Wrenching Confessions: What self inflicted idiocy have you achieved?

Cleaning the rear diff of my truck with a knotted wire brush on a 4.5" angle grinder. Bounced off and took a 1/2" by 5" section of skin from my left hand. That took forever to heal and I still have the scar...from 10 years ago

Angle grinder is the Devil's tool.

Not a whole lot with cars, but I don't work on them as much as most on here. Gashed my finger up real good once changing a PCV valve, and nearly zapped myself bad changing an alternator.

But one time I disassembled a PDA to change the keyboard sensor board and put it back together...only to see a the ear speaker outside of it. I won't forget that. Or the time I lost a wire hold-down fork on another one, it was a solid gold piece that could get lost under your fingernail, maybe 1.5mm long.

Using a pressure bleeder on a brake master cylinder. In the split second - from when the entire master cylinder launched itself off the piston assembly and into the ceiling - I had it all figured out exactly what caused it, and realized I'd be wiping brake fluid out of every part of that car.

Ooo, ooo, I have another.

Hadn't changed the oil (myself) in a while and pulled out the drain container I hadn't used in a long time. It was one of those with the built in drain funnel, pretty sweet. So I remove the filter first, then undo the drain plug, watching it slowly fill the funnel sitting in the side of the drain container. About that time the little voice in my head mentioned "you realize that the funnel is just sitting there in its strorage position, not screwed into the container like you think," as it overflowed all over the floor, as I frantically tried to find the plug in the bottom of the funnel full of hot oil in a vain effort to screw in back in and stop the unfolding mess.

Took hours to clean up the mess.

Dropped a screw into the distributor on the Dart, forgot about it, and cranked the motor. Wouldn't start. Wondered why I seemed to be getting backfires through the intake manifold and pulled off the air cleaner. Was rewarded with a foot long jet of flame out the carb.

Turns out I'd broken a tooth off the distributor gear.

I was 17 or 18 and had to change the alternator on my old '77 Civic. Nobody told me you had to disconnect the battery before tackling a job like this.

In high school I had a '77 Ford Granada complete with a 302 2bbl (and green vinyl top and interior).

It would burn oil and foul plugs. It wasn't always the same plugs that fouled and the way I would figure out which one was missing was to let it idle and pull plug wires one at a time until I found the one that didn't change the idle speed.

One day when I didn't have insulated pliers handy, and was in a hurry to find the find the fouled plug before going out, I started pulling wired off and replacing them barehanded at the distributor. I probably made it through 3-4 wired before one bit me.

Wow did that sting!

I caught a low power soldering iron with my bare hand once, only held it long enough for a slight blister to form.

One time a friend of mine drilled through a piece of plastic into his finger, which was supporting the piece from the other side.

kb58 wrote: Ooo, ooo, I have another. Hadn't changed the oil (myself) in a while and pulled out the drain container I hadn't used in a long time. It was one of those with the built in drain funnel, pretty sweet. So I remove the filter first, then undo the drain plug, watching it slowly fill the funnel sitting in the side of the drain container. About that time the little voice in my head mentioned "you realize that the funnel is just sitting there in its strorage position, not screwed into the container like you think," as it overflowed all over the floor, as I frantically tried to find the plug in the bottom of the funnel full of hot oil in a vain effort to screw in back in and stop the unfolding mess. Took hours to clean up the mess.

"I feel your pain."

First time I changed the oil in my first Corrado (VR6), I was a little nervous because I hadn't had a cartridge style filter since my old Triumph. Got the old filter out and replaced, and had a sense of joy that it was so easy.

Then I realized I'd never drained the sump. Twelve quarts of dirty oil. I don't know what possessed me to think I could drain it all into a half-full Autozone 15qt. pan. I was lucky, in a way..it happened at my old slum apartment and even though I never got the stain all the way out of the pavement, the landlord couldn't prove (didn't even ask, really) that I'd done it when I moved out. Damage deposit saved, only time I've ever gotten one back!

lastsnare wrote: I caught a low power soldering iron with my bare hand once, only held it long enough for a slight blister to form. One time a friend of mine drilled through a piece of plastic into his finger, which was supporting the piece from the other side.

ohhhh I have a few of those burns, leaning on it accidentally or catching it. Never enjoy those, you usually hear the sizzle on the skin before you feel the pain too because you're not paying attention.

I was doing a fluid change and bleeding the brakes and left the master cylinder lid off not once but twice, after topping it off midway through.

Once changing brake rotors and pads on my 87 RX-7 N/A, I snapped off the head of one of the caliper bolts because I torqued it the wrong way. I was having a very bad day before I did this, so I can understand why my friend was looking at me weird while I laughed like a maniac. I drove the RX-7 very gingerly to a shop and had them do the bolt extraction and pad/rotor replacement.

Then another time with the RX-7, I replaced the radiator. Draining the coolant was a PITA because the drain bolt is located on the driver's side of the car, scrunched almost behind the strut tower, and directly above the engine mount. My homemade funnel fell out of place as the drain bolt flew out.

Coolant. Coolant everywhere.

The radiator itself wasn't so bad but I had forgotten to tighten down a wire hose clamp on the heater hose (to be fair, it was pretty old and rotten).

Coolant. Coolant everywhere. Again.

After cleaning that up, tightening down the clamp like crazy, then refilling the system, I was ready to burp the coolant. As I started the car, I noticed I had a miss. As I went to look in the engine bay for clues, I let my hand drift towards the trailing coil.

BZZZTTTT!!

Ah, yes. I had forgotten to replace one of the spark plug wires I removed to access the drain plug. After hurriedly shutting the car down and taking a second to recover from that nasty shock, I plugged it back in. No more miss. Burped the system again. Everything was honky-dory.

Working on some sort of V6 in a boat, trying to help a friend figure out why it's running like E36 M3. Replaced the fuel pump. Rebuilt the carb. Working on adjusting things and setting timing and it backfired through the carb. I'd actually done this before on a car (I'm talented) and it was just startling. The problem is, on the boat, the engine is down way way way lower, so anytime you're working on it you're on your hands and knees leaning over everything. Lost my eye lashes and eyebrows of course, but what sucked is that I actually burned my eyes just a bit. I got better, but it hurt to look at things for 3 days. Made taking notes in class difficult. Ah college.........

I was testing circuits with a paperclip (how dumb right?). I found a hot one as the paperclip I had half-unbent and pinched between my thumb and finger suddenly glowed red-hot. Had a brown and pink paperclip shaped burn on my index and thumb for two weeks!

1977 911 Targa - my first Porsche. It had a minor oil leak in the sump tank which really dirtied up the whole underside of the engine over time. I finally fixed the leak and wanted to clean up the underside of the engine. Was living in northern VA at the time - headed over to my buddy's house with a can of -- spray on Gunk. Unfortunately I didn't let the motor cool down quite enough before spraying on the Gunk. The instant the Gunk hit the exhaust manifolds I had a 911 with an external combustion engine! Luckily the water hose was nearby -- quick extinguishing of the flames. No harm. And me and my buddy had a good laugh at my expense.

Twenty Nine years ago I was parked in a grocery store parking lot waiting for my wife to purchase groceries for a picnic. My 2 year old daughter was asleep in her car seat, strapped in the back seat. A plumbing truck parked in front of me started to back up then stalled. The gentleman tried to restart it but the battery was dead. He asked if he could jump his truck from my car, a 67 Chevelle.
I started up my car, put on the E brake, and went to the front of the car to hook up the battery cables. At the instant that I hooked up the cables the throttle on my car went to full. I heard the click of the gear shift lever (Auto) and the sound of the E brake snapping off. I was rammed full throttle into the parked truck. The bumpers were just above and below my knees. When the impact happened the vehicles bounced apart. I got my right leg out but the vehicles hit again trapping my left leg. Still on full throttle we went through the parking lot and hit 3 more cars. My leg injuries were serious with only skin holding my right leg together. I had 5 surgeries over 2 years to walk. I wasn't able to work. My insurance covered the medical bills but not loss of income.

Though I never saw what happen I am told that my 2 year old daughter was found on the drivers floor. It seems that she woke up, unstrapped herself, climbed to the front floor, pushed the throttle to full and pulled the gear shift into first.

Valve cover gaskets on the Maxima after work one night with my wife waiting for me across the street at Target. Didn't realize that when I put on the rear valve cover the gasket had fallen out a little and when I tightened the bolts I cut the gasket. All back together, find oil leaking everywhere. Its a weekday night, the dealership is about to close, my wife is still waiting at Target, and I need to get home (about 5 miles). Put everything away, pick up my wife, drive home in a cloud of smoke, park the car, pop the hood, and discover an orange glow! Ran inside, grabbed the fire extinguisher and a pitcher of water (I know, not supposed to use water), ran back out and dumped the water. Went to bed, got up early, called a tow truck, got a tow back to work, and proceeded to pull the plenum back off so I could put another gasket on the back. Needless to say I'm pretty good at those now, and a little spray adhesive keeps the gasket from falling out when you turn the valve cover over.

jmc14 wrote: Twenty Nine years ago I was parked in a grocery store parking lot waiting for my wife to purchase groceries for a picnic. My 2 year old daughter was asleep in her car seat, strapped in the back seat. A plumbing truck parked in front of me started to back up then stalled. The gentleman tried to restart it but the battery was dead. He asked if he could jump his truck from my car, a 67 Chevelle. I started up my car, put on the E brake, and went to the front of the car to hook up the battery cables. At the instant that I hooked up the cables the throttle on my car went to full. I heard the click of the gear shift lever (Auto) and the sound of the E brake snapping off. I was rammed full throttle into the parked truck. The bumpers were just above and below my knees. When the impact happened the vehicles bounced apart. I got my right leg out but the vehicles hit again trapping my left leg. Still on full throttle we went through the parking lot and hit 3 more cars. My leg injuries were serious with only skin holding my right leg together. I had 5 surgeries over 2 years to walk. I wasn't able to work. My insurance covered the medical bills but not loss of income. Though I never saw what happen I am told that my 2 year old daughter was found on the drivers floor. It seems that she woke up, unstrapped herself, climbed to the front floor, pushed the throttle to full and pulled the gear shift into first.

Ummm...wow..this is crazy! Glad you survived!

jmc14 wrote: Twenty Nine years ago..... Though I never saw what happen I am told that my 2 year old daughter was found on the drivers floor. It seems that she woke up, unstrapped herself, climbed to the front floor, pushed the throttle to full and pulled the gear shift into first.

Holy E36 M3.

Refilling brake fluid on my friend's VR6 after replacing the brake line he broke, he hands me a yellow bottle, wasn't brake fluid. Was Pennzoil. Noticed while I was filling. Ugh. Used a turkey baster to suck out as much as possible and drained the whole system.

Installing new shocks and lowering springs on the LS400 I bought for my dad (chuckle) the rear assembly comes out only with the axle removed per service manual. Forums swear it can be done without all that drama. Spent an entire day fighting, pushing down, stepping on the rear hub to try and get the shock/spring assy out. Beyond exhausted and defeated I took an angle grinder to the spring and got it out. Next day decided to try pushing the axle up. E36 M3. That allowed the spring/shock assy to slide just past the axle and come out easy peasy. berkeley me.

Doing drum brakes on the 1986 Pontic Grand Am SE I hated - not using the proper spring tool and using a screwdriver to slide a spring on......somebody cold cocks me from the side. Oh wait, that was me - the screwdriver slipped. I was lucky I didn't poke my eye out.

My coworker laughed so hard he bought me the right tool the next day.

Long time ago in a galaxy far, far away... Changing oil in a motorhome. Get distracted by the business phone. Do this, do that. Get back in the motorhome, fire it up and sit in the drivers seat waiting, waiting, waiting for the oil light to go out. Forgot to put the filter on. In Vo-Tech when I was a teen. Patching the floor in an old (square type) Bronco. Drilled something like 8 holes in the fuel tank. Passed the class anyway... Old Escort timing belt job. Forgot to tighten the tensioner fully... Jumped time while idling, I swear I heard the valves hit the pistons. Set the belt back up. Made sure everything was tight. Car started. I shipped it...

Here's another one.

I was in High School and had a 1970 Boss 302 Mustang. (I graduated in 74) I had to rebuild the Engine as I broke 7 out of 8 pistons when I over revved it during a drag race. (The pistons had very short skirts and they broke off.)

It was 2 am and I had the engine back in the car. It had a Joe Hunt Magneto ignition. It also had a large capacity oiling system with remote filter. I went to bump the starter to get #1 to TDC. When I bumped it it started up! (open headers) 7 Quarts of oil sprayed my Dad's garage ceiling. I hadn't hooked up the kill switch. I pulled the plug wires off. Talk about getting shocked.

Worst yet, I had to rebuild the motor again.

Wish that I still had that car!

I've done lots of really dumb things related to cars, but three examples really stand out.

-I was changing a starter in my dad's F150 and I forgot to disconnect the battery. That resulted in some in-MY-face fireworks.

-I tried adjusting the timing on my Trans Am while it was running by grabbing the top of the distributor. That resulted in A LOT of voltage passing through me. I was able to mutter out a "Help!!!" and my dad was luckily nearby to knock my dumb self off of the car.

-By far the worst: I installed a Chevy coil in my Olds 403 distributor in my Trans Am. They are wound reverse of the way an Olds/Pontiac coils are. That means bad things can happen, like arcing spark plug wires, and in my case, a real fire under the screaming firechicken decal'ed hood on my Trans Am. If not for a good Samaritan stopping and extinguishing the fire... wowzers... I went out the next day and bought a fire extinguisher for the car.