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Your Worst Garage Mishaps (warning graphic pictures)
Thanks to Clublexus I now do nearly all of the work on my car myself. I have had bad luck the very few times I let someone else service my car ranging from joy rides to total incompetence. I would like to hear of others experiences when things go wrong at home or when letting others work on or handle your car. My very first experience was in 97, I lived just outside of Chicago and at the time they had mandatory clean air compliance checks which involved putting the car on a dyno type drum while they increased the speed to check emmissions. Since traction control was uncommon at that time I told the technician to leave it off while doing the test and showed him how to do it. Watching the test from a glass partition I heard the engine rev up and the cylinder didn't move and suddenly before my screams could be heard a shutter and bang as he disengaged the traction control at about 3,500 rpm. I thought the car would never be the same but thank God these transmissions were built so tough and it survives to this day with no apparent side effects.
Told the garage to check the dist on my Acurra Integra as Honda is known for this type of failure. Instead they took my fuel system apart,including pulling the injectors. When they finally listened and I got them a new dist from Ricks out of Canada. I fhen drove the car to work (appx 70 miles) I couldn'nt figure out why I smelled gas. I noticed I seemed to be using a lot of gas. Got to work and opened hood, found engine compartment flooded with gas. When they had pulled injectors they hadn't installed new o rings on them and 3 out of the 4 were spraying gas every where. Could have blown myself up! Fixed that myself, and now inspect all work others do for me before I leave their shop. BTW. I only let others work on my cars when I don't have time or I need rack time.
There was this one time I was replacing a clutch on a 00 Miata. We got the trans back in and was buttoning everything back up. We went to push the clutch pedal and it didn't move at all. The fork that connects to the slave cylinder was jammed. Hours we wrenched with it trying to unjam it. We finally took everything back off down the the clutch plates. Everything was perfectly installed. We put everything back on and it worked great. Still have no idea what the deal was but it works great!
Took my moms Jaguar out to the dealership for warranty servicing on it when I was back in high school. I don't remember exactly what it was but something was wrong with the suspension and they had to disconnect the axle to get to it. They did it fine but didn't tighten some of the bolts on the front brake calipers when they put it back together, and when I was driving it back home the front left tire locked up and I basically had to skid it off the highway onto the shoulder. Had to get it towed back to the shop for them to finish the work.
Considering I could have died, or wrecked the car, or any number of other horrible things I decided that instead of just modding my own car (a ford explorer at the time), that maybe I'd learn a few things so I would be at the mercy of some shop for the important work. Now 8 years and 3 cars later I so far have not had anyone else touch my SC except for body-work. I always know that at the very least things are re-connected and torqued down properly. Yeah I misplaced a vacuum line once, and I snapped a spark plug before I realized that torque wrenches or a soft hand were important... but I've never endangered myself with my work... so far.
This story isn't mine, but from a guy I went to HS with, this happened a few years after we graduated. The dude drove a Honda Del Sol, and had taken it over to his uncle to do some work on it- not sure what it was but it involved removing a wheel. Turns out his uncle never heard of torque values and used an impact to put the lug nuts back on. A couple days later dude was driving on the interstate and his rear wheel pops off- all four studs had broken. He went into the side of an 18-wheeler and got knocked off the road, but somehow survived, the tiny Honda was obliterated though.
The moral of the story is: Torque specs, torque specs, torque specs.
three getting stranded worthy ones on my lexus so far, but luck has been on my side.
1: had to wire in a different fuel pump controller since i have a jzx100 motor/ecu. temporarily twisted wires together and electrical taped them for testing but then forgot about it and started driving the car. the electrical tape worked itself loose and the power wire for the fuel pump slowly started coming apart at my twisted connection. one night it just came apart with a nice puff of burning electronics smell. i thought my fuel computer died but the electrical tape was all roasted around there and i could have burnt my car down if something actually caught on fire. always double check your work! i was able to limp home by taking my amp wire and shorting/running it from my battery (which was in the trunk) to the fuel pump connector (also in the trunk).
2. had foot plate in passenger foot well not installed while giving friend ride. accelerated, braked, the force of braking made his feet press on the ecu and it shorted the circuitboard against the case. blew 25 amp efi fuse. luckily fuse box had a spare and i was good to go within a couple of minutes. no damage done to ECU that i could see. lesson: don't be lazy putting the car back together.
3. biggest one so far.. apparently when i took my transmission off i didn't re-loctite the driveshaft bolts at the rear diff, slowly over 6 months the bolts backed out enough that i started getting a vibration on the freeway when decelerating. that is when i looked under the car and went oh ****. lesson: after major surgery check the patient after a while when everything initially appears ok.
4. had jackstand on one side of the car and a jack on the other, when i was lowering the jack the jackstand somehow tilted and the car fell off the jackstand, in slow motion and no damage but scary none the less (wheels were installed).. not sure how that happened but i am extra careful setting jack stands now, never been an issue before.
TL : DR - i probably shouldn't be allowed to work on cars, but so far so good after 15 years of tinkering lol.
Biggest PITA ever to get it off. Ended up having my buddy weld a nut on it so we could get a socket on it. Swore off locking lug nuts forever, if they want my damn wheels, have at it. I'll file an insurance claim and get something better.
Wiring in a sub amp on the Nakamichi system and didn't realize the stock amp was still powering the regular speakers (thought the head unit the previous owner put in was powering them.) Snipped the wires at the stock amp flush with the connector to re-use the amp-turn-on signal that was already wired. Snipped the wrong one first, then snipped the right one. Then proceeded to also snip the power wire to use for temporary power to the amp to test with.
Debated on finding a wiring harness from ebay or a junk yard, but in the quest for expediency I soldered new wires directly to the main board of the stock amp. Works.
Wow, some great stories so far. Mine are far less dangerous but they still scared the crap out of me when they happened.
1) I was doing some soldering underneath my old Acura Legend years ago. I put a bit too much solder on and it dripped down, I instantly closed my eyes and turned away to avoid it hitting my face so it just dripped into my ear canal instead! Not only was it the hottest and most painful thing I have ever felt, it was where I couldn't get to it. I had to go to the doctor and have them pull it out.
Lesson to this, always wear goggles and not worry about it.
2) I ALWAYS wear gloves when working on my car, mostly to just keep from getting dirty but sometimes they're just too bulky to grip small nuts and bolts. So, while swapping LS400 calipers and Supra struts/springs I took my gloves off to get some bolts threaded. I was in too much of a rush and didn't put the gloves back on and started tightening things up. While torqueing the lower strut bolts the wrench slipped and my hand fell forward and sliced my hand open on the brake dust shield. My hand opened up quite a bit and bled everywhere. Here's a super cool after picture..
I was working on my mkIII supra suspension in my flip flops, this was later in the evening I was very tired and exhausted, didn't have a jack stands had my car supported on the Jack only. So I decided to move the Jack out of the way not realizing that if I turned the handle big mistake the car slams down my feet and my toes are missed by the front rotor with in a fraction of an inch of both sides. This moment when the car slammed on the concrete my heart sank, it scared me ****less, I look down at my toes and rotor and called it a day!! Nothing happened thanks God, but it was a close call, where I could have not being able to walk or drive for the rest of my life
This was when I was in my early 20s, I'm close to 40 now and think 5 times before I do anything!!!! SAFETY FIRST!!!
2) I ALWAYS wear gloves when working on my car, mostly to just keep from getting dirty but sometimes they're just too bulky to grip small nuts and bolts. So, while swapping LS400 calipers and Supra struts/springs I took my gloves off to get some bolts threaded. I was in too much of a rush and didn't put the gloves back on and started tightening things up. While torqueing the lower strut bolts the wrench slipped and my hand fell forward and sliced my hand open on the brake dust shield. My hand opened up quite a bit and bled everywhere. Here's a super cool after picture..
I managed to get a very similar cut on my palm from the dust boot on my brakes as well while I was trying to break the ball joint loose from my LCA's. Those dust boots are sharp as hell for whatever reason. Also cut my thumb open on the subframe when I was using some degreaser to clean up the camber/toe marks where the LCA's connect. The LCA swap on this car was a very unhapppy chore for me, an both cuts were on the same hand. Had trouble opening my beer after it was all done.
Oh another good one, trying to get the wheel off my old Camaro. I was using the factory lug wrench, jumping up and down on it. Like most things GM, its a chintzy piece of *****e. The head of the lug wrench rounds off, slips off while I'm jumping up and down on it, I slip and fall on the moss covered driveway. Land square on my a@@. Glad I wasn't stuck on the side of the road with no tools and a flat.
I thought this thread is about what garages did to you and not about what you did in your garage.
I have this conversation piece in my office (paper weight).
Many years ago working on my car I had rounded of a nut. The nut did come off with difficulty. When I was putting things together, I used the same nut and the faces that got the torque were in good shape, so there was no problem. Guess what? A few years later I had the need to undo the same nut. I had to use pipe-wrench to get it off.
Lesson learnt, never put back a rounded off nut/bolt unless you want aggravation and paper weight.
I thought this thread is about what garages did to you and not about what you did in your garage.
I have this conversation piece in my office (paper weight).
Many years ago working on my car I had rounded of a nut. The nut did come off with difficulty. When I was putting things together, I used the same nut and the faces that got the torque were in good shape, so there was no problem. Guess what? A few years later I had the need to undo the same nut. I had to use pipe-wrench to get it off.
Lesson learnt, never put back a rounded off nut/bolt unless you want aggravation and paper weight.
Salim
sorry no blood-gore stories
Well I agree, reading the first post again it seems it was aimed at service garages and not our own but I say whatever is interesting.. Horror stories or terrible shop experiences are all the same to me lol
01-31-16, 06:34 AM
Your Worst Garage Mishaps (warning graphic pictures)
the car slams down my feet and my toes are missed by the front rotor with in a fraction of an inch of both sides. This moment when the car slammed on the concrete my heart sank, it scared me ****less, I look down at my toes and rotor and called it a day!! Nothing happened thanks God, but it was a close call, where I could have not being able to walk or drive for the rest of my life
, oh alignment doesn't count