bullseye

Not too bad... I was installing my FSTB, and trying to do it without a torque wrench. I had the FSTB all installed except for tightening the last nut on the last strut bracket bolt. You guessed it: I over torqued the nut, and the strut bracket bolt snapped-off. I had to get a new strut bracket and have the front end re-aligned. PITA...

GarthG

iTrader: (1)

Mine was when my Koni's were being installed. . .

Matthel (Turbo95Max) was installing them at the Firestone where he worked, which was about to close when all this happened) and we had cut apart everything and had everything installed on the car. he lowered the car and was tightening the nut on the top of the strut when the thread cracked and and all the fluid inside the strut was now all over the right side of my car. Seeing as how we couldn't put the stock one back on as it had been cut apart I was afraid that my car would have to be left in SF for a week until I could get a new strut sent to me, until (Reason #1 to have someone that owns a Maxima work on one) we found out Matthel had an extra stock one I could borrow until I could get a replacement. But we still had to replace everything outside the shop in the dark using the stock jack, I am sure this wasn't fun for Matthel or Kevin. I had a new one sent out under warrenty though and it is all good now.

meccanoble

iTrader: (22)

my first was with the diamond cut bumpers *sucks* "how do you take this big light bulb out???!" ....after 10 minutes...."hey, it can be pushed in...oh snap, i can twist it now...hey! it came out!!!"


Second and last was with FSTB..."dam these nuts are so hard....can't take them off"....runs to mechanic.....pays 5 bucks to take off lugs an put back on....doesn't have proper tools ...."atleast i have it on....sucks"

carnal_c30

iTrader: (38)

swapping suspension from Maxima to Maxima with Jae (thurznite)

took off the suspension from Max #1 decided it wasnt worth swapping (cut H&Rs not set right, bad struts) and... set to putting everything back.. but we had no spring compressors... which ment we had to leave the car jacked up on the stock jack all nite until the next day so we could get compressors

not that much of a headache but still a pain...

thanks Jae haha

Dario

iTrader: (1)

was just trying to tighten my connections on the Intake and my G/F came from behind and scared me, hit my head and dropped the wrench on both battery terminals, damn it got red hot quick!!! drained the battery and had to go to AutoZone for a new one.

mango95se

I get itchy to take my car apart so i decide to do the fuel filter. should be easy 1-2 hrs. right? not for me. I put it in and replaced the upper hose. start the car, smells like gasoline inside the car, so i tighten the clamps. I drive around, still smells gas. i tighten it in a parking lot. by this time i've just kept the tools in my car. This last time i tightened my clamps, i was 30 miles from home. When i came back to my car at 10pm, the car smelld of strong gasoline. it turns out that i used hose that's too weak, plus cheap hose clamps. I had cut the hose from excessive tightening and the cheap clamps!!!

I got even stupider when i decide to drive home with a ripped fuel line. The car didn't accelerate when i wanted to (obviously) and my almost full tank went empty after driving 10 miles. I was on the interstate highway, and just as i pulled into the offramp, my engine stalled and i rolled into a 24-hour restaurant parking lot. Then some random guy pulls up and offers to help. He's some independant roadside guy driving a beat up pick up truck with random car parts and gas cans in the back. he just so happened to have a fuel hose that fits my car (slightly big, but it worked). I clamped it up, drove home, and fixed it soon thereafter.

In hindsight, that was really really stupid and i should've just gotten a tow truck to take it home. stupid me.....

maximaracer28

Ahh...I think jon (jdwyer2821) will agree I am the true frankencar...
I bought some 55 watt bulbs to put in my clearance lights, first I crack the bracket holding in the light...now I am already p!issed about that but no big worries, go to turn the lights on and pop there goes a fuse...so by now Im like this was a waste of time, put a new fuse in and turn the lights on...well me and Jon are standing in front of the car admiring the brightness when all of a sudden the pass side starts getting dim, then dimmer until it starts flashing...and then the same thing on drivers side...by now Ive run to my car, turned them off and thinking oh ****...well took the bulbs out, and burned the bulbs badly, messed up the bulb holder and not to mention it was about 30 degrees outside and about 9 at night...and I still have a phillips screwdriver somewhere in my engine bay...

And there are many other things that I have done to my car that I dont know why it happened or I just wasnt thinking, my cefiro kickplate install now leaves me with no working door lights, I have various tools under my hood that will never be found I think, and I will add more stories when I think of them, and for some reason I find myself never working on my car during the day but rather night...

oh btw, stories for jon, he comes by my work to show me his exhaust...what he didnt do is wait for the wd-40 to dry off from the rusted bolts so smoke is everywhere coming from the sides of his car because he wanted to go drive around and see how the greddy is, and actually looked like it was on fire... more stories to come

Jeff92se

iTrader: (82)

Some of you guys shouldn't be working on cars. LOL duh!

Man I tried to put some gas in my car and I couldn't open the gas door!!! I got so frustrated I just used a crowbar and ripped that thing open!

Finally when I tried to put the gas into the car, I couldn't get into the hole!!! Man you have to be PERFECT to able to put the nozzle right into the hole where the gas goes!!!!!!!!! Finally I just took a long running start and jammed that damn thing in there!!!!

pjalst

I know you didn't do this with your Max?

RedMax95

got a couple:
installing cai - its midnight, everything is hooked up, just have to attach vacuum lines, they wont bend and are too short - quick run to all night autozone
springs - once again, after midnight, taking off nut on top of strut mount and it strips, put the car back together and took it to get it cut off

mango95se

We shouldn't be working on cars? Hell... you shouldn't even be driving cars if you can put gas in the gas tank. and you call yourself a moderator.....

black019

i remember when puttin in the guage bezel & rings i was taking the nuts off under the steering column and when the last one came loose, thump! right on my chest was the steering wheel.

that sucked

sbslacker

iTrader: (1)

Too much!! What a smartazz....

Matt93SE

iTrader: (44)

removed intake manifold on a friend's VG the other day to clean it up.. As I was removing the manifold, I noticed the valve cover gaskets were leaking.. not a problem.. remove distributor to get to the valve covers and.. ****!! I forgot to mark where the distributor was.. but I THINK it was about 12:30 when I pulled it out. we'll put it back in that way and see if it runs. if not, we'll get out the timing light and fix it.

Sooo we get the valve covers replaced and now I've got a parts cleaning brush 4" inside the lower manifold, scrubbing away.. when it's clean, I pull the brush out and realize that 1/2" of the end is missing.. wood and plastic inside the lower manifold. DAMN!

it's 8pm on a sat night and NOBODY in bumfukk Muskogee, Oklahoma has manifold or head gaskets for a Nissan at 8pm on Sat night.
then I thought of something that might work.. cleaned out the filter on the shop vac, and stuffed the flex hose down inside the manifold and flipped the switch.. heard something rattling through the tube on the vac, so I shut it off and opened up the vacuum canister.. whew! problem solved.
put it all back together and the car fired up and ran better than it had in years.
that job was planned for 3 hours.. took 11 before we were completely finished.

metallic97gxe

iTrader: (3)

I jack my car up and take my wheels off twice a month to wash and clean them inside and out

this is when I had my Silver 15" ADR GT-Sports and I had bought some Excalibur blue tuner lug nuts w/socket key from Jeg's.com I had my rims for about week...I jack up my car to clean them I do all three wheels front both sides and rear driver's side and on the last wheel rear passenger side my socket ket breaks into pieces I call Jeg's.com where I got the lug set from they say a week....to send me a new key for whole week I was in fear of a flat tire or needing to take my tires off for some reason....uhh I no longer have Excailbur tuner lug nuts I have Gorilla....

fierostetz

did an engine rebuild for my old fiero, using domed pistons and everything, was gonna be a monter 10.5:1 compression ratio, *****in engine for that little car... well, finish the engine, put it on the ground, and lower the car back on to it, everything connected, clean up the work area, and find a little baggy of metal things.. WTF?....
little sticker on the side reads "wrist pin retainers" *******!!! its the retainer that stops the pistons from flying out the top, had so much fun doin the job that i forgot to double check the damn things.. had to yank the engine back out and tear it down to put those in... was WORTH it though!!!

jdmmax

iTrader: (6)

dmomtz 3rd gen lowering springs. 11-1 am to am

stupid @#$!@#$!@#$!@#$!@#%!$%^!$%!@$# rust !@#$!@#$%!%!@%!@#$%!@#$!@#$!@#$somanybolts#@$!@#$@ !#$!@#$!%!$#@%!#@3rd gen!@#$!@#$!@#$!@#$!@#$!@#$@#$@#

MaximaMan77

I've been pretty lucky working on my cars nothing major except wasted time like many others here. RSTB is a pain in the 02&03's.

But I this this story could top the list.

As I've said before I have a buddy thats ASE certified and owns a full service shop with 8 bays. He lets me use what ever I need to get my work done and helps when I get stuck. I have another friend that builds fences for a living and when he is slow helps out at the shop. These two went to high school together. I will help out from time to time also. Well this one weekend, oh last month, he has this car, 98 Inrtegra that a woman brought in and needed a new oil pump. (she hadn't changed her oil for a while...) My Fence building friend is doing the work, he does have a lot of experence with cars. Every thing seems to have gone fine dropped the oil pan cleaned the sludge and so on. Well he replaced the oil pump with a rebuilt got everything back together filled it with oil and started it. OK looks good time to take it for a test drive... He got 5 blocks away and BOOM blown motor. It turns out the screens in the new oil pump were not changed or cleaned during rebuilding and cloged, something that is to be checked prior to installing. Either that or some more sludge worked out of the motor but the screens did look old.
Insurance covered the new motor and the shop even made money on its install but you should have seen the look on my friends face when he finally walked back to the shop, I would have loved to have seen it when the motor blew, it was definatly OH CHIT.

There are many more stories of things people do to cars like dishwasher soap in the gas tank but thats another topic. Later all.

crazy4maxima

iTrader: (5)

omg that is messed up..

alsoo why wouldanyone put soap in the gas tank other than to ruin the car>?

Eric L.

While doing my starter regrease I overtorqued one of the small bolts which holds the starter together. SNAP! Luckily I had no confidence in my rebuilding abilities so I purchased a replacement starter just in case, which I ended up using.

This is a great thread! Its good to see not everyone can change their entire engine out in an hour like some of the "its so easy to work on your car, stop paying the dealer" people here. Working on your car is trial and error.

crazy4maxima

iTrader: (5)

more like pain and suffering

Jeff92se

iTrader: (82)

Taking engine out. It falls off the jack and drops about 1ft. About 4" from my foot. Not good.

Conrad283

iTrader: (2)

that sucks

T-bone

iTrader: (1)

My install was not awful, but it was much more difficult than I expected. There's nothing like finishing the job and then realizing that there are black plastic shavings on the gauges. "ohhh...it's not that bad.......<long pause>....dam* it! Yes it is!"

let's just say that I can take apart a gauge cluster in less than 3 minutes...Flat!




On another note, when I had Papasmurf and Knightrider help with the install on the springs/struts, it took 3 hours more than expected and it was about 100 degrees and humid that NIGHT!

NYCe MaXiMa

iTrader: (9)

doing my brakes on my 3rd gen like 2 years ago..

I didn't realize you have to TURN the cylinder into the caliper rather than pushing it, on the rear.. I broke 2 C-clamps forcing it in, finally fit my brake pads on and stuck the caliper back on.. car would not move, the rear brakes were locked tight around the rotor I thought i definately ****ed something up.. then i opened up a manual..

I had a few other screw ups, like when taking out the entire dashboard on my 98... took me like 3 days because once I got to the passanger side air bag I realized it needs a special hex tool to take out those bolts.. i was running around stores looking for it, then finally bought a hex piece and used a dremmel to cut it down to where i needed it.. besides, i forgot to connect something like 2 times and had to take everything apart again to reach it.

I promised myself if i ever need to swap the dashboard out again i would just sell the car and buy another one, but now i am about to do it again, along with every other interior component when swapping the tan out for black..

Sin

I had the dimensions of my trunk measured, the sub picked out, gave all the info to an audio engineer, he designed my box. I built it. It didn't fit It fits in the trunk where it will reside, but does not fit into the opening of the trunk. I had to remove the spare in order to get the sub in. I've been running with no spare for a while now. It's one or the other. Sub or spare. I went with the sub

I'm going to do a custom install soon where I will stiffen the sheet metal with fibreglass, and replace the sheet of metal behind the back seats with MDF, and build the box essentially by reinforcing the front part of the trunk so that I can again have a spare and a pinch of trunk space.

MaximaRider

iTrader: (3)

cracking tail lights clearing them out...what poop.
Installing 4 way airbags on J's ride(thebigsadler) big nono, leaky EVERYWHERE! All in good fun though...

meccanoble

iTrader: (22)

i tried to do taht stupid blinker light thing that nadir_s did to his car and while trying to splice wires, i cut one too short and couldn't get it to splice, nor could i get it to reattach which means the bulb won't work (won't get power). Then i go to plan b and take a friends harness from a honda which works but is too small to fit in the lamp, it falls out while driving, now i have no corner blinker light on one side of my car

have to buy new harness and whatnot which will run me who knows....

Y2KSESteve

iTrader: (22)

My first undercar mod. Changing the muffler. Stock jack didnt go high enough, so I put a brick underneat it. Jacked it up all the way and it was fine for about 10 seconds until the jack bent and my car fell off the jack to the tires. Jack completely busted, but car was okay....as far as I know. That car got sold shortly thereafter.

MaximaMan

Wow, this is one old thread. Well adding to the quality of the thread, i must say the most recent "OH ****" happened when i was cleaning off my battery terminals. They were builidng up with some corosion so i decided i would give them a nice iron brush/scrape etc.. I have this *** looking device that you can put over the terminal itself, rotate it within your palm and it does a pretty good job if i say so. What sucks is when you DO THIS IN the winter time and your hood struts fail and the hood SLAMS shut, and the *** on your batter is just high enough that you punch a DENT through your hood....

Wasim521

iTrader: (4)

RSB...
A friend of mine was supposed to help me install the Stillen RSB, but he never showed up, so at 11 pm at night in 30 degree weather I started to do it myself. Take the drivers side rear wheel off fine, but then the passenger side rear wheel off and it doesn't come off at all, the stud had been stripped by morons at Sears where I last took my car for work. Didn't have any impact tools handy, so I just decided to go ahead and do the install anyway without the help and without removing that wheel. After about 4 hours under the car, my friend finally shows up but he's an Integra guy so he really isn't much of a help with a Max. We fiddle and fiddle, but for some reason being the morons we were couldn't really figure it out, and nothing seemed to fit right at all, so we loosely bolted everything together (I had to contort my hands in all sorts of weird ways since I couldn't take off one of the wheels) and I drove it the next morning VERY slowly to my local speed shop and paid them to finish the install...the guy pointed out that everything was @$$ backwards and that things were barely hanging on...If I had driven another few miles, I might have lost the bar somewhere along the way. Oh well, lesson learned, better to do this kind of stuff at home, with easy access to tools and a driveway, rather than at college, in a parking lot. Total time, 6 hours that night, more the next day at the shop.

Gauge Swap...
this one really wasn't my fault but I got a set of 2001 SE gauges from salvage yard to swap with my GXE gauges...ripped my cluster out of my car, and mangled my hand in the process...blood all over steering wheel area of the car, I ripped off a few big chunks of skin trying to take the plastic housing of the dash that rests in front of the covers. Still don't know how it happened. Then i go inside, and find out I can't do the swap since the 2001 SE board is soldered in, and the GXE board I have is a screw in deal. I give up, slap everything back together and that's that. I did find a 2000 SE board just last week though, and put it in today without a hitch (knock on wood) so I guess that was the payoff for my trouble. Total time - 1 hour or for the first time, 20 minutes for the second time.

Fog Lights...
Didn't take me so long, but the first bulb I tried to change, I didn't realize the plastic brackets weren't supposed to come off with the fog light housing thing, so I twisted on them really hard until it snapped off...oops. It's held in by crazy glue and electrical tape for now, until I change the bulbs again and redo it with silicone. there's plenty of other screws to keep it safely supported, so I don't think I did any mission critical damage.

Yeah, if I screw up this bad on the small stuff, imagine if I tried to do an intake or something!

T-bone

iTrader: (1)

where's asu17?

nubiannupe

iTrader: (9)

Mine would have to be, when I first started doing installs for a shop, I was putting in a 3 watt hands-free kit in a Dodge Caravan and while mounting pedastal bracket for the phone cradle, I accidentally drilled straight through the body harness for the van.

Needless to say, no bonus that month...

JoesMAX

iTrader: (2)

im bad with things under the hood, im always dropping bolts.. its not bad unless the bolt doesnt fall to the ground, when it stops somewhere in between youre screwed

HitManSE

iTrader: (1)

been there and done that. that is a noise i will never forget when the spring compressor broke and shot out the fully compressed spring, grazing the mechanics head as it shot out. one more inch and it would have torn a chunk out of his skull! damn ill never 4get that sound.

dmontzsta

iTrader: (8)

It wasnt that bad

KLoWnPR109

iTrader: (9)

I see that someone else has discovered the fun that only a 3rd gen spring install can hold. The rear is the worst thing I've ever participated in. EVER!!

dmontzsta

iTrader: (8)

Once you know what you are doing, it goes fast, I think I could do it quick next time, especially if you have Larrio spraying down the bolts with WD40 for an hour prior.

rich96max

oh man i remember one time we were doing a swap on a 94 delslow, it was getting a b18c1 swap done. I had the old motor out and getting ready for the new one to go in. I tied it up to the lift i started to lift the block up and wheeled the lift over to the car. I started to drop the motor down and then all the damn fluid started to leak out of the lift the motor fall so damn fast lol. All i could do is close my eyes, right then i hear this loud crashing sound lol. When i looked back the motor fell in so hard that it cracked the radator and so much other things. I was so f*cking mad, yup that car took me sometime to fix plus i had to dish my own money out to fix it. But just like in the movie Office Space i had fun kicking the living sh*t out of that lift. I have to many bad stories when i first started to work on cars but its all good you learn from bad mistakes. I cant even count how many cuts and other fun body harm i have done to myself.

crazy4maxima

iTrader: (5)

well i just got one yesterday.


I wlive innyc and i go to jersey city for gas.. right across the holland tunnel, i live about 3 miles from the gas station. Dont ask me why i go to Jersey for gas but i do. But any way i got out of work at 8 am yesterday andi proceed to Jeresy. I went to pepboys in the new port mall area and got throttle body cleaner and fuel injector( one Made from redline and another called marvel mystery oil) cleaner. 10 bucks ok. I got into my max and headed to a parking lot that had a railroad bridge to cover me from the rain.. and deiced to clean my throlle body.. all goes well until the plastic straw extension went in the intake manifold,(threw the throttle boday.) OH CRAP OH SHIET!!!. it was about 8:45am or so. Now WTF to do.?

I looked at the intake manifold. Hrmm. i dont have any hex key socket to take off the bolts. 11 bolts in total. I and ****ed off, if yah know where you guys had the Jersey city meet in newport mall nj that is where i was at( dollar rental/ detail lot). I had to walk in the rain to sears and see what key it was. after 15 minutes of trying to get the sales department personel in the tools section to help me try and figure out the size hex key sock i needed, i thought of a vaccum. Yeah that it.. vaccume it out. I looked around sears and could'nt find one that i thought was strong enough or even portable for the lighter jack. after another 1/2 hour to 45 minutes in sears, i left and started walking another 15 minutes to pepboys across the mall. in the rain, cold and wet.

I got to Pepboys to see if they new the size of the hex bolt key that i need. I asked the mechanics and they didnt know. I asked the parts department and they didnt know. also i had a repair manual with me, and if i took off the intake manifold i need a gasket for it. They didnt have one. and besides its 60+ dollars. WTF!!!!.. I am better off buying a vaccum and a power inverter..lol

at this point I am going mad, and the only person who can help me is in Long Island, Jeff aka maximus75.
I had no change so i remembered that i had a calling card. I got to jeff on the phone, and explained my stupid yet funny situation. Jeff told me the size, well three possible sizes.. 6mm 8m 10mm..
he told me that i could take off the throttle body and see if i can find it in there, maybe it didnt blow all the way back..
BTW jeff thanks alot for your information, if you do ever read thisyou saved my a$$
i went back to pepboys and got a set of hex sockets for 20 bucks and another can of intake cleaner~ 30 bucks.


i go back to my max...after another 20 minute walk. in the rain.
Here we go. took off the throttle body, but ther was one bolt that wwas almost hard to reach and some how managed to get it off.. *sigh of relief* got the throttle body off, and i poke my fingure deep into the manifold. THERE IT IS!!!!. I barley got my tip of the finger on the straw. Come out, come out, Whoo hoo.. i got it out.. now i was feeling kinda good.. and i was thinking since there is only 11 bolt holding the manidfold to the engine, i might as well have a llok and see if i can take it off with the hex key sockets that i baught. I got all the bolts off. but tehre was something hold the manifold down.. but by this time it was pouring. a down fall of water. and i foun an umbrella in the trunk of my max..so i worked on my max and properly covered and shaded. but then the hood slammed down on my head because of a strong wind. i hopped into my max for cover , i turned on the heater with the max off and looked at the time 11:45 almost 12.. wtf omg what a fu(king night mare.whats worse is that i had to take a piess really badly since i was holding it from 8 am. i looked around and i couldnt find a bath room.got back into my max... omg i cant take this.. so i used a gallon size windshield clearner that was empty in my max. had to do what i had to do.and you can fill the rest in..

the rain calmed down enough so i can get outside with my umbrella.. but it was very windy. damn hood hit my head like 10 times.. so i finally got smart and used the unbrella to hold up the hood. i quickly got all the bolts back to where they were, put back the throttle back on and then put back the intake.

checked everything to make certain that everything was tight and hoses and plugs were back on tight.

started up the max.. and white smoke cam out.. lol throttle body cleaner doing its job. and i got my *** to the gas station and filled up went home, while thinking to myself , YOU ARE AN IDIOT!!!.

when i got home it was about 1:30

Tough lesson and learned. Expense 40 dollars in stuff from Pepboys + 22 for gas. 60 buck!!! just for cleaning my throttle body.
also lesson learned was hold the plastic straw with one hand and can on the other, and some how get something to hold the butterfly open!!!

P.S.

For those who dont, Always carry tools with you and get the neccessary tools to handle things you can take aprt in an emergency. Also keep a flash light and maybe a plastic bottle for unexpected problems should they arise...