Anything Funny/Pathetic/Sad Happen in Your Garage???

[mact3333]

umm...nevermind....

[nick3753]

Changed brakes on my X5 (my first brake job). The change went well, however I forgot to tighten the lugs once I dropped the car. Not only did I do that, but I left the wheel lock on the lug on the wheel. Went out to dinner with the family and then suddently realized that I hadn't tightened the lugs. Was hoping to make it home without tightening them (didn't want the wife to know as she can be quite critical). Started noticing major vibration. Made it to the our next destination. Tightened 4 of the 5 lugs (couldn't tighten the 5th because I didn't have the lug key). Went home and searched the garage for the key, realized that I had probably driven with it on the car. Searched everywhere that I did my test run after brakes put on but couldn't find it. Looked online about getting a new key, figured I could go a few days with 4 lugs tight and 1 tightened by hand only. Gave up on finding the key after literally hours looking over the garage and my neighborhood. The next evening was driving home from picking up a pizza and saw it lying in the road about 1/8 mile from my house. Will never make that mistake again, could have been a whole lot worse.

[nick3753]

Originally Posted by mact3333

umm...nevermind....

Too late, I already read it. Now don't make me look like the only fool.

[Erhan]

Just 2 days ago, I went to a friend's place to do my fisrt oil change (with his help). We found out that 9 liters of engine oil is a lot and doesn't fit in a small oil pan

[mdosu]

squirrel jumped into my car, when I started driving the car, it freaked out and it freaked me out.

[mact3333]

ok fine, I will repost it...embarrassing.





Anything Funny/Pathetic/Sad Happen in Your Garage???
I have to admit, I have alot of pathetic ones...some simple ones like dropping the new painted reflectors inside the bumper and having to remove the wheel well lining to retrieve, to things more serious...here is a classic.

My first e46 M3 didnt have projector HID's...I have done alot of retrofit HID kits before so i thought I could handle this one...so I take out my headlights and start installing my new HID projector housing units...get things plugged in to test it...I have my hood up still...turn engine over to see if lights work and all of sudden black smoke starts pouring from engine bay...WTF?...how could I start a major fire in a few sec's from headlights!

I turn engine off and smoke still pouring from engine bay...I look inside engine dept and headlights seem fine...hmmm...wtf?...I look closer, pieces of what looks like ash all over engine bay....look closer, its looks like small pieces of black plastic actually everywhere...hmm...I look at the alternator belt and there is something big, black and ugly fused to the belts.

After thinking about it for a min, I realized I set a roll of electrical tape on the engine bay somewhere and it dropped into the engine bay when i turned engine over...the entire roll of electrical tape burned away and fused to this belt.

So I call BMW tow truck(flatbed)...guy comes over and I have been reading about towing mishaps so I ask the guy if he is comfy with towing it....he says "no prob, we get traing all the time, dont worry".

OK, he tows the car to wrong dealership so I am waiting for hrs at the dealership I told him to go to...then he finally shows up...he starts lowering car out of flat bed...when car hits the ground I hear a loud clanking noise...he pulls car forward and a piece of my suspension is laying on the ground!...the guy latched onto the arms of my suspension!

So this mistake cost me 1400.00 to fix and cost the towing company 1700.00 to fix....

Note to self, stay out of the garage!......I have some more but I am not willing to admit to any more right now....

[mact3333]

Originally Posted by nick3753

Changed brakes on my X5 (my first brake job). The change went well, however I forgot to tighten the lugs once I dropped the car. Not only did I do that, but I left the wheel lock on the lug on the wheel. Went out to dinner with the family and then suddently realized that I hadn't tightened the lugs. Was hoping to make it home without tightening them (didn't want the wife to know as she can be quite critical). Started noticing major vibration. Made it to the our next destination. Tightened 4 of the 5 lugs (couldn't tighten the 5th because I didn't have the lug key). Went home and searched the garage for the key, realized that I had probably driven with it on the car. Searched everywhere that I did my test run after brakes put on but couldn't find it. Looked online about getting a new key, figured I could go a few days with 4 lugs tight and 1 tightened by hand only. Gave up on finding the key after literally hours looking over the garage and my neighborhood. The next evening was driving home from picking up a pizza and saw it lying in the road about 1/8 mile from my house. Will never make that mistake again, could have been a whole lot worse.

Funny...be really careful about that...there have been many people coming back from dealership where they(dealer) forgot to tighten lugs and their wheels literally flew off on the freeway.

[immiketoo]

I lived in an apartment for ten years where I had nothing more than lot parking. I took both of my assigned spots for one car and never had any issues. When I bought my house, I was looking forward to garaging my car and I lovingly put my baby in it's designated spot. Within two weeks, I had a large piece of diamond plate which had been leaning on my wall fall on the hood of my car, and I closed the garage door while parked so close that the hinges left the signature double scratch on my rear bumper. Ten years outdoors and nothing...damn.

[frenchM3dreamer]

Installed a Engine Torque Dampener one day, had to take out the stock strut tower bar... no biggie, right? until i went to tighten things back... torque spec is 20 lb-ft, so i tighten by hand, little bit of wrenching, then i get the 2' torque wrench out, set it up at 20 lb-ft, and wrench, and wrench, and wrench... until i hear a clicking noise... moving on to the other side, same thing, until i realized the clicking noise wasnt from the torque wrench, but from the broken bolt i was already past the 20 lb-ft with my ratchet, doh' ! so i probably put like 200 lb-ft on these bolts !!! didnt like it...
another one?... i was going to do my brakes one week-end... so on Friday night i take the wheel off to "assess the situation" and figure out what i'm dealing with, and get the cordless drill out to remove the first screw holding the rotor... 15 seconds later, the screw head was stripped to sh**, everything was packed up and an appointment booked with the local shop
there would be many more...

[AMPowerJ]

I almost crushed myself and/or damaged my car with a jack and a pair of ramps. I will leave it at that.

[TheClozer]

Originally Posted by AMPowerJ

I almost crushed myself and/or damaged my car with a jack and a pair of ramps. I will leave it at that.

Holy crap! Glad you made it outta that unharmed.

[KGB7]

Raccoon clawed a hole in the ceiling trying to get in.

[JohnnyRoaster]

I was installing an aftermarket radio for a friend in high school in my parents garage. It was a VW Cabrio that I put an Alpine head unit, speakers and amp into. The vary last hole I drilled to mount the amp under the seat I drilled into the gas line. It spilled about five gallons of gas in the garage before I rolled it out to the street...

[shchow]

My wife backed into CLOSED garage door while trying to get out, and blamed me for the accident...

[mact3333]

Originally Posted by shchow

My wife backed into CLOSED garage door while trying to get out, and blamed me for the accident...

I can top that, my wife opened the garage door, backed up quickly and ripped off the door of the carpet cleaners van which was brand new...and she walked past the carpet cleaner on the way out too!....

I actually have another one I did but too ashamed to tell this one...

[Biggerunn]

This one is about my dear old dad, not me... He was working on his older Mercedes and had his automatic transmission in Neutral while he did the work. With the engine still running, he reached through the driver's window and went to move the transmission stalk on the steering column from Neutral to Park. Of course, he forgot that Reverse sits between the two. As he moved the stalk from one to the other, the car jumped backward and took off down the driveway with him half in and half out of the driver's window. As the car was heading across the street and toward the front of the neighbor's house, he was able to kill the ignition and stop the car. Funny now, but it sure as hell wasn't then.

And let me add, this is why you should always drive a 6MT!!

[KGB7]

This was a while ago.

I let my friend do an oil change on his car in my garage. After he installed new oil filter and put the oil in to the car, he started the car and all the oil started to come out all over my garage floor. After cleaning my garage floor with kitty litter that he got from grocery store, he found out that the oil filter had no rubber gasket. So he had to reuse the old gasket from old oil filter.

When he told me that he spilled oil all over my floor, he thought i was going to be pissed. I just looked at him and at the floor full of oil, laughed, told him to clean it up and i went back in the house watch TV.



The first time he made a similar mistake, except the old gasket from oil filter got stock to the engine, so once he installed the new filter, he now had two gaskets squashed together. He lost some oil, but not as much as he did the second time.




Another time, this was during winter. I was helping my friend to do some work on his car in my garage. It was getting cold and we were getting hungry. So we took the grill of the patio and moved it in to the garage. Tossed some burgers and hot dogs on the grill, and cont to work on the car. By the time the food was done the garage was much warmer. As we ate, i left the grill on and we were able to finish his car in much warmer garage.

[shchow]

Originally Posted by mact3333

I can top that, my wife opened the garage door, backed up quickly and ripped off the door of the carpet cleaners van which was brand new...and she walked past the carpet cleaner on the way out too!....

I actually have another one I did but too ashamed to tell this one...

Did this happen before or after they cleaned your carpets, lol...

[immiketoo]

I just thought of another one... Once, I was rebuilding a Kawasaki ZX9R (Custom paint, mods, etc...) and I had both wheels off the bike for paint. The bike was on two stands, both pitbull, but the front was on the head stock piviot stand. I needed to move the bike to get to something else in the garage, and I picked up the bike from the rear to slide it over. All was well until the stand wheel hit a crack in the floor. Then the whole thing shifter and the front stand turned. I ended up with the whole thing lying on its side. With no wheels, there was no way to pick it up without damaging everything so I had to leave it on the floor like a beached whale and call my buddy to help me pick up the whole damn thing. He showed up and laughed his ass off at me for about ten minutes before helping me pick up my bike. It had less than 500 miles on it. FML

[Merked M3]

Horrible embarrassing to myself. I was working on a friends 1992 BMW 325 convertible and I had just finished fixing the rear vinyl window. It also had a dead battery so we have to roll it out of the garage and onto the street to do a manual start. So I go to back the car out of the garage; I have the driver door open with my left foot on the ground pushing the car to get it headed down the driveway. Suddenly I hear the a shattering crash. I have backed the car's door into the garage door's metal runners and pinched the door in such a way that the entire passenger window shatters into 1000 pieces everywhere. I was backing a car out of the garage with the door open, luckily I didn't rip the whole door off!!!

[admranger]

On the race car (stock class BMW CCA Club Racing) I had to add ballast to make weight (non-sunroof, zero option car). So I get steel plate align-bored and place it in the passenger rear floorpan area. Carpet has to be kept in the car so I figure I'll just run the drill bit down the four holes in the ballast. On the 2nd hole I have a whole 4th of July celebration inside the car -- yep, hit the main battery cable with the drill bit. That was not fun but it did give me an excuse to install a cutoff switch since the battery cable was shredded...

[1sikbmr]

I was working on my cousins 04 545i doing some minor music upgrades... He wanted to disconnect the battery so we did... I was in a rush(dont remember why) to take out the battery that i forgot and left the key in the trunk... I then proceeded to close the trunk. After realizing i had locked the key in the trunk we both had this stupid look on our face because we realized he only had one key for the car! So we had to remove the entire back seat just so he can crawl in and get the key