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

Jeez . Is your finger nail gone ? Ouch . What happened ?

 

Never took pictures of the actual finger lol. But I did go eat at a Chinese buffet on the way to the docs. Fingered wrapped in paper towel and electrical tape

 

Good thing you went before the doctor. You could of eaten your finger if the doc took it lol

 

Plastics guy came in and inserted a polypropylene stint to keep the nail bed open in hopes the nail would grow back but he was certain the matrix was damaged so badly it was gone forever...it grew back fully in about 8 weeks.

 

Tearing my short head bicep tendon while tightening the last bolt on my 1” body lift.

And completely ripping it from the bone the following day, adjusting my coil-overs. I now have the popeye bicep

Surgery set for next year

 

I think I would've let him go along with it, and asked how it went when he returned for brake-lines

 

My brother, his buddy and I were doing a total fluid change and full front brake replacement. I was working on the front passenger side, my brother's friend on the front driver's side. Put on new rotors, calipers and pads. I had a hunch to check his work to make sure he mounted the brake line back to the upper control arm, buuuut everything took longer than expected and I was ready to call it a night. He bleed it and put the tire back on. Well, a few days later I went off roading and had my windows rolled down. I heard cling cling cling in the front driver side wheel well. Thought to myself "I better check his work before I go any further". I was headed down hill, went to push on my brake peddle and it went to the floor. All I could think was "oh fuck". I had a mile left before getting to a paved parking lot. I quickly stopped, put it in 4L and limped my way to the parking lot. Pulled the tire off and long behold, my laziness came back and bit me in the ass.

 

Most boaters do this once, and once only. Launch without the drain plug. I was by myself, launched, got the boat out of the way, parked the truck and trailer, got back, and FU#K. The stern had only a couple inches of sideboard and was taking on water fast. Hop in, turn on the bilge, grab a spare plug from the glove box, go swimming, install, and shake my head in shame as the old boys giggle.

 

18 years old, working on my 1986 Mustang GT. I was trying to figure out the idle hunting common with that engine. I removed the EGR and Idle Air Control valves and cleaned out the passages out. Then figured I would fire it up! That engine redlined at the first spark! I just about crapped myself (definitely). Luckly I learned 2 things that day, the engine ECM had a built in 6250rpm governor and the EGR and IAC valves were after the throttle body. Thankfully I didn't wreck anything.

 

In high school I was repairing a rusty battery tray on a 1975 fuel injected Opel Manta. I didn’t pay much attention to where my drill bit was going on the other side and put several holes through the “computer”. I had to toss the FI and go with a Weber. Fun car. Good times.

 

Recently I was replacing the LED's on an my LG tv that had stopped working. Took everything apart just fine. Removed the LED strips (pods), installed the new ones. Put all the screens back on in the correct order. As I was reaching for the final screen, I bumped the main screen ripping off one of the 4 ribbon style connectors. Good news was 3/4 of the tv had picture lol! This is how i learned best buy has some great deals on open box items!!

All that time and work and I broke beyond repair what I was trying to fix!

 

Hah. Yes, I literally did exactly this.

 

I was 16 and trying to torque down some lbjs on a Silverado I had. Folks weren’t home so I used his air impact first time I touched one and zipped it down and ripped the head of the bolt off.
No YouTube then had to figure out how to remove it took me 9 hours...fun times.

 

1986 Ranger - changing oil, did not notice that rubber seal ring on the filter had remained with the engine, rather than coming off with the filter. Put the new filter on, on top of the extra seal. On startup, all that nice clean oil splattered right out.

(Not my fault but similar to the above: took my prerunner in for an oil change, the shop used the wrong filter, causing a leak between the seal and the engine. A few hundred miles later... oil warning light and rattling engine, took it in to dealer who discovered the problem. Got my money back and a card for 5 free oil changes from the shop that used the wrong filter - but never went back for obvious reasons.)

 

The only thing that comes to mind is I forgot to replace the oil fill cap on my bike. I didn't realize my mistake until after I rode home and my leg was covered in oil.

 

2008 Tacoma: changing wipers, I let the wiper arm snap down onto the windshield, metal against glass. Craaaacckk...

 

Well that sucks! I always lay a bath towel under the wiper arm for just such a reason, those tension springs can really pull those arms down with force.

 

Some people prefer puppies over busted fingers on the front page. Not me, but some people.

 

Neat car

 

Changing a bad c/v axle in an m5 with a low mileage used one. Total nightmare to get the old one out. After I was all done, I realized I reinstalled the bad one as it was sitting next to the good one on the floor lol.

My dad's worst was building a Porsche 912 engine. He went for the first test drive and just thumbed the air filter wingnut on with no filter. Backed off and dropped into the engine, completely destroying it. He said he cried for about an hour.