So....what's your blunder?

[Nuttydriver]

My biggest one was when I first started wrenching on cars. I bought an old vw that needed a clutch. Being young and rammy I didn't even think to change the pilot bearing... Till 2 months and 3 clutches later!!!

[Billc1015]

Hmm, lets see...

Left the crank pulley bolt loose on my 86 Saab 900 turbo. Didn't come off until about 3 weeks later.

94 850 - Broke the plastic coupler where the heater core hoses plug into the firewall. Of course it was in the middle of winter.

Again, 94 850 - Broke the plastic fuel line that goes into the pump.

One of the guys at my shop installed a headgasket backwards on a Subaru. It shot oil up about 2 feet when he started it.

Traded in a 93 850 for a (get this) 2006 Suzuki Aerio. Don't worry though, still have the 94 850 turbo wagon.


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I am here: http://maps.google.com/maps?ll=40.334553,-75.130775

[obayha]

I did not realize you could remove the strut on a V70 BEFORE you had to put the spring compressor on. Believe it or not.. You can compress the strut while it is in.. Don't recommend it.. Right side change 2 hours.. Left side 35 mins.
That was before I met this forum.
Thanks

[fazool]

Reading the forums reminded me of another (there's so many I can't remember them all) :

Putting new deck speakers in my first real car. Lying in the trunk, I marked the mounting holes and was drilling upward.

Of course, the only drill bit I could find around the basement was like 6" long.

Right as I was finishing the first hole I had that split-second "Oh no!....." thought but it was too late and the drill went right through the rear window".


Learned a lesson from that one, that I've never (fortunately) repeated.

[fazool]

ok, thought of another ....worse one


24 years ago, I bought my first brand new car. It was a lemon and I am still bitter about that but glad that manufactuirer is out of business.

Anyway, I had an invisble coolant loss and suspected a pin hole leak, so I put a canister of powdered silver solder in the radiator.

This "stuff" reacts with heat and air (apparently) and forms a metallic seal. Its ideal for pin holes. What its NOT ideal for is unknown warped aluminum heads and leaking head gaskets!

A fascinating forensics theory found the sealant getting into the cylinder (which was really sucking a lot of coolant). It coated all the internal surfaces including the spark plug threads. Wicking into tight thread area and the extreme heat welded my sdpark plug to my block.

At my next tune up I broke a spark plug off completely in torsion right at the threads.

Well, I didn't want to re-tap that hole with the same size threads for fear of using the same diameter but slightly different depth. That would dislodge slivers of metal and make a hollow cylinder.

I could have used a thread insert but was pretty desperate and improvised. I kept the existing welded in-place plug threads as my insert and I tapped the hole down a thread size.

Then I got myself a bunch of plugs, cut the threads on several of them to match and those were my custom #1 spark plugs.

Worked for me without a problem. And I had to do all that with a hand drill, hand tools, a shop vac, hand tap and some seriously busted knuckles.

[s70glt novice[Will]]

Doing an oil change and then finding 6 qts of Mobil-1 flowing across the garage floor. Forgot the drain plug.

Yup, first time working on a car, screwed on the oil filter WAY to tight. "whats that gurgling noise?" get out of car, look down. "Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh"

And generally, when i go in to fix something, i break about 2 more things. It's a viscous cycle.