What's your biggest dumbass moment when working on your car?

suhhh

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For me it was when I was installing my catless downpipe with my buddy

When I removed the intake to reach the downpipe I stuck a microfiber cloth in the hole so nothing would get in. Ended up dropping a nut inside the front bumper so we had to stop to take off the front bumper. Needed to turn the wheel left so my dumbass STARTED the car, and tried to turn the wheel, forgetting for a second that my intake was off. Lone behold I'm shitting bricks thinking the microfiber got sucked all the way in while proceeding to throw hands at myself while profusely sweating and having heart complications. For the next hour me and my friend were trying to find the longest thing possible to dig it out and ended up finding a super long screwdriver and slowly managed to dig it out after 30 long minutes. Long story short, use more than 2% of your brain when installing parts.

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bcrichster

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Installing the new Hella Horns.. Lol. I figured out the best horn placements AFTER I had made the jumpers for between Horns and realized they weren't nowhere near long enough.. AFTER Honda said they was too short for their installation. (Hidden agreement, Lol). So I went myself with tools to resolve the situation and was grateful I'd thought ahead to buy the 4pk as a "just-in-case" of horn connectors (instead of 1 or 2) from eBay as I wasted 3 of them just getting it perfect, Lol. Honda guys gave their approval before I left. ?
 

Drake

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For some reason as soon as I get my hand on a wrench my directional sense jumps ship and I start turning bolts tighter that I'm trying to take off. Stupid head + weak bolts = lots of emergency runs to the parts store.
 

charleswrivers

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Just one...? I don’t I can manage that.

Reusing isolators for the rear shocks on one of my older 300zxs and, when going over railroad tracks for the first time a mile or two from my home at the time. The old rubber failed and the shock shot up through the broken mount and struck the bottom of the 6 1/2” speaker that gets mounted immediately above the shock. It broke the 3 mounting screws off it... pushed off the trim cover and had the rear speaker dangling by its wires with the top portion of the shock poking out of its home and visible from inside the car and that corner no longer being properly supported.

There’s so many... many more. That one kind of stands out. It was a good... 16 years ago or so... but I still remember going over the railroad tracks and hearing that awful racket seeing a the shock raising its hand and scolding me for cheaping out by not replacing $10, near 20-year-old mounts when I was spending a couple hundred on the shocks themselves.

Made a mess from not putting the oil cap and idling a car immediately after an oil change on probably my first or second change ever 20-ish years ago. Blown a couple of fuses. Killed headlight bulbs way early from not cleaning my grubby fingerprints off of them. Lost literally every tool and fastener imaginable in an engine bay and even dropped the damn magnetic wand thing and had to fish it out. Broke all manner of fasteners. Sprayed myself with fuel. Set my shocks wrong and gotten myself car sick for ones what weren’t adjustable from inside the car. Pulled incorrect sensors based on bad guesses on which one I needed to pull. Managed to get shards of rust in my eye trying to pull O2 sensor off it’s tab while working directly under it w/o eye protection. I’m just going to stop. Failure is a good teacher though... and I rarely make the same mistake twice. I’m always managing to find new ways to be a dumbass though. ?
 

krees

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A few years ago, I was doing a cable adjustment on a k24 (element) and apparently I left 1 rocker nut loose. Put everything back together and cranked her up. Immediately heard loud tapping and knew something was wrong. Luckily the nut landed in a puddle of oil on the edge of the head instead of falling down into the block. Was able to install the nut correctly and all was well. I may have needed new underwear afterwards though.
 


shoegazer

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During my first ever horn upgrade; I hadn't grasped the concept that the horn wires were always energized and that the button just connected the ground. I was underneath, the incorrectly wired horns were 12" away from my face, and I connected the difficult to reach and release, plastic connectors together. Not only was it like a jet engine; but I couldn't easily or quickly disconnect the Houdini locking harness pieces. I wiggled out from underneath and managed to pull the damned fuse. But not until a solid minute of disaster warning signals had alerted my neighbors that I was a dumbass.
 

pinhead66

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I was installing rear 5th gen camaro brembos on my pontiac g8 gt that needed custom parking brake shoes since the camaro rotor hats were larger. The custom parking shoes didn't fit though so I decided to skip them for the time being. My dumb ass didn't install the oem parking shoes back however and after several miles of driving the actuator parts that spreads the brake shoe came loose and was freely rattling around inside the rotor hat. Eventually, the loose parts in there got caught and exploded a good sized chunk of the rotor hat that miraculously cleared out of the wheel without damaging anything else. This was my worst story.
 

SixSpeeder

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I've got a good one, I was installing high flow cats on my 2015 Camaro SS and an 02 sensor would not come off of the OEM exhaust. I tried everything, a torch, lube, force, taking breaks, more force, glaring at it, etc. Eventually I'm straddling the mofo with all of my weight attempting to get it to break free when lo and behold, it finally breaks free! And then all of that force slams my knuckles into the side of the cat busting them open spectacularly. I ended up having to get a few stitches on the back of my hand, this was the only time in my life that I needed stitches. I'm lucky that my GF was home at the time to give me a ride to the ER since my car was not driveable, and I was in no shape to drive anyways if it had been.

Why not have just used a breaker bar or take it to a shop SixSpeeder you say? Because in that moment, I was being a big dumbass.
 

krees

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Another one. I was replacing rotors, calipers, and pads on a late 90s Nissan 4x4 Pathfinder with my brother-in-law for his friend and we went to the local AutoZone (or whatever) and asked for 2 front calipers. Ran back to the garage and began wrenching them on. We were able to get them on with minimal issue but the passenger side fit a bit funny. It did fit and install, it just seemed weird. We bled the lines and took it for a test drive to bed the pads. On the first stop, it felt like there was considerable air in the lines and it pulled to the driver's side a fair amount. Took it back and bled some more. A few bottles of fluid later and the same issue was present. Turned out that the parts store gave us 2 driver's side calipers and somehow we installed a driver's side caliper on the passenger side. Swapped for the right part and felt perfect.
 

krees

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One final one. I was about 16 and working as a "lofr" (lube, oil, filter, and rotation) at a local shop. I was performing a loafer on an old cj5 Jeep (I think) and I had it on the lift. I had drained the oil and pulled the filter. Then lowered it to get the filter. Got to talking to one of the mechs and forgot all about the filter. I started filling the crank with oil and capped it off. Then, one of the mechs said "let's hear it" and so I jumped in, started it, and started revving. A few second later I noticed the oil pool growing underneath and turned it off immediately. Luckily I caught it quickly but I never heard the end of that one.
 


DRTHVDR

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Took off the fuel line assembly bracket to install a catch can on my FK7. Dropped a bolt down into the skid plate. Tapped the skid plate from underneath to get the bolt to roll to where I could reach it. It instead shot up and out of sight. ....forever. Had to special order a bolt from honda for $3 and wait 2 weeks.


But about 15 or so years ago got home on leave amd decided to take my old truck out for a spin. It had been sitting in my parents garage for over a year. Was so excited to see some friends that I forgot to drain the oil during the oil change and just added 4 quarts on top of what was in there. Blew the head gaskets, oil gasket, oil filter, and a few other items clean off the motor. Sold the truck for scrap 3 days later.
 

Civics4Ever

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Forgetting to tighten the 2 front screws for the skidplate after an oil change. That plate will not stay in place without them!
 
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suhhh

suhhh

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For some reason as soon as I get my hand on a wrench my directional sense jumps ship and I start turning bolts tighter that I'm trying to take off. Stupid head + weak bolts = lots of emergency runs to the parts store.
Hahah I literally do the same thing. Everytime I have to take a bolt out I have to stare at it for a few seconds and say, "Leftie Loosie.... Rightie Tighty...." :drool:
 

verbalj

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This is such a great thread...

Hahah I literally do the same thing. Everytime I have to take a bolt out I have to stare at it for a few seconds and say, "Leftie Loosie.... Rightie Tighty...." :drool:
Same here. I was trying to empty my catch can recently and I kept turning and turning and turning. After about 45 seconds or so, I was like, why the hell isn't this coming loose? Wait a minute...
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