Silly screw ups

[RedFR-s]

I think I have one every time I look at the car. That's how you learn though right?

The worst was 8 hours to install my exhaust (there were 4 of us doing it too). We had the over pipe backwords because of the way it was shipped with the hardware on it. Even jacked up the engine to try and get it in before confirming orientation. We were quite committed to making it fit.

[fumanchu1]

Originally Posted by FX86

When I originally got the car I installed a radar detector and wired it from the glove box 12v connector. About a year later all of a sudden one day I couldn't turn the cool/neutral/hot air conditioner dial..it was stuck

i brought it to the dealership and the tech said the excess wire from the radar connector got stuck around the mechanical gears that turns the knob in the cabin and charged me $50 for labor just to remove the glove box and wire tie the cord for me

any of guys have any silly stories similar to when you added or modded something on your car but accidentally messed another component up?

Just installed gauges on a custom dash cluster pod, the gauge didn't fit snug so caused flex in the pod that cracked about 2 inches long... epoxy+black paint should fix it (did this yesterday btw)

[kch]

I was running the wiring for my backup cam, which has to pass through the accordion grommet between the trunk lid and chassis. I got frustrated and pulled a little too hard.



I fixed it in the most ghetto way possible:



Still working after a year!

Edit: another time I was swapping brake pads for the first time in preparation for a track day. One of the shims on the driver's side must have gotten out of place, but I didn't know. Drove around for a while; tried to bed the pads. I noticed A LOT of smoke coming from driver's side front. Turns out only the inside pad was making any contact. Boiled the fluid, glazed the pad. Live and learn.

[humfrz]

Originally Posted by Ultramaroon

Ok, now, fess up. Your shit stinks too.

So many years of wrenching ....... so many different vehicles ........ so much to recall ........ this may take some time ..... should I break them down by year .. or vehicle ..... or category ...... ??


humfrz

[Tcoat]

Originally Posted by humfrz

So many years of wrenching ....... so many different vehicles ........ so much to recall ........ this may take some time ..... should I break them down by year .. or vehicle ..... or category ...... ??


humfrz

[Teseo]

I put premix on the oil rather than the gas tank in the rx7

[mdm]

I am totally not into fiddling with cars, so my mistakes were of different kind, less costly, but much stupider, I guess.


1. My center brake light stopped working. I figured it was not the bulbs, because there were three of them, impossible that all of them stopped working at the same time. Fuse was fine too. So either the switch, or wiring. Went to the dealer, told all the above. They said: in such case, $150 to diagnose and we'll go from there. OK, I said. They took the car, after 10 minutes the guy comes back with a bill for $7.50... I forgot I there was only one bulb there, not three.


2. I cleaned the dashboard. Wanted to do it very well, used too much cleaner, it dripped everywhere. Whatever. Later in the evening I want to run some errands, I turn the car on, a none of gauge/dashboard/radio lights is working. Shit, the cleaner must have gotten some place it shouldn't. I checked in the manual which fuse the dashboard lights run of, there was something else on that fuse, and it worked fine. Shit, so I damaged something in the dashboard, I will have to pay a lot to have it disassembled and the problem traced.
But for now I am running my errands, getting used not seeing the speedometer or to finding AC controls by touch.

At some point though I noticed that when I start the car, the light in the radio does turn on initially. Only when the headlights are turned on, manually or automatically, it goes off. That did not look like a mysterious short-circuit in the dashboard... So I started thinking and ultimately figured out that when cleaning the dashboard I accidentally turned the dash light intensity knob to zero...

If I didn't find that out and went to a shop to get it fixed, those guys would tell jokes about me for a month.

[wbradley]

Bought an HKS V1 supercharger kit from a local member here and switched to my car by his mechanic.

After the deal was done I realized there was no cooler for the supercharger fluid piped in. No resolution with seller, so tried to install a makeshift heat exchanger myself.

End result, reversed the inlet/outlet piping, and the blower dry and seized it. Very difficult process buying a replacement but from June to end of season last year I was without a supercharger and the car was out of operation.

That was a very inconvenient $3000 lesson. Many lessons.

[fumanchu1]

Originally Posted by wbradley

Bought an HKS V1 supercharger kit from a local member here and switched to my car by his mechanic.

After the deal was done I realized there was no cooler for the supercharger fluid piped in. No resolution with seller, so tried to install a makeshift heat exchanger myself.

End result, reversed the inlet/outlet piping, and the blower dry and seized it. Very difficult process buying a replacement but from June to end of season last year I was without a supercharger and the car was out of operation.

That was a very inconvenient $3000 lesson. Many lessons.

and now you own a V1 hks kit... GL

[mazeroni]

Not the FR-S.

On my GTI, that thing drank more than a quart of oil every 1,000 miles. So I regularly topped it off. Well, I forgot to put the oil cap back on. Get in the car and drive it to the other end of the apartment complex to wash it at the 'wash station.' Finish, then start the car and the thing starts to chug. With each passing second it gets worse and worse. The thing is bucking now. I turn it off and open the hood. Oops, there is no oil cap...

It is like 100 degrees out and I go running back the way I came looking for a gas cap on the ground. Get home, don't see anything. I go inside and look online at prices thinking I am going to have to go to VW and hope they have on sitting around. Its like 70$.

Grab a flashlight and run back to the car thinking maybe it fell and is stuck behind the bumper. Still freaking out. Have work in less than an hour.

After 15 minutes of reaching my hand around the hot engine bay I look to my right. Between the edge of the engine cover and some wires is the oil cap just sitting exactly where I had set it down to make sure I wouldn't forget to put it back on, and it wouldn't roll off and get stuck in the engine bay.

I suppose I am fortunate that I didn't drive down the road too far or I really would have been in some shit. Also the FR-S is very conservative with oil consumption.

[wbradley]

Originally Posted by fumanchu1

and now you own a V1 hks kit... GL

Not sure why you say that. Mine started as a V1 kit but it has modified piping, a much bigger intercooler and no restrictor. On stock fuel system it produced 276 WHP with Ecutek tune on 94 octane. Only complaint it is sometimes the supercharger is squealy sounding on cooler days for a few minutes until it warms up.

I have an oversize Setrab oil cooler for the traction fluid as I did not have the original stock cooler.

The only real flaw in the system is if you have unshielded aftermarket headers, as i have, the intake design is prone to high IAT's as it draws the air directly from the engine bay.

[G-awesome]

with this car...probably the dumbest thing was accidentally taking off the bolt on the high pressure line and blowing all the refridergant out. I was replacing the oem bolts with a dress up kit. Just got it fixed a month ago before summer heat comes with a vegenance (as if we're not getting hotter than usual temps now..) Other little screw ups are a broken bolt here and there, busted pop clips and zip ties holding stuff together.

I say it adds character to my car! I dub it 'the frs of an amateur/noob mechanic'

[Bowen]

Not my 86,

But one day I decided to change my Jeep's oil right before a big exam for one of my college classes.

Got home from work and had just enough time to change the oil before heading out to the test. I drained my oil and replaced the oil filter. Since the engine was running for 30 min prior, it was extremely hot.

Plugged up the oil pan and went to go undo the oil cap at the top of the engine. "Click Click". The cap just kept spinning. I had no idea what was happening so I instantly went to google to find out what it was. Well, for Jeep Cherokee's, Jeep though it was a great idea as a safety measure to keep the oil cap from opening if the engine was over 150 degrees F.

Great, I now have no oil in my Jeep and have 20 minutes (15 min drive) to make it to my exam.

So I did what any impatient teenager would do, and paced back and forth trying to unscrew the cap every 30 seconds. Finally after 10 minutes I was able to get the cap off. Ended up being late to the exam but managed to pass.

[Tcoat]

Originally Posted by mazeroni

Not the FR-S.

On my GTI, that thing drank more than a quart of oil every 1,000 miles. So I regularly topped it off. Well, I forgot to put the oil cap back on. Get in the car and drive it to the other end of the apartment complex to wash it at the 'wash station.' Finish, then start the car and the thing starts to chug. With each passing second it gets worse and worse. The thing is bucking now. I turn it off and open the hood. Oops, there is no oil cap...
.

Why would the cap being off cause those issues in such a short drive?