OK I know alot of you wont own up to something dumb that you did but everybody's done it at some point and time and I'm not ashamed to admit what Ive done. My mom came to me today and said "my power windows except the drivers one are broken". Im like OK I'll check it out. After pecking around in the car and under the hood for the fuses, and then busting out the FSM to check the location of the relays I was like "wait a min...is the power window lock engaged?" I check, sure enough it was. I disengage and it worked fine after.

 

I drove around all day with a bird stuck in my bumper once...


My mom's 93 Lexus ES300 had the remote built into the key. One day the battery died. She panicked for 15 minutes about being locked out of her car...until she realized she had the key in her hand...

 

Once I was trying to install a neon wire around my dash and through some stupidity stuck the + end into my cigerette lighter I saw a spark and then my car wouldn't start.

Well I checked everything, the fuses (and I mean every single fuse), pulled out the lighter and checked, went through a lot of wire.

The finally after like 6 hours, it finaly hit me to check the battery.

...

...

...Yeah it was the battery, and yeah I'm an idiot. Let this be a lesson neons are evil.

- Steve

 

Changed my oil in my old Honda Prelude and never put the cap on the valve cover. Drove all the way into Manhattan and then the smell came.....What a mess that made.

BTW - Aluminum foil works great as an oil cap!

 

Today I was fixing the splice between my cefiro headlights and my old harness. None of the combos of wires were working, after 3hrs of plug and play I relized that my h4 harness was unplugged from the headlights

 

Remembering where the screws went.

 

drive axle bolts
pulled the car out saw the bolts on the driveway

 

Leaving tools under the hood and figuring out why the hood wont close

 

Hahah, yep....

 

leaving jack stands under the front end of the car and wondering why the car wont move when you give it gas

 

Ditto. I'm sure we all experienced this at least once. It happened to me more than a few times.

 

Yep, add me to that list.

I recently had a new set of Dunlop SP Sport A2's put on my car. Left the tire place, got onto the highway and the car started vibrating quite badly at 50mph. Got off the highway to see if there was anything obvious (loose or missing bolts, etc) causing the problem. Nothing obvious, so I took the car back to the tire shop.

They apologised profusely, gave me a story about the balancing computer acting up, and took the car back into the shop for another try.

The trip home (20miles) was relatively vibration-free, but things just didn't "feel" quite right.

My son (he knows his way around computer hardware and software, but to him a car is just an appliance)came out of the house to check out the new tires and asked, "why are those red dots on the sides of the tires?" There, right beside the red dot - in raised lettering - were
the words "Mount This Side In"!!!

 

Why my dash lights would not come on. Oh, There a light adjuster.

 

...been there, too

 

I've done that too.

Here's another:
I was taking pics of my car at a meet. I have the Panasonic HID kit. I turned on the headlights, took a pic. Turned on the foglights too, except they didn't turn on. ??? I thought maybe my foglight rewire had somehow screwed them up, but it had worked fine for months. I checked the fusebox, it was ok. It took a couple of minutes for me to notice the high beam light on my dash. I had accidentally pushed the lever forward when turning on the headlights, therefore the fogs won't come on.
DUH

 

Sort of related:

Ok so I've been driving a stick for like three years, and like 2 years ago (when I had my integra) I had been driving only the integra. My mom wanted me to take her car to the car wash (98 4runner limited 4x4). Anyhow, I backed it out of the driveway in reverse, had my left foot on the brake (thoguht it was the clutch). Tried to clutch in, brakes locked and I went sliding down the driveway. My mom looked at me like, "WTF???".

HAHA, when you get so used to things you just forget, I caught the left edge of the brake with my left foot thinking it was the clutch, and when you clutch in you clutch in hard so it was equiv to slamming on the brakes.

I felt like a blundering idiot.

 

I had to rush to class and got out of my car too fast. I heard the thingy beeping at me, so I checked my lights and things like that, but it wouldn't stop beeping. I tried to take the keys out, but they wouldn't turn to the OFF position. I was freaking out, cause I was late. I then realized that I had turned off the car and pulled up the e brake, but it was still in D, not park.

That and I forgot to attach the MAF sensor correctly when installing my intake. A few days later my car wouldn't start, and I didn't know what to do.

 

Rented the wrong size pickle fork when doing a steering rack job on a 72 Ford Van.

 

Left a cup (styrofoam) of team near the trunk hinges while the trunk was open and closed the trunk. Yes, tea was all on the side of the car and in the trunk.

 

uhhhhhh fixing control arm bushings. three big bolts to hold the plate up i took them out and forgot what where they went 2 long 1 short . anyways i stuck the long bolt where the short one needed to be. striped the bolt and the thead on the cross member. luckliy the junk yard had a spare bolt laying around and i found the right tap.

wiring up strobe lights to a switch flipped the switch and zap *poof* nothing but smoke.

doh...........

 

ive definitely done the leave it in drive thing more than once...

 

Changing brake pads, and replacing only 1 pad each.

 

I think that's probably the most popular one of all..

 

Rotating the tires and forgetting to torque down the lugnuts. Driving with finger-tighten lugnuts is exciting.

 

After first getting my 1993 max, I was a littel peaved that once I took of the gas cap, I had to hold it, or put it on my paint. Till I realized the holder mounted on the gas door.

 

I do not understand why there are ALWAYS one or two extra screws that are left over once I have done my mod and put everything back together?

 

haha, me too...

 

saying lefty loosey and righty tighty but still doing lefty tighty righty loosey (very bad during a strut bar install, ended up hammering a socket on it and then taking the impact wrench to it. i went to a friends to fix my stupid mistake (i had striped it)

also closing the hood with tools, but once it was a pair of scissors by the strut tower, lets just say my drivers side of the hood fits lower in the front than the left side.

later guys
MrGone

 

HAHAH, good question, when I was helping Sudz put his UDP we put everything together and we decided to start the car up, all of a suden we hear "hump" and we're like "wtf is that?" it turns out that we didn't put the big nut that holds the UDP, what kind of morons would do that????? hehe, so the UDP came off and ripped one of the belts

Vinipux

 

Yep. I seem to have my entire ash tray filled with screws from door panels, dashboard, stereo, and little screws, bolts or nuts from the engine compartment. I am waiting for something to fall off so I can figure out where all these screws go. Its really kinda pathetic if u think about it.

 

Forgetting to tighten up the nuts on the wheels after taking slicks off at the track. Makes a noise that makes you nervous after just racing. But relief after you realize what you forgot and only got a few yards down the road and they never came off.

 

Well when my glove box light didn't work. I checked fuses before removing the glove box to get the bulb out, only to find it was fine. Then I turned the headlights on and opened the glove box DOH!!! Have to have the lights on for it to light.

 

It proves you know more about cars than Nissan.... did that with my 89 SE sunroof, and it actually worked better!

Also.... how about going to do a mod, realizing you don't have enough time, so you drive 25 miles without realizing you popped the hood but never reclosed it?

Brian

 

How about when you are hearing that noise WHILE racing? I swear I torqued them down, but apparently I forgot one side. During a full day hot lapping event on a road course, I thought I'd severely fugged something in my drivetrain. The next day I decided to just see if it was my lugnuts... viola. Had to replace 4 of the studs on one side. this happened to me just the other day, too... and again I swear I torqued them all down but apparently not. I haven't checked the condition of the studs yet :/

 

Hmm..commming out of a rave at 6 am...went to the beach...came back to the car at about 8am in So-cali...went to venice beach..and the rave was near the staples center. All cracked out..tried to remote start my car..no luck...tried to manually start it with the key..no luck...i figured my alarm f*cked something up..i ripped out the whole alarm...(took me 6 hours to put it in cuz it was my first one)....re attached my starter wire..no luck...i sat in the drivers seat..about to cry...and i put my elbow on the center console...arm on the shifter..and *boom*..left it in reverse...

 

lol This thread should be a sticky or FAQ. basic things can cause alot of headaches

 

Leaving your freinds doors open while installing he's stereo system and killing his battery..

 

In a hurry to change a flat tire and get to work, and managed to put the lugnuts on backwards.... amazing the noises that wheel made.....

 

hmmmmmmmmmmmm 6am huhhhh which rave was this.

and did you ever install that thingy you got at the open house event.

 

did that too, except i took my tail lights completely off thinkin i shorted a wire somewhere when playin with them. so about 30 mins of wasted time!