What Is Your Most Embarrassing Technical Story?

"For Sweden" (rallybeetle) 07/24/2014 at 12:46 • Filed to: oppo questions

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Automobiles are machines, and working with machines sometimes means getting technical, at least technically. What is your most embarrassing technical moment, with cars or other machines?

Mine involved a simple oil change at a friend's house. That car used the common metal-can oil filter, but I forgot my oil filter wrench, and my friend didn't have one. So I use a large channel-lock style wrench and twist on the new filter. Start up the car, drive it outside, immediately find a sea of new motor oil that had just been inside my engine. I later found a new oil filter with holes from the wrench mounted on my car. It felt bad.

Photo Credit: The United States' Library of Congress, via !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! .

505Turbeaux > For Sweden 07/24/2014 at 12:49

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I left the hood unlatched on my 87 Audi Coupe GT and had forgotten the safety catch was sticky. Took it for a test drive up the street at 50mph until I needed a new hood and windshield.

Jcarr > For Sweden 07/24/2014 at 12:50

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Tsk tsk. They say hand-tight for a reason.

DipodomysDeserti > For Sweden 07/24/2014 at 12:54

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My Loyale died on me while driving. Put gas in it, nothing, timing belts, nothing, battery, nothing. Finally checked the fuses and the ECU fuse was burnt.

DipodomysDeserti > 505Turbeaux 07/24/2014 at 12:55

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Motor oil would have nothing to do with this accident.

spanfucker retire bitch > For Sweden 07/24/2014 at 12:56

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Last computer that I built. It was a huge upgrade over my first machine. Finished it, took it to my room and hooked up everything to it and proceeded to boot it up. Nothing. Screen's blank. I try again, nothing. Perhaps something's wrong with the BIOS, I think to myself? So I go on my laptop, download the latest BIOS from ASUS' website and do the automatic flashing with the button on the back of the motherboard.

Plug it back in, boot it up and still nothing. I finally open the machine, and I see that I forgot to fucking attach the power cables to the GPU, even though that was the last item I installed.

Klaus Schmoll > For Sweden 07/24/2014 at 12:56

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Rented a 7,5 ton truck for moving day. They showed us how the rear hatch/ramp thingy worked and sent us on our way. Once the tank was empty we had to fill it up but had no idea where to put the nozzle. There was a little key on the key ring which opened a filler right behind the cabin. We managed to get around 30 liters in it before it stopped. We wondered a bit but paid and started the engine. Boooooooooooooom, and the truck was surrounded by a sea of oil/diesel mix within seconds. Turns out we had filled the oil pan and the engine with diesel. While starting it, the pressure was too high and it grenaded itself.

EL_ULY > For Sweden 07/24/2014 at 12:56

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A couple times in complete zombie mode at work, I took some parts off.... and put the same ones back in. I look on my tool box, fresh box unopened :]

Twingo Tamer - About to descend into project car hell. > For Sweden 07/24/2014 at 12:58

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Snapping the idle sensor off my parents power steering line. Power steering fluid everywhere and ended up fixing it with an joint from a plumbing store. Luckily the timing belt snapped a month later and the car was scrapped so I didnt have to deal with my mistake long.

thebigbossyboss > For Sweden 07/24/2014 at 12:58

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Car started leaking a substance. Wasn't sure what. Much confusion because leak was on passenger side behind engine compartment. Leak is getting really bad now. Drive to mechanic, show problem.

Mechanic opens door and pulls out bottle of (varsol/ fuel cleaner) from passenger side door pocket.

Brilliance.

Jcarr > For Sweden 07/24/2014 at 12:59

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Our old house had a fantastic (780 sq. ft.) garage with very smooth, somewhat slippery floor.

One afternoon I was preparing to change the oil on our MkV Jetta, which required me to drive it up on my ramps.

The Jetta has a somewhat touchy throttle and with one slip of my foot I shot both ramps backwards, essentially catapulting the Jetta over them. Luckily they are short enough that they didn't bend the unibody, just pinned themselves underneath it.

I whipped the floor jack out, freed the ramps and started over with my tail between my legs.

Ever since then, I've been very light with the throttle.

thebigbossyboss > EL_ULY 07/24/2014 at 13:01

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charge for labour: $1K

Description of work: Remove and reinstall brakes.

LOL.

thebigbossyboss > Klaus Schmoll 07/24/2014 at 13:04

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OH Lordy. I once almost put Diesel in my gasoline car. I don't know how, but I missed that it was a diesel pump. and put the nozzle into my tank. As I was about to start I was like "wait that's hose is yellow"...and stopped. THANK GOD!

StoneCold > For Sweden 07/24/2014 at 13:05

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Forgot to torque the cam bolts on one side of my 2002 V8 Jeep when I replaced the short block.

Took the valve cover off and the cam POPPED up from the timing chain holding the one side down. A few valves were bent, all at the saaame angle.

EL_ULY > thebigbossyboss 07/24/2014 at 13:12

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LOL like a boss!!!

Bad Idea Hat > EL_ULY 07/24/2014 at 13:21

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Similar thing; helping a friend change his tire: remove spare, remove onboard tools, remove hubcap, remove lugs, jack car up, remove wheel, put wheel back on, put lugs on and tighten, drop car, tighten lugs some more, wonder why the car is lower on this wheel annnnnnd...

Reigntastic > For Sweden 07/24/2014 at 13:25

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I stripped a nut on my intake manifold last weekend. It had to have something welded onto it to be removed.

EL_ULY > Bad Idea Hat 07/24/2014 at 13:27

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lol oh nooo :] The worst one I did was VVT-i Cam gears for an Evora.... yup, 12 free hours redoing that job :'(

Bad Idea Hat > EL_ULY 07/24/2014 at 13:30

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Yours is worse. Mine was just a few minutes of re-doing what I had done.

I couldn't imagine having to double back on anything involving messing around with the heads or, much worse, the block region.

thebigbossyboss > Bad Idea Hat 07/24/2014 at 13:30

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This actually reminds me when I changed my rear tires. Get flat tire, hear noise, put on donut limp home. Go to work and back. Come back to change rear tires. Change them in kind of a hurry. Leave house, hear that same noise wonder "wtf" ...realize I didn't tighten the lugs. Oye.

Bad Idea Hat > thebigbossyboss 07/24/2014 at 13:37

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I almost did that last summer with my wife's car. Was about to drop it and drive away when I remembered that I was holding the lugs.

The common theme on both of my incidents is a disturbing lack of sleep on my part. That's my defense, and not the fact that I'm a massive klutz.

EL_ULY > Bad Idea Hat 07/24/2014 at 13:37

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oh yeah dude, rear section off and subframe down :'( I don't think I said a single word for a couple days. Add to that, it was at warranty pay so I only got 7.5 hrs for

twochevrons > For Sweden 07/24/2014 at 13:40

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My wife's VW Cabrio had sat for a few weeks, and when I went to drive it, both headlights were out. The high beams worked, but the low beams didn't come on either as headlights or DRLs.

A large amount of water had leaked into the car while it sat, and although I had bailed it out, I wondered whether something had shorted. So I spent several days under the dash, tracing and testing wiring, cleaning grounding points, and swapping parts. No luck.

It was only a while later that I thought to check the bulbs...

Kawaii-Gon Jinn > Klaus Schmoll 07/24/2014 at 13:47

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fucking hell. what did they charge you for that?

thebigbossyboss > Bad Idea Hat 07/24/2014 at 13:50

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Mine were on, just hand tight. Luckily I didn't go far before I could pull over, probably about 1000 ft or so.

XJDano > For Sweden 07/24/2014 at 14:09

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when swapping out transmission in metro, after some syncros crapped out I got a replacement trans from junk yard. Got new clutch and putting second trans in by bench pressing into place, sliding onto the trans shaft into clutch, but wouldn't seat all the way. Couldnt' figured it out, up down up down.

Then I realized the bolt guide spacer was still attached to second trans & block. Removed one and slid right into place. How dumb.

Also had hood pop up on jeep, but lifting transmission multiple times seems ways stupider.

Kawaii-Gon Jinn > For Sweden 07/24/2014 at 14:21

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stalling out my dad's 94 v8 mustang on homecoming night with the hottest date in the world multiple times before i realized the parking brake was on (i'd just put the roof down).

buford-t-justice > EL_ULY 07/24/2014 at 14:46

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HAHA, I have done that too. Run the machine to test, same error comes up, get all angry at the Germans, and then realize what I have done.

Montalvo > For Sweden 07/24/2014 at 14:46

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I don't know if I should be embarassed or impressed by mine. I built my first computer almost a year ago and somewhere in the process I forgot to use thermal paste on my cpu, it is kinda like driving a car around without the radiator because it doesn't let the cooling fan do its job properly. Somehow I remembered this about a week ago and started laughing when I was checking my temps that it was thanks to the sheer amount of fans and good airflow that it was still running nice and cool under a full load. I really should fix it but at the same time I feel like I must leave it be as an endless pride battle.

Fed(oo=[][]=oo)uken > For Sweden 07/24/2014 at 15:02

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I once changed my oil, and couldn't figure why the car was revving and idling like shit. Took it to the mechanic. Never put the oil filler cap back on. Kudos to the M20B27 for being drivable with no vacuum.

Once I removed the front brakes and rotors (the latter with a sledge) only to find that the rotors in the box were rears. In the pouring rain on my gravel driveway.

I once went in for a new ignition coil, tuns out my gas gauge was bad.

I swear I'm not a bad shade-tree mechanic. I adjust valves!

Klaus Schmoll > Kawaii-Gon Jinn 07/24/2014 at 15:05

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At first they wanted the whole engine rebuild, then the lawyer talked them down, and talked them down some more. Don't remember the exact sum anymore.

uofime > Jcarr 07/24/2014 at 15:37

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I once did the exact same thing, for that reason I now just use a jack and jack-stands if I can...

T5Killer > For Sweden 07/24/2014 at 16:13

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Was changing the oil on my '95 Cobra it has two drain plugs (double hump oil pan) and I forgot to put one back in when I started pouring new oil in it. Got about half a quart before I noticed it was on the floor in a huge puddle. What a messy cleanup.

Leadbull > thebigbossyboss 07/24/2014 at 16:43

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I had a similar situation once.

Found an oil puddle on the driveway one day, so I checked the oil level. It was good. I searched all underneath, and eventually found some drippage at the rear of the car. Lolwut? Turns out, the spare bottle I keep under the trunk floor had popped open somehow.

What a mess, that was.

Leadbull > For Sweden 07/24/2014 at 16:50

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I was operating industrial mowers fer mah jerb.

I was out mowing, when suddenly I looked down and noticed the engine was absolutely covered with oil. Turns out, I forgot to screw the cap back on after I topped it off that morning.

Fortunately for me, no damage was done. I ninja cleaned it, refilled it, and said many hundreds of prayers.

thebigbossyboss > Leadbull 07/25/2014 at 07:24

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Yeah. Those type of leaks are VERY confusing.