elise (sorry not a Merc). The piston was so stuck (maybe a bit of rust) that I haven't been able to move it back in to put the new pads. I had to pull the car with almost no brakes to the closest garage to have proper mecanics take care of it.

Felt very very stupid at that moment !

JoeJErnst

I did the same thing the first time I tried changing rear disk brake pads. I ended up bending my C-clamp trying to compress the piston. Too bad Google wasn't around back then to tell me I needed to twist the piston in.

AKnight55

One of my first times at the track, backed up into the water box and did a burnout in reverse!

TheTherapist

That's gold that is! I can see this threads gonna be a bit of fun.

HeissRod

After I lowered my Jeep, the amount of clearance between the bumpstop cup and the lower control arm is miniscule, so the ride is very harsh and medium or larger bumps cause the rear to bottom out. I have spent lots of time and money trying polyurethane bumpstops, altering the cup, etc trying to get it liveable. I just need to reinstall the original springs and be sad with the factory ride height.

As to something I have messed up? One of the first times I did my oil change on my first car, I neglected to add new oil before starting the car. Took me a second to realize why there was a loud clattering and thankfully nothing was damaged.

Guy in my old Mustang club launched in reverse after backing up because he passed the timing lights. Let me see if I can find the video.

knowbenz

At least you didn't launch in reverse. Seen that a few times hahaha

One time many many years ago when I knew nothing I replaced a leaking slave cylinder (drum brakes) on my very first car. Didnt realize I would have to bleed them, Made it halfway down the road to first brake application when I realized I need to bleed them. Luckily I wasnt going to fast so I used the hand brake to putt along to the nearest brake shop since I had no clue how to do it

knowbenz

Another time from before I had an knowledge of diagnostics, I was good at replacing parts and thats about it. Put a new set of points in m distributor. Couple days later while doing a burnout the car died and would not restart. Towed it home to find out I have no spark. The points were new so I knew it couldn't be that. I proceeded to replace the condenser, coil, spark plugs, plug wires, distributor cap one at a time over the next week. Still didn't have spark. Finally after scratching a hole through my skull I checked the points, turns out I didn't tighten the screw down and they had come loose to no longer open. Set the gap and tightened them down, car fired up and I learned my lesson

knowbenz

Aren't jeeps supposed to be lifted?

rockthemullet

A buddy of mine forgot the old oil filter gasket on the engine and double gasketed. 6qts all over the driveway.

I've never done anything wrong though

Thericker

Ha good stories.. Not on 1 of my benzes but.. When my Ford F250 4x4 was new I decided to give her 1st oil change.. Ez right? Bought everything then went back to where I was working at the time, it was a snap as this F250 had 8" lift w/37" BFG's got drain pan etc etc popped off drain bolt & truck being so lifted oil splattered my mitts etc as it hit the drain pan on ground & no where to wash up, or any wrags to clean hands. I still needed to remove old oil filter & replace new one, then add new oil but..

My paws were so lubed up at this point (even after donating my fav T-shirt to the cause) I couldn't for the life of me get a good grip on the damned oil filter (didn't have filter wrench either lol) and after working myself into a small rage, thinking of my alternatives and refusing to call for any help, I took my largest Standard screwdriver & in a hail mary type swing/pass stabbed the s-h-it dead center impaling it & finally unscrewed the damned thing, after a good hr+ wasted in what should've taken 20-25 min.. Live & Learn, I still love working on my cars even if it takes me 3-4x longer

TheTherapist

Seems oil spills are a common theme. In the workshop of a place I worked at many years ago the "qualified" mechanic jacked a vehicle up from under the sump. A "free" oil change ensued together with a plate welded into place - good as new (not!) all without the customers knowledge... dodgy as...

I reckon the more one learns about mechanical work the less inclined you are to leave your vehicle with someone else. If you want something done right then do it yourself. If you f^< up at least you learn through experience.

Worth the wait

One time a shop suggested I "flush my engine" to get better performance.
They wanted like $169.95 to do the work.
Well that seemed steep, so I just took it home and pushed the garden hose down the oil fill and let if run for about 15 minutes.
Car is mis-firing a bit now, but at least I didn't get ripped off by those aholes.

Thericker

Awsumm I'm goin ta garden hose D' entire fleet this eve! Hp ahoy' thnx

Try Me

HA!! I did that and so did my best friend.

HeissRod

Not an SRT

EREBUS

After installing Kleemann camshafts I started the engine to make sure everything is alright (turned crank by hand/tool before starting to make sure no binding)

"Meh, just smoke from oil getting on the headers. Well, sh*t......that's a lot of smoke. Damn, how much did I get on the headers?

I believe my last thoughts were....."Let's just get those headers hot enough to burn off the excessive oil off the header wrap"

Pinched valve cover gasket was pouring oil on headers and soaked the header wrap. After I put out the fire, I had to pull the engine and replace various vacuum lines, plug wires, engine insulation and headers.

i win.

HeissRod

I did this as well when I put my Jeep back together after a head gasket took a dump. Thankfully it was just dripping and not pouring.

knowbenz

I read jeep and automatically thought of a rubicon hahaha.

jimmysanjuan

Not me, but my wife...who had a little red Austin...American that is.
Was going to go to the Colo. River to waterski, and thought she'd check the water in the radiator. Unscrewed the oil fill cap, and saw that the water wasn't "high" enough. Used the trusty garden hose and filled er up. Started the car, Blew out a fogbank of white smoke, and putt putt putted to the gas station across the street. No hydrolock, but really made the boys laugh. Ran the car for over 90k miles after we got married. I still love that girl...but her repairs are now limited to matters of the heart.

Enigma94

Not my story but I remember seeing this a long time ago on an old srt-4 forum. It made it way around the internet pretty quick as you would imagine...

This guy posts a thread about having trouble getting his drain bolt off and was looking for help as to how to go about getting it off. Well a bunch of people chime in with different solutions to his problem, later on in the thread the guy posts saying he got tired of trying to get the bolt off and just took the oil filter off and ran the motor till there was no more oil coming out..... Quite possibly the worst fail I've read to this day!!

The biggest fail I've had myself... I was upgrading to a big brake kit on my z06 from the stock c5 brakes to the c6 z06 brakes. Everything bolts up no problem and I star to bleed the brakes. No matter what I do I just can't seem to get the air out of the lines, I'm thinking with the new brakes and steel braided lines I just got too much air in the system to manually pump the air out. So I limp the car to the shop who's doing the alignment on the car and mention that I need them bled. They come back in within 2 min of looking at the car and tell me the calipers were installed upside down! Man did I feel like an idiot

WANTED!!

There was an even funnier one on one of the Mustang forums about a guy who posted something sarcastic about cleaning his motor by running water through it, and then someone who posted a thread about trying this on his cobra because he thought it was a real way to do it.