The Minor Details: Simple Mistakes That Give You That AH HA! Moment

[Mike C.]

Tonight, not double checking my work finally bit me in the rear.

A week or so ago, I installed a new lower temp otterstat, tightened down my clamps, double checked for leaks, took it for a spin around the block. PERFECT. No issue.

Tonight, I decided to take the car out since I detailed it for the British car show tomorrow in Boca, and wanted to fuel up and put air in the tires. Well for fun, lets hear the fans come on!

So I got home, parked, and waited.


And waited.



And waited some more.


I looked at my temp gauge, and she's creeping up to 220 degrees... yet no fan. WTF?

So I waited for the car to cool down so I could re-check. Come to find out in my rush to make sure my clamps were all turned where I wanted them, all the water leak areas were bone dry, and everything was wiped down, I had forgotten one minor detail: You have to plug in the otterstat for it to work. Sigh.


You have to love the little things.... :swear1::icon_smile_duh:

[opethmike]

Hah, I know exactly how you feel. I spent an hour and a half on Thursday night trying to diagnose why my car wouldn't start after re-assembling the top end, and it turned out to simply be that the distributor cap was on backwards.

[Michael]

Hey, look at the bright side, you caught it! Imagine rolling in the car show tomorrow, all eyes on you, and everyone wondering "how did he get the BTTF smoke effects?"

If only all car overheating problems were so easy to correct.

[AdmiralSenn]

Oh man, I've got a ton of these.

A similar silly mistake - forgot to tighten one of the outboard clamps on the water pump hoses. Couldn't figure out where the coolant was coming from.

Car stalled on me on a busy road, refused to restart - which was VERY weird since she always starts fine. Shortly afterwards I discover that I used a T-splice connector to power my entire ECU setup. Why, I'll never know. I just finished replacing it with a proper soldered in connector.

Whatever mistake I made that led to the fire....

Once I spent a few months with everyone on the old .com site helping me figure out a no start. After replacing most of the ignition and fuel systems I found a disconnected wire on the Aux relay. :blush:

I jumpered the cabin fan to run in speed 4 to test something and then forgot about it. Spent an hour trying to figure out what was wrong with the speed switch.

Those are all the major ones that come to mind. My ownership experience has mostly been defined by stupid mistakes on my part that made the car undriveable.

[Spittybug]

This thread is going to start reading like a confessional....

Putting the last screw back into the rear of the center console plate that has the shift boot in it. OOOps, the big wire harness was under the little "mounting bridge", not on the side. Guess what happens when a metal screw pierces a wire bundle containing hot and ground wires?
Leaving a 13mm wrench on the engine after working on it and driving away. Humm, what's that squeal? FYI, fan belt vs. wrench, fan belt wins.
Pushing the high tension lead down on the coil... found out that a good, new boot will actually hold air and pop itself off. Burp it and it stays put. Car runs after that.

Probably dozens more, I'm just too embarrassed.

[Michael]

Well since this is honest time, when changing the alternator, after making sure it was all snug and belt tension was right, I cranked it up. GRRRRRAAAAAATTTTTTTEEEEEEEE!!!!

I somehow caught the belt on a muffler bracket bolt....essentially making the bolt a very ineffective pulley. It sure looked right when I glanced at the belt. I was wondering why the alternator need so much less room on the bracket.:huh:

[DMCMW Dave]

Nothing smells quite like a craftsman screwdriver melting onto the muffler.

[sdg3205]

Me - "I can tell which ignition wire goes to which plug based on length. Why does my car run like shit?"

[jawn101]

Had replaced the TABs the week before, and then worked on the taillights/rear fascia later. Went for a drive afterwards and heard a horrible clunking from the rear end. Spent the better part of a day re-examining the new TABs, worried that I had done something wrong and the car was unsafe. Eventually realized I couldn't find my shop light... and then located it inside the fascia, behind the taillight assembly... rolling around...

[dvonk]

replaced the pads and rotors on my girlfriend's car... tightened the passenger side lug nuts down properly but only finger-tightened the driver's side.

"why is the driver's side wheel clunking when im driving 60mph on the interstate?" :eek5:

luckily i was the one driving and was paying attention to the noises. jacked up the car in a parking lot and made sure BOTH sides were properly tightened... :facepalm:

[Farrar]

I think it was Martin in the UK who mentioned once on the old .com site that someone once tore down and rebuilt his entire front suspension after hearing a "thump" while cornering, only to find the sound was still there: someone had left a golf ball in the glove box.

[dvonk]

http://saptstrength.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/8e634c2b_homer-doh.jpg

[AdmiralSenn]

Oh, or the time I unplugged the fan relay to move the relay strip and then never plugged it back in, and spent an hour diagnosing the fan circuit when I got home after seeing the temp gauge climb up to 220.

..... That time being this afternoon.

[DMC5180]

Not me. But I know someone who had the misfortune of putting his transmission together and ended up with 5 reverse and 1 forward speed. He followed the DMC service manual. Which uses the wrong assembly illustration for Ring gear position.

My confession .

Found a 8mm box end wrench I left on the Clutch slave Bleed screw several years earlier.

After a doing a tranny reinstall. I went to do the first start up. It cranked and cranked, UH OH :hmm: It was the one and only time it failed to start on me in all the years I'd owned it. It was my fault (I forgot to reinstall the coil wire too the distributor after clutch bleeding).

[dmc6960]

When this happens after you've finished changing the oil...

8559

No harm since I killed the engine right away, but still glad it wasn't the D. Turns out the old seal from the previous oil filter stuck to the engine, but I did not notice it. As I tightened the new one, the old one pushed to the side and left a gaping hole for all the oil to escape.

Brand new oil poured into engine, 5 quarts.
Brand new oil poured onto garage floor, 4.5 quarts.

[lazabby]

I'm surprised no one has changed their profile pictures before the confessional with one of themselves with a bag on their head.:lol:

[Ikeaboy1]

When this happens after you've finished changing the oil...

8559

No harm since I killed the engine right away, but still glad it wasn't the D. Turns out the old seal from the previous oil filter stuck to the engine, but I did not notice it. As I tightened the new one, the old one pushed to the side and left a gaping hole for all the oil to escape.

Brand new oil poured into engine, 5 quarts.
Brand new oil poured onto garage floor, 4.5 quarts.

This exact thing happened to me last year when changing the oil on my Jeep. Luckily I lost only maybe 1/8th of a quart(just enough to make a mess) before shutting her off and fixing the issue. Lesson learned, make sure that gasket comes off.