Mea culpa, I'm an idiot

[HawkeyeScott]

Did the dumbest thing I've done to a car in awhile. I went out this morning to pull a plug on the 2008 Suburban I bought last week. The idea was to check a plug to see if it was original. As suspected, it appeared to be the factory plug so I knew I needed to order a new set.

But, the sucker was very tight and I had to get a small pipe I use as my first-try cheater bar. After it broke loose, I laid the pipe up under the hood near the firewall on the driver's side. Then I checked the gap on the plug, blew it off and put it back in. Then...I closed the hood.

I went out later to look at something else (brake fluid condition) and noticed the pipe under the hood. Thought about how dumb I was to leave it there, grabbed it, and then closed the hood. Dumb but at least I found it before driving somewhere, right?

Then this afternoon, I noticed a new feature of the car: the hood rides about 1/4 in. too high on that side. Nothing I can do will bring it flush. It looks like I stretched the hinge. I've tried adjusting the one on there, but it won't come back down. So, I just ordered a new one for $36. I hope that fixes it but I've been angry with myself since I noticed it. It's been a long time since I've done something like that. Setting aside $36 from another part of the "fun" budget as penance.

 

[rubberchicken]

Well- it could have been worse- you could have left it in such a way that it put a ding in the hood itself. I have come very close on many occasions to doing that

 

[Tomioka]

I've always double checked for tools in the engine bay before slamming the hood. I'll be doing a complicated repair and I'll have tools on the windshield cowl, top of the radiator, sides of the fender mounts, etc so I'll double check. Having a tool cart helps keep track of tools but I'm so hardcore shadetree that I haven't used a tool cart in my many years of doing this.

 

[Linctex]

Are you sure the hinge mounting holes aren't slotted?

 

[CKN]

You get a pass-unlike car dealer's service departments here on BITOG.

 

[CharlieBauer]

Originally Posted By: CKN
You get a pass-unlike car dealer's service departments here on BITOG.


He's fixing it, not saying it was already like that.

 

[bioburner]

Could have been a worse scenario, hood latch letting the hood go when getting up to speed.

 

[64bawagon]

I had a nice little upwards dent in mine from a stray WD40 can that I left under the hood, the painless dent guy cleaned it up with the hail dents he fixed in 2015

 

[AirgunSavant]

We all do stupid sheet like that. I try to quad check everything as I want no surprises going forward.
Blow it off and move on

 

[SwampSurvivor]

Or the pipe getting stuck in the fan or something

 

[funflyer]

$36 is a cheap lesson learned. Having been an aircraft mechanic for over 32 years, I've seen tools left behind that cost millions in damage. Thankfully never a life lost.

 

[wtd]

Years ago I was checking the fuel pressure on my 98 K1500 while the truck was driving and I had the fuel pressure gauge taped to the windshield. Unfortunately for me I did not get the hood latched so that the secondary latch could keep it closed and my hood flew up going down the road and bent it back. It looked like I had messed up both hinges so I ordered new ones but I must have bent something else because to this day, my hood sits lower than the fenders near the windshield.

Wayne

 

[Virtus_Probi]

I popped the little protector for the positive terminal of my battery and the little nearby circuit board off to give somebody a jump a while ago and just closed the hood without putting it back in place. At least a week later it hit me out of the blue that I didn't remember putting that back on after the jump (funny how the mind works) and popped the hood to find it exactly where I left it...I was flabbergasted that it was not half melted over something important or knocking a critical hose off its mountings, something that would be my punishment for forgetting.

 

[HawkeyeScott]

That reminds me of a day about 15 years ago when a buddy's Jeep was down so I loaned him my old Grand Wagoneer. That meant quickly checking all the fluids and adding some oil (it had 163k) before I let him take it.

The next day, I figure out I'm missing my work issue cell phone. But instead of letting my boss know, I decide it'll just turn up. No need to clue him in on a situation I still hoped to solve. (I was 23.) The day after that, my boss walks in and hands me my cell phone, which someone had dropped off at our other office in the town 12 miles away. The same town where my buddy who borrowed the Wagoneer lived.

Apparently, I'd set the phone under the hood as I checked the fluids and added oil. Then I shut the hood. He drove it 12 miles before it fell out onto the street. I'd taped a business card to the case and the person who found it turned it in.

Boss just smiled and told me to try and keep better track of his phone.

 

[circuitsmith]

Many years ago I worked on a friends friends Maserati Biturbo.
Left a wrench under the hood and when I closed it it made a nice little bump.
I immediately imagined eating ramen noodles for the next year after paying to get it fixed,
but she (the owner) took it in stride because it was second hand and already had a few bumps and bruises.