The NEW (2018) BLOOPERS AND BLUNDERS THREAD

[abscate]

PTL for comprehensive and glass coverage....

[BlackBart]

I once got my left & right mixed up after taking the whole 850 front end apart, and tried to get a ball joint / tie rod end to go through a steering arm the wrong way.....with a tapered hole!! "I'm cranking on this nut...why will it not bottom out?!"

<EDIT> ..forgot DOH!!

Also sympathize with those above with factory jack troubles - my 850 fell off that thing twice, the second time it folded in half. My big garage floor jack is sadly not portable...

[bmdubya1198]

These shift knobs can be a real pain sometimes. I have a collection of them, and some come off really easily and others make me work for it. I've just about knocked some cars off their "wheel stands" at the junkyard trying to yank them out!

[Rattnalle]

These shift knobs can be a real pain sometimes. I have a collection of them, and some come off really easily and others make me work for it. I've just about knocked some cars off their "wheel stands" at the junkyard trying to yank them out!

That's still better than the alternative. On both 740 manuals I've owned the know came loose if you shifted to vigorously. Very inconvenient on the one that had electronic overdrive with the button in the knob.

[bmdubya1198]

These shift knobs can be a real pain sometimes. I have a collection of them, and some come off really easily and others make me work for it. I've just about knocked some cars off their "wheel stands" at the junkyard trying to yank them out!

That's still better than the alternative. On both 740 manuals I've owned the know came loose if you shifted to vigorously. Very inconvenient on the one that had electronic overdrive with the button in the knob.

I could imagine that being quite a pain! Makes for an interesting drive, that's for sure.

[amblerman]

I had a 1997 VW jetta TDI once. I'm pretty sure I could fit my current s70 in my jetta's trunk. and 55 mpg?? oh I miss that car.

One time I was replacing the windshield wipers and after I removed the old one, I lowered the now bare arm down to the windshield so that I could prepare the new one for mounting. About 1 inch from the windshield the arm slipped out of my hand and smacked the glass.

And cracked my windshield.

The most expensive set of wipers ever.

-A

[Cees Klumper]

Bit concerning that we have four pages of bloopers in only two weeks' time.

Mine was last year. I had a 'no spark' condition on cylinder one. I replaced the coil and spark plug, then tested. Still no spark. Went through a couple more days of diagnosing, including buying some expensive testing equipment (for injector, compression and fuel pressure) only to find hours of testing later that I had not put the spark plug wire and boot on right, it had gone in at an angle, missing the spark plug. Refitted correctly and, voila, problem solved. Felt pretty stupid there.

Doh!

[bmdubya1198]

Reminds me of when my cousin and I were trying to figure out what why his car was misfiring on 2 cylinders after replacing the VVT.
This was last year after a botched timing belt job. We forgot to preload the VVT, and when we started the car it just clicked very loudly, then it wouldn't even start. After months of research and diagnosis (and waiting for him to do something... he's not the fastest at doing things) I replaced the VVT hub, dialed in the timing, got everything together, then we cranked it up and it ran. We were all thrilled, but it was running rough.
I pulled the codes, misfire on cylinders 1 and 2. We went through all the basic things, called my other cousin and had him take a look, and we were all stumped. Coils and injectors were good, new plugs, fuel filter, everything. Over a week later, we were still worried we bent some valves by having the VVT unloaded the first time, so we compression tested it and it came back good.
Then my cousin who came to help pulls the plug for the cylinder 1 coil, then cylinder 2, then he plugs the plug from 1 into 2. Car smooths out a little. Plugs in the other coil, ran great. We were feeling very stupid at that point...
I must say, though, the car ran shockingly smooth on 3 cylinders!

[abscate]

Im still waiting for someone to post the 'swapped fuel injector wire plug' blooper to answer the question if ME7 fires sequentially or in batch mode..

..think of all the bloopers that are still lurking in dark closets....

[bmdubya1198]

Im still waiting for someone to post the 'swapped fuel injector wire plug' blooper to answer the question if ME7 fires sequentially or in batch mode..

..think of all the bloopers that are still lurking in dark closets....

Hahaha, I'm sure plenty of people are just too embarrassed to say anything.
That would be a hard one to screw up... then again, I thought the same about the ignition coils.