[FamilyManTrackSedan]

Originally Posted by Ozzie335i

I hope none of these guys work at American or Delta.

I have a friend in the Air Force works on avionics. He has stories.

[BSM n54iS]

Originally Posted by Ozzie335i

I hope none of these guys work at American or Delta.

Add United to that..

[BSM n54iS]

Ok my contribution:

Decided to paint my brake calipers one weekend, well with nothing to do after work the Friday night before and having a few drinks I decide to get a jump start on things and prep everything giving more time to have the paint dry over the weekend. Got the left side wheel bolts loose under load before jacking, then went to the right side front....little drunk and dyslexic I forgot which way is right and which is left . The next day about 20 minutes at Discount Tire beating on it with the impact and finally got the bolt off RIGHT about as I was to say well looks like I'm drilling this one out lol. Lesson learned, drink only after you begin your diy and during...never start before

[musa]

Originally Posted by Ozzie335i

I hope none of these guys work at American or Delta.

Some work in nuclear power stations- go figure...to err is human. that's why safety checks and thresholds are implemented in mission critical endeavors.

[FamilyManTrackSedan]

Originally Posted by musa

Some work in nuclear power stations- go figure...to err is human. that's why safety checks and thresholds are implemented in mission critical endeavors.

hmm...

[BSM n54iS]

Originally Posted by FamilyManTrackSedan

hmm...

Thats fucked up lol, but then again everything built by man will fail...inevitable

[MysticRob]

Originally Posted by Black n54is

Thats fucked up lol, but then again everything built by man will fail...inevitable

Assuming that's the Deep Water Horizon there. Good movie if you haven't seen it, btw.

Space Shuttle o-rings come to mind for me.

My story: Was using a small hammer to tap a rear-view mirror onto the windshield mirror clip of my 2004 Cobra 'vert. I had a hand on the outside to absorb the blows (top was down) so the shockwave would travel thru window to me and not cause a crack, but after about the 5th or 6th blow I lifted my hand off the damn windshield, tapped it with the hammer, and spiderwebbed the hell out of it. Dumbest thing I could've possibly done, and I did it.

[conrad325i]

This is a great thread...

I was swapping front diff fluid in my brother's girlfriend's mom's first gen X5.
Decided to be "smart" and use the pump on the oil changer as a transfer pump to fill it back up. I had a couple fittings rigged up with hose clamps to adapt to some hose I had and long story short the line blew off pressurized with 15W50 royal purple about 6" from my face.... I tasted gear oil for 2 days and my parents garage smelled like it for over a year. My eyes felt very lubricated in their sockets haha

[musa]

Originally Posted by conrad325i

This is a great thread...

I was swapping front diff fluid in my brother's girlfriend's mom's first gen X5.
Decided to be "smart" and use the pump on the oil changer as a transfer pump to fill it back up. I had a couple fittings rigged up with hose clamps to adapt to some hose I had and long story short the line blew off pressurized with 15W50 royal purple about 6" from my face.... I tasted gear oil for 2 days and my parents garage smelled like it for over a year. My eyes felt very lubricated in their sockets haha

Lol, someone in Knoxville, please give Conrad a six-pack!

[conrad325i]

Originally Posted by musa

Lol, someone in Knoxville, please give Conrad a six-pack!

[whyzee125]

1) My buddy had been wanting to change his brake pads on his Scion tc for a few weeks and said they just went metal to metal. I really didn't have time but he's a good friend and I felt bad I hadn't been able to help yet so I agreed to do it that day. He's not mechanically inclined at all (and apparently neither am I LOL) so I basically had to do both sides myself, racing against the daylight. By the time I was wrapping everything up, it had been dark for quite some time but it was just a simple pad swap so figured nothing could go wrong. Backing out, it sounded just as bad, if not worse, than metal to metal. He went in to Maxi the next day to find out I put one brake pad on this way O( instead of this way O). He said the look on the tech's face was one of pure disappointment.

2) I had a maf code on my 4Runner so decided to try some maf cleaner. While I was at o'reilly, I found some paint that was said to match the 3rd gen's hubcaps perfectly. I pulled the maf off and reached in the bag for the cleaner. I'm pretty sure you can see where this is going... haha. Good news is, my maf matched my hubcaps PERFECTLY.

[FamilyManTrackSedan]

cwarren you said you'd post. let's hear it.

[bcoffin23]

Swapped in new transmission mounts. While tightening the last transmission mount, I over-torqued and snapped the bolt.

Had to put the old ones back in...................

They have since been replaced.

[tcphoto]

I finally got tired of the new MTech2 bumper not aligned correctly on my E46. After looking closer, I noticed the shop did not secure the cover to the rail. I buy the plastic rivet kit and get it secured and bolted to the fender liners. On the day that I traded it in and bought my E92, I was driving to the dealership and hear a scraping while driving on the highway. Next thing I know, I see the bellypan in the rear mirror. The dealer never said a word and I wasn't bringing it to his attention.

[drunkenup]

For those of us familiar of what our radiator drain plug looks like, I was not at one point, and treated the entire outer casing as part of the removing plug. Well, I figured it out, except after finishing my water pump DIY, and driving for a half hour, shut off the car and immediately hear a pop, followed by the sound of water rushing down a drain. Vacuum in the water system must have been the only thing holding it in. I was dropping my friend off at the time and both looked at each other in complete and utter awe.

[doru]

Changed the cooling system in my 530 e39. Couple weeks later the fan clutch went bad. Time to change it. Put the 32mm wrench and after a futile struggle, I picked the deadblow, and blow I did. The nut gave suddenly and the wrench went full force in that upper radiator neck which exploded like hit by grenade. Should've done the repairs in the reverse order........

[Eddien123]

Took my entire intake manifold off the car. After I put it back together, I checked under the car for any bolts or tools that I dropped only to see an electronic plug dangling down. I took off the entirely manifold set up again trying to find it only to realize it clipped to the top of the manifold (I wasted hours doing it again for no reason)

Other times I feel stupid like once I looked for a screwdriver for like 20 minutes. It was resting on the inside of my hood. (Both my car and the screwdriver were red...)

I never feel stupider than when im working on cars.

[Zach335i]

I was swapping a new harness into the inside of a chevy truck so it would have power locks and power windows. I had ran into a wire loom that was electrical taped to a dash support but I couldn't see it. I knew to grab a knife to cut it but I figured if I pulled hard enough it would snap. I was right...it snapped, sending my wrist into the the sheet metal edge of the dash support. Immediately blood everywhere so I just squeezed it as hard as I could with my other hand and told my girl we need to go to the ER now! We both hopped in my 335i and that was the fastest I've ever seen her drive. It pays to have a fast car in an emergency. Now I always cut electrical tape

[B@man335]

Originally Posted by whyzee125

1) My buddy had been wanting to change his brake pads on his Scion tc for a few weeks and said they just went metal to metal. I really didn't have time but he's a good friend and I felt bad I hadn't been able to help yet so I agreed to do it that day. He's not mechanically inclined at all (and apparently neither am I LOL) so I basically had to do both sides myself, racing against the daylight. By the time I was wrapping everything up, it had been dark for quite some time but it was just a simple pad swap so figured nothing could go wrong. Backing out, it sounded just as bad, if not worse, than metal to metal. He went in to Maxi the next day to find out I put one brake pad on this way O( instead of this way O). He said the look on the tech's face was one of pure disappointment.

2) I had a maf code on my 4Runner so decided to try some maf cleaner. While I was at o'reilly, I found some paint that was said to match the 3rd gen's hubcaps perfectly. I pulled the maf off and reached in the bag for the cleaner. I'm pretty sure you can see where this is going... haha. Good news is, my maf matched my hubcaps PERFECTLY.

I had something similar happen. This was when I had my Toyota solara. I bought red caliper paint for it cuz racecar. Around this time I was moving out of my apartment so I bought apart can carpet cleaner to shampoo before I move out.......yeaaaahhh because the can cap was red like the caliper paint, sprayed my carpet a nice crimson lol girlfriend was like "why does it smell like paint??"

[Team503]

Definitely done the lugnuts thing; was terrifying before we figured it out - kinda more terrifying after that until we got 'em tightened.

[allcaps55]

Doing my valve cover gasket and OFHG on a 100 degree day in the direct sun. Finally finishing putting everything back together, go to tighten the bolts with my torque wrench. Hear the first click awesome, second click, look down and the head of bolt was inside the wrench. For some reason my torque wrench was broken and that's how I spent an 8 hour day, a call to AAA and $700 to get my valve cover gasket replaced and 2 bolts extracted from my head

[malgyver]

Both in high school, so 27 years ago when my mental reflexes weren't as well developed:

1. Replaced all four brakes on a fiat project I had, driveway was a slight incline backwards into a busy street. Started the engine, let off the parking brake, started backing up out of the driveway, went to put on the brakes....and nothing! Rolled all the way into the street in a panic, lucky that there was not a car driving by at the time. Not sure why I didn't think to just put the parking brake on, or jam it in first and dump the clutch...those mental reflexes. Had forgot to pump the brakes to get everything seated correctly.

2. My friends Z-car, forgot to tighten the fuel line on the pressure side of the fuel pump. Fire! Luckily got it out with only damaged hoses and wiring.