What is the worst mistake you made doing your own wrenching?

I flipped mine and ran em.

 

Driving down the road, car started sputtering and we pulled off to the side of the road to check it out. Just had an oil change, so I checked the dip stick, looked ok, wiped it off to get a fresh reading and pulled it out again. Bone dry. So I poured another quart in thinking it was low. Still dry. Poured two more quarts in...still nothing. Towed it to a shop and they said the alternator was bad. Nothing related with the oil. I had them check the oil and they took out 7 quarts! Later I realized I was checking the dip stick when the car was half in the ditch and not on level ground...doh.

 

As an IAMAW Shop Steward, I approve of these messages!

 

Most dangerous mistakes I've done were at my current job(ford dealer tech) I put lug nuts on by hand and let the service advisor rush me forgetting to tighten the lugs on one wheel on two different vehicles about a week apart, from then on I have not let a service advisor rush my and am known to bluntly tell them to piss off and let me do my job. Two rules I made for myself after that are never put lugs on without a impact gun in the other hand and that every single time a wheel is taken off the car gets driven around the block.

 

Worst mistake while wrenching?

I lost a 10mm socket once.

 

Not disconnecting the battery when replacing a stater in my 95 roadmaster. I almost lost a few fingers that day.

 

So stupid but, I lucked out. Socket to remove battery terminal and connected both terminals - BOOM!! 750 CCA battery and a socket. I'm lucky it wasn't worse for me.

 

What is it with ford techs? I knew a guy who did that at a Ford Lub place and the customer's wheel flew off on the highway. He was promptly fired.

I forgot to unplug the battery from my wife's corolla and was replacing the starter and nearly zapped myself. Was lucky I didn't damage the battery or any wiring too.

 

@Bleep100 , would you mind if I opened this up to self inflicted carpentry/construction stories?

 

Best part for mine was it was the same service advisor both times and both times he interrupted me while I was running the lugs on and as soon as the wheels hit the ground he took it from my stall, if I had test driven it like we are suppose to I would have felt it was loose, now I dont let it leave unless I test drive it. Neither wheel separated from the vehicle but only cause the customers noticed the noise they were making.

 

Long post comin..

Used to be a tech at carmax. Finished up a customer vehicle, took it through the car wash before delivering it. Had a buddy in the passenger seat.
We used to play this game, passenger would hold the bar that allows the seat to slide back and forth, driver would slam on brakes, passenger gets a little ride.

I slammed on the brakes pretty hard coming out of the car wash, buddies head hit the windshield, cracks all over the damn place.

Hard one to explain to the customer, but I kept my job somehow.

 

Same thing happened on here, the Dealer Tech forgot to tighten the wheel on the guys Tacoma and it came off on the highway.

 

All I will say is 10 quarts of fluid in the engine, zero transmission fluid. Ooops.

 

Damn that’s crazy, at least you kept at it and got it squared away. I’m sure she was greatful. Seems like a lot of easy jobs never turn out being easy. I learned not to say it anymore, “this won’t take long, it’s easy”. Every time I say that it ends up being a pain in the ass lol.

 

Not me but some kid at a shop was new and we took my wife's car in for an oil change. Started driving music up loud then I heard the dreaded knock. Music off, car dies instantly. I have to push it off the road. Kid put the wrong oil filter on, it blew off 30 feet from the shop and left a trail of oil for 2 miles. Kid kept his job somehow. they replaced her engine and the car had 240k miles on it and got an engine with 112k. Halved the mileage.

 

A few months back I had jacked up my back and my neighbor offered to change my oil for me as I was due. He told me he was good and knew where the drain pan was. I guess he had a brain fart, but at least he stopped when he saw the red fluid coming out .

 

That sounds good

 

I worked construction and we had a rule that no one on our crew was aloud to say piece of cake , you know why .