Your biggest DIY screwups

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

scope22

tried to open $600 tablet...i failed

Shoeshear

I'll throw my hat into the ring, I've got two.

My dad and I rebuilt the engine in our B5 S4. I stripped the coolant drain bolt for the block... thank god we were pulling the motor out anyway and we were able to get it out easily.

I also maybe slightly overtightened a screw for the cam retainer things and slightly stripped the threads lol. Runs fine though... here's to hoping it doesn't come back to bite us in the a$$. I desperately don't want to replace another head lol.

Spooler

We just got done working on my good friends son's 1973 VW Super Beetle. Tune up and such. We got in the car to do a midnight run. For some reason, this night, we weren't flying down the road like two crazed idiots that we normally do. Low and behold the left front made a heck of a racket dropping to the pavement while the tire passed us going down road. Yeap, his son forgot to tighten the lugnuts after setting the car on the ground. The looks on our faces were priceless. Needless to say, his son got a new nickname. Lugnuts!!!!!

DeliriousClam

Welp I'll just leave it at this. 18-years-old, 240sx, messed up brake lines, JB weld, downhill road, bushes.

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Fuzzzy

Very similar experience here. Years ago driving a '68 Pontiac GTO home from college in the rain. Had a flat on the passenger-side rear. I changed the tire, and the spare went right to the ground as it was flat as well. I figured it was simply out of air rather than punctured, so I jacked the car back up and pulled it off again. Back down the highway I walked in the rain with the wheel to a gas station about 3/4 mile away. Pumped it up and back to the car I headed. Fortunately, a good Samaritan picked me up and dropped me off at my car so I didn't have to walk that distance again.

Put the wheel back on and lowered it to the ground before tightening the lugnuts while on the jackstand--as usual. But then I forgot to tighten the lugs when I got it to the ground. Still raining and I was exhausted. About 20 miles down the road the car started fishtailing. I pulled over to the side of the road, took a look at the wheels, saw nothing, attributed the sloppy handling to the rain and continued my trip.

About 50 miles later the lugs broke at about 70 mph. I still recall the look on the faces of the four people in the oncoming car as we passed--two adults in the front and two kids in the backseat--one with her face pressed against the window watching me fishtail down the highway. My wheel stayed inside the wheelwell, and I pulled over to the side of the road, still raining, and I hitch-hiked the rest of the way home.

As bad as that was, the experience made me much more conscious about details after that.

PhantaPhanta

Nothing MAJOR F up to the car but... I installed my own NEX 4200 Headunit. After it was finished and everything put back together. I had a left over screw...

Had to redo the whole unscrew each single one and redo it from beginning. Lesson?
Don't rush. Count your screws. Coulda been worse say... as you're putting back everything, theres an empty screw hole and you ran out of screws. xD

Jsolo

Back in highschool auto class we learned why it's important not to double gasket the oil filter. Kid had to clean up the mess not to mention the earful from the instructor.

Doing some maintenance on my first motorcycle I learned why it was important to have the front end properly support when doing any fork work. I wanted to change the oil in the forks. With the bike on the center stand I unscrewed one of the caps on top of the fork leg. Just as I got near the end, the cap and spring shot up at high speed. It hit the ceiling of the garage, leaving a nice gouge. Had I been standing over, it would of taken an eye out. Oh, and then the bike fell over

Cut myself almost to the point of needing stitches some years back while installing the catback on the G. Those heat shields are damn sharp! Patched myself up with a paper towel and some duct tape. Left a nice scar.

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Rusty

Lets just say. My screw-ups in my youth has cost me thousands of dollars. And it was quit entertaining to some. It was some learning curve. From that. I don't screw-up now.

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浪人 - 殺し屋
"The Difficult Anytime, The Impossible By Appointment Only"
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burntz

DIY ebay turbo kit on the 350, it hung where the muffler would be, it predictable exploded at 140mph down the back stretch of Sebring making new ventilation holes thru the oil pan with extra connecting rod bits.
The screw up being when i rebuilt the motor I installed the oil rings wrong which made a spyhunter type oil cloud behind the car so i could outrun my enemies...

got really good at pulling the entire engine/ trans assembly as a unit when i replaced the oil rings the second time

Still got $4500 in trade for a 10.5 year old Z with a DIY big brake kit

Bonus story: loosening tire straps on a front wheel tow dolly and watched my car (1984 Alfa Romeo GTV6) roll down a medium hill, backwards, 100+ feet cross a fairly busy road ( failing to stop at the sign) and come safelyto a stop in some pricker bushes with no damage (before YouTube, thankfully)

StormWhite

Back when I was about 20 I took the head and inlet manifold off of a Ford Cortina Mk2 and at the time it was parked half on the pavement and half on the road.

An annoying neighbour insisted I move the car so being all alone I decided it was easier to put it in gear and use the started motor to move the car.

I stood back to check the car had moved far enough and noticed flames on the ground underneath the engine.

I had forgotten about the mechanical fuel pump and HT leads.

Fortunately I managed to beat out the flames.

JLarson

Feeling pretty good about myself after reading this thread! I've had 2 moments where I felt pretty dumb.

1st was when taking off the 370z upper plenum to replace with the z1 kit, I forgot to transfer the gaskets (I wasn't expecting them to be inset in the upper). Got everything reassembled, turned it on, died immediately. I did figure it out, just felt pretty stupid in the process.

2nd was installing long tube headers, I broke the valve cover ventilation port off while removing intake hoses (that's probably not the right name for it). Those z1 silicon hoses were actually stronger than the ports! Ultimately replaced the whole valve cover. Took longer than the long tubes.

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2014 370z Touring Sport Magma Red MT // BP Single Turbo 6467 // 63mm TB's // Z1 Ported Upper Mani // RJM Pedal // Zspeed Stage 3 Clutch // 526 WHP, 451 WTQ
2006 350z (Sold) // 1990 300zx (Sold) // 1985 300zx 2+2 (Sold)

CRiZO

Out of curiosity... how do you go about opening the hood without the cable?

KngScottieV

1989 Pontiac Sunbird, did a "tune up" (plugs, wires, distributor cap), simple things you do when you're in high school and learning on a car. Turns out I didn't tighten down one of the spark plugs all the way, about 2 weeks later while driving it blew out and made the thing sound like a lawnmower. Drove it home on 3 cylinders, screwed it back in, torqued it, drove it for another 2 years before selling it.

Always tighten your spark plugs, ALL the way...

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2013 Nissan 370z Magma Red Base w/Sport package 6speed. AAM intakes (S-line for now, still needs tuned), Berk HFC's, ARK DT-S cat-back, CJM baffled oil pan, and FI 34 row oil cooler.

Rusty

Ever take a head off. Look at the pistons. And wonder why you have 2 pistons at TDC.


One of the pistons broke at the oil ring groove. All the way around. That part was at TDC. The skirt was still in one piece. Going up and down with the rod. Never hurt the cylinder wall. Dropped the oil pan. Pushed the rod the piston out. Installed new piston on rod, new rings. Installed everything back in. That motor ran for at least 6 years before the it got sole to someone else.

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浪人 - 殺し屋
"The Difficult Anytime, The Impossible By Appointment Only"
http://www.the370z.com/members-370z-...o-journal.html