worst time you have had working on a car. - Tuner-Junction

Type_R_Mike · #1 (**permalink**) March 13th, 2006, 10:58 PM

worst time for me was trying to change a headgasket on a 1g eclipse in my gravel back yard, with basic sockets and wrenches. but i got it done tho!!

from inclimate weather to shitty cars, lets hear some!!

Johnlude85 · #2 (**permalink**) March 13th, 2006, 11:01 PM

hey how bout the time we tried gettin the engine running right in my garage in the middle of winter...wether in teh teens...propane heater (that never seemed to run out). good times good times.

scottigee · #3 (**permalink**) March 13th, 2006, 11:16 PM

Man, I think I've blocked most of them by now

I'd say the worst was when I was just starting out...putting some nice ricey white faced indiglos on my accord cluster. It takes like 3 hours to get to that cluster, and I had to take it out and put it back twice before i finally got it right. Unfortunately I had snapped the temp needle off and the tach was sticking something fierce

man I sucked.

Recently it's just been shit like stripping a motor mount bolt because I should have used a torque wrench, and watching several degrees of freedom magically appear as I pulled the LCA bolt out when installing my lower tie bar....Nothing more than a little fear that I might be late to work in the morning though

John P can tell you some more stories though...John? Oil cap under the lude hood? Painting the CRX roof? do tell...

Johnlude85 · #4 (**permalink**) March 13th, 2006, 11:20 PM

i think we all have our "experiences"...oh and hey, i like white faced gauges.

street_accord94 · #5 (**permalink**) March 13th, 2006, 11:26 PM

One of mine was doing the clutch on my buddy's 95 eclipse gsx...the job itslef was easy, but working in his mini garage packed with random shit made getting the tranny back in and on a bear.

Type_R_Mike · #6 (**permalink**) March 13th, 2006, 11:36 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Johnlude85

i think we all have our "experiences"...oh and hey, i like white faced gauges.

what about all the bullshit with the SHO the spark plug well seals and valve cover gaskets, and even changing out those plugs... in my fucking gravel, slanted driveway.

+RandomHero+ · #7 (**permalink**) March 14th, 2006, 12:21 AM

lowering springs on a 5th gen lude.

all of the lugs on every tire were stick,,,,nuthing would get them off not even an impagt wrench, we got one off but only cause we broke the lug, had to take it to a shop where the cut it off, never did we get those bitches on

TSXmike · #8 (**permalink**) March 14th, 2006, 12:43 AM

trying to put the suspension in my accord... started at 6pm... and didnt finish till 4am... that was a long damn night

Blake · #9 (**permalink**) March 14th, 2006, 12:50 AM

getting crome setup

Blake · #10 (**permalink**) March 14th, 2006, 12:53 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Blake

getting crome setup

actually no, i will take that back. Thats second worst. 1st is installing the skunk2 intake manifold. Bu buddy pulled the vacuum lines off and didnt remember where they went. So it took me forever to get it right since i didnt have a manual.

jadkar · #11 (**permalink**) March 14th, 2006, 01:42 AM

I've had many bad experiences but the worst and most dangerous was ......

Back around 1994 I took the engine out of my CRX and rebuilt it. While I was putting it back in I had a friend of mine working the engine hoist and I was guiding it back down. I had my hand on the timing belt engine mount and I was trying to get the alternator around the M/C. I wasn't looking at the engine hoist hook and neither was my friend. I actually pulled the chain off the hook and the engine fell into the car pinning my right hand into the "U" mount on the chassis. I smashed 3 of my fingers real good and stripped a lot of skin off my right hand. I was screaming like a mad man and my fucked up friend thought I was kidding, he was laughing his ass off. It wasn't until he actually looked down and saw my hand under the mount in the chassis that he freaked. He reattached the hoist, started pumping the engine up. I had to sit and wait and slowly feel the pain of the mount releasing itself from the car with my hand in it. It was a very bad situation, my friend always told me that I was lucky I liked "Rice Rockets" because if that would have been a Chevy V8 I probably would have lost my hand.....he may be right!!

+RandomHero+ · #12 (**permalink**) March 14th, 2006, 02:04 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jadkar

I've had many bad experiences but the worst and most dangerous was ......

Back around 1994 I took the engine out of my CRX and rebuilt it. While I was putting it back in I had a friend of mine working the engine hoist and I was guiding it back down. I had my hand on the timing belt engine mount and I was trying to get the alternator around the M/C. I wasn't looking at the engine hoist hook and neither was my friend. I actually pulled the chain off the hook and the engine fell into the car pinning my right hand into the "U" mount on the chassis. I broke 3 of my fingers and stripped about half the skin off my right hand. I was screaming like a mad man and my fucked up friend thought I was kidding, he was laughing his ass off. It wasn't until he actually looked down and saw my hand under the mount in the chassis that he freaked. He reattached the hoist, started pumping the engine up. I had to sit and wait and slowly feel the pain of the mount releasing itself from the car with my hand in it. It was a very bad situation, my friend always told me that I was lucky I liked "Rice Rockets" because if that would have been a Chevy V8 I probably would have lost my hand.....he may be right!!

haha my dad has a fucked up middle finger from that shit happening to him. his middle finger is all bent outta whack and hi nail has a permanent crease down the middle

puopjv · #13 (**permalink**) March 14th, 2006, 02:05 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by scottigee

John P can tell you some more stories though...John? Oil cap under the lude hood? Painting the CRX roof? do tell...

Gosh I have blocked them out as well. I remember the crx hood. I wanted to touch up my hood with a little paint matcher that I got from pep boys. Damn that was a big mistake. I made it much worse and tried to smooth it out by getting rubbing compound. Yes that made it even worse. I learned my lesson, if you don't know what the hell you are doing then leave it alone.

Just this weekend I replaced my cat. One of the nuts wouldn't come loose from the stud as it was rusted and ovalized. I spent about 4 hours trying to get it off. Eventually I was bailed out by a neighbor with every power tool imaginable. I finally punched it loose with a impact hammer and was singing the praises of the good lord.

puopjv · #14 (**permalink**) March 14th, 2006, 02:06 AM

Damn Scott you already have 73 posts? I guess you have a lot of free time now that you are not studying all the time.

Clone · #15 (**permalink**) March 14th, 2006, 12:48 PM

I've had quite a few of those experiences... most of the time it's shop managers (when I used to work in shops) screaming at me to get everything fixed and put back together before we closed... and I'm sitting here working on a car I know jack shit about and have no idea what the problem is. There was this Benz once... someone brough it in, the thing kept dying in the middle of the road... I spent three days tearing through the car, and everything looked normal, but it still had the problem. I ended up just saying "fuck it" on the fourth day and we just gave it back to the customer. I never did figure out the problem.

as for stuff I've done outside the shop/performance wise... was probably putting the suspension into an '01 celica. eibach springs and kyb agx struts... holy shit that was a pain in the ass. I've never had so much trouble doing anything. We must've had to R&R those things like three times before we got it right. Well... the three of us that were working on it were shrooming... and we'd been drinking/smoking a good bit too... so we were pretty fucked up trying to do it... we gave up after a while cause we were just too fucked up... but yeah, we got them in that night, drove around and it was making funny noises... so took 'em back, pulled 'em out, replaced them, and they were still making funny noises... we pulled them out again, and when we were putting them back in the third time, we gave up due to us being really fucked up. we finished it off the next afternoon.

But yeah... interesting night, to say the least.

hcarcrx · #16 (**permalink**) March 14th, 2006, 03:14 PM

working on my brother-in-laws 79 olds cutlass pos!!!!! i hated that car since i laid eyes on it. every bolt was frozen, broke so many tools, including air tools. no mattered what we did, nothing would come loose. we worked three or four days on that turd. no broken fingers or anything like that, but alot of cuts and rust in my eyes.

hcarcrx · #17 (**permalink**) March 14th, 2006, 03:16 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by hcarcrx

working on my brother-in-laws 79 olds cutlass pos!!!!! i hated that car since i laid eyes on it. every bolt was frozen, broke so many tools, including air tools. no mattered what we did, nothing would come loose. we worked three or four days on that turd. no broken fingers or anything like that, but alot of cuts and rust in my eyes.

well now that i think about it, it was a 96 mits 3000gt awd turbo, i had do do a clutch on it!!!! ill never want to do one of those again!!! the entire drive train had to come out!!!

89civichatch · #18 (**permalink**) March 14th, 2006, 03:25 PM

well probably when i change my oil and it was double rubber gasket on the oil filter and turn the car on after everything was done and oil all over the floor i was picking it up for 30 min and doing it all over again

street_accord94 · #19 (**permalink**) March 14th, 2006, 05:23 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by yellowrexsi

My worst was working on a jdm h22 swapped and turbo'd prelude. Some dumb ass did all the work and brought it to us to fix. Thing was a nightmare. Had to disassemble everything and figure out what someone else did. Actually lost money working on the car. It was just a bad experience

I had a kid at school try to get me to troubleshoot and repair the h22 swap in his accord, after him and his buddy did the swap with some bolt ons, tossed some codes, had an auto tensioner fail, replaced that, and then noticed a lack of power...no way in hell I was getting involved with that.

Johnlude85 · #20 (**permalink**) March 14th, 2006, 06:52 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by hcarcrx

well now that i think about it, it was a 96 mits 3000gt awd turbo, i had do do a clutch on it!!!! ill never want to do one of those again!!! the entire drive train had to come out!!!

i know how you feel man. ive changed a few subaru clutches...theyre not fun AT ALL!! lol