Human Error

It wasn’t me, but it was my friend/mechanic who forgot to tighten or install some bolts into the wheel hub/suspension. I turn the wheel all the way to get out of the drive way only to have the wheel tilt just enough to tear the axle out of the transmission.
For the record, if you have a 98 eagle talon AWD, don’t get a remanufactured axle – go with a Raxle Axle (raxle.com). I went through three different axles of two reman’d brands only to call raxle and find out its a common problem – most reman’d axles for the 2G DSM (eclipse and talon) are about a half inch too short. I confirmed it when I got the Raxle and never had a problem after that!

Back in HS Dad had an ’80 Citation with a flaky neutral safety switch. Sometimes it just wouldn’t crank. One way to get it running was to use a screwdriver to jump across the starter. So, there I am in the driveway with my arm in behind the radiator up to my armpit, jumping across the starer. The car fires to life – but I had left it in gear. Thankfully it was reverse so it didn’t try to run over me. It loped down the driveway as I ran to jump in. I got in and managed to bring it to a halt in the neighbor’s yard across the street. Missed their mailbox by a few feet.

Gee which stupid thing to mention first.
The whole do a quick oil change and forget to put the filter back on the car before starting it. Wonder to myself what the hell that weird gluging noise is and open door and step into the puddle of oil that car is happily pumping over the engine bay.
Same car, its bonnet opened forward. I had it off to do some work and put it back on. I forgot to put the circlips back on the bonnet hinge pins. They vibrated loose while I was driving, trying to impress my passenger. Suddenly all I saw was red (the car was red) and then the bonnet latch let go and bonnet sailed over the top of the car and landed behind it. Drove round for two weeks with no bonnet after that till I got another bonnet and some hinges. It rained the whole time too.

Hey, no problem Steve! I’m all for resurrecting long-forgotten childhood trauma

When I was 16 the first time my dad let me use the car to pick up and take home my girlfriend. Well the pick up part went just fine, however when it was time to take her home….. We went out to the garage and got into the car, going through all this “pre-drive” things in my head started up the car and backed out of garage. Only one small detail was over looked. I for got to hit the button to open the garage door! I busted the door, put a nice dent / scratch combo in the deck lid of the car was well. I was so embarassed and scared as the same time. Thanks Jen I hadn’t thought about that in a LONG time.

Uhhh, something stupid. Hold on still thinking… uhhhmmmm. 17 cars, 20 years, there must be something….thousands of services at a quik lube as a pitman, aircraft mechanic life or death,f16 18 a10, kc 10 135, c141, and more than I can’t remember.. tractor trailer servicings, and ambulances, police cars.. dirtbikes, 3 wheelers and atvs. a 68 snojet skimobile with a 440 kawasaki bolted in by my own means, then drove it for 80miles round trip by myself apely confident below zero F. Welded that old subew that bent in half, then did the same for a caved in corsica..then put them on the road legally. there has GOT to be something.. uh oh. Haven’t done anything stupid in a car truck or plane snowmobile atv or dirtbike ever. did hop on a train when I was 13 once as it climbed to 70mph. I need a job, who is hiring? I can’t wait to do something stupid!

Just two days ago a almost parked into my garage with my trunk open. I got the car in front of the garage, took some shit out of the trunk, and started to drive in. Not a problem otherwise, but since it’s a hatchback and the hatch was open, it would’ve caused a lot of damage.

My neighbor was in his garage close by, noticed and whistled, but I had my system cranked up, so I heard nothing. Luckily my neighbor is a pretty fast runner and he got to my car before the hatch hit the ceiling of the garage. Good save.

I felt pretty stupid, since it was freezing outside at the moment, and my car being cold inside, at the latest, should’ve alerted me that the hatch was open.

The first day I got my freshly restored 1967 Impala home, when I was 16, I took it out for a spin. The second time it left my driveway, I drove past my neighbor who was out mowing his lawn. I was so proud of my car that I wanted to make sure he saw that it was me since he knew what it looked like before the project started. I stuck my arm out the window, looked over, and waved at him. As I passed he smiled and waved back then stopped and had an odd look on my face. I looked back in front of me and saw two mailboxes right in front of me. I had somehow managed to go all the way across the road onto the left shoulder into someone’s yard and mowed down the mailboxes. I stopped just in time from going into a drainage ditch.
I was beside myself and to this day, almost exactly 13 years later, it remains one of the most painful experiences of my life.

Follow the link to my ride page to see my Impala.

I bought a stock ’93 Ford Probe, THEN did the research on it.

I dreaded what I thought might happen before it did happen only a couple months later… the CD4E transmission failed.
-
93 Ford Probe: $2300
Trading in a 93 Ford Probe with a bad tranny: +$400
Learning to look before I leap: $1900

Okay, not in a car, but working on one. I was down at the shop where I used to work on a Sunday just past noon. The owners of the shop were pretty cool about employees using the shop during off hours from time to time. I took advantage of this A LOT more than my co-workers, almost to the point of abuse. Anyway, I had an S-10 torn down to nothing out in the parking lot. I was in the process of sanding and cleaning it for paint. I had opened the last garage bay earlier in the day, and ran back there to hop in the fork lift. (I was going to flip the frame over to get the underside cleaned up.) I hopped into the fork lift, fired her up, and shot out to continue my work. WHAM!!! WTF was THAT?!?!? When I had opened the garage door earlier in the day, I hadn’t made sure it was all the way open. When I drove through the opening, the mast of the fork lift took out the three lowest pannels of the garage door. The rest of my day was shot realigning the door so that it would close and lock until it could be repaired properly. The following morning, I got to break the news to my boss, who was surprizingly cool about the whole situation. I did however take my project home and never set foot in the shop after hours again.

Well..that is pretty stuipid…like the other day i was moving a truck off of one of those “table” lifts and i didnt remove the chucked wheel…damn its loud when it falls…