Did I really do that? OOPs we have done with our vehicles over time ......

y_p_w said:
I remember the first time I ever did an oil change. It was when I was in college and it was the car that my parents bought for me to drive. Never done it before and I bought an oil filter, gaskets, and everything. Drained the oil, and then realized I didn’t buy any oil and didn’t know how to remove the filter. So I ended up pouring the used oil back in so I could drive it to get everything I needed.
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This reminds me of when I adopted my dog in 2003. My buddy gave me a crate, so that was ready at home along with bowls and a bed. On the way back from the pspca, I realized we needed to stop somewhere and buy some food…..
 
John105 said:
This reminds me of when I adopted my dog in 2003. My buddy gave me a crate, so that was ready at home along with bowls and a bed. On the way back from the pspca, I realized we needed to stop somewhere and buy some food…..
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I’d never seen my dad ever change the oil. He would take it for oil changes. But we had oil in the garage, but usually just a can or two where he might top off for the inevitable oil loss in our 70s/80s era GM vehicles.
 
Ordered right and left front calipers for my Echo and it didn't sink in when i was swapping them. Managed to get one on and started the other side before i had my revelation.
 
Pushed the pedal with the pads out during a brake change on the Evo. That turned into a long 2 days.
 
I almost did an oops. I wasn't watching the level when pouring old oil back in and luckily it stopped right at the top. Now to find where I put the cap...


PXL_20230529_194349898.jpg
 
This was not me, but an employee of mine, still makes me laugh to this day though.
He asks his wife if she is okay driving his pickup for the day, so he can do some maintenance on her car. His wife says yes thats fine, so he takes the wifes car to the parts store and gets a bunch of stuff for it, brakes, oil, etc.
Its a beautiful day out so he parks in the driveway to enjoy the sun, jacks it up, removed the wheels and drain plug, and begins the maintenance.
A while later his wife comes out and is going to leave with their 2 kids to go get hair cuts, buy back to school clothes and stuff. She has his keys and says goodbye to him.
Then she realizes that her now apart car is in the driveway, on his side, thus blocking his truck in.
He automatically pulled up on his side of the driveway out of habit.
After some thought, he used the floor jack, and with his wife and kids help, they slowly got his pickup to the wifes side of the garage a bit at a time, and off she went.
Well come monday morning and he is telling us all about his weekend car work, we all had a great laugh.
 
CanAmAndMore said:
This was not me, but an employee of mine, still makes me laugh to this day though.
He asks his wife if she is okay driving his pickup for the day, so he can do some maintenance on her car. His wife says yes thats fine, so he takes the wifes car to the parts store and gets a bunch of stuff for it, brakes, oil, etc.
Its a beautiful day out so he parks in the driveway to enjoy the sun, jacks it up, removed the wheels and drain plug, and begins the maintenance.
A while later his wife comes out and is going to leave with their 2 kids to go get hair cuts, buy back to school clothes and stuff. She has his keys and says goodbye to him.
Then she realizes that her now apart car is in the driveway, on his side, thus blocking his truck in.
He automatically pulled up on his side of the driveway out of habit.
After some thought, he used the floor jack, and with his wife and kids help, they slowly got his pickup to the wifes side of the garage a bit at a time, and off she went.
Well come monday morning and he is telling us all about his weekend car work, we all had a great laugh.
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LOL - They always said: Where there is a will, there is a way!" I have to confess, over the years in my younger days we actually built and devised some way out (far too dangerous) things to lift vehicles or boats n trailers to work under since we had no access to any real/safe lifts. Some really wild and dangerous things that could have killed us. God protects the young and foolish I always heard. May be true!
 
Dad had a 1972 Ford Galaxie 500 with the 351W. 15 year old me wanted to do an oil change and we had steel ramps to let me do this in the rear driveway. Hassle getting this thing up those steel ramps but did it. Drain oil and remove filter, no problem. New Ph8A installed, next I needed to get oil into the engine....but with the front end up so high on the ramps...I couldn't reach the fill hole? So I decided to drive the car backwards off the ramps and finish the work. It started and ran and into reverse, roll down the ramps and I noticed the engine was maybe a bit louder than before? why would that happen?

Forgot to put oil in before the ramp down! Good deal my dad wasn't there to witness, but I never let myself forget.
 
I bought a Mean Green alternator and the 6.7 starter (huge upgrade) for my Super Duty with a 6.0L. Saturday I went to go at least put the alternator in. On the 6.0 diesel there is a little tab on the belt tensioner that will let you lock it in place and then flip the tab to reset everything. I did the tab thing and swapped the alternator. Checked to make sure the belt was all lined up and released the tab only to have the belt slip off and get caught sideways in one of the tensioner pulleys. Of course the pulley cut into the belt. Went and ordered a new belt, tensioner and idlers since the smooth idler had weird spots on it. Anyone that has done a belt on these knows it isn't fun at all. I was telling our diesel guys at work and they first laughed at me and then offered to help, but said I could do it they have faith in me.
 
For me it was being tired in the evening and stopping an oil change mid way to eat dinner.I didn't put the drain bolt back in after changing the filter. I was the type to let it drain until the oil would only drip once every few seconds so i still had the drain pan underneath thankfully. When i came back i forgot about the bolt and poured the whole jug in then checked the stick and saw that it was dry. I took a pause and saw that the pan wasn't in sight so i quickly got down and checked underneath and saw oil draining into the pan. Thankfully it did not overfill and spill out but i now had half used and new oil. I didn't have another jug and i decided that half good and half bad means half use so i poured half the mix back in the engine and the other half into the jug and used both for about 2500 miles since I'd do 5k with that conventional back then.
 
I put coolant into the brake reservoir once.... I was topping both up at once and... Caught it right away and pumped out and refilled the reservoir with brake fluid a couple times and it seems to be fine now years later.
 
This thread is reminding me of some of the stupid things I’ve done(no shortage of them).

I’m sure someone else has done this? Pouring oil into my truck after draining it and I can hear something dripping on the floor. Then it hits me instantly, forgot to put a new filter on 🤦‍♂️
 
I had never done a brake job before and for some reason I thought you could just pop the old pads off and snap the new ones in place . Obviously it didn't work that way ...
 
nomas said:
I had never done a brake job before and for some reason I thought you could just pop the old pads off and snap the new ones in place . Obviously it didn't work that way ...
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Some people including me, don't like the brake fluid to get too low. It goes down as the pads get thinner, and the pistons extend. Even many shops top it to the full mark rather than have it be low, as one never wants it to drop below MIN, when air could get in.

So on the contrary, one has to remember to take some fluid out, when compressing the pistons, to make room for new pads, which are fatter....if forgotten, it spills out....

Long ago, I helped a friend do his porsche, and I used a screwdriver to compress a piston (one of those 4 piston jobs in the 80's), and my checkbook to get him a $800 replacement

edit this is amazing, 35 years later, and the caliper is no more expensive from an absolute standpoint. With inflation, much cheaper. Although the rotors will set one back way more than a BMW or Mercedes would ($475 sell, $743 list lol)

2012-2019 Porsche Disc Brake Caliper 991-351-424-15 | Gaudin Porsche Parts

2012-2019 Porsche part # 991-351-424-15 - Disc Brake Caliper
www.gaudinporscheparts.com www.gaudinporscheparts.com
 
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On one of my old cars I was doing an oil change. Oil drained? Check. New filter installed? Check. ready for fill. So I fill it up with 5 qts of new oil. Wait a minute or two and pull the dipstick....Empty. I look under the car, and the 6 qt oil pan has 10 quarts of oil in it. That was a long walk to my house to borrow my stepdads truck and go get more oil. Lessons learned.
 
vpr5703 said:
On one of my old cars I was doing an oil change. Oil drained? Check. New filter installed? Check. ready for fill. So I fill it up with 5 qts of new oil. Wait a minute or two and pull the dipstick....Empty. I look under the car, and the 6 qt oil pan has 10 quarts of oil in it. That was a long walk to my house to borrow my stepdads truck and go get more oil. Lessons learned.
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I did almost the same thing except I had pulled the drain pan out..My Audi S4 normally holds seven quarts of oil. This time it pissed it all out on the driveway.
 
Chris142 said:
30+ years ago I had a 340 Plymouth duster. Driving on the hwy the lifters got noisy. Pulled over and no oil on the stick. Got to a gas station and oil was $4 a qt!

No way I was got to pay that price! I tried to baby it home.
..didn't make it... Threw a rod.
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I woulda done the same. Frugal minds think alike! 😂
 
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