It's pretty refreshing. I saw some video of a mechanic on here that was fixing something else and saw a brand new oil filter and said "Aftermarket oil filter..." and you could almost *hear* his eyes roll. What kind of mechanic thinks less of a person for changing their own oil????
1972 Im 14. Changing the points on older sisters 1969 Plymouth Belvedere slant six. Drop points screw down distributor. Get new screw and install. Start engine. Runs ok. Dad goes out hours later to use the car and crank no start. Screw lodged in advance mechanism which locked the dist and sheared the nylon dist gear. Had to be towed to repair shop. After that I bought one of those spring loaded screw holders. 46 years later I still have that tool. And 46 years later I still remember that Dad didnt get angry. Lost him in 2016 at age 94 and I so miss him. SMA#1 God bless Paul
My father taught me how to work on cars also.. still too this day I am a good mechanic with auto and motorcycle, small gas engines., and miss my father also, he passed in 1986 age 57.8 years.I am now 58 and enjoy working on my own cars and tinkering around.
Wait till we get a solar flare and it wipes out 300 million cars and you're going to wish you still had a points ignition system sitting in your garage
My Dad taught me everything, about working on cars. He left me in 2016 age 91. Everyday I think of him. Greatest teacher i could have in life and in profession!!
I'm a shade tree mechanic at best, and even that may be a stretch. I try to help friends and family with car issues when I can. Had a friend ask me to do a brake job. I did it, no problem, but when she was driving it one of the calipers seized. Turns out I wasn't as thorough as I should have been when I tightened everything down and one of the bolts actually worked its way loose and the caliper jammed itself against the wheel. She had it towed to a shop close to her and when I called to pay for my mistake the owner told me "No charge, I put a bolt back in it, I've made the same mistake" That made me feel a little better, but I still cringe when I think about how I screwed that up. Thanks for a great channel, I learn something new every time I watch your videos.
"Read your job sheet" the boss was so pleased i had removed a Scania engine in under the time, it was just a shame it was supposed to be another truck across the yard !!
Heated a piston with propane torch to put in the wrist pin, which was in ice water. Set the propane torch down, grabbed the piston, bent over to put in the pin and set my hair on fire. Didn't realize I was on fire until I smelled a horrible odor. No injury but a memorable moment is screw ups.
lmao! I set torch down once on top a water heater doing plumbing, in tight basement, it was still lit and aimed directly onto the floor joist, which happily and quickly ignited. I was a kid and had water there to quickly put it out. danged kids doing plumbing lol
A guy i worked with called me a risk taker. I said damn right i am. TIP- if your scared to take a little risk once in awhile, stay home in bed, im sure the boss will understand. That guy NEVER got ANYTHING done. He ALWAYS relied on someone else.
I was under my house trying to hook 115 volt line to run to my shed. There was 2 lines the other one was 220 running to my baseboard heat. I turned the power off and laying on my back pulled the 115 line down to cut. I then looked away to get my side cutters. When I looked back up I did not realize that the 115 volt had returned to it's location and I cut the wire closest to my face. When I got my vision back my side cutters were glowing bright red with sparks coming off of them. I still have those side cutters and now I can also use them to strip wires because of the round spot burned into the center.
Your customer sounds like a viewer, one of us. This kind of error could happen to anybody, explaining why the pro is so careful to leave a bread crumb trail to find his way home.
i can make a laundry list of mistakes i've made with my 98 cavalier. headlights, to tires, to oil, to coolant. they should teach basic car repairs in drivers ed.
The first time I replaced my plugs, it ran like poop. I drove it to a mechanic. He put the wires in the correct order and didn’t want any money. I bought him lunch. Never happened again.
Mytwistedvoices what I learned in mechanic school is, that the 10 seconds it takes to masking tape and label the plug wires can save you hours and a headache.
I was 16 before any mechanic schooling or UA-cam. Call it a learning experience. I have a BS in Avionics, AS in Aviation maintenance (licensed aircraft maintenance technician, I am a pilot and I have a degree in electronic engineering. Spark plug wires are easy now.
@tim coker Love the old Chargers, I'm rebuilding my 1978 Honda CB750 Supersport. I have a video somewhere on UA-cam about it. Just replaced all four rubber brake lines on my 2012 Caravan, one blew and lost all the fluid. The ABS was fine so normal bleeding and the van is perfect!
You are a good man Eric! No gloating, no condescending, etc. Not a surprise to those of us that consider ourselves loyal followers of you and SMA. Thanks again!
kennedy796 I have 8 clothes pins numbered 1-8 with a sharpie. Stick em on before pulling anything apart and I don't have to worry about putting it back together.
That's how I learned to do it. At worst, the wires are unlabeled, so if you take them off, there's very little indication where they should go. Do them one by one, and it's impossible to make a mistake :)
After 5 hours of rebuilding a transmission, giving it to the installer and finding that important snap ring on the side of my bench! Boy was he pissed.
Props to the owner for sharing his misfortune and letting others learn. After all none of us are immune from error. I like how Eric handles these teaching moments and doesn’t belittle people. Great job Eric, as always.
You're lucky. I spent more than that pounding on a brake rotor, which didn't even have a working parking brake. I had to cut the rotors off. You know its a bad day when the sledge hammer isn't strong enough.
I did that just last month on my F-150. Luckily I realized it was on after it didn't budge after 5 or 6 whacks. It's also the second time I've done it. Guess I'll never learn haha!
I did this and brought out the torch to heat up the drums, thinking they were rusted on. Only after half a can of lubricant and a lot of hammering did I realized the parking brake was set. Oh well!
Nice vid. I like how you thought about things: 1) you read the customer info provided, 2) you thought about what to check, 3) you used a diagnostic tool to assess the running problem one cylinder at a time, 4) you determined what things (ignition wiring) are supposed to look like, 5) you examined how the car is actually setup. You deduced that connectors were incorrectly placed and rectified the situation. Also, excellent DIY advice: before taking anything apart TAKE A LOT OF PICTURES! Too bad every car mechanic isn't like you. I hope the customers beat a path to your door!
Taking lots of pictures before tearing into anything is some of the best advice possible! After realizing how much it helps with drum brakes I started doing it any time I get into something I'm not familiar with. I also try to disconnect only one plug at a time if possible.
Some of these newer wiring harnesses the force you to remove all of it at the same time like all three coils just because of how short they are things like that but they're still just enough to plug into each other luckily I've had enough experience and training wisdom doing this for 18 years now day in and day out I've luckily never made that mistake yet
Hello! Once in a while you had said "This must be the most boring video …". It was not. Seeing how the work gets done, mistakes and all, does not make a video boring. When you talk to the camera and let us in on what is going on, that is great. I watched the repair of a stripped spark plug hole [from about 3 years ago]. While we could not see directly what you were doing, your explanations and demonstrations of what was going on were very effective. Seeing the results with the endoscope was a great finish to the process. I thank you for taking the extra time to record the process of repairs you make. Each of your videos tells a story well. I also appreciate your respect of other channels which do a good job so you do not feel you have to do things they demonstrate well. Note -- I knew a gal whose husband likely replaced the spark plugs in her car. He pulled all of the ignition wires without marking where they connected. And he took the ignition wires off of the distributor. You know the result -- the car barely held on running. A friend of hers and mine rearranged the connections to help the car run a little more smoothly. While so whacked as the system was, the change helped her drive the car somewhere to get the order fixed. I have not done real mechanical work on any car. I did replace a radio. I forgot where the fuse was located. I connected through the proper wire line, not remembering it had a fuse on it. [The car was old enough to use cylindrical fuses. And the radio fuse was in an add-on capsule.] When I finished the change the radio did not work. Except for a couple of seconds when the car ran over a bump that reconnected the broken wire in the fuse. I think I finished the fix. Which might not have been needed if only the fuse were changed. [The newer radio was an upgrade. It was all good.]
I figured that’s what he did - got the wires mixed up. An old man I knew told me about buying a 32 Ford hot rod back in the 1950’s. The owner was selling it because it ran like shit and he couldn’t figure out the problem. It was a dog: Not missing, but no power. My buddy took it down to the local garage where the owner let him use the bay to work on his own car to do a tune up. It had a dual distributor Mallory ignition and he pulled all the plug wires without marking them. Then he had to ask for help so the owner got out the shop manual and they figured out the firing order and got it put back together. Suddenly the car was a screamer. It would lay rubber all the way down the block. The guy who sold it had it firing out of order. Just like your customer.
i was an auto mechanic for 32 years and have seen all kinds of weird and crazy customer issues. one time a woman brought in a caprice classic,305ci engine with 4 barrel carb. the car was only a few years old at the time and it was running rough and smoking a ton out the exhaust. turns out the engine was literally full of oil up to the valve cover. the woman thought changing the oil meant putting another 5 quarts in never realizing that old oil needed to be drained out and filter replaced. so we drained it and put the proper amount of oil back in and swapped the plugs. it smoked for about 15 minutes or so afterwards but cleared and was running just fine after that
After years of working my own vehicles, I learned always take pictures, label, and have a few extra 10mm around. Also buying a nice scan tool will help you tremendously.
16 years old, first car, tried to change oil, drained transmission instead. It was a stick shift and very hard to put in gear that day until I figured it out.
Sometimes when you're elbow deep in a project, it's easy to miss the obvious. I work in bus garages, and I think most of us have had a situation where we can't get something to work, only for someone else to sort it out in seconds. In a similar train of thought, sometimes it's best to walk away for a bit, then come back with a fresh, clear mind.
One of hardest times troubleshooting something was when I changed a motor in a car and it would run but only idle slowly. Any amount of over idle it would not go or quit. After spending like a whole day going over EVERY LAST THING I finally got the notion to try disconnecting the exhaust pipe and it went zoom. Turns out the old engine blew so much oil it plugged up the catalytic converter and sitting made it solid. Now when I was on forums helping troubleshoot other people’s cars one of my favorite questions when it sounded possible was “ have you tried disconnecting your exhaust?”
The funny thing is that this is universal to any kind of troubleshooting. It's exactly the same for programmers who can't figure out why certain code doesn't behave as it should. Then someone else with a fresh pair of eyes comes along and spots the issue in a matter of seconds after you wasted hours or even days on it. Happens to everyone occasionally. :)
Yes, and sometimes after an all-day struggle all it takes is for someone to walk by and make some offhand remark about the issue to trigger the inspiration to solve it in a minute or two. Had that happen more than once.
You have a very modest personality most mechanics would ridicule someone who makes mistakes, your not only a great diagnostic tech, but awesome teacher
When I was 15, I rode a little Yamaha DT100 everywhere. One day the bike would Idle and move at low rpm's But as soon as she was opened up , she fell on her face. I limped it to a small shop after I couldn't figure out what was wrong. The mechanic came out after my explanation, Lifted the seat , removed my gloves from the intake of the air filter and said. That'll be 20 bucks.
He's gotta make money where he can haha! I had an old Yamaha timberwolf I was working on but didn't have a new air filter for the test drive (the old one fell apart). So I managed find a larger foam filter I had laying around and attached it to the cage with a couple of zip ties just temporarily for the test drive. It dies about 10 minutes into the ride. I looked to check the usual suspects but everything was fine. Then it dawned on me that the air filter may have got sucked through the carb and sure enough it did. It got pulled all the way through the carb then hung up on the intake valve steam. Pulled that out, went and bought the correct filter then all was well again.
Had an "meticulous (anal)" buddy who put a plastic bag over the intake to his jet ski for winter storage. Come summer, he couldn't figure out why it wasn't running right....I'm sure you can figure it out from here.
Especially on an engine you don’t know very well. I know my cylinder numbers and distributor on my old truck is numbered. If it was any other vehicle your method can’t be messed up.
changed manual transmission oil AT NIGHT , 100% dark night, with a torch light.. filler hole on top of transmission through engine compartment ( front drive) .. used a funnel to stick in the fill hole and poured 3 Liters of oil into it... until i heared a strange sound reminding me of some liquid pouring on a surface... the funnel was not in the hole , it was next to it.. 3 liters of transmission oil allover my transmission, drive axle, subframe and of course the drive way... it took me weeks and countless power washes to get the oil off my car and several bottles of oil stain remover to "repair" the rive way... an insane mess....my dad was very pissed of because of that huge stain. I looked like somebody drained an oil tanke And of course could not drive to work the next morning because I had no more tranny oil
Did this while baked on my DRZ400, its got 3 drain plug locations, and 1 magnetic filter. I left 1 loose.... 50oz car wash on the ground cleaned it up nicely.
my dad said he wanted to teach me how to do a tune up. he had a '77 ford 351. his method of changing the wires was to remove all of them at the same time. he then said the "correct" way was to put them back in order down one side then the other. he obviously had the firing order totally wrong and had no idea how to fix it. the neighbor came over and figured it out, but dad still insisted his way was right even though it wouldn't start.
When I was rebuilding my Daughters engine in her 1998 Nissan Altima I mixed the Distributor plug with the transmission speed sensor... car wouldn't start and started poking around. The plugs are the SAME color but not the WIRES, after 2 hours of scratching my head I switched the plugs and she fired right up. Great video, even mechanics can make this mistake.
My buddy was trying to drill out bolts..called me..he ruined a bunch of bits..I showed up and was watching..turned out he was using the drill in reverse..
Reminds me of the occasional fella who changes his wheel, thinking to himself..."Man these are tight..." Of course he is turning the wrong way and breaking the studs.
I’m a carpenter/contractor. I hired a young kid...18..at his fathers request( one of my customers) . He thought it would be good for his son to experience some real world stuff. I laid out a bunch of locations on some lumber denoting where to drill holes. I told him to drill the holes and bring the lumber around back where I was working. This was an addition to a residence. I turned him loose and I went around back to work. Time passes...no lumber. I walk back to the horses in the front....kid is sweating bullets. Yea, same thing....running drill bit backwards. I canned him. I think he was happy to go. I assume he is now a lawyer/accountant/I.T. guy. Something with soft hands. Different strokes. Dave Heitman Semper Fidelis
Cheepchipsable I had a blowout while driving my Dads 61 Plymouth Fury back in 1967. I was 16 on my way home from my job at the Safeway grocery store. I was doing 110 when it happened, but I digress. Stopped, jacked up car,.....”damn, these lugs are tight”. I twisted one off. Shit. Tried another. Twisted it off. Shit!!!! Tried righty loosey on the next and it came off easily. Chrysler Corp lugs back then were righty tighty on one side of the car and righty loosely on the other side. Learned that the hard way. Dad was pissed. That was 53 years ago. One year later, at age 17 I joined the Marines. I was 17 so my dad had to sign the papers giving permission since I was under 18. He almost set the paper on fire from signing so fast. I think he was glad to see me go. My younger brother then took over the responsibility of driving Dad nuts. My brother succeeded in doing so. He knocked up his girlfriend at age 18. She was 19. They are still married. And very happy. In 1971 my brother ....same brother....drove his new 1971 ‘Cuda 340, 4 speed ...”up a tree”. I was in Vietnam and missed out on the aftermath of that shitstorm. Dave Heitman Semper Fidelis
ERIC: Mr. Customer, you plugged two wires in wrong. Customer: I feel silly.... ERIC: Don’t feel silly! That will be $425. Please pay Mrs. O at the Window. 🤣🤣🤣👍
@@smackdaddy1ful When you have to take half the car apart to get to a plug or anything else for that matter. It's not cheap. My tools and time are not free. At least he didn't have to pull the upper intake off.
Never get tired of the Austin Powers references in Eric O's videos. It runs "smooth". Also playing space invaders with the center console controls were super fun!
Thanks for the video Eric! We all find ourselves in trouble from time to time. I once did a front brake job on my 98 Ranger. I failed to realize when I took off the rotors that the inner bearing was inside the rotor. Took it to the machine shop where they turned the rotors. Inner bearings were sitting next to the rotors, but I failed to pick them up. I couldn't figure out why my rotors would not seat properly on the truck... DIY distaster as I towed the truck to the local mechanic. Problem got worse as the ABS sensors were damaged during my failed brake job. Cost me so much more than just paying for a pro brake job. Multiple lessons learned in this one.
"If I can do it, you can do it" goes for mistakes too :) Seriously though, a camera is a great tool for any kind of diagnosis and repair. It's so easy to forget how something was set up originally and having a photo or video record is a cheap & easy way to save your bacon.
It's good that the customer told you everything they did. Most will bring the car in and say nothing. Worst is when they take it to a shop that does all the gravy work, doesn't fix the original problem, and then customer brings it to you to fix.
This video saved me big time. I did the exact same thing this week on a 2007 Dodge Grand Caravan because I wrongly assumed the cylinder firing order was laid out the same way the the ignition coil pack was labeled. Sure enough I had 1 and 3 switched around. I've been trying to figure out what was wrong for the last 3 days and came across your video. Thanks a bunch I almost gave up and took it to a shop for diagnostics.
Watching me do DIY is like watching a Benny Hill skit, only in real time, not fast. Needless to say, that's why I drive truck and not turn wrenches, love your videos by the way.
Doing valve cover gaskets on a Honda Odyssey one time I “completed” the job. Got off from work, went home and woke up in the middle of the night only to realize I didn’t put a gasket on the rear valve cover. Thankfully the customer was out of town and the vehicle hadn’t been picked up yet..
My first oil change on my first car (18 years old). I actually thought I could look inside the valve cover and see the oil level. My buddy never lets me forget that.
When I replaced the head gaskets on my 98 Legacy GT, I swapped the 1 and 3 injector connectors. Ran almost perfectly fine except for a slight miss about once every 30 seconds at hot idle. Not enough to even set a code. I drove it that way for a couple years until one of the classes I attended had a case study for a Subaru that very occasionally set misfire codes at idle because someone had swapped the injector connectors....
Great video and it's nice that your customer gave you a good amount of detail regarding his repairs to get some ideas on where to focus. Hope you're staying busy and enjoying the beautiful weather Eric!
If you don’t want to change 1 plug at a time and replace the connector each time, just get some grease pens of different colors and mark each one before you take any out. Then you can just match red and red, green and green, etc
In my younger days, a particularly fastidious customer brought in a new Pontiac for an oil change. I drained the oil and affixed a new filter. I then pumped new oil from a 55 gal drum into a large metal pitcher with a flexible spout, which we used instead of separate qt cans. As I began to orient the pitcher over the brand-new sparkling clean engine, I lost my balance and poured the entire pitcher over the engine and engine bay as the customer was standing there inspecting my work. Actually, it looked kind of pretty, glistening in the light.
Bought a new '87 Nissan Stanza, was showing it to a mechanic friend. He suggested getting the shop manual. ($75.00 - a lot of money back in '87) Over the years did many small jobs just following instructions. New plugs, headlights, telescoping antenna, electric window, fuel filter, air filter, heat shield, swap winter tires. Worth it, as it taught me about car maintenance. 10 years in, a leaky valve cover. Again, a minor repair, but in my mind something mysterious and new. Bought the gasket and followed the blow up drawing and instructions. Scraped old gasket, dropped in new one. 45 minutes later and the job was complete, The car ran for another 4 years until the wiring harness started showing signs of wear. All kinds of electrical problems. Sold the car for $500.00 bucks. It still ran but I didn't want to spend the time and money trouble shooting multiple problems.
These comments are killing me. I haven’t laughed so hard in a long long time. Glad to know I’m not the only idiot out there. Thanks.Dave Heitman. Semper Fidelis
Gives good warning and advice to those of us who have to save money by doing some of these things on our own. Taking pictures before is great advice!!!
You are non assuming of people and show respect for FYI folks. Many YT screamers hate us for working on our cars. Again, long time viewer and love a night of unwinding learning from you. Best to you and wifey.. Richard
If two similar looking pars can be switched, label them. I keep a set of 6 different color nail polishes (Dollar Store) for that purpose. The 5 minute drying time is worth the wait. Also good for marking things that mechanics you use are supposed to change or move around, like filters and wheels.
Did my own plugs... Replaced with "triple Platinum", thinking they'd be better. Still ran like poo, so I did coil, wires, etc.. No change. Bought a vehicle in the meantime, finally brought it to a pro. Replaced with OEM plugs... That'll be 250 bucks, please. My $20k spark plugs story...
Was still in high school. Changing the oil at my uncles house who kept a very clean driveway. Did not check to see if the old filter gasket was still in the old filter. Let’s just say that an oil pump can drain an oil pan very fast. Meanwhile my friend is on the ground laughing.
TSP cleans oil off concrete very well and cheap. Happened to my mother-in-law’s car many years ago. Hot oil and 3 qts on nice new concrete. You couldn’t tell after I cleaned it off.
I had an 89 5.0 notchback. Stalled out in traffic and wouldn’t restart. Gas gauge read “e” but I “knew” the car and figured a little was left. Had it towed back to the house. Over a couple days put a new distributor in it and other bits. No luck. Had a mechanic friend come over and check it out. He eventually asked if there was gas in it. Put in a gallon....fired right up. It ran out of gas. 😜
get a transmission all the way back together and find a bearing or a seal ring or a snap ring on the bench. now was this the old one or the new one??? and is there more than one outside ? did i replace it? now i have a cardboard box the old parts go into only after the new one is installed. then parts list is compared to the box. nothing worse than being inturrupted on a major job multiple times.
I like the box idea I make a list of all parts to replace check that list and I Mark or destroy the old part. Of course I only destroy (like a gasket or the like after I know the new one is correct). Do I can't reuse the old one. I have left my share of seals out prior to this method haha.
I put a trans in without a torque converter once lucky only bolted to the engine and didnt finish the reat went to put the bolts in and alot of 4 letter words came flying out lol
Worked with a practical joker who used to toss random hardware on my bench when I had some piece of technical mechanical mischief torn apart. First time it happened I ended up doing the parts diagram, old part matching, head scratch. He went by laughing and fessed up as I was about to tear everything apart again. Taught me to be a lot better at organization and less of a chicken plucker parts dismantler.
I must say Eric O is the real deal, had the pleasure of meeting him yesterday on my way up to Akron ny from Florida. I only stopped to say hello for a few minutes as I know he is a busy man. He showed me his shop and we chatted a little and I was off again. A true gentleman, I am impressed. Thanks Eric Sam T.
Cleaning throttle body fuel injectors. Used a black screw driver to hold butterfly valve wide open (cable jam technique). Sprayed gumout. Reassembled. Started nice clean black painted block of a 350 engine. Found out GM puts a rev limiter on that nice engine. Pegged twice before i could kill her. Realized my mistake. (Camouflaged screwdriver) Surprisingly the engine lived a long happy life.
Torsee I heard a story from a friend who test drove his car and forgot to take screwdriver out of choke and he opened it up and it fell through and held it wide open
A dumb mistake I made was when I changed my own spark plus as well. When taking it apart, I saw that the spark plug wires were zip tied up. I didn't re zip tie it after I changed it, thinking it didn't matter, it was just to make it look nicer. Little did I know, it was to help the wires not arc on the engine as they wear. About 4000 miles later, I was getting a misfire. Not knowing how to fix that, I took it to a mechanic who knew what he was doing. He found that and explained the reason. I felt so stupid as a result. I don't think I admitted to him they I had done that, but... Yeah.
My biggest mistake was while doing a fuel pump on a Lincoln inside the tank. At the time we used regular lightbulbs in worklights. Well the service writer came out in the bay and knocked the light off,hitting the open tank igniting EVERYTHING. The fire extinguishers did nothing to control it and by the time the fire Dept got there the car, and half of the garage was on fire. Luckily we got our boxes out and most of the cars but the building was a loss. The only saving grace was the dealership had already started building a new location that was almost finished. But nonetheless I should've covered that tank opening.
A accident like this can happen Even in a professional environment. Just takes seconds for it to occur. Lucky that no one was hurt. This Really something left In the hands of a pro. Fuel work in the hands a novice is not a advisable thing. Thanks for your story SouthJerseySound
@@rollinajoint9657 So true and it was pretty common for the old work lights to start fires back then. Usually they were small but not this time. There was a reason why even service writers weren't permitted in certain areas of the shop and that was one of them. Technically he wasn't supposed to go inside the yellow zones as they called them and a techs lift was a "yellow zone". After the fire the insurance company put a end to using those lights and we had to use the long fluorescent tubes in a plastic housing and they sucked. But now thanks to guys like Astro tools we've got super bright cordless LEDS that are very safe.
Had work at 7am, decided to work on my rear brakes at 10pm. Didn’t finish the job until 5am. Wasn’t aware rear brake pistons require special tools. Now I know to look shit up before hand lmao
Had a co-worker do a brake job before his shift, his driveway was on a hill. He messed up the brake job. Unfortunately he never came to work again. Be careful out there.
Changed the cap, rotor, wires and plugs on a Ford F150 351. At about 35 mph it began popping and backfiring, slowed down below this speed and stopped. Pulled over three times and checked and rechecked wires and firing order, all was correct. Continued driving and problem resumed above 35mph. Finally discovered problem, had loaded a canoe onto the truck's lumber rack, and there was a loose panel in the canoes stern (canoe on backwards, stern towards front of truck) and at 35mph and faster, the wind made the panel flap up and down, smacking the rack and sounding throughout the truck. Lol, had us going for awhile there..........
Wish I had your awesome diagnostics! That intake removal is why the iridium plugs in my wife’s ‘08 Altima Coupe soldiers on with OEM Iridium plugs at 130k. No MIL or performance issues. Also, R&R’ed head gasket on my ‘87 Alfa Spider and foolishly swapped front cam caps left to right (marks can only be seen with close inspection) and since timing marks were not vertical, car ran for crap for months till issue was discovered.😟
I was thinking the same thing. No way I would buy that vehicle. I would look inside and say "next"! Of course maybe it was the wife who loved it. Then I would say "Darlin are you sure you want that?"
Austin Healey Sprite, High School, change the clutch and have the engine back in, bolted up, drive shaft, fluids and electrical. Last thing to do before starting it up was bolt up the bonnet. I turn around to look for any forgotten bolts and what do I see on the work bench, but two release bearings. A new one, and an old one. Good grief!
I was changing plugs and wires on a chevy 350 (maybe it was a 305). I used to have a habit of just ripping every thing off and using the book to run the new plug wires. The ring on the top of the distributor had the cylinder numbers on them. So I hooked them all up according to the numbers on the ring. It wouldn't run for shit so we took it to a local shop and they told us that there are two different cylinder sequences for that chevy. The one on the ring was not the correct firing sequence. As you can guess, I don't just rip the plug wires off anymore. I replace them one by one. Thanks for the videos. I enjoy watching them.
When u was young like 04 I took brakes apart walked to store.... put all back together and couldn't bleed brake. I guess I put the air beeders down instead up. So yeah take pics. This guy up road said 50 theb charged 400 crook... thank God for these channels. Keep it up
Way back when I was first learning how to work on cars. I put a 250 straight 6 in a 79 Z28. It was all I had. But anyhow after getting the engine in. I didnt have all the wires hooked up and just had to hear it run. So I jumped the starter out the car fired up and was in reverse. It drug me across a field before slamming into my dad's 64 GMC. I had to take the walk of shame limping.
I had a similar mistake with a 3.8 series buick regal. I had spark plug wires mixed up, car would not start because I was so sure that the rear heads were 1-3-5 & front 2-4-6. It was clearly the other way around.
I did thay exact thing with a 89' saab 900 2.0 inline 4.the problem was the book actually,the illustration was wrong and didn't show that the engine actually sits backwards (you can replace a clutch in 1-2 hours with this layout)
When I was 16 I changed my spark plugs for the first time and I torqued them down to about 100 foot pounds... the spark plug blew apart on the first crank and I spent a few hours fishing bits of ceramic and metal out of the cylinder with tweezers...
@@ludvigericson6930 i think it would be 1243 or 1342 but it can't jump end to end or much over half the engine length to avoid heavy shaking. 6 cyl might be 135642 but I'm no expert.
Ms. Marie lurking in the background ready to strike! Or work on some brakes. I get those confused sometime - Lord knows the rear drums on my Mk1 VW beat the snot outta me today.
One of the garages on my way to work has a sign that says, "We can fix what your husband did." So far, my wife hasn't had to take one of ours there... So far.
Sorry for the 360p, something on YT's end... It was uploaded in 1080 60fps. Sometimes this takes a while for them to render it.
All is forgiven
The worse mistake I made was ending up with “spare parts” after I changed something in the engine bay 😳
South Main Potato :))
worse part, I didn't even notice, watching in smaller window, too many things going at once
Any one in the UK also? Hiya Eric
Generally it's best to wait until it finishes processing before clicking "publish" :)
Had a foreman who preached "the only person who doesn't make mistakes is the person who doesn't do anything". Too true!
🙌 that's an amazing quote.
Some make more than others though and carry a bag of excuses. Sounds like that could be you :)
Like the fact you encourage DIY. And that you don't gripe any complain and belittle when someone makes a mistake and asks for help. Great videos.
It's pretty refreshing. I saw some video of a mechanic on here that was fixing something else and saw a brand new oil filter and said "Aftermarket oil filter..." and you could almost *hear* his eyes roll.
What kind of mechanic thinks less of a person for changing their own oil????
@@ShellShock794 funny part is that the lube place all use aftermarket oil filters and they are Fram or worse
1972 Im 14. Changing the points on older sisters 1969 Plymouth Belvedere slant six. Drop points screw down distributor. Get new screw and install. Start engine. Runs ok. Dad goes out hours later to use the car and crank no start. Screw lodged in advance mechanism which locked the dist and sheared the nylon dist gear. Had to be towed to repair shop. After that I bought one of those spring loaded screw holders. 46 years later I still have that tool.
And 46 years later I still remember that Dad didnt get angry. Lost him in 2016 at age 94 and I so miss him.
SMA#1
God bless
Paul
Great story. He shaking his finger at you right now. I’m headed to see my dad for probably the last time in two weeks.
He didn't want to spoil it. You had good intentions and everyone screws up now and then, especially while learning.
My father taught me how to work on cars also.. still too this day I am a good mechanic with auto and motorcycle, small gas engines., and miss my father also, he passed in 1986 age 57.8 years.I am now 58 and enjoy working on my own cars and tinkering around.
Wait till we get a solar flare and it wipes out 300 million cars and you're going to wish you still had a points ignition system sitting in your garage
My Dad taught me everything, about working on cars. He left me in 2016 age 91. Everyday I think of him. Greatest teacher i could have in life and in profession!!
I'm a shade tree mechanic at best, and even that may be a stretch. I try to help friends and family with car issues when I can. Had a friend ask me to do a brake job. I did it, no problem, but when she was driving it one of the calipers seized. Turns out I wasn't as thorough as I should have been when I tightened everything down and one of the bolts actually worked its way loose and the caliper jammed itself against the wheel. She had it towed to a shop close to her and when I called to pay for my mistake the owner told me "No charge, I put a bolt back in it, I've made the same mistake" That made me feel a little better, but I still cringe when I think about how I screwed that up. Thanks for a great channel, I learn something new every time I watch your videos.
"Read your job sheet" the boss was so pleased i had removed a Scania engine in under the time, it was just a shame it was supposed to be another truck across the yard !!
Omg 🤣🤣🤣
OUCH!!!
What I love about watching you is your awesome attitude. Thanks for your videos
Heated a piston with propane torch to put in the wrist pin, which was in ice water. Set the propane torch down, grabbed the piston, bent over to put in the pin and set my hair on fire. Didn't realize I was on fire until I smelled a horrible odor. No injury but a memorable moment is screw ups.
lmao! I set torch down once on top a water heater doing plumbing, in tight basement, it was still lit and aimed directly onto the floor joist, which happily and quickly ignited.
I was a kid and had water there to quickly put it out. danged kids doing plumbing lol
This is why I have no hair....
A guy i worked with called me a risk taker. I said damn right i am. TIP- if your scared to take a little risk once in awhile, stay home in bed, im sure the boss will understand. That guy NEVER got ANYTHING done. He ALWAYS relied on someone else.
I was under my house trying to hook 115 volt line to run to my shed. There was 2 lines the other one was 220 running to my baseboard heat. I turned the power off and laying on my back pulled the 115 line down to cut. I then looked away to get my side cutters. When I looked back up I did not realize that the 115 volt had returned to it's location and I cut the wire closest to my face. When I got my vision back my side cutters were glowing bright red with sparks coming off of them. I still have those side cutters and now I can also use them to strip wires because of the round spot burned into the center.
Wayne Gouin
Your customer sounds like a viewer, one of us. This kind of error could happen to anybody, explaining why the pro is so careful to leave a bread crumb trail to find his way home.
Many pros have made similar mistakes. The difference is that you have to get it right before giving it back to the customer...
If he can do it, I can too!
@@ckm-mkc I've had techs call me up with a problem and I tell them exactly what wire they got wrong. How? I've already made that mistake.
i can make a laundry list of mistakes i've made with my 98 cavalier. headlights, to tires, to oil, to coolant. they should teach basic car repairs in drivers ed.
@@bobonlinenet - they use to.
The first time I replaced my plugs, it ran like poop. I drove it to a mechanic. He put the wires in the correct order and didn’t want any money. I bought him lunch. Never happened again.
I didn't connect the spark plug caps properly and started to look for air intake leaks using a flammable aerosol. Never happened again!
Mytwistedvoices what I learned in mechanic school is, that the 10 seconds it takes to masking tape and label the plug wires can save you hours and a headache.
I was 16 before any mechanic schooling or UA-cam. Call it a learning experience. I have a BS in Avionics, AS in Aviation maintenance (licensed aircraft maintenance technician, I am a pilot and I have a degree in electronic engineering. Spark plug wires are easy now.
@tim coker Love the old Chargers, I'm rebuilding my 1978 Honda CB750 Supersport. I have a video somewhere on UA-cam about it. Just replaced all four rubber brake lines on my 2012 Caravan, one blew and lost all the fluid. The ABS was fine so normal bleeding and the van is perfect!
I would switch two wires to prevent my brother from taking my 79 Camaro, without my permission.
You are a good man Eric! No gloating, no condescending, etc. Not a surprise to those of us that consider ourselves loyal followers of you and SMA. Thanks again!
I made this mistake before. Now i just do it one plug at a time. Keeps the confusion down and nothing gets mixed
kennedy796 I have 8 clothes pins numbered 1-8 with a sharpie. Stick em on before pulling anything apart and I don't have to worry about putting it back together.
That's how I learned to do it. At worst, the wires are unlabeled, so if you take them off, there's very little indication where they should go. Do them one by one, and it's impossible to make a mistake :)
My father, who was an engineer, gave me this tip once: when taking something apart for the first time, write down each step as you go along.
Brian McPherson that’s a dang good idea. I’m stealing that one
It's a rite of passage
After 5 hours of rebuilding a transmission, giving it to the installer and finding that important snap ring on the side of my bench!
Boy was he pissed.
That's what is called integrity.
“Hoping to administer the classic reach around.” Lol 😆
I thought you did that on a date??
Usually have to pay extra for that.
At least he had the decency to do a reach around
Hey guys she is someone’s daughter keep it GP.
Rodney Farmer lol he said that in the video bro, not coming from me, that why there are quotes.
Props to the owner for sharing his misfortune and letting others learn. After all none of us are immune from error. I like how Eric handles these teaching moments and doesn’t belittle people. Great job Eric, as always.
Spent a half hour trying to pound off a rusty old rear brake rotor until I realized the emergency brake was set...
You're lucky. I spent more than that pounding on a brake rotor, which didn't even have a working parking brake. I had to cut the rotors off. You know its a bad day when the sledge hammer isn't strong enough.
@@snoopdogie187 Time for the good old hammer drill!
I went with the angle grinder and a cut off wheel. They came off fairly quickly after that.
I did that just last month on my F-150. Luckily I realized it was on after it didn't budge after 5 or 6 whacks. It's also the second time I've done it. Guess I'll never learn haha!
I did this and brought out the torch to heat up the drums, thinking they were rusted on. Only after half a can of lubricant and a lot of hammering did I realized the parking brake was set. Oh well!
Nice vid. I like how you thought about things: 1) you read the customer info provided, 2) you thought about what to check, 3) you used a diagnostic tool to assess the running problem one cylinder at a time, 4) you determined what things (ignition wiring) are supposed to look like, 5) you examined how the car is actually setup. You deduced that connectors were incorrectly placed and rectified the situation. Also, excellent DIY advice: before taking anything apart TAKE A LOT OF PICTURES! Too bad every car mechanic isn't like you. I hope the customers beat a path to your door!
Taking lots of pictures before tearing into anything is some of the best advice possible! After realizing how much it helps with drum brakes I started doing it any time I get into something I'm not familiar with. I also try to disconnect only one plug at a time if possible.
I've always replaced spark plugs one at a time no confusion about the wiring mix ups.
Some of these newer wiring harnesses the force you to remove all of it at the same time like all three coils just because of how short they are things like that but they're still just enough to plug into each other luckily I've had enough experience and training wisdom doing this for 18 years now day in and day out I've luckily never made that mistake yet
@@michaelb.7800 I get my paint pen and get to numbering them 😂
You can still mix them up. Trust me lol
Same, after messing up the first time I ever did plugs. Never again.
Hello!
Once in a while you had said "This must be the most boring video …". It was not. Seeing how the work gets done, mistakes and all, does not make a video boring. When you talk to the camera and let us in on what is going on, that is great.
I watched the repair of a stripped spark plug hole [from about 3 years ago]. While we could not see directly what you were doing, your explanations and demonstrations of what was going on were very effective. Seeing the results with the endoscope was a great finish to the process.
I thank you for taking the extra time to record the process of repairs you make. Each of your videos tells a story well. I also appreciate your respect of other channels which do a good job so you do not feel you have to do things they demonstrate well.
Note -- I knew a gal whose husband likely replaced the spark plugs in her car. He pulled all of the ignition wires without marking where they connected. And he took the ignition wires off of the distributor. You know the result -- the car barely held on running. A friend of hers and mine rearranged the connections to help the car run a little more smoothly. While so whacked as the system was, the change helped her drive the car somewhere to get the order fixed.
I have not done real mechanical work on any car. I did replace a radio. I forgot where the fuse was located. I connected through the proper wire line, not remembering it had a fuse on it. [The car was old enough to use cylindrical fuses. And the radio fuse was in an add-on capsule.] When I finished the change the radio did not work. Except for a couple of seconds when the car ran over a bump that reconnected the broken wire in the fuse. I think I finished the fix. Which might not have been needed if only the fuse were changed. [The newer radio was an upgrade. It was all good.]
I figured that’s what he did - got the wires mixed up.
An old man I knew told me about buying a 32 Ford hot rod back in the 1950’s. The owner was selling it because it ran like shit and he couldn’t figure out the problem. It was a dog: Not missing, but no power. My buddy took it down to the local garage where the owner let him use the bay to work on his own car to do a tune up. It had a dual distributor Mallory ignition and he pulled all the plug wires without marking them. Then he had to ask for help so the owner got out the shop manual and they figured out the firing order and got it put back together.
Suddenly the car was a screamer. It would lay rubber all the way down the block. The guy who sold it had it firing out of order. Just like your customer.
YAYYY, Ms. Marie's back! It's FUN to watch her learn; reminds me of my own auto mechanical experience growing up.
I saw Miss Marie keeping an eye on you. Her famous smile is great! Never has to say anything, just give you that smile!
Nice video Eric! The owner made a mistake but you're always very respectful of customers and I really appreciate that.
Just rebuilt 1st transmission. Put tcc valve in backwards. Had to drop trans to fix. Runs good now!
You always get it right the second time
i was an auto mechanic for 32 years and have seen all kinds of weird and crazy customer issues. one time a woman brought in a caprice classic,305ci engine with 4 barrel carb. the car was only a few years old at the time and it was running rough and smoking a ton out the exhaust. turns out the engine was literally full of oil up to the valve cover. the woman thought changing the oil meant putting another 5 quarts in never realizing that old oil needed to be drained out and filter replaced. so we drained it and put the proper amount of oil back in and swapped the plugs. it smoked for about 15 minutes or so afterwards but cleared and was running just fine after that
After years of working my own vehicles, I learned always take pictures, label, and have a few extra 10mm around. Also buying a nice scan tool will help you tremendously.
16 years old, first car, tried to change oil, drained transmission instead. It was a stick shift and very hard to put in gear that day until I figured it out.
Jeff Fairchild oh sh** 😂😂
Lol, did you put another 5 quarts in your engine?
Lmao
I did the same thing. And, filled the engine with a ton of extra oil. Oops.
I did that in my automatic. Couldn’t even put it in gear. Thankfully no damage was done
Sometimes when you're elbow deep in a project, it's easy to miss the obvious. I work in bus garages, and I think most of us have had a situation where we can't get something to work, only for someone else to sort it out in seconds.
In a similar train of thought, sometimes it's best to walk away for a bit, then come back with a fresh, clear mind.
One of hardest times troubleshooting something was when I changed a motor in a car and it would run but only idle slowly. Any amount of over idle it would not go or quit. After spending like a whole day going over EVERY LAST THING I finally got the notion to try disconnecting the exhaust pipe and it went zoom. Turns out the old engine blew so much oil it plugged up the catalytic converter and sitting made it solid.
Now when I was on forums helping troubleshoot other people’s cars one of my favorite questions when it sounded possible was “ have you tried disconnecting your exhaust?”
The funny thing is that this is universal to any kind of troubleshooting. It's exactly the same for programmers who can't figure out why certain code doesn't behave as it should. Then someone else with a fresh pair of eyes comes along and spots the issue in a matter of seconds after you wasted hours or even days on it.
Happens to everyone occasionally. :)
Yes, and sometimes after an all-day struggle all it takes is for someone to walk by and make some offhand remark about the issue to trigger the inspiration to solve it in a minute or two. Had that happen more than once.
You have a very modest personality most mechanics would ridicule someone who makes mistakes, your not only a great diagnostic tech, but awesome teacher
I give the guy tons of credit for changing the plugs! It looks a fun job.
When I was 15, I rode a little Yamaha DT100 everywhere. One day the bike would Idle and move at low rpm's But as soon as she was opened up , she fell on her face.
I limped it to a small shop after I couldn't figure out what was wrong. The mechanic came out after my explanation, Lifted the seat , removed my gloves from the intake of the air filter and said. That'll be 20 bucks.
Tom Wise Was he joking or did you really have to pay?
@@istvanmeissler2238 $20 is fair. Who knows when he'd figured that out. Bet it never happened again though.
Oh he was serious. It was definitely a life lesson.
He's gotta make money where he can haha! I had an old Yamaha timberwolf I was working on but didn't have a new air filter for the test drive (the old one fell apart). So I managed find a larger foam filter I had laying around and attached it to the cage with a couple of zip ties just temporarily for the test drive. It dies about 10 minutes into the ride. I looked to check the usual suspects but everything was fine. Then it dawned on me that the air filter may have got sucked through the carb and sure enough it did. It got pulled all the way through the carb then hung up on the intake valve steam. Pulled that out, went and bought the correct filter then all was well again.
Had an "meticulous (anal)" buddy who put a plastic bag over the intake to his jet ski for winter storage. Come summer, he couldn't figure out why it wasn't running right....I'm sure you can figure it out from here.
When changing spark plugs, do 'em one at a time -- completely change one and plug its coil back in before removing the next one. :-)
Yep. That’s what I do. No mixups. Mixed wires can cause big problems and do serious damage. Take pictures, draw diagrams, do it systematically.
Another idea would be to write on the connector with a sharpie or use color coded zip ties.
I was going to say the same thing. Can't screw it up that way.
That's the way you should do it, if you don't know the firing order.
Especially on an engine you don’t know very well. I know my cylinder numbers and distributor on my old truck is numbered. If it was any other vehicle your method can’t be messed up.
Changing the oil with a hangover. Forgot to put the sump plug in. The oil surrounded my boots until I slipped over and landed on my butt.
changed manual transmission oil AT NIGHT , 100% dark night, with a torch light.. filler hole on top of transmission through engine compartment ( front drive) .. used a funnel to stick in the fill hole and poured 3 Liters of oil into it... until i heared a strange sound reminding me of some liquid pouring on a surface... the funnel was not in the hole , it was next to it.. 3 liters of transmission oil allover my transmission, drive axle, subframe and of course the drive way... it took me weeks and countless power washes to get the oil off my car and several bottles of oil stain remover to "repair" the rive way... an insane mess....my dad was very pissed of because of that huge stain. I looked like somebody drained an oil tanke
And of course could not drive to work the next morning because I had no more tranny oil
Johnny Blue that’s why you gotta change the oil WHEN you’re drinking😉
Did this while baked on my DRZ400, its got 3 drain plug locations, and 1 magnetic filter. I left 1 loose.... 50oz car wash on the ground cleaned it up nicely.
O ur butt plug?
my dad said he wanted to teach me how to do a tune up. he had a '77 ford 351. his method of changing the wires was to remove all of them at the same time. he then said the "correct" way was to put them back in order down one side then the other. he obviously had the firing order totally wrong and had no idea how to fix it. the neighbor came over and figured it out, but dad still insisted his way was right even though it wouldn't start.
When I was rebuilding my Daughters engine in her 1998 Nissan Altima I mixed the Distributor plug with the transmission speed sensor... car wouldn't start and started poking around. The plugs are the SAME color but not the WIRES, after 2 hours of scratching my head I switched the plugs and she fired right up. Great video, even mechanics can make this mistake.
Miss Marie. Videobomber extraordinaire! Your cell phone camera is definitely your best friend during reassembly.
My buddy was trying to drill out bolts..called me..he ruined a bunch of bits..I showed up and was watching..turned out he was using the drill in reverse..
Reminds me of the occasional fella who changes his wheel, thinking to himself..."Man these are tight..."
Of course he is turning the wrong way and breaking the studs.
I’m a carpenter/contractor. I hired a young kid...18..at his fathers request( one of my customers) . He thought it would be good for his son to experience some real world stuff. I laid out a bunch of locations on some lumber denoting where to drill holes. I told him to drill the holes and bring the lumber around back where I was working. This was an addition to a residence. I turned him loose and I went around back to work. Time passes...no lumber. I walk back to the horses in the front....kid is sweating bullets. Yea, same thing....running drill bit backwards. I canned him. I think he was happy to go. I assume he is now a lawyer/accountant/I.T. guy. Something with soft hands. Different strokes. Dave Heitman Semper Fidelis
Cheepchipsable I had a blowout while driving my Dads 61 Plymouth Fury back in 1967. I was 16 on my way home from my job at the Safeway grocery store. I was doing 110 when it happened, but I digress. Stopped, jacked up car,.....”damn, these lugs are tight”. I twisted one off. Shit. Tried another. Twisted it off. Shit!!!! Tried righty loosey on the next and it came off easily. Chrysler Corp lugs back then were righty tighty on one side of the car and righty loosely on the other side. Learned that the hard way. Dad was pissed. That was 53 years ago. One year later, at age 17 I joined the Marines. I was 17 so my dad had to sign the papers giving permission since I was under 18. He almost set the paper on fire from signing so fast. I think he was glad to see me go. My younger brother then took over the responsibility of driving Dad nuts. My brother succeeded in doing so. He knocked up his girlfriend at age 18. She was 19. They are still married. And very happy. In 1971 my brother ....same brother....drove his new 1971 ‘Cuda 340, 4 speed ...”up a tree”. I was in Vietnam and missed out on the aftermath of that shitstorm. Dave Heitman Semper Fidelis
Maybe he thought they were left hand drill bits? Yes, those exist. Snap on has them as bolt removal tools.
LOL! That was a hard brief chuckle..
ERIC: Mr. Customer, you plugged two wires in wrong.
Customer: I feel silly....
ERIC: Don’t feel silly! That will be $425. Please pay Mrs. O at the Window. 🤣🤣🤣👍
😂🤣😂
you guys think your gods gift to cars....what a bunch of crap!!!
@@smackdaddy1ful When you have to take half the car apart to get to a plug or anything else for that matter. It's not cheap. My tools and time are not free. At least he didn't have to pull the upper intake off.
@@smackdaddy1ful Let us know when you are willing to work for free on our stuff, we'll be happy to come use your services.
Still cheaper than my "$20k spark plugs" 😁😁😁😢😢😢
Never get tired of the Austin Powers references in Eric O's videos. It runs "smooth". Also playing space invaders with the center console controls were super fun!
Thanks for the video Eric! We all find ourselves in trouble from time to time. I once did a front brake job on my 98 Ranger. I failed to realize when I took off the rotors that the inner bearing was inside the rotor. Took it to the machine shop where they turned the rotors. Inner bearings were sitting next to the rotors, but I failed to pick them up. I couldn't figure out why my rotors would not seat properly on the truck... DIY distaster as I towed the truck to the local mechanic. Problem got worse as the ABS sensors were damaged during my failed brake job. Cost me so much more than just paying for a pro brake job. Multiple lessons learned in this one.
Ms. Marie hanging out trying to take your job Eric... better watch out! You'll be sitting in the office before you know it.
This has me rolling
DIY Failure
Yep, time for Eric to retire anyway😃
Maybe that's Eric's plan. Everyone wants to retire sometime.
Miss Marie is always smiling :)
"If I can do it, you can do it" goes for mistakes too :) Seriously though, a camera is a great tool for any kind of diagnosis and repair. It's so easy to forget how something was set up originally and having a photo or video record is a cheap & easy way to save your bacon.
aclight Internet is handy too google images can help
I usually remember to take pictures at the end when it isn't working. Doh!
Yes but back in the day you would have to own a pricey Polaroid!
@@chevychase3103 back in the day we drew pictures on the wall
Like MeMa used to say, "If you don't make mistakes, you ain't doin' anything".
or learning
It's good that the customer told you everything they did. Most will bring the car in and say nothing.
Worst is when they take it to a shop that does all the gravy work, doesn't fix the original problem, and then customer brings it to you to fix.
This video saved me big time. I did the exact same thing this week on a 2007 Dodge Grand Caravan because I wrongly assumed the cylinder firing order was laid out the same way the the ignition coil pack was labeled. Sure enough I had 1 and 3 switched around. I've been trying to figure out what was wrong for the last 3 days and came across your video. Thanks a bunch I almost gave up and took it to a shop for diagnostics.
Watching me do DIY is like watching a Benny Hill skit, only in real time, not fast. Needless to say, that's why I drive truck and not turn wrenches, love your videos by the way.
Doing valve cover gaskets on a Honda Odyssey one time I “completed” the job. Got off from work, went home and woke up in the middle of the night only to realize I didn’t put a gasket on the rear valve cover. Thankfully the customer was out of town and the vehicle hadn’t been picked up yet..
Gotta love those ‘ middle of the night realizations ‘
I know I’ve had a few.
How do u even do that? You cant feel the metal on metal when you put it in place? Or when torquring the bolts you didnt feel how solid it was?
P/J's = Plugs /jacks ( connectors) Great video. Thanks for posting!
My first oil change on my first car (18 years old). I actually thought I could look inside the valve cover and see the oil level. My buddy never lets me forget that.
When I replaced the head gaskets on my 98 Legacy GT, I swapped the 1 and 3 injector connectors. Ran almost perfectly fine except for a slight miss about once every 30 seconds at hot idle. Not enough to even set a code. I drove it that way for a couple years until one of the classes I attended had a case study for a Subaru that very occasionally set misfire codes at idle because someone had swapped the injector connectors....
Great video and it's nice that your customer gave you a good amount of detail regarding his repairs to get some ideas on where to focus. Hope you're staying busy and enjoying the beautiful weather Eric!
If you don’t want to change 1 plug at a time and replace the connector each time, just get some grease pens of different colors and mark each one before you take any out. Then you can just match red and red, green and green, etc
In my younger days, a particularly fastidious customer brought in a new Pontiac for an oil change. I drained the oil and affixed a new filter. I then pumped new oil from a 55 gal drum into a large metal pitcher with a flexible spout, which we used instead of separate qt cans. As I began to orient the pitcher over the brand-new sparkling clean engine, I lost my balance and poured the entire pitcher over the engine and engine bay as the customer was standing there inspecting my work. Actually, it looked kind of pretty, glistening in the light.
Bought a new '87 Nissan Stanza, was showing it to a mechanic friend. He suggested getting the shop manual. ($75.00 - a lot of money back in '87) Over the years did many small jobs just following instructions. New plugs, headlights, telescoping antenna, electric window, fuel filter, air filter, heat shield, swap winter tires. Worth it, as it taught me about car maintenance.
10 years in, a leaky valve cover. Again, a minor repair, but in my mind something mysterious and new. Bought the gasket and followed the blow up drawing and instructions. Scraped old gasket, dropped in new one. 45 minutes later and the job was complete, The car ran for another 4 years until the wiring harness started showing signs of wear. All kinds of electrical problems. Sold the car for $500.00 bucks. It still ran but I didn't want to spend the time and money trouble shooting multiple problems.
These comments are killing me. I haven’t laughed so hard in a long long time. Glad to know I’m not the only idiot out there. Thanks.Dave Heitman. Semper Fidelis
Don't idiot yourself, you're only an idiot if you keep making the same mistake over and over again
Definitely helps to label things or do one at a time to avoid confusion!
Those fricken Nissan Green plugs are a pain in the ass when you have easy access to them, Kudos to the finger dexterity.
Gives good warning and advice to those of us who have to save money by doing some of these things on our own. Taking pictures before is great advice!!!
You are non assuming of people and show respect for FYI folks. Many YT screamers hate us for working on our cars. Again, long time viewer and love a night of unwinding learning from you. Best to you and wifey.. Richard
If two similar looking pars can be switched, label them. I keep a set of 6 different color nail polishes (Dollar Store) for that purpose. The 5 minute drying time is worth the wait. Also good for marking things that mechanics you use are supposed to change or move around, like filters and wheels.
If you work on stuff long enough, you will screw something up. That's just how it works. 🔧🔩😆
Almost every "weird" problem I've ever had regarding repairing automobiles was a result of my mistake.
If you don't make mistakes your not doing anything
@Scotty Kilmer your a great mechanic and influence on my thinking . Thank you for all the information you provide. 🔧🔩😆 thank you.
This guy prob had few more beers and got tired and lazy, yea end of story. Seems like.
Did my own plugs... Replaced with "triple Platinum", thinking they'd be better. Still ran like poo, so I did coil, wires, etc.. No change.
Bought a vehicle in the meantime, finally brought it to a pro.
Replaced with OEM plugs... That'll be 250 bucks, please.
My $20k spark plugs story...
Was still in high school. Changing the oil at my uncles house who kept a very clean driveway. Did not check to see if the old filter gasket was still in the old filter. Let’s just say that an oil pump can drain an oil pan very fast. Meanwhile my friend is on the ground laughing.
I did that with my old ranger, I was 30 though. I left a trail from my driveway all the way down the street. Doh
TSP cleans oil off concrete very well and cheap. Happened to my mother-in-law’s car many years ago. Hot oil and 3 qts on nice new concrete. You couldn’t tell after I cleaned it off.
I had an 89 5.0 notchback. Stalled out in traffic and wouldn’t restart. Gas gauge read “e” but I “knew” the car and figured a little was left. Had it towed back to the house. Over a couple days put a new distributor in it and other bits. No luck. Had a mechanic friend come over and check it out. He eventually asked if there was gas in it. Put in a gallon....fired right up. It ran out of gas. 😜
This happened to a buddy of mine roughly 15 years ago. To this day I still tell him that E does not mean enough LMAO
I often find myself rewinding my videos to see what went where. One of the benefits of videoing everything.
Or watch a UA-cam video of that repair on your make and model
I once worked on the wrong hole,but it turned out fine over the long haul.
get a transmission all the way back together and find a bearing or a seal ring or a snap ring on the bench. now was this the old one or the new one??? and is there more than one outside ? did i replace it? now i have a cardboard box the old parts go into only after the new one is installed. then parts list is compared to the box. nothing worse than being inturrupted on a major job multiple times.
interruptions will get you every time!
I like the box idea I make a list of all parts to replace check that list and I Mark or destroy the old part. Of course I only destroy (like a gasket or the like after I know the new one is correct). Do I can't reuse the old one. I have left my share of seals out prior to this method haha.
I put a trans in without a torque converter once lucky only bolted to the engine and didnt finish the reat went to put the bolts in and alot of 4 letter words came flying out lol
Great idea! And simple, too.
Worked with a practical joker who used to toss random hardware on my bench when I had some piece of technical mechanical mischief torn apart. First time it happened I ended up doing the parts diagram, old part matching, head scratch. He went by laughing and fessed up as I was about to tear everything apart again. Taught me to be a lot better at organization and less of a chicken plucker parts dismantler.
my biggest mistake was not spending more time picking the ole man's brain on how to do this stuff before it was too late
I must say Eric O is the real deal, had the pleasure of meeting him yesterday on my way up to Akron ny from Florida. I only stopped to say hello for a few minutes as I know he is a busy man. He showed me his shop and we chatted a little and I was off again. A true gentleman, I am impressed.
Thanks Eric
Sam T.
My first time changing plugs i broke one in the head. 😳😳😳😳
I was so nervous but the mechanic repair it so quickly.
Thank you guys.
New Jeep hat! Sometimes we have to move on... keep up the great videos!
Ah the Scanner Danner classic coil switcharoo :)
Cleaning throttle body fuel injectors. Used a black screw driver to hold butterfly valve wide open (cable jam technique). Sprayed gumout.
Reassembled.
Started nice clean black painted block of a 350 engine.
Found out GM puts a rev limiter on that nice engine.
Pegged twice before i could kill her.
Realized my mistake. (Camouflaged screwdriver)
Surprisingly the engine lived a long happy life.
Torsee I heard a story from a friend who test drove his car and forgot to take screwdriver out of choke and he opened it up and it fell through and held it wide open
@@brianbrundage3116 oops
Yee Haw!
A dumb mistake I made was when I changed my own spark plus as well. When taking it apart, I saw that the spark plug wires were zip tied up. I didn't re zip tie it after I changed it, thinking it didn't matter, it was just to make it look nicer. Little did I know, it was to help the wires not arc on the engine as they wear. About 4000 miles later, I was getting a misfire. Not knowing how to fix that, I took it to a mechanic who knew what he was doing. He found that and explained the reason.
I felt so stupid as a result. I don't think I admitted to him they I had done that, but... Yeah.
Almost spit my coffee out when I heard the reach around comment. Too funny. Very good information on the video. Keep 'em coming.
holy shit man, you had me at the reach around, but it was the jiggly bit that did me in,
My biggest mistake was while doing a fuel pump on a Lincoln inside the tank. At the time we used regular lightbulbs in worklights. Well the service writer came out in the bay and knocked the light off,hitting the open tank igniting EVERYTHING. The fire extinguishers did nothing to control it and by the time the fire Dept got there the car, and half of the garage was on fire. Luckily we got our boxes out and most of the cars but the building was a loss. The only saving grace was the dealership had already started building a new location that was almost finished. But nonetheless I should've covered that tank opening.
A accident like this can happen Even in a professional environment. Just takes seconds for it
to occur. Lucky that
no one was hurt. This
Really something left
In the hands of a pro.
Fuel work in the hands
a novice is not a advisable thing. Thanks
for your story SouthJerseySound
@@rollinajoint9657 So true and it was pretty common for the old work lights to start fires back then. Usually they were small but not this time. There was a reason why even service writers weren't permitted in certain areas of the shop and that was one of them. Technically he wasn't supposed to go inside the yellow zones as they called them and a techs lift was a "yellow zone". After the fire the insurance company put a end to using those lights and we had to use the long fluorescent tubes in a plastic housing and they sucked. But now thanks to guys like Astro tools we've got super bright cordless LEDS that are very safe.
SouthJerseySound
Indeed. I have seen a few costly blunders. I
respect your insight.
Had work at 7am, decided to work on my rear brakes at 10pm. Didn’t finish the job until 5am.
Wasn’t aware rear brake pistons require special tools.
Now I know to look shit up before hand lmao
Had a co-worker do a brake job before his shift, his driveway was on a hill. He messed up the brake job.
Unfortunately he never came to work again.
Be careful out there.
Changed the cap, rotor, wires and plugs on a Ford F150 351. At about 35 mph it began popping and backfiring, slowed down below this speed and stopped. Pulled over three times and checked and rechecked wires and firing order, all was correct. Continued driving and problem resumed above 35mph. Finally discovered problem, had loaded a canoe onto the truck's lumber rack, and there was a loose panel in the canoes stern (canoe on backwards, stern towards front of truck) and at 35mph and faster, the wind made the panel flap up and down, smacking the rack and sounding throughout the truck. Lol, had us going for awhile there..........
Wish I had your awesome diagnostics! That intake removal is why the iridium plugs in my wife’s ‘08 Altima Coupe soldiers on with OEM Iridium plugs at 130k. No MIL or performance issues.
Also, R&R’ed head gasket on my ‘87 Alfa Spider and foolishly swapped front cam caps left to right (marks can only be seen with close inspection) and since timing marks were not vertical, car ran for crap for months till issue was discovered.😟
Another car interior designed by Helen Keller. Damn is that ugly.
No kidding. Looks like R2D2 .
@@eileenheitman4351 hey hey hey. Don't bring star wars into this LMAO. That's an insult to R2
I was thinking the same thing. No way I would buy that vehicle. I would look inside and say "next"! Of course maybe it was the wife who loved it. Then I would say "Darlin are you sure you want that?"
@@antonioponce6544 If my wife finds that interior attractive, I'm gonna take a hard look at myself in the mirror.
Not too many people ever saw Helen Keller’s Cadillac, but then neither did she.
Austin Healey Sprite, High School, change the clutch and have the engine back in, bolted up, drive shaft, fluids and electrical. Last thing to do before starting it up was bolt up the bonnet. I turn around to look for any forgotten bolts and what do I see on the work bench, but two release bearings. A new one, and an old one. Good grief!
I was changing plugs and wires on a chevy 350 (maybe it was a 305). I used to have a habit of just ripping every thing off and using the book to run the new plug wires. The ring on the top of the distributor had the cylinder numbers on them. So I hooked them all up according to the numbers on the ring. It wouldn't run for shit so we took it to a local shop and they told us that there are two different cylinder sequences for that chevy. The one on the ring was not the correct firing sequence. As you can guess, I don't just rip the plug wires off anymore. I replace them one by one.
Thanks for the videos. I enjoy watching them.
Michael Ginther exactly what I was gonna say. Remove one by one.
@@garrettstevensen2467 Hopefully we never stop learning.
So very right....wish mechanics in my area would be honest like you
When u was young like 04 I took brakes apart walked to store.... put all back together and couldn't bleed brake.
I guess I put the air beeders down instead up. So yeah take pics.
This guy up road said 50 theb charged 400 crook... thank God for these channels.
Keep it up
Way back when I was first learning how to work on cars. I put a 250 straight 6 in a 79 Z28. It was all I had. But anyhow after getting the engine in. I didnt have all the wires hooked up and just had to hear it run. So I jumped the starter out the car fired up and was in reverse. It drug me across a field before slamming into my dad's 64 GMC. I had to take the walk of shame limping.
I had a similar mistake with a 3.8 series buick regal. I had spark plug wires mixed up, car would not start because I was so sure that the rear heads were 1-3-5 & front 2-4-6. It was clearly the other way around.
I did thay exact thing with a 89' saab 900 2.0 inline 4.the problem was the book actually,the illustration was wrong and didn't show that the engine actually sits backwards (you can replace a clutch in 1-2 hours with this layout)
When I was 16 I changed my spark plugs for the first time and I torqued them down to about 100 foot pounds... the spark plug blew apart on the first crank and I spent a few hours fishing bits of ceramic and metal out of the cylinder with tweezers...
😖
100 foot pounds would strip them right out most they would go is about 30
Must have been back in the day when heads were cast iron.
Mr O! You are a kind person and I love watching S M A R LLC .
Thanks Bud, a good example of why I love my 2000/4.0 Grand Cherokee. One coil pack, one plug.
Waking up in the middle of the night after replacing intake gasket on Holden V8 and now no start:
OMG the cylinder numbers are not the firing order!
Correct, typically laid out to maximize distance between firing cylinders. 4 pistons would go 1324, I imagine six would go 135246 or something
@@ludvigericson6930 i think it would be 1243 or 1342 but it can't jump end to end or much over half the engine length to avoid heavy shaking. 6 cyl might be 135642 but I'm no expert.
Ms. Marie lurking in the background ready to strike! Or work on some brakes. I get those confused sometime - Lord knows the rear drums on my Mk1 VW beat the snot outta me today.
Got married once, what a mistake that was.
Me, too!!!!
Amen, never again...If it floats, flies or fucks.... Just rent it!!
Only dummies do it AGAIN..
@@ionracer24 That is the best line I've ever heard in my life! You made my night! Thanks
I was happily married for three years. Three out of eighteen ain’t bad.
"We are not exempt from making mistakes, myself included." Truer words have never been said.
I always take picture of anything I am about to work on. Saved my butt many times.
Fun video, thanks.
With the way cars are so technologically advanced (or challenged depending on how one sees it) they should all come with a free computer like yours! 🤣
Loving my 96 f150. Its so simple
One of the garages on my way to work has a sign that says, "We can fix what your husband did." So far, my wife hasn't had to take one of ours there... So far.
She will want a bmw one day....
Another great video. And you got a new jeep hat!
Subscribed! Always appreciate your videos for their simplicity, yet, informational at the same time. Easy to follow and watch.
Thank you so much!! I just did a tuneup and started it up and it had a misfire!! I’m going to double check my SP wires! Thank you!!