What was the most ridiculous "human error" in your car ever?

[Ben01]

Inspired a bit by "worst cars we had" topic: what was the most ridiculous bit or fix or part anybody put in your car? Or garage or pro mechanics fault? I don't mind mechanical faults per se, as "iron rain" under the car or broken anything is normal and not very funny, but rather strange faults and fixes brought by people, owners and garages.

Like - any previous owner put in my current GS430 new shiny wiper arms (not blades, but external arms to mount blades). But definitely they are not from GS430 2002, they have different angles and trajectory now, not like normal GS wipers...

Another, probably biggest "error" I witnessed old days - somebody full serviced Ford Explorer, included automatic transmission refurbish. After service car was probably worse than before. Somebody sold the car. Some guys bought SUV with a real money and had driven half a country. They started probably with not-fully-ok car, finished with kentucky fried tranny. I bought the car with chips&fish money, struggled with it, fixed this and that, and finaly refurbished tranny myself. And I found the primary reason - somebody forgot to put into tranny very smal pin (like matchstick or half a nail) for very important valve...

What is your story?

[Britprius]

Back in the 60's I bought a clean one owner Triumph 13/60 Herald for next to nothing. The story being it had lost drive in any gear. The owner had a new clutch put in, but still no drive. A garage diagnosed a broken gearbox.
I bought the car for peanuts, and removed the  cardboard gearbox cover inside the car. "On the Herald, spitfire, and Vittesse the gearbox came out from inside the car". First thing to do to remove the gearbox is to remove the four propshaft bolts. There was none fitted just empty holes. I fitted four new bolts, and problem solved. The car drove beautifully.

John.

[Farqui]

[The-Acre]

2 hours ago, Britprius said:

Back in the 60's I bought a clean one owner Triumph 13/60 Herald for next to nothing. The story being it had lost drive in any gear. The owner had a new clutch put in, but still no drive. A garage diagnosed a broken gearbox.
I bought the car for peanuts, and removed the  cardboard gearbox cover inside the car. "On the Herald, spitfire, and Vittesse the gearbox came out from inside the car". First thing to do to remove the gearbox is to remove the four propshaft bolts. There was none fitted just empty holes. I fitted four new bolts, and problem solved. The car drove beautifully.

John.

I bought a Triumph Herald once, absolutely mint, it even had clear plastic covers on the seats making them like new.  Sadly the underside was only held together with a honeycomb of rust from front to rear!

[OldTrout]

Wonderful story from Britprius about engine not connected to wheels. I think that one will take some beating.

John

 

[olliesgrandad]

Back in the 80's I was a village bobby. My elderly Ford Fiesta diesel van was replaced with a smart new hatchback with a twin revolving roof blue light box instead of the single revolving beacon..

Every time i operated it i noticed a scraping noise and the lights didn't seem to be revolving as fast as expected. Upon inspection i found that the blades of the revolving mirrors were trying to cut their way out through the blue plastic . Basically when fitted by workshops the box had been firmly bolted to the roof not allowing for the roof curvature of the car and the now deformed light unit was causing the mechanism to foul the cover.... spacers duly fitted and all was well.

[shane3265]

I once took my old IS200 for a full service to a small indie garage. Never used them before but stupidly decided it was a good idea. I specifically asked them to change the spark plugs which they said they did. Some time after the work was done I noticed a very slight misfire. Eventually took it to someone who knew what they were doing and upon investigation discovered a crack in one of the plugs. Also looked like these were the old plugs.

We reckoned the guys who did the service probably took the plugs out and put the old ones back in, but didn't get the angle right when replacing or over-tightened. As a result they cracked the ceramic on one of the plugs. Thats why I could only feel the misfire under certain 'torquey' conditions. Full plug replacement later and the car was back to its usual perfect self! 

 

Lesson learned

 

[Guest]

I once bought an Audi.

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[Normski]

My first car was a G plate Fiesta automatic() back in 1995. Lovely 'L' model. So this spec meant just a radio and no rear wash wipe (the stunningly bad cvt box came for free). By the time it came into my possession it had clearly seen much better days. The tin worm had taken its toll particularly on the rear hatch. One morning I went to close this when it promptly let the rear window smash into the boot space taking with it large chunks of the tailgate and the filler that unknown to me had been used at some point to hold things together. Big problem especially as I had just joined uni at the time and had already spent the obligatory student loan in true George Best style. A quick trip to the breakers resulted in an almost-matching faded red coloured tailgate from a 'LX' model - with a rear wash wipe...

Eventually traded the car in a year or so later. The part-ex trader was particularly keen on the LX spec that was being reported on the tailgate. Shame the rear-wash wipe wasn't actually connected to anything...

[Ben01]

(sorry, it is too long, don't read, I could not stop)

Oui, small car full of filler!

It is remeber me my retarded youngest brother's first car, small old Starlet, decades ago. I was living in another part of country, so it does not bother me in the beginning, like somebody called me and drop "and G. bought the car, nice low cost starlet", OK, good choice for him and fiancee, city ride mostly, no children. But in days or weeks, when I visited parents (they and my brothers are living in same area), like Eastern or something, and I have seen the car in the flesh... Oh mama, oh my godness... The Starlet was dark gray with broad colorfull arrow stickers on sides, she was painted in many many grays, and with the roof in Navy version (you could see waves of filler from distance). My first question was "where did you find this P-o-S??" - "next village, some nice young boys" - "yeah, you are plain retarded to buy any car from local village boys, wanna-be rice-racers and skilled on rollovers and filler..." - "WHAT?"

And next it was better and better, tiny Starlet had LPG system (1.0 engine!?), barely worked, and gasoline did not work at all. So in 5min I rolled up my sleeves and dug under the bonnet, pointed the broken fuel pump, broken air filter with "racing" bypass, etc. etc. to my sad brother (and his fiancee watched us, scared). And next he has fixed car a bit in couple of months.

But the clou was a bit later - Starlet had lowered rear suspension, you know, 1.0 liter rice-racers from next village... I thought it was common trick with turning the torsion bar a bit and pointed this to my brother as "and think about this", as it was not critical in my mind. Next my father recognised the rear of Starlet is strange and jumpy and noisy, and pressed brother to fix the suspension. They visited some local independent toyota specialist, they put the car on lift, the guy jumped under and immediately back with known "mechanic whistle" a.k.a "mister, you have expensive problem here". And comments "Yeah, there is a suspension lowered a bit. But first thing first - it is not Toyota Starlet suspension... For me it looks like Lupo or similar, but I am not [censored] VW specialist". Shock and awe, as alien suspension was simple bolted to metal here and there. And my father paid for any Starlet suspension to put in, all parts and job cost like a half of "low cost" car.

It was deliberately modified car, so maybe not exactly in the topic, my lovely brother was only "human error" here.

But they used the car for couple of years next, cracking filler was not a big deal. BTW it was valuable lesson, not for him maybe, but for his fiancee (sooner-than-later wife) at last. One day G. suprised me with call "Erm, you know, we are expecting second child... - Congrats 🤨 and what can I do for you? - We think about bigger car... me and P. (middle brother, a bit more car-savvy, a very tiny bit) have some ideas... but E. (wife) order me to call you first..." - "Like for what, for approval?? 😮" - "Sort of, you are most experienced in used cars in whole family..." - "Mhm, or she still remebers those first days with Starlet... OK, tell me your ideas" - "The best one is an Opel Astra Bertone..." - (my voice condensed oxygen from air) "I like your definition of reliable family car... How much?" - "(price tag was ridiculous), only problem the car is 100 miles away, so E. order to call you before we'll ride to see this coupe" - (my voice condensed nitrogen leftovers) "My boy, it's not only problem here. Listen me carefully: you will walk to street X, two blocks from your flat. This is local Mekka of dealers and used cars. You will start from your end of this street. Before end of the street you have to find four door Japanese gasoline car, with shape, engine and gadgets to your taste AND HALF A PRICE OF THIS MORONIC BERTONE. If you fail, I would ask E. to turn your life in livin hell and I will help her with this" - "Eee..." - "Zip your mouth and march". It was a half joke, so I did not believe he called me in a few hours, they found in the street X mazda 626 liftback, with small engine (1.6?) and in mint condition, and half price of stupid coupe... And they were living happily ever after, like 10 or more years with oldschool bulletproof mazda.

[The-Acre]

You're not kidding it's too long! Ever heard of the saying "in a nutshell?"😨😱

[Ben01]

7 minutes ago, The-Acre said:

Ever heard of the saying "in a nutshell?

Aye, but I have strongly disagreed the idea, in form of 2000 words essay.

[First_Lexus]

A few years ago, my sister had her broken down Skoda Octavia recovered to the local Indy garage which had been servicing it. They diagnosed a major issue with the ECU and declared it uneconomic to repair. They advised her to scrap it.

My brother-in-law decided to get a second opinion, so had the car taken to the nearest Skoda main dealer. I never found out exactly what the issue was but it took them only 30 minutes to diagnose and fix it, then another 30 minutes to wash it! They didn't even charge...and quite rightly then got the servicing business for the next few years.  

[dutchie01]

2 spring to mind. Many moons ago i brought my citroen 2cv to the local garage as it just would not start. electricity aplenty but no spark, we changed the plugs etc. Got a call a couple of hours later telling me in a very polite way that normally a car will not start without petrol sir...

second is fitting a giant trunkspoiler to my ford mondeo diesel. what was i thinking??? ( spoiler the size of a coffee table!).

[Ben01]

6 hours ago, First_Lexus said:

They didn't even charge...and quite rightly then got the servicing business for the next few years.

This story remember me similar about mechanic attitude in different workshops, but a bit "upside-down". Once I met a friend at public seminar or so, but immediately I have seen something happen, he was normal bloke, but went in with red face and enfuriated. "Whats up, pal?" - "Nay, nothing" - "I see something" - "OK, rear wiper in my megane has gone a few days ago. And you know, megane estate in the city, autumn, no view in back, not ideal. I had the planned service at my Renault dealer today, so I told them to look at the wiper. They checked it and told me wiper engine unit has gone, car is out of warranty, so they could replace the unit for 250 quids" - (me) "ARE YOU KI..." - "WAIT, I was like, ok, but not today, I have other bills to pay, but next week maybe. So we finished business and I left. At the end of the same street I have seen "CAR-ELECTRICS ALL-MODELS" type workshop, and I was, hell, lets try Ben's approach and try tinkering on elder car. I jumped in, explain my problem, the guy was cool, said "mhm, megane estate year NN, give me a moment", he unscrewed couple of bits, put the hand inside door, rubrubrub, and told me to check the wiper. And it was fine... I was a bit shock and "how much", the guy shrugged and said "For press down two plugs? I don't know, 5 quids?" - (I cry of laugh, as friend was type "only proper mechanics touch my cars", opposite of my approach) - "But it is not the end. I turn back to my Renault dealer, and made a intergalactic fight with workshop and managers. We shouted each other pretty bad, I shouted them liars and fraudsters in front of customers, they wanted to call the police. I definitely inform them, after 12 years and three brand new cars bought from them and fully serviced with them, I never ever back to them. Period. And I have driven straight here, still a bit boiled..." - "OK Martin, calm down, welcome in my world, and lets enjoy the seminar...".

It is not exactly about "human error" but "system error", but I like to remember this story. Personally I am not a target for any main dealer garage, but it was good to remeber this ie. when I serviced near new company cars last years...