Biggest fool you've ever made of yourself in a garage...

[Blue Oval84]

Well I would say I have a contender for the most foolish I've ever felt, especially now that the pain is starting to really kick in thanks to an ill-advised gym session...

Went to the garage yesterday where a friend works to get him to spin up my summer wheels before I buy new tyres and check the rims are actually circular (most of them aren't apparently!)

Anyway, I had to get them back to my car one by one, the garage is concrete floored and has two floor levels with a ramp providing access to the higher floor, where the balancing machine is.

Thinking it was easier than trying to carry or handle the wheel down the ramp I gave it a slight nudge towards the ramp, walked ahead to the bottom and waited to gently catch it.

That's what I thought would happen anyway.

What actually happened was that my 18" rim and tyre combo gained momentum down the ramp like an Exocet, I put my hands out to catch it and due to the fact I was wearing slippery office footwear and not trainers the wheel simply pushed my legs out from under me and caused me to land hard on the concrete impacting on my ankle, knee, hip and elbow quite heavily. The hip took the worst of it, the elbow pushed upwards into my shoulder and hurt that as well.

Just over 24 hours later and I'm getting gradually stiffer around the neck (although going to the gym tonight didn't help) and am consoling myself purely on the fact that the garage's CCTV wasn't recording at the time.

Anyone else managed to look equally as much of a tt as me?

Edited by Blue Oval84 on Friday 2nd March 00:58

[All that jazz]

Done something similar myself. Once they get a bounce going on them there's no stopping them and you just need to GTFO of the way sharpish!

[TheEnd]

I often turn bolts the wrong way if I'm leaning under a car or something similar.

It's to break the corrosion... honest...

[DanDC5]

Tried out some bonnet risers on my VXR to let heat out, didn't really like a) that they didn't lift the bonnet enough to do anything and b) how it looked anyway, just as I'm undoing the last bolt on the passenger side the bonnet slips out of my hand away from me and across the opposite front wing. My solution - let go and shout it's not gone well while stepping backwards/running away slightly.

Luckily no damage was done but far from my proudest moment, and it still comes up once in a while to random people when I'm there.

[greggy50]

Not me but remember my Dad was looking at a friends new 911 and asked to see the engine whilst proceeding to walk around to the front of the car I hung my head in shame

[deltashad]

After falling out with the workshop I stormed into the dealership to 'have it out with them and remove the car'. The showroom windows were really clean.
I stomped right into the window.
Everyone looked at me and people started laughing.

[thetapeworm]

I once touched the disc to check if the handbrake was frozen on and binding - this was following a 5 mile drive.

I learned that fingers smell of BBQ when they get warm and it's more sensible to touch the wheel to check for heat.

[George H]

I stood up after getting out of an SLS and smacked my head on the stupid gullwing doors. Made myself look a right tit in front of the sales manager

[UnderTheRadar]

In the showroom buying a used MR2 many years back. Me: "I think your sticker price of £17,999 is £500 overpriced." Very attractive young sales lady looks puzzled and says "We can do it for £17,499 for you sir, because that's what the sticker already says"

Even further back changing a clutch on a mates Morris Marina where everything was made of iron and the gearbox was really heavy. We'd undone all the nuts and bolts to get the thing off but it just sat there. My mate crawled underneath to have a look - I didn't realise he'd not put a jack under the box and had crawled under it. So I was looking inside the car at the studs that come up by the gear lever when I spot that they are the problem, they are binding - easly fixed by a whack with a hammer. So I did with out checking under the car and the studs disappeared downward at a rate of knots followed by a huerggg! noise from under the car. Fortunately it landed on his chest which was bruised, not broken; looking back I'm amazed at the stupid risks we took. Happily he broke the fall of the box so it was OK too It was a bugger of a job getting him out.

[Lordglenmorangie]

Blue Oval84 said:

Well I would say I have a contender for the most foolish I've ever felt, especially now that the pain is starting to really kick in thanks to an ill-advised gym session...

Went to the garage yesterday where a friend works to get him to spin up my summer wheels before I buy new tyres and check the rims are actually circular (most of them aren't apparently!)

Anyway, I had to get them back to my car one by one, the garage is concrete floored and has two floor levels with a ramp providing access to the higher floor, where the balancing machine is.

Thinking it was easier than trying to carry or handle the wheel down the ramp I gave it a slight nudge towards the ramp, walked ahead to the bottom and waited to gently catch it.

That's what I thought would happen anyway.

What actually happened was that my 18" rim and tyre combo gained momentum down the ramp like an Exocet, I put my hands out to catch it and due to the fact I was wearing slippery office footwear and not trainers the wheel simply pushed my legs out from under me and caused me to land hard on the concrete impacting on my ankle, knee, hip and elbow quite heavily. The hip took the worst of it, the elbow pushed upwards into my shoulder and hurt that as well.

Just over 24 hours later and I'm getting gradually stiffer around the neck (although going to the gym tonight didn't help) and am consoling myself purely on the fact that the garage's CCTV wasn't recording at the time.

Anyone else managed to look equally as much of a tt as me?

Edited by Blue Oval84 on Friday 2nd March 00:58

You Are the winner by a mile

[vxmatt]

TheEnd said:

I often turn bolts the wrong way if I'm leaning under a car or something similar.

It's to break the corrosion... honest...

I do that with most bolts its normally followed by a tirade of swearing before I realise that I'm being an idiot again.

[eltax91]

I once foolishly has a 306 HDi as a cheap commuter. At MOT it sailed through, but with an advisory on the front shockers. So, I decided, as I was at night school learning basic mechanics, I would have a crack at changing them at a mates house.

So, we loosen the front wheel bolts and jack the front left hand side. After lots of effort, grunting and swearing, we got one side changed. It started to rain so we elected to leave the other side until the next day and I headed for home. On the way, I could hear a horrible noise whenever I turned left, pulled onto the drive and got thoroughly soaked trying to investigate the cause, I couldn't find it for love nor money.

Fast forward a few days and I'd begged one of the college lecturers to come take a look for me. After short 2mph testing session at the end of my street, he sent me back to my drive. I hop out and he asks "got a torque wrench", it was at this point it came flooding back to me, I had loosened the wheels nuts on the drivers side too, but never got around to jacking it up, so forgot to tighten them again!

I had the piss well and truely ripped for weeks after

[LuS1fer]

That would have been £250 on YBF if the CCTV had been rolling though.

[J4CKO]

deltashad said:

After falling out with the workshop I stormed into the dealership to 'have it out with them and remove the car'. The showroom windows were really clean.
I stomped right into the window.
Everyone looked at me and people started laughing.

I did that at Bluebell BMW in Wilmslow, the salesman was apologetic, apparently it happened all the time, hmm, I would perhaps alter the door so people could see it. Was years ago to be fair.

[muley]

1. Undoing the rear hub nut on a classic Mini. Chr!5t - this is tight - eventually used a scaffolding pole to gain enough to undo it. It did come off and my garage owning neighbour gently told me it had a left hand thread (well it did before I started - luckily only the nut was knackered).

2. taking the hood off the Elan - undid all the bolts grabbed the hood - stepped back to discover the seat belt was wrapped round my ankle - so flat on my back I went with the surprisingly heavy hood on top of me.

[myles1972]

Working on my Golf a few years back outside the garage (not strictly the garage I know!) replacing an oil pressure switch. I whipped the old one out and for some reason I cranked the engine over after. I hadn't put the new one in and the oil just gushed out of the 1/4 inch wide hole where the switch was, all over the tarmac. A second or so was enough to pump a goodly amount out.
To this day I do not know what possessed me to walk round from the engine bay to the keys and turn it over.

[TonyHetherington]

eltax91 said:

I had loosened the wheels nuts on the drivers side too, but never got around to jacking it up, so forgot to tighten them again!

Did exactly the same thing on my Elise. Half way down the motorway, all 4 bolts 'just' in, and stopped in some road works and asked for a torque wrench. Felt a bit of a prat

[DaveH23]

A few year ago when we had heavy snow I was helping my my girlfriends brother push his fiesta out of a deep patch when a friendly chap pulled up with a shovel and said he would help dig some of the snow away.

He then asked is it front or rear wheel drive.

Now if he had the common sense to ask front or rear then surely he should of kmown a fiesta is front wheel drive.

[markmullen]

deltashad said:

After falling out with the workshop I stormed into the dealership to 'have it out with them and remove the car'. The showroom windows were really clean.
I stomped right into the window.
Everyone looked at me and people started laughing.

I was supervising a trainee salesman, he quoted the chap a pretty good part exchange figure to which the guy raged "how much? you're taking the piss you fking idiot", slammed his chair back, rushed off straight into the showroom window breaking his nose, claret everywhere. Shame.

[carreauchompeur]

markmullen said:

I was supervising a trainee salesman, he quoted the chap a pretty good part exchange figure to which the guy raged "how much? you're taking the piss you fking idiot", slammed his chair back, rushed off straight into the showroom window breaking his nose, claret everywhere. Shame.

"Tissue Sir?"