The biggest mistake You have made during working on your car?

[Benjinkan]

Not strictly working on a car, but my gearbox packed in and rather than get it trailered to the garage (£70 is), my wife insisted on towing the S2 behind her Corrado VR6. I ummed and ahhed alot but finally relented. Long story short, white van pulled out in front of her, she braked hard, me less so.

Ouch

Fortunately there was no creasing of the bonnet etc. so it all pulled out, needs a new front bumper though, gaffer tape isn't the best look. Back of the VR is a little dented, but it's coming off the road for a bit this winter so I'll be sorting that too.

[sidrick]

- Putting HT leads back on in the wrong order after changing plugs on an old BMW of mine.
- Constantly closing the bonnet while I still have tools sitting on the engine or slam panel of cars.

[Christophski]

I have a VW T4 and it has caused me hassle after hassle. It had been sat for a while so got it home and did both cambelts, bottom pulley, clutch, clutch slave, alternator, exhaust etc etc... see where its going?

Anyway got it all done and on the road, took it to Cornwal for a few days and it started making a bad sound. Got it home and figured out the bottom damper pulley that was new was shot so tried to get it off to replace with another new one. Got it off and went to bolt the new one on and on of the bolts snapped the the sprocket on the cam open. Didnt realise so tried to start it. Mistake. Had to get a new sprocket cog thing and tried to get the new damper pulley off but somehow it had managed to lodge itself on the sprocket so with no bolts holding it on it wouldnt come off. Had to put a screwdriver on the back of the pulley to try to prise it off the sprocket. In the process it pulled the sprocket cog off the cam and also nicked the cam belt so had to get a new belt, and sprocket and do the belts all over again. Luckily nothing was bent rod wise and timing was all sorted ok.

Biggest mistake I ever made could have cost me the motor and I wish it had as the bloomin thing is now in limp mode and I cant seem to be able to fix it! Thinking of throwing a match on it but trying to resist the urge for my girlfriends sake!

[Jonas_R]

I was using a torque wrench with a water pipe on it to torque the crankshaft bolt to 450 nm when the tap on the wrench broke and I flew a couple of meters through the garage.

Getting pulled over in Germany for doing 200 km/h in a construction zone = very expensive and cops with machine guns.

Changing the injectors and the plastic insert when one broke and fell onto the valve. Took me a while to get all the plastic out.

[Christophski]

A mate works in a garage and was using an extension bar on a hub nut I think and it slipped or something, pinged up and caught him in the eye. He hnearly lost his eye over that one. Hospital and eye patch for a while.

[S2Roo]

Cleaning a three week old MAF (it didnt even need cleaning) and poking my finger through the wire!!

[pasbogdan]

Getting out a tdi injector seal out with screw tap and fall the screw tap into the cilinder.
It was a max 8 or 10 mm hole and the piece that was in the cilinder was aprox 10 mm long.Magnets,tools but it was not needed to get the cilinder head off.That took almost half a day.
That was a gynecologist job
Or not?the hole was only 10 mm in diameter

[gripper]

Long time ago but here goes....
When I was in my teens I had a few fast escort mkII's. One day I had to replace the UJ in the prop. A mate who was the most 'knowledgeable' of my friends offered to pop by and check it over for me.
My mate: Them circlips are not seated properly
Me: They're sound,they're seated and they are not going anywhere (famous last words)

2 weeks later while changing down from 4th, BANG BIG TIME
The noise and the shock from losing the prop (which also took out some brake pipes etc) was SCARY !!

Then I had the indignity of having to walk back 50 yrds to retrieve my propshaft !!
As well as my mate telling me 'I told you' !!

[jogi730]

As I can't do any serious work myself, my biggest mistake was letting Field Motorsport work on my car. He f**ked up my car and screwed me over well and good

[martinws]

Just thought of another after reading christophski' reply

I was in a scrap yard taking new discs and calipers of a b4 coupe and i was using a big crow bar(that i had sharpened on the grinder the day before) to wedge the balljoint off the bottom to make it easier to get to the rear bolts. I had tried levering it away from me but ended up pulling it up as hard as i could.
It slipped and the bent sharp end hit me just above the top lip on the left hand side, cut straight through and chipped my teeth. I kind of puffed air into my cheeks to stop myself swearing to which blood and water squirted out the hole. My mate standing facing the other way turned round to me not looking to amused.haha. funny now but when i have a clean shave i have a scar above my lip.

Moral: dont pull acrow bar towards you!

[macspring]

Took off my good watch in the breakers yard so as not to scratch it's glass. It fell out of my pocket and it was lost.

Went back but never found it.

Always wondered did someone else find it or was it crushed along with a scrap car.

Cut my hand in a breakers year and so decided to play it safe this time and get a tetanus injection. Went to the A & E, waited hours will no food eaten that day, and they gave me the injection standing up, and so I promptly fainted to the floor in a complete heap and smashed my nose. Had to go into hopsital a week or two later to have my nose reset.

The cut hand healed fine and was relatively minor, and on reflection, I shouldn't have bothered going to the hospital.

My kids have since dislodged my nose / broken it again, as I have once with a breaker bar slipping off a nut whilst lying under the car on the drive.

[anthonys2]

Easy this for me as I couldn't believe my own stupidity! Washed the S2 and couldn't get some bird shiit off so i used a little scourer pad it got the bird stuff off but I scratched the paint work in 2 places!! Morale of the story never wash your blooody car during a hangover or after a heavy night out with the boys!!!

[Rikki Kitto]

Not using the gearbox spacer on an engine swap then realising we needed it

[Vorsprung durch Technik]

After rebuilding the entire front suspension on my previous 80 2.6 avant i realised one side the spring wasn't seated correctly.Having already done the job on each side to undo and rectify one side so in effect a third time took 20 mins flat out. Dealer labour hours and reates are a joke.

Using the angle grinder years ago and being tired then accidentally letting the blade touch my thigh whilst trying to rest going through my jeans and drawing blood.

Yes i had arc eye a couple times again years ago.Used to do quite a bit of welding.You tend to get complacent. It's a lovely feeling not being able to open ones eyes and them feeling full of sand

Another one.......hot molten beads running down your shirt and onto your body whilst Mig welding. Painful.

Don't you just hate dropping small nuts or screws necessitating removal of the undertray.

I have a healthy fear of screwing up major engine work/timing belts etc so touch wood.Never had a problem,

All part of lifes experience!

[rj scotty]

After rebuilding the entire front suspension on my previous 80 2.6 avant i realised one side the spring wasn't seated correctly.Having already done the job on each side to undo and rectify one side so in effect a third time took 20 mins flat out. Dealer labour hours and reates are a joke.

Using the angle grinder years ago and being tired then accidentally letting the blade touch my thigh whilst trying to rest going through my jeans and drawing blood.

Yes i had arc eye a couple times again years ago.Used to do quite a bit of welding.You tend to get complacent. It's a lovely feeling not being able to open ones eyes and them feeling full of sand

Another one.......hot molten beads running down your shirt and onto your body whilst Mig welding. Painful.

Don't you just hate dropping small nuts or screws necessitating removal of the undertray.

I have a healthy fear of screwing up major engine work/timing belts etc so touch wood.Never had a problem,

All part of lifes experience!

nothing worse