stupid things you have done to your car

[davem]

This thread makes me lawl.

[James Crivellone]

Lets see

1) Didn't check valve/piston clearances on M20 with 284/272 cam, bent all 6 valve guides and dinged 4 conrod bearings.. that became a 2.8L
2) 1 week into E30 Ownership, thought C101 was the diagnostic plug, went to reset the S.I. lights, fried the coil power lead and destroyed the engine harness
3) First ever M50 swap, got one wire color backwards, sent +12v into the RX signal wire on the ECU, fucker smoked GOOD, bought a new ECU after that
4) Forgot to plug in brake lining sensor in the rear, harness wrapped around the axle and YOINK
5) Many cases of putting interior parts in the wrong way (in my early years) and having to take it all apart)
6) Forgetting to tighten the intermediate shaft pully, having a friend put the entire motor together as a surprise...and ripping it all apart again.

Thats just a few, I've been doing this shit too long

[BUDNUNTA]

The last stupid thing was selling my 1986 325es, just had done a full rebuild /cry

Ahh I did the same thing
Now I have 2 318is and all I want is an early model like I had


Ive had those halfshaft bolts come loose on me before

Live and learn




Hunter

[Strelok]

Attempted to reinstall my OBC from behind without removing the HVAC panel. Lost all four screws AND the screwdriver in the depths back there. My OBC is till flopping in the breeze...

[ForcedFirebird]

Two things with the e30.

1. Swapped the ground for the power lead when doing the Motronic 1.3 upgrade = smoking hot car (literally).

2. After the 1.3 and 885 top end was in, took it hood-less to my friend's shop for our weekly meet, having a blast driving my eta in excess of 100mph in 3rd on the highway and saw something fly out of the hood - it was my mint and perfectly clear fuse box cover :(

[Ryan...]

I pulled the radio out of my m3 while i was sitting in line at Burger King. My car was off, battery connected, and when i went to turn it, nothing. I had to wait 15 minutes for the immobilizer to let me restart the car.Held up like 5 cars..

[Brian 89 325i]

Two things with the e30.

2. After the 1.3 and 885 top end was in, took it hood-less to my friend's shop for our weekly meet, having a blast driving my eta in excess of 100mph in 3rd on the highway and saw something fly out of the hood - it was my mint and perfectly clear fuse box cover :(

HA HA, I did that same thing.

Lets see here....put rear wheel bearings in wrong....twice.
Left oil cap off, went for long, stinky drive.

Forgot to tighten diff mounting bolts all the way, it clunked a lot for a while, then I figured it out lol

On my MKIII I left a socket & rachet attached to the crank pully bolt, after doing my T-Belt. Then i gave her a test start.....it all came back apart, FAST!!!

Im sure I've done lots of dumb shit tho, I've been around a while now...

Brian

[Beach Bum]

Was diagnosing a shifter problem on my 318 after lowering it back on the ground. I was able to slip under the car when I hadn't been able to before. I chalked it up to the fact that the car was over a dip in the yard.

It wasn't.

I asked my GF to drop the e-brake and the car settled on my chest. Luckily, GF got the message real quick when she felt the car drop and I started pounding on the underside of the car. She jacked that car up in about 20 seconds. Lesson learned.

Fried a perfect pair of stock radios by switching ground and power on the 318. Note, pair. I did it twice. Learned to label all wiring and draw diagrams when disassembling the car.

Started the car with the valve cover off. Very messy.

The only thing I've done with the 89 (knock on wood) is mess up the clutch switch wiring when I was trying to find the wires for the reverse light switch (car is an auto-manual swap). Wired everything back up the way it was. I need a more detailed wiring diagram for this damn thing...

[e30_yuton]

The night i just picked up my diff i left it in the trunk thinking it was heavy enough to sit there and too dirty to be kept inside the car. On the way home i was feeling pretty G and took a hard right and i heard a big thump coming from the back but i thought nothing of it cause i just thought the diff rolled over on its side...instead the diff rolled all the way to left and left a big reverse ding on my panel. Didnt notice til a few days later when i was washing the car. ooh. fuck me.

[mamzak]

I left the oil cap off the engine, and drove to work, and then to lunch, and then to my other house. Somehow I didn't lose that much oil, but it made a damn mess, and I had to buy a new oil cap.

I've also left a wrench on the crank numerous times after doing a valve adjustment and then went to start the car. No damage so far. ;)

Did this as well, didn't lose a whole lot of oil either, but I drove 70km's on the highway without the oil cap.


I also hooked up my battery backwards because my positive cable is black for some reason and fried my alternator.


Fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu

[Dj Buttchug]

managed to make a dumbass move recently and slowely push my car back with the drivers side door open. not paying attention the door caught the bumper of my dd and put a fat ass dent in my car. time to call the pdr guys FUUUUUUUUUUUu

[StereoInstaller1]

That's hilarious.

The whole rest of the world thinks it is funny...but for me, not so much.

[hurttech]

I also hooked up my battery backwards because my positive cable is black for some reason and fried my alternator.


Fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu

Did this one, also cooked the alt. My positive cable is black and negative is red, ugh.

[!kid]

i let my friend convince me to paint my engine bay orange :(

[crm103]

Lets see, I haven't owned my E30 long enough yet to do anyting stupid. I'm sure the day will come soon enough.
However on my VW,
1. after rebuilding the engine, mixed up the wires for my petronix to the coil. That fried that.
2. Forgot to unhook the battery before removing the alternator, that led to a nice shock.
3. Ripping the exhaust off many times (dirt roads and lowered bugs don't mix)
4. After installing the engine back into the car, trying to start with with out the coil wire hooked up led to many hrs of cussing and trouble shooting.
5. forgetting to torque down lug nuts...nuff said there
6. after bleeding brakes, not tightening down the bleeder valve.. this leads to a very scary moment when your traveling about 30 mph.
the list goes on.. but those are about some of the stupidest things i've done so far, i'm sure i'll remember more later on