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

We have all made mistakes . Maybe we can learn from each other . My friend F150 changed his water pump and mixed up bolts and put a slightly longer one in a short hole and cracked his block . Easy job gone way way bad .

 

Holy shit that’s bad.

It was back in the day when I was a young kid working at my families mobil catering business (fleet of 50+ trucks).

The maintenance guy was out for the day, so they had me check all the fluids in the trucks. The trucks that were low on windshield washer fluid, I put in antifreeze. It’s the same color!! That was a complete disaster.

Never had to do maintenance again.

 

On this gen? It was yesterday when I remembered a fellow member saying the Toyota emblem on the steering wheel was held in place by two little pins. By the time I could see it was anchored to death by 6 plastic grappling hooks it was fucking buggered to all hell and I put a sticker over it.

 

I cross threaded the axle nut to my CV axle and in my haste I decided to keep going until I thought it was on there, and then deal with it next time I changed the axle. Big mistake. The axle nut wasnt completely seated and allowed for some play which ruined my wheel bearing and front rotor on that side the next day when I was on a 400 mile road trip. Luckily it didn't present itself until I got to my destination and there was a shop right off the freeway that was able to take care of me. But I learned a good lesson there

 

Sounds familiar, I know someone who put washer fluid in their radiator.

Me, broken screw heads luckily has been my worst. Sometimes though, the amount of shit you have to take off to get a tap into a damaged hole can make a broken screw a nightmare.

 

Forgot the pilot bearing in a flywheel once, back in my old Honda days.

Had the damn thing completely put back together and ready to test drive - just happened to see the fucking bearing laying there on the floor mocking me.

 

Zomg just sitting there, so smug

 

I have bad luck with seals.

I think I have destroyed every major seal on my Jeep. I think I did the rear main seal 3 times because I kept tearing it on install.

 

This ones easy... many years ago doing a "simple" engine rebuild, rings, bearings, valve job, got much more expensive after breaking one of the rings installing a piston and scoring the cylinder wall.... so add boring out the cylinders, plus larger pistons and rings was more of a rebuild than I was planning LOL

 

i came close to draining the tranny fluid when i did the first oil change myself. i had the wrench on the tranny drain plug but something did not seem right and i figured it out. i am and old fart and it seems like now when i try to fix something i make it worse.

 

Just remember 14mm for oil

 

me too! i had a 92 with that 2 piece rear seal, it seemed like it went in Ok then after putting it all back together it leaked worse then before.
i did it a second time and the same thing..i ended up selling it.

 

Really common, always wonder what it'd be like to see the AT fluid coming out, thinking "whats wrong with my oil"

 

I didn't check the rocker arm slots for proper clearance when installing a bigger cam.... ended up lunching the cam on a small block Chevy.

 

I put a timing chain on so the pully was 180 degrees the wrong way and started the engine. I think it actually ran backwards for a few seconds before some of the pistons ate their valves . That little BMW was my mechanics teacher.

 

Haha, I some how managed while using dawn soup to lube up the seal and push it through, bottom was easy but that top one is a bitch.

Recognize these?!? I still have 2 left over

 

Put in a clutch backwards. Put the tranny back in and ruined the transmission trying to bolt it in. Removed transmission and replaced clutch and transmission...

[Edit autocorrect that changes tranny to granny for hilarity]

 

Forgot to put oil drain bolt back on. Realized after I had put in half the amount. Oil all over the floor.
Luckily it was the beetle and only 1.25 quarts lost. Hahaha.

 

Pretty much disassembled my entire first car. With no money or clue what I was doing it sat in a thousand pieces until I sold it a few years later

 

now i am going to have nightmares! it was almost a full day from jacking it up getting the pan off doing the job , getting the pan back on to find it was a waste of time.
one thing i thought of later was if the PCV valve was clogged it would create pressure in the engine block forcing oil out any crack?