Car-related funglebucks that got you REALLY angry?

[Smiler]

I've just recently bought a P38 of my very own so am looking forward to filling this thread up!

[bstardchild]

Mar 29, 2017 22:13:20 GMT Smiler said:

I've just recently bought a P38 of my very own so am looking forward to filling this thread up!

*groans

Oh you mean it wasn't a filler joke?

[ianw]

I've had many but a couple of ones stand out...

Years ago when I did my first 2L 20XE conversion on my old Corsa, everything went well, engine in and running within 2 days which for someone with no mechanical training I was pretty happy with Anyway, for some reason (and I really can't recall) I was changing the cambelt once the engine was in the car, I had changed it before I put the engine in but for some reason was doing it again very soon after, so here I am doing a belt swap which is fairly easy and my younger brother is my assistant, I'm tightening bits here and I say to him "tighten that tensioner up" ten minutes later it's all sorted and I give it a test drive, all good!

Next day I'm on my way home from work on the motorway, 30 miles from home and the car cuts out in the middle of some long road works, manage to swing it in behind some cones and it's apparent its not going anywhere under its own steam, eventually get the car home and start pulling it apart, once the belt cover comes off the tensioner basically falls off - yep, my brother had done it pretty much finger tight, I take the blame for this given the fact I know he's a curse word idiot and I didn't check his work.

Next one...same car..

So, dead engine swapped out and my new one is in, problem is I cannot get it to run at a normal temperature, car is constantly running hot, everything has been checked, checked again and double checked, I had replaced the thermostat a number of times, bought a fancy cool running thermostat, changed the rad - the who shebang. This went on for months, constantly flushing it, looking for air locks etc, so much time spent and plenty of money then one day I am filling the screen wash and notice my earth cable from the battery to the body is almost in two, make myself a new earth cable and guess what - the temp gauge now sits perfectly and everything is dandy!

This one isn't as bad but...

Was changing the ARB bushes on my TT which is a bit of a pig of a job, as with anything modern there is no space to work and you cut your knuckles to bits, got the old ones off and fitted the new ones, all went very easy which was shocking as when I did them on my S3 they where a pig, stand up very proud of myself until I look down and notice a very new looking ARB bushe on the floor, yep, on one side (the worst one for access obviously) I had removed the old bush, put it on the floor, picked it back up and refitted the same one!

I'm sure I could come up with many more if I wanted to depress myself

[rude]

Mar 30, 2017 7:37:07 GMT ianw said:

Was changing the ARB bushes on my TT which is a bit of a pig of a job, as with anything modern there is no space to work and you cut your knuckles to bits, got the old ones off and fitted the new ones, all went very easy which was shocking as when I did them on my S3 they where a pig, stand up very proud of myself until I look down and notice a very new looking ARB bushe on the floor, yep, on one side (the worst one for access obviously) I had removed the old bush, put it on the floor, picked it back up and refitted the same one!

I'm sure I could come up with many more if I wanted to depress myself

You are not alone. I done my lower arms on the BM and changed them to poly on the deck, it was like wresting robocop for 2 hours. All done I lit up a smoke in celebration and noticed two big shiny washers still in the packet.

[andyf]

I can think of two instances, both quite minor compared to some on here though.

My first car after passing my test was an old Austin 1100 when they were just cheap old curse word cars as opposed to now when they are erm... anyway moving on. I decided to change the points because it seemed like a good idea. The car ran fine and I was well pleased at my mechanical prowess (well I was only 17). The following day I could not get it to start. I knew it wasn`t the points because I had just changed them, so being 17 with next to no money I tried to fix it myself. Over a few days I went through changing everything electrical I could think of. I eventually did double check the points and found they had closed up because I hadn`t nipped up the screw tightly enough.

Another one was a few years later I had a Mark 3 Cortina 2000E automatic (wish I still had that!) and over a period of time the gearbox started slipping and gradually got worse, the oil level was spot on maximum when I checked.
I persisted with it for a few months because I had no money to do anything about it (again). I was talking to one of my mates who was a trainee mechanic one day asking whether he could get a cheap gearbox and he said "you do know you have to check the oil level with the engine running don`t you?" Oh. The good news was the gearbox was fine once I had topped it up.

[MiataMark]

I've done the loose wheel nuts, luckily they were long nuts and I noticed before the wheel fell off. Ran into the back of my Wife's Discovery when being towed as I was pressing clutch not brake pedal!

Replaced a gearbox on a Hillman Avenger with my dad helping, he's under car holding up gear box when he says "I've got oil spilling over me" my reply "it's OK it's clean oil".

Meant to be a quick replacement of rear brake pads on a Fiat Stilo, forgot about needing to wind the calipers back in and tried to force them back, ruined the caliper seal and needed a new caliper fitted (in hind-sight could have just rebuilt the caliper, but time was against me). Changing shoes on a Fiat Panda on a gravel drive, dropped the self-adjuster could I find it NO, new one cost best part of £90!

The one that got me really panicking was replacing the air bags on the rear of the Discovery when I lowered it down it went past the adjuster limits as the drive was on a slope (looked like a proper low-rider at the back). Had to very gingerly drive it at right angles so it was level and thankfully the suspension pumped up.




I'll also admit to having grooved brake discs fitted differently front and back, i.e. the radial groove faces different directions. Been like thta for years as I haven't got round to going to the hassle of removing wheels, calipers, discs and swapping them.

[brc76]

I did the same thing on my vw notchback, changed the rear brakes, wheels on, drop it down, get distracted, next day go to work 20 miles away. later that same day on the way home, think hold on, the rear feels very weird... get out to see two almost departed rear wheels. lucky that one, but even more galling as my brother once had a very lucky escape with something similar.

He had a beetle in high school, but had ongoing speedo problems, ie he could not for the life of him route the cable in such a way that it didn't snap after a few weeks of use (he refused to check how it should go). He did get very very good at replacing it quickly though. He was finishing up one afternoon and I assume got a call from his GF requesting his immediate attention at her house. Again, I'm assuming that the incentive was great, as he buttoned up the speedo cable swap in record time and off he went.

1230 the next morning, we get a call from him. He's about 2 miles from home, and he has his car in separate pieces. The nugget said that he felt a wobble through the steering wheel but decided that it'd wait for him to get home. the front drivers (LHD) wheel came off, split the front wing off the car, peeled the running board off the side of the car, and then when the wheel met the jacking point, it bounced, smacked the rear wing, denting and pulling several bolts out of the body.

luckily it was quiet out, a straight bit of road and low speed limit. But oh how I laughed.

That very same car, a few weeks after he got it back with wings and wheels all where they should be, split a fuel line and went up in a blaze of glory. Insurance was the equivalent of 3rd party only, so no payout, and a week later he received a bill from the town of Carlisle, Mass for the cost of replacing the electric pole he spluttered to a stop next to, as it was fire damaged and had to be replaced.

[mrbounce]

Having owned several Minis there's numerous tales I can tell, but I will stick to these:

I went to look at a completely standard Mini Mayfair back in 1998 which was very tidy. As I was looking over it I sat in the front seat, and being taller than the girl who owned it, I put my hand down beneath the seat , moved the lever and slid the seat back. And I was instantly shocked with severe pain in my finger, which was now stuck. The girl's bonehead boyfriend had mounted a stereo amplifier on the crossmember under the seat, and my finger was now stuck in the small gap between the lever and said amplifier. And because of the way the seat worked, you had to have weight on it to make it move, so to get it forward, I had to push down on it more, which in turn was even more painful. It was also incredibly difficult to do anything because my hand was stuck down between my legs, so I must have looked ridiculous. It took about 10 minutes of searing and desperately trying to move the seat to get my hand out. 

I did end up buying the car, but I informed the girl that the amp would not be in the car when I picked it up, would it??? She agreed. I lost feeling in the tip of my finger for about a week!

Another time I needed to do some maintenance on my first ever Mini, a standard 1977 1000, complete with 10-inch wheels with chrome hubcaps. I took the front hubcap off, to find somebody had taken the hubcap off, removed ONE wheelnut and then replaced the hubcap. I know it wasn't me because I had a very particular way of putting wheelnuts back on so I never forgot one. I had to buy a new one. Cost me 70p!! 

And finally, the worst bodge I found on the Midas project when stripping it. I remember looking at the hubs on the bench and thinking "Something's not right here". Yup, somebody had taken an angle grinder to the front face of the hub and it wasn't even ground straight. (See the pic below.) And they were painted in gold Hammerite. They went in the bin....

[nsblue]

Not angry, but realised the hard way recently that leaving a motor in forward gear to stop it creeping backwards doesn't work with the head off. Creep on it's own wouldn't have been a problem had it been on the ground but from the top of a ramp, once it passes the crest of the flat and hits the incline it rolls. Just far enough in this case for the open drivers door to bury itself in the wing of the vehicle next to it.
On the plus side that door doesn't sag as much as it used to...

[nomad]

Doing some work on a Citroen BX (one of those car that had a hi-normal-low height adjuster for the driver to play with) many years ago  ...
The car was on a mates drive with suspension locked on "High" so I could do some work on the front end, I reversed it onto the road for a 3-point turn to put it on his drive again and work on the back end.
Lesson learned - these do NOT like to bounce down kerbs when suspension is locked "High"
We also learned it was a quick job to replace a burst hyraulic line on the suspension, once you found a local dealer with one in stock

Oops!

[zook71]

J reg Orion, convinced myself & several others that the rattle I heard was the cat breaking up & it needed changing. Fast forward a lot of money later, nice new cat back zorst - two days in the cold trying to get the cat flange bolts out, driving 25 miles to get replacements after I'd mullered them to get them out & as I was hanging the back box, caught the ARB with a spanner & hold on doesn't that sound EXACTLY like the rattle I'd just spent time & money curing??, no surely not! So don't call me Shirley & new bushes fitted later, rattle gone. Had to convince the missus that I hadn't wasted lots of money by shaking the old exhaust next to her ear saying "you can hear the rattle can't you". I don't think she's every really trusted me on the subject of cars since