What stupid Things have you done to your car?

[Zhu8]

The title is kinda self explanatory, I'll start of with one from my dad.

This was a week after he bought a brand new Nissan Murano a few years ago. As he was driving into the Garage, he didn't see my new bike on leaning dangerously close to where he usually parked his car, due to the fact that he used to drive a much lower minivan and was just getting acustomed to his new car. He saw it at the last moment and tried to hit the brake, he failed. Let's just say any car with a VQ35DE revving at 6000 rpm doesn't really like to stop really quickly, crashing into a 24" Raliegh Mountain Bike helped a little bit. The bike suffered a scratched piece of plastic, the part Carbon Fiber front bumper had a 1" gash in it in which you could almost see some of the frame, being a little bit handy, he fixed it with some superglue and recoloured the carbo fiber with a touchup pen. The moral of the story: SUVs are Hard to drive in small spaces. I guess we were lucky that the Carbon Fiber didn't shatter like on Flemke's McLaren F1, or not since it's part plastic too.

 

[nobuffalo]

I've done something stupid to every one of my cars, I also had a lot of brothers that did stupid crap to their cars. Honestly i'm surprised i'm still alive.

 

[Eric.]

Put it up on two wheels on the highway (interstate?) in downtown St. Louis.

It was 11pm or later, I was behind another car and didn't notice the lane we were in became an exit until it was pretty late. So I made the idiot move to swerve back to the rightmost lane that wasn't an exit. The space between the exit and the continuing highway was just open pavement, so it should've been fine. Except I caught the beginning of a curb somewhere in there with the right tires. I know I was doing at least 45, maybe over 50. I don't remember now. I just knew I had bent a rim or two and busted who knows what else...Except the car still drove straight, no new vibrations...nuthin'.

My passenger was hardly disturbed from her sleep either.

 

[Thatman]

Oh, that kind of stupid stuff...hmmm, leave the coolant cap off in both the old talon and my Rx7? Otherwise a lot of stupid things to the eclipse....lol.

 

[Keef]

I put mine in a ditch and dented what was a perfectly clean body.

 

[Eric.]

The title is kinda self explanatory, I'll start of with one from my dad.

This was a week after he bought a brand new Nissan Murano a few years ago. As he was driving into the Garage, he didn't see my new bike on leaning dangerously close to where he usually parked his car, due to the fact that he used to drive a much lower minivan and was just getting acustomed to his new car. He saw it at the last moment and tried to hit the brake, he failed. Let's just say any car with a VQ35DE revving at 6000 rpm doesn't really like to stop really quickly, crashing into a 24" Raliegh Mountain Bike helped a little bit. The bike suffered a scratched piece of plastic, the part Carbon Fiber front bumper had a 1" gash in it in which you could almost see some of the frame, being a little bit handy, he fixed it with some superglue and recoloured the carbo fiber with a touchup pen. The moral of the story: SUVs are Hard to drive in small spaces. I guess we were lucky that the Carbon Fiber didn't shatter like on Flemke's McLaren F1.

I just read this post.


1) So you dad parks in the garage doing 30mph in 1st gear often?

2) This:

Does not have a carbon fiber anything.

 

[eSZee]

Just wow. I'm gonna call BS on 95% of that story.

 

[Zhu8]

I just read this post.


1) So you dad parks in the garage doing 30mph in 1st gear often?

2) This:

Does not have a carbon fiber anything.

Actually the body panels are a carbon fiber/plastic blend and is remouldable, he was doing more like 10 kmph, CVT Lets you redline really quick if you floor it quickly.

 

[homeforsummer]

There's no carbon fibre on a Murano. Plastic yes, carbon fibre no. Sure you're not thinking of fibreglass?

 

[Zhu8]

How about this one: (this was back when I was 5)
My mom starts backing out of the driveway in the snow and half asleep.
Me: Mom.
Her: I'm busy.
Me: But Mom!
*Smash*
Her: What were you going to say?
Me: You were about to Crash into *Name*'s Dad's Subaru.

 

[Keef]

Sure you're not thinking of fibreglass?

Wouldn't matter because it doesn't have any fiberglass either. The bumpers on 95% of cars to are various types of plastic with glass fiber mixed in. It's called Fiber-Reinforced Plastic. FRP.

 

[Zhu8]

There's no carbon fibre on a Murano. Plastic yes, carbon fibre no. Sure you're not thinking of fibreglass?

You may be right, as far as I know the only metal on the car are in the mechanical components, frame, and rear bumper protector.

 

[Punknoodle]

Actually the body panels are a carbon fiber/plastic blend and is remouldable, he was doing more like 10 kmph, CVT Lets you redline really quick if you floor it quickly.

Why would you floor it really quickly driving into a garage?

 

[Zhu8]

Why would you floor it really quickly driving into a garage?

It was unintentional, his foot missed the brake pedal, fortunately he was only half a meter away from the wall so there was not much damage.

 

[BrutherSuperior]

Years ago I had an old Chevelle, big block w/a nasty 1050 Dominator on a Victor intake. Well, I had the top half of the engine off and when it was all back together I had a friend try to start it up...it didn't.

Wondering what was the problem, I leaned over the engine while he was cranking and BOOM! A huge fireball shot out of the carb.

From inside the car, my buddy said he saw fire spill over the sides of the hood. I believe him as I no longer had eyebrows, eyelashes, and received a new haircut.

...I installed the distributor 180 degress off. Ooops.

 

[homeforsummer]

Wouldn't matter because it doesn't have any fiberglass either. The bumpers on 95% of cars to are various types of plastic with glass fiber mixed in. It's called Fiber-Reinforced Plastic. FRP.

So... fibreglass I never said that's what the bumpers would be made of but it was a logical assumption that he'd confused it with carbon fibre.

 

[ND4SPD]

In my old Police Interceptor when I first got it, with bald rear tires might I add. I was beside a semi truck on the highway in a huge downpour, I decided I wanna get pass the truck so I floored it and the thing dropped a gear at 80kmh and shot sideways beside the trailer and lets just say I saw the trailers rear tires coming at me while I was fighting to get a 4000lb police car straight in the pouring rain....Needless to say bricks were shat. Now when I think of doing something similar in my Camaro I think of that night....

 

[Murcie_LP640]

Done:

- Went into a roundabout at about 40kph. Front left tyre decided it no longer wanted to be a tyre, came apart, sent me into the high curb on the other side, bent a rim, ripped two more tyres and knocked the wheel alignment out of place.

Witnessed:

- My sister's boyfriend decides to take his 1986 Skyline Silhouette out into the local pine forest to do some donuts, literally the day before a buyer was coming around to pick it up. Almost sends it into a tree.

- Mere hours after brand new 19" Konig Unknown wheels were put onto the family's old 2005 WRX, Dad hit a curb and chipped one on the way to pick me up from school. Much swearing followed.

 

[Adamgp]

1.) Back when I had my '98 Escort I was taking a shortcut through a construction zone where they were resurfacing the road. (on a Sunday so no workers were there)

I was maybe going a little fast and when I got to the edge of the road where they started tearing up the surface I found how far they were digging down. I ended up driving off a 2-2.5 foot drop. I pooed a little and ended up breaking both rear springs.

2.) Once or twice a year our '97 Astro has trouble starting when the weather is damp. The quick fix is to lift up the air filter and spray a little starting fluid down the intake. I always end up spraying too much . The van starts but flames shoot back up the air intake and the filter catches fire.

One time I sprayed in waaaaay too much and had my dad try and start it. The airbox lid blew off and a little fireball shot out nearly hitting me in the face. (I didn't know what it was at the time.) I grabbed the filter with some pliers and threw it on the ground and put it out with my foot. I then remember the fireball and go to see what that was and it turned out to be the throttle body screen. I managed to keep both eyebrows, and the van runs great. Although we have to keep spare air filters on hand.

3.) The third one I remember was back in winter of 2004. My mom had just got her new PT Cruiser and parked it in the garage. I went to pull my Grand Prix in next to it.

I was so concerned about leaving enough room around her new car that I didn't notice that the stack of firewood had come out of nowhere and before I knew it had taken off my side mirror and did a little unscheduled bodywork.

 

[eiriksmil]

I've done a lot of stupid things to my cars and in my cars, but I think 90 mph lift off oversteer through a corner tops the list

 

[nobuffalo]

Shiver.

 

[Zhu8]

This one isn't exactly stupid, but we had a thought about switching mechanics. My Mom's car had a flat tire, fortunately it was on the driveway and not on the highway. I tried for 30 minuites trying to remove the lug nut by Leaning, Stepping, Jumping, and kicking the Tire Iron. In the end we called roadside assistance which we signed up for just in case, it took the tow truck driver 30 minuites to get all of the lug nuts off. Turns out the mechanic had a broken torque wrench and overtightened them by ~20 PSI, and both the Tow Truck Driver and I sheared the lug nuts, needless to say we took a quick drive to NAPA in the other car and bought 5 lug nuts.

 

[Perfect Balance]

Turns out the mechanic had a broken torque wrench and overtightened them by ~20 PSI,

wut?

I assume you meant ft lbs, which really isn't a lot. They wouldn't have broken at only 20lbs over spec.

and both the Tow Truck Driver and I sheared the lug nuts, needless to say we took a quick drive to NAPA in the other car and bought 5 lug nuts.

I've never seen lugnuts break off a vehicle without breaking the studs off as well.

Well once, but it was a locking lug that had a crack in it.

 

[Eric.]

wut?

I assume you meant ft lbs, which really isn't a lot. They wouldn't have broken at only 20lbs over spec.


I've never seen lugnuts break off a vehicle without breaking the studs off as well.

Well once, but it was a locking lug that had a crack in it.

http://www.westkyimports.com/forums/showthread.php?14192-Why-torque-lug-nuts

 

[Perfect Balance]

http://www.westkyimports.com/forums/showthread.php?14192-Why-torque-lug-nuts

"Not a single one, out of 32 lug nuts, would break loose with the impact. In fact, I had to use a 5 ft steel pipe as a cheetah bar, just to get the lugs loose, then hammer the lug nut out of the socket. No doubt in my mind, that these were torqued down to AT LEAST 300 ft/lbs."

This is not only 20ft lbs over spec. Not to mention a Hummer is going to have stronger studs that what you're going to find on your average car, typically the studs just break, but that usually only happens on ones that have been crossthreaded.

 

[Punknoodle]

Just because its a Hummer doesn't mean its going to have stronger studs. Other 4WDs and cars with higher expected loads on their hubs have a higher number of studs to compensate. With harder steel you get a more pronounced shearing factor, which obviously you don't want either.

And anyway, H2s wouldn't qualify anyway, unless you're suggesting chrome wheels require harder studs, as most of the H2s I've seen are soft on roaders, all blinged up. Not exactly the strong, military spec Humvee that they based their looks on.

 

[7HO]

Stupid things I have done TO my car.

• I started a restoration without the funds to complete it, then when I had the money I purchased another car, a few months ago I had to call a truck to take it to scrap because it was too far gone. The car was a complete car on the road before I stripped it and I loved that car.
• I haven't serviced my BMW in over a year
• I haven't finished the repair I started on my BMW's sunroof about a year ago
• I haven't started the restoration of my Dodge since I bought it years ago as I don't have the funds to complete it, at least I learnt from my prior mistake but I could have had the funds if I didn't spend all my money on other interests

Stupid things I have done IN my car. This is by no means a comprehensive list. I could just say almost everything I did in a car before I got married 10 years ago.

• 240 km/hr+ on a public road.
• Putting my life and others in danger multiple times by using a public road as my own personal race track.
• Getting air born off a rail crossing at 160 km/hr, bottoming out on landing and ripping off my exhaust.
• Getting on two wheels after clipping a roundabout and thinking this is cool I will see how long I can keep it going.
• Doing a 500m powerskid right in front of the cops. I've actually been busted by the cops doing burnouts a number of times.
• Flat shifting my car fitted with a standard box and a far too tight clutch which resulted in the contents of my box being left on the road, I have actually been silly enough to do this twice.
• Taking my freshly painted car out for a second go in anger at a burnout comp after my ex turned up with her new partner, when I felt the bubble in my tyre I decided to keep the boot in and see what breaks first my diff or the tyre, the diff broke the same time my car overheated, I stepped out to notice the wire from the tire had done a great job of removing the paint from the rear of the car to half way up the door, time for a another respray.
• Doing a burnout and loosing control right in front of some guys I had just met
• Doing circle work drunk on a friends property in my freshly painted car (same one as before) on new years eve. Noticing the next day that I had a hole in my rear quarter. It was later explained to me that not only was I inches away from putting my car into a 12 foot deep dam but the hole was created when I hit a railway sleeper that was put down to protect the irrigation system, apparently I hit it so hard that it took out the irrigation and flooded his entire paddock.
• Loosing control on a public road and heading backwards into oncoming traffic before hitting the curb bouncing into the air and landing on four wheels a few meters over with a bent rack and chassis.
• Rally driving a dirt back road and ripping the tyre off the rim on the way to my girlfriends place resulting in having to call her Dad to assist due to my jack malfunctioning.
• Starting a drag race in reverse, hilarity ensued I hope none of my friends read this, I think everyone has finally forgotten.

And that's just off the top of my head

 

[Perfect Balance]

Just because its a Hummer doesn't mean its going to have stronger studs.

They are. They use 14mm studs instead of the typical 12mm on your average car.

In any case, I didn't say it was impossible, I've just never personally seen it happen. I just think something isn't correct with his story. A torque wrench doesn't use psi, so I assume he meant 20 ft lb over spec, which is hardly enough to break studs or shear lugnuts or even have difficult removing. Then, assuming they did "shear the lugnuts off", then how did they get the rest of them off and simply run down to the store and replace them?

I dunno, I just doubted his story, that's all. I didn't mean for this to become some big discussion.

 

[Jim Prower]

Parked the front of the Nova with it's nose in a hole, bent the front bumper askew. Have you ever wonder why I never took pictures of it save for just after I got it? (and the brake line repair.)

Oh, Casey? I just noticed what was in the background of that shot with your Miata...I've been planning to go there myself one warm summer weekend...

 

[Glubags]

Deciding to actively pursue the LS2 swap.