I have a small makeshift wood ramp to lift the front end slightly so I can get my jack to the front jack point. Well the last oil change I didnt pull the Z in as far into the garage as a normally do and also shut the garage about 3/4 ofbthe way since it was chilly. Drained the oil and let the car back down.

In a lapse of sanity, I got in and released the parking brake so itd roll off the small ramp and be level to check/fill the oil, however, I forgot that 1.) I didnt pull as far I as I normally do and 2.) That the garage door was only partially open. As soon as the car started to roll I regained sanity and stepped on what I thought was the brake.....it was the clutch. As the car rolled I thought ****! Damaged Z and damaged door. I quickly ripped up the ebrake and smashed the brake down but it was too late. I heard a "crunch". I ran out and looked and the bumper was against the hinge. I pulled forward and luckily there was just a minor scratch and the garage door was not bent. Man I felt so stupid.

The one that comes to mind here was way long ago, I had just gotten a 79 Trans Am with a 4 speed. Now at that time our driveway bordered a sharp dip (hill) in our yard. I had backed the car out of the garage after working on it, turned it off and went to do something, came back out, started the car, and immediately let out the clutch thinking I wasn't in gear. Turned out I was in reverse, the car launched backwards and before I knew it the car was teetering at the peak of the hill with the rear tires not touching the ground. I can't quite remember what we did to get the car back up onto the driveway except for my father and a friend pushing down on the rear of the car to get the tires back on the ground.

Another time - same car, always had a hell of a time backing down our driveway, father just had the driveway paved and there was fresh dirt on the sides of pavement about 2 feet wide along with grass seed, had a heavy rain the previous night. I had on wide tires on the back, the next morning I head off to work and missed the driveway backing down, car ending up sinking on the one side in the fresh dirt (now mud). Of course I tried to get out and just made matters worse spinning grass seed and mud everywhere, eventually I had no choice but to continue backing down the driveway with half the car in the mud. By the time it was all said and done I had totally destroyed all the work he did, damn did I get a chewing out when he got home that evening.

Ok JAR I'm not the only one to do this. First oil change I put the car on ramps and jack stands underneath just for safety reasons. Once I was all done I was backing the car off and heard the ungodly sound you heard. Drove it back up and looked everything over and felt lucky I didn't screw anything up. Worst part is feeling like the biggest jackass in the world.

i was adding brake fluid when i sneezed... :ugh:

had to spend time washing the engine bay.

I forgot to clean off my dome light lenses before I sprayed them, in the dark.

Then we started sanding it off and I was thinking that this was waaayyyy too difficult. Found online that brake cleaner will remove spray tint from plastics with ease.

Then we sanded and one of these days I'll spray them after I clean them. :icon17:

OH, and I had some friends help me with the spacer install, and the DIY called for bungie cords to hold the calipers while you did everything.

Well, we got everything back on and I drove around for a few weeks and every now and then I'd hear a thud in the rear...

Figured I'd check it out, and sure enough, a bungie cord was left up in there on the pass. rear. Luckily it wasn't wrapped around anything and did no noticeable damage. :eekdance:

BMW X5 oil change. over torqued the oil drain bolt and stripped it. got myself a CDI torque wrench now. i'm done w/ harbor freight

I can honestly say this is the only screw up i have had…

Putting in my bumper intake ducts, i cut the holes in the bumper perfectly, went to put them in and there is a small screw in the way, and instead of getting a dremel to shave a quarter inch off the tiny bolt, i used my small bolt cutters so i wouldn't have to get up and go to my storage to look for the dremel… i did the passenger side perfectly, then got to the drivers side, and cut what i thought was the bolt, come to find out… it was the Cable to pop my hood...:eek:

had to buy a new cable and took out the dremel anyway, so lesson learned, be patient.

I have a couple from a while ago,

Purchased a nismo s-tune exhaust and had it shipped to my dads place so I could use his collection of tools.... got stuck with a bolt on the oem exhaust, couldn't get it off, yelled for dad to come help. He gets under there, asks for a socket, apparently I didn't look and gave him 1 size too big, he ends up stripping the bolt slightly. Needles to say he was more pissed then I was lol...

Another time I was using his tools while he was gone, but I had a bright idea of using some Rhino ramps instead of jacking the car up, made a quick trip to harborg freight for some good quality ramps...... . Since he wasn't home I lined them up on the garage floor, each time I would try to drive on the ramps they would slide back a bit, I figured I would put them against the garage wall and drive on them right?.. WRONG. As I try to drive on the ramps with them firm against the washer/dryer (bottom part), I heard a pretty nasty cracking sound, ended up doing some damage to both the washer and the dryer.

Back in 08 with my s2000, me and my buddy decided to put on some coilovers, after about 5 trips to harbor freight we ended up stripping the large bolt holding the struts inplace.

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.

I didn't know snot was that dangerous to the engine components! :icon17:

This one is only my fault for not inspecting a borrowed power bleeder better. I was pressurizing the container when the hose busted and sprayed me in the face (that's what she said!). I had to quickly clean it off the front fender, and I definitely spent some time cleaning up the engine bay. Not to mention I was tasting brake fluid for the next few hours :ugh2:

:confused:

:icon17:

doh! :icon17:

i use the suction type bleeder that pulls from the caliper side. :D

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!

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.

hey elan, you know you can tape the tabs in place so they dont slip out. :icon17:

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.

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.

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.

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.

Only way to learn
 

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.

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.

Can happen to the best of us. It is an excuse to try out some other shift knobs. :tup:
https://i.imgur.com/bKdFQ4v.jpg?1

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.

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.

tried to open $600 tablet...i failed

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.

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!!!!!

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

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.

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

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.

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

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)

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.:confused:

Fortunately I managed to beat out the flames.

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.

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

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...

Ever take a head off. Look at the pistons. And wonder why you have 2 pistons at TDC. :icon14:


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. :tup: