Yep, I just joined the list of eternally dumb things to do.
My battery with this recent cold snap has been needing jumps so I ran down to the dealership to get a new battery. I ran out to the lot to install it myself because I wasn't going to pay $50 for them to install a battery.
Get it in the car and connect the cables and my engine starts smoking.
Yes folks, I hooked it up backwords. I feel like a fking retard. I'm an electrical engineer who knows his way around cars and hooked a battery up backwords.
So I just left it at the dealership they just called and quoted my $560 to do the alternator. Starter is still good and the car runs, just doesn't charge so it looks like everything else is in tip top shape.
Lesson learned, hooking your battery up backwords can be a $600 mistake!!!!!! :hammerhead: :hammerhead: :hammerhead:
Anyone else do dumb stuff? I know R-inge just blew that engine :evildude: Don't feel so bad dude I messed up something far simpler!
Ususlly my stupid moves consist of:
"Let me tighten this up just a tiny bit more..." 'snap'
Last night, I finished cleaning out my IACV and replacing the lower oil seals on my rocker arm assembly along with redoing the valve clearances (which I think I did wrong), I go driving home, and my temp gauge starts creeping up about halfway there. I see and smell coolant when I pull into a parking lot to look, but I just turned on my heat and tried to coast home. I pulled in without having it pegged on "H".
With the car off, I took a closer look with my little keychain flashlight.
SOLUTION?
I had COMPLETELY FORGOTTEN to reattach an IACV coolant hose to the throttle body. I was just pumping coolant out of the engine.
Works of genius.
I've drained the fuel on my Ranger because I got gas into it and later filled it with gas and it wouldnt start
I forgot to reconnect the fuel pump
I blew an engine up, and had a wheel fall off on a vehicle a week after I worked on it. :rage:
The wheel thing was over a year and half ago, and you know what? I've never once forgotten to torque a lug nut since then!
Quote from: Sean on January 30, 2008, 04:59:04 PM
I've drained the fuel on my Ranger because I got gas into it and later filled it with gas and it wouldnt start
I forgot to reconnect the fuel pump
You got gas into it?
Quote from: Secret Chimp on January 30, 2008, 05:23:50 PM
You got gas into it?
Guessing he means he removed gas from it first...
my bad, I meant to type I got water in the gas..... :banghead:
I've dropped a wooden dowel down the sparkplug hole of a 240SX before, and just recently topped up the oil in a friends van with an oil jug that happened to contain used coolant. :banghead:
Quote from: Pancor on January 30, 2008, 07:51:46 PM
I've dropped a wooden dowel down the sparkplug hole of a 240SX before, and just recently topped up the oil in a friends van with an oil jug that happened to contain used coolant. :banghead:
lmao! Too easy to do...
Quote from: Pancor on January 30, 2008, 07:51:46 PM
I've dropped a wooden dowel down the sparkplug hole of a 240SX before, and just recently topped up the oil in a friends van with an oil jug that happened to contain used coolant. :banghead:
couldn't you just start a little miniture bonfire inside of there with the help of a propane torch? or did you pull the head off?
This was my dad on our boat but...The impeller got chewed up on our port engine as we were out in the gulf going from Freeport to Port
Aransas. The impeller is one of the cheapest parts out there but is a real PITA to get to. Anyways after about an hour or so he gets it on there seals everything back up and starts the engine. No water is coming out (which cools the engine down). Come to find out, he put the impeller on backwards so he had to do it all over. :lol: Only took about 50 minutes the second time. :lol:
I missed a wheel when I was torqueing my lugnuts. I almost lost the wheel, when I caught it 3 lugs were missing and another spun off with my fingers.
Speaking of boats, the first day we had our boat out after winter my dad told me to put the plug in the hull before we put it in the water. I forgot but we got it back on the trailer and out of the water before it was too late.
Quote from: Sean on January 30, 2008, 04:59:04 PM
I've drained the fuel on my Ranger because I got gas into it and later filled it with gas and it wouldnt start
I forgot to reconnect the fuel pump
I installed a fuel pump backwards. I couldn't figure out why the damn thing wouldn't start. :lol:
This isn't really dumb since I was half expecting it, and definitely asking for it...but it's funny nonetheless.
This winter I bought a set of beater wheels and snow tires. When the wheels arrived they had some <50% snow tires already mounted. Since I wanted deeper tread for the winter I wasn't going to keep those tires for good, but I couldn't let all that tread go to waste. I did have some fun at home with Teuton and Yoder, but once I got back to school it was time to do them in for good. I loaded my car up with buddies, a floor jack, and headed to an open lot in an industrial park. The lot was a little rough to say the least, but the location was perfect and completely hidden. I got in a solid 15 minutes of fun and the tires were just starting to show cord. I was determined to go until I burst one tire, swap with the spare, then hump it to the tire shop to mount the new ones. At this point I'm drifting through a nasty parking lot in the top of second (~45) and it's pitch black outside. Little did we know that there was a MASSIVE pothole at the end of the lot...filled with mud. I hit the 4"-6" deep pothole completely sideways, heard a weird "thwump", stopped dead, and was then blasted with a tidal wave of mud. ...almost forgot, even though it's January, it was in the 50s so we had all the windows and the sunroof open. My all black interior was absolutely covered in gritty mud and grass, and all three of us were smiling like a bunch of retards and laughing so hard we were crying. Based on the sound, I knew I accomplished my goal one way or another; I just didn't know how. It turns out that I hit the wall of the pothole perfectly, and it ripped the tire from the bead of the wheel. *Insert another 5 minutes of teary-eyed laughing* I pulled out the floor jack, put on the spare, and we were on our way. On the way back the shredded tire cords were flapping away at the wheel wells like mad and only added to the hilarity. We took the aftermath over to a house full of friends...offroaders and autocrossers alike. They all came out and got their kicks. I had more mud on an ///M3 that sits 4" off the ground than most trucks ever see. The next day my car was an absolute mess and it took ~4 hours to clean the interior. The guys at the tire shop had the biggest smiles on their faces and simply said "It looks like these puppies have seen some fun." I swore I would be easy on the new snow tires, but seeing that it's been a month sans snow, I'm getting restless and the tread is getting lower...it's time to bring the summers back out.
/novel
That's a ridiculous price to "do the alternator", Champ. I say buy an alternator on the cheap (probably 1/5th of that quoted price) and either do it yourself or have a buddy that knows how to loosen the belt help you with it.
My "Oh Shits" usually involve reinstalling or assemblying some complex or hard to do install part and noticing an o-ring, gasket or little gear sitting all alone like an orphan on my work bench.
Then there is that "Oh Shit" feeling when you are tightening down that bolt in that $3,000 aluminum head and you literally feel the female threads in the head slowly give way.
I somehow forgot to tighten the lugnuts on the 240SX after my friend and I reinstalled the transmission and got the car back on the ground. I felt a little embarrassed.
Most of mine are nautically-related...most of my automotive ones are like Byteme's, where I end up with more parts left over than when I started. I typically just shrug it off to my extreme efficiency :lol:
Quote from: giant_mtb on January 31, 2008, 04:41:01 AM
That's a ridiculous price to "do the alternator", Champ. I say buy an alternator on the cheap (probably 1/5th of that quoted price) and either do it yourself or have a buddy that knows how to loosen the belt help you with it.
The problem is they charged me an hour of diag ~$120, and their price for a remanned alternator is $290! The ones online are $170.
So, if I brought it home it would be:
$120 for the diag (which they would have made me pay. I wanted to make sure it was only the alternator and not other bits like the starter or ECU)
$150 for a tow (I was a very long ways from home)
$170 for the alternator and then send back my old one (shipping)
So to do it myself I am at ~$440 so why not spend the extra $120 to have them do it in a day so I don't have to bring the Viggen out of storage.
It was also -5deg F last night so as much as I wanted to start working on my car...
Wow, that is expensive. For me, all I have to do is scrap a part from another EJ I have, take off the accessory drive belt, and loosen the screws on the housing. That's it. The alternator sits right on top of the engine, making access easy as 3.14159265354.
(http://photos-342.ll.facebook.com/photos-ll-sf2p/v59/23/13/14228342/n14228342_32109851_5555.jpg)
Where is yours located?
Quote from: Champ on January 31, 2008, 11:00:52 AM
The problem is they charged me an hour of diag ~$120, and their price for a remanned alternator is $290! The ones online are $170.
So, if I brought it home it would be:
$120 for the diag (which they would have made me pay. I wanted to make sure it was only the alternator and not other bits like the starter or ECU)
$150 for a tow (I was a very long ways from home)
$170 for the alternator and then send back my old one (shipping)
So to do it myself I am at ~$440 so why not spend the extra $120 to have them do it in a day so I don't have to bring the Viggen out of storage.
It was also -5deg F last night so as much as I wanted to start working on my car...
Holy sweet Christ, $120 an hour for diag? I need to go work for that shop...we only charge $86!
Quote from: the Teuton on January 31, 2008, 12:20:12 PM
Where is yours located?
Basically on top, you can see it standing above the engine but it's a Bitch with a capitol B to change.
It's right below the A/C compressor and on the other side it is covered by the master cylinder. It's wedged right up against the firewall, and the bolt you need to get out underneath it is difficult to get at.
(http://www.hiperformancestore.com/images/saab1.JPG)
It's literally right under those hoses, so you can see how it's kind of crammed in there even though it's right on top.
Quote from: R-inge on January 31, 2008, 12:46:53 PM
Holy sweet Christ, $120 an hour for diag? I need to go work for that shop...we only charge $86!
Ya it's annoying. They did knock down the diag to .5 since I am doing the repair.
In hindsight I should have just hooked the battery up correctly in the first place :cry:
Quote from: Champ on January 31, 2008, 12:53:18 PM
Basically on top, you can see it standing above the engine but it's a Bitch with a capitol B to change.
It's right below the A/C compressor and on the other side it is covered by the master cylinder. It's wedged right up against the firewall, and the bolt you need to get out underneath it is difficult to get at.
(http://www.hiperformancestore.com/images/saab1.JPG)
It's literally right under those hoses, so you can see how it's kind of crammed in there even though it's right on top.
My 9000 was much better than that.
Quote from: 280Z Turbo on January 31, 2008, 12:55:27 PM
My 9000 was much better than that.
Ya :/
Because they did the engine longitutinally all the accessories are right up on the firewall. Power Steering is stupidly hard to change.
However everything else in the car is pretty easy to do.
Is this the old one or the Viggen?
Oh wow.
Quote from: the Teuton on January 31, 2008, 04:20:08 PM
Oh wow.
Ya the worst part is I replaced the battery on my Viggen about 3 months ago just fine. Did the motorcycle as well this summer.
Quote from: Champ on January 31, 2008, 04:21:35 PM
Ya the worst part is I replaced the battery on my Viggen about 3 months ago just fine. Did the motorcycle as well this summer.
Nahhh, I think the worst part is that you're an Electrical Engineer. :lol:
Quote from: CALL_911 on January 31, 2008, 04:25:21 PM
Nahhh, I think the worst part is that you're an Electrical Engineer. :lol:
Shhhhhh...... ;)
No one tell my boss!
Quote from: Champ on January 31, 2008, 04:21:35 PM
Ya the worst part is I replaced the battery on my Viggen about 3 months ago just fine. Did the motorcycle as well this summer.
Shit man! Even I can replace a battery. :lol:
I haven't done anything really stupid to my car, but I haven't given myself the chance, either. :lol: I drove away from a gas station with the fuel pump still in my tank once. Luckily it popped right out and didn't rip the handle off the hose.
Quote from: Tave on January 31, 2008, 05:59:04 PM
Shit man! Even I can replace a battery. :lol:
I haven't done anything really stupid to my car, but I haven't given myself the chance, either. :lol: I drove away from a gas station with the fuel pump still in my tank once. Luckily it popped right out and didn't rip the handle off the hose.
I bet the first words out of your mouth when you realized what you did were...Oops! :lol:
From the "project Beetle" thread:
There is an old trick of finding TDC for #1 cylinder on a VW by sticking a pencil down the spark plug hole.
Works great if you take the car out of gear first. Leaving the car in gear and rocking the engine back and forth, evidently, leads to disaster. The pencil was too short, the car moved and knocked the pencil from fingers and now is lost down the cylinder.
That was a while ago. The pencil was chewed up and spit out by the engine with no damage....apparent damage. I removed the engine last weekend. This weekend I'll be pulling the heads to reseal the pushrod tubes and I'll get to check it out for sure. After resealing and cleaning it up, I'll install a new intake crossover, transfer the alternator from the red Bug to this engine and install it in the red Bug.
Quote from: R-inge on January 31, 2008, 12:46:53 PM
Holy sweet Christ, $120 an hour for diag? I need to go work for that shop...we only charge $86!
The Mazda dealer I went to (I'll never go back, but that's a different story) only charges $40 for diagnosis.
Quote from: Byteme on January 31, 2008, 06:22:22 AM
Then there is that "Oh Shit" feeling when you are tightening down that bolt in that $3,000 aluminum head and you literally feel the female threads in the head slowly give way.
Substitute cylinder head for $3500 racing or mountain bike, and I know that feeling all too well.
Oh god... I've stripped nice cranks (both pedal end and BB end), forks, lots of axles, a derailleur hanger or two, and so so many cheap allen bolts. I rode around on a Syncro stem that had a stripped bolt for years because it was too nice to get rid of!
Lots of botched flat repairs, too. "Oh, that's why the tire kept blowing out!" [Giant hole in the sidewall]...
My stupidest move in a while is documented in a thread somewhere in this section that begins with "HELP!" :lol:
One more:
I was working on the Jaguar. There is a protective cup that encloses the latch mechanism for the rear hatch latch. It's held on by 4 sheet metal screws, different lengths. I'm reinstalling the cover, my wife is watching. She watches as I tighten one of the screws and it comes out through the side of the body.
Sigh.
Um, I'll probably forget a few-
-SHO Clutch swap: unbolted all the little bolts holding the 2halves of tranny together instead of the 4 big tranny-to-engine bolts.. At least she got new tranny fluid..
-forgot to tighten somethign down after talking the manually tensioned belts off while replacing a crank sensor. spent 3hrs removing them all again, tightening it down, then replacing everything.
The list would be quite long if I could remember all my mistakes.. :lol:
Quote from: Champ on January 31, 2008, 12:55:10 PM
Ya it's annoying. They did knock down the diag to .5 since I am doing the repair.
In hindsight I should have just hooked the battery up correctly in the first place :cry:
or paid them the $50 to put the battery in the first place. :lol:
i filed a valve into a square a while back. :mask:
i also put oil in my fuel tank and while it was really easy to drain out the tank, i just drove it until it smoked itself dry.
Yeah, I've got a few!
Like the time I was changing the gearbox on my old '79 VW Rabbit. Common sense said to install a new clutch while I was at it but, being a cheap bastard, I didn't. Sure enough, after I got it all back together, the clutch blew!
Or the time I was removing the alternator on the '80 Fiat X-1/9. There was a really stubborn bolt that wouldn't budge. So I put a six-foot long pipe on the end of the wrench and threw all my weight on the end of it. Well, the bolt DID come loose but I also broke off a piece of the alternator housing, too. No core refund for me, then!
Then there was the '90 Peugeot 405 DL Sportswagon. The heater core started leaking into the footwells so I poured a bottle of stop-leak into the radiator. Six months go by and it starts leaking again. So I add more stop-leak. I do this every six months for two or three years until one day, after adding yet another bottle of stop-leak, the car overheats. Turns out I gummed-up the radiator with this stuff and the resulting overheating caused the headgasket to blow and the cylinder head to warp! Ouch, that one was expensive! I've NEVER used stop-leak since.
Cheers,
Madman of the People
Well I feel better guys thanks!
My coworker just got his BMW back from getting a new battery...holy crap!
$209 for the battery itself, and $100 for labor to install. Seriously?!?!?
What kind of battery do you get for $209?
A BMW battery?
Quote from: Madman on February 01, 2008, 09:19:51 AM
Then there was the '90 Peugeot 405 DL Sportswagon.
Sweet car!
Quote from: Champ on February 01, 2008, 09:49:28 AM
What kind of battery do you get for $209?
The Ultimate Starting Machine, motherfucker.
Quote from: Secret Chimp on February 01, 2008, 10:19:40 PM
The Ultimate Starting Machine, motherfucker.
:lol: :lol: :lol:
Quote from: Champ on February 01, 2008, 09:49:28 AM
Well I feel better guys thanks!
My coworker just got his BMW back from getting a new battery...holy crap!
$209 for the battery itself, and $100 for labor to install. Seriously?!?!?
What kind of battery do you get for $209?
That's probably about what you'd pay at any luxury car dealership.
Installed after market fog lights and left them on after I was done! :rage:
Quote from: gotta-qik-z28 on February 03, 2008, 02:02:53 AM
Installed after market fog lights and left them on after I was done! :rage:
:wtf: :clap:
Quote from: Secret Chimp on February 01, 2008, 10:19:40 PM
The Ultimate Starting Machine, motherfucker.
:ohyeah: :lol:
Well I was in the backseat and I guess the condom broke...so...
Quote from: Submariner on February 03, 2008, 11:43:05 AM
Well I was in the backseat and I guess the condom broke...so...
Ha! That'd be a little more expensive than an alternator... :)
Nothing mechanical, but I am going to change my battery and probably the spark plug wires and spark plugs soon, hopefully I don't screw anything up.
Quote from: TBR on February 03, 2008, 11:54:06 AM
Nothing mechanical, but I am going to change my battery and probably the spark plug wires and spark plugs soon, hopefully I don't screw anything up.
Does making a Neon kiss a light pole count? :evildude: ;)
Quote from: CALL_911 on February 03, 2008, 11:57:45 AM
Does making a Neon kiss a light pole count? :evildude: ;)
I said mechanical for a reason ;). I also drove into the mail box the other day (just a light scratch, thank God) and then hit a curb and blew a tire. I am on a roll lately.
Quote from: TBR on February 03, 2008, 12:01:43 PM
I said mechanical for a reason ;). I also drove into the mail box the other day (just a light scratch, thank God) and then hit a curb and blew a tire. I am on a roll lately.
:lol:
My sister backed up my parents' old '04 TL into a mailbox. But she sideswiped the thing, so there was a nice gash on the rear passenger side door. My dad wasn't thrilled.
We live out in the country, so our mailbox is on a metal pole by the side of the main road (opposite side of the road from our house actually). I normally stop at it on my way home because our house is at least 500 ft from the road. I always watch the mirror because I don't want to knock it off (not again, but the deer incident wasn't my fault), This particular time somehow the mirror was clear but the back of the front fender wasn't. The noise it made was far worse than the damage. In its current state (very dirty) you can't even see the scratch unless you look for it.
Quote from: TBR on February 03, 2008, 12:07:29 PM
We live out in the country, so our mailbox is on a metal pole by the side of the main road (opposite side of the road from our house actually). I normally stop at it on my way home because our house is at least 500 ft from the road. I always watch the mirror because I don't want to knock it off (not again, but the deer incident wasn't my fault), This particular time somehow the mirror was clear but the back of the front fender wasn't. The noise it made was far worse than the damage. In its current state (very dirty) you can't even see the scratch unless you look for it.
The noise always hurts.
Quote from: TBR on February 03, 2008, 12:01:43 PM
I said mechanical for a reason ;). I also drove into the mail box the other day (just a light scratch, thank God) and then hit a curb and blew a tire. I am on a roll lately.
You're not a very good driver, are you?
We put my buddy's Imprezza through the grassy median yesterday, he did an excellent job threading it between two trees right at the last second :lol:
Quote from: TBR on February 03, 2008, 11:54:06 AM
Nothing mechanical, but I am going to change my battery and probably the spark plug wires and spark plugs soon, hopefully I don't screw anything up.
Make sure to change the wires one at a time so they are in the correct spots!
Quote from: J86 on February 03, 2008, 12:20:01 PM
We put my buddy's Imprezza through the grassy median yesterday, he did an excellent job threading it between two trees right at the last second :lol:
I blew the transmission on my buddy's old 1994 Sentra. Funny thing is, we actually took the car out to try and kill it. :lol:
Quote from: Champ on January 30, 2008, 01:57:00 PM
Yep, I just joined the list of eternally dumb things to do.
My battery with this recent cold snap has been needing jumps so I ran down to the dealership to get a new battery. I ran out to the lot to install it myself because I wasn't going to pay $50 for them to install a battery.
Get it in the car and connect the cables and my engine starts smoking.
Yes folks, I hooked it up backwords. I feel like a fking retard. I'm an electrical engineer who knows his way around cars and hooked a battery up backwords.
So I just left it at the dealership they just called and quoted my $560 to do the alternator. Starter is still good and the car runs, just doesn't charge so it looks like everything else is in tip top shape.
Lesson learned, hooking your battery up backwords can be a $600 mistake!!!!!! :hammerhead: :hammerhead: :hammerhead:
Anyone else do dumb stuff? I know R-inge just blew that engine :evildude: Don't feel so bad dude I messed up something far simpler!
Dude, I've done a lot of stupid shit.
A few years ago, I got a flat tire. I changed the tire, but put the jack in the wrong place, and damaged the underpanel of the car. That cost me hundreds of dollars to fix.
And that's just the thing that immediately comes to mind. There have been a number of others.
Quote from: CALL_911 on February 03, 2008, 12:22:55 PM
I blew the transmission on my buddy's old 1994 Sentra. Funny thing is, we actually took the car out to try and kill it. :lol:
Well, you succeeded.... :lol:
Quote from: CALL_911 on February 03, 2008, 12:22:55 PM
I blew the transmission on my buddy's old 1994 Sentra. Funny thing is, we actually took the car out to try and kill it. :lol:
Yea, this is an '05....we were trying desparately to keep it alive :lol:
Quote from: Champ on February 03, 2008, 12:22:17 PM
Make sure to change the wires one at a time so they are in the correct spots!
True gangstas know their car's firing order, the rotational direction of the distributor and where plug number 1 is on the cap.
Quote from: TheIntrepid on February 03, 2008, 12:17:58 PM
You're not a very good driver, are you?
I am a fine driver, I just don't have an eye for the details, I watch for the big things, not the small thing.
Quote from: TBR on February 03, 2008, 01:57:36 PM
I am a fine driver, I just don't have an eye for the details, I watch for the big things, not the small thing.
With all due respect, that would make you a shitty driver, dude. One of those 'details' could be a live person one of these days.
Quote from: dazzleman on February 03, 2008, 01:59:31 PM
With all due respect, that would make you a shitty driver, dude. One of those 'details' could be a live person one of these days.
No they couldn't. I am very careful around other cars and people. In fact, I really am quite careful in general, but with as much as I drive crap is going to happen. Hitting a curb is hardly a big deal. And, a slight misjudgement at the mail box (going all of 2 mph) isn't a big deal either.
Shitty drivers are people who slam on the brakes when the light has been red for 30 seconds. Shitty drivers are people who cut off other drivers on a regular basis. Shitty drivers are people who tailgate. Shitty drivers are people who pull out when there isn't enough room. Shitty drivers are people who drift all of their lane, and possibly into other lanes. I do not do any of those things, I have just a made a few slight mistakes. It happens to everybody, to argue otherwise is ridiculous.
HULK SMASH!
Further thought, the reason I hit curbs and mail boxes is that I don't have a good concept of the size of the car, I think I am clear when in fact I am not. This is not a problem around people because I always give extra room to them and to other cars. I tend to not give extra room to things like curbs simple because they can't really be damaged (not by a 2800 lb sports coupe anyway) nor can they damage a car much (I didn't even realize they could blow a tire). Now I am sure I'll treat curbs with the same respect I treat people.
Quote from: TBR on February 03, 2008, 02:48:44 PM
(butt-ton of overexplanation)
(http://www.bu.edu/mih/images/Freud.jpg)
I seenk you are a beet inzecure, ja?
Quote from: TBR on February 03, 2008, 02:03:59 PM
No they couldn't. I am very careful around other cars and people. In fact, I really am quite careful in general, but with as much as I drive crap is going to happen. Hitting a curb is hardly a big deal. And, a slight misjudgement at the mail box (going all of 2 mph) isn't a big deal either.
So? I drive ~400km a week. I have yet to hit anything. Things aren't "bound to happen" unless they're someone else's fault. That's something you can't control. I may be overconfident of my driving but I know damn well I'm not going to hit anything on account of my negligence. What I
am afraid of is drivers like you who aren't watching and will end up hitting me.
One time, I changed the oil in my car, and was driving around later. I found out the hard way, but I neglected to re-affix the oil filler cap. :mask:
Quote from: TheIntrepid on February 03, 2008, 08:41:29 PM
So? I drive ~400km a week. I have yet to hit anything. Things aren't "bound to happen" unless they're someone else's fault. That's something you can't control. I may be overconfident of my driving but I know damn well I'm not going to hit anything on account of my negligence. What I am afraid of is drivers like you who aren't watching and will end up hitting me.
You're bloody hard headed, aren't you? So I hit a curb, that makes me a terrible driver? There is a big difference between hitting a low lying object with the back tire and hitting a car or a person. If you can't see this than then you're an idiot. The mail box was a matter of inches. Yes, I screwed up, but in my defense it was very dark out (when it is overcast out here you can't see a thing at night, no light pollution). I am glad you can finally feel superior about something. And, fyi, 400km is nothing. 400-500 MILES a week for me.
Edit- besides, if you think you're going to make it through a lifetime of driving without any mistakes then you're in for a world of disappointment. Talk to any adult (real adult), I am sure they have hit a curb at some point or another. And, of the 4 incidents I have had, one of them wasn't my fault (what was I supposed to do to stop the damn deer from running into the car?), two were my fault, but very minor, and the other was very much my fault and relatively major (of course there were no other people involved and no damage done to anybody's personal property but mine). And, most importantly, I learned from everyone of these incidents (okay, so the mail box run in wasn't very beneficial, but after hitting the deer I have become much more careful on country roads at night (though I was going the speed limit at the time and was pretty much at a stop when the dumb animal hit me) and since the pole I am much more aware in parking lots)).
You hit a pole, you've hit a mailbox, you've hit a curb.
You can't call yourself a good driver. There's no point to arguing. At least you're man enough to admit it.
Yeah I hit a curb once. Not hit per se, but turned too tightly and my rear wheel bounced it a little. I was 14 and it was one of my first times on the road in Canada. Whatever, big deal.
Guess what, that is exactly what I did. But somehow this makes me a bad driver? You're being ridiculous. As noted, the mailbox incident happened at very low speed and I normally miss it by 3-4 inches, it has absolutely nothing to do with my ability to pilot a vehicle at speed. The pole, yes, that was a big deal. But, I have learned from it and I am not going to make the same mistakes again (cutting across a parking lot while simultaneously look over my shoulder for traffic).
I am a good driver. A couple of very minor, isolated incidents do not change that fact.
I see that you have read the last post without replying, I'll take that as a concession.
Of note, when I have been in situations that could result in a great amount of carnage I have reacted by the textbook. When I had a left front tire blow I slow applied the brake, checked the left lane for traffic, and then slowly let the 5,000 lb vehicle drift towards the median (why fight it I figured). When I saw a deer at the edge of a blind curve I slammed on the brakes immediately. Of course the deer still hit the car, but I hit the brakes as soon as could be expected.
I really think it is ludicrous that I am having to defend my driving abilities over something as minor as hitting a curb at 10 mph and scratching a mail box pole at under 2 mph.
Quote from: TBR on February 03, 2008, 10:40:25 PM
I see that you have read the last post without replying, I'll take that as a concession.
Of note, when I have been in situations that could result in a great amount of carnage I have reacted by the textbook. When I had a left front tire blow I slow applied the brake, checked the left lane for traffic, and then slowly let the 5,000 lb vehicle drift towards the median (why fight it I figured). When I saw a deer at the edge of a blind curve I slammed on the brakes immediately. Of course the deer still hit the car, but I hit the brakes as soon as could be expected.
I really think it is ludicrous that I am having to defend my driving abilities over something as minor as hitting a curb at 10 mph and scratching a mail box pole at under 2 mph.
Hitting a curb at 10 mph isn't really minor. The last time I heard somebody do that it was from the previous year's driver's ed class in high school.
My old Camry was parked in the driveway. The driveway is fairly narrow, and the garage opens up at a 90 degree angle to the direction that cars are parked outside. When there is a car in the driveway, maneuvering the Miata out of the 2nd garage bay requires rowing between 1st and reverse at least three times. One day I thought I got the angle right on the first try, and while I was backing up I noticed the trunk of the Camry moving up. Oh fuck. I drove forward and the trunk dropped again. I got out and surveyed the damage. The mighty plastic bumper of the Camry made a nice gouge on the driver's side fender.
For the next few months I fixated on that scar whenever I approached the Miata. It was shameful. :(
Quote from: The Pirate on February 03, 2008, 09:08:18 PM
One time, I changed the oil in my car, and was driving around later. I found out the hard way, but I neglected to re-affix the oil filler cap. :mask:
That happened to my dad once when he took my old car to get an oil change. The worst part about it was that the padding on the underside of the hood was soaked in oil afterwards
This one time, I drained an entire cooling system onto my garage floor - no, actually I did that twice. I couldn't get it into a bucket. :huh:
Quote from: NACar on February 04, 2008, 05:21:45 PM
This one time, I drained an entire cooling system onto my garage floor - no, actually I did that twice. I couldn't get it into a bucket. :huh:
I have that happen a lot now that my petcock is broke. It's either clean up a mess when I change coolant or buy a new radiator. :huh:
Stopcock?
Cockblock?
(http://www.americansweets.co.uk/ekmps/shops/statesidecandy/images/poppycock_butter_pecan_gift_tin%5Bekm%5D400x300%5Bekm%5D.jpg)?
Dude, I don't even touch those flimsy little petcocks, I just go straight for the big lower hose.
Quote from: NACar on February 04, 2008, 05:21:45 PM
This one time, I drained an entire cooling system onto my garage floor - no, actually I did that twice. I couldn't get it into a bucket. :huh:
I don't know how many car's I've worked on where the radiator drain petcock is in a position that is either: 1) almost impossible to get to, and/or 2) located so that the stream of coolant hits some part of the car making it impossible to drain into anything.
Haha, my buddy ended up backing out of a parking spot straight backwards into another car today. No damage to the Durango he hit, but his bumper and taillight were gone.
This is the same guy who totaled his Neon last month and his parents bought him a "Grand Pricks Sea"
:lol: :lol: :lol:
Ooh, I just remembered a good one...
I was changing the radiator on my gfs old pos Cavalier. I had the old radiator out and for some reason I wanted to move the car quick so I decided to start it up.
Of course, the tranny cooler lines are just dangling there and proceed to pump out a good 3-4L of transmission fluid onto my driveway before I came to my senses...
Jaguar E-type. Want to change the clutch? You have to pull the engine and transmission as a unit, replace the clutch and then reassemble and reinstall. Shop time is 15-20 hours to do it right.
Jaguar used two different clutch/pressure plate/ TO bearing combinations. The TO bearings are carbon face, not roller bearings and are different heights depending on which clutch assy you use.
We rebuilt the ending installed the new clutch assy and TO bearing put everything back together and finished up the job. Comes the big day when you start the cr for the first time. Yipee, it starts :praise: Slip it into reverse and let out the clutch, car barely moves. Wrong TO bearing. It wont let the clutch fully engage, this won't adjust out.
Out comes the engine/tranny replace the TO bearing, reinstall everything. Yipee it works.
^Ouch, man.
I have a similar one, installed an aftermarket clutch in my 240SX, took me a while cause it was my first time, and the car had a horrible rattle when I got it all back together. Assumed I fucked something up, so took it all apart, verified the installation and put it back together. Just when I was finishing up I noticed a loose heat shield on the cat... :rage:
You guys make me feel better :)
Quote from: Secret Chimp on February 04, 2008, 09:38:40 PM
(http://www.americansweets.co.uk/ekmps/shops/statesidecandy/images/poppycock_butter_pecan_gift_tin%5Bekm%5D400x300%5Bekm%5D.jpg)?
My roommate didn't believe that existed. I told him about it and he said I was talking about Cracker Jacks. I had to show him a picture and a Wikipedia article.
:clap:
I finally have something to add..since I've been pretty lucky doing very minor work on replacing the simplest of parts on vehicles. So this next story is especially retarded on my part.
My brother had been driving around for almost a week with no working regular beams in his Mazda 3. He doesn't know his way around his glovebox, never mind anything else in his car. So he went out to purchase some new bulbs at almost 20 bucks a piece :huh:.. but has never installed bulbs on his cars before. I offered to do it for him, since I've done it on over a dozen different vehicles in the past... thought this would be no big deal.
So to be even extra careful, I still go through the manual to make sure it isn't set up weird compared to other cars, so far so good. At first it took a while to get the left side bulb out... the rubber seal in behind the bulb was pretty stiff. Then out came the bulb. At first it seemed weird to have to remove this thing from a separate plastic socket after unplugging the lights... but I got past that. Then came the next part....
Right side. Had a little more trouble pulling the damn rubber seal off... leaned a little into it.. popped off nicely... HOWEVER... in doing so.. I somehow cracked the top off of the power steering reservoir where you fill the fluid from. The plastic looked kinda thick... but I'm still surprised how easily it cracked off.
Definitely an " oh shit " moment. No worried about the lack of pressure the PS may have, I offer up get this fixed for him.. since I've done enough damage and won't attempt this myself.
So... about 1300 bucks later... thats One Three Zero Zero point Zero Zero dollars... it was fixed. Power steering reservoir replaced entirely. A number of places were called around here, and only Mazda of course could get the part and fix it. A very expensive lesson for me. I had asked what such a replacement would cost on my car ( Civic ), it wasn't even half that.
I won't be doing anything with anyone's vehicles except my own for the next while. :nutty:
Quote from: Northlands on February 09, 2008, 11:06:48 AM
I finally have something to add..since I've been pretty lucky doing very minor work on replacing the simplest of parts on vehicles. So this next story is especially retarded on my part.
My brother had been driving around for almost a week with no working regular beams in his Mazda 3. He doesn't know his way around his glovebox, never mind anything else in his car. So he went out to purchase some new bulbs at almost 20 bucks a piece :huh:.. but has never installed bulbs on his cars before. I offered to do it for him, since I've done it on over a dozen different vehicles in the past... thought this would be no big deal.
So to be even extra careful, I still go through the manual to make sure it isn't set up weird compared to other cars, so far so good. At first it took a while to get the left side bulb out... the rubber seal in behind the bulb was pretty stiff. Then out came the bulb. At first it seemed weird to have to remove this thing from a separate plastic socket after unplugging the lights... but I got past that. Then came the next part....
Right side. Had a little more trouble pulling the damn rubber seal off... leaned a little into it.. popped off nicely... HOWEVER... in doing so.. I somehow cracked the top off of the power steering reservoir where you fill the fluid from. The plastic looked kinda thick... but I'm still surprised how easily it cracked off.
Definitely an " oh shit " moment. No worried about the lack of pressure the PS may have, I offer up get this fixed for him.. since I've done enough damage and won't attempt this myself.
So... about 1300 bucks later... thats One Three Zero Zero point Zero Zero dollars... it was fixed. Power steering reservoir replaced entirely. A number of places were called around here, and only Mazda of course could get the part and fix it. A very expensive lesson for me. I had asked what such a replacement would cost on my car ( Civic ), it wasn't even half that.
I won't be doing anything with anyone's vehicles except my own for the next while. :nutty:
Ouch! :(
I was trying to reassemble my VW engine and managed to crimp one of the push rod tube ends into a square...it's supposed to be round. The smart thing is to gently pull the ends to stretch the tubes out so the will seal tightly. Trying to cut corners, I decided to use a pair of pliers to get a better grip, wrapping a paper towel around the end to protect it. The paper towel worked, I didn't gouge the metal. I sure bent the hell out of it though.
So, I'll have to wait for a new set to arrive this week before I can continue.
Ouch Northlands, thats gotta hurt!
Quote from: Danish on February 09, 2008, 02:11:03 PM
Ouch Northlands, thats gotta hurt!
Yeah, I wasn't impressed with myself over that one. Nor the garage that fixed the car. These things happen. If you think that was bad, the scene describing what had all occurred to my woman was even worse... lol
The last time I did any extensive mechanical work resulted in the need for a tow truck...
I think I had to replace an axle on my first Accord; I was so eager to get back onto the road I forgot to finish putting on the shock fork. I left the bolt out.
Needless to say, things didn't end well once the arm couldn't support the weight of the car on one fork. I made it about a mile before I started seeing smoke from the front right corner sinking into the ground...
(http://i178.photobucket.com/albums/w272/futuresixtytwo/is_00127.jpg)
(http://i178.photobucket.com/albums/w272/futuresixtytwo/is_00128.jpg)
Lo-ridin. :mrcool:
Seeing these pictures of this car make me so nostalgic :(
Too much camber! Not enough NOS!
Quote from: Secret Chimp on February 04, 2008, 09:38:40 PM
(http://www.americansweets.co.uk/ekmps/shops/statesidecandy/images/poppycock_butter_pecan_gift_tin%5Bekm%5D400x300%5Bekm%5D.jpg)?
I need to acquire some of those.