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

SammyChevelleTypeS3

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

Talking n thinking about all of this different grades has reminded me of what seemed insane at the time. When we first got our longest lasting car (kept for 18 years - daily driver service too) that wife drove to work all those years I did a bone headed stunt.
I was prepping for vacation that was going to be a 2800 to 3000 mi round trip in 2 weeks. - We were going to use the new 2002 Honda Accord that maybe had 6000 to 8000 mi on it at the time I did what I considered after the fact a real blunder. Too busy with all kind of
things I decided to have WalMart change the oil and balance + rotate tires. Got it done. Wrote it all down in my service record book etc...
So we go on the trip and I did kind of remarked , "we dont seem to be getting the awesome highway/cruise control mpg we had been used to since we got this car?" "It did feel a bit sluggish but we were driving all over in the mountains so I put it off to that.:rolleyes: Oh well. Got home and did what I have done since the early 80s after highway vacations - CHANGED the OIL. When I opened my service book , it hit me right away. Seemed that instead of using my usual Royal Purple 05w20 like I had been since new, I somehow asked them to give me an oil change of Royal Purple 20w50! What did that do? Not a thing I am aware of since we kept that Ever Ready Bunny of a car for another 17 years and only once did I have the valves adjusted when we did the water pump , all the belts n hoses mid way owning it. The only repairs I ever had to do on that car was swap out a radiator about a year before the wife finally gave it up for a trade in. I was using Royal Purple at the time as it was the big new deal at work that we switched to using on all the compressor and turbines etc... and extended all of our overhaul frequencies because when we opened the machines they were clean with like new bearings. So I was using it for 7500mi oci and was getting it for a discount from the salesman who sold it to us at work. So from 05w20 to 20w50 with only a noticed drop in mpg. Happy I did not damage something under warranty with that stunt.
 
If you went to Walmart, they don't have Royal Purple 20W-50 so they couldn't have put in RP 20W-50 because they don't have it. The only 20W-50 they carry is Castrol GTX, Supertech All Mileage, or Quaker State All Mileage. I don't think they carry any 20W-50 in the bulk, you'd have to buy it off the shelf and have them put it in from one of the three aforementioned options.
 
If you went to Walmart, they don't have Royal Purple 20W-50 so they couldn't have put in RP 20W-50 because they don't have it. The only 20W-50 they carry is Castrol GTX, Supertech All Mileage, or Quaker State All Mileage. I don't think they carry any 20W-50 in the bulk, you'd have to buy it off the shelf and have them put it in from one of the three aforementioned options.
This occured over 20 years ago and Royal Purple was everywhere then. It is actually getting harder to find on shelves these days. My Walmart only carries 0w20 and 5w20 these days. Anyway, I had 20w50 in the car for that trip. It was a mistake on my part. The way I discovered the screw up I made was when I saw the reciept I kept in the service book or I would not even have known. These days since I cant do my own work any longer I often bring my own filter and oil in the trunk and they only charge me about $25 to change it out and I watch them at places I go to when my nephew cant do it for me.
 
Grabbed a wrong container years ago. Started to refill my windshield washer tank with antifreeze. Had to drain and refill the tank, but I caught the mistake.
I accidentally poured a little used ATF in the washer tank on a car, I didn't take the washer fluid label off and the darker color looked similar enough to the winter washer fluid, I noticed after I poured maybe half an ounce in, I filled the reservoir the rest of the way up and skimmed out the ATF with paper towels since it floats to the top.
 
Forgot this one I was not responsible for. When I went take delivery of wife's 2018 Honda Accord the tire pressure light was on. I told them I am not taking this car until one of your guys whose job it is to prep cars for delivery does what ever needs to be done to clear light. They took it around back and came back with light off. I drove about halfway of the 45 - 50 miles home with it handling like an army tank. I was mad as hell thinking .... (edit - MOD) is going on and then the light came back on. I turned and brought it back. Turns out I was told that a new employee had added air to the tune of almost 80psi in one tire and any where from 45 to 60psi in the others. Finally took the car and drove home without issue and no warning light.
 
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I was working on the farm and was filling the gas tank on a custom-built self-propelled grain loader. This was actually one you could drive on the road.

It seemed like it was taking longer than usual to fill and then I suddenly realized I was putting gas in the large hydraulic oil tank. That was about a $400 mistake…luckily I hadn’t used the hydraulics so we could just drain the tank and refill with new fluid, which was the main cost for this mistake.
 
I once, (repeat ONCE), did an oil change in the garage some years back on my truck. I was in a hurry, and I got ahead of myself cleaning up, and backed over the full drain pan with the right front tire. The mess was monumental! 6 quarts of hot 10W-40 everywhere. And a completely flattened drain pan.

Now I don't move the vehicle until I empty the drain pan into my 5 gallon container, and make sure NOTHING is underneath the car.
 
I'm sure there's a few but the one that sticks in my mind was me trying to remove a wheel from my Wife's Mondeo ST220 without jacking the car up.

Not quite sure what was going through my head. It was late one evening after a long day in work and my Wife had complained about a noise from the rear N/S wheel. I put the jack under the car and went to loosen off the wheel nuts before jacking it up. But for some reason I just removed all the wheel nuts and just tugged on the wheel. Luckily my fingers weren't on top of the tyre. The car fell down and the top of the arch landed on the wheel. No damage done, somehow!
 
I'm sure there's a few but the one that sticks in my mind was me trying to remove a wheel from my Wife's Mondeo ST220 without jacking the car up.
🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣 I laugh WITH you, not at you, because I have done a few bone head things like that over my lifetime. Makes me sometimes wonder how we survive.

Hot, tired, exhausted - I once moved a broken aerial lift trailer with the boom up. Truck tires started spinning (transmission?). The boom caught a cable TV line and pulled a pole partially over. Almost soiled my pants. Pushed the pole vertical with my tractor loader, then finished the "did anyone see me" glance left/right.
 
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My first three vehicles were rear wheel drive. I’ll preface that.

When I went to jack up my wife’s Monte Carlo, I spaced on it being a front wheel drive car and didn’t set the emergency brake or chock the rear wheels.

Set the jack under the front cross member to lift her up and started pumping…rolled right off. Never making that mistake again.
 
Many years ago I had a 1980 Mercury Cougar which I inherited from my folks. Car was garbage and sullied the good Cougar name BTW. The first oil change I did on it, I used an oil change box to catch the oil. It was a cardboard box about the size of a normal catch pan. It was lined with a heavy duty plastic bag and filled with a paper/fibre filling to absorb the oil. When done just seal it up and toss it. Like I said this was probably in the late 1980's and recycling wasn't a "thing". Anyhow, I do my change and toss the box and done. Never checked the level because I put in the required 5 quarts so what is there to check. A couple weeks later, I did check and the level on the dipstick showed about 3 qts over-filled! What I was to discover was this car had two drain plugs because there was a cross member that ran right under the oil pan so they had to shape the pan so it went up and over the cross member making two drain plugs necessary. I never noticed the back plug and that was the one that released the majority of the oil. If I hadn't used that catch box, I certainly would have noticed that I only drained about two quarts. Never really saw any negative effects of driving it overfilled.
 
🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣 I laugh WITH you, not at you, because I have done a few bone head things like that over my lifetime. Makes me sometimes wonder how we survive.

Hot, tired, exhausted - I once moved a broken aerial lift trailer with the boom up. Truck tires started spinning (transmission?). The boom caught a cable TV line and pulled a pole partially over. Almost soiled my pants. Pushed the pole vertical with my tractor loader, then finished the "did anyone see me" glance left/right.
I have been caught by myself making that side to side glance thinking those same words. "did anyone see that!?"
 
Some of the best OOP's will not be posted here due to stupidity, lack of good judgement or common sense, or just plain being embarrassed at making a stupid mistake. I have done some really stupid ones including forgetting to install the drain plug and filling my 115 HP 4 stroke mercury with oil and five quarts went right on the front driveway of the house. I have done worse but not telling on this site, it's my own stupid secret since I am not a mechanic and am not immune to making poor judgements when working on vehicles. At the end of the day I am still money ahead hahaha.
 
I had that trouble getting the old license plate off my Lexus and my screwdriver slipped and gouged the bumper. The car is 17 yo so I didn’t seem to care even though it’s pretty mint maybe 2 tiny dings that were there when I got it.

If I had done that to my precious BMW (one year newer) I would have likely needed to see a psychiatrist 😂
 
I had a 1965 mustang which kept puking ATF all over my parents garage floor. I kept feeding it ATF for about a week and adding/tightening a new cork gasket every time until I gave up and took it to a shop.

Turned out that I got water in the transmission because I had traveled across a flooded section of roadway on the previous Friday night. The water level wasn't that high (I didn't get water inside the cabin) but apparently I got it in the transmission. Transmission guy said that once the transmission got hot enough the water would pressurize the system and cause the unit to puke fluid through the gasket at the trans pan. Who knows what was really causing it.
 
Grabbed a wrong container years ago. Started to refill my windshield washer tank with antifreeze. Had to drain and refill the tank, but I caught the mistake.

I did it the other way around, but just a little bit. Mentioned it on BITOG. What you did won’t damage a washer system per se. I poured a bit of methanol washer fluid in the coolant overflow tank.

I just did a normal coolant change later and didn’t worry about it,
 
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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