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your most recent automotive "oh crap" moment??

patra_is_here

By patra_is_here,
in Just plain ol' B.S.

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I was about 4 miles away from home when I realized I didn't torque my wheel nuts, and i knew I didn't have a wrench in the car.

 

i guess finger tight works for short drives =(((

 

My dad once forgot to torque wheel nuts on a car he was delivering, he took my mom along for the ride. As he was slowing down to a stop sign my mom tells my dad, "look, there goes a wheel rolling past us!" And that exact moment, the car hits the ground!

 

Most recent one for me, I jump started a customers car to move it and load onto the flatbed. Got it all tied down and forgot the car was on, drove away. Was at a light when I saw steam on my rear view mirro and rear truck glass all fogged up! It was a bright sunny Cali day, took me a milli second for me to realize the car was on. Yes, head gasket was toast. It was a PT Cruiser, the head gasket was already blown, I just made sure it was REALLY BLOWN! lol

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taeisallin Newbie

taeisallin

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just before i jumped on the highway, i realized i left the hood pins out. as soon as i realiezed it the hood came straight up. i was so lucky, the only thing that stoped it from taking out the windshield.........motocam's hood struts!!

 

another great reason to get one of these!! heads up to tim! grab them while they last!

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Squrlsquash Newbie

Squrlsquash

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Had a slowly leaking brake master cylinder in my nissan 300zx, bought a new one but decided not to install until i started reassembling car.

So i filled up the reservoir each time i had to take it anywhere and that worked fine-ish for a couple weeks,

 

Then it came the day to pull motor + tranny to rebuild, had to drive 25 miles to shop to do so

 

Start driving and at the first stop light realized the brakes had gone completely... yay!

So i get about 20 miles just down shifting and using the handbrake

I sort of forget about the problem, in 5th doing 65 on the freeway

 

traffic pops up all of the sudden

Hit the brakes - they go all the way to the floor. Then there's that second where you think :/ "well i get to fill out some insurance paperwork today"

 

Slam it into 4th locks the rears, and slam into 3rd (which had bad syncros and made quite a loud clunk)

Tires squealing and the back end sliding about, i pull the handbrake, and stop about 4 inches from the back of some poor guys hyundai

 

Was in a pack of traffic for a while, and not a damn soul pulled in front of me

 

 

not dying is the best experience one can have in my old z

all in all, a good day

and didn't have to fill out insurance paperwork!

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NikoFab Newbie

NikoFab

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I was moving some landscaping trash to the local land fill with my gooseneck dump trailer. I start the hydraulic pump to tilt it up and the whole thing comes flying up off the hitch. I had forgotten to lock the collar. The safety chains held...but it scared the crap out of me. Edited by NikoFab
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Fanta Newbie

Fanta

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Attacking a hairpin on a mountain run, sharp dip in the road causes my rear end to upset and come around, clear the hairpin with mild oversteer only to discover the entire road had been graveled over.... me and gravel have a bad past.

 

Thankfully though, the car just spun around and stopped.

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88-cnqst-tsi Newbie

88-cnqst-tsi

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this wasn't that bad but after a week of owning the quest, I did an oil change and my dad offered to fill it up and then spilt allot and didn't wipe so when I was driving smoke started to pour out of the side of the hood and smoked up the inside a bit
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danmanTSI Newbie

danmanTSI

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I recently adjusted the valves on my 84 and quickly put everything back together for a test drive. Driving down the road, I released the gas pedal and noticed that the car kept on accelerating.I quickly pushed in the clutch, shut off the car, and pulled over. I popped the hood and noticed that one of the throttle cable adjuster nuts (that I had not tightened) had slid down the cable and jammed the throttle plate open. Its the simple things we often overlook that make all the difference.
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NikoFab Newbie

NikoFab

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I recently adjusted the valves on my 84 and quickly put everything back together for a test drive. Driving down the road, I released the gas pedal and noticed that the car kept on accelerating.I quickly pushed in the clutch, shut off the car, and pulled over. I popped the hood and noticed that one of the throttle cable adjuster nuts (that I had not tightened) had slid down the cable and jammed the throttle plate open. Its the simple things we often overlook that make all the difference.

 

That's a pretty flatty...sir. My compliments. Reminds me of scott87star's

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88-cnqst-tsi Newbie

88-cnqst-tsi

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I recently adjusted the valves on my 84 and quickly put everything back together for a test drive. Driving down the road, I released the gas pedal and noticed that the car kept on accelerating.I quickly pushed in the clutch, shut off the car, and pulled over. I popped the hood and noticed that one of the throttle cable adjuster nuts (that I had not tightened) had slid down the cable and jammed the throttle plate open. Its the simple things we often overlook that make all the difference.

I know what that's like, you just reminded me, once my dad punched It around a corner and there was no bolt holding the reed valve in-place so it jammed the throttle 3/4 way open right towards a stopped and busy intersection so my dad through it in neutral and we hit a little pot hole witch was enough to knock the throttle down luckily
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Walker Newbie

Walker

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Driving down the interstate with my new wife on my 12 hour trip from home to my base in SC when I entered a construction zone where they have it reduced to 1 narrowed lane lined with concrete barricades on each side. I was doing about 70 mph.....and my tire blew

 

luckily i had both hands on the wheel at that moment and managed to maintain control ...and was able to drive the car the 1/4 down the road till i got to an exit where i could pull off and swap to a spare in the subzero weather....without gloves ><

Edited by Walker
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jszucs Newbie

jszucs

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Swaped out from winter tires to summer tires and rims last night. 1 steal rim with winter tire would not come off. Beat on it, kicked it, soaked it in penatrent. Beat on the thing for 2 hours before it came off. And I used antiseze when I put it on like 5 months ago.

 

I more or less just don't understand I try and do everything right, and still have issues. Look to ether side during morning drive and the clueless person is just running a car into the ground and has 0 problems. :( I don't get it. Never had a wheel stick like that.

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importwarrior Newbie

importwarrior

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halfway to work stop at a ight and see steam from somewhere under the hood coming out from both sides of the hood.

temp gauge looks normal. get to work no more steam. by lunch time check to see but no rad fluid under car.

check level and it looks fine. dont know what or why but everything seems fine. maybe it just burped. I will have to

check the rad fluid level before i go home today. dig a little deeper once i get home and she cools down.

Edited by importwarrior
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Burton Newbie

Burton

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A cop followed me for a few blocks yesterday... They don't like me here. Lol

 

Hmmmm, I wonder if it's the out-of-state plates, or the fact that everything about your car is probably illegal in CA?

 

 

I assume you keep the MI plates to avoid the CA smog BS?

 

 

 

 

 

 

My most recent oops moment was when I was hauling stuff around from my old crappy "garage" to the big shop out back....

 

 

 

"Did I remember to latch the trailer down on the ball"

 

 

*goes over bump in the road*

 

Crash! Bang! Scrrraaaaaape!

 

"Nope."

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kidjc Newbie

kidjc

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A cop followed me for a few blocks yesterday... They don't like me here. Lol

 

Probably admiring the car J? Or... did you still leave your camara mounted on the car... wearing your helmet? ;)

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Cloud81918 Newbie

Cloud81918

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A month or so ago I took the '86 for a drive. the fuel was a bit old and figured some fresh fuel would do the car well. There is a station close to me but I could see it was busy so I decided to drive to one up the hill. The trip to the station was fine. I filled up and headed back home. As I pulled out on the street another car pulled failed to stop and drove out of another parking lot. It meant I had to manuver to avoid an accident.

 

It wasn't too crazy but in avoidance I throttled up the engine...and...Pop...Shhhh...Skreeeech...Chugchugchug... Smoke coming from under the hood, I quickly pulled the car into a residential area. Then engine dies. I popped the hood. Smoke pouring out I tried to figure out what is going on. I smell the sweet smell of coolant, but can't figure out what happened. Coolant is everywhere. finally I found that the line connecting the heatercore to the intake manifold popped off. When it flew off it knocked the overvalve cover pipe off of the throttlebody.

 

The car had heat cycled a few times and I had driven it. But I must have missed tightening the line. I had to walk home jump in another car and throw coolant in the trunk. It suck, but so glad it was something so simple.

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Convette Newbie

Convette

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Hmmmm, I wonder if it's the out-of-state plates, or the fact that everything about your car is probably illegal in CA?

I assume you keep the MI plates to avoid the CA smog BS?

 

Yeah prolly all those things...

 

Probably admiring the car J? Or... did you still leave your camara mounted on the car... wearing your helmet? ;)

lol No not this time...haha

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SOTTY Newbie

SOTTY

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Probably admiring the car J? Or... did you still leave your camara mounted on the car... wearing your helmet? ;)

Seriously that could well be , it's happened to me a few times even got the "thumbs up" from a state trooper a few weeks ago. :)
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TopDawg_43 Newbie

TopDawg_43

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My 87 22r started running really bad and skipping. Then it went away. And was running good. Then it started again. Timing checked out good. And no injectors to worry about. Drove it like that for a few days, thinking it would go away again. It didn't.

 

 

Needed a set of plugs......... :wacko:

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TexasQuest Community Regular

TexasQuest

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I've done the old left the lugnuts finger tight once before on my old tracer. Luckily I was in the neighborhood driving slow and figured out what that "weird" sound was lol and limped it home to tighten them. In the conquest I've popped the intercooler coupler at the tb off hot doggin the car around. Luckily a friend of mine saw me and turned around to see what happened, and luckily he had a screwdriver. :P
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