Embrace Your Humility...Embarrassing Wrenching Stories
Discussion
Post your shameful and virtually too embarrassing of a story you experienced one time wrenching on your vehicle...
Mine is truly embarrassing, but I have carried this shame far too long. I am ready to unload this heavy burden...
One time in my 20s I had a Hyundai Accent as a run around car, and she needed an oil change so I pulled it into my garage and began draining the oil. Well... I began to suspect something wasnt correct when then 5 gallon oil pan was seconds away from over flowing!!!
I quickly put the drain plug back in and scratched my head. For s
ts and giggles I started her up to move her just a few feet out of the garage and into clearer day light...
As I put it in reverse the revs shot up but the car went nowhere...
Many if not all of you have guessed by now what I had done...
I drained the damned transmission fluid!!
It was a very embarrassing moment for me that I dont tell many people!!
Who's Next???
Mine is truly embarrassing, but I have carried this shame far too long. I am ready to unload this heavy burden...
One time in my 20s I had a Hyundai Accent as a run around car, and she needed an oil change so I pulled it into my garage and began draining the oil. Well... I began to suspect something wasnt correct when then 5 gallon oil pan was seconds away from over flowing!!!
I quickly put the drain plug back in and scratched my head. For s
ts and giggles I started her up to move her just a few feet out of the garage and into clearer day light...As I put it in reverse the revs shot up but the car went nowhere...
Many if not all of you have guessed by now what I had done...
I drained the damned transmission fluid!!
It was a very embarrassing moment for me that I dont tell many people!!
Who's Next???
In my younger days...
Took the cap off the coolant tank to top up the fluid. Placed cap on top of engine block. Topped coolant up...
... fast forward some considerable amount of time...
Noticed an "upwards" dent in the middle of the bonnet and wondered how it could have happened. Opened it and found the coolant tank cap still on top of the engine block.
Facepalm.
Took the cap off the coolant tank to top up the fluid. Placed cap on top of engine block. Topped coolant up...
... fast forward some considerable amount of time...
Noticed an "upwards" dent in the middle of the bonnet and wondered how it could have happened. Opened it and found the coolant tank cap still on top of the engine block.
Facepalm.
Screwdriver for me on top of the engine as I let go of the bonnet to let it slam shut I noticed it. It was like slow motion as I shut my eyes as it fell.
Yep big dent in the bonnet. My first ever car a C reg nova merit. Friends dad did some amateur bodywork stuff. Taped the dent in and the filled it and rattle can of paint later it looked terrible, didn’t care it was my first car.
Disconnected the battery on my cayman and then shut the frunk. Bloody tt lol.
Yep big dent in the bonnet. My first ever car a C reg nova merit. Friends dad did some amateur bodywork stuff. Taped the dent in and the filled it and rattle can of paint later it looked terrible, didn’t care it was my first car.
Disconnected the battery on my cayman and then shut the frunk. Bloody t
t lol. Escort MK II - large ring spanner on the crank pulley to help turn the engine over while setting the timing.
Finished, got into the car and attempted to start the engine which resulted in an almighty bang from under the bonnet.
Yes, I had forgotten to remove the ring spanner... What a spanner I was...
Finished, got into the car and attempted to start the engine which resulted in an almighty bang from under the bonnet.
Yes, I had forgotten to remove the ring spanner... What a spanner I was...
My worst was rebuilding a drive shaft.
PITA and messy job to dismantle the CV joins, clean and degrease bearings. Did boots both sides whilst the shaft was out.
Regreased
New boots
Refit the whole thing to the hub
….. but couldn’t get the last plate to line up wit the gearbox, no matter how I pushed, pulled and twisted
Turns out the inner race of a CV joint can go in upside down, and in doing so effectively locks the joint straight on.
Had to dismantle it all again and it was a hateful job.
PITA and messy job to dismantle the CV joins, clean and degrease bearings. Did boots both sides whilst the shaft was out.
Regreased
New boots
Refit the whole thing to the hub
….. but couldn’t get the last plate to line up wit the gearbox, no matter how I pushed, pulled and twisted
Turns out the inner race of a CV joint can go in upside down, and in doing so effectively locks the joint straight on.
Had to dismantle it all again and it was a hateful job.
Trying to undo a hub nut; I slipped a bit of pipe over my breaker bar to extend the handle and give me more leverage but it still wouldn’t release so I stood on the bar and bounced to try and free it but I slipped off and hit my eyebrow on the bar as I went down needing a trip to A&E and a couple of stitches. I still have the scar nearly 40 years later.
Similar to above, trying to to remove a bolt from the lower strut to the hub on a MR2 - ended up with my head in the wheel well, straining with all my might!
Socket slips off the nut, ratchet handle spanks into the middle of my forehead and I smash the back of my head into the wheel arch!! Ended up with a massive egg sized lump in the middle of my head and a rather bruised ego...
Socket slips off the nut, ratchet handle spanks into the middle of my forehead and I smash the back of my head into the wheel arch!! Ended up with a massive egg sized lump in the middle of my head and a rather bruised ego...
I just remembered another...
Removing the gearbox on my own (MK II Escort) - I had wound the windows down and laid a plank of wood across from door to door, with a rope tied to it.
Said rope was then threaded through the gear lever hole and around the box, so as to catch the weight of the box as I released it from the engine.
Only it didn't. The plank of wood promptly snapped in half and I was left laid under the car pinned down by a gearbox.
I managed to wriggle out and let the gearbox drop to the ground.
What a genius moment that was...!
Removing the gearbox on my own (MK II Escort) - I had wound the windows down and laid a plank of wood across from door to door, with a rope tied to it.
Said rope was then threaded through the gear lever hole and around the box, so as to catch the weight of the box as I released it from the engine.
Only it didn't. The plank of wood promptly snapped in half and I was left laid under the car pinned down by a gearbox.
I managed to wriggle out and let the gearbox drop to the ground.
What a genius moment that was...!
Many moons ago (about y2k) I was renewing the discs and pads on my Vauxhall Omega, All was going well, dead easy in fact until I started chatting with my son while I was doing the right rear.
All done and off for a test drive, pump the pedal up first (not catching me like that) and off we go, brakes are, okay but not sparkling until; I have to do the first BIG stop when I realise we have a problem. Drove home very slowly and vowed to pay more attention in future as I realised I'd left the right rear disc pads on the drive.
All done and off for a test drive, pump the pedal up first (not catching me like that) and off we go, brakes are, okay but not sparkling until; I have to do the first BIG stop when I realise we have a problem. Drove home very slowly and vowed to pay more attention in future as I realised I'd left the right rear disc pads on the drive.
My first car was a 1965 Mini and the gearstick kept jumping out of 2nd and 4th gear.
I removed the carpet and realised the 3 foot long gearstick, remember those, would not pull back far enough when changing gear and was hitting the back of the hole on the transmission tunnel the gear stick came through.
I duly cut about 2 inches of transmission tunnel away at the back which allowed me to pull the gearstick back further to engage 2nd and 4th gear properly.
About two weeks later I told a friend who was a mechanic what I had done who between bouts of laughter told me the rear engine mounts were worn and the back of the engine had dropped downwards resulting in the gearstick fouling on the rear of the hole in the transmission tunnel.
I also drove that car around for about 2 months with about 30 house bricks in the boot when the hydro elastic suspension developed a leak at the front to stop the front wheel arches fouling the front tyres every time I went over a bump.
I removed the carpet and realised the 3 foot long gearstick, remember those, would not pull back far enough when changing gear and was hitting the back of the hole on the transmission tunnel the gear stick came through.
I duly cut about 2 inches of transmission tunnel away at the back which allowed me to pull the gearstick back further to engage 2nd and 4th gear properly.
About two weeks later I told a friend who was a mechanic what I had done who between bouts of laughter told me the rear engine mounts were worn and the back of the engine had dropped downwards resulting in the gearstick fouling on the rear of the hole in the transmission tunnel.
I also drove that car around for about 2 months with about 30 house bricks in the boot when the hydro elastic suspension developed a leak at the front to stop the front wheel arches fouling the front tyres every time I went over a bump.
Dad had a Bedford van conversion camper van thing. I was "helping" by taking out the large battery (it had 2, one for driving, and a larger one for when it was being used as a camper).
The spanner was just big enough that with your hand on one end it would reach from one battery pole to the other.
I was inside the van with the seat up one moment, next I was lying at the back of the van on the drive and my hand was hot but luckily not burnt. All I can think of was that the buzz had thrown me out before it got too bad?
The spanner was just big enough that with your hand on one end it would reach from one battery pole to the other.
I was inside the van with the seat up one moment, next I was lying at the back of the van on the drive and my hand was hot but luckily not burnt. All I can think of was that the buzz had thrown me out before it got too bad?
As a callow 15 year-old back in Norfolk in the mid 1980s I had an MOT failure Mini 1275GT as a field car.
After sitting around at a garage for several months after failing its MOT, one of the already marginal rubber brake hoses to the OSF brake ruptured just before the calliper. No problem thought the adolescent budding automotive genius, it has a split system, so I'll just clamp some mole grips above the rupture and use the other 'half' of the braking system.
It worked for a while and, as I bounced around farm tracks and paddocks, I put the increasingly spongey brake pedal down to only having half the system.
My folks place has a long, straight, concrete back drive leading from the road down to the stable yard, farm yard and, ultimately down past their house to a couple of farm workers' cottages. You could easily get up to 30 before the turn into the stable yard where, as well as the stables and tack room, the family garages are. I hit 30 and slammed on the brakes for the 90 degree turn through the narrow gateway into the stable yard only for my foot to go straight to the floor. Even if I had, by some miracle, made the turn, I would have then been in a brakeless car negotiating a crowded stable yard with the potential for some very expensive hunters trotting about, to say nothing of the old man's XJ-S, my mother's Range Rover and sundry other vehicles.
Despite frantic deployment of the useless handbrake, things weren't looking any better 50 yards down the drive for the similarly tight entrance to the farmyard. No choice but to go straight on towards the cottages that were dead ahead at the end of the drive. Thank God the owners of the left-hand cottage were out so no car in their drive and, most importantly, no one on the drive or in the garden. Probably only doing 15MPH by this stage, it still felt like warp-speed as, more by luck than judgement, I threaded the Mini through the gap between the cottage and it's detatched single garage, bumped across a flower bed, the cottage lawn and gently came to rest in a beech hedge at the end of the garden.
After a few moments reflection, I gingerly reversed my route, pushed the Mini into the farm yard and, rather shakily crept into my folks house, wondering if anyone had seen my embarrassment.
About 30 minutes later, my father wandered in from another part of the house and was surprised to see his 15 year-old son sitting at the kitchen table drinking his Glen Fiddich from a mug at three o'clock on a Saturday afternoon.
Fortunately all saw the funny side and, a few days later, the groom even found the errant mole-grips lying in one of the paddocks and presented them to me, mounted on a piece of wood.
After sitting around at a garage for several months after failing its MOT, one of the already marginal rubber brake hoses to the OSF brake ruptured just before the calliper. No problem thought the adolescent budding automotive genius, it has a split system, so I'll just clamp some mole grips above the rupture and use the other 'half' of the braking system.
It worked for a while and, as I bounced around farm tracks and paddocks, I put the increasingly spongey brake pedal down to only having half the system.
My folks place has a long, straight, concrete back drive leading from the road down to the stable yard, farm yard and, ultimately down past their house to a couple of farm workers' cottages. You could easily get up to 30 before the turn into the stable yard where, as well as the stables and tack room, the family garages are. I hit 30 and slammed on the brakes for the 90 degree turn through the narrow gateway into the stable yard only for my foot to go straight to the floor. Even if I had, by some miracle, made the turn, I would have then been in a brakeless car negotiating a crowded stable yard with the potential for some very expensive hunters trotting about, to say nothing of the old man's XJ-S, my mother's Range Rover and sundry other vehicles.
Despite frantic deployment of the useless handbrake, things weren't looking any better 50 yards down the drive for the similarly tight entrance to the farmyard. No choice but to go straight on towards the cottages that were dead ahead at the end of the drive. Thank God the owners of the left-hand cottage were out so no car in their drive and, most importantly, no one on the drive or in the garden. Probably only doing 15MPH by this stage, it still felt like warp-speed as, more by luck than judgement, I threaded the Mini through the gap between the cottage and it's detatched single garage, bumped across a flower bed, the cottage lawn and gently came to rest in a beech hedge at the end of the garden.
After a few moments reflection, I gingerly reversed my route, pushed the Mini into the farm yard and, rather shakily crept into my folks house, wondering if anyone had seen my embarrassment.
About 30 minutes later, my father wandered in from another part of the house and was surprised to see his 15 year-old son sitting at the kitchen table drinking his Glen Fiddich from a mug at three o'clock on a Saturday afternoon.
Fortunately all saw the funny side and, a few days later, the groom even found the errant mole-grips lying in one of the paddocks and presented them to me, mounted on a piece of wood.
Edited by ClaphamGT3 on Sunday 28th August 22:44
Oil change, 1992 MR2 Turbo.
Dropped oil, replaced filter, refilled oil, started engine, checked pressure. All good so left engine running whilst I cleared the tools away.
Only, I hadn’t replaced the filter, I’d taken the old one off and got distracted. The new filter was on the passenger seat. I realised when walking back to the car having seen a puddle on the ground.
The engine was fine. However, I was now in need of more oil from the motor factor having emptied the sump. I also used many litres of cleaning fluid to fix the driveway.
Dropped oil, replaced filter, refilled oil, started engine, checked pressure. All good so left engine running whilst I cleared the tools away.
Only, I hadn’t replaced the filter, I’d taken the old one off and got distracted. The new filter was on the passenger seat. I realised when walking back to the car having seen a puddle on the ground.
The engine was fine. However, I was now in need of more oil from the motor factor having emptied the sump. I also used many litres of cleaning fluid to fix the driveway.
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