DIY, shade tree mechanic that went south

[CourierDriver]

So, what have you done in the past or lately on your car or anything else to save money that wound up costing you more in the long run?

I tried changing shocks on the rear of an old car. Shocks were cheap and all was well. It was that piece of metal that fell off the shock mount that lodged in my eye and a 75 dollar trip to the eye doc to remove it was fun. so, 2 shocks at that time were 32 bucks, lol. a 105 dollar shock change out,lol

 

[bullwinkle]

I seem to recall trying to change a friend's upper ball joint in his Mustang II many years ago by using a cutting torch to get the rivets out-but made too big a hole in the process & had to put a control arm on it. Learning the hard way at (roughly) 19-20 years old.

 

[abycat]

When i was 16ish i went to change the rear drums and shoes on my old car. I jacked it up and put some stands under it. I got the rim off fine but the drum was on good so i started to yank on it and the stand that was sitting on gravel tipped over and my hand was trapped under the drum and on the gravel. Full weight of the corner was on my hand and i had to reposition the jack and jack it off my hand with my one free hand. I got it up and my hand free but it mangled 3 fingers and that sucked.

Nothing broken or permanent danage but man did that hurt. The brakes were not changed on that car for 3 months until my hand healed. Didnt go to the hospital but was useless for a while. Changed my safety proceedures after that.

 

[greenjp]

About 8 years ago the clutch on my 1992 Saturn SC went out. I already had it's replacement car for a while (2003 Saab 9-5 Aero) so a Saturn-owning colleague and I decided to try replacing it ourselves. Something went horribly awry when reassembling the housing and the whole thing cracked while we were tightening up the bolts. I think we didn't have the clutch disc aligned correctly on the splined shaft and the tightening of the bolts created a huge stress on the housing. Sent the no-longer-driveable SC off to the Kidney foundation I think. I really liked that car and it made for a great errand runner/beater, too bad.

jeff

 

[Sillicon]

Yikes...

 

[Kruse]

Originally Posted By: CourierDriver
So, what have you done in the past or lately on your car or anything else to save money that wound up costing you more in the long run?

I tried changing shocks on the rear of an old car. Shocks were cheap and all was well.


I had a nearly expensive "fix" several years ago. I was changing a left-rear shock on my Aerostar and salt and rust had made the lower bolt impossible to remove. Usually I'm an expert with a cutting torch, but this time I nicked the tube of the shock absorber and it shot out a pressurized stream of oil that turned into a two foot blowtorch. Of course, the blowtorch was pointing right beneath the gas tank. I quickly got a 5 gallon bucket of water (well, that probably took over a minute) and put out the fire, but it could have been much worse, including burning up my Aerostar and the wooden building that it was sitting in.
Now whenever I use a torch, I have several fire extinguishers and lots of water handy.

 

[Spazdog]

1979 Chevrolet Chevette.

Virtually the entire brake system was replaced before I realized that it was the flexible firewall that caused the spongey brake pedal.

 

[exranger06]

I was replacing the starter on my lawn tractor. I had to remove the dipstick tube first, so I plugged the hole with a paper towel to keep dirt and debris from getting into the engine. I installed the new starter, but wanted to test the starter before reinstalling the dipstick tube. So I cranked it over a few times, and I noticed the paper towel was gone. Turns out the gears inside the engine snagged it and sucked it INTO the engine. I spent the next few hours disassembling the tractor, taking the engine out, and manually picking little bits of paper towel out of the engine. It was so ridiculous and stupid I didn't know whether to laugh or cry.

 

[tommygunn]

Not me but I had a friend who went to the parts store, bought new spark plugs, threw them in, and...

He didn't compare them to his stock plugs at all. The were grotesquely over-length compared to the stock plugs. It cracked one piston and absolutely marred the [censored] out of the rest of them as the engine temporarily turned into a sledgehammer before stopping abruptly.

Single most expensive spark plug job I've ever seen. The car was an old beat up Honda that wasn't even worth fixing after that point.

 

[HerrStig]

Originally Posted By: Spazdog
1979 Chevrolet Chevette.

Virtually the entire brake system was replaced before I realized that it was the flexible firewall that caused the spongey brake pedal.


The kind of car that made GM the reputation it still has.

 

[jcwit]

Years ago I had an Opel GT that I had purchased new, it just didn't run right, misfired, stumbled, no power. I had taken it to the garage over and over time and time again.

Finally fixed it, took a sledge hammer to the engine and it never missed again, never stumbled again, and had absolutly NO power. It never ran again.

My fix was a New Corvette.

 

[UNC017]

My experiences like this usually have to do with home repair, not cars. My worst: replacing a $1.50 section of water pipe under the house, and while removing the bad section I torqued the main feed from the water meter and "found" a weak spot. Wound up renting a trencher and running a new pipe all the way from the meter to the house :-(

 

[apwillard1986]

Installed a transmission cooler once and neglected to double check the hose clamps… Lots of money and time wasted cleaning up that huge mess.

 

[Colt45ws]

I did the heads on my Dad's '99 F150 with the 4.2L V6. Well, I dont know if the intake somehow ended up crooked or what but coolant essentially just drained into the engine. I figured it out after I put coolant in it one day and the next day, with out it even being started, it was really low on coolant again. I pulled the drain plug and got an easy gallon, gallon and a half of coolant.
By the time he got around to fixing it, I was already back in Washington. The other person put new intake gaskets on it but the damage had already been done.
It spun a bearing shortly thereafter. He still has the truck. It sits in the backyard at his house collecting dust.

 

[ChiTDI]

Originally Posted By: HerrStig
Originally Posted By: Spazdog
1979 Chevrolet Chevette.

Virtually the entire brake system was replaced before I realized that it was the flexible firewall that caused the spongey brake pedal.


The kind of car that made GM the reputation it still has.


Vega

 

[dishdude]

Originally Posted By: ChiTDI
Originally Posted By: HerrStig
Originally Posted By: Spazdog
1979 Chevrolet Chevette.

Virtually the entire brake system was replaced before I realized that it was the flexible firewall that caused the spongey brake pedal.


The kind of car that made GM the reputation it still has.


Vega


Some how other manufacturers get a pass on their 1979 models.

 

[catilac]

I was changing the spark plugs in a 5.3L Tahoe this spring. I was able to remove all of the plug wires without any problems until I got to the back passenger side plug, where I pulled the wire out of the boot.

At that point I decided to go ahead and replace all of the plug wires but the other autos were all in use, so I drove the Tahoe the 3 or so miles to the parts store. On the way back the check engine light started flashing. Well sure it was, I was running on 7 cylinders.

I got everything back together, new plugs in, new wires on... but light stayed flashing. Unhooked the battery for 10 minutes, hooked it back up and drove it, it still flashed.

Called a buddy who is a GM field engineer and he told me that I had probably dumped enough raw fuel in 6 or 7 miles of driving into the catalytic converter that I had burned it up ($300+).

The next day the light went off and never came back on and it's been running fine since.

 

[abycat]

One more for ya. Cross threaded a sparkplug in the next car i got and said whatever. Started it up and blew the plug clean through the metal garage door. Dad almost killed me.

 

[kkreit01]

I haven't done major damage. Back when I was 20-something, was drilling a small hole in my trunk floor in order to mount a Bazooka subwoofer. When I pulled the drill out, I heard, "ppppssssssssssss". I drilled a hole through the sidewall of the temporary spare. Luckily a Firestone dealer had a take-off replacement they let me have for $50. A new one was >$90, and I would have had to wait for special order (also was taking a long road trip the next day).

I've broken a power mirror switch in the door panel -- while also performing audio upgrades.

I wasted $28 on a DIY tint kit (never will try that again).

Those were the worst.

 

[user52165]

Years ago, did an oil change on my 62 Buick (best car ever). Didn't notice that the gasket from the previous filter didn't come off with the filter. New filter installed and new oil. Didn't start engine as I usually do to test. This was all on a Sunday night. Monday morning have important meeting, had to be on time so I leave early with nice suit, tie and my finely serviced car. Start car, back out, and notice a trail of oil. Well if one gasket is good, two might be better...........NOT! Call the boss, I will be late, ugh.

Moral - I always make sure old gasket comes off, and always start car after oil change. Also, when buying filters, always check to be sure gasket is present - I have seen filters with them missing.