working on your car screw ups

[slver 3800]

I had a sort of funny screw up happen last night and figured id see if anyone else had funny things happen to them while working on their car.

Any way after waking up to a car with a dead battery i had a friend jump me and i went off to school. i already diagnosed that i had a bad brake switch because my brake lights were on when i walked outside. so when i get home from school i pick up a new brake switch and start working on the car as soon as i finished dinner. fast forward to finishing up the brake switch install i reconnected the battery, and noticed the doors locked upon connection. i walk back to the car to check and make sure the brake lights go on when my mom opens the garage which scares the **** out of me and out of reaction i closed my door locking my keys in the car. i have no spares because they "mysteriously" dissapeared while away at school last year. all i could do was laugh because after getting the work done i now had to figure out how to get into my car.

[flamingchicken]

Re: working on your car screw ups

Well, my catalytic converter decided it wanted to start breaking apart. my quick fix was to put in a pipe in place of the cat. Fast forward about 6 months, im on the interstate with some buddies and i gun it to pass an idiot doing 25 in the fast lane and all of the sudden it sounds like i opened a cut out, full open exhaust, rediculously loud. pipe came loose. next night i decide im going to take off my Y-pipe and weld it up really pretty. I broke 3 of the 4 bolts that hold the y-pipe to the manifolds. so i start trying to drill the bolts out, then i get a bright idea to use an easy out. it broke off and you dont drill into an easy out, so off come the exhaust manifolds. in goes headers. YAY BEER!

[slver 3800]

Re: working on your car screw ups

thats fuccing crazy and ironic to.. my cat is going on me aswell and i was actually thinking of jus having it gutted.

[pace2006]

Re: working on your car screw ups

Story time. I had an interesting string of events happen about a year ago. Pretty much a snowball effect...

I noticed a slight coolant smell one morning after running a couple errands. Noticed it was coming from one of the coolant elbows, so a friend and I decided to replace those and flush the radiator. We disconnected the battery and alternator, pulled the alternator and bracket out, and pulled the tensioner bracket with the elbows out. The elbow to the farthest right snapped in half upon removing the bracket and half of it stuck in the block. I went to pull that half of it out and the o-ring ripped into two pieces. One piece fell back into the coolant passage of the block. Took about 45 minutes to fish that little bastard out with the very tip of my finger. Could barely get it in past the top joint. So after rubbing half of my knuckles raw against the edge of the block and mixing coolant with some blood (an awesomely painful combination, let me tell ya), I finally got the o-ring out. Pieced everything back together and flushed the coolant a couple times.

When we finished up, we decided to go get something to eat. I get about a half mile down the road when all these different lights start popping up on the cluster. Lights started dimming as I turned back and the car started getting a little sluggish when shifting. We got it back to the hangar and checked under the hood to see what was wrong. Turned out we missed hooking up the connection between the battery and the alternator. So... the car sat and charged for two days.

Fast forward to two days later... the car's charged and ready to go. I unplug the charger, start it, and let it warm up. I get about halfway to the house when I notice a slight rattle-like pinging noise. I could hear it moreso on hills and under load, so I stopped by at a friend's shop to take a quick look at it. We checked the exhaust for any loose components, checked the suspension, and finally decided to give it a little gas on the lift. Clear as day, the sound was coming from around the flywheel. So I took it to the transmission shop, who diagnosed the cause and had the starter apart in record time. Turned out the bendix spring in the starter was nowhere to be seen and was causing the bendix to float, hitting the flywheel (which explains hearing it on slopes and hills). Unfortunately, I had to have a new starter put in at their mark-up price on the spot, but I was glad to be able to drive the car again. We guessed that the starter gave out from trying to start the car on a dying battery.

Oh, and I'm pretty sure the trans shop stripped out the bolt on the negative terminal of the battery. That'll be fun to replace in the next year or two. :(

[cam98aro]

Re: working on your car screw ups

i have never really screwed up anything before, but i have done stupid things

i rigged up my dual outlet muffler to work (its from a 97' y87 and is not the same as the 98+) well anyways, one of the bolts i had broke, and the only thing holding the exhaust on was an exhaust clamp and about 1" of pipe, i drove home 20 miles on all backroads with potholes everywhere praying it didnt fall off.. i was too afraid to take the highway in case it fell off and smashed someones car.. but yeah, that was no fun, took me forever to get home driving 5mph

[LETZRIDE]

Re: working on your car screw ups

haha...ya I got a story or two...

Most recent was tonight...I've been repairing rust holes in my floorpan for the last few days and I bought this rust inhibitor primer...I decided that I would use the whole can and paint the entire floor of the car (it looks like ****, but as long as helps prevent more rust Im happy since you wont see it under the carpet anyways)
So anyways, Im painting away at the floor...I get the passenger side done...I do part of the back on the drivers side, then the front driver side, all while the can of paint is in around my feet. I was thinking the entire time (since I started painting) that I was bound to kick the paint can over...well, I got all of like 6-8 strokes left and I say to myself..."sick, I didn't kick the can over"...no sooner did I finish that thought half the can was all over the godd*mn floor pan just pooled up because, you guessed it...I kicked the bloody thing over.

Few months ago I was replacing my brake lines and me and my buddy were up from 5pm friday to 6am saturday doing them...its late, we've been up all day....were absolutly bagged to sh*t...get the last of the lines bent and into place, begin flaring them, the brake connection isn't on the end. Damn it, ok...lets try this again...buddy tells me, "don't let me flare this again without putting on the connection"...we cut the flare off, rebend it to make it work...flare the bastard again without putting the connection on lol...

My last story was when I had to do some work under the car...went to a buddies house and started jacking the car up...toss one on the jackstands under the car, but it doesnt clear the A-arm...I start jacking it more...I look at the driveway and the jack is just digging into it...so I tell my buddy and hes like "****, stop then...get it down." So in a panic I forget I have the jackstand under there and just drop the jack...wasn't until about 15 mins later when I was looking for the other stand I realized what I did...look under and the stand was right on my steering boot, and the boot was now leaking fluid everywhere...I guess Im lucky I didnt drive off with it underneath...coulda been worse.

[3800SoloWing]

Re: working on your car screw ups

Lets just say that I know how powerful car battery's can be. DO NOT TOUCH IT.



If you're wondering, I lost a bet.

[flamingchicken]

Re: working on your car screw ups

there was one time i was helping a buddy change his alternator, i get there and he is already underneath, i start taking more crap apart and ended up shocking the ever living fire out of myself cause they didnt disconnect the battery/

[slver 3800]

Re: working on your car screw ups

haha that just reminded me.... i was helping a friend put on new rotors and we used a lug to hold the rotor in place while reinstalling the calipers...we geth he new rotors installed and were both working on a different side of the car putting the wheels back on when i here shuffleing on the other side of the car. i ask my friend whats wrong and he tells me he cant find one of the lugs. i go to help him look for it and after 10 mins. we realize we left it screwed on holding the rotor. i really felt stupid after that

[Opontee]

Re: working on your car screw ups

haha that just reminded me.... i was helping a friend put on new rotors and we used a lug to hold the rotor in place while reinstalling the calipers...we geth he new rotors installed and were both working on a different side of the car putting the wheels back on when i here shuffleing on the other side of the car. i ask my friend whats wrong and he tells me he cant find one of the lugs. i go to help him look for it and after 10 mins. we realize we left it screwed on holding the rotor. i really felt stupid after that

That's as bad as my stepdaughter talking to one of her friends on the phone and said she couldn't find her cell phone, duh (she's blonde) it's in your hand and your talking on it.

[ssms5411]

Re: working on your car screw ups

Lets just say that I know how powerful car battery's can be. DO NOT TOUCH IT.



If you're wondering, I lost a bet.

X2 on the Battery I always forget and a wire gets sparked or I do its no fun.