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My 6 Biggest Screw Ups As A Mechanic ~ Podcast Episode 118
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- Опубліковано 15 сер 2024
- In the 12 years I have been a mechanic, I have made a number of mistakes. From broken windows on a Bentley, to transmission problems, and leaving an oil filter loose. I even broke 2 windows in the same car. Today I reminisce of my 6 biggest screw ups as a mechanic.
For full show notes visit the blog at ~ humblemechanic....
Join me today as we breakdown:
~Some reasons mechanics make mistakes
~Leaving an oil filter loose FAIL!
~Routan transmission FAIL!
~W8 Torque Converter FAIL!
~Broken Beetle windows FAIL!
~Bentley rear window FAIL!
~Passat heater core FAIL
~and more
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I won't list all my mistakes here but it reminds me of a saying. "The only man who never makes a mistake is the man who never does anything" - Theodore Roosevelt
+South Main Auto Repair NAILED IT!
Thanks for popping by, I am a fan of your channel man. Not sure why the hell I had not subscribed.
Hey no biggy stop on by any time, I don't work on many V-Dubs but we have a lot of other rusty stuff :)
+HumbleMechanic I am a Tech for GMC dealership and i have been there 2.5 years I just started understudy for drive-ability as we are a specialty shop compared to bumper to bumper shops and one thing that our engine heavy line tech (now asst service manager) told me is the one thing that is different from being a tech and a doctor is a able to bury their mistakes and as a tech we have to live with them. I just happen to work at a dealership in a upper class suburb so we have customers who notice every little thing about there $60k gmc denali truck from finger prints to crawling under the truck to see if you grease the suspension on a oil change. As for being my 1st job in a dealership I have had my fair share of fawk ups, however one thing I always did was owned up for my mistakes and made them right.
+South Main Auto Repair truth!!
South Main Auto Repair thanks !! I love this quote
The greatest mechanics are able to admit fault. We are all human.
+kwik keys TRUTH!
+kwik keys Same goes for the Body-Shop guys.
It happens I’m a master John Deere tech.
I identify as a refrigerator.
One might say he's Humble
Was being rushed by a waiter who was on her lunch break on a brake job. Went to test drive vehicle and didn't pump the brakes. Guess whose bay has a street light? Shop had to foot a rental car bill and I was given 2 days unpaid vacation.
One of my trainee tech decides to use permanent loctite on spark plugs instead of the anti seize like I told him. He also knows how to remove heads on a 4.3 Chevy now.
Luckily the 4.3's aren't too difficult haha.
The spark plug situation is definitely something the person will remember lol.
As a starting technician, this video really makes me feel alot better, you feel like you're the only one that screws up and it sucks, but it's nice to see we all do it, and you learn from it and do better!
Any tech that says they don't make mistakes is a liar!!!
After 47 years in the trade I could almost write a book on my screw ups but the one that will always stick out most is changing rear lift gate supports on a jeep. Of course in a rush I propped the lift gate open with a broom handle. After removing one old support the broom handle slipped and the lift gate fell. After a trip to the Hospital and 14 stitches in my head I felt so stupid. I get reminded every time I look in a mirror.
You were facing backwards and the window hit you in the face?
Im no mechanic, but when I moved out of home I had to buy a lawn mower to mow the lawn's at my new place. It came some what assembled and I had no problems what so ever putting it together.
Where I failed massively was adding engine oil to it.
So I undid the cap and filled it up slowly with oil checking the dip stick as I went along.
added abit, no oil on the stick, added a bit more, no oil on the stick, added a much larger volume than previous and the stick was dry. Dumped the whole bottle of oil in no reading......
Scratching my head thinking "why the heck am I getting no readings on the stick"
After about 30 mins I realised I was adding the oil in the fuel tank......
One of those "how the fuck did i do that" moments
JkandI wow. That is amazing
I wouldnt call it amazing, just not paying attention.
I know lawn mowers each have different set ups, but are all basically the same, but isn't the dipstick under the cap you add the oil to, why would you put oil in a different place ? You put oil in a gas tank, but kept checking the dipstick on the oil cap ? , wow weird stuff, I hope you flipped that mower over really quick and let it drain out in a pan, Then put it where it needed to go, cleaned it all up, add gas, should be okay as long as you didn't try to start it with the oil in the gas tank...
I disassembled the whole gas tank, then drained it and cleaned it up.
Long time ago, most likely wasn't thinking and rushing.
Thats probably one of my most dumbest moments hahaha. I have changed spark plugs and done a fair few oil changes on BMW's, Jeep wranglers etc etc
Just a good story for me to tell hahaa
You have a great night/day Jennifer Anne :)
Two weeks ago i put power steering fluid in my brakes and brake fluid in the power steering.
One time I was doing an oil change on my F150 and the old oil filter seal stuck to the housing when I pulled of the filter. I didn't notice it and after putting the new one on oil started spraying everywhere. It was a huge mess and a shameful moment.
Then over a year later a friends wife, who also drove an F150, called to say she was on the side of the road because of low oil pressure. I volunteered to go with him and on the way he mentioned that he had just changed the oil. Naturally my mind shot straight to my prior experience and that's the first thing I checked. Sure enough that was the problem!
So in a way my failure gave me the chance to help someone else.
My dad told me about a time where he did the exact same thing. I always always always double check for that seal lol.
I’ve don’t the same thing
I did that once...the rubber ring stuck to the block ...oil went everywhere....but it hasn't and won't happen again!!
It's nice to see someone who's successful as a technician who isn't embarrassed to share his experience on the sometimes harsh side of being a tech. I'm 3 years in and it means something to me to hear even seasoned vets make mistakes and life goes on. I've made my share so I can relate to how humbling things like this can be
+Everett Clunie Thanks! And you figured out exactly where the "humble" part of Humble Mechanic comes from. It is as much about being humble and knowing you are always going to get humbled LOL
We're human and made to make mistakes. Sometimes we don't like to admit it, but truth is we've all been there and we know we have.
Charles. You're the man. It's times like those that keep us humble. And the humility causes us to be mentally pliable in this ever evolving industry. All good things.
Right on man. I appreciate the comments dude!! :)
hey Brian, I'm subscribed to you too. love both of you guys bids. I'd like to hear some of you're mess ups. Ps love the subi
I'm surely humble. Thanks Brian.
Had a similar thing with 1.6 tdi wasn’t left loose just caught an o ring
If you are a mechanic and not making any mistakes, your not doing enough.
This one was fun! Shop foreman is teaching me to do a leak check for the charge side of the intake on a 1.8t GTI, and we have the system pressurized and get it up in the air to check the intercooler connections. Shop foreman mentions we also need to do a oil filter change. I proceed to remove oil drain plug....mention have not taken the oil fill cap off yet (big NO NO I know just in practice), oil drain plug is tight to come out, but I am used to tough drain plugs. Well it was hard to take out because 10psi of shop air was pushing the oil against this drain plug! I will tell you that is sure the fastest way to get the oil out of the crank case...not the cleanest method by a far stretch!
mr42ndstblvd heat around the plug, I had same thing as both filler and drain had been loctited on a gearbox I picked up for my car. I'd already sheared the tip clean off my 3/8 breaker bar on it. blast it with some heat and came out on a ratchet.
@@brotang2953 what does that have to do with his comment?
trying to rush can be your biggest enemy in the repair business, time is money for us, but every once and a while it can bite you.
I'm actually surprised you made this video, most Techs get ashamed of this stuff, nice to be someone to admit when they've done wrong.
i once added coolant to the washer reservoir while doing an oil change special for a new customer that was only there for the oil change special, you know the ones you don't expect to ever see again. well she came back a few days later stating that the washer fluid we used made her windshield wipers streak and stained her car too. it was then that i realized my screw up. i promptly fixed it and apologized and i handed her a few car wash coupons to get her car cleaned. she became one of my most loyal customers after that because she was impressed with my honesty and that i made it right then and there.
i think many people still think of mechanics as shady and untrustworthy. amazing what honesty can do for you.
as a consumer (and mechanic hobbyist), i can verify that the general population does think that about the people they deal with for car repairs. in my experience it's usually the middle man that's not the mechanic that frustrates me, the front desk guy or service manager, etc.
Washer fluid and coolant gotta be the two easiest fluids to mix up. Somehow haven’t done it though
So I forgot to put the customer's engine back in when I gave him the keys. He had to use his feet the entire way home as the propulsion mechanism...his last name was Flintstone...
Thanks for that.
The guy with the pressurized oil pan beat you.
in my rookie yrs, I had to replace a head gasket on a rare AlfaRomeo spider. So I pull it out, I take grat care not to mess up the orientation of the cams relative to each other. I read the manual and everything. The head goes off to the machine shop for valve lapping and resurfacing. Comes back gorgeous. I mount it, torque the bolts and everything. I install the camshfats AAAAAND this is where my world changed. There is 2 ways these camshafts could go. 1st way with the lobes on #1 cyl facing opposite to each other. 2nd way with the lobes facing towards each other. Both ways fit, but only one is correct. I was flying through this repair being 100% confident that I had read in the manual that the cams must face outwards. I put everything in, I turn the engine by hand and I bend the valves on 2 of the cylinders. Didn't destroy all the valves, but definitely destroyed my day and my wallet....
Not too bad of a mistake... could definitely have been worse and even bigger in cost or time. You caught it while turning by hand instead of by ign.sw.
Was working late one night on my own vehicle and just hand tighten the lugs on the rear passenger tire thinking I would tighten them all the way the next day. Was on the interstate the next day when the rear tire flew off and proceeded to roll a quarter mile down the road ahead of me. No one was hurt and the damage to my car was minimal. To this day I always double check the lug nuts.
+Raymond Johnson I nearly had about the same thing happen, but it was from my Dad and mechanic neighbor putting lug nuts on which were too short as we just purchased some used aluminum wheels. Nothing flew off but the lug nuts did loosen and cause vibration.
They say that experience makes a better mechanic, but I think it's mostly challenging experience that accelerates learning and wisdom. Fortunately it's possible to learn some of that vicariously from others who are kind enough to share what happened to them. I admire anybody who is strong enough to share mistakes with a broad audience, since the overall benefit will be much greater than the bland description of a repair that went well. You got my sub on the basis of this video, thanks for posting.
My thoughts exactly. So well put!
sadly in my field kids come out of school thinking their omniscient professors taught them enough to be master machinists so they refuse to listen to anyone when we tell them they are about to have a booboo. I try to learn from others as well. The only reason they see the mistake you're about to make is because they made the same mistake somewhere along the lines. You are going to make plenty of mistakes in your career, why make other peoples mistakes as well.
I think both. The callaging ones are to improve your understanding and knowledge the stupid ones teach you the importance of double checking and diligence.
yeah it sucks, people should never stop learning and can always use advise, especially if the person giving advise has much more experience regardless of education. People like that are ruining tech schools I'm just glad i managed to land a job with people who didn't have pre conceived notions about me because I came fresh from a tech school.
Unfortunately it seems the best lessons learned are where you make a fool of yourself
My buddy took his car in to the dealership for a routine oil change. They drained the oil, and removed the oil. That's it. He drove a bit without oil or a filter and his engine started making noises and eventually turned off. It had Seized. Needless to say, the dealership covered everything, and probably someone got fired.
YIKES! I have seen that happen a number of times. It never cost anyone their job, but it's no fun for everyone involved Glad the dealer made it right.
Same thing happened to my friend, but was the radiator cap. Called the dealer " you guys left the radiator cap off my car and it's smoking" Dealer... You can't prove that. Engine was fried. Good job Don K Chevrolet
HumbleMechanic I worked at a shop, and the owner hated people looking in the oil filter book and getting it dirty. We took the old oil filter off got a new filter the exact same as the old one. Well that filter had been the wrong one the whole time and it blew off the engine a couple days later.
Years ago I went to Midas for a rear brake job and they left the air cleaner cover off with the wingnuts sitting on top. Took a few days for me to realize this. Thankfully the wingnuts did not fall into the throttle body. They had no business poking around the engine, the rear brakes are on the other end of the car. Yet another reason I do my own work now.
man how lucky get a brand new engine for free!
Charles I admire an honest mechanic and to make a video on screwups, I tip my hat to you. My worst was doing a PTO seal on a Eaton transmission with hydraulic pump, put it all back together during shift change, forgot to write on passover notes there was no oil in it. Let just say bearings got very noisy. And so did my boss
didnt tighten a drain plug on my first week of working lube when i first started out my auto mechanic career, locked up a motor.. most embarrassing thing ever. few days later i was still scatter brained and honestly doubting if i wanted to do this still, and mistook the gas pedal for a brake pedal and smashed a 370z in to a tool cart then smashed that tool cart into a wall. i was so ready to quit in shame and go back to working crappy retail but a couple techs at my shop really had my back and convinced me to stay.
to this day i am still scarred from that drain plug, sometimes ill take a car to wash after doing a service and ill be like nope not 1,000% sure and ill drive the car back into the shop re-lift it and recheck the torque on the drain plug haha the guy in the bay next to me already knows when i drive a car back in he's like "checking the drain plug again?"
i also kept that tool cart.. hammered it back out straight and still works great, as a workbench and as a reminder lol. 370z paint still on the middle shelf.
thats what i love about working in a shop, theres competition for knocking out work and making money but technicians, 9 times out of 10, will always have each others backs. car related or not.
Been there, did the same thing. Brand new Renault when I was working in Europe. So new we couldn't even get a motor for it because the factory had no spares. I had to rebuild the seized one and it always made a weird noise after that. Customer was not happy waiting weeks for his car back.
How's it going now?
thank you so much for posting this. it made me feel better. about a year ago, I was doing my 3rd head gasket in a early model bug with a 2.0 in it. the job went pretty quick. I start feeling it up with coolant and I notice after a few mins, I hear something running onto the floor under the car. so I start looking.... turns out I actually put the head gasket on upside down and the head was puking coolant. so I go get my boss, hanging my head the whole time. he said he would buy the parts, but that I had to fix it off the clock. 3 hrs later it was back together and running right. needless to say, now when I do a head gasket, I make sure all the holes line up and take a few minutes to make sure there's no way it on wrong.
Did the exact same thing on a 4.6L expedition, however it took me about 4.5 hours to tear it all down and about 6 hours to put it back together CORRECTLY. I absolutely hate working on them damn things, so much engine under the cowl and needless shit it's ridiculous
+Joseph Inman A trick I learned was to look at the fire rings on both sides of the gasket. The ones that are touching go down. If both sides are touching it might be a reversible gasket. Another trick is that the manufacturer label goes on top.
ha ha , did same on a golf v , and use the same gasket
I did the exact same thing a couple weeks ago on a 5.7 Hemi. I sure felt like an idiot. Everyone else told me it happens to everyone once. And I will never make that mistake again from now on lol
It seems when a job gets passed around (one guy takes is down another puts it together) problems happen. Now I never work on a car that has been passed on because it is a problem car or they say they have better things for the first guy to do. A long time ago I worked in a independent VW shop, only one guy was allowed to do overhauls. I pulled a bug engine for him, wanting to be helpful I drained the oil via the drain plug on the plate. When he put the engine back together he did not check the plug, it fell out in the middle of the AZ desert.
Same shop same guy. He started working on the carbs on a dual carb VW bus. This guy put the bed like pillow that goes on top of the engine compartment on top of the bus. My "bud" could not get the idle so nice so I was put on the job (vacuum leaks at throttle plates). I completed the job, noticing it was missing the pillow but hey what do I know. On my test drive the pillow blew off and somebody else nabbed it before I got back, Cost close to 500.00 for a new pillow for a Westfailia bus.
OK same shop, my bud had moved on to the BMW Dealer (I was soon to follow). I was given my first overhaul I was to do the entire job. One of the head studs came out really easy (waterboxer engine) turns out the stud broke and left the threaded part in the case. It needed to be sent out and a plasma cutter was used to cut it out, expensive.
Ok now my biggest screwup all my fault. Brand new mechanic in a LA VW shop. Putting a hard start relay on a 6V bus. There is a place above the starter that is a good place to mount it, you need to drill two holes. I drilled the body panel and the bit quickly hit a second panel, I continued to drill. I drilled a hole in the gas tank. You need to take the engine and trans out to get to the tank. So as quick as I could I pulled both,with gas leaking all the time. This was 40 years ago but now I wonder why we did not siphon at least some of the gas. At some independent shops you really are on your own
I worked as shop manager at a reconditioning shop. We opted to send a transmission around the corner because it was one no one had seen as we work on just about anything. So it goes around the corner to Jimmy. Jimmy is an automatic transmission God, he has also been at that shop for over 20 years. He has the car for 3 days. I can remember what it was but I think it was a Toyota MR2... Well Jimmy brings the car in and it's not shifting, he's losing it. I open the engine cover and look around. The big nasty plug that goes in to the transmission is laying on top of the trans and not plugged in. I plug it in and it work great. I know it embarrassed Jimmy and I really want wanting to learn a new transmission by the "immersion" method by having to do it myself with no literature for it..
Just a quick inspection saved the day. I figure there would be a number of shops that would have just started pulling the trans back out... But I had faith in Jimmy, I knew he wasn't a slouch! Jimmy was happy as he was still there, he delivered the car himself damn near in tears.
Most memorable near miss in 32 yrs in the trade. Having carried out an oil change on a Porsche Boxster I had added a good quality oil additive thinking it would be of benefit. Big mistake :( The motor started then very shortly afterwards started to get real lumpy & misfire. Long story short, had to drop £100 of new oil & refill with fresh. Expensive, but no where near as expensive as a replacement engine would've been. On future occasions its had mobile1 & nothing else besides. Live & Learn.
What a great video! I know I've overlooked silly things then racked my brain & kick myself later for. But to even admit making mistakes, to explaining the biggest blunders you made... that's one heck of guy! That takes guts... & you certainly own up to the name, Humble Mechanic.
My biggest screw ups: #1. Early in my career I didn't know that heavy corrosion build-up on alloy wheel hubs needed to be cleaned off before being put back on the car. Had 3 cars within a 1 week period come back with loose wheels because the corrosion build-up prevented the lugnuts from being properly torqued down.
#2. I didn't notice that the threads on a oil pressure switch for a late 90's Honda CRV were NPT pipe threaded (and thus had a wedge shape), I tightened it too much and ended up cracking the engine block right on a oil passage, the shops insurance ended up buying the customer a new car.
Thank you everyone who shared there own personal stories of mechanical repairs gone wrong, it truly does happen to us all. Mine was over filling my Dad's crankcase by about three quarts after my first unsupervised oil change. Between it being late in the day, with fading light making the level hard to see on the stick and my filling from a 5 gallon jug of oil I got a little carried away. He made about half a block before pulling over to the side our rural road and draining the excess out.
I left a complete clutch pack out of a Renault trans. Put a head gasket on back to front while talking on the phone...pushrods wouldn't go in.. Left the CV nut loose on a Honda....made a mess. Left the oil filter off a diesel and started it. Put a 2nd hand auto in a Subaru with no valve body in it. Left the drive sleeve out of a Subaru 4wd. I shoulda stayed in bed for 45 years.
I would like to see a Doctor do a video of his/her mistakes.. YIKES!!
+Alex Klaus they bury them.
Lol or blame it on God..its was God's will... too bad we don't have that scape goat.... so kool you made my day bro!!! Thanks for the reply... keep on wrenching and you tubbing lol even tho I'll admit I'm not a happy mechanic with a VW, Audi product in my bay 😒
😂😂😂
Neurosurgeon or gynecologist maybe.🤣😂🤣😂💯
Huh, the Nissan dealership I worked at didn't open up transmissions. Transmission problem equaled new transmission. I don't know the bad transmissions might have been sent to a shop for rebuild and resale.
I work at Nissan, all transmissions are sent back to Nissan, rebuilt, then resold. Chances are the transmission you replaced it with was a rebuilt one. But yes the techs do not open automagic transmissions in shop, they are shipped and rebuilt some where else. Lately, because of the huge problem with them, they have had the techs do the valve bodies in the shop, but if their was any other internal damage, just replace the transmission.
My first month in my new shop, I tightened two caliper bolts but didn't remember to torque them to spec because I was in a rush. Turns out The owners went on a 400mi road trip out of state and on their way home the bottom bolt came loose and the still in tact caliper bolt had basically acted as a hinge and kept slamming the caliper into the inside of the rim... oh boy did I hear it when I got back from the long weekend. Went and bought myself a new torque wrench that week and I've never had an issue like that again.
The biggest screw-up by a buddy of mine is messing with a carburetor on a pretty old bmw, and while running, the screwdriver bit falls from the screwdriver and into the carb and into the engine and after poking a few Phillips holes in the pistons and walls it stopped. It was close to idle and stopped a few seconds later.
Either way, the piston was shot, and the cylinder had a deep gouge and the valves were messed (i guess the bit got caught by the closing intake valve and the piston slammed the valve snapping it and toss the valve in the mix with the bit). The header had some indentations that turned out to be cracks.
Long story short: new oversize pistons, new valves, new header (actually it was from a salvage yard), re-bore the cylinders to oversize.. very expensive screwup.
Looking back now, biggest one for me in my 5 years in the field, didn't close the hood on an infiniti all the way. and ill tell you one thing, I about had to go back home and get a new pair of pants when that sucker came flying up into the windshield as soon as I pulled out of the lot....7:30 in the morning and hadn't had my coffee yet....still kick myself when I see a silver G35 lol
that moment... when you forget to put the driveshaft back on
mr42ndstblvd Did a clutch on a early 90s 5.0L. Trans was back in, all I had left was the starter. As I'm trying to put it back in I realized something was wrong and several head scratching moments later I remembered the engine plate that fits between the motor and trans was still in the parts washer in the back room. I'm pretty sure I must of had a bad hangover that day, or just forgot my brain at home.
I've learned that if I just slow down, clean up between steps, keep things organized as I go, going slower ends up being faster in the long run.
Subscription earned. I love your videos, and I love my local independent VW mechanic. More than likely he possesses a masters degree in engineering from VT, but has built a career wrenching on VW products. He's bailed me out more times than I can enumerate on my daughter's beetle, a fifteen year old misfit of a car with an interior made of gooey plastic that literally zips around corners like it owns them. Long live the German car repair man. My family owes you a huge debt of gratitude.
My biggest screw up was listening to a customer. On a Saturday I opened the shop where I worked and a customer came in with his 98 mercedes sl500 wanting to swap wheels. Couldn't use my bay because I had a Chevy Blazer that I was waiting on control arms. And the customer said to just use my coworkers bay. I pull in and set the lift and lift the car. I go to my bay and grab my impact and sockets and then I hear a loud boom. The in ground lift had failed. It dropped about a foot and had twisted sideways. Thankfully the car stayed planted on the lift. Put a pole jack on the base of the lift to rotate the car back and put the rod back on the lift. took the car out of the bay and used a floor jack and swapped the wheels. My boss comes in and I explain my mistake. Thats when he tells me the lift is broken and that he told the customer to come in mid day. After all that the customer still continued to come back and requested me to do his repairs.
Don't know how that's your mistake. Boss should have just told someone, or put a sign on it?
I made the biggest mistake of my life. I tried to fix my ford.
F uck,
O ur
R ide
D ied
F ind F ix
O n O r
R oad R epair
D ead D aily
+Nikolai Tsakov
Found
On
Road
Dead
Im no mechanic. I have a 2003 Ford Fiesta, it has taken me all the way through the American continent, from San Francisco CA to Chiapas Mexico. Hundreds of thousands of kilometers without any problems. Why are they frowned upon?
+Luciano Narno law of averages dictates that when you manufacture hundreds of thousands of cars, there will be a few good ones in the batch. You're lucky and got one of them.
Seams to me that most of today's complaints revolving around Ford ownership has to do with the trucks, not the cars. Just look at the resale value of a Ford truck compared to a comparable GM or Dodge truck...
LOL, thanks for sharing, its nice to meet someone else that is NOT the best tech EVER! The low point for me and I am sure there were more...was the infamous double lip seal on a oil change, after working in the field for 20 years...I know the walk of shame.
Oh man... My biggest screw-up happened a few years ago during a routine oil change with a brake maint on a Tundra. I dropped the oil and filter but the parts guys didn't have a replacement filter on-hand so they had to order it from a local location (10-15 min delivery). While I waited I put the oil plug back in and then went on to the brake job and got it all finished.
Put the tires back on, dropped the vehicle, and put the oil in. Then I just went into auto-pilot. What's the next step after adding oil? Of course... Start the vehicle up, shut it down, and then check the oil level is proper. So without thinking I stared the truck and almost instantly covered my bay with 8.2 Liters of oil sprayed out the oil filter housing. I didn't even need to get out of the truck to know what I did. I lowered my head against the steering wheel in shame and yelled a few obscenities... Holy frig was I embarrassed.
No damage to the vehicle, of course, but I spent over an hour cleaning the oil from my bay, off the front of my tool box, and off the underside of the truck. It's a mistake that I'll never repeat again. I don't start any job anymore anymore without making sure I have everything I need to finish it.
I was very distracted that you only blinked like 4x
knyght krawlr there's a lot of cut editing in this video.
lol, idiot
I ended up putting a brake pad on backwards on a mustang somehow it would fit and i didnt notice it. we took it out for a test drive and right when we pushed the brakes it started squealing really bad. I thought the pad was just trying to seat itself on the caliper so we kept going. bad idea lol. then the noise got worse so we turned right around and took the wheel off. the rotor was destroyed there was no way machining it would bring it back to life. the back of the brake pad has 2 nipples on them so the dont move around and they ended up digging there way through the rotor. luckily it wasnt more than $80 to replace them. oh well you live and learn. now i always double check my work and have someone else check it as well.
I've found that most screw-ups happen when one is rushing! After 40yrs of diesel engine mechanic work I've had some good ones. I left a pair of needle nose pliers in a cylinder of 1710cid V-12 Cummins, went to set the valves and injectors and the engine locked up! It took about 10hr to fix!
Also when rushing I forgot to put one of the headgaskets NTC 400 Big Cam Cummins, the head bolts almost took the torque then got easy to turn(it blew the flanges off two cylinders liners)!
That took about 15hrs to fix!
Guys don't rush it will cost you more in the long run than just going along at a steady rate!😉👍
oh the Routan... I had the same customer come back for three separate issues. First time watch a power door lock actuator, second time was the latch actuator, third time was the whole latch assembly. With no formal training before hand this did indeed crush my soul but I'm great at taking apart that door now!
How about a video on the biggest screw ups customers did to their own car and later brought to you for service. For me it was my 2010 Jetta TDI. For whatever reason, two years into owning it, I decided to peal the DO NOT SERVICE labels off the battery and check the fluid level. Perceiving it to be low, I added water. It was 100 degree summer and the battery over the next few weeks boiled over
Acid went down onto the DSG and then ate a giant hole in the intercooler hose... After a LOT of cleaning up, some spray paint (took the paint off the mechatronics cover) , and a new intercooler hoseThings were good.. I was super lucky... Knock on wood that was over three years ago ... Another one for me was actually when I was 16... My cousin had a 1995 Pontiac Minivan (Transport) She wanted a CAR PHONE. Being a 16 year old who loved cars I knew I could install it.. What I did not know was the rear heat coolant lines ran thru the center of the car right where I mounted the headset cradle with self tapping screws... Car lost coolant , over heated, flooded inside of car with coolant, seats had to come out, flooring came up, carpet was destroyed lines had to be replaced and cousin ended up getting a new car rather then fix it. Dealership told me not to be hard on my self because they had several Car Radio install shops (remember those places) that drove screws not only into the coolant line for the rear heat but also the refrigerant line for the rear AC spewing refrigerant and oil everywhere.. Said it surpassingly happened a lot and not to be discouraged.So those are my two customer mistakes that damaged cars
I remember one time i was diagnosing a no start durango with a V8 and it had spark so my next step was to spray carb cleaner through the fresh air hose in the intake while another tech cranked the engine, so i keep spraying while it cranks but nothing, after 1 or 2 min of cranking i tell the other tech to clear flood crank it because i sprayed like a third of the can in, so in the first second of cranking the intake plastic tube exploded in front of me and put a hole in it that resembled something out of a Wile Coyote episode, i had heard stories of backfiring engines but to me none of them top mine, i felt like tom hanks in saving private ryan during the d-day invasion scene.
***** The point of this video flew over your head like a fucking frisbee,
+Samuel Gonzalez LMAO. I got to use that one sometime.
+Samuel Gonzalez LOL
Did you end up checking crank sensor ? Tsb's can be your best friend
Tanner Schultz nah, i checked spark first and it was fine, so then i did what i explained in the original post and left work early, the next day i checked injector pulse first and had none, then after about half and hour of diagnosing found a corroded wire that fed the ASD relay under the fuse box, fixed that and it started right up
Good judgement comes from experience. Experience comes from making mistakes and mistakes come from bad judgement. Keep up the good work.
Every mistake I’ve made was on a small job. It’s exactly what you said - rushing to get it out of the way. I’ve was off 1 tooth on a balancer belt on an Accord and the vehicle would shake like crazy at around 1,200 rpms. Luckily I knew exactly what it was and I fixed in in 30 minutes. I left a pair of vise-grips on a tie rod while doing an alignment and got them back over a month later when the customer came in for a brake job we recommended.
I’ve made a number of mistakes on small jobs. Usually when I do a big job, I am very mindful and double check everything because I don’t want to do it twice. But I’ve also never opened up a transmission where I assume it’s very easy to forget something because of the sheer volume of parts you’re handling. That’s why I’ve never been interested in transmission work - I don’t think I could put one back together without forgetting something.
Just remember when you rush it takes twice as long
"it turned out to be a normal condition" also known as a manufacturer design flaw/failure..
David Soule aka we can't figure it out
usually the former
I've only had one big screw up in my 7+ years in the industry. I accidentally crashed a workers 2008 Lexus GS460 into my toolbox and barrier wall behind it. It was my first automotive job out of school at lexus dealership. I was "enrolled" in their inhouse "apprenticeship" program; it was actually to relieve the work load on techs who didnt take off 3 months during the slow season, Basically we did the LOFs and courtesy inspection for the OG techs. They had tile flooring, underground H figure lifts and cramped work bays. There was 16 service bays, 2 alignment racks side by side, 2 tire stations on each end, a lead diagnostics bay, a machinist room, 2 state/emissions bays and 2 more bays for prepping the current top teir models. As you'd probably can tell, it was an overwhelming experience for us "apprentices". 2 months in and 7 hours into the shift with back to back oil changes this OG tech asked me to do a lof to his Lexus before going to lunch.....exhausted and irritated with what this program really turned out to be. I drove the Lexus onto the H pattern lift. I had my head out the window to line up the front left wheel parallel to the edge of the lift, felt the slight bump onto the lift and my foot slipped off the brake pedal and I went full send on the gas pedal. I remember the airbag punching me in the face and the horrible feeling in my gut. I was worried that I might of killed somebody walking in front of the vehicle. I looked up and I was relieved that no one was there. Only just a crowd of hyenas laughing at a situation that could of been alot worse. They fired me even though my drug test was clean and even offered to pay for the damages on the spot...literally all of my savings from when I started working at the age of 14.
Soo from that day forward. I never wore steel toed boots again (honestly cant feel foot position or pressure in them), kept my bay clean and clear of any mess, double check my surroundings while driving vehicle inside shop, double check how secure the vehicle is on the lift, avoid underground lifts, avoid fast food service style dealerships, take a damn break and lunch (my work ethic is borderline is slavery) and always double check services and procedures.
Sorry for my biggest screw up story.
I'm the same way with steel toes, can't feel the clutch to well, and I was a trucker...some cars are sensitive, and feels like my doors going to slip off
Don't kick your self to hard on the oil one, did an oil change on my mom's car years back. She and my dad got 200ft down the road before they saw me screaming and yelling to stop. After they left I looked in the driveway to all the new oil dumped out. Turned out the seal on the old oil filter had detached and stuck on the engine, I hadn't seen it was missing on the old filter.
I was doing a compression test on my Honda accord, and the tester had adapters on it that were not loctited or tefloned, so i ran the test all good, go to put my spark plug and it threads fine but bottomed out quickly, i also heard a crushing noise and realized i threaded the spark plug into the adapter i was able to get the adapter out with some loctite but i saw chunks of spark plug insulation in the cylinder, I vacuumed it out the best i could, started it heard a rattle for a few seconds then it seemed fine. i figured i got lucky but now it literally burns a quart of oil every time i drive which is usually no more than an hour or 20-30 miles, and has no power, time for a new motor. most expensive mistake I've ever made, for something as simple as a compression test, luckily it was my own car! when i was working a family friends shop, i forgot to torque lug nuts, broke probably 5 bolts from over tightening, left caliper bolts off, filled a jeep with oil without draining it first, all within a few mouths, he thought i was on drugs. i realized i probably shouldn't work on other peoples cars.
lol... oh my. That is a good thing that motor is your own car, even though it still sucks. You can take your time with the replacement, save up, unlike if it were someone else's vehicle. Sounds like rushing around or you're distracted while working. If it's what you enjoy doing, working on vehicles, stick with it. Use different work practices. Make sure no one can distract you... no chit chat. Make a check list prior.. until you're in the habit of doing things. ALWAYS double & triple check you're work. We've all made mistakes... the best mistakes are the type we catch, either before starting the vehicle or handing over the keys back.
The spark plug insulation is on the wire side, so even if you tighten them to much and they break, they will just break in the wires, causing mega misfire, not in the block. Okay, now the brake calipers, bleed them, always spin the rotor/hub and look at it, have someone press the brake to make sure it locks up correctly, (without reinstalling the caliper bolts, it will shift around when the brake is engaged, you will quickly see) then when you see everything is good finally put the wheel back on and lower it down, top off fluid as needed. I don't even know what to say about the lugs, but yea, maybe you shouldn't be working on cars, lol.... You have good intentions, but bad quality control, lol... Good luck man !
I just after 15 years left the cam sprocket bolt finger tight and it came off and hit the valves on a 2007 jeep grand Cherokee 4.7 and then I put a screw that was to long on the radiator and went through the plastic side not my best work
we all have our moments feel for you
I love your honesty and you owned up to it. Not many people own it and customers need to understand we are human and we do make mistakes but you are right we need to double check and don’t rush.
Im dealing with one right now. Did a radiator, test drove. All good. Double checked for no leaks, good to go. Customer left 10 minutes before I left, I leave to go home, and15 min later, I get a call from my service manager saying they heard a loud POP BANG under the hood. Fan clutch is on, fan shroud bolted down, radiator bolted down, that's pretty much all I touched. Waiting on the info. I'mma lose some sleep. They are funny stories later, but not when they Happen.
How did you not get fired? I got fired for mistakes that were much less.
A good mechanic in your shop is worth more than a piece of expensive glass lol
I know people that have left wheel nuts loose and not been sacked
A guy at my work didn't put a gasket on a canister filter correctly, blew up an engine, and is still around. Everybody makes mistakes lol
I've been in and out of ten jobs under the Obama administration and I will tell you the reason: It's all about chemistry. If you make your coworkers feel good and if your boss doesn't feel threatened by you (you aren't competent enough to take his job) then you get to stay. It's not your fault. I've worked with guys who would get angry and _deliberately_ break things but they would not get fired. I once reported a coworker for sexual assault and he is still working at my old job ten years later. I saw my favorite manager get fired because he brought in an old gun to show a coworker. He was a Vietnam vet and the gun wasn't loaded and he kept it out of sight, but the lazy bums were watching him closely.
Admit you made a mistake and apologize then make it right usually works pretty well.
I've gotten out of most speeding tickets by just not arguing with the cop. I admit I did it and they let me move along with a warning.
Any time I was with someone who argued with the cop he got the ticket.
People are pretty forgiving if you don't try to BS your way out of your screw-ups. Just take responsibility and they're usually ok with it.
Then there's the dreaded oil filter "O" ring stuck to the block that got overlooked.
that's the worst
I watched a guy get hosed under a customers vehicle because of that stray o-ring when I worked at a Quick Car lube shop. I laughed my ass off
Brand new 20 bay shop was built to replace our old six bay dungeon. The owner decided the first car in the shop should be his for an oil change. Needless to say the kid doing the work left the old o ring on the engine and it barfed oil all over that brand new floor. The owner was not impressed to say the least.
The oil filter mating surface should always be cleaned bare metal, run a little oil with your finger around the new filter ring and screw it in. Tighten by hand.
Jennifer Anne Your absolutely right Jennifer. And it only takes a second to clean the surface. I have seen so many lazy mechanics skip this step all I can do is sit back and laugh when it happens.
Funny, honest guy. I like it. Worked in the oil field a long time. Saw a lot of screw ups. Some were life critical, as a tech in the oil field, we couldn't make mistakes with doing certain tasks, or the oil refinery or gas plant could explode and kill people; yes when I work on cars I rush as I know if I have a leak can easily fix it and it doesn't pump out sour gas so nothing that can't be fixed.
My worst by far is this time my buddy missed a day that he was supposed to do a sunroof frame for a 2011 Cadillac SRX that had shredded the shade some how. I was volunteered by the service writer and this turned into a 3 month purgatory of nicked headliners, broken plastic clips, and scratched frames that actually ended up costing me personally over $4,000 to replace the parts I damaged and countless hours lost on a 6 hr job. Lesson of the week, I don’t work on sunroofs anymore.
#Liked because you admitted cars can be "possessed" and that mechanics can know when a vehicle is "possessed."
I worked on a widow neighbor's '96 Accord. Every time I fixed one issue, another one would arise. It was like playing "Wack-a-mole" because solved problems would resurface. Long story short; she moved to a newer, densely populated housing development, her Honda was stolen right in front of her house, which turned out to be a blessing... just not for whoever stole it. hahahaha...
I have always heard and personally blamed this phenomenon on "Gremlins." Having said that, "Possessed by Gremlins" seems to be a more accurate statement, since a 3rd party seems to have moved in an literally "possess" said vehicle.
What I mean by that is; during the diagnostic process, things begin to not "add up."
I don't have any other examples off the top of my head but when a mechanic begins troubleshooting, they expect a certain result. When the expected result doesn't manifest, and totally unrelated changes occur as a result, you begin to suspect interference by a 3rd party.
Whether or not that 3rd party is a spirit, soul, demon, or a technologically sophisticated extraterrestrial race of humans beings wirelessly interacting with us, and our environment, is very debatable. Clearly Gremlins aren't installed during the manufacturing process anyways...
It stands to reason that if someone wants to get your attention, there are various ways of doing so, Including God Himself.
Love the show @HumbleMechanic!
fixed an lx470 AHC fault (empty resevoir). Bled the system and it worked fine. Did an alignment and the AHC light came back on. Almost ordered an 1800 dollar accumulator but found a high resistance in the wiring.... All good now.
Good video and information. Thanks for sharing. :)
Thank yo so much
I was doing a transmission fluid service (actually the first trans fluid service I had done on my own) on a 2012 Mercedes E350 on Friday and I had a really hard time with the torque converter drain plug. The job basically took me all morning and I was able to put it all back together and torqued everything and filled it with the provided ATF and ended up needing more, so I asked the service advisor to order me a couple more quarts while I took my lunch. I came back from lunch and pumped in another quart and asked my coworker to jump in the car to turn it on and run it through the gears so I could check the fluid level. Once I verified that the fluid was good, I decided to lower the car so my coworker could get out, and I was in such a rush to get the car out, that I forgot about the oil drain tank under the car and crunched it up like a beer can. My coworker jumped down real quick and luckily, it did no damage to the transmission pan or anything else, plus it was our spare drain tank that sits outside.
35 years into wrenching and oil changes, I was excitedly showing my female neighbor how to change oil. As I poured 5 quarts into the crankcase, I saw the oil pour down into my newly concreted driveway.
Of course, once my horror subsided, I slid under the Touareg with my creeper & hastily closed the Futomo valve. :(
Isn't a Routan a Chrysler Caravan? If so that would explain the transmission problems.
+Erik Kovacs Damn near the same thing. Visually, suspension are the same. I think only the wiring is a bit screwy compared to the Chrysler vans.
Sorry for the split up thread but I honestly don't know how, or why this sh*t happens. Google, WHY???
Awesome video, Charles! So refreshing to hear stories of other people being human and messing up while working on cars. I think I've been so ashamed to talk about my failures as a tech with other techs that it's further reinforced the shame of messing up! Thanks for showing us it's okay to look back and laugh cause we're all human!
+Hans Umana HAHA, right on! I am sure not proud of them, but hey it happens. :)
This is old and gold (and long), but was costly in the end:
A Colleague changed engine oil (he thought) in his 1994 Audi 100 (C4) 2,5 Diesel (inline 5) Auto ZF transmission.
After replacing the filter and filling up the engine, he noticed the oil level being (very) high but thought it was due to an air bubble in the tube or something.
Day 2 he went to work and after a short drive the engine stuck in full throttle. Switching off the ignition did nothing and the car kept accelerating like a bat out of hell.
He eventually stopped the vehicle and put it in neutral. When he switched on the ignition, the rev counter was sort off on to its second lap...Say 6-7K upwards...
After some time he put the gear selector in "Park" and walked away (due to the smoke and noise) and after another while the engine stopped.
Background:
The poor guy drained the transmission and added dual qty of oil in the engine.
My bad:
My biggest mistake was taking the wrecked car on. The Z
Don't do a heater core in a chevy equinox. Just don't do it.
+TheFlyingFetus I feel that way about many heatercores. Lol
heater core on anything petty much after modern FWDs took over. Even the modern RWDs have become PITA.
I had a wheel fall off.
Twice.
Yikes. Same wheel? :)
Nope! I'm a little paranoid now about tightening wheel studs on alloy wheels, ones without steel inserts anyway. Then I check them again a week later.
+Donald Sayers use a torque wrench to make sure they are tight enough
Ehhh just run those fuckers tight with an impact, sure can warp parts and isn’t technically correct but I’d rather screw up a part than be responsible for killing someone. Haven’t ever had a wheel issue with any of my vehicles lol.
I retrofitted power steering on a Jeep CJ7 I used to own. It worked great, but a couple days later there was a bad leak near the steering gear. I tightened up the hose fittings and clamps, but nothing worked. I then called friend with a long history of working on Jeeps. He was under my Jeep less then 10-seconds before he found the problem. There was a clearance problem between the bottom of the grill and the return hose right next to the steering gear. It was in a weird spot and hard to see, but the edge of the steel the grill had cut through the hose. The clearance issue was solved by bending the edge a little with a pair of pliers, and there was enough extra length in the return hose I was able to simply cut off the bad end and refit it to the steering gear. I spent hours trying to find the problem, and minutes actually fixing it.
I was servicing this nice BMW 328i x-drive diesel. took it for the test drive, everything ran great, had nice power, drove great, and no issues, so I get it into my bay, and start the courtesy inspection, checking suspension, check for any leaks, and fluid levels. I pry up the lastic cover like many newer cars have. I hear a hiss come from nearby. I look down, and see an intake with a sensor and think, oh, ok, I released a vacuum hose, or an area of the intkae that see's vacuum pressure (not familiar with BMW's at all). I see no leaks, and put the cover back on. everything is ok on the car. I bring my slip to the service rep, and grab my oil filter and start the service, I mention to him it needs a rotation, and start to drain the oil, and pul all 4 tires. I completed those, and put the car down, service writer comes out "you have another waiter, you almost done?", "yeah 5 minutes, just need to change the filter, and fill with oil, and torque the lugs", I change the filter, put oil in, torque the lugs. I start the car, clear the service warning. So i go on the test drive, car has NO POWER... felt like driving a 3 cylinder fiesta... wtf.. a warning light comes on when I try to give it some skinny pedal... CRAP!! I start to have nightmares... I pull into the bay, I go see the shop foreman thinking I just fucked up, I gotta pack up my brand new toolbox, and go home... I hook up the scan tool, and read the engine codes, low pressure, values too low.. hmm.. I cant think of why, so I clear the codes, and go for aniother drive.... I get about 15 ft from the shops front drive to realize..,"OH CRAP, that hiss must have been a vacuum line to the turbo... duh!!" I get back to the shop, pop the hood. shop foreman looks over, "what's up", "I know what the issue is, I heard a hiss when i pulled up on this engine cover". He prodded me for being dumb, and I found the line plugged it in, cleared the codes, and ran like a dream.. I lost my waiter during this 15 minutes fiasco, and at the end of the day wound up with dead time, sulked, and cleaned my bay, and tools... felt so humiliated as a new tech..
I watched the director of an orphanage in Mexico pouring oil from a 5 gallon bucket into a tractor as it poured out into his boot. that is why they put a plug in the crankcase.
HAHA, we had a guy do that.
lolololololol
hey if it makes you feel any better not too long ago I dropped a new work laptop worth over 500$, I was the first one in my company to do so. And yes owning up to your mistakes is a big deal. I could of just said a customer hit it off the desk but I took the hit. on my car i do a lot of my own work but for some of the big stuff I like to take it in. this guy happily took over 1500|$ to fix some stuff and exhaust leak on my vibe and it still sounds like crap. what can you do.
+Richard parnell It's part of it for sure!
I broke the screen on our scan tool last week. LOL
+HumbleMechanic tech in the bay next to me left a wireless obd head to a scanner in a car, never saw it again, who knew tthose things cost 1,000 dollars.
I operated a repair shop during the 1990's, we worked on EVERYTHING. A not-so mechanically-inclined friend of mine had a early 80's chevy 305 V8 T-top camaro, one of the last carburetor emission monsters that never ran right when they were new. I often let this friend do his own oil change on it. He was griping that it "had no power, I'm afraid to drive and pull out into traffic".
It was the general consensus between the four of us that worked in the shop that the catalytic converter was clogged, causing a restriction in the exhaust (this was common on this era of cars equipped with carburetors and shitty emission control systems). Since it was my friends' car, I told this kid working for me to neatly cut the pipe behind the converter, bust out the clogged catalyst with a bar & hammer, start the engine, rev it up and blow it out, then I'd quickly reconnect the pipe with a weld.
So I left my friend and the kid to their own devices while I was attending to other things in a busy shop. I hear them revving the open exhaust V8 engine up and laughing at all the noise & converter chunks blowing out. I think "great they are almost done", expecting to be asked soon to finish the job by welding the pipe back on. After a 1/2 hour of unnatural silence & not much action from the corner of the shop they were in, the kid come to me with his head low.
"It wont start again. Just goes click click click, like it's stuck". I go over to investigate. My friend looks like he's about to have a heart attack. Sure enough "click, click, click" is all it would do. The kid's in the car, on the lift, in the air, going click click click, my friend and I are under the car when he shows me the engine oil drain plug in his hand.
Apparently the two of them didn't communicate with each other. They seized the engine while revving it with no oil, the kid didn't know that the friend pulled the oil plug, the friend didn't realize what he had done until it wouldn't start any longer.
I keep my cool, spend 2 minutes welding the pipe so it wont drag against the ground, (welding always calms my nerves, something to do with the focus required) & to help make my friend believe his car is not JUNK NOW. I push the car into the parking lot for the duration of the day to use the lift for other work. I tell my friend the kid will take you home, and I will call him the sometime tomorrow.
Next morning I go out in the parking lot with my coffee, a Marlboro and a breaker bar. I put the bar on the crank bolt and the motor popped loose after a few tugs. I have the kid fill it with fresh oil, and tell him to let it run in the parking lot, but keep an eye on it. All morning we let it run at an idle under the theory to "break it in". I took it to get our lunch. Seamed OK, it was even alright to pull in front of traffic now.
My friend drove that car for YEARS afterwards, only giving up on it because the transmission was bad and it was by then a very rusted out car. If you told me this story, I'd say bullshit also. Try that with any car made in the last 25 years...
True story.
+Rockitanski dude that is freaking amazing!!!
+HumbleMechanic the most indestructible, largest volume manufactured, longest production run V8 in the world, the original chevy small block, was the brain child of a german engineer - Zora Arkus Duntov
Love humble mechanic, I’d missed this vid, love the honesty and as others have said we all make mistakes. I’m not a mechanic, but have been diy’ing for 30 years, did the front brakes on my car a few years back let it off the jack (from jack stands) forgetting I had not (stupidly, I know) put the car in gear and best of all put the hand brake on and watched it roll forward about 50yds into a barn door, breaking the bumper and front fogs. What an utter t*t I felt, especially as I was supervising my daughter change her own oil.
Reminds me of a time I'd replaced the front brake pads on a friend's car, then run it forwards up onto ramps to do other work underneath. Later, rolling it back off again, as it rolled down the slope, no brakes! Hadn't pumped the pedal to push the caliper pistons out again after the pad change. Pumped it several times, an dstopped about an inch from the car behind. Very lucky.
Beetles and windows... they suck. Period. Not your fault.
see one thing i cant stand is my boss expects us to be 100% perfect all the time and then he will rip into anyone who makes even the slightest mistake and will not fire the lazy people at all and all the guys who do bust their asses day in and day out tend to be threatned with getting fired if we dont follow his directions like they were from the bible or something..hell im currently getting gripped at by him about getting a haircut when a coworker has hair 5x longer than mine and im always in a hat so i think hes bitchin just to bitch but hell i dont know
I just quit working for a micromanager like that. It's not worth the stress.
First thank you for being so honest you are truly a gentleman and a great technician! I myself am in a professional automotive technician since 1981 recently retiring this year. But the bottom line here is the flat rate system it is not good for the technician it is not good for the owner of the vehicle it is only good for the dealership and the manufacture. Now we can argue this to the ends of the earth but having been a flurry technician since 1981 to 2018 it is the root cause of problems!
Did an ATS torque converter and a Code 62 kit in the pump and a stater support bushing on a 97 Ford F250 powerstroke. Pulled the trans and transfer case, did the work, pulled the over drive drum to clean and inspect it. Put it all back together put it in the truck filled up the fluid, started to clean up and found the over drive bearing stuck to the bottom of my magnetic tray.......Bummer. Had to do it all over again
When did Rip Trippers become a mechanic? haha
Been working on cars for 20yrs, professionally for 5yrs, never had any really bad problems I couldn't remedy quickly, I had top notch mentors, anyway, most of the problems I read in the comments aren't mechanic problems, they are total f*cking idiot problems ! lol
Jennifer Anne LOL OK?
I had a 05 or 06 f150 in for binding steering, diagnosed the steering shaft was junk (fairly common up here in the rust belt) it's a quick job, the guy was waiting and it was almost lunch. I used a bungee cord to hold the radiator hose out of my way to get to the lower pinch bolt. Finished the job, backed the truck up, parked it out front and it was gushing coolant. I had forgotten to take that bungee cord off and a pulley had cut right into the hose.
this video makes me feel so much better, i'm a month in as a new lube tech at Mazda, and the other day i had a car in the air, but one of the lift arms was extremely close to the side skirt so i let it down just to adjust it and be on the safe side, but i forgot that i left the oil catch pan under the car, i honestly don't know how i left it under there but it completely slipped my mind. gotta tell my assistant manager tomorrow though, so wish me luck on that.
+Oscar paguada Good luck man. Things like that happen. Just make it right, and learn from the mistake.
My worst mistake ever! I had to juggle a few repairs to squeeze in VVT solenoids on a Chevy Equinox. Quick simple job, will sometimes be the issue, but typically that error code means timing chain, so take a 20 minute gamble, compared to a 2 hour gamble.
Of course, CEL comes right back on with the same code, so run to the parts store for the timing kit, working after hours.
My mom called, inviting me to dinner, I tell her I can't, I'm in the garage, so she says she'll have my dad bring over tacos.
Dad comes in just as I hand tighten the 1st camshaft sprocket to make sure everything is aligned before pulling the tensioner pin, then stop for dinner.
Go back out after dinner, finish it all up, set everything to torque except the 1st sprocket.
Start the car, CEL is off, go to back it off the ramps, hear a loud clank as the car stalls.
Needless to say, I didn't have time for a valve job, call a shop I trust, have it towed there, and pay $1200 to get her car back to her a week later.
My biggest mistake so far is agreeing to work on a Chevy Cavalier. Those dinky wheel cylinders in the drums popped when I went to prime the brakes after I was done, causing air to be introduced to the ABS system. It didn't take much to pop them which is scary.
I like your honesty, not all mechanical/electrical people will admit that they make mistakes.
GO NAVY!
Doing a 3.5 Ecoboost f150 short block, got it out, rebuilt, installed, and fully finished started truck and everything ran perfect shut it off to check for leaks, no leaks present went to start the truck and it wouldn't start, found I had pushed the rubber access plug for the torque converter nuts too far in and it had wedged itself between the flywheel and block which overpowered the starter motor. Luckily was able to pull it out without any additional damage
Was bench racing with some of my buds and mentioned your podcast. One of them reminded me of the screw up I made on my own 1969 427 Corvette. Had to change the fuel pump (remember, this is in the old days when the pump was operated by a lever in contact with a lobe on the camshaft. Well, this is a simple job so I don't have to read the manual! I just disconnected the fuel line and pulled the pump out. Clunk! What was that? Well, seem the fuel pump lever is driven by a rod that is in contact with the cam lobe. The proper method is to remove a bolt from the water pump and thread a longer bolt in the hole...which goes through the block and locks the pump rod in place. My pump rod was now in the oil pan.Well, I bought a new rod with the new pump and drove the car another 40,000 miles with the rod rolling around in the oil pan. It would peek at me at every oil change but I couldn't find a way to get it out. When I pulled the engine for a rebuild and removed the pan my fuel pump rod was there to greet me. I always consult the manual before working on any car, truck or motorcycle.
I love it when top mechanics can admit to massive screw-ups - makes them human. Probably my worst habit is dropping bolts/clips into the engine bay and then taking hours to find them. I've even had O-rings roll through the engine bay, off down the road and down the cocking drain! So unprofessional.
As the age old adage goes, "to err is human" and the one that goes something like "it's not how good we are, but how well we deal with the bad" ( which is probably wrong, but it works).
I remember one in particular. When i started my apprenticeship i had never done any mechanical work at all, ever on a car. Blocked, sand and painted a few but never anything mechanical. So, when the company owner asked me to swap the wheel and tire on the front of his 1 year old (Ford) Tickford Turbo Capri ( for those that dont know, it was a very special, very limited edition, all gussied up by Aston Martin Tickford Ltd). There were only 80 of them ever built when they were new and alot of the bodywork was formed around a pretty radical body kit...like i say...only 80.
So, i cracked the wheel nuts before i jacked the car up, just like you should (going well so far ) and i got the jack and put it in the little slot designed to take the jack and start to wind...and, for a while, things were going great, the jack was going up and the car was going up too...but, then, that's when it all went tits up! there was this really strange squawking sound...almost like a small parrot having its neck wrung, but the thing that made me go cold, was the big black crack appearing right where the jack was disappearing. The majority of the car was no longer going up...the jack was, and the bottom of the front fender was. But, in general the car was not levitating as it should.
I lowered the jack, hoping that the crack might disappear, i really did hope that it would be gone...but, nope, it was still there. I thought i may get away with it, but that "squeak...crack!" every time you opened and shut the drivers door put paid to that one. If the crack didnt get his attention, the miniature gunshot every time he got in the car certainly would. He was pretty mad when i told him, but he made a joke about it to everyone else when he thought i was out of earshot. SO i think the telling off was more of a lesson than real anger. I did spend a few extra hours of my own time repairing it though ( i didnt mind, i loved doing bodywork repairs and fab work). But, whatever the reason, it worked because from then on i always checked to make sure i was jacking in the right place ( and i learned better techniques and jack positionings) and nowadays i know the difference between a jacking point and one of those holes left behind after dipping the shell. But from then until this day, i still look at the bottom of the front fender of every Capri i see (not so many nowadays ) and take solace that i am not the only dickhead in the world to curl the front fender of a Ford Capri due to unclear jacking point literature and i even found a Technical Service Bulletin covering this very same topic.
The moral of this story is, no matter how bad you fuck up, man up, be honest and learn from it. Because the fact of the matter is, in all probability, there is someone, somewhere that firked up way, WAAYY worse than you did.
I never did change that tire actually!
As a relatively inexperienced DIY wrencher, I was replacing the power steering pressure hose on my Jeep Liberty. I screwed in the pump end, then the steering rack end. At the point where it was tight at the rack, I could still see threads showing on the hose fitting. Being stupid, I thought I had to get it to the point where there were no visible threads, so I kept tightening... and eventually there was a sharp crack, a whistle of pressure escaping, and I'd ruined a perfectly good steering rack.
+dunebasher1971 OUCH!
I had a great mechanic to learn off as an apprentice, always told me his mistakes and how to avoid them. Also never made me feel bad for my own.
During an oil change I transposed the number for an oil filter on a Toyota troop carrier. Oil filter is on the upper left side of the motor and awkward to tighten up. Thing was filter was almost identical to the correct one. It actually did tighten, and as it happened, owner of the shop was there and due to his smaller hands he could get a better grip on the filter, so I asked him to check it.
Seemed OK obviously close, but not close enough. We ran the engine for a bit as we were checking something else, (no leaks at this stage), and the car idled fine for 5-10 minutes. Engine was revved a bit, just prior to leaving.
Vehicle was just about to be driven off for delivery, and I see a stream a big black puddle and a thick stream of oil following the car.
Luckily the driver was reversing slowly and I got him to stop before he drove off. We pop the hood and the oil filter had popped off the screw.
After fixing the F-up, I was left to clean about 5 litres of oil of the floor, (engine takes 8-10)
I put it partially down to being in a rush. That's usually when most screw ups occur - in a rush, being constantly interrupted, or being the 3rd, 4th, 5th hand to work on a job.
Service and change a started motor. After backing the car out, I inform the shop owner the car won't rev, (he did the service and I changed the starter motor).
He immediately begins to question "what else did I touch..." when changing the starter motor (which in this case is nothing since it's and easy swap). We look at the idling engine and I shrug, then he remembers when he blew out the air box he shoved a rag into the intake to keep the dust out. Stop the car, pull out the intake to find a rag caught in the throttle body. No harm no foul...phew.
I saw a guy do an inframe on a C-15 CAT. He for some reason forgot to bolt down the Radiator support brackets. When he started the engine the fan sucked the Radiator backward into the fan. The fan exploded and shot pieces all over the freaking place and destroyed the Radiator, coolant everywhere. lucky no one was hit by shrapnel.
Great video, Charles! I really appreciate how candid you are about things! It was great to get a chance to talk with you in July at the Meet Up, and I know LeeAnn really appreciated your encouragement. She got a job as a tech at a Ford dealership last fall and is doing well and loving it!
+Helga Loncosky AWESOME AWESOME AWESOME!!! I hope you guys are all doing well. Thanks for the kind words. I really appreciate it. :) Hope to see you guys at this years ETCG meet up.
Seen and done a few big mistakes in the 20 years been wrenching. My favorite was not me, the guy next to me was trying to run some de-carbon stuff through a Ford Focus. Shop foreman told him, use a vacuum line and let it suck it in. He used the brake booster hose, sucked in way to much fluid, hydrolocked motor, bent a rod. The original complaint was pings on accel.
Awesome video, I'm a new mechanic and have been working at a shop for about a year now. I replaced the heater core in my car recently and ever sense then the clock on my dash flashed when I hit the blinkers, I have no clue why😅
I once did a complete rebuild on an MR2. Put it all back....dropped a small bolt and thought it vanished forever. Starter it up fine...drove kind of weird then noticed a leak. F!!! input shaft seal is leaking...tear the trans out...tear it all apart. replace the seal...put it back together.
STILL LEAKING!!! Tear it apart again and realized that the bolt I dropped fell perfectly between a ton of wires and hoses, bounced 90 degrees into the small opening for the starter and nicked the trans causing the leak! Could've welded it, but didn't want to chance it so ended up replacing the whole transmission lol.
It went from a 6 hour job to 1.5 hours the 3rd time pulling it.
Last oil change i did on my 06 Dodge(, it was in the dark). The old oil filter gasket stuck to the block. Next morning driving around to hook up the trailer , oil all over the driveway and street. Probably pumped most of it out.that sucked bad!!! I'm about to go repair the supercharger nose in the GTP, lets just hope for no mistakes...