So Mad At Myself, Maintenance Mistake

Ever do something so stupid that you can't believe it actually happened? Here's one:

Yesterday morning, I changed the oil on the wife's 2010 Chevy Cobalt. Bought brand new, only 23,000 miles. Not the most fun car, but it's been reliable and that's what we need right now. The first car for either of us that isn't a "beater".

I jacked the car up, and heard a nasty crunching sound. Turns out I jacked it up on the radiator/fan assembly. I've had this car jacked several times, and countless other cars jacked up with no issues. I just didn't pay enough attention and messed up.

The rad is bent bad and leaking antifreeze, so it's at my mechanic's today. I'm not looking forward to this repair bill. I'm just so mad at myself for making such a stupid mistake and messing up her nice new car. Just had to vent for second there.

I guess I'll just have to chalk it up as an expensive lesson to always double check before jacking a vehicle up.

Ugh we've all done it. I busted a $260 windshield changing a wiper. Was stretched on its spring a foot above the glass surface while I was fighting the u-hook and it slipped out of my hands.

My 97 cavalier had a sticker under the hood saying "dont jack on the oil pan." Someone somewhere must have tried it.

Welcome! Vent your anger!

Ouch. I feel your pain.
I changed the oil in my buddies wind star. We got to talking and he said he had to go. I hadnt put in the drain plug. He poured in 5 litres of oil,then backed out and drove away. I had my back to him as he pulled out. I turned around,saw the drain pan sitting there,way overfilled and I clued it.
I tried to call him. It took him a few tries before he answered but by then it was too late. It was locked up solid.
I used a 4' breaker bar on the crank and jumped,got the engine to turn over. Car lasted about 60 miles before the head gasket failed.
Live and learn.

If you do it enough, you're bound to make a mistake. I bent a hood in half a couple years ago when I forgot it had a prop rod and tried closing it with the rod in place. I felt really dumb for that one!

Probably an easy one to do, especially since we've been recently working on wet/snowy asphalt as backyard mechanics in the Philly area.

I cant imagine that a cobalt radiator is THAT expensive. It could have been worse, I suppose. Ill bet that the fan is fine.

Hoping for the best!

Originally Posted By: dishdude
If you do it enough, you're bound to make a mistake. I bent a hood in half a couple years ago when I forgot it had a prop rod and tried closing it with the rod in place. I felt really dumb for that one!
Funny, Just did this last Summer on the Honda. Got off a long highway run, propped the hood open a tad with a water bottle to let the heat out. Forgot about it, got in the car and drove away, hit 45 mph then SLAM! The hood hit the roof and dented both up pretty bad - I now have a 1yo car with a dented roof and hood. Ben Kicking Me self ever since.

I'm actually not too concerned about the price. the dealer we bought the car from quoted me about $650 for parts and labor, and my indy mechanic probably won't be that high.

I just want it to be repaired correctly and not have any cooling system issues from this.

I wouldn't worry about it. The money you save by doing your own maintenance will more than pay for the occasional mishap.

Besides, we all have a similar story. I got a new roof top carrier for my '98 Bravada - a real fancy one. When I went to back out of the garage, I heard a crunch. After pulling forward, I inspected the rear shock mounts. Everything looked good, so I backed up again. Once my rear tires fell over the door seal, I heard the same horrible crunch. Puzzled I got out of the truck and then noticed that my truck with a roof top carrier was about 8" higher than my garage door opening. Lesson learned...

I was changing the water pump on the MG, and got as far as putting the radiator back in before I glanced over and saw the fan blade on the garage floor instead of on the water pump - and there's not enough clearance to slip the fan in there with the radiator installed. Radiator back out, fan in, radiator back in.

Years ago I did something similar on my '99 Altima. When jacking up the car, I thought I'd be smart and use a frame rail that looked beefier than the jack point. It bent the frame slightly and the car didn't drive quite as smoothly after that. Still not bad enough to get it fixed though (if that is even fixable).

I've done stupid stuff like this countless times.

Good luck.

Mistakes are not all that bad as long os you learn from then. Hey the radiator was 3 years old. So maybe 1/3 to 1/2 of its life.

I use ramps for oil changes or try and just reach.

Originally Posted By: eljefino
Ugh we've all done it. I busted a $260 windshield changing a wiper. Was stretched on its spring a foot above the glass surface while I was fighting the u-hook and it slipped out of my hands.


I did the exact same thing on the wife's Jeep, just a few hours after having the windshield replaced. (hadn't even been driven yet) So we had the windshield replaced twice in just a few days. That zero deductible glass coverage definitely paid for itself.

had to maneuver the minivan into a very tight spot to jumpstart our farm truck. got in there ok, but coming back out i cut the steering wheel too soon and crunched the passanger door a teeny bit and scraped the paint nicely against a carport post.

i giggled alot after messing up our nice 22k (current value) van, it will see alot more punishment over the next several years from our 3 toddlers.

Originally Posted By: Bob5150
Ever do something so stupid that you can't believe it actually happened? Here's one:

Yesterday morning, I changed the oil on the wife's 2010 Chevy Cobalt. Bought brand new, only 23,000 miles. Not the most fun car, but it's been reliable and that's what we need right now. The first car for either of us that isn't a "beater".

I jacked the car up, and heard a nasty crunching sound. Turns out I jacked it up on the radiator/fan assembly. I've had this car jacked several times, and countless other cars jacked up with no issues. I just didn't pay enough attention and messed up.

The rad is bent bad and leaking antifreeze, so it's at my mechanic's today. I'm not looking forward to this repair bill. I'm just so mad at myself for making such a stupid mistake and messing up her nice new car. Just had to vent for second there.

I guess I'll just have to chalk it up as an expensive lesson to always double check before jacking a vehicle up.
Don't feel bad, Like Eljefino said we have all done it. I ruptured a motor mount on my wife’s Mazda3 a couple of years ago when lifting it with a forklift because I forgot to put a 4x4 on the forks and lifted the car by the block. I had only done it that way a dozen or so time before without forgetting the 4x4.

Next time just fix it yourself. Fixing my vast number mistakes and screw-ups had made me better at everything I do.

A little different situation, but I was traveling down very busy I-10 in SETX, and I saw a young lady broke down and choking back tears. Although I used to stop and help frequently, I don't much anymore unless its something like this.

I pulled over on the shoulder, and was watching her, and east and west bound traffic all at the same time. Busy with all this, I got out of my '95 Chevy pickup, but forgot to put it in park!

After walking a few steps away, out of my peripheral vision I saw it start to pull away. I quickly ran and hopped back in and stopped it and put it in park, AND SHUT IT OFF! No harm really done, just scared the **** out of me, LOL!

[/quote] Funny, Just did this last Summer on the Honda. Got off a long highway run, propped the hood open a tad with a water bottle to let the heat out. Forgot about it, got in the car and drove away, hit 45 mph then SLAM! The hood hit the roof and dented both up pretty bad - I now have a 1yo car with a dented roof and hood. Ben Kicking Me self ever since. [/quote]

I've done that hood trick myself. New hood, windshield, wiper arms, and cowl screens. I beat myself up for awhile after that.

ARCO, when you buy a new car does it start to cry knowing what it's in for?

Years ago I was helping a friend service his pristine original 65 Mustang. Put a Phillips head screwdriver in my rear pants pocket business end up. Forgot it and sat in the drivers seat. When I got up ............ rrrrrrip.

I have never since put a tool in my rear pocket. Offered to pay, he refused. But I gave a lot of extra help to work off my debt. We have joked about that for many years and he still wins awards.

Originally Posted By: Bob5150
Ever do something so stupid that you can't believe it actually happened?


I'll admit to one that happened in the early 80s. I was right out of mechanic school and had a late 70-ish Ford pickup on the rack. This pickup had one of their manual overdrive transmissions that they called "The Big Stick". I removed the fill plug to check the tranny oil and reinstalled it. When it came down from the rack, it had no reverse. We had to pull the tranny and take it apart to fix it. Turns out that the plug wasn't the fill plug, but a bolt to hold the transmission internals together. But it sure looked like a fill plug. Later versions of this tranny had the casting on the case that said "Not a fill plug", so I guess I wasn't the only one to ever do this.

Originally Posted By: ARCOgraphite
Funny, Just did this last Summer on the Honda. Got off a long highway run, propped the hood open a tad with a water bottle to let the heat out. Forgot about it, got in the car and drove away, hit 45 mph then SLAM! The hood hit the roof and dented both up pretty bad - I now have a 1yo car with a dented roof and hood. Ben Kicking Me self ever since.


Why bother propping up the hood? Every modern Honda car I've ever seen has a thermostat, ECU, radiator & electrically-operated cooling fan to take care of the engine temperature.

Or was it overloaded with heat by the LM MoS2 & Castrol 0w20 in the sump causing low power, stuck rings, clogged filter, vibrations, noise and you were just trying to limp it home?