Dumbest thing you?ve done during a DYI?

What�s the dumbest thing you�ve ever done during a DYI on your 996? Me: Jacked up the rear - by way of engine. Side note: put anti seize on spark plug threads on Sequoia. Not good.

When I did my muffler delete, I took off the mufflers the wrong way and cut thru some of the brackets. Now I can't reinstall the mufflers very easily.

Dropped the car with the jackpoint jack stand still beneath the sill cover! "Hello Auto Atlanta..."

Well I was grinding the muffler mounts in half so I could remove them without removing headers (header bolts rusted so didnt want to tackle that yet) I accidentally grinded into the headers by mistake as well. Luckily it didnt go all the way though. Guess one more reason on top of the rust to change the headers now. That was last night.

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I dropped it on jack point stand with my 991 and bent my rocker panel, had to make a trip to the body shop.

I started putting a top-end rebuild back together without blocking off ports. Dropped a washer into a port and had to rig up quite a contraption to get it out. Ended up using two zip ties and some string with a magnet on the end to fish it out.

Not a DIY, but bought a mazdaspeed Miata for my ex wife around 15 years as a surprise (she had been looking to replace her old one she blew up). Went great until she got in the car and I closed the door on my pinky finger. Took my fingernail clean off. Right in front of the salesman. Blood everywhere. Not my smoothest moment....

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My wife was due for a new car, drove her Altima 160k miles, I picked up an Audi A3 for her and surprised her. The FIRST time she got into it she backed out and hit her Altima. Zero damage to the Altima and $700 to the new car.

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Ouch! On the 996 C4S the side sill covers are black plastic so I just ordered the side piece and all of the fasteners for replacement. Body shop WOULD be much worse! I watch much closer today...

When I removed the muffler braketnon one side it came off real easy....the other side did not budge so I tried and tried to loosen and woul not come out until I finally put everything I had into it and it sheared. At that moment I realized "righty tighty you damn fool". The little job became a big job.

Dropped a screwdriver into a coolant passage in the block. Finally got it out by rotating the engine back and forth. Also started en engine without oil filter, lost some man points on that one. Oil pumps are pretty power full.....

It takes 16 acorn nuts to mount the Weber DCNF carbs on a 3.0L Ferrari V8 intake manifold. Not 15. Found the 16th when I started the car...

When I was young and dumb, I had a VW motor rebuilt and when I got the motor back I never checked if it had oil in it...Seized it!

I had a supercharged fox bodied mustang in the 1990’s. I was a teenager. Put a brake caliper on with a 360 degree kink in the rubber brake hose. The wheel wore its way through the brake line and the brake system depressurized on lighthouse street in Monterey in rush hour traffic. Really stupid.

When I lowered my Boxster, I realized I put one of the mounting rings on backwards on the right rear. Had to pull apart what just took me roughly three weeks to do. Front strut, I read the wrong torque line and did like 70 ftlbs instead of like 30. New mount needed. Just got the new to me 996 in July. Give me time. Finally putting coolant in tonight after doing water pump. Should have new story by morning.

When I was 16, I was installing an amplifier into my Mazda 626. Because you know bass in a Mazda 626 was going to make it that much cooler. At least it was a manual transmission though. Needed to get power from the battery to the rear trunk and drilled right through the firewall into the brake booster. Managed to get the car up to the repair shop and they all had a good laugh. You live and you learn.

I over-set the torque on a caliper bolt and totally stripped the wheel carrier. Had to buy an entire now carrier. -td

I've made more mistakes than anyone has a right to. But since I do all of my own work, my opportunities are much greater than many. The one that haunts me the most: I've built many engines for my street and competition cars. I just finished a 4G63 (Mitsubishi) build for one of my rally Talons. Had some internal work done to extract more power. Things were going together well. Got it in the car and was ready to go for the first start-up. Cranked it over, and then I heard a 'tink' sound as if something had just fallen off and hit the concrete. Yep - a piece of the block got knocked out by the con-rod that came undone because I never did the final torque on one set of rod nuts! You can bet I double and triple check all internal fasteners now.

Me in highschool working in a small indy shop that specialized in land rovers and British sports cars. Owner was **** painter but actually manages to put a nice red paint job on a TR6 we'd been restoring. Boss is leaving for the day. I'm novice and can only do so much without guidance. Boss says, "Don't try to put the rear bumper on the TR6. Its a two man job. Just clean up the shop." I clean the shop... Start looking for things to do. Decide it will be a good way to prove my worth by showing the boss that I can handle the "two man job" of putting on that rear bumper. Immediately slap the quarter with a corner of the bumper and chip the paint down to bare metal. The boss wasn't thrilled when he got back.

Forgot about this one. When I had my 77 911 C3 I knew I needed some tranny work done. A guy in NH said he would help me do it. So never really working on cars before, I built some wood blocks that I would have to use to jack the car up, set stands and blocks and jack again until I got up high enough to take tranny out. Anyways, I get it out, friend rebuilds and I bring back home and install. I run through the steps to get the car back down to earth and then start the car. Put in gear, nothing. I guess there is some fork I was suppose to push over to one side when I reinstalled. I stripped this car down to bare metal in my garage to paint mexico blue. I set my leg on fire once. Someone on a board said to wash primer with alcohol. Well that bubbled. When I got to paint, the garage got so cloudy I couldn't see what I was doing. I opened garage doors and pushed outside to finish clear coat (dry day/good temperature. Well of course it's the time of year when the oak trees drop those yellow ribbons. Fortunately the ribbons buffed out. One small bug was not so fortunate. he/she looked like one of those scorpions enclosed in glass that the trading stores use to sell. Google Argeo a pelican success if you want to see the car. I was pre gray.

Not as spectacular as other stories. 1. I drive my rear wheels onto 2 x 4's to get clearance to put my jack under the rear cross member when putting it on jack stands. After finishing a job I lowered the car without the boards. I had to borrow a neighbor's jack to get my jack out. 2. While doing a coolant tank swap I was very careful with the very fragile oil filler tube. Afterwards, I was admiring my work and leaned my elbow on the tube and it broke in half. 3. I left a plastic and rubber flashlight in the engine bay and it rolled onto the exhaust system. I kept smelling burning plastic for a few days before I finally found found the molten glob.

When I was 20 I had a bad injector in a 90 Subaru legacy. I researched on the forums and it seemed like a super easy unbolt rebolt job. I got the part and prior to installing my mother pleaded with me to let her pay for the repair, but I was young and eager to prove I could do this stuff. I crimped off the fuel line and some dripped into the cylinder but I mean....it burns fuel RIGHT? Bent rod, end of engine and end of my super awesome self repairs for a long time.

16 year old me realized the intake sound from the chevy 350 transplant in my father's Jag XJ6 that he handed down to me was WAAAY better with the air filter removed. After going through 2 or 3 prior rebuilds of the original jag engine, he thought that the 350 would be the last engine he would ever need. He was wrong. Not sure if the resulting 350 rebuild was actually caused by debris not getting filtered, or something else. Either way, sorry pops

This is about the dumbest thing i have ever fixed. This is the oil pump pick up gasket that the owner put together. He was wondering why the motor was so noisey. Also a go reason to have a working oil pressure gauge. I cut the center out of the gasket and all was good. Luckily he didnt wipe the cam on his 351.

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Similar thing happened to me when I was working on replacing the engine on an Escort. Was too lazy to wait until the CVs were slid into the transmission and wanted to hear the engine run. So fired it up and as soon as I let the clutch out, heard a pop and something hitting the ground. It was the spider gears shooting through the case of the differential that weren't supported by the axle ends. This was a long time ago when I was in college.

In college I was working at Circuit City installing 12 volt. During the Christmas rush and a late evening I ended up drilling through the gas tank of a customer car while mounting a bazooka tube. Not my finest moment.

Many moons ago I helped a friend do a clutch job on his Plymouth Fury 440. Got it all buttoned up and ready for a test drive only to discover we put the clutch disk in backwards so the engine just spun up rpms without going anywhere.

Stripped my oil drain plug. Had to use an easy out tool to remove it. Pretty tame, but dumb of me.

Back in the 80s while installing an Autopower bolt-in roll cage in my 1982 VW Scirocco SCCA GT3 I drilled through my brake line underneath. That taught me to ALWAYS check the other side of what I’m drilling. Also during the 80s I had a job building Datson 240/260 race motors. One day I finished a motor and was cleaning up my work area and found a head bolt hiding behind an empty box. I had to retrieve my engine back and install the head bolt. (That required pulling the head and retorqing all the bolts in order) That was VERY embarrassing! I learned to count bolts while I’m working! I now count all the bolt holes and then count in my head as I install bolts. It also pointed out that somehow I’d missed that bolt when doing the torquing sequence. That embarrassment was the kick in the pants I needed to learn to pay attention to “minor” details. That also taught me about keeping my work area in order. Empty boxes belong in the trash (recycle bin these days) and NOT in my work area. Some people think I’m OCD about my work...but in my head I hear myself saying, “never again...1...never again...2...never again...3...”

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at least you learn from your mistakes...

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I tell my kids that learning from your mistakes is a good idea, but learning from other�s mistakes is a GREAT idea. Pay CLOSE attention to the mistakes of others, and then don�t make them yourself. Thats why I like this thread. It�s also why I like BS sessions with co-workers and friends. I like the, �one time I...� stories.

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Learn from other's mistakes - you'll never live long enough to do them all yourself...

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I always put silver anti-seize on my Porsche spark plugs.

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I did something very similar but basically punched it off when a wrench slipped while I was trying to torque a new belt roller. Realized how much of a pain it was to replace the whole thing so I wrapped the broken part it in 2" marine-grade heat shrink and sealed it up. IMO it looks better and is now super sturdy and flexible.

I love the comedy about a thread devoted to simple mistakes during DIY maintenance that misspelled DIY in the title...

Changing a malfunctioning fuel pump on an old Ford F100. Gas dumped all over my face. Burned my eyes. Jumped up in a hurry and hit my head on the engine. Scrambled to the kitchen blind to wash my eyes out. Blurred vision for many days. I lived.

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That looks like a great solution. I clamped on a rubber sleeve as a temporary fix, but I haven't gotten around to installing the replacement that I've had in my garage for more than a year.

This goes back more than 25 years. I was putting a trailer hitch on my family truckster a few days before going on vacation. Working on my back on jack stands, doing a final torque the the mounts when the breaker bar slipped of the nut and hit me in the mouth. Broke off one front tooth just above the gum line. Went to the dentist and he put on a crown and I went on vacation. Half way through, I was in terrible pain. Came home and went to dentist again and he said I needed a root canal. He did that, but botched it up and my face and head swelled up like a pumpkin! I had cellulitis in my face. Dentist then decided it was above his ability and sent me to an oral surgeon who cut my gums and flushed out the infection, put me on IV antibiotics. Most pain I’ve ever experienced in my life, but hey, I saved $100 by installing the trailer hitch myself.

In college I installed a Yakima roof rack on my 16v Jetta. After putting my bike on the rack I proceeded to pull into a garage and dented the hell out of the roof.

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No, think of it in Yoda's voice: "Do yourself, it."

Hi all. I was a long time 944 owner, almost bought a 2007 Cayman a month ago, but it failed PPI. ...Still on the hunt for a 996 or Cayman. When I was 18 I drained the oil out of my Camaro and then decided to take it off the ramps. I started it without any oil. Luckily my brain kicked in and immediately shut it off. I had a Mity Vac attached while bleeding the brakes on my Audi 90. I opened a bleed screw and then couldn't figure out where that sound was coming from. I ended up emptying the whole system and couldn't get the brake pedal back. One trip to the shop later, with a red face and empty wallet, car was fixed. I was changing the motor mounts on my 944 inside a portable garage. While laying under the car on cement pavers, I reached around to grab a socket when something caught my eye. I twisted my neck around to see a snake rising up about 2 feet from my head. Startled, I hit my head on the undercarriage and the force from that hit caused my head to smash into the ground, which of course was covered with cement pavers. I probably haven't been right since! Joel

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You're winning, so far.

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I love the guys that park their car, upright, against a wall

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So glad you caught that! Hilarious. I screwed up a post about screwing up. Classic me.

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I put copper anti freeze on my Sequoia plugs 100k ago. It was a complete bear to remove them last weekend. Each turn was as hard as the first until removed.

I watched my front right wheel pass me down the road (65 bug) once...

Hooked up my battery wrong (see my post), this past weekend. Can't even begin to describe the results of that, and the pain on the wallet.

When I did my coilover install, i put the front endlinks on the rear of my car, I also immediately followed that up with taking the car for a spirited drive, oddly, the car behaved really well when I did this. So you can imagine my surprise when i saw that i put the wrong endlinks on, and barely had the nut on the thread. I immediately took my car to my indy to do the install after this.

Back in the sixties, I was a (dumb) college student with a '67 Ford Mustang Fastback that I had driven one winter in Vermont. The rocker panels had rusted out, and I was going to sell the car. I thought I should wash the engine and clean things up before selling. I parked the car in our driveway and proceeded to wash the engine. After, the car would'n start (of course), so I pushed the car to the top of the hill and went back to the house to pick up my butts or something when I heard a crunch. I turned to see the car inching forward down the hill. I ran around the large tree in the way and tried to open the driver's door while running down the hill. Finally, I had to stop and watch the car head off on its own steam! While picking up speed, the car headed straight while the driveway turned left. The car hit two boulders on the edge of the driveway, pushed them aside and continued down our neighbor's hill headed straight for their living room window. At the last moment, the car brushed against a tree on the right and was redirected to the left, going over a 5 foot high wall and landing on the lawn in their back yard just barely touching the edge of their wood siding. OMG, what to do. I crawled under the car to see if I could stop the fuel leak by bending the metal fuel line. Meanwhile my parents, who had been watching tv went to investigate the loud crash they heard. They looked down the hill, saw me under the car, and freaked out until I could let them know I was alright. Long story short...I had to pay for the pine tree that had to be cut so the wrecker could get in, the neighbors weren't too unhappy as the car did little other damage, and I sold the car. The undercarriage was pushed up, but the car was still drive-able. I've never washed a car engine again!!

Probably age 11 I decided I could work on my motorcycle (an old Suzuki). Bike didn't seem to have enough torque, so I put about a 60 tooth rear sprocket on it. First and second gear were worthless, and significantly reduced top end speed. Dumb huh? Then I tackled an air filter cleaning and oil change. No issues there. However, remember old batteries where you had to check the water level? While at it I thought it might be good to COMPLETELY CHANGE the water in the battery. Learned a good lesson there. You don't change out water in a battery. Thank God batteries are now Zero maintenance. In addition, over the years of my developing mechanical ability I've had several reasons to remember "Righty tighty, lefty loosy". Have become adept ad helicoils and the like.

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Actually, "DYI" stands for "Damn, you idiot!"

Dumped fresh oil into an old ford farm truck.....forgot to reinstall the drain plug. Luckily caught it and only lost 3 or so liters (of the 15 it held). Cleaning a dirt bike carb, spraying carb cleaner through the jets. Blocked jet came free and I took a full blast of gunk and carb cleaner to the eyeball! That stung for days

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Oh boy. Reminds me of another one of my screw ups. Must have been 78 or so. I just completed my first engine build. It was for one of several of my disposable $100 Colts. I was so proud that it fired right up. Ran great. Figured I would celebrate by going on a road trip to visit my best buddy at college. Probably 40 miles, one way. Got on the road as it was getting dark. All was going great. Probably a bit past the point of no return - I glanced in the mirror and saw what appeared to be a cloud of smoke following me. Oh crap! And it wasn't going away. I dove for the first exit and shut the engine off. I coasted into the parking lot of a K-Mart. Got out and checked the dip stick. Nothing. Went in and bought a few quarts of the finest K-Mart oil $2 could buy. Got out my trusty can busting spout and poured the first quart in. There was a funny sound as I did this. Like the sound of fluid dribbling on the ground. I took a look under the car. There was a puddle of oil growing ever larger... No drain plug. I never tightened the damn thing when I had it on the engine stand! Had to make the call of shame, to my dad. "Aah, I lost the drain plug for the oil pan. Could you deliver one to me at K-Mart in Plymouth. I'll be the guy freezing his *** off in the ratty old Colt you've seen around the house. Oh, could you bring a wrench too?" I had a space blanket that was surprisingly effective at keeping me warm. Dad showed up and brought a plug and a wrench. I thanked him for the inconvenience with my tail tucked between my legs. We parted ways and I enjoyed my trip to visit my friend. That car was fun for a while; at least until it rusted out beyond my ability to keep it going. On to the next $100 Colt...

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All I have to say is WOW! I could visualize the whole thing unfolding in my mind!

The first time I changed the oil and filter after installing the LN spin-on adapter, I did not notice that the gasket from the old filter was left behind, stuck to the adapter. I installed the new filter (and ITS gasket), filled the car up with DT40, fired it up...and blew about half a quart of oil all over the bottom of the engine and my garage floor. Guess what I've never done again?

In 1974 my father decided to show me how to change the oil in a car. I drained the oil and filter let it all drain. I replaced the drain plug and put a new filter making sure I put fresh oil on the rubber gasket as he instructed me to do. Started the car and oil started squirting out around the filter. Thought my father was going to kill me, what did I do wrong? Turned the car off. Removed the filter and then realized the old filter gasket was still on the car!! Scrapped that off reinstalled all good. My father was just shaking his head and said: "yeah forgot to tell you to check that the old filter gasket came off with the old filter". I have never forgotten that and always check it. I showed both my youngest sons how to change the oil this past year and told them that story! Hopefully, they will always check also!