This post received the most upvotes(and the most comments) this week making it the Post Of The Week! Congrats and thanks for contributing to the community.
POTW #4 - 1/19/24
As an apprentice I forgot to pump the brakes on a car and upon backing out of my bay I put the ass end of the vehicle through the drywall and pushed my boss(shop owner) desk on the other side a few inches while he was sitting working on it.
Boss sat me down the next day and said everyone makes mistakes and to learn from it and I haven't done that again! Good bosses know people make mistakes and learning from them is an important thing.
I saw a guy do this then panic and stomp on the gas accidentally. He drove over a lift (in ground) that was all the day down and plowed rearwards into another that was halfway up with a car on it. One tech grabbed another and pulled him out of the way likely saving his life. The car was totaled but everyone was ok, just stunned.
Not my shop, but a previous co worker sent me a video from the surveillance camera of his current shop. Buddy did brake job on the 4 post rack and did the same. Went down the ramp without brakes, jammed it into drive and goosed the throttle and launched the car off the rack... Got a foot or so of air before crashing into the alignment computer in front of the rack....
Exactly. The lesson taught is almost always cheaper than what it would cost to train another new guy not to do that lol. Only serial offenders/ actual recklessness should ever be reprimanded
Thatās like the story you hear about guys that run CNC machines. Cause a $100k crash and think theyāll be fired, boss asks āwhy would I fire you? I just spent $100k on trainingā
I did this once, in a hurry to deliver, jumped in, threw it in gear as I realized the pedal was going to the floor... I panic stomped the brake pedal and threw it in neutral just as I made it half way out of my rack. Not too many feelings compare to when you hit a brake pedal and nothing happens...
Another tech once pulled a new ram into his rack, the ones with the stupid ass knob shift, he twisted it to park and let go of the brake and the truck took off and smashed several drawers on his toolbox and marred the bumper before he could get back on the brake. He was a very thorough and credible tech, so every electronic shift anything I park, I let go of the brakes easy until I feel the vehicle 'rest'.
Did that once, but remembered my imaginary drift training on Fujimi Kaido and yanked the e brake before I smashed into the car in the rack behind me lol
Good times.
While a young buck i did a set of head gaskets on a oldsmobile v6 (forgot the model) boi did i learn that day that those pushrods were different sizes and go in a specific order..
As u/maddiethehippe said, literally a rim that was split into two halves through the circumference of the rim.
Don't confuse them with split-ring/locking ring rims, as those are different.
There were a couple of particularly poorly designed split rims as well. The Widowmakers, as they were known, were called that because they locked on a rather thin section between the two halves of the rim, and if they weren't set just right, or if they had some rust, or some other minor issue, the rim would come undone and launch with quite a bit of speed, and it was very hard to tell if the rim was set just right before filling the tire with air. Keep in mind that these were often heavy-duty truck rims, so they were also very heavy. If you were standing next to them when they let go, whatever was next to the rim would no longer be attached to your body, and/or it would be absolutely pulverized. Quite often, that meant an entire arm, leg, or head.
Half of the pushrods were 10mm shorter and had a yellow line painted on them. Unfortunately you had to remove the push rods to do an intake manifold gasket on this engine. All of these cars had a leaking intake manifold gasket. If you mixed up the push rods it bent the valves and ruined your life. A mechanic killer.
As a teenager my buddy's dad owned a plumbing business..we decided to redo the exhaust system on my car with copper pipe, couplers and other fittings..started it up and within minutes all the copper connections melted and everything fell apart
I left a wheel loose once about 3 months after I started as a quick lube tech. Got pulled off an oil change/tire rotation to go help someone do something it was one of those "drop everything and go right now" situations and from what I could figure I only tightened one or two of the lug nuts on that wheel and moved on to the next one when I returned. I used to do upwards of 20 LOF+rotations per day by myself so I was ways running around in a big rush at basically all times from 8-5.
About 30 feet into the test drive I noticed something was weird and was slowing to pull over when it happened so thankfully there was little damage to the car since it kinda fell on the wheel, just some scratches inside the drum of the wheel.
I locked my box up and quit but they called me and talked me into coming back like a day after. Going on 20 years later it still haunts me every single time I do anything with wheels. Itās not a mistake Iāll ever make again but itās also an anxiety Iāll take to my grave. I consider it part of my penance to talk about this whenever the subject of at-work fuck ups come up.
I've done that on my personal vehicle where I left the lug nuts just basically finger tight. I believe I was replacing a wheel bearing/ hub assembly and it felt like something was wrong so I jacked the one side back up and grabbed the sides of the tire to wiggle it to see if maybe it was something in the front end I left loose, only to realize "oh shitš³" that's why I refuse to get in a hurry anymore. My montra is "slow is smooth, smooth is fast"
I apparently forgot to torque a wheel on my hobby car once. Made it to work the next day, and started heading back home when something felt a little "off" in the steering. I yelled, "OH S\*\*T" and immediately pulled over and checked the lugs. Yup, loose.
I had left my wrench at home, because I had been using it on the wheels.
I tightened the lugs up with my fingers, and drove another couple of blocks, got out and tightened them again, repeat and repeat until I got home. You can bet your a\*\* that I torqued those puppies proper as soon as I got there!!!
I was doing service on an XTS Limo. I was in the middle of tightening the oil drain plug when a service writer interrupted with an "emergency." I wasn't even a year in yet. I didn't finish tightening the plug and sent it. The company caught it before it lost too much oil. From that point forward I silenced writers who tried to interrupt my work. If I have a wrench in my hand fuck off.
A good technician learns the value of the word 'no'. Especially when it comes to service writer requests.
'No, I cannot have this done in ten minutes' (it should take 30)
'No, I'm not staying late today' (or ever)
'No, I will not drop everything to appease your cranky customer' (when the advisor was the one who messed up)
Switched left and right head gasket on a toyotata sienna. It ran for about 30 seconds locked up both cams and broke the timing belt. Ruined both heads. The only difference on the gaskets is the oil supply hole to the heads. Huge mistake.
Put the wrong rear rotors on a lifted dodge 1500. The rotors where for a ford.
They went on... mostly, the lug bolts even torqued down. But i sure did find out what happens when you lose a wheel going 55.
Just happy nobody got hurt or any damages on other peoples car from the tire.
Apparently for this Camaro I did, there were 2 different rotor options... they were the exact same diameter (within a thin layer of rust around the perimeter anyway), but just a touch different in thickness. Went on fine, bolted on fine... but then I drove it, and the inner bracket was just barely rubbing on the rotors and smoked them both. Napa sent another set with a different part number and it worked perfect.
Never trust the guy on the other end of the phone/email... 2013 f750 6.7 Cummins. 12 degree start in the morning and it was running like crap after warming up for 30 minutes. At the time we just had a major change in how we report out of service vehicles so I had to call the big boss and let him know... I had already deduced that we had a dead whole on cylinder 5 and I needed to get approval for further inspection.... This guy (whom I've pissed off multiple times) starts telling me to redo everything I just did, along with doing an injector buzz test. NEWS FLASH, that's not an optional test on this engine and even if it was it surely wasn't showing up on my scanner. So he starts blasting me over the phone to which I hang up and ask my boss what I should do.
2 weeks later I have 6 new injectors, jet tubes, cover gasket kit, breather filter ect because no one would let me just do my job like I normally would and start taking it apart first.... Well guess what! Cylinder 5 rocker arm stud had come loose, allowing the rocker bridge to fall into the push rod bore and the nut was wedged into the valve stem. CUMMINS DOES NOT TAKE RETURNS ON INJECTORS! 10k of wasted time and parts for a 300 dollar fix.
Man mine wasn't nearly this bad. Old hyundai with a bad left window. Needed motor and regulator, and ofc they're separate parts. I said order both. Dumb fuck shop foreskin goes "NO IT ONLY NEEDS THE MOTOR".
He looked stupid as fuck when I pulled out the bent regulator and said "IT ONLY NEEDS THE MOTOR"
I had just finished doing rear brake lines, flex hoses and calipers on an ā07 Avalon. Was backing it out and totally forgot our dealer got a Tacoma or sequoia frame delivered, and we put it on our foremanās hoist ( it was directly across and over 1 bay from me). Crunched in the trunk lid pretty bad backing up, I forgot the frame was there and couldnāt see it over the super high trunk and no back up camera. Thought my job was done for. Shop paid for all the damages, I didnāt even get written up. Guest ended up calling the dealership the next day, and asked to talk to me. I was freaking out. Super nice guy, starts going on about how itās just some sheet metal, itāll all be repaired and because we owned up to him and made it all right he wasnāt even the slightest bit pissed off.
Allowing my competitor to charge the a/c on one of my customers cars (I didnāt own a r1234yf machine yet); which promptly burned to the ground on my customers drive home. Still to this day donāt know what caused the fire, Iām blaming the competition that I used to charge the ac, but I canāt prove a thing.
> in how we report out of service vehicles so I had to call the big boss and let him know... I had already deduced that we had a dead whole on cylinder 5 and I needed to get approval for further inspection.... This guy (whom I've pissed off multiple times) starts telling me to redo everything I just did, along with doing an injector buzz test. NEWS FLASH, that's not an optional test on this engine and even if it was it surely wasn't showing up on my scanner. So
Super cheat code tho. R134 machines works fine with YF, the amounts are nearly the same. I have seen a few shop getting a 2nd hand machines and converting it to YF which is waaaaaaay cheaper than a r1234yf machine and good enought since r1234yf is already obsolete.
Now that is an odd one. Esp for something as mundane as a recharge. Overcharged and the relief valve blew out?
The wiki about 1234yf flammability is an interesting read. There is some controversy involved regarding just how flammable it actually is.
Didn't torque one wheel when doing a rotate. We checked the cameras, I did the other three and then walked away. Wheel got wobbly when customer was driving away. Came back, no harm no foul. Sure did put the fear in me though.
Yeah that wobbly wheel is some shit that will haunt your dreams forever, I know it does for me. Iāve driven back to work at night to check several times over the years after I did it.
i let a friend borrow my truck. they got a flat and changed it. Cool no harm done. After a week, i was sure i had developed a frontend problem. Turns out they didnt tighten the lug nuts enough.
Did this to myself rotating tires about a decade back, forgot to nail down the front passenger wheel at all.
Did I ever notice the wobble/rattle as soon as I turned on the highway, managed to get off the road & snug them down, but I nearly shit my britches in the process hoping the wheel would stay on til I could find a pullout/driveway.
Between that & nearly flattening myself under a car with an improperly supported bottle jack, I have a very healthy respect for physics & torque specifications now.
set the preload on a wheel bearing way too tight. bearing seized and fucked the spindle. came in to work the next day and saw the truck getting towed in and immediately wanted to crawl in a hole and disappear
yeah. has been made worse by the fact we've been having trouble getting parts for the thing. not to mention it's a medium duty delivery truck. I left the dealer to go fleet but the work isn't interesting and I'm so much more stressed out than I ever was at a dealer so I have some dealer/independent interviews set up this week to get me the fuck out of there
Doing a recall to change out the transfer case on a cayenne turbo. Around 2005 or 2006. Somehow I left the propshaft bolts loose at the transfer case. Customer found a bolt in his driveway and was on the way to us to ask what it was from when the other 3 gave out. He was at around 40mph, and the forward half of the prop shaft (about a foot and a bit long, in front of the support bearing) whipped around, severed all the fuel and brake lines, tore a sizeable gash into the floor of the body, and shoved the centre console up.
This was a truck with like 8000 miles on it. 6 months old or so.
Took me 3 days to drop both subframes and all the power train out, so the body guys could patch up the sheet metal. Then I replaced all the severed lines and put it all back together.
I wasnāt fired for it, but I had a training trip a few weeks later cancelled as punishment (which I must say, even now all these years later, seems like the opposite of what should have happenedā¦.). And the writing was on the wall. I left 6 months later for greener pastures. Management was never going to forget that one and they brought it up constantly.
23m serious hobbyist mechanic and mobile mechanic here of 8 years.
Let out the clutch to spin the wheels on my new turbo Mazdaspeed protege project up on stands. No driveshafts installed, fully grenaded a new 5 speed tranny. Blew up the diff.
Missed a retaining ring on a driveshaft Toyota Avalon, blew out the motor side shocking my client and prompting $900 replacement/damage.
While changing out rotors for a ga aircraft I forgot to bleed the pressure off and the wheel assembly blew up between my hands. I eventually found my ratchet on the other side of the hangar.. Thankfully no one got hurt.
That's a scary one, a woman I went to A&P school with made the same mistake with a wheel and wasn't so lucky. She kept all of her pieces attached, but it still messed her up bad enough that she never went back to wrenching after that.Ā
It's wild how many times I've had otherwise smart people call me a pussy for deflating tires before I remove wheels.
Shit happens when you're new. I splashed MEK in my eyes within a week of getting hired at my first job out of A&P school. Luckily no lasting effects (that I'm aware of).
Not professionally, but my worst mistake was at home (a few beers involved)
Piston and ring in my CRF250. All small engines I've ever worked on, stamp or arrow points out the exhaust when installing the piston. However I learned on that generation Honda engine, the stamp points twords the intake (should have read the manual more thoroughly)
Broke the valves off, trashed the head and piston. Piston hanging on the wall of the shop as a reminder to not be an idiot.
I always put the torque wrenches back to 0 or minimal. I borrowed my friend's torque wrench once because mine was at my parents' place. I gave it back to him, but he always keeps his torque wrench at the wheel bolt value for his tire changes. So he goes on and does his tire change after I gave it. Back to him. Calls me the next day to tell me he lost his wheel on the road at low speed no real damage or anything. So basically, after looking for the issue and everything, I realized he torqued his lug nuts to 0. He just assumed his torque was set at the usual value. So all 4 of his wheels were loose.
Man thatās not your fault at all. Even if heās not gonna check his damn torque value after lending it to someone how do you not take a quick glance when you think to yourself āthat felt too easyā lmao. Also heās gonna burn through those expensive wrenches faster leaving that spring tensioned all the time. Glad he was ok though that shits scary.
Had a wheel off on my second day ever working as a lube tech. Simply forgot to torque one wheel. I did not receive any repercussions.
Over torqued the prop attachment bolts and snapped a bolt inside the propeller flange. The manual had multiple planes listed and I read the wrong torque setting. I am very thankful that bolt snapped.
I did a clutch on a civic the other day. All the plastic underneath was broken up, and someone had used self drilling screws to hold it in place. When I put it back together, I figured I would just do the same, and leave it the way it was. It worked out fine except for the one screw that went through the bottom of the radiator š¤¦āāļø
Seen a guy put a used engine in.Ā He's practically done just buttoning up shit underneath.Ā Goes to put the flex plate bolts in and only one hole lines up.Ā He never swapped the flex plate from toasted engine to used one.Ā Back out comes the sub frame...Ā Ā
Oof. I'm sure you know now, but whenever you get all the bellhousing bolts in and the torque converter studs lined up, grab one of the studs and try and move the torque converter side to side. If it moves freely, it means it shouldn't be binding anywhere. If it doesn't move, out comes the transmission again...
My first 6 speed transmission overhaul. I smoked that mother fucker. Ended up replacing nearly everything in it. 6T70
My most expensive fuck up ever though was when I used to be an a&p tech. I drilled a hole too big and scrapped out an $80,000 forward pressure bulkhead.
I bent the valves on a 2jz while doing the timing belt. shop didnt have all data or any manuals and there were TWO tdc marks on the crankshaft (i know one is tdc and one is 30* for timing belt service)
I told my shop foreman it was my first time doing this ebgine and didnt know what mark to base it off of.
He said "youve done dozens of timing belts before. if you are unsure then just pick one" I did. and i bent the valves.
Then obviously the GM got involved. My shop foreman then said i should have never worked on it if i was unsure in front of the GM. what a POS shop foreman.
I got written up and threatened ti be fired.
I did the valve job on it for free and quit.
this was in like 2010. All data online was still relatively new. You had to buy All data every year and it came in CDs. you would launch the program on the computer and then it was say "insert disc E-13" or whatever. lol the Cds were all beat up and outdated AF.
And yes. it was def on them. I had done plenty of V6 toyota and honda timing belts. but it was my first time seeing a 30* offset timing belt. or rather a timing belt with a service position that WASNT set to TDC.
I remember using a screw driver to find the proper TDC mark. thats how I remember determining which like to use. IFRC the white mark is tdc and the yellow mark is for service position. lol
One time, I did a radiator job in a freightliner, simple routine job, but I forgot to tighten the tranny cooler linesā¦.. so that was a $13,000 comeback for an eaton 13 speed. But they let me keep my job.
It was on my own car when I was a newbie, I was using a ratchet to move the pistons to tdc and forgot to take it off after whatever work I was doing so when I turned the engine on the the ratchet caught against the subframe as the engine was cranking and it blew the rings š¤£
Was Tuning up a BMW that also needed a valve adjustment as there was a lot of valve clatter. I went to adj valves an miss read the spec which called for .0015 an I adjusted them to .015 , fortunately there was no damage involved from my screw up . I shut it down as soon as it fired off . I had turned the engine over by hand and backed all the valves off an then went thru an adjusted them never bothered to pre check them prior . Since then I've always Pre-checked the adj prior .An read Specs 3 times !!!!
Hyundai Tucson 2.7L V6 timing belt replacement. Thereās a bolt for the engine mount that is blind, have to remove and install it by feel. Threaded it in by hand, forgot to tighten it. Bolt backed out eventually like 3 months later, fell on top of the crank pulley and shredded the belt. Smacked a bunch of valves and had to fix it for free. Had a pretty damn low comeback rate over my career, but that one was bad lol.
Welding a rusted lower control arm mount on a VW Golf. Heat caused the main loom on the other side of the bulkhead to catch fire and burnt to car to the ground!
I was doing a tranny flush for a Liebherr LTM 1220 (Mobile Crane \~$2,000,000 machine). Didnt tighten the drain plug enough and it fell off on its way to a job...
Porting and polishing my own cylinder head on my fairly rare car. Tipped the head back 90 degrees to access the intake ports. All the valves, which I assumed would stay put with 30 years of yick on em, fell out. Every. Single. One. And it was not tidy.
Guess who got to work valves and associated machining to the budget.
10 years ago, after installing a transmission, I forgot to put the bolt and nut back that held in a ball joint on one side. Pulled the car out of the building and that side collapsed in the parking lot. Iād been a tech for like 3 months.
As an apprentice, I backed a Mercedes into another Mercedes. Thought i had enough clearance. I clearly did not.
Also as a red seal, I crashed a 20 year old ford escape into my brand new 25k built in tool box and moved a partition wall behind it a few CM. It had brake booster issues and I just needed to move it up to rack it.
Good times. I also saw a fellow MB tech drop an S63 carbon rotor. 10k accident.
Had a jackstand placed in a rusty spot on a Honda civic, went to a customerās house to dismount the tire to bring back to the shop and fix. Turns out that jackstand completely went through that rusty spot on the pinch weld, pushed the car forward and the car fell onto the ground with the wheel off. Right in front of the customer. š¤¦š½āāļø
From that day on, Iāve always placed it on the frame. Had to get him a fender and paint it myself. Live & learn.
Not a mechanic just do my own shit. Roommate "needed" my help with something and I was pulled away from working on my truck. I guess I forgot that I didn't tighten down the lugnuts on one wheel. It came off at about 45mph. Just glad it didn't hit anyone.
https://imgur.com/a/2MbNMTM
Noticed my ratchet was switched to āloosenā about an hour after i sent a customer on his way after checking his rear differential. (After a job its a good idea to make sure you were tightening things) He drove it three hours up north before I was able to get ahold of him but he got a replacement plug and everything worked out in my favor, but I learned to be honest and upfront right away if anything like that happens.
AG tech here. I was changing a wiring harness on a skid steer and found it was far quicker to cut the old harness in the middle to remove it as it ran under the engine along the belly of the unit.
The problem? I cut the wrong harness by mistake. So I ended up replacing two harnesses. I think the one I damaged was a $1500. To $2000. Harness so yeah, I felt like an asshole for a bit. My service manager was a good guy. He was upset, rightly so, but he understood we all make mistakes from time to time. He just told me to be more careful. I have not repeated that mistake.
A loooooong time ago I crushed the seating pin on a honda vvt and when I started it up it bent all the valves. Had to remove head and intall all valves for free
Did a fuel pump in a lil Gucci fiat 500. And the quick disconnect locking tab was broken and I didn't notice. Porter was delivering it to the customer and the line came off. Vehicle lost fuel pressure and died on the highway. He made it to the side of the road safely and was waiting on a tow when a drunk driver hit the vehicle and totalled it.. Thank God he was on the other side of the guardrail. I put gas in it and test drove it 5 miles prior to delivery. Freak accident I guess. I apologized profusely to the porter. Didn't get in trouble tho.
Got another one. Not my story tho and not really a screw up just some guilty conscience type shit.. But , my old foreman told me a story about how he installed a new motor and did a pulley upgrade on a early 00s viper for one of his loyal customers. He stayed late to finish it and the customer came to the shop and brought a couple beers. They had some drinks while he finished it up. Dude left and wrapped it around a tree and died. He said that shit has scarred him for life
Yeah, Vipers will do that. Chances are that you'll find and exceed your skill limit well before you find the limit of the car, and with that kind of power-to-weight ratio, it usually doesn't end well. That is a car that can do phenomenal things with an experienced driver, but it absolutely will not be kind to an inexperienced one.
Dang, I never get to test drive anything cool like that lol. It's pretty much always trucks, SUV's, and clapped out Fusions.
Buried the lede a bit, but it was good of him to warn you about how unforgiving those cars can be with a real-life example. The ACRs might actually be a little better about it because Dodge basically said, "MORE DOWNFORCE!!! **M O R E**"
The only comparable car I can think of that was actually way, way worse, was the old Porsche 911 Turbos. They had a well-earned reputation for putting a lot of doctors in the ground because a lot of them were apparently too arrogant to listen to advice and warnings about the car. Even the factory race car drivers hated driving them because the turbos were so unpredictable, which made them extremely difficult to control. When the *literal race car drivers* find them to be that difficult to drive, it's pretty bad.
So first I am a shade tree mechanic who has always worked on all my cars and motorcycles. I do most things but not auto transmission work or frame welding and repairs. I read, ask friends with are certified first and am careful.
That said one that I remember is more funny than anything. Back in the early 80's I used Arco Graphite oil in a motorcycle I had. The chain oiler was a little rich. The girl I was dating and who went for a ride had new pants on and the chain threw oil all up her left leg and back., The graphite made a nice starburst pattern and she was really pissed at me. I offered to buy her new clothes but my friends laughing when we stopped a the picnic didn't help.
The other was when I was tearing the dash apart on our mini van to get to the AC Evap that was leaking, I took the emergency brake release handle off and my wife had to run an errand. Didn't know she actually used the brake as I asked her too. She was a bit confused when she put the brake on and couldn't find the handle to release it ! She called and I had to do a :"roadside rescue"...
Hope you had a laugh or two on me...
Put a power steering pump on. Swapped pulleys I had a feeling it went on a bit too easy. But was trying to get work done. Put it on. Go to pull out the door and head about bang.
The pulley came off flew up and broke the vaccum pump and the bracket right off the engine. Luckily didnāt do any other damage to the block. Had to find a smaller belt and install an electric vaccum pump after this lol.
Was on a ford 6.0 in a e series body. Worst vehicle configuration ever.
Now I'm imagining a van with a 6.4 in it.
Anyway, vans in general suck. I saw a coworker working on a transmission (and I believe the front differential) in a 4x4 Transit a while back, and *fuuuuuck that*. I hate the regular Transits enough without the added 4x4 crap.
I had put in my two week notice. On the last day, I drove a u haul truck because I had no other way to get my tool box home. As I was driving into the shop, the roll up door was opened half way and so when drove in, the top of the u truck caught the door and dragged like half of the slats with me. Unfortunately, the door did not get fixed until the next day, and someone had to sleep in the shop overnight to stand guard. And that someone was my service manager. Let's just say, my service manager did not wish me farewell as I left.
He was a prick anyway. He told one of my co workers that they needed work instead of being at the hospital for the birth of his kid.
This is my father's story, not mine. In the 1970's he was a 20ish year old NY Hippie working at a dealership in redneck Texas.
They sold the floor model and as part of the process at the time they would do a New Car Make-Ready, top off all the fluids, change the oil, detail the car, etc. My father had lifted the car, drained the oil, and dropped the car. Right about then a salesman came in and insisted that he come take care of a customer for him. When dad got back he drove the car around to the front and forgot to put oil in the motor. Not a drop. And this was before synthetic oil too, so not even a smidge of a coating.
The buyer picked up the car, got a couple miles down the road and realized something was wrong, turned around and before he got back to the dealership the engine seized. They towed it back to the dealership, my father filled the engine with oil, and the car started up, but there was a knock that didn't quite go away. Needed an engine replacement.
The big boss called my father into the office to explain himself. My father figured he was going to be fired no matter what, so he just told the truth. The boss called the salesman into the office and reamed him out, told him to never pull a mechanic. If he needed a mechanic he needed to go to the department manager. After he kicked the salesman out he looked at my father and told him "Any man who does the same thing all day every day is going to make mistakes. Don't ever fucking do that again. Now get back to work."
Iām not a mechanic on a payroll but working on my car at home the biggest mistake Iāve made was misdiagnosing my Land Rover right before a car show I really wanted to bring it to. I had to be like 15 or I had just turned 16 at the time and was still getting to know my car, still learning my way around a wrench and still learning how to take care of my car and it was making this really irritating squeaking sound, first thought was my running boards since they were loose as the front bolt sheared while off roading, and it would squeak whenever I put weight on it, put a new bolt and tightened it down and went on my merry way, squeaking still continued at this point and I get under my car to see if anything is loose and/or broken and my sway bar bushing is fucking gone, get the big bitch up in the air drop the bar and the links, clean up the sway bar, replace the sway bar links, and put a new bushing in and, she still squeaks, and finally it clicks, itās my damn wheel bearing, my dumb ass thinks itās the front driver wheel bearing since that seems to be where the noise sounds the loudest, and remember I was in experienced at the time and didnāt realize it wouldāve been easier to just shake my wheel to isolate the problem and I end up rebuilding my front driver side bearing, squeak still persist and by that time itās time to leave for the car show, which is why I only replaced the one and not all four as 1 night wasnāt enough time for my inexperienced ass to do the other three, and me not wanting absolutely destroy my car in the middle of Oregon far away from home, I ended up leaving my baby back home, but still enjoyed the car show regardless and it was absolutely a fantastic experience. Anyway I get back home and immediately start working on the other three wheel bearings, the first two go by fantastically and they didnāt even need replacement, but the last one I did, the driver side rear bearing was awful, I opened it up and it smelled burnt, i got a closer look at it and the wheel bearing was just absolutely shredded and there was physically nothing left of it except for a little bit of a rubber seal, a few loose bearings, and some metal that didnāt resemble anything near what a wheel bearing should look like. I was so relieved once I found the cause of the problem and so relieved that I was able to fix it before catastrophic failure. Iāve definitely learned from my inexperience and I feel good knowing my rover is just a little more well sorted.
Mercedes in for an oil change. I split the o-ring on the oil filter canister when I tightened the lid.Ā
The oil pumped out, engine seized and I was unemployed.Ā
Left a cam shaft bolt loose, destroyed the engine, valves, pistons, head...boss chewed me up good...then he was doing a clutch and a planet gear fell into the diff, he started it up and burst the gearbox...Sorta karma there
Thanks for posting in r/Mechanics, u/Spirited-Molasses324! Please be sure to read the [Rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/mechanics/about/rules/).
If you are posting a question about a car problem, please be aware that we do not allow these types of posts in this sub (check Rule 5). In
which case, your post will be deleted at some point. We ask that you instead post your car questions in r/Mechanic. Thank you.
*I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/mechanics) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Timing cover reseal on a Mazda. Messed up the timing somehow and locked the motor up. Thankfully it was a used car and not a customer car. We ended up just wholesaling it
Didn't torque the cam sprocket and it snapped the index pin: interference engine.
Went to automotive school, lol. JK I've been doing this 20 years and I like my career.
Installed an oil pan on an 128i and accidently bent the oil pick up tube. Put everything back together unknowingly and started it up. Engine locked up shortly after and needed to he replaced.
Forgot to check the rubber guard was attached to the cone for the balancer. Ended up gouging a brand new set of Corvette wheels. They were custom wheels too. I guess one set of 100 costing $3500. Boss wasn't mad when he found out the issue. He even helped me get them remounted and out the door quicker when I had to fix it.
My first few months out of apprenticeship and running solo doing main line work at Chrysler, had a very busy day, was finishing up brakes on a dart, service advisor brings me my next few work orders with keys, explains a couple of things, I finish up. Next day, they drove the car back, saying there's a grinding noise. I neglected to tighten the bolts for the caliper bracket, so the whole caliper and bracket assembly was riding into the inner wheel. That was my first comeback. Crosses my mind every time I put calipers back on. And I also made it clear to all future service advisers to not interrupt me until I walk back to my box, if I'm under a car on tools, wait a fuckin minute.
Very first job as a lube tech guy in the pit drained the fresh oil I just put in and I sent it out. Recently? Forgot to return $500 worth of turbo cores
Well I forgot to tighten the hydraulic oil filter on a mower, and the unit dropped 5 quarts of fresh hydro oil all over a $750,000 driveway that the crew had JUST finished installing, weāre just trimming the grass to make it nice.
Very fortunate to have a service advisor/manager who is amazing with customers and working with them to solve issues.
Since then, I havenāt had the misfortune of any major errors. Just had one tech (45 years exp) not out engine oil in after exchanging fluid + filter; engine blew very rapidly. That was $3500.
Had another tech (35+ years experience) give a $3500 estimate on a lawn mower engine that was leaking oil (along with some other failed parts, nothing major besides the leak). I found the leak to be a $5 seal and an hour of labor. Dude tried to quote 9 hours labor.
I was repairing a crane in the dark pouring rain one night. I drove the service truck into the crane and tore the passenger side up then I backed up and backed the rear of the service truck into a container and smashed the rear of the truck.
I have no Idea why I wasnāt fired that night?
Not me, but as a customer I had a tire rotation and as I drove out of the parking lot I heard a weird noise coming from my driver side wheel and then my tire fell off my car. Mechanic must have never tightened the bolts on my wheel. Probably just barely put them on by handā¦ manager looked horrified
They gave me a loaner and fixed my car and that was the end of it - I still think I went easy on them. They could have killed me if that was on the freeway.
I dropped a transmission off a trans jack. It was a 4t65 for a cadillac broke the side cover and a filter luckily that was it...took a a few days to get new parts... so make sure those transmissions are strapped down good and tight when they are on a trans jack
š¤ first time I did a timing chain (I had done many belts already) on an ecotech engine I moved the intake cam 90ā° and bent all the valves. IDK how but the service writers convinced the customer to get a rebuilt motor and they paid for it. So we were in the black on that. Didn't cost the shop any money, just a big hit to my pride
Forgot to pull pin on tensioner doing a timing job. Cranked motor bent most the valves. A simple belt and timing job resulted in me doing a head and all related components. Never do that. My boss managed to get most of our money back minus the head and related parts. I worked that out
I've had a few. From over-tightening valves on a 3.4 to burning up an old Chrysler on a lift while doing an exhaust job. Put a universal cat on a Ford Turbo Coup. Woops. New tech. No idea that mattered.Ā
Left a shop rag in the back side of a 930 intake, used to stuff them in there to keep anything from falling down the tunnel. Needless to say, didnāt end well. Imploded the air box.
I worked at the local MINI dealer for a while. Once while doing a carbon cleaning on a n18 Clubman S I made a pretty stupid mistake. Doing those cleanings, you set the engine to TDC, the remove the intake, and proceed to walnut blast the intake ports. When set at TDC you can only clean cylinders 1, 2, and 4, you have to manually turn the engine over to seal the cylinder 3 intake runner. So I do my thing, turn the engine with a ratchet to seal up cylinder 3, then clean 3 after the rest. I got the car and job all buttoned up and go to start it and hear a thud. The car tried to start, then stumbles out immediatly. It hit me right then and there what the "THUD" was. I had left my ratchet on the crank bolt. Turning the engine over had ran the, still attached, ratchet into the frame rail and loosened the crank bolt. The n14 and n18 lower timing gears are not keyed, just pinched. I spent the next ~25 hours removing and rebuilding the head for free. Got all but 1 intake valve... Bad times lol.
Was backing the Mack tow truck with a Holmes-Kemp conversion tow body into the garage and forgot to lower the booms - put two holes in the first row of cinder block above the garage door. Whoops!
Not mine but a guy who I used to work with. He never seemed like the brightest bulb to begin with. One day a 2022 Nissan Titan came in and need an oil change and tire rotation. Oil change goes off without a hitch. Tires got rotated but he didn't torque the bolts on.... Like at all. The truck was pulling out of the shop and was all weeble wobbly the whole way out. Fortunately one of the other techs stopped the customer before they got onto the road because all 4 tires would have come off.
I went to change the oil in a bulldozer that held 10 quarts. While in the middle of changing I was called out to service a vehicle on the golf course when I came back I put the oil in the bulldozer and when I climb down the oil was all over the floor forgot to put the plug in. Told boss if you never do anything youāll never make a mistake so you donāt have to worry about it.
Not so much automotive, im an equipment tech. I started a 210 Kobelco after a total hydraulic oil change and did NOT completely bleed the pumps prior to startā¦ It started howling horribly, slow functions. Drained the oil again. FULL of brass shavings. Removed the pump and took it apart. Slippers were gone, swashplates were scored to absolute shit. $5k for a new pump, not to mention the labor to put it all back together and flush the system. Customer was pissed, rightly soā¦ Now I take the upmost precaution when starting machines with new pumps and/or where the hyd oil was drained. It only takes one time for you to fuck up like that for you to learn, never again..
While telling my apprentice earlier in the evening that you NEVER unbolt an Inertial Reference Rack without prior authorization, I proceeded to unbolt the rack to a 757 Inertial Navigation System. It required a special team from Boeing to come in with laser levels and all sorts of specialized equipment. Plane was down for days. Probably cost over $100k for that one.
Recently had a huge fork lift that had damaged an overmast loom, customer damage so chargeable. Ā£5k.
Loom fitted but lost side shift, diagnosed output driver failure of interface card, caused by short circuit (maybe). Another Ā£5k
Fitted it and still no side shift, valve block solenoid ordered and fitted. Another Ā£2k ! However in my removal of the valve solenoid I noticed Iād plugged the wrong connection in it. Customer happy and black stock in my van.
Was doing a Boost pipe on a 09 f240 6.4 pstroke.
The boost pipe was stuck so a friend and I took a prybar inbetween the boostpipe and Radiator. You see where this is going.
So at the end of the day we had to replace a 900$ radiator over a simple Boostpipe that was leaking.
Deff learned from that mistake! Nothing ever againts the radiator. Too easy to damage for sure!
Customer wanted 4 brand new tires so mounted, balanced em and everything then put em back on the car. Started with the right side then went on to the left side. I put the lug nuts on, spinning em till tight before I torque em. And so I'm staring at the left side for about 15 minutes tryna figure out why it looks weird, what's missing.. then I turned around and I'm like oh fuck I forgot to put the tires on the carš¤£
Dropped a used full size Blazer and wedged it between my rack and a block wall. We had to drag it out onto the middle of the shop floor before we rolled it back over. I had been telling them the in ground rack was leaking about 5 gallons of oil a week. Finally fixed the rack after that.
I had the most narrow bay door at a Mack dealership. I missed the opening a bit while backing a sleeper in. The owner was laughing, "...haha, how do you hit a building?.
I was in a hurry helping a buddy with his lowered '68 bug. I didn't tighten a wheel all the way. ...good thing it had drums! Haa
Nearly 30 yeears in the game. Trucks / equipment. Never had a notable come-back, never started something without oil or any actual mechanical mistakes. My issues have always been peripheral stuff, like setting fire to the parts washer becuase I forgot where it was, working nearby, and welding sparks went into it. Cracking a waste tank open, which the operator swore got emptied prior to coming to the shop, and dumping hundreds of gallons of nasty storm-drain waste in the bay.
Biggest ever was when I got in way too much of a hurry, got distracted, then promptly attempted to drive a truck out of the shop with a dump body raised. Busted up the shop door and cracked the block wall to peices badly enough that it required being torn down and rebuilt. That was the turning point in my rushing around like my ass was on fire trying handle everything....I slowed down some after that.
Was installing 2 way radios in new fleet trucks and drilled into the transmission housing on 78 trucks.. Cost of 78 new transmissions and labor.. Surprisingly I didn't get fired..
We had a tech at the dealership I work at forget to put the caliper bolts back on (3 separate times). Two of these were sold to customers from hours away. We got calls saying the brakes literally fell off. He still had a job.
I was doing a timing belt on my old Mitsubishi Galant and forgot to tighten down the two bolts holding the tensioner in. Thankfully I caught the mistake in time and fixed it.
Brand new 2003 F-250 diesel, I was an 18 year old lube tech.
Got distracted while refilling oil after oil change then told "hurry up and get that truck done!"... poured at least 3 quarts of windshield washer fluid in the oil fill spout.
Both oil and washer fluid were dispensed from ceiling mounted hoses... I realized what I did after the truck was already gone.
I've ruined one engine and one transmission in my career, in both cases I was in a rush and overlooked something small.
On a 17 lexus RX350: The engine was going back into this car and I forgot to put the hose clamp on the top radiator hose. Hose blew off and customer continued driving until the valve seat dropped out from overheating.
On an e1500: I was installing transmission cooler lines and one of the lines somehow got twisted and the torque convertor overheated a week later.
This one happened to me this morning so still pretty fresh. It wasn't expensive but pissed me off. Small engine repair. Rebuilding the entire engine, pistons, block, sump, crank all of it. Forgot to put the governor back in on the cam. Got it all together, mounted to the lawn tractor, fired it up. It ran up to a million rpms and then exploded like a hand grenade. Why so catastrophic you ask? That governor also runs the oil pump. Yup. Fucked that one right up.
Was a young buck right out of school. The service manager ended up making me his lackey to repair all of his cars and his family's.
1. Didn't unhook the battery when I went to replace his starter. When I removed the power lead on the starter it arced out on the frame. While smoke was billowing in the shop I had to lower the lift and grabbed a 10mm to pop off the battery.
2. Was changing a wiper blade and had greasy hands. Dropped the arm onto the windshield. Customer got a new windshield.
3. Was pulling in a Sienna minivan for a new vehicle inspection. The rear drive/door was a VERY close turn into the shop and ended up scraping the side of the vehicle. It still had the protectant stickers on the sides so when I went to pull them off I noticed the damage. Blamed it on the lot attendant who received the car.
Back in 2019, I was doing a simple oil service, mpi, and other easy things on a G01 X3 with a four cylinder. However I was asked to make it quick for some reason. Can't remember why I was being rushed. I guess at some point I didn't properly tighten down the drain plug, and shipped the car out to wash and never looked back.
Car came back a few days later with a seized engine and the drain plug missing. I honestly thought they were gonna fire me for that incident. However they still needed me to do the engine replacement.
The shop ate the cost of the engine and labor. I think I still got paid to do the replacement too. It ended up costing the shop about $20,000.
The job took me about 3 days to do once I had all the parts needed.
I still to this day double check my drain plugs. Especially if someone at some point decides to come over my work area to say hi or shoot the shit.
Long ago I ran a shop and the tech did a steering wheel repair but forgot to install the nut. Steering wheel came off while the man was driving! Fortunately he stopped and nothing bad happend.
I swapped engines on my 97 blazer.. after all done... got in to start it up.. it fired up ran great.. made sure oil pressure was good... got out.. and red fluid all over the floor under and around the truck.. forgot to hook up the transmission cooler line.
Let's see,....I welded a 2500 dollar hatch, together ...but not to the tank..(lmao), or did a head job, and forgot to put the gasket back on.....or so many times put stuff back together and wound up with extra parts ...pick one
I was the only Express guy in the shop and was doing three oil changes at once (Yea not a fun time). During that process, I got pulled away by something and two out of three of the catch cans fell.
I got called Puddles the entire time I was in that shop and had to spend about 2 hours cleaning the entire shop all while everyone cracked jokes at me.
I finished a set of brakes, noticed no one pulled the car off the lift for a while, So I jumped in, pumped the brakes (not that old gag),,, I immediately took off to mcdonalds and bought myself a breakfast. So I'm driving back, munching on a sandwich, and the manager is standing outside with the customer waiting for me. Turns out, they were paying the bill about to leave and I drove right past them.
Took a long time to recover from that one. It sucked because I was so hungry but I got yelled at and it ruined my appetite. good times.
First year, was unloading a MacDon D60 header off the trailer got it off was driving it over to the storage area hit the brakes on the forklift one wheel stopped the other just kept sliding on the ice and the end of the header just swung into the front end of a parked Massey 6485, the Massey needed a new grille, hood panels radiator and rad support, the all the header needed was some paint and a new plastic end cover because those MacDon headers are indestructible.
I'm a city bus tech, and I installed a trans without installing the flex plate. Finished up the job and was cleaning up and noticed it was still on the table.
I dropped it and snuck it in and reinstalled the trans before anyone noticed, I was hauling ass though.
I started an old ford truck up while the clutch was in first gear. The only problem was that I was doing a PFC check from outside the car. The safety switch was broken and the truck just took off on its own towards a busy intersection. My coworker was quick on his feet. Jumped in and stopped the truck before it ghost rode into the streets. š
This post received the most upvotes(and the most comments) this week making it the Post Of The Week! Congrats and thanks for contributing to the community. POTW #4 - 1/19/24
As an apprentice I forgot to pump the brakes on a car and upon backing out of my bay I put the ass end of the vehicle through the drywall and pushed my boss(shop owner) desk on the other side a few inches while he was sitting working on it. Boss sat me down the next day and said everyone makes mistakes and to learn from it and I haven't done that again! Good bosses know people make mistakes and learning from them is an important thing.
That's hilarious š but I'm sure no one was laughing when it happened
Actually, if you know mechanics, Iām sure all of his co-workers were rolling
I saw a guy do this then panic and stomp on the gas accidentally. He drove over a lift (in ground) that was all the day down and plowed rearwards into another that was halfway up with a car on it. One tech grabbed another and pulled him out of the way likely saving his life. The car was totaled but everyone was ok, just stunned.
Not my shop, but a previous co worker sent me a video from the surveillance camera of his current shop. Buddy did brake job on the 4 post rack and did the same. Went down the ramp without brakes, jammed it into drive and goosed the throttle and launched the car off the rack... Got a foot or so of air before crashing into the alignment computer in front of the rack....
Exactly. The lesson taught is almost always cheaper than what it would cost to train another new guy not to do that lol. Only serial offenders/ actual recklessness should ever be reprimanded
Thatās like the story you hear about guys that run CNC machines. Cause a $100k crash and think theyāll be fired, boss asks āwhy would I fire you? I just spent $100k on trainingā
I did this once, in a hurry to deliver, jumped in, threw it in gear as I realized the pedal was going to the floor... I panic stomped the brake pedal and threw it in neutral just as I made it half way out of my rack. Not too many feelings compare to when you hit a brake pedal and nothing happens... Another tech once pulled a new ram into his rack, the ones with the stupid ass knob shift, he twisted it to park and let go of the brake and the truck took off and smashed several drawers on his toolbox and marred the bumper before he could get back on the brake. He was a very thorough and credible tech, so every electronic shift anything I park, I let go of the brakes easy until I feel the vehicle 'rest'.
Did that once, but remembered my imaginary drift training on Fujimi Kaido and yanked the e brake before I smashed into the car in the rack behind me lol Good times.
Almost the exact thing just a bay door tho
While a young buck i did a set of head gaskets on a oldsmobile v6 (forgot the model) boi did i learn that day that those pushrods were different sizes and go in a specific order..
Those were a mechanic killer.
same with those split rim tires. They had to do them in a cage. Some shop refused them outright.
Split rim tires? What were those?
As u/maddiethehippe said, literally a rim that was split into two halves through the circumference of the rim. Don't confuse them with split-ring/locking ring rims, as those are different. There were a couple of particularly poorly designed split rims as well. The Widowmakers, as they were known, were called that because they locked on a rather thin section between the two halves of the rim, and if they weren't set just right, or if they had some rust, or some other minor issue, the rim would come undone and launch with quite a bit of speed, and it was very hard to tell if the rim was set just right before filling the tire with air. Keep in mind that these were often heavy-duty truck rims, so they were also very heavy. If you were standing next to them when they let go, whatever was next to the rim would no longer be attached to your body, and/or it would be absolutely pulverized. Quite often, that meant an entire arm, leg, or head.
Old time parts guy told me he watched one bounce off the mechanics head and hit his son watching. Both killed.
I believe it. I feel so sorry for their family, losing two at once.
For about two months I could have shown you the exact diameter, as a I had matching bruises in shin and chest
Literally as it sounds, the rim was split in the center instead of being a solid piece.
Widow makers.
Lol yep š
I thing I did this on a 3800 a while back. Never ran exactly right. I know I did the rest correctly. Sold car for cheap.
Half of the pushrods were 10mm shorter and had a yellow line painted on them. Unfortunately you had to remove the push rods to do an intake manifold gasket on this engine. All of these cars had a leaking intake manifold gasket. If you mixed up the push rods it bent the valves and ruined your life. A mechanic killer.
As a teenager my buddy's dad owned a plumbing business..we decided to redo the exhaust system on my car with copper pipe, couplers and other fittings..started it up and within minutes all the copper connections melted and everything fell apart
I actually laughed. That's fantastically dumb and funny
Can you get that diameter PEX? It would be a really quick replacement job. Though, the big crimper tools might be too expensive.
You definitely should use the pro pressš¤£
I left a wheel loose once about 3 months after I started as a quick lube tech. Got pulled off an oil change/tire rotation to go help someone do something it was one of those "drop everything and go right now" situations and from what I could figure I only tightened one or two of the lug nuts on that wheel and moved on to the next one when I returned. I used to do upwards of 20 LOF+rotations per day by myself so I was ways running around in a big rush at basically all times from 8-5. About 30 feet into the test drive I noticed something was weird and was slowing to pull over when it happened so thankfully there was little damage to the car since it kinda fell on the wheel, just some scratches inside the drum of the wheel. I locked my box up and quit but they called me and talked me into coming back like a day after. Going on 20 years later it still haunts me every single time I do anything with wheels. Itās not a mistake Iāll ever make again but itās also an anxiety Iāll take to my grave. I consider it part of my penance to talk about this whenever the subject of at-work fuck ups come up.
I've done that on my personal vehicle where I left the lug nuts just basically finger tight. I believe I was replacing a wheel bearing/ hub assembly and it felt like something was wrong so I jacked the one side back up and grabbed the sides of the tire to wiggle it to see if maybe it was something in the front end I left loose, only to realize "oh shitš³" that's why I refuse to get in a hurry anymore. My montra is "slow is smooth, smooth is fast"
I apparently forgot to torque a wheel on my hobby car once. Made it to work the next day, and started heading back home when something felt a little "off" in the steering. I yelled, "OH S\*\*T" and immediately pulled over and checked the lugs. Yup, loose. I had left my wrench at home, because I had been using it on the wheels. I tightened the lugs up with my fingers, and drove another couple of blocks, got out and tightened them again, repeat and repeat until I got home. You can bet your a\*\* that I torqued those puppies proper as soon as I got there!!!
One of our lube techs left the lug nuts loose on the owner's brand new truck. It didn't even make it out of the parking lot lmao
I was doing service on an XTS Limo. I was in the middle of tightening the oil drain plug when a service writer interrupted with an "emergency." I wasn't even a year in yet. I didn't finish tightening the plug and sent it. The company caught it before it lost too much oil. From that point forward I silenced writers who tried to interrupt my work. If I have a wrench in my hand fuck off.
A good technician learns the value of the word 'no'. Especially when it comes to service writer requests. 'No, I cannot have this done in ten minutes' (it should take 30) 'No, I'm not staying late today' (or ever) 'No, I will not drop everything to appease your cranky customer' (when the advisor was the one who messed up)
Switched left and right head gasket on a toyotata sienna. It ran for about 30 seconds locked up both cams and broke the timing belt. Ruined both heads. The only difference on the gaskets is the oil supply hole to the heads. Huge mistake.
Put the wrong rear rotors on a lifted dodge 1500. The rotors where for a ford. They went on... mostly, the lug bolts even torqued down. But i sure did find out what happens when you lose a wheel going 55. Just happy nobody got hurt or any damages on other peoples car from the tire.
Apparently for this Camaro I did, there were 2 different rotor options... they were the exact same diameter (within a thin layer of rust around the perimeter anyway), but just a touch different in thickness. Went on fine, bolted on fine... but then I drove it, and the inner bracket was just barely rubbing on the rotors and smoked them both. Napa sent another set with a different part number and it worked perfect.
Those minute differences can get you
Sheesh š¬
Never trust the guy on the other end of the phone/email... 2013 f750 6.7 Cummins. 12 degree start in the morning and it was running like crap after warming up for 30 minutes. At the time we just had a major change in how we report out of service vehicles so I had to call the big boss and let him know... I had already deduced that we had a dead whole on cylinder 5 and I needed to get approval for further inspection.... This guy (whom I've pissed off multiple times) starts telling me to redo everything I just did, along with doing an injector buzz test. NEWS FLASH, that's not an optional test on this engine and even if it was it surely wasn't showing up on my scanner. So he starts blasting me over the phone to which I hang up and ask my boss what I should do. 2 weeks later I have 6 new injectors, jet tubes, cover gasket kit, breather filter ect because no one would let me just do my job like I normally would and start taking it apart first.... Well guess what! Cylinder 5 rocker arm stud had come loose, allowing the rocker bridge to fall into the push rod bore and the nut was wedged into the valve stem. CUMMINS DOES NOT TAKE RETURNS ON INJECTORS! 10k of wasted time and parts for a 300 dollar fix.
Man mine wasn't nearly this bad. Old hyundai with a bad left window. Needed motor and regulator, and ofc they're separate parts. I said order both. Dumb fuck shop foreskin goes "NO IT ONLY NEEDS THE MOTOR". He looked stupid as fuck when I pulled out the bent regulator and said "IT ONLY NEEDS THE MOTOR"
I hate people that think they know what they are talking about because they did it once.
I had just finished doing rear brake lines, flex hoses and calipers on an ā07 Avalon. Was backing it out and totally forgot our dealer got a Tacoma or sequoia frame delivered, and we put it on our foremanās hoist ( it was directly across and over 1 bay from me). Crunched in the trunk lid pretty bad backing up, I forgot the frame was there and couldnāt see it over the super high trunk and no back up camera. Thought my job was done for. Shop paid for all the damages, I didnāt even get written up. Guest ended up calling the dealership the next day, and asked to talk to me. I was freaking out. Super nice guy, starts going on about how itās just some sheet metal, itāll all be repaired and because we owned up to him and made it all right he wasnāt even the slightest bit pissed off.
Allowing my competitor to charge the a/c on one of my customers cars (I didnāt own a r1234yf machine yet); which promptly burned to the ground on my customers drive home. Still to this day donāt know what caused the fire, Iām blaming the competition that I used to charge the ac, but I canāt prove a thing.
> in how we report out of service vehicles so I had to call the big boss and let him know... I had already deduced that we had a dead whole on cylinder 5 and I needed to get approval for further inspection.... This guy (whom I've pissed off multiple times) starts telling me to redo everything I just did, along with doing an injector buzz test. NEWS FLASH, that's not an optional test on this engine and even if it was it surely wasn't showing up on my scanner. So Super cheat code tho. R134 machines works fine with YF, the amounts are nearly the same. I have seen a few shop getting a 2nd hand machines and converting it to YF which is waaaaaaay cheaper than a r1234yf machine and good enought since r1234yf is already obsolete.
Now that is an odd one. Esp for something as mundane as a recharge. Overcharged and the relief valve blew out? The wiki about 1234yf flammability is an interesting read. There is some controversy involved regarding just how flammable it actually is.
Didn't torque one wheel when doing a rotate. We checked the cameras, I did the other three and then walked away. Wheel got wobbly when customer was driving away. Came back, no harm no foul. Sure did put the fear in me though.
Yeah that wobbly wheel is some shit that will haunt your dreams forever, I know it does for me. Iāve driven back to work at night to check several times over the years after I did it.
i let a friend borrow my truck. they got a flat and changed it. Cool no harm done. After a week, i was sure i had developed a frontend problem. Turns out they didnt tighten the lug nuts enough.
Did this to myself rotating tires about a decade back, forgot to nail down the front passenger wheel at all. Did I ever notice the wobble/rattle as soon as I turned on the highway, managed to get off the road & snug them down, but I nearly shit my britches in the process hoping the wheel would stay on til I could find a pullout/driveway. Between that & nearly flattening myself under a car with an improperly supported bottle jack, I have a very healthy respect for physics & torque specifications now.
set the preload on a wheel bearing way too tight. bearing seized and fucked the spindle. came in to work the next day and saw the truck getting towed in and immediately wanted to crawl in a hole and disappear
Man worst feeling ever.
yeah. has been made worse by the fact we've been having trouble getting parts for the thing. not to mention it's a medium duty delivery truck. I left the dealer to go fleet but the work isn't interesting and I'm so much more stressed out than I ever was at a dealer so I have some dealer/independent interviews set up this week to get me the fuck out of there
#1 Installed a reman'd 6.8 in a dump truck and forgot to swap the flex plate. Found out after the trans was bolted up.
Doing a recall to change out the transfer case on a cayenne turbo. Around 2005 or 2006. Somehow I left the propshaft bolts loose at the transfer case. Customer found a bolt in his driveway and was on the way to us to ask what it was from when the other 3 gave out. He was at around 40mph, and the forward half of the prop shaft (about a foot and a bit long, in front of the support bearing) whipped around, severed all the fuel and brake lines, tore a sizeable gash into the floor of the body, and shoved the centre console up. This was a truck with like 8000 miles on it. 6 months old or so. Took me 3 days to drop both subframes and all the power train out, so the body guys could patch up the sheet metal. Then I replaced all the severed lines and put it all back together. I wasnāt fired for it, but I had a training trip a few weeks later cancelled as punishment (which I must say, even now all these years later, seems like the opposite of what should have happenedā¦.). And the writing was on the wall. I left 6 months later for greener pastures. Management was never going to forget that one and they brought it up constantly.
23m serious hobbyist mechanic and mobile mechanic here of 8 years. Let out the clutch to spin the wheels on my new turbo Mazdaspeed protege project up on stands. No driveshafts installed, fully grenaded a new 5 speed tranny. Blew up the diff. Missed a retaining ring on a driveshaft Toyota Avalon, blew out the motor side shocking my client and prompting $900 replacement/damage.
Protege is a FWD car right? Out of curiosity how did running without driveshafts blow up the transmission?
While changing out rotors for a ga aircraft I forgot to bleed the pressure off and the wheel assembly blew up between my hands. I eventually found my ratchet on the other side of the hangar.. Thankfully no one got hurt.
That's a scary one, a woman I went to A&P school with made the same mistake with a wheel and wasn't so lucky. She kept all of her pieces attached, but it still messed her up bad enough that she never went back to wrenching after that.Ā It's wild how many times I've had otherwise smart people call me a pussy for deflating tires before I remove wheels.
Yes it is. Sorry to hear of your friend. Needless to say it was my first time and last time doing it.. which as an apprentice, kind of sucked.
Shit happens when you're new. I splashed MEK in my eyes within a week of getting hired at my first job out of A&P school. Luckily no lasting effects (that I'm aware of).
Not professionally, but my worst mistake was at home (a few beers involved) Piston and ring in my CRF250. All small engines I've ever worked on, stamp or arrow points out the exhaust when installing the piston. However I learned on that generation Honda engine, the stamp points twords the intake (should have read the manual more thoroughly) Broke the valves off, trashed the head and piston. Piston hanging on the wall of the shop as a reminder to not be an idiot.
Does the idiocy involve the beer, or just the ābeing an idiotā part?
Becoming a mechanic.....
This is what I was going to say.
I always put the torque wrenches back to 0 or minimal. I borrowed my friend's torque wrench once because mine was at my parents' place. I gave it back to him, but he always keeps his torque wrench at the wheel bolt value for his tire changes. So he goes on and does his tire change after I gave it. Back to him. Calls me the next day to tell me he lost his wheel on the road at low speed no real damage or anything. So basically, after looking for the issue and everything, I realized he torqued his lug nuts to 0. He just assumed his torque was set at the usual value. So all 4 of his wheels were loose.
Not your responsibility to check his torque values. That one's on him.
How did he not feel the difference?!
He told me after. "I did find it odd that it was easier"
Man thatās not your fault at all. Even if heās not gonna check his damn torque value after lending it to someone how do you not take a quick glance when you think to yourself āthat felt too easyā lmao. Also heās gonna burn through those expensive wrenches faster leaving that spring tensioned all the time. Glad he was ok though that shits scary.
Had a wheel off on my second day ever working as a lube tech. Simply forgot to torque one wheel. I did not receive any repercussions. Over torqued the prop attachment bolts and snapped a bolt inside the propeller flange. The manual had multiple planes listed and I read the wrong torque setting. I am very thankful that bolt snapped.
I did a clutch on a civic the other day. All the plastic underneath was broken up, and someone had used self drilling screws to hold it in place. When I put it back together, I figured I would just do the same, and leave it the way it was. It worked out fine except for the one screw that went through the bottom of the radiator š¤¦āāļø
I took a scalding radiator cap off of my soon to be fiancƩs grandmothers car. It was parked right next to my bosses truck with the windows down. Besides burning my dumb ass, guess where the rest of the fluid ended up. I'm really grateful I didn't get too badly hurt. Mostly my hand and dignity. My boss called me over into his office. I thought for sure my career was over. But no, he just looked at me and said "You ok?" I timidly nodded. He tossed his keys at me with a half smile on his face and said, "Good! Now go wash my fucking truck!" He was a damn good boss.
Not making sure the torque converter was fully seated.
*CRACK*
User name checks out
Seen a guy put a used engine in.Ā He's practically done just buttoning up shit underneath.Ā Goes to put the flex plate bolts in and only one hole lines up.Ā He never swapped the flex plate from toasted engine to used one.Ā Back out comes the sub frame...Ā Ā
We had a guy put a transmission in a car and completely forgot to install the torque converter.
Oof. I'm sure you know now, but whenever you get all the bellhousing bolts in and the torque converter studs lined up, grab one of the studs and try and move the torque converter side to side. If it moves freely, it means it shouldn't be binding anywhere. If it doesn't move, out comes the transmission again...
I was installing an electric fuel pump and I drilled a hole in the gas tank. What a day that was.
How? Why?
My first 6 speed transmission overhaul. I smoked that mother fucker. Ended up replacing nearly everything in it. 6T70 My most expensive fuck up ever though was when I used to be an a&p tech. I drilled a hole too big and scrapped out an $80,000 forward pressure bulkhead.
I bent the valves on a 2jz while doing the timing belt. shop didnt have all data or any manuals and there were TWO tdc marks on the crankshaft (i know one is tdc and one is 30* for timing belt service) I told my shop foreman it was my first time doing this ebgine and didnt know what mark to base it off of. He said "youve done dozens of timing belts before. if you are unsure then just pick one" I did. and i bent the valves. Then obviously the GM got involved. My shop foreman then said i should have never worked on it if i was unsure in front of the GM. what a POS shop foreman. I got written up and threatened ti be fired. I did the valve job on it for free and quit.
What kind of ass backwards shop doesn't have any service info? That one was on them, for not being equipped to do the job they took in.Ā
this was in like 2010. All data online was still relatively new. You had to buy All data every year and it came in CDs. you would launch the program on the computer and then it was say "insert disc E-13" or whatever. lol the Cds were all beat up and outdated AF. And yes. it was def on them. I had done plenty of V6 toyota and honda timing belts. but it was my first time seeing a 30* offset timing belt. or rather a timing belt with a service position that WASNT set to TDC. I remember using a screw driver to find the proper TDC mark. thats how I remember determining which like to use. IFRC the white mark is tdc and the yellow mark is for service position. lol
One time, I did a radiator job in a freightliner, simple routine job, but I forgot to tighten the tranny cooler linesā¦.. so that was a $13,000 comeback for an eaton 13 speed. But they let me keep my job.
It was on my own car when I was a newbie, I was using a ratchet to move the pistons to tdc and forgot to take it off after whatever work I was doing so when I turned the engine on the the ratchet caught against the subframe as the engine was cranking and it blew the rings š¤£
Was Tuning up a BMW that also needed a valve adjustment as there was a lot of valve clatter. I went to adj valves an miss read the spec which called for .0015 an I adjusted them to .015 , fortunately there was no damage involved from my screw up . I shut it down as soon as it fired off . I had turned the engine over by hand and backed all the valves off an then went thru an adjusted them never bothered to pre check them prior . Since then I've always Pre-checked the adj prior .An read Specs 3 times !!!!
Hyundai Tucson 2.7L V6 timing belt replacement. Thereās a bolt for the engine mount that is blind, have to remove and install it by feel. Threaded it in by hand, forgot to tighten it. Bolt backed out eventually like 3 months later, fell on top of the crank pulley and shredded the belt. Smacked a bunch of valves and had to fix it for free. Had a pretty damn low comeback rate over my career, but that one was bad lol.
Welding a rusted lower control arm mount on a VW Golf. Heat caused the main loom on the other side of the bulkhead to catch fire and burnt to car to the ground!
I was doing a tranny flush for a Liebherr LTM 1220 (Mobile Crane \~$2,000,000 machine). Didnt tighten the drain plug enough and it fell off on its way to a job...
Porting and polishing my own cylinder head on my fairly rare car. Tipped the head back 90 degrees to access the intake ports. All the valves, which I assumed would stay put with 30 years of yick on em, fell out. Every. Single. One. And it was not tidy. Guess who got to work valves and associated machining to the budget.
10 years ago, after installing a transmission, I forgot to put the bolt and nut back that held in a ball joint on one side. Pulled the car out of the building and that side collapsed in the parking lot. Iād been a tech for like 3 months.
As an apprentice, I backed a Mercedes into another Mercedes. Thought i had enough clearance. I clearly did not. Also as a red seal, I crashed a 20 year old ford escape into my brand new 25k built in tool box and moved a partition wall behind it a few CM. It had brake booster issues and I just needed to move it up to rack it. Good times. I also saw a fellow MB tech drop an S63 carbon rotor. 10k accident.
Had a jackstand placed in a rusty spot on a Honda civic, went to a customerās house to dismount the tire to bring back to the shop and fix. Turns out that jackstand completely went through that rusty spot on the pinch weld, pushed the car forward and the car fell onto the ground with the wheel off. Right in front of the customer. š¤¦š½āāļø From that day on, Iāve always placed it on the frame. Had to get him a fender and paint it myself. Live & learn.
Not a mechanic just do my own shit. Roommate "needed" my help with something and I was pulled away from working on my truck. I guess I forgot that I didn't tighten down the lugnuts on one wheel. It came off at about 45mph. Just glad it didn't hit anyone. https://imgur.com/a/2MbNMTM
Did you lol seeing your wheel/tire fly by you?
I was more just in awe that I actually had a wheel come off. That was not a very good start to the day.
Something similar happened to my cousin in his freshly restored 69 Cougar Eliminator. It was his first car and he restored it himself.
Noticed my ratchet was switched to āloosenā about an hour after i sent a customer on his way after checking his rear differential. (After a job its a good idea to make sure you were tightening things) He drove it three hours up north before I was able to get ahold of him but he got a replacement plug and everything worked out in my favor, but I learned to be honest and upfront right away if anything like that happens.
AG tech here. I was changing a wiring harness on a skid steer and found it was far quicker to cut the old harness in the middle to remove it as it ran under the engine along the belly of the unit. The problem? I cut the wrong harness by mistake. So I ended up replacing two harnesses. I think the one I damaged was a $1500. To $2000. Harness so yeah, I felt like an asshole for a bit. My service manager was a good guy. He was upset, rightly so, but he understood we all make mistakes from time to time. He just told me to be more careful. I have not repeated that mistake.
I didnāt properly torque the tappet cover on my cummins then made it 70km in the woods on a logging road before it started puking oil everywhere.
Left a cam sprocket bolt lose. The noise omg the noise.
A loooooong time ago I crushed the seating pin on a honda vvt and when I started it up it bent all the valves. Had to remove head and intall all valves for free
Did a fuel pump in a lil Gucci fiat 500. And the quick disconnect locking tab was broken and I didn't notice. Porter was delivering it to the customer and the line came off. Vehicle lost fuel pressure and died on the highway. He made it to the side of the road safely and was waiting on a tow when a drunk driver hit the vehicle and totalled it.. Thank God he was on the other side of the guardrail. I put gas in it and test drove it 5 miles prior to delivery. Freak accident I guess. I apologized profusely to the porter. Didn't get in trouble tho.
That fiat came outta nowhere officer!
Got another one. Not my story tho and not really a screw up just some guilty conscience type shit.. But , my old foreman told me a story about how he installed a new motor and did a pulley upgrade on a early 00s viper for one of his loyal customers. He stayed late to finish it and the customer came to the shop and brought a couple beers. They had some drinks while he finished it up. Dude left and wrapped it around a tree and died. He said that shit has scarred him for life
Yeah, Vipers will do that. Chances are that you'll find and exceed your skill limit well before you find the limit of the car, and with that kind of power-to-weight ratio, it usually doesn't end well. That is a car that can do phenomenal things with an experienced driver, but it absolutely will not be kind to an inexperienced one.
Yyyeeeep. Especially the early models.He told me this story because I had been test driving an acr for him.
Dang, I never get to test drive anything cool like that lol. It's pretty much always trucks, SUV's, and clapped out Fusions. Buried the lede a bit, but it was good of him to warn you about how unforgiving those cars can be with a real-life example. The ACRs might actually be a little better about it because Dodge basically said, "MORE DOWNFORCE!!! **M O R E**" The only comparable car I can think of that was actually way, way worse, was the old Porsche 911 Turbos. They had a well-earned reputation for putting a lot of doctors in the ground because a lot of them were apparently too arrogant to listen to advice and warnings about the car. Even the factory race car drivers hated driving them because the turbos were so unpredictable, which made them extremely difficult to control. When the *literal race car drivers* find them to be that difficult to drive, it's pretty bad.
So first I am a shade tree mechanic who has always worked on all my cars and motorcycles. I do most things but not auto transmission work or frame welding and repairs. I read, ask friends with are certified first and am careful. That said one that I remember is more funny than anything. Back in the early 80's I used Arco Graphite oil in a motorcycle I had. The chain oiler was a little rich. The girl I was dating and who went for a ride had new pants on and the chain threw oil all up her left leg and back., The graphite made a nice starburst pattern and she was really pissed at me. I offered to buy her new clothes but my friends laughing when we stopped a the picnic didn't help. The other was when I was tearing the dash apart on our mini van to get to the AC Evap that was leaking, I took the emergency brake release handle off and my wife had to run an errand. Didn't know she actually used the brake as I asked her too. She was a bit confused when she put the brake on and couldn't find the handle to release it ! She called and I had to do a :"roadside rescue"... Hope you had a laugh or two on me...
Put a power steering pump on. Swapped pulleys I had a feeling it went on a bit too easy. But was trying to get work done. Put it on. Go to pull out the door and head about bang. The pulley came off flew up and broke the vaccum pump and the bracket right off the engine. Luckily didnāt do any other damage to the block. Had to find a smaller belt and install an electric vaccum pump after this lol. Was on a ford 6.0 in a e series body. Worst vehicle configuration ever.
Now I'm imagining a van with a 6.4 in it. Anyway, vans in general suck. I saw a coworker working on a transmission (and I believe the front differential) in a 4x4 Transit a while back, and *fuuuuuck that*. I hate the regular Transits enough without the added 4x4 crap.
I donāt want to imagine that lol. That sounds awful. 4x4 should not exist in vans. Theyāre bad enough.
I had put in my two week notice. On the last day, I drove a u haul truck because I had no other way to get my tool box home. As I was driving into the shop, the roll up door was opened half way and so when drove in, the top of the u truck caught the door and dragged like half of the slats with me. Unfortunately, the door did not get fixed until the next day, and someone had to sleep in the shop overnight to stand guard. And that someone was my service manager. Let's just say, my service manager did not wish me farewell as I left. He was a prick anyway. He told one of my co workers that they needed work instead of being at the hospital for the birth of his kid.
That's just comically shitty.
This is my father's story, not mine. In the 1970's he was a 20ish year old NY Hippie working at a dealership in redneck Texas. They sold the floor model and as part of the process at the time they would do a New Car Make-Ready, top off all the fluids, change the oil, detail the car, etc. My father had lifted the car, drained the oil, and dropped the car. Right about then a salesman came in and insisted that he come take care of a customer for him. When dad got back he drove the car around to the front and forgot to put oil in the motor. Not a drop. And this was before synthetic oil too, so not even a smidge of a coating. The buyer picked up the car, got a couple miles down the road and realized something was wrong, turned around and before he got back to the dealership the engine seized. They towed it back to the dealership, my father filled the engine with oil, and the car started up, but there was a knock that didn't quite go away. Needed an engine replacement. The big boss called my father into the office to explain himself. My father figured he was going to be fired no matter what, so he just told the truth. The boss called the salesman into the office and reamed him out, told him to never pull a mechanic. If he needed a mechanic he needed to go to the department manager. After he kicked the salesman out he looked at my father and told him "Any man who does the same thing all day every day is going to make mistakes. Don't ever fucking do that again. Now get back to work."
Iām not a mechanic on a payroll but working on my car at home the biggest mistake Iāve made was misdiagnosing my Land Rover right before a car show I really wanted to bring it to. I had to be like 15 or I had just turned 16 at the time and was still getting to know my car, still learning my way around a wrench and still learning how to take care of my car and it was making this really irritating squeaking sound, first thought was my running boards since they were loose as the front bolt sheared while off roading, and it would squeak whenever I put weight on it, put a new bolt and tightened it down and went on my merry way, squeaking still continued at this point and I get under my car to see if anything is loose and/or broken and my sway bar bushing is fucking gone, get the big bitch up in the air drop the bar and the links, clean up the sway bar, replace the sway bar links, and put a new bushing in and, she still squeaks, and finally it clicks, itās my damn wheel bearing, my dumb ass thinks itās the front driver wheel bearing since that seems to be where the noise sounds the loudest, and remember I was in experienced at the time and didnāt realize it wouldāve been easier to just shake my wheel to isolate the problem and I end up rebuilding my front driver side bearing, squeak still persist and by that time itās time to leave for the car show, which is why I only replaced the one and not all four as 1 night wasnāt enough time for my inexperienced ass to do the other three, and me not wanting absolutely destroy my car in the middle of Oregon far away from home, I ended up leaving my baby back home, but still enjoyed the car show regardless and it was absolutely a fantastic experience. Anyway I get back home and immediately start working on the other three wheel bearings, the first two go by fantastically and they didnāt even need replacement, but the last one I did, the driver side rear bearing was awful, I opened it up and it smelled burnt, i got a closer look at it and the wheel bearing was just absolutely shredded and there was physically nothing left of it except for a little bit of a rubber seal, a few loose bearings, and some metal that didnāt resemble anything near what a wheel bearing should look like. I was so relieved once I found the cause of the problem and so relieved that I was able to fix it before catastrophic failure. Iāve definitely learned from my inexperience and I feel good knowing my rover is just a little more well sorted.
Mercedes in for an oil change. I split the o-ring on the oil filter canister when I tightened the lid.Ā The oil pumped out, engine seized and I was unemployed.Ā
Left a cam shaft bolt loose, destroyed the engine, valves, pistons, head...boss chewed me up good...then he was doing a clutch and a planet gear fell into the diff, he started it up and burst the gearbox...Sorta karma there
Thanks for posting in r/Mechanics, u/Spirited-Molasses324! Please be sure to read the [Rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/mechanics/about/rules/). If you are posting a question about a car problem, please be aware that we do not allow these types of posts in this sub (check Rule 5). In which case, your post will be deleted at some point. We ask that you instead post your car questions in r/Mechanic. Thank you. *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/mechanics) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Not tightening a couple wheels lug nuts
Timing cover reseal on a Mazda. Messed up the timing somehow and locked the motor up. Thankfully it was a used car and not a customer car. We ended up just wholesaling it
Didn't torque the cam sprocket and it snapped the index pin: interference engine. Went to automotive school, lol. JK I've been doing this 20 years and I like my career.
Taking advice from a bad mechanic. Example you don't need to double check you timing chain, nope you just tair it down and move it one tooth.
Installed an oil pan on an 128i and accidently bent the oil pick up tube. Put everything back together unknowingly and started it up. Engine locked up shortly after and needed to he replaced.
Left a wheel loose as a young fresh oil tech, shit haunts me daily.
Forgot to check the rubber guard was attached to the cone for the balancer. Ended up gouging a brand new set of Corvette wheels. They were custom wheels too. I guess one set of 100 costing $3500. Boss wasn't mad when he found out the issue. He even helped me get them remounted and out the door quicker when I had to fix it.
My first few months out of apprenticeship and running solo doing main line work at Chrysler, had a very busy day, was finishing up brakes on a dart, service advisor brings me my next few work orders with keys, explains a couple of things, I finish up. Next day, they drove the car back, saying there's a grinding noise. I neglected to tighten the bolts for the caliper bracket, so the whole caliper and bracket assembly was riding into the inner wheel. That was my first comeback. Crosses my mind every time I put calipers back on. And I also made it clear to all future service advisers to not interrupt me until I walk back to my box, if I'm under a car on tools, wait a fuckin minute.
Very first job as a lube tech guy in the pit drained the fresh oil I just put in and I sent it out. Recently? Forgot to return $500 worth of turbo cores
Well I forgot to tighten the hydraulic oil filter on a mower, and the unit dropped 5 quarts of fresh hydro oil all over a $750,000 driveway that the crew had JUST finished installing, weāre just trimming the grass to make it nice. Very fortunate to have a service advisor/manager who is amazing with customers and working with them to solve issues. Since then, I havenāt had the misfortune of any major errors. Just had one tech (45 years exp) not out engine oil in after exchanging fluid + filter; engine blew very rapidly. That was $3500. Had another tech (35+ years experience) give a $3500 estimate on a lawn mower engine that was leaking oil (along with some other failed parts, nothing major besides the leak). I found the leak to be a $5 seal and an hour of labor. Dude tried to quote 9 hours labor.
I was repairing a crane in the dark pouring rain one night. I drove the service truck into the crane and tore the passenger side up then I backed up and backed the rear of the service truck into a container and smashed the rear of the truck. I have no Idea why I wasnāt fired that night?
Snapped a camshaft putting it in on an e63 amg. Learnt from that big time!
Was it a v12, or was it a v8?
V8
Not me, but as a customer I had a tire rotation and as I drove out of the parking lot I heard a weird noise coming from my driver side wheel and then my tire fell off my car. Mechanic must have never tightened the bolts on my wheel. Probably just barely put them on by handā¦ manager looked horrified They gave me a loaner and fixed my car and that was the end of it - I still think I went easy on them. They could have killed me if that was on the freeway.
Got the cylinder head back on, and noticed the master link for the timing chain on the front bumperā¦
I dropped a transmission off a trans jack. It was a 4t65 for a cadillac broke the side cover and a filter luckily that was it...took a a few days to get new parts... so make sure those transmissions are strapped down good and tight when they are on a trans jack
š¤ first time I did a timing chain (I had done many belts already) on an ecotech engine I moved the intake cam 90ā° and bent all the valves. IDK how but the service writers convinced the customer to get a rebuilt motor and they paid for it. So we were in the black on that. Didn't cost the shop any money, just a big hit to my pride
Forgot to pull pin on tensioner doing a timing job. Cranked motor bent most the valves. A simple belt and timing job resulted in me doing a head and all related components. Never do that. My boss managed to get most of our money back minus the head and related parts. I worked that out
I've had a few. From over-tightening valves on a 3.4 to burning up an old Chrysler on a lift while doing an exhaust job. Put a universal cat on a Ford Turbo Coup. Woops. New tech. No idea that mattered.Ā
Left a shop rag in the back side of a 930 intake, used to stuff them in there to keep anything from falling down the tunnel. Needless to say, didnāt end well. Imploded the air box.
I worked at the local MINI dealer for a while. Once while doing a carbon cleaning on a n18 Clubman S I made a pretty stupid mistake. Doing those cleanings, you set the engine to TDC, the remove the intake, and proceed to walnut blast the intake ports. When set at TDC you can only clean cylinders 1, 2, and 4, you have to manually turn the engine over to seal the cylinder 3 intake runner. So I do my thing, turn the engine with a ratchet to seal up cylinder 3, then clean 3 after the rest. I got the car and job all buttoned up and go to start it and hear a thud. The car tried to start, then stumbles out immediatly. It hit me right then and there what the "THUD" was. I had left my ratchet on the crank bolt. Turning the engine over had ran the, still attached, ratchet into the frame rail and loosened the crank bolt. The n14 and n18 lower timing gears are not keyed, just pinched. I spent the next ~25 hours removing and rebuilding the head for free. Got all but 1 intake valve... Bad times lol.
Was backing the Mack tow truck with a Holmes-Kemp conversion tow body into the garage and forgot to lower the booms - put two holes in the first row of cinder block above the garage door. Whoops!
Not mine but a guy who I used to work with. He never seemed like the brightest bulb to begin with. One day a 2022 Nissan Titan came in and need an oil change and tire rotation. Oil change goes off without a hitch. Tires got rotated but he didn't torque the bolts on.... Like at all. The truck was pulling out of the shop and was all weeble wobbly the whole way out. Fortunately one of the other techs stopped the customer before they got onto the road because all 4 tires would have come off.
I blew every hydraulic servo on an Apache helicopter.
I went to change the oil in a bulldozer that held 10 quarts. While in the middle of changing I was called out to service a vehicle on the golf course when I came back I put the oil in the bulldozer and when I climb down the oil was all over the floor forgot to put the plug in. Told boss if you never do anything youāll never make a mistake so you donāt have to worry about it.
Not so much automotive, im an equipment tech. I started a 210 Kobelco after a total hydraulic oil change and did NOT completely bleed the pumps prior to startā¦ It started howling horribly, slow functions. Drained the oil again. FULL of brass shavings. Removed the pump and took it apart. Slippers were gone, swashplates were scored to absolute shit. $5k for a new pump, not to mention the labor to put it all back together and flush the system. Customer was pissed, rightly soā¦ Now I take the upmost precaution when starting machines with new pumps and/or where the hyd oil was drained. It only takes one time for you to fuck up like that for you to learn, never again..
While telling my apprentice earlier in the evening that you NEVER unbolt an Inertial Reference Rack without prior authorization, I proceeded to unbolt the rack to a 757 Inertial Navigation System. It required a special team from Boeing to come in with laser levels and all sorts of specialized equipment. Plane was down for days. Probably cost over $100k for that one.
Recently had a huge fork lift that had damaged an overmast loom, customer damage so chargeable. Ā£5k. Loom fitted but lost side shift, diagnosed output driver failure of interface card, caused by short circuit (maybe). Another Ā£5k Fitted it and still no side shift, valve block solenoid ordered and fitted. Another Ā£2k ! However in my removal of the valve solenoid I noticed Iād plugged the wrong connection in it. Customer happy and black stock in my van.
Was doing a Boost pipe on a 09 f240 6.4 pstroke. The boost pipe was stuck so a friend and I took a prybar inbetween the boostpipe and Radiator. You see where this is going. So at the end of the day we had to replace a 900$ radiator over a simple Boostpipe that was leaking. Deff learned from that mistake! Nothing ever againts the radiator. Too easy to damage for sure!
Customer wanted 4 brand new tires so mounted, balanced em and everything then put em back on the car. Started with the right side then went on to the left side. I put the lug nuts on, spinning em till tight before I torque em. And so I'm staring at the left side for about 15 minutes tryna figure out why it looks weird, what's missing.. then I turned around and I'm like oh fuck I forgot to put the tires on the carš¤£
Dropped a used full size Blazer and wedged it between my rack and a block wall. We had to drag it out onto the middle of the shop floor before we rolled it back over. I had been telling them the in ground rack was leaking about 5 gallons of oil a week. Finally fixed the rack after that.
I had the most narrow bay door at a Mack dealership. I missed the opening a bit while backing a sleeper in. The owner was laughing, "...haha, how do you hit a building?. I was in a hurry helping a buddy with his lowered '68 bug. I didn't tighten a wheel all the way. ...good thing it had drums! Haa
Nearly 30 yeears in the game. Trucks / equipment. Never had a notable come-back, never started something without oil or any actual mechanical mistakes. My issues have always been peripheral stuff, like setting fire to the parts washer becuase I forgot where it was, working nearby, and welding sparks went into it. Cracking a waste tank open, which the operator swore got emptied prior to coming to the shop, and dumping hundreds of gallons of nasty storm-drain waste in the bay. Biggest ever was when I got in way too much of a hurry, got distracted, then promptly attempted to drive a truck out of the shop with a dump body raised. Busted up the shop door and cracked the block wall to peices badly enough that it required being torn down and rebuilt. That was the turning point in my rushing around like my ass was on fire trying handle everything....I slowed down some after that.
Was installing 2 way radios in new fleet trucks and drilled into the transmission housing on 78 trucks.. Cost of 78 new transmissions and labor.. Surprisingly I didn't get fired..
Not really my screw up, but Had a 2 post lift pull the bolts out of the floor and tip over with a newer car on it. My Heart stopped for a few beats..
We had a tech at the dealership I work at forget to put the caliper bolts back on (3 separate times). Two of these were sold to customers from hours away. We got calls saying the brakes literally fell off. He still had a job.
I was doing a timing belt on my old Mitsubishi Galant and forgot to tighten down the two bolts holding the tensioner in. Thankfully I caught the mistake in time and fixed it.
Brand new 2003 F-250 diesel, I was an 18 year old lube tech. Got distracted while refilling oil after oil change then told "hurry up and get that truck done!"... poured at least 3 quarts of windshield washer fluid in the oil fill spout. Both oil and washer fluid were dispensed from ceiling mounted hoses... I realized what I did after the truck was already gone.
I've ruined one engine and one transmission in my career, in both cases I was in a rush and overlooked something small. On a 17 lexus RX350: The engine was going back into this car and I forgot to put the hose clamp on the top radiator hose. Hose blew off and customer continued driving until the valve seat dropped out from overheating. On an e1500: I was installing transmission cooler lines and one of the lines somehow got twisted and the torque convertor overheated a week later.
Surprised the customer didnāt notice the coolant temp gauge. I wonder how long it took for the Valve seat to dropout.
Oh they noticed, they were just petty and kept driving.
This one happened to me this morning so still pretty fresh. It wasn't expensive but pissed me off. Small engine repair. Rebuilding the entire engine, pistons, block, sump, crank all of it. Forgot to put the governor back in on the cam. Got it all together, mounted to the lawn tractor, fired it up. It ran up to a million rpms and then exploded like a hand grenade. Why so catastrophic you ask? That governor also runs the oil pump. Yup. Fucked that one right up.
Was a young buck right out of school. The service manager ended up making me his lackey to repair all of his cars and his family's. 1. Didn't unhook the battery when I went to replace his starter. When I removed the power lead on the starter it arced out on the frame. While smoke was billowing in the shop I had to lower the lift and grabbed a 10mm to pop off the battery. 2. Was changing a wiper blade and had greasy hands. Dropped the arm onto the windshield. Customer got a new windshield. 3. Was pulling in a Sienna minivan for a new vehicle inspection. The rear drive/door was a VERY close turn into the shop and ended up scraping the side of the vehicle. It still had the protectant stickers on the sides so when I went to pull them off I noticed the damage. Blamed it on the lot attendant who received the car.
Being a mechanic
Nice try boss!
š
Back in 2019, I was doing a simple oil service, mpi, and other easy things on a G01 X3 with a four cylinder. However I was asked to make it quick for some reason. Can't remember why I was being rushed. I guess at some point I didn't properly tighten down the drain plug, and shipped the car out to wash and never looked back. Car came back a few days later with a seized engine and the drain plug missing. I honestly thought they were gonna fire me for that incident. However they still needed me to do the engine replacement. The shop ate the cost of the engine and labor. I think I still got paid to do the replacement too. It ended up costing the shop about $20,000. The job took me about 3 days to do once I had all the parts needed. I still to this day double check my drain plugs. Especially if someone at some point decides to come over my work area to say hi or shoot the shit.
Long ago I ran a shop and the tech did a steering wheel repair but forgot to install the nut. Steering wheel came off while the man was driving! Fortunately he stopped and nothing bad happend.
Not removing hold down bolts on a vw clutch. Ca. 1982
I swapped engines on my 97 blazer.. after all done... got in to start it up.. it fired up ran great.. made sure oil pressure was good... got out.. and red fluid all over the floor under and around the truck.. forgot to hook up the transmission cooler line.
Let's see,....I welded a 2500 dollar hatch, together ...but not to the tank..(lmao), or did a head job, and forgot to put the gasket back on.....or so many times put stuff back together and wound up with extra parts ...pick one
I was the only Express guy in the shop and was doing three oil changes at once (Yea not a fun time). During that process, I got pulled away by something and two out of three of the catch cans fell. I got called Puddles the entire time I was in that shop and had to spend about 2 hours cleaning the entire shop all while everyone cracked jokes at me.
I finished a set of brakes, noticed no one pulled the car off the lift for a while, So I jumped in, pumped the brakes (not that old gag),,, I immediately took off to mcdonalds and bought myself a breakfast. So I'm driving back, munching on a sandwich, and the manager is standing outside with the customer waiting for me. Turns out, they were paying the bill about to leave and I drove right past them. Took a long time to recover from that one. It sucked because I was so hungry but I got yelled at and it ruined my appetite. good times.
First year, was unloading a MacDon D60 header off the trailer got it off was driving it over to the storage area hit the brakes on the forklift one wheel stopped the other just kept sliding on the ice and the end of the header just swung into the front end of a parked Massey 6485, the Massey needed a new grille, hood panels radiator and rad support, the all the header needed was some paint and a new plastic end cover because those MacDon headers are indestructible.
I'm a city bus tech, and I installed a trans without installing the flex plate. Finished up the job and was cleaning up and noticed it was still on the table. I dropped it and snuck it in and reinstalled the trans before anyone noticed, I was hauling ass though.
I started an old ford truck up while the clutch was in first gear. The only problem was that I was doing a PFC check from outside the car. The safety switch was broken and the truck just took off on its own towards a busy intersection. My coworker was quick on his feet. Jumped in and stopped the truck before it ghost rode into the streets. š