Your biggest mechanical doh moment .

[dopey]

i set me mates offroader on fire, it was stripped down to a rolling chassis and he wanted to see if it was running right as he had just bought it but he sent a mate to pick it up.
we had fuel in a bottle with a hose going into engine, big spark came out carb as no air filter on , hose caught fire and i dropped the bottle as i bricked it, a fire caught in the work garage under his house. just as well we have to have a fire extingusiher at work or we could have been up the creek

[8valve-craig]

Is that where you got your name from?

[daddy cav]

Had a Mk1 Astra SR with a dodgy carb ( float chamber ) and if you left it over night you had to pour a small amount of fuel into it .

Took the Pipercross bee hive off put some fuel in and then put filter back on , not with the engine running lmao

[dopey]

Is that where you got your name from?

no , i was called dopey so long ago i can't remember why but it is pretty fitting as the older i get the clumsier i get

[tommychimp]

2 really, first one was as an apprentice i was told an engine on a vehicle was ready for initial run-up, so jumped in fired it up and let it idle, gave it some stick and bang the thing nearly threw itself off it's stands, I didn't think to dip the oil...

Second one, I was cutting a mk3 astra up with a stihl saw, got down to cutting the off side rear arch, now i preempted that the petrol tank may still have some fuel in it, so i stuck a hose pipe in and filled it with water, what i forgot was petrol floats on water, so cue cutting through the inner arch and the filler neck straight into neat petrol with lots of sparks. I **** myself has the saw blade was spraying flaming petrol all over the drive!

[Brett]

drive way at mum and dads has the marks to show my biggest fail.

Cracked the sump bolt loose, wound it out.... the reailsed the bucket to catch the oil was still lying behind the car.

[tonyo]

Whilst working on the Metro GTi Enduro car. I'd had the problem of water coming in (and being retained) in the Nav's footwell, as this was my seat I decided to do something about it, and drilled a little crafty hole through the rear floor at the base where it rises under the rear seat..

My Driver, seeing me do this though he may like the same treatment in case he ever had the same issue (drivers are vain like that).. Sets off with the drill, and looks quite surprised when water appears to be coming INTO the cabin through the hole.. After a couple of seconds his face changed as he relalised that it wasn't water, but petrol coming in..

Evidently the fuel tank sits closer on the drivers side than the Passenger in a Metro..


The other one was during repairs of an Alfa 75 for a rally fun day.. We'd just sealed up the holes in the fuel tank, and flushed it out, so decided to go in for a cuppa.. On coming back out we found the driver's young son happily playing with his spade, filling the tank with the gravel from the conservatory soakaway..

[Murray]

Christmas day, in the snow. Changing an alternator on a MG ZT diesel.....

Not a good idea. It packed up as it was failing it's MOT two days later. New alt fitted by the garage. Also ripped an air-con pipe open too on that car. That cost me dear too.

[caprixpack]

changing a set of dials on my 2.8i capri and forgetting to reconnect the oil pressure gauge pipe to the back of the dials, start it up wondering why the needle isn't working give it some revvs ahh thats why

[Todi-Corsa]

disconnecting fuel lines and getting petrol in my eye and down my throat, was a bad one, even though I had drained the lines.... although think I may have forgot to do the return pipe

And when I was 14/15 bump starting a motorbike to try n free a sticking clutch, eveidently didn't work as the clutch stuck and dragged me down the road as I didn't think to let off the revs had a good few cuts n brusies for lack of wanting to actually get the spanners out n free it propperly

[Mieran]

Forgetting to lock the coilover rings on one side at the front, days later I could see the car getting lower on one side so had a look. It was about 25mm lower than what I left it at lol

[Jasovanooo]

done an oil change all going well

went to lower the car back down to hear a crack and a rapidly growing puddle of oil....shoulda removed the bucket

[8valve-craig]

Not exactly mechanical but i did just make a cheese and tomato sandwich with cabbage in thinking it was lettuce

[DarrenH]

brian let me take his MR2 turbo for a spirited turn round the block, on the way back the front suspension fell off and the front wheel jammed in the upper arch. someone (depending who you ask) had only wound the bottom balljoint nut on a couple turns.

[V36 HAE]

fitting x30xe G cams to a x25xe and fitting the front bank inlet cam 180 degrees out.... lmao needless to say it did not run very well lol luckily no damage though took hour or so to put right and all was well lol phew.......

[mickaloss]

many years ago, spent an hour under a car on a roller board when i rolled over my ponytail ( told you it was a lot of years ago ) and couldnt move untill someone found me ! my dad hated the fact i had a ponytail and used to tell me under every tail you find an arse hole !

[stuartcurran]

upgraded the brakes on my mk4 astra to 308mm, i put the calipers on the wrong side, bleed nipple pointing down. i bleed and bleed at it for ages n couldn get a proper hard pedal. so i taut was the master cylinder and changed that but when putting the servo back on didnt align the pin up right n bent it. any way weeks of head scratching n bleeding later i guy on here goes, just check for me if the nipples are up or down, couldn believe it...

[Andy^mk3]

Oops lmao!

I had a minor one the other day at work, service on a Corsa.. filled with oil, fired it up, then saw a fountain of oil shoot out the bonnet, forgot to put the oil filter back on lol! It lost about 2 litres of oil in about 10-15 seconds of running, which was not fun to clean up!

[daveybee]

the day before pvs 2011. thought id make some last minute adjustments and fit my new clutch, so gearbox off, clutch on and alligned, just the thrust bearing left! it had a few greasy finger marks on, sooo i decided to get the brake cleaner out, it only cleaned all the grease out and was no longer free and smooth!

i couldnt for the life of me get 'just a thrust bearing' so i bought a new clutch kit (arrived friday morning) ordered a thrust bearing off ebay. put box in went to pvs then following tuesday new thrust bearing arrived, put it with the 2nd clutch kit i bought and took it back

[8valve-craig]

Rushed to get my nova finished for a trackday last summer. Drove 30m there and went straight out on track only checking the tyre pressures.

After 3 sessions heard a knocking noise from the front.... Wheel bolts on the front left were loose.

I still think they worked loose, But there is a slight possibility that i only nipped them up after doing the Cv's.