I have 3 I'm going to humble myself in sharing, and maybe you can share yours as well for some education and good conversation.
1. I nearly lost EIGHT, yes EIGHT, fingers due to a stupid car design plus my stupidity. When I was a teenager, I was learning about cars and my mother got a new used car. I offered to do an oil change. I drove the car up on ramps and started the process. I opened the hood which was held up by hydraulic arms, removed oil cap, got under car and drained the oil. Then I realized the ONLY way to access the filter was thru the wheel well, with the wheel TURNED. So with the oil all drained, I didn't want to start the car so I opted to put in neutral and push down ramps. I put my hands on the exposed engine bay, and gave a good push and rode the car down the ramps as the jolt dropped the hood right onto my 8 fingers. I'm convinced the ONLY thing that saved my bruised fingers was the heavy pair of leather work gloves I miraculously had put on...
2. Last summer I did a spark plug change on my 4.0L Ford Explorer. I made 2 mistakes that probably damaged my manifold gasket that ultimately needed to be replaced. First mistake, is disconnecting ALL of the plug wires at the same time. Don't do that and if you must, label them. Second mistake, if you're not sure of the order, don't assume they are logical and sequential. This motor goes 1, 2, 3 on the passenger side, but 4, 6, 5 on the drivers side. I didn't expect that. When I turned it on, BANG. It misfired and caused an expensive repair.... So lesson is to do 1 plug/wire at a time. Or label them. Or if nothing else, double check the order.
3. I don't think this one was my fault, or at least shared fault with my sister. She had a cross country road trip coming up. I think an ex-boyfriend sabotaged her car, but here's the story. I knew she had a road trip and offered to change her oil. I did it correctly and installed a new pan gasket and tightened the bolt as usual. Her 10 year old son watched me to the oil change and confirmed this. She drove 1000 miles in one direction with no noticeable issues, drove around for a couple weeks, and then 500 miles back she lost all the oil in her engine and blew up her engine (I think the bolt was lost, but cannot remember). She blamed me, but I didn't think that was fair. I'm not entirely sure what caused it, perhaps a slow drip leak, perhaps it rattled out, or perhaps sabotage. But I felt she was at least partly to blame b/c any attentive driver would or should notice oil pools under the car, or a drop in pressure or performance before the engine is destroyed... I also believed that if it was in fact my mistake, a problem would have or should have arisen or been observed long before the ~1500 miles she drove over 2 weeks. But I'll never know the real cause. I did end up repaying her for the full value of the car, regardless. Anyway, the lesson here is to be mindful of such things.
What stories can you share?
1. I nearly lost EIGHT, yes EIGHT, fingers due to a stupid car design plus my stupidity. When I was a teenager, I was learning about cars and my mother got a new used car. I offered to do an oil change. I drove the car up on ramps and started the process. I opened the hood which was held up by hydraulic arms, removed oil cap, got under car and drained the oil. Then I realized the ONLY way to access the filter was thru the wheel well, with the wheel TURNED. So with the oil all drained, I didn't want to start the car so I opted to put in neutral and push down ramps. I put my hands on the exposed engine bay, and gave a good push and rode the car down the ramps as the jolt dropped the hood right onto my 8 fingers. I'm convinced the ONLY thing that saved my bruised fingers was the heavy pair of leather work gloves I miraculously had put on...
2. Last summer I did a spark plug change on my 4.0L Ford Explorer. I made 2 mistakes that probably damaged my manifold gasket that ultimately needed to be replaced. First mistake, is disconnecting ALL of the plug wires at the same time. Don't do that and if you must, label them. Second mistake, if you're not sure of the order, don't assume they are logical and sequential. This motor goes 1, 2, 3 on the passenger side, but 4, 6, 5 on the drivers side. I didn't expect that. When I turned it on, BANG. It misfired and caused an expensive repair.... So lesson is to do 1 plug/wire at a time. Or label them. Or if nothing else, double check the order.
3. I don't think this one was my fault, or at least shared fault with my sister. She had a cross country road trip coming up. I think an ex-boyfriend sabotaged her car, but here's the story. I knew she had a road trip and offered to change her oil. I did it correctly and installed a new pan gasket and tightened the bolt as usual. Her 10 year old son watched me to the oil change and confirmed this. She drove 1000 miles in one direction with no noticeable issues, drove around for a couple weeks, and then 500 miles back she lost all the oil in her engine and blew up her engine (I think the bolt was lost, but cannot remember). She blamed me, but I didn't think that was fair. I'm not entirely sure what caused it, perhaps a slow drip leak, perhaps it rattled out, or perhaps sabotage. But I felt she was at least partly to blame b/c any attentive driver would or should notice oil pools under the car, or a drop in pressure or performance before the engine is destroyed... I also believed that if it was in fact my mistake, a problem would have or should have arisen or been observed long before the ~1500 miles she drove over 2 weeks. But I'll never know the real cause. I did end up repaying her for the full value of the car, regardless. Anyway, the lesson here is to be mindful of such things.
What stories can you share?
