Worst Working Moments On Cars

[Paul_13 212 1 Cars]

Having my hand trapped between a gti6 'box and the subframe for about 30 secs. Mate was being a pussy and not lifting the box fully, after I said if he didn't lift it now I'd punch him, he soon lifted it off quickly.

 

Dropping a brake disc on foot.

 

Snapping the head off a breaker bar, which ended up with me punching the gravel drive full pelt.

 

Trying to sort out a coilpack on a MI which was shorting out, reached under inlet for something and repeatly shocked by the coilpack when hand was stuck!

[brumster 135 1 Cars]

Oh some of those have cheered me up

 

I remember at Uni I was a member of Portsmouth Uni's Mini car club (The Loony Uni Mini Club) and was helping chop up a scrapped shell one night. Bladdered a cold chisel with a mallet, which punched through the A-post as intended and then crushed the tip of my little finger between the mallet handle and the car. It was a good 10 years (seriously) before the discoloration in the nail of the my little finger 'grew out'.

 

Other time was when I was prepping a little bracket on the rally car in my first house - no room for anything like a vice or useful tools, so I was drilling a thin piece of aluminium (a little tab to hold an extinguisher nozzle in the engine bay) by holding it with my left hand while I attempted to drill it with a nice, sharp drill bit and my Black & Decker 240v corded drill.

 

It's really not a good idea; God invented vices for a reason

 

I kinda saw it happening moments before it actually did. You know that thought that flies through your head; "This is really stupid, Dan, that drill bit is going to grab as it breaks through the back side of the metal, spin it round and chop your finger off" - but I carried on anyway.

 

The resulting grab of the drill bit twirled the thin slice of metal around quite effectively, embedding it into my hand just below the base of my index finger. I stopped, froze, pulled the metal out and kept my hand clamped as tight as I could while I thought about what had just happened. I eased my clasped fingers open to take a look but as my hand opened up, blood started to stream out of the cut, so I clamped it shut again quick and told my mate to keep an eye on me as I felt a bit queezy

 

I ended up taping my two fingers closed onto my hand with gaffer tape for 2 nights. The wound healed up but boy my fingers ached when I opened them up. Still got the scar today

Edited November 21, 2011 by brumster

[m_attt 31 1 Cars]

doing a few jobs on my turbo, head gasket and gear box along with few other things, in a small garage with bonnet away from the door. Cant remember the eaxact dtails now but think were trying to get the new turbo down the back and both bottom and gear box mounts were of as you need the movment to get the turbo in. Remeber telling my mate to go easy pulling it about as the top mount just rests in place, next thing the engine is on the floor, jacks pinned under and all jammed by the subframe with no way of getting a crane in the garage even if did hire one. somehow managed to get it back in after alot of swearing and struggling. had a good laugh after and mate goes oh i see what you mean now by that mount just rests in there.

 

closest was when i asked my mum to operate the hydrolics on a engine crane on another 205 while i guided the engine in, i really don't know how i still have my fingers.

[swordfish210 20]

You sure it wasn't the day when you had to take the head off with lots of probing down holes and headbolts in the workshop? or shall I not bring that up...

 

That was a bad one but the example i provided was worse as it was spread over a whole weekend

[BERTMAN 40 1 Cars]

using a screwdriver and a hammer to remove bushes from rear beam... resulting with screwdriver handle embedded in hand. OUCH!!!!!

[allye 530 3 Cars]

Actually one of the worst was bleeding the brakes on my Rallye back when it had the 1360 in it. Put the 1.9 brakes on also had a 2nd hand 1.9 master cyclinder to go on. So put it all on fine then tried to bleed it, bleed it again, bleed it some more, then again and a bit more. I must of said the word up and down thousands of times that day. Turned out to be a siezed master cyclinder. Finished about 9.30pm, the day before I moved out a few hundred miles away just when I finished it my mate rocks up and said 'told you to only buy new hydraulic/fluid parts' know it all!

[Alan_M 66 1 Cars]

Thought of few more!

 

Was working on the front brakes and decided the car was better in the garage. So, off I drove the handful of yards to the garage forgetting by brakes were totally inoperative. Hence, why a GTi shaped bumper imprint on my neighbours garage door.

 

Another time, I'd replaced the fuel filter and it pissed petrol everywhere, before I gingerly turned then engine off.

 

Oh, and Anthony will know this one. In deepest Luxembourg, smoke coming through the vents and filling the car. Dino, who was behind me, backed right off thinking the worst. Turned out the alternator bolt had worked loose letting the belt rub against the chassis leg.

[GLPoomobile 958]

using a screwdriver and a hammer to remove bushes from rear beam... resulting with screwdriver handle embedded in hand. OUCH!!!!!

 

For me it doesn't go down as a worst moment, but removing the beam bushes is certainly the worst job I've ever tackled and don't ever wish to repeat it

[Anthony 1,002]

Oh, and Anthony will know this one. In deepest Luxembourg, smoke coming through the vents and filling the car. Dino, who was behind me, backed right off thinking the worst. Turned out the alternator bolt had worked loose letting the belt rub against the chassis leg.

I remember it well. According to Dino, he's never seen someone jump out of a car as fast as I did that day with fire extinguisher in hand...

[Paul_13 212 1 Cars]

I forgot about this one.

 

I was changing the fuel filter on my neighbours Omega, car wasn't jacked up so I was crammed between the bumper and floor.

 

Plan was to pull the hose off and point away from me.

 

At the moment of pulling it off my mate rings me, makes me jump and the petrol blasted full pelt at my face and in my eyes.

 

Screaming in agony I moved out from under the car as quick as I could smashing my head on the exhaust on the way out.

 

Ran back to my house blind trying to open the electronic gate with the fob, then spent the next half hour washing my face with water.

 

My face had gone red raw, eyes stinging like fook.

 

I rang my mate back up and called him all the c*nts under the sun, then laughed about the whole ordeal afterwards

[harryskid 193]

I once found out anti freeze was inflamable when in the dark i took the rad cap off to check the level using a lit match to see. Flames shot up off the surface of the coolant and i have never blown so hard in my life to extingush them. I was very lucky and they went out but it was scarey.

[brumster 135 1 Cars]

Paul, I have to say mate, yours have had me grinning the most (and I am sorry about that, because none of them should be funny!)

[Sinbad 16]

Filling up a transfer box on a 4x4 at the garage i used to work at with a compressed oil filler.Filled to the brim then about half a pint went on my head/face in my hair the lot.

Didnt take no notice of the boss when he said not to build up the pressure too much before using it lol

Had to go to the shops to buy shampoo and a razor

 

Then probably trying to weld an exhaust downpipe up for a friend who was being a hobo not spending money,rusted monkey metal spits like a barsteward.Hate it!

Edited November 21, 2011 by Sinbad

[Paul_13 212 1 Cars]

Glad you find it funny... cos I do.

 

Another one.

 

Just changed a few bits on the car:

Hubs

Droplinks

Wishbone bushes

 

Just about to finish putting the last wishbone in and the polybushes I was trying out was too wide.

 

Got the hacksaw to trim it down, admittedly rushing it as I needed the car to get to work next morning.

 

Cutting a sliver off the bushe and slipped, sawed straight into my index finger between both knuckles at full whack.

 

Obviously needed stitching up as I could see the flesh underneath and was an inch long.

 

I was only three bolts away from putting the wishbones on so carried on.

The blood pouring over my hand/drive/tools was too much, so I got some tissue and a roll of duct tape.

 

Wrapped it real tight so my finger was going purple and finished the car off.

[Tom Fenton 1,539]

Touch wood I don't think I have ever seriously injured myself working on cars. Yes like all of us I've had cuts and bruises etc.

 

I can recall a few epic sagas though, mainly from my Mini days.

 

-Last couple of days at uni before Xmas, I have a 1275cc engine lined up to go in my Mini that was 998cc. Day one goes well, engine out, prep work done, clutch swapped over, all looking good to put the engine in on day 2, so I retire pretty happy. Day 2, get up to 3 inch of snow on the ground, have to work outside, car is my only transport and must be finished to be able to get home. Was a VERY cold day, made worse by the mate who was helping me catching his AX GT on a post trying to get the jump leads onto the Mini to get it going. Was only made marginally better by the Mini putting out 2 ft flames on the way home from the motor club garages due to the carb not being set up right.

 

-Same Mini some time later, engine begins to lose oil pressure and knock. Cannot really afford to have it out of action for long, so I get another crank ready, all bearings, new oil pump, all gaskets all ready. Decide this is a good opportunity to get a different cam in it for some more oomph. Start it Friday night, get the engine out and partially stripped. Saturday morning clean all the galleries, build it back up with the replacement crank and bearings. New cam in. Get it built and back in the car. Get oil pressure up, but then cannot get it to fire for love nor money. Convinced it is something we have done, we spend hours checking and re checking cam timing, ignition timing, you name it. Sunday morning carry on, end up towing it round the village through the fun run happening at the time behind Eds dads Landcruiser Amazon trying to tow the damn thing off, it still won't have it.

In the end we find out the coil that was previously working a treat, has packed in whilst the engine was in bits.

[Paul_13 212 1 Cars]

On the way back from college 5 year ago with a few mates, we took the back road through some woods to dodge the traffic.

 

Got a puncture on the rear tyre, got a spare but no jack! No AA cover at the time so a bit screwed.

 

I start undoing the spare wheel using a lighter and my mates wondered off. After 5 minutes and thinking where the f*** have they gone, they return with biggest tree trunk known to man.

 

Lifted the rear wheel arch so the wheel came off the floor, while my mates shoved the tree trunk under the sill. Changed the wheel, lifted the car back off and moved the trunk out the way. Jobs a good'un!

 

Lucky it was a trio sx, nice and light!

[m_attt 31 1 Cars]

nice, talking about lifting 205's had car full of mates going to a function or someting, we were allready late and the only space for some distance was about a foot bigger than the car, so i drove the front in as best as i could then we picked up the back and walked it round into the space

[Paul_13 212 1 Cars]

Another one that made me laugh. (Bit OT)

 

Basically I had parked up to ring a mate, bit dark outside. Went to reverse and leave but spun the wheel full lock and reversed rather fast.

Next thing the front end was rising up, there's me trying to floor it away in 1st, 2nd 3rd.

 

Ended up in a ditch like so...

 

 

 

The car was literally sat at a 45' angle and 45' upwards. I couldn't help but laugh!

 

After being stranded for about 3 hours and phoning all the options I had (to no avail) and AA being f***ing useless) some kind bloke turns up in a Ford Fiesta and asks if i'm alright?! Well no i'm not.

 

He works in a garage so he's offered to go back and get a tow truck, but returns with a tow rope and his Fiesta.

 

He said he'll give it a go although there is no chance in hell it would budge my 306.

Tow rope taught and the Fiesta is trying to tow me out in reverse. Start to move.... YES! BANG! Nooooo... went further back into the ditch.

 

Got out to see what gave...

 

The whole front of the Fiesta had been ripped off front panel and all. The front had been crash repaired bodgely and had flown off taking the grille, headlights and bumper with it. I was pissing myself and the bloke took it rather well

 

He left, headlamps resting in place and bumper tied up using the tow rope.

 

 

Finally a mate rings back and says his dad can tow me out using his 4x4. He turns up with his son (a mate of mine) and 2 other of my mates. They get out and all 4 of them are crying with laughter so hard they can't speak.

Half hour later, car's out and no damage done, HURRAH!

[jason7579 5]

Disconnected one of the leads that goes to the distributor while I went on holiday for 2 and a half weeks, got back and the contacts looked a little bit rusty but thought I'd give it a go just to go and collect my bags a couple of miles away. Car started on the first turn of the key and drove to my sister in laws - when nearly there had a bit of a misfire but nothing to bad.

 

Packed all of the bags into the car and tried to start it up again with no joy, kept trying and started to hear a few pops and bangs. Thought I'd give it one more go before I gave it a rest and had a proper look at it all and BANG - it sounded like all of the fireworks I've ever heard rolled into one.

 

Cleaned up the leads, distributor cap, rotor arm etc. and the car started perfectly again. Sounded very boy racerish on the way home so decided to take the back box off to see if I could find the problem. It wasn't hard to see just what the problem was...

 

This exhaust was only about 18 months old at most...