Amusing - looking back to memories from car mags of the 70's , when brakes were all drum ,no nasty split systems , etc .

One article in a car mag help column came to mind . Author was asked to help with brake failure - no pressure ,then he found that the brakes were suffering from low fluid level , and idiot in question had topped up using FAIRY LIQUID " Coss it was green like Girling" .

Amusing - looking back to memories from car mags of the 70's , when brakes were all drum ,no nasty split systems , etc .

One article in a car mag help column came to mind . Author was asked to help with brake failure - no pressure ,then he found that the brakes were suffering from low fluid level , and idiot in question had topped up using FAIRY LIQUID " Coss it was green like Girling" .

Reminds me of this guy http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/wales/south_west/5110270.stm

Back when I had my A4 2.8q (which needed a fair bit of work doing to it, to bring it up to my stupid fussy stds)..... I'd finished doing a lot of work on the front end, renewing brake calipers, trackrod ends etc. After I'd put everything back together all was fine for about a week. Then suddenly the car developed a loud knocking noise from the front suspension when accelerating and braking.

So with out even checking I thought.... "feck it.... I'll just order a complete set of meyle parts and have done with it... renew everything". Anyway parts arrived direct from Germany and I procede to start fitting. Whats the first thing I find ? A loose brake caliper !!!! I hadn't put a locking agent on the mounting bolts and they'd worked loose. Doh !

Long story short the 2.8q didn't stay with me long and was soon replaced by a B7 2.0tdi..... which again didn't last long as in reality I needed an estate.

On an old clio of mine took a loan out brought a new set of £800 alloys titanuim chrome or somthing like that. I took the rear drivers side off the same day to paint caliper, i rested the alloy agaisnt a wall facing away being sure not to damage the wheel, i knocked the wheel foward and it did the coin effect of spinning around just about getting every part of the alloy! it was one of those freeze and stare in horror moments.

Way back a few years ago ,when coilpacks and firing on both strokes was unknown -daughter's boyfriend asked me to look at his mates car as it wouldn't start after he'd replaced dizzie cap/leads /plugs .

Story was that he'd puled lot off and replaced the leads n the principle that the one nearest to any one dizzie point went to that cylinder ( ).They couldn't understand firing order ,TDC or anything like that .In end ,it was caseof find some timing marksthat made sense ,whip plugs out and look for TDC ,then look at rotor arm position , then call that No1 .,find engine roatation , find next rotor position etc .Surprisingly enough , when all four leads were in place ,engine started and run -they looked like I'd performed magic .And the bloke that owned the car had four kids - oh, well perhaps his wife was better informed :smirk:

Scraped a chunk out of the sill up to just under the bottom of the door when the rubbish little OEM jack twisted round and came off the sill rail. :(

I had a blown head gasket on my first car, a Fiat 600 (remember them?) and thought I'd undone all the studs but I couldn't get the head off. I though it was stuck so i used a "bit" of leverage then it finally came off with a bang. It was only then that I discoverd the last stud under the carburetter which was mounted on the top of the cylinder head and it had snapped off.

So it was on my bike and off buy a new stud and an extractor.

1:- Took the engine and gearbox out of my Dolomite Sprint (it was due to be thrashed round Goodwood the following day) as had a bad oil leak, the crankshaft oil seal was the prime suspect, when the engine and gearbox were separated everything inside the bell housing was dry, not a leaking oil seal insight…. Turned out the cam cover gasket was leaking on the bottom edge, as the engine slants over the leak could not be seen and the oil conveniently made it’s way round to the bottom of the bell housing. The next day whilst going down the main straight at Goodwood I find out the hardway whilst changing from 3rd to 4th my mate had not secured the gear lever in properly!!

2:- Changing the CAM belt on SWMBO 1.6 Ztech escort, I got distracted and left the 5mm steel bar in place used to lock the camshafts in place across the top of the head. When I returned to the car I tried to start it forgetting I had not removed the bar! The starter motor strained to start with (as if the battery was nearly flat), there was then an almighty bang as the 5mm bar was thrown out, the bar ended up buckled and dog legged and the location lugs used to lock the cams at the end of both cams broke off. Still after another new belt (as I think the first new one may have been stretched slightly during the experience) it fired up and ran fine.

Not DIY but stealer once left a socket wrench in the engine bay after changing a driveshaft on my Octavia. This then rattle off, hit the drive shaft and puntured the DSG box!!

Resultant damage was discoved when the car refused to change gear due to lack of oil pressure.

Edited 6 March, 201016 yr by slider

Not me but my friend.......

Fitted an induction kits to his car but left a socket piece in the engine bay and drove off this dropped into the engine got jammed in a moving part and as he was driving the engine blow up :| woooops

Dave

After doing some work on my old mk2 astra, I had the socket set on the engine top when I started it up to test that my work was OK. Despite bits going everywhere, all was OK.

On a more recent note, changing the xenon bulbs in my Octy last week, I put down the torx screw bit somewhere (I was doing this in the dark) and couldn't find it when I reassembled everything. Fairly sure it's in the engine bay somewhere, but couldn't find it. Done plenty of miles in the car since though so it's either on the undertray or I didn't leave it in the engine bay.

Had fair few mishaps with fixing cars but the worst one was last month whilst changing the clutch on my Octavia vrs. Whilst getting slightly stressed trying to refit the gear box, it fell off the jack and came straight down on my finger, gashing it open deep enough to just nick the tendon covering :S. Three visits to hospital, antibiotics and 7 stitches last there's just a scar left to show for it

I used to work at an indepentant porsche centre years ago and we had this trainee working there,anyways he was told to put new front pads on a 944 s2, now we all know which way round they go,he didnt despite being shown a few times before going solo,put the buggers in metal to disk,ouch car was road tested came back new disks and pads please,needless to say he didnt stay long after that!

Trev