well i just installed a grounding kit...and of course, i layed a wire right over my throttle. So I go on a trip that day, and whenever I slam on the gas...it stays slammed for another 5 seconds! It really sucked, because the entire trip I couldn't punch it. Got home and used some twistie ties.
- Rebuilding my first engine (84 Oldsmobile Firenza) I tightended the nut for the rocker too tight and bent a push rod.
- almost broke the gauges while installing reverse indiglo gauges.
There are some funny stories. Don't let them turn you off DIY stuff. Eventually, and after spending more money, you can fix whatever went bad. It seems like alot of this stuff happens because I just don't think when I'm doing it. Taking your time is key to DIY.
i agree. I've done a bunch of DIY's, and most of them went very well...just take your time and if you have any problems and you don't know what to do, COME TO THIS SITE! People here are very helpful, and you can get some help in a matter of minutes sometimes.
Well lets see, I relocated my deck to be by the e-brake and I cut the hole too wide, so now I have a black piece in there hiding that mistake cuz I didnt want to pay the extra money.
When I was trying to clear my headlights I couldnt get them open...twice and the first time my sister was home and I had to take her and me to get food while I was trying to put the bumper back on, it was getting late so I decided that having the clips on was good enough...wrong when driving to Wendys on the freeway the plastic underbody hit the pavement, now Im using zip ties to hold it together, you only notice in when you look underneath car. Oh and I had to cut a little on one of my fenders cuz it had scraped the tires a little bit (almost to a hole in plastic) this is the same on both sides but it doesnt stick out on the side I didnt cut.
Lastly, besides being a shitty painter, I tried to open up my (stock) inner taillights, and stuck em in the oven, I then proceded to warp the sh!t out of the whole thing, although the fix I did with tinted alteeza clear piece, on painted black alteeza tails looks nice, and no one would ever know that they at one time were teezas.
Not to mention all the ugly scratches I left in the interior (all cars get em eventually) and the scratches where the civic and LX symbols were, but I just got a new bumper since the old one was damaged in an unfortunate incident.
i unscrewed a bolt in the engine bay when i was intalling skunk2 coilovers, which held the whole suspension assembly together. i fixed the problem, it just put the installation back 2 days
Definently the Throttle Cable DIY. LOL if you don't tighten the two bolts hard enough then the cable will come out of the bracket. I was driving down the street one night and I decided to slam on it, when I floored it the cable came out of the bracket, and the gas pedal just fell dead to the floor. I was rolling down this main street with no way to accelerate, it was hilarious!
i just want to say; to all those noobs reading this and thinking "im never doing a diy in my life!", dont listen to us. The only way to get better at working with your car and be more knowledgable about it is to spend time with it. Enough time spent, and you'll mess up a couple of times. It all goes good in the end though. Just felt I needed to say that; we don't want to be scaring away anyone.
Mine was pretty recent. I had installed a larger fuel pump (I have a return fuel system). I replaced all the plastic lines in the tank with 1000psi Fuel Hose. Clamped everything down with screw clamps to what I thought was pretty tight. Guess not. I'm from CT, but live in NJ, and I go back and forth all the time. I was about 60-70 miles from both points. The line that prevents fuel from going to the stock FPR blew off one end in the tank due to the pressure. My car stalled out and died on the highway going 60mph. I rolled to a stop in the middle of a construction zone at 3:30am. Obviously without fuel pressure I can't start the car.
So, I talk to one of the construction workers. They say I have 1 hour to either fix it or tow it. I decided I'd just fix it. so I started. 10 minutes later, one of the guys comes up to me and says my car has to be out of the area within 10 minutes because they were going to start paving. If it's not, the cops will have to come settle it. So I fixed it as fast as I could.
it was bitter cold outside. because of the design of the tank and everyhting. I had bruises and cuts all over my hands from working, banging, and trying to fix it. But I got the whole unit out, fixed the lines an tightened it, and got it back in and was on my way within 15 minutes since the car died. Not to mention in the dark. A personal record for me. And the biggest DIY gone wrong ever. I now have two clamps on each end and it's tightened down as hard as possible. I can't even pull it off if I tried.
This one gave me a HUGE scare. So I did my neons under my drivers and passenger's seats. Well like the dum@ss i am, I decided I did not need to get electrical tape right away. Wow. Right before I took my car to get my bodykit painted I decided to tuck my switch (I had not yet hiden it) under the center console. Well, I hit the shifter with the metal, heard huge POP and all of a sudden smoke poured from the console I was like Sh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!T!!!!! I saw the flame crawl all the way down my wires too my fuse box where it hit the metal and stopped. The weird thing was that the flame did not catch anything else except the rubber around the wire. THANK GOD or I would have set my car on fire! Wow that scared me soo much my heart was pounding soo hard because my car only had 2k miles at the time. Aside from that I had those same neons blow twice when i ran transformer into transformer by mistake. WOW, no more neons for me.
Originally posted by horatio I was changing the filter on my intake and some how i dropped a screw driver inside the fender. I knew i lost it but didnt know exactly where it was. I fell out on the freeway and i think i may have caused an accident or at least cracked someones window.
When running the wires for my sub I left a scratch in the door panel that I took off to run the wire aqlong the passenger side door. It's not really noticable but pisses me off every time I see it.
...neh, I haven't tried any DIY's yet, they will come though, in time
