OT - Your worst auto repair disaster - OT

Botch

@alaskanassasin is currently pulling the dash out of his truck, and it kinda made me shudder; and then, think about the worst repair experiences I've had, thought it might be an interesting thread.
I needed to replace the muffler on my 1970, baby-****-green Ford Maverick (the Babemobile!  not.)  I removed the clamps, soaked the joint between the front of the muffler and the exhaust pipe with Liquid Wrench, and started to twist.  It came loose!   Uh, no it didn't, the rear of the exhaust pipe broke off (rusted thru, this was '70's 'murican quality) .  I tried to remove that section of exhaust pipe, same thing, it broke the next section!  This happened all the way up to the exhaust header, d'OH!!  
Got all new pipes, worked backwards from the engine block, sliding pipes together and tightening the U-bolts to crimp them in place.  Finally, Finished!  I grabbed the rear of the muffler pipe and gave it a good tug, and the whole system swung backwards?!?!?  Discovered the second pipe had slipped out of the first pipe about 3/4 of the way, and I didn't see it as I tightened the U-bolt!     So, I had to pull everything apart again, beginning from the rear (and apparently I hadn't tightened any of the U bolts enough); laid each pipe on the cement driveway and pounded the "crimps" in the pipes out with a steel rod and a sledgehammer.  Said words I didn't know.  Finally got it all back together, and no further issues with that car.  And this was all done on my back, on a concrete driveway (Dad didn't have a creeper, he got one for Christmas, from me, that year), at least it wasn't January.  Oof-dah!  
Also had a hideous time changing out my rear shocks, but that's for another time.  What's your worst experience?    

Fred19Flintstone

I had a 1975 Jeep CJ5.  It had a curious gimmick of the headlights blinking on & off when you turned on the lights.  It only happened after the car warmed up.  Electrical problems are a major suck!  It wasn't the switch, but I narrowed down the problem to something behind the dash.  After tearing it apart three or four times, I finally fixed the problem.  I lost control on an icy road, rolled it and it was totaled.  No more problem. 

dmchicago

I took my Mercedes GLE 350 to the dealer for scheduled maintenance and it took a day longer than they initially told me. Had to drive the stupid C-series loaner another day!

Arrrrruuuugggghhhhh!

1voyager

I installed Highjacker air shocks and shackles on my 1972 Rally Nova and pumped them up as high as they would go. Then added a 2 1/2 inch exhaust system with Thrush Glasspack mufflers. The 2 1/2 inch pipes couldn't be wrapped through the usual route so they hanged straight under the body all the way past the rear axle. It sounded like a grumbling beast and looked like a nasty dragster. Looking back on it, I turned it from a nice-looking chick magnet into a redneck chariot. 

I found out the hard way that air shocks, high speed and tight corners don't mix. Hit a fence row and a ditch at around 65mph. I wasn't wearing a seat. I walked away without a scratch but the ghost of my Nova rests on a lonely stretch of highway near West Lafayette, Indiana.

Stupid is what stupid does!!! 

alaskanassasin

Trail of guts   going through the different settings and checking mode doors before reinstalling.
 

Eoin

alaskanassasin said:

Trail of guts   going through the different settings and checking mode doors before reinstalling.
 

Impressive. Very impressive if everything works when you're done.

nolaegghead

When I was around 18, I bought a '73 Vega GT cheap.  The cast aluminum block was notoriously prone to cylinder wear and they would burn oil like an ungapped drip pan under a pork butt, maybe a quart every 800 miles complete with the bad smoke.

So I pulled the engine, took it apart and sent the block and head in to the machine shop where they over-bored it and sleeved the block with steel.  The head got cleaned with new valve sleeves/guides.  I bought new pistons and rings to work with the sleeves and painstakingly built the engine.

Since I didn't have an engine hoist, I put the short block in (one person could heave the short block in place, it wasn't very heavy).  Then put the head on, timing chain, etc.

As a vanity, I put a racing style air cleaner on the carb that went together with a wing nut.

Started it up, ran perfectly after adjusting the timing and points.

My little brother hung around like annoying little brothers often do.  He was very interested in the project, and took the air cleaner off and (without telling me) dropped the wing nut into the carb.

I thought he had just misplace it, so got another wing nut and put the air filter back on.  Started it up and heard the wing nut get chewed up by the engine.

Still ran, but with about 60% of the power it should have had.

Shortly thereafter I bought another car and it was the hand-me-down to my two younger brothers, we had it for a couple more years until my next younger brother (not the same one) drove it into a lake where the tow truck we hired to pull it out got stuck and an even larger tow truck was needed.  I don't remember it running again after that, and I think it was sold for parts or something.

All this after I painted it metallic black Imron with a white GT stripe on it, and had blended in a fiberglass hood scoop.  I know, kids do stupid vanity crap and it's pointless.

nolaegghead

Another epic disaster that was my fault:  I was helping my littlest brother rebuild the differential in his 280Z.  I think I replaced the planetary drive gears and didn't do the shim job right. 

We got it together and back in the car.  Drove it around a little, seemed fine. 

So then I revved the engine to 6000 and dropped the clutch.  The differential exploded.  Major bummer.  Maybe it wasn't ready for a stress test, or maybe it needed more of a break in time.  Learned to really pay attention to specs and shims.

Speaking of Z differentials, one of mine had a cracked housing and the U-joints on the axles were going out (if you know anything about these cars, it's a constant battle dealing with the axles) I told my parents I wanted a new rear end for my birthday. 

Once my birthday came around, they ushered me outside and there was a wrecker that had the entire rear end from a junk-yard 260Z hanging from the back.  I was very happy.

alaskanassasin

Got to love family... right?

nolaegghead

alaskanassasin said:

Got to love family... right?

I don't remember if I beat his ass or just emotionally tortured him for years afterwards.  Probably both.  That was a long time ago.

nolaegghead

typical response to my long posts:

tl;dr

The Cen-Tex Smoker

dmchicago said:

I took my Mercedes GLE 350 to the dealer for scheduled maintenance and it took a day longer than they initially told me. Had to drive the stupid C-series loaner another day!

Arrrrruuuugggghhhhh!

the struggle is real my friend. 

theyolksonyou

I’m 15 yr old with my first car.  A ‘66 mustang convertible L6 POS.  Loved that car. Doing my first oil change by myself.  Pouring the new oil in and the neighbor girl from across the street walks over.  She’s a couple of yrs older, blonde, nice looking to a 15 yr old boy. 

She says, “What are you doing?”

me:  “Changing the oil in my car.”

Her:  “Shouldn’t you put the drain plug back in first?”

dammit.  Not a disaster, just a couple of quarts of oil, but embarrassing. 

mlc2013

Id like to preference this with Please don't judge me; all I ever wanted when I was younger was a Ferrari and worked my butt off in HS and college, I hustled, sold cell phones, beepers, car stereos, and what ever I could get my hands on plus I did what ever I could do to make enough money to buy one I cut grass Deliver newspapers walked dogs everything big and small. I did this for years until the realization of me being able to afford one was just a dream. Then 1 day I had realized that I saved just enough $ to start looking, and I found the perfect silver 2004 F360 spyder (a used one that is). It was 2006 and it was my 30th Bday present to myself. It was my first car of that magnitude.

The next day there was a Rally from nassau county to suffolk county where we were going to stop at some winery for lunch and hang out for a while and them head back and of course I joined the group. On the LIE doing about 100 mph my check engine light went on, I backed off immediately and got off the next exit hopping someone else in the rally would follow, but no such luck. Luckily there was a gas station on the corner of the exit ramp and I pulled in turned the car off and tried to figure out what is wrong. Now my mechanic skills are a big fat 0 let alone I want even sure ow to open the engine hatch. Once I figured out how to open the engine hatch I was able to determine that the oil was low or non existent the dip stick was dry. I went into the store and bought the mobile 1 synthetic oil and then realized I had no idea where the oil goes as there were two caps that could be for the oil. There was no information in the owners manual and smart phones were not what they are today so wasn't able to google it. I had the car for all of 24hours and im stuck so I decide to just get it towed, being it is a Ferrari it was hard to find someone that would tow it and finally found a guy with a flatbed that would tow it for me. As he pulled up he said we should have to turn the car around so he can load it with out damaging the front end, with that I turn the car on and boom a loud bang and smoke starts to pour out of the engine, the motor was toast!!
This was on a saturday and the dealer was closed on sunday so I sat and stewed in my anger for the rest of the weekend until Monday morning Im at the dealer first thing ready to kill, the salesman says good morning and what happened to you Saturday I saw you at the start but not at the winery? I being to explain as calmly as I could and he says wow thats a shame. Lets get the car here and will figure it out. They send a truck to pick up the car immediately and after what felt like an eternity (probably 3 hours or so) he called me and said they found the problem and its there fault so I should pick out another car. Apparently they did service on the clutch and in doing so you have to drop the motor and the never put oil back in it. I was uber relieved and now of course I went bigger and better and bought a 2005 F430 coupe in red.
My Rally days weren't over either as I did many more for years to come this is still my favorite picture, my 8 cyc was able to fend off that monster 12 cyc all day.

I was just the better driver that day as his car could blow past mine at anytime if he was able to take advantage of any mistakes I made, luckily there were non. Then this happened
I know this isn't exactly what you meant but its my story, hope you enjoyed it, and just for the record I no longer have any of these cars. It was fun while it lasted but can not justify that much $$ on a hobby. So now I egg and bike.  

WeberWho

When I was younger my friend asked if I could stop over at his friends house to help him fix his brakes. My friend was house sitting for his friends while they were on vacation. (His friend had a garage which neither one of us had at the time) So my friend started to remove the lug nuts on his car and he somehow stripped one of the lug nuts down to a circle. He got all pissed and quit. Moved his car out of his friends garage and parked it next to his friends truck. He got out of his car and jumped in his friends truck to move it back into the garage. When moving his friends truck he floored it to either show off or was still mad about the rounded lug nut. When flooring it in reverse he didn't quite turn his friends truck far enough out of the way and ran into his own car. (I'm laughing when I'm typing this. It was so damn funny) He scraped the whole side of his car and dented it. While messing up his friends front bumper. He gets out of the truck and says something like, "That's not what I wanted to happen". Still to this day I give him crap and how he can't handle driving a truck. 

Botch

@mlc2013 , great story and pics.  What bike are you riding now?  I learned on a Yamaha FZ-6 and now ride a BMW R1200GS, mostly for the leg room (I'm getting older and have a 37" inseam).  Both bikes are capable of more performance than I am, so no biggie.  

mlc2013

Botch said:

@mlc2013 , great story and pics.  What bike are you riding now?  I learned on a Yamaha FZ-6 and now ride a BMW R1200GS, mostly for the leg room (I'm getting older and have a 37" inseam).  Both bikes are capable of more performance than I am, so no biggie.  

Bicycles, I never road a motorcycle There is just to much traffic in NY for me to feel safe on one I see a biker and car crash every week during the summer here and figured thats not for me

Botch

^^^ My bad.  Don't know that a bicycle would be any safer, unless where you live has sufficient bike lanes.  

mlc2013

Botch said:

^^^ My bad.  Don't know that a bicycle would be any safer, unless where you live has sufficient bike lanes.  

I mostly ride off road in designated bike trails and occasionally early morning road rides only where bike lanes are avail

PhilXman

I had an old 67 bronco when I was in my early 20s. It had some transmission issues. A mechanic told me to bring him the old 3 speed because he thought the problem was a synchro gear. I KNOW 0 about cars. I was successful in pulling it myself but was pretty much bathed in gear oil. I think I can still smell it on me today! (30 years later). 

DoubleEgger

I advanced the timing a bit too far on a built 400 smallblock. Destroyed 5 racing pistons. Tore it back down and started over. 

It took three different oil pans, five different gaskets, and six tries to get a single drop oil leak out of my smallblock 350. 

RRP

Our next door neighbors are two retired college professors both with PhDs. They have two sons. The oldest was never into motorcycles but nuts about bikes. After he graduated from college then he took a job of his dreams...a bycyle delivery boy in the heart of WallStreet. Yes you read that RIGHT! A degree in business and now being a delivery boy on a bicycle! 

After a mere 38 days riding he got hit by a taxi and that ended his dream job! 

Epilogue..he went back to college and now has a PhD just like his parents! 

blasting

Not a big deal, but you may enjoy laughing at me.

My Suburban has a power window problem.  Dealer wanted almost a grand, and my frugality kicked in.  Bought the parts, took it all apart and stopped for the day.  Then the heat kicked in and I stubbornly refuse to do anything unnecessary outside during our ridiculous heat (PHX)  So I've been driving like this for over a month, and will continue until at least the end of September.  I'm now "that guy" .  No doubt I'll also forget how it all goes back together.

DoubleEgger

blasting said:

Not a big deal, but you may enjoy laughing at me.

My Suburban has a power window problem.  Dealer wanted almost a grand, and my frugality kicked in.  Bought the parts, took it all apart and stopped for the day.  Then the heat kicked in and I stubbornly refuse to do anything unnecessary outside during our ridiculous heat (PHX)  So I've been driving like this for over a month, and will continue until at least the end of September.  I'm now "that guy" .  No doubt I'll also forget how it all goes back together.

Sounds like a 2am project 

lousubcap

blasting said:

Not a big deal, but you may enjoy laughing at me.

My Suburban has a power window problem.  Dealer wanted almost a grand, and my frugality kicked in.  Bought the parts, took it all apart and stopped for the day.  Then the heat kicked in and I stubbornly refuse to do anything unnecessary outside during our ridiculous heat (PHX)  So I've been driving like this for over a month, and will continue until at least the end of September.  I'm now "that guy" .  No doubt I'll also forget how it all goes back together.

Looks like the passenger side and as long as the window is up, in that weather who cares about the inside...(either side). 

frazzdaddy

Too many to list,been an MB tech for over 30 years.

Ozzie_Isaac

I had an F150.  My passenger auto door locks died.  Pulled the door apart, pulled the auto lock unit out.  It was a sealed plastic unit with a few bond spots.  Drilled out the bonds and traced problem to the little motor.  Looked like a slot car motor.  Pulled the motor apart and found out an internal plate resistor had a resistance that was too high.  I put the plate resistor in a vise and squeezed it till the resistance was at the bottom of the resistance spec.  Reassembled the whole unit and it worked like a champ.  Saved $175.  Took about 3hrs and cost nothing.  1 year later driver lock died.  Same issue, same fix.  Locks worked till I sold the truck 8 years later.

nolaegghead

hahaha

Ozzie_Isaac

DoubleEgger said:

blasting said:

Not a big deal, but you may enjoy laughing at me.

My Suburban has a power window problem.  Dealer wanted almost a grand, and my frugality kicked in.  Bought the parts, took it all apart and stopped for the day.  Then the heat kicked in and I stubbornly refuse to do anything unnecessary outside during our ridiculous heat (PHX)  So I've been driving like this for over a month, and will continue until at least the end of September.  I'm now "that guy" .  No doubt I'll also forget how it all goes back together.

Sounds like a 2am project 

 Good point.  2am temp is only 95.

blasting

Yeah, I was getting up at 4 just to be able to be outside a bit.  Now in full hunker down mode for a couple months.

You still riding ponies at high noon?

Ozzie_Isaac

blasting said:

Yeah, I was getting up at 4 just to be able to be outside a bit.  Now in full hunker down mode for a couple months.

You still riding ponies at high noon?

 Nope, too hot now.  Ride until about 1030, then head back out around 630 .... today was nice after the storms.  Went with my daughter.