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Your worst car maintenance experience! I've just had mine!
Well what an absolute pig of a job which should have been a straight forward 30 minute task! I ordered some oil and a filter recently and it turned up this morning so I thought to myself "great, I'll get that sorted today". Anyway, jack the car up and put onto axel stands, drip pan under the car and socket set all ready.... I put the 13mm 6 sided socket on and the angle on which I tried to lever it with the breaker bar was completely stupid. I needed to be double jointed or something to get the required force applied. Whoops, I slipped the socket and burred the edges of the bolt head.
Second attempt; I reposition myself under the car, put the socket back on and hit it with the hammer to make sure, I lever it with all my strength (the right way may I add) and the damn thing slips right round and I smack my elbow! Ouch... At this point 30 minutes have long gone and I spent ages filing the edges and give it a third attempt. Nope the b@stard isn't budging. After giving up with the sockets I decide to try some mole grips on it. Bad idea... After looking on the Internet, using mole grips is the worst thing you can do! Anyway, I never knew this so I clamped the mole grips on as hard as I could, literally like trying to squeeze rocks in my hand. I get the hammer and hit the mole grips around which chewed the bolt head completely. As I proceeded to take the grips off, they suddenly let go and drop onto my lip splitting it open with blood gushing out!
After 10 minutes of nursing my lips I decide to put the car back onto the ground to make a 1 hour round trip to town to Screwfix to get these "special" sockets that are designed to undo rounded heads. So I get home, jack the car back up and try to get the bolt grip socket on. It wouldn't go on easily so I hit it on with the hammer and it felt really nice and tight... I used all my strength and it started to turn... The goddamn socket turned but not the bolt! Absolutely fuming at this point. I looked on the Internet and using a blow torch to expand and shrink the metal is a highly recommended technique. I get the blow torch and heat the **** out of the bolt head and hammer on the smaller bolt grip socket. It starts to go on but only just! I wait 5 minutes for the metal to cool hoping that it bonds to the socket. It felt pretty firm so I attached my ratchet to the socket and slowly turn it carefully so that the socket bites into the bolt. I then put the breaker on and yank it with all my might. Yoink!! The bolt head suddenly moved and the socket was still firmly in place! Hurray!! God knows how because the socket was on at an angle but the heat must have really helped.
The offender;
So, what's yours?
Last edited by LSherratt; 29 July 2015 at 08:59 PM.
I changed the drivers side rocker cover gasket about 6 times thinking it was still leaking when it was just all the oil that had leaked into the heatshield burning off.
I eventually snapped one of the bolts and had to pay someone 100 to get the offending part out.
Also got the spark plug socket stuck in the engine and took a couple of days of random techniques to eventually get it out.
I've had over 20 cars in my time it's the subaru that has tested me most.
I also go out thinking it will be an easy job and almost always turns out to be a nightmare.
When i bought my 2nd Impreza it came with OZ Supper league alloys. Went to change alloys and rear locking nut was seized on, after a few attempts it started to round off, tried a few things, my dad tried a few things. In the end my mate who ones a garage tried heating it up. And basically have to smash it off in the end. Made a right mess off the alloy.
Got a friend of a friend to fit some whiteline droplinks on my Imported Classic. Of course, and unbeknownst to me at the time (very new scooby owner those days), the wishbone is alloy and isn't steel and requires a different set of front droplinks. So that was 30 minutes and £90 wasted.
Until recently, when they're a direct replacement on my Turbo 2000 .
Couple of weeks back I sprayed the bonnet scoop and of course, you have to dismantle the undertray from inside the bonnet first (Is undertray the correct term?). All the bolts were there when removing however one was missing when I put them back in. Have absolutely no idea where it went?!
I once spent most of a day trying to remove and replace a section of exhaust, scraped knuckles, rust in eyes, bruised elbow and ego, finally drove the car down to local exhaust centre sounding like a tank, 5mins and five quid later the bloke had sorted it.
When I was a kid I had an old mini with a badly rusted rear sub frame. I jacked it up using two side jacks (I know, I know!) pulled wheels and stuff off and scrambled underneath. After removing the few retaining bolts I pulled off the remains of the sub frame, got back underneath, the side jacks collapsed and the car settled on top of me.
Now old minis with most of the back end missing don't weigh much but it was more than enough to trap me, yelling for help, for 30 minutes. Parents were out and eventually a neighbour came round to investigate and very easily lifted the back up by the bumper and out I came. Lesson learnt and nowadays I only go under a car with axle stands, the trolley jack poised and often a wheel under there too just in case the whole lot fail!
Mk2 Golf GTi. Renewing the starter motor. I could not figure out why the bolt was being so stubborn until the thing came out and the engine rotated forward.
The starter is mounted onto the side of the gearbox, which is attached engine, which is attached to the chassis!!!!!
I feel your pain mate....At least you got it done in the end, sit down with a cold beer tonight and relax
Worst job so far for me was changing the front discs, one side done in about 40mins
The other side took me 2 hours just to get the steel bolts out of the aluminium Brembo calliper, ended up having to take the calliper off and get it to Godspeed and have 2 helicoil inserts
when i replaced the gearbox on the scoob, every part broke when it was undone, bottom ball joint bolts sheared off, driveshaft hubnuts siezed on etc, never goes to plan !
i must of bought new everything apart from the gearbox ha ha !
as said, sit back, sup a beer and feel chuffed you got it done in the end :-)
lmao kinda sounds how mine went last weekend, my sump plug was ******* but finally got it loose - the biggest problem was when i was trying to change the O2 sensor on the manifold - fml that was a nightmare! took me about an hour to get the dam thing loose! - finally on my last attempt of heating the exaust it came loose and i somehow managed to blow the ECU fuse - bitch of a job!
For me it was trying to get the top bolt off the down pipe where it joins the turbo when replacing the Cat on my Classic. The nut had seized and started to round. In the end had the cut along the thread (without damaging it) and then prize it off. All in all one nut took two and a half hours, bruised knuckles and a complete sense of humor transplant
Well if we are showing our nuts off here's my offending item
Last edited by Thedonmarko; 30 July 2015 at 05:56 PM.
My first car was running on 3 cylinders I asked my brother for help to crank over engine while I checked spark plug out of car but still connected to hit lead, I was specific in saying DO NOT TURN THE KEY UNTIL I SAY SO IL GET A SHOCK so I could keep clear, needless to say he waited for me to get a hold of then cranked her over and over then he legged it as I was laying on the floor suffering. it was a shocking experience
When I was a kid I had an old mini with a badly rusted rear sub frame. I jacked it up using two side jacks (I know, I know!) pulled wheels and stuff off and scrambled underneath. After removing the few retaining bolts I pulled off the remains of the sub frame, got back underneath, the side jacks collapsed and the car settled on top of me.
Now old minis with most of the back end missing don't weigh much but it was more than enough to trap me, yelling for help, for 30 minutes. Parents were out and eventually a neighbour came round to investigate and very easily lifted the back up by the bumper and out I came. Lesson learnt and nowadays I only go under a car with axle stands, the trolley jack poised and often a wheel under there too just in case the whole lot fail!
A very similar story to me when changing the rear wheels on a 106 about 10 years ago. Used a jack on one side and decided to be clever and jack up the other side, needless to say, once both rear wheels were off, the jacks gave way and the rear of the car came crashing down onto the concrete. Luckily, the rear hubs were fine otherwise would've had a good job explaining that one to a local garage...
Also, when I was 17 I decided to fit a k&n air cone to my 106 (I've had 2 of them!) but put it on backwards, so the pipe from the front led to the cone rather than the cone leading to the old airbox I did wonder for a while why I couldn't hear anything until I noticed on a mate's car that it was the other way round so quickly swapped it so nobody would notice...
My worst was last year. did a dual mass flywheel, clutch and slave cylinder and cranshaft oil seal on my Vectra on the driveway. First problem was I forgot to drain the gearbox oil, pissed everywhere and there is still oil oozing up out of the tarmac. Getting the flywheel out tested every bit of patience I had, was ready for setting fire to the whole car by then. Got it all back together, and after a few days I realised there was an oil leak. I had forgot to drop the sump when I did the crankshaft oil seal, which you need to do with that special gasket paste stuff. so whole subframe out again a week later, same as OP with the sump plug (I had to use a chisel and club hammer to remove, was not pretty), got the sump resealed at last, and when putting back together I wrecked the bottom arm, and both rear shocks decided to give up at the same time?! Also discovered 2 broken springs. It seemed to go on forever.
I really think that car hates me, but I am glad I beat it.
Second worst one was trying to take a gearbox out of a phase 1 16valve clio, not exactly a spacious engine bay.
I once spent most of a day trying to remove and replace a section of exhaust, scraped knuckles, rust in eyes, bruised elbow and ego, finally drove the car down to local exhaust centre sounding like a tank, 5mins and five quid later the bloke had sorted it.
ahhh rust/dirt in the eye from exhausts, done that ended up somehow getting into my eyelid, became infected, ended up with a marrow fat pea sized lump on my eyelid which took about 3wks to 'mature' and ended up bursting in a puss mess
ahhh rust/dirt in the eye from exhausts, done that ended up somehow getting into my eyelid, became infected, ended up with a marrow fat pea sized lump on my eyelid which took about 3wks to 'mature' and ended up bursting in a puss mess
29 July 2015, 08:57 PM
Your worst car maintenance experience! I've just had mine!
As I proceeded to take the grips off, they suddenly let go and drop onto my lip splitting it open with blood gushing out!
Hurray!! God knows how because the socket was on at an angle but the heat must have really helped.
. 
I did wonder for a while why I couldn't hear anything until I noticed on a mate's car that it was the other way round so quickly swapped it so nobody would notice...
