Your biggest DIY screwups

Glambutang

Not the z but on my old car 2002 s500 i did something that was a great life lesson. One of the front struts got a leak so i decided to replace it on my own and being a highschool kid who thinks he knows everything i screw up big time. So long story short after 16 hours of struggle, and locking only set of keys in the trunk i took it on 400 mile road trip next day. Right in the middle of the trip at 3 am car displays error saying that brakes need immediate service and air pump for suspension stops working. So im in the middle of nowhere, no AAA, its pouring, car is all the way to the ground, and the worst part there is no service. Man that was scary. Eventually after towing it back home and receiving estimate for the repairs I just sold the car as is. From this i learned
1- let professionals deal with it.
2- never buy benz without warranty.

Chuck33079

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2011 MB Touring-Sport-6sp-Nav/GTM TT/FI TT TDX/JTran/Kosmic/Eibach/Hotchkis/SPC/CSF/RPS/SoThatsWhereAllMyMoneyWent

JARblue

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Meulen

I've had a few that cost me some $$$! None on the Z yet though. I don't know why I keep doing it! lol

1. I stripped a radiator drain bolt changing the fluid for a friend. I would've had to buy him a new radiator had my dad not stepped in and cleaned up the threads for me.

2. 2x I've stripped the bottom bracket of very expensive carbon fiber bicycle frames putting in the bottom bracket bearings! I build bikes a lot, but I don't know why I can't thread those darn things in right ever!

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Follow my build thread here: Meulens Build Journal

Elan

I was changing my 6.5 door speakers. Got everything wired up and it was time to put the door panels back on. Well those plastic clips are literally the worst and who ever invented them should burn for it. Anyways I spent 2 hours trying to get the panel back on. Lining up 8 to 10 crappy plastic clips that fall out and bend is the most frustrating task...I actually got it on once but had to remove it cause the dang window regulator harness was stuck. I got it back on 90% of the way because I bent some door clips causing my door to not close properly. I was so frustrated with it that I said eff it, I'm taking to a shop and they popped it back in using replacement clips.

Now I carry 4 or 5 clips with me when doing audio work just in case. I won't touch those door panels alone however. I am really paranoid with them. Honestly I think the door panel should clip on similarly to how the two knee panels next to the center console using metal and strong ABS clips that are fixed to the piece IMO.

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2009 370Z NISMO #477 | AAM Competition Short Tails | AAM Competition HFCs | K&N Typhoon CAI | Kenwood DPX300U | Rockford Fosgate PRIME R300-4 | Rockford Fosgate Punch P165 | Rockford Fosgate Punch P300-12 | Polk Audio db1001 | 15% Tints | GTR Start Button |

kenchan

hey elan, you know you can tape the tabs in place so they dont slip out.

Elan

I considered gluing them in place but it was 3am and my brain wasn't functioning properly. I was so defeated, I called it a night and said let the pros worry about it for $20 bucks.

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2009 370Z NISMO #477 | AAM Competition Short Tails | AAM Competition HFCs | K&N Typhoon CAI | Kenwood DPX300U | Rockford Fosgate PRIME R300-4 | Rockford Fosgate Punch P165 | Rockford Fosgate Punch P300-12 | Polk Audio db1001 | 15% Tints | GTR Start Button |

MyKindaGuise

I have 2...

Sitting on the dyno doing power pulls there wasn't enough air moving under the car and the transmission harness was too close to the downpipe and about 40 wires turned into 1. This also happened at 11pm 4 hours from home. It was either fix it or a $600 tow home. Fixed it.lol Needless to say all wires have been neatly moved to driver side or the tranny.


Next story...
Rounded off a lugnut because our stock ones have these stupid caps on them. I had always had issues with them on this car. Found a reverse threaded lug adapter and got that bad boy off. I know that is nothing major but never had encountered that before...Anyways took all of the lugs off after that experience and perma removed those caps...now they are normal and not a pain to remove.

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|445whp398tq|
|BW S259 Turbo|3" Downpipe\Exhaust|ID1000|AeroMotive|Tial|EcuTek|BC BR|S0-4|MaffFab|
MKGs-Single-Turbo

zguynate

I have a few of these lol.

I had a turbo 04 Spec V Sentra that I installed myself. The turbo kit was my first attempt at any mod of any kind on a car lol. Every mod I have ever done to any of my cars is DIY.

When I first turbo'd the car, it ran terribly. I couldnt figure out what was wrong with it for about a week. The idle would surge really bad. I finally figured out that I installed the MAF tube backwards when putting the intercooler pipes in lol.

I removed the compressor housing on the turbo for some reason I dont remember. When I put it back on, I didnt tighten the bolts on the housing tight enough. After driving how ever many miles, I kept hearing this weird noise. Like if you were to cut a metal pipe with a skil saw. I popped the hood when I got to work and the compressor housing was cocked slightly due to there being 3 missing bolts to the housing. It damaged the compressor wheel a little bit. Boogered the blades just a tad. Said f it, tightened them back, got some new bolts, and drove it that way for a long while lol.

I decided that the oil return from where the kit developer put it in the oil pan was a pain to deal with when it came to maintenance (maintenance due to a design flaw) since it was so close to the DP, so I moved it. When I moved the line on the oil pan, I moved it to a spot that was below the resting level of the oil in the pan. Drove it very briefly and quickly blew the oil seals in the turbo. No one would rebuild it, not even Turbonetics, so I had to buy a new turbo. Doh! Precision SC61 though

Needless to say I learned a WHOLE lot when modding that car. I started when I was around 19 with 0/zero/zilch/nada knowledge to cars. I finished at 21 with a pretty good grasp of a broad spectrum of car knowledge. Some mistakes cost me a lot of money, some other minor ones werent near as bad. This is the reason I think that anyone who will be modding their cars should get a cheap car to start on so they can fudge things up, and ultimately learn from them like I did. Unfortunately this is the best way of learning lol. I didnt have any major mess ups modding my 350z, and so far havent had any with my 370z. My 370 is pretty unmolested at the moment but I hope mistakes stay non-existant lol.

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2009 370z touring w/sports package

ct2012

Alright, I know it's a serious thread revival, but just like JAR I found this while searching for something else and was laughing out loud at some of the stories. I haven't had anything go wrong with the Z yet (crossing my fingers that I'm not jinxing myself) but have had two idiot moments while working on our SUV.

The first was neglecting to change out one of the O-rings while changing the oil, and about 3k miles after I changed it the ring dried out, shredded, and dumped 90% of the oil in our driveway overnight. That was a fun one.

The second was forgetting to restore the line pressure after replacing the brake pads... so about 3 months after the oil debacle, when I had finally reassured my wife that she could trust me to do the vehicle maintenance in place of going to the dealership, she got to witness me frantically yanking the E brake after my foot went to the floor while backing the SUV down our slightly inclined driveway.

Baronsmokes

I had not seen this old thread.I hear you.I have done multiple things like this.Forgeting to but a bolt in.Angry at moment but laugh later on.

Mike Hawk

Ripped the leather off the shift knob while trying to take off for the first time. Didn't have the oil filter wrench so I used a few shop rags and a crescent wrench... Reminds me everytime I get in the car and put it in gear.

madwi

Can happen to the best of us. It is an excuse to try out some other shift knobs.

ChopsZ

The ONLY thing I can think of is buying those AAM S-Line Short Tails (muffler delete). They looked great and sounded pretty good on the outside, but damn were they annoying as f$&k inside the car at any speed above a dead stop and idle. They resonated like crazy in the cabin and made every panel in the back of the car rattle.

Anything else with any of my past cars, I can't really think of anything.

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She's For Sale! PERFORMANCE: Aero Workz | Akebono | BC Racing | EcuTek | HKS | MaxBore | Motordyne | Nismo | RJM | SPL | StopTech | Z1
AUDIO: Arc Audio | Bazooka | Helix | Pioneer | Stereo Integrity

MarkGideon

None in the Z, but recently the wife's car was making noise from the power steering system, and since the fluid had never been changed, seemed like an easy fix. I had pulled out my shop turkey baster and removed all the old fluid from the reservoir and topped up with new PS fluid. Then I realized I had performed this routine bit of maintenance on the brake fluid reservoir.

Fortunately I had plenty of brake fluid on hand and could then remove the PS fluid and refill with brake fluid. Then I had the pleasure of performing a full brake system bleed, twice, to make sure I flushed all bits of contaminated fluid out of the system.

Won't make that mistake again.

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2012 370Z Base Gun Metallic--2015 Altima 2.5SV Gun Metallic--2020 Chevy Silverado RST--1965 Chevy C10 Stepside Shortbed