admit to your stupidity

[3.2 CAB]

IT HAPPENS!

[xlr8]

On my first 911 oil change I did my research and was confident that I could do the change without spilling anything. Unfortunately, I didn't notice there was a hole melted in the bottom of my new catch pan.

[3.2 CAB]

Some really great stories here! Have been laughing all morning

[azasadny]

When I got my '74 911 in June 2002, the first thing I did when driving the car home was reset the trip odometer. I didn't know that if you reset it while moving the odometer could break, which mine did!

[3.2 CAB]

My most recent screw up was to buy a new oil catch pan, and thinking I could use it to drain the oil from the 84' 3.2. Had 19-20 quart capacity. But when the oil comes out of a 3.2 at the speed of sound, that damn little screw in hole plug in the top of the drain pan won't let the oil into the pan as fast as it is coming out of the tank. So I got to see what about 3-4 qts of used oil looked like on my new garage floor. DUHHHH

[Craig 930 RS]

Working on my first car, a Fiat X!/9 25 years ago;
.
First step..........do NOT disconnect battery.
Second....work on under dash wiring.
Third...Massive wiring fire.
Fourth.......Mom gets severe smoke inhalation putting out fire.
Learning........priceless!!

Craig
RS

[tshegos]

Blowing away a Mustang 5.0 off the line at a traffic light - not realizing a trooper was directly behind me.... I told him I was extremely sorry, but the mustang had been following me for 10 blocks. I was let off with a warning and a complement on my wide-body. Not sure which was a deeper red - the guards paint or my face.....

[djmcmath]

Originally posted by 3.2 CAB
My most recent screw up was to buy a new oil catch pan, and thinking I could use it to drain the oil from the 84' 3.2. Had 19-20 quart capacity. But when the oil comes out of a 3.2 at the speed of sound, that damn little screw in hole plug in the top of the drain pan won't let the oil into the pan as fast as it is coming out of the tank. So I got to see what about 3-4 qts of used oil looked like on my new garage floor. DUHHHH

Ooh, ooh! I did that, too! I even compounded it by trying to slow the flow of oil with my finger. Then it wasn't just my garage floor all nasty, it was _me_ all nasty!


Dan

[dfw911]

1st oil change on the 911 I decided to remove the sump plate cover and check the screen. This is 2 days after buying the car. Next day after the oil change I notice about a quart of oil on the floor undereath the sump plate. Conclude that gasket did not properly seal. Drain oil, replace gasket, button up and refill with oil. The next morning ther is another small lake of oil under the sump plate. Conclude that nuts that attach the sump plate are not tight enough. Pull out three studs while overtorqueing the nuts. Fix studs, replace gasket, properly torque and refill with oil. Oil immediately begins dripping from sump. Later that day a friend who owns a p-car stops by to see the new car. I tell him my sad story so he has a look under the car and begins laughing uncontrollably before telling me -
"you have put the sump plate on upside down, and better, you have done it three times in a row"

[GSpreeman]

Ah well, I inherited my grandfather's 1964 Mercury Comet. It had 189,000 miles on it and still purred like a kitten. Drove it out west and would put it in neutral on the way down the long hills and then drop it back into 3rd when the car slowed to about 40mph (had to guess the RPMs, no tach). Worked a few times and then I ended up driving 50 miles into Twin Falls Idaho on the Interstate in 1st gear (wasted 2nd and 3rd gears.

[vash]

the night before a snowboarding trip, i decided to check my oil on my pickup. holy crap the hood doesnt open! amazingly, i manage to take off my grill on the chevy from the outside. with tiny tools and a flashlight. i yell for my girlfriend to come and pull the handle so can see if anything is broken or not moving. she ask me, "what handle? i cant see!" i get all grouchy and go to the door and shine the light on the handle, and say sarcastically, "that handle!" she then says in the sweetest voice, "the one that says BRAKE RELEASE?" i was pulling the wrong handle! i managed with the flashlight and tiny tools to get the truck back together for the trip. i am so lucky i even have a woman.

cliff

[svandamme]

trying to restore a porsche, and not using a rotisserie,
using a rotation thing that mounts to the wheel hubs
which works , but not if you get all exited and start going mid-evil on the belly of the car, so the whole car moves around, while the hubs are sideways on the jig....

today i found out what the result is

i've got about 7 degrees negative camber on my right rear trailer arm now...


if anybody in my neighbourhood has a right rear trailing arm for a 73 S lying around.. gimme a shout...don't go nuts with the price though , i'm bound to run into more dumbass mistakes before my car is rolling again...and i'm already way over budget... luckely i'm single, and nobody around to nag about my car-expenses..
maybe someone should though

then again.. i wouldn't listen

[brittbolen]

While trying to rebuild my brakes I hooked the caliper up to the air compressor to blow the pistons out. I cranked up the pressure to, oh, 80 psi, and had a decent seal on the hard line. I applied pressure, nothing happened, pistons didn't move. So I let off the pressure, and the remaining brake fluid in the caliper shot me in the face. I was about 1 inch from drinking brake fluid.

now i drain the calipers first, and wear a face shield.

B

[ken_xman]

friends father calls after changing oil on a maxima for the first time. engine bucks and its stuck 1 mile from the house.
He drained the tranny fluid and added 5 more qts to the oil.
It was dusk and he didnt see the tranny fluid color.....looked like pretty clean oil.......
cooked the tranny!

[Randy Webb]

The stupidest things I have ever done is to trust my mechanic. It is times like these that I envy those who live in big cities where there is a choice of Porsche mechanics.

[Rondinone]

Went to the dyno today. The 79SC only pulled 137 on the first run. So I put the emergency brake down and tried again.

[Steve87-911]

I'm sure it's only a matter of time for me to blow it. But my brother did a big stupid one. After changing his oil on his late 70s VW camper bus, he proceeded to tighten the oil drain/screen plate nut. Being the perfectionist he is, he thought he'd tighten the nut nice and tight. Oops, too tight - SNAP! According to him, the long bolt on which the nut was attached reaches way up into the heart of the engine, and it snapped in half. (Unlike the simple oil drain bolt on the bugs.)

Now that this bolt no longer exisited, a complete split of the case was required to make his bus driveable again. I think it cost him over $1000.00 to have the engine rebuilt.

Forgotten torque wrench - $30
Too many beers and perfectionism - $1000.00 +
Me trying not to laugh to hard - priceless.
-Steve

[A Quiet Boom]

Spent a fortune building up a mustang drag car, 410" motor, lots of power, custom clutch for a custom toploader trans. However one of the first mods recommended on 5.0 Mustangs if to replace the factory plastic self adjusting clutch quadrant with a manually adjusted aluminum one. Well in my infinate wisdom I didn't do that. Take it to the track, run several races and then I'm staged at 6000rpm against the stutter box full throttle, before the lights come down and before I'm ready the damn thing breaks, I panic an lift of the gas immediately bringing the car down from it's 3 foot wheelie hard enough to crush the header collectors half shut, bend the oil pan and send one strut through the hood causing the car to vear to the right and almost hit the guardrail! All that damage for a $50 part YUCK!

[PorscheRB]

Buying a Porsche at 17 years old was stupid enough... but I love my baby

Left it running in neutral once while I moved other cars to make room in the driveway... car rolled down my street towards BUSY street at the bottom of my block... saw her going and threw my dad's car in neutral, RAN out, long jumped clear across the side of my neighbor's lawn, got in the car and rammed my foot into the well hoping I'd hit a pedal. Hit the gas. 2nd try, hit the clutch. One leg in the car, everything else hanging outside. Finally got the brake but by that time I was going 20mph and there were 10 feet left before I hit the street. Luckily there was a pile of plowed-over, unmelted snow to steer her into to stop her. 1 foot from traffic.

Drove to Hershey and the C/D box blew on the way home. Made the mistake of leaving the car at Easton Auto Body, PA. $465 emergency cash stolen from the trunk, entire front electrical, including lights, fogs, radio, signals, shot. Bad regulator fried the battery on the drive home. Barely made it.

Skipped class (ahh, to be in High School) with some girls and the 911... seemed like a great idea until the car died in the parking lot of the ice cream place.

More that I can't think of, I'm sure...

Ian

[Tim K]

1974 BMW 2002. Forgot to reinstal cotter pin in big castelated nut on stub axle. I was running 7" wheels in those tiny wheel wells. Sitting at a red light, through my side view mirror, I could see a few inches of tire protruding outside of my rear wheel well! Nut was long gone. Stub shaft threads were riding on the wheel center. I bumbed a ride home to get some files to clean up the mess I'd made of the threads, and a nut and cotter pin from parts car. Angels do exist.

Oh, and use a small container to pour gas down a carb. That way it will only be a small container of gas that is on fire when the engine back fires!

Tim K