Dumbest mistake you've made to your vehicle?

Snowblowing the driveway and wanted to get as close as possible to my truck to reduce the amount of shovel time that was needed.

Got too close and put a lovely scrape right across the front corner of the bumper. I just tell people some asshole did it with a shopping cart at walmart or something.

 

Ok, here is just some of my highlights
@ 16, changing the oil in my car. Left the wrench on the battery. So instead of coming out from under the car and retreving wrench, I thought it was wiser to reach up between the engine and the front of the car to grab said wrench. Grabbed said wrench and shorted it across both battery posts... slight burn on right hand and a nasty cut and bruise on my forehead
@ 19, decided to put aftermarket gauges in car. Oil pressure, Water temp and Amp meter. Was learning how to do DC wiring at work. Was advised to make sure I used different colour wires, so I did not screw up. Dad's garage only had white house wire it, so used that. Long story short, I let the smoke out of the wire and the car caught fire, which thankfully my Dad had walked in and put out at that exact moment, while I was freaking out.. oh shit, oh shit , oh shit. He put the fire out, laughed and told me I had better sort it out because I still had to go to work in the morning...
@ 20, while pulling up at a party on my VF750R and was turning around on full lock with my feet up (trying to be cool because there were ladies on the balcony) and as I turned and came to a stop, I put out the wrong foot to catch the bike and fell over on the other side with my foot in the air, like a retard marker; idiot here sign. Then my other leg was stuck under my bike and my friend who was riding behind me had to help me pick up my bike so I could get my leg out and stand my bike up. So freaking embarassing, I just wanted to crawl into my helmet and die slowly, painfully.

 

That piece of English language is the most descriptive I've heard in a long time. Oh, the imagery!

Been there, brother. Been there.

 

Put headers on my old mustang, had to remove the dipstick tube to get them in... Forgot to put it back in, only took a mile to turn that motor into a paperweight....

 

Drilled a hole right through my rad when i was instaliing my front tube bumper!!!
she is now being held by JB weld!!!

 

i got a bigger opps actually . When putting the head back on my mr2 i was fininshing up with the timing belt. Well there is this one washer that goes behing the tensioner. THAT I FORGOT! down the road once, burning rubber smell from timing belt and this is what i find!


new belt vs the one thats half melted

 

My biggest mistake was continuing to drive even though my left front marker light kept falling out due to my dad breaking the bracket. Glue doesn't always work so great..and now my left front fender is all scratched up

 

parked my old focus in a lot. Didnt realize there was a curb infront of me. I pulled forward to leave and dragged the thing across the bottom of my car. felt like a dumbass. Of course now with the tacoma, I can just drive right over the bitch.

 

I installed my new transfer case skid on Saturday. Had an intermittent rattling sound that kept getting worse and more frequent, figured it was the exhaust crossover vs. the skid like other people have reported.
Got under the truck tonight to have a look, ready to give the plate manufacturer a piece of my mind right after I took a look at it.
Found my 3/4" socket on the end of my 10" extension and, separately, my ratchet. In the skid. Where I left them. Tools recovered, no more noise.

 

Buying it with Dunlop AT20 tires. Biggest waste of rubber ever made. Of all the vehicles I have owned, with all the different tires, I have never had a set of tires with such shitty traction.

I will never own any tires made by them ever again.

 

This is one of TW's greatest threads, IMO.

I have two stories to contribute.

I once went to the gas station and filled up my '79 Dodge Van with gas and drove away with the fuel pump nozzle still in the fill spout. Ripped the fuel pump hose right off the pump!

Secondly, I backpacked to the bottom of Grand Canyon in winter for (2) nights. Discovered I lost my car keys. I never did find them. I paid a tow-truck driver to open my car, could not find keys. Had the tow-truck driver come back after his shift and open up the steering column to access the starting switch with a screw driver. Got pulled over by law enforcement in Cali, had to explain that I was not a thief, my car was not stolen, and why my cars ignition was dangling in my lap.

 

Set the engine of my '78 Nova on fire "testing" the fuel pump. Burned the wires, distributer, melted some plastic, but it ran after I replaced everything.

 

When I was 17, my parents left me alone for a couple of weeks while they were on vacation. I took my dad's Montero out four wheeling on our land. Ended up getting it stuck. I don't know what I was thinking, but walked back and got my dad's Chevy S-10 pickup(4cly 2 wheel drive) to pull the Montero out. Ended up getting the S-10 stuck as well. I figured I'd just leave them until he got home. He wasn't too happy, but we did get them out.

 

Uhhh, just take a look at the wiring under my hood sometime

 

I was replacing the turned-to-dust gaskets in my 4Runner's automatic shifter under the BQE in Brooklyn. Accidentally knocked it into neutral while I was sitting in the passenger's seat, but I didn't notice at first because I had my head down below the dash. A second later I realized something wasn't right in my inner ear, looked up and realized I was rolling forward on the slight incline towards the opposite line of parked cars. Swung my leg over the hump and slammed the brake about six feet from the other cars, only to look up and see the startled face of the Uber driver who was parked perpendicularly two cars down, eating his lunch.

That was the day I learned to always use the parking brake, even in an automatic.