TalkSick

the short list

forgot to reinstall radiator fan before bookin off to work

wired alternator wrong in tII FB swap an couldnt get car to shut off

used royal purple in ollllld engine to see if it really kills em (it does)

bled brakes with park brake on (repeatedly)

forgot to plug tail lights back in

My Favorite: dropped nut down LIM runner during swap and tried to fish it out with a magnet, failed to grab it with a magnet so i proceeded to tearin engine back down to small block to fish it out exhaust port, only to find when i took the LIM off that the nut was sitting right on the inside of the center iron, easily graspable with the magnet, but i never bothered tryin to fish it out of the REAR rotor. was positive i saw it fall down the front

arghx

iTrader: (3)

This happened almost a month ago. I was driving my newly rebuilt (by me) turbo engine, and as I let off the gas my idle was sticking at 5000rpm. I thought it was a throttle cable or something. Long story short, I had put a paper towel in the TB elbow to keep dust out, but I forgot to remove it and somehow it ended up getting wedged in the primary throttle plate. I drove it around like that for 200 miles.

Engine is fine now.

DeMoe Aurelius

iTrader: (4)

Well I have 2 of a few to share!!! While replaceing my window regulator on my Vert. If any one knows about the inner door panel, the door light and the window power switch is the same yeah so need less to say I'm still in need of a new window regulator cables or just a new window regulator!!! And the most recent and by far the stupidest mistake when workin on cars period!!! So my oil cooler lines exploded and shot oil on start up... With 1 day to get bacc to Cali for the 4th of July!!! I went to Auto Zone and Home Depot... I Got Fuel line hose pipe clamps and those brass hose connector insert sleeves...yeah on start up all new oil shoots and leaks from the hoses...Under stress I call on of my friends from theClub and low and behold he's doin work on one of the of the other guys cars and had a spair set of hoses for 30 buccs!!! LOL 50 bucc spent my shade tree repair when the parts in the 1st place only cost 30 bucc with a Oil Cooler throwin in for free!!!
Yeah I am a big stupid for that one!!!

DeMoe Aurelius

iTrader: (4)

Those Fuccers Had my GC8 impreza tower when I spun a bearing and about to get a JDM EJ20G swap all I was doin was waiting to find the wiring harness... unfortunately you have to swap the whole body wiring harness for a engine swap for Subarus . I had already put down on my Vert Fc and I was savin for the engine again cause I spent my 2000 for my engine on my FC!!! Than I lost my job cause of the process of waitin for my paper work from the DMV!!! When If my old boss wold have just sold me the FC when I bought my Impreza my car would have been finished last year!!! You got to love people

fast2g

thats one way to break in an engine

Pele

iTrader: (28)

Are you kidding me? The DTSS actually PREVENTS the rear from getting out when I WANT it to.

My first gens and my trucks with the solid rear axle on the other hand.

Dinnercoat

Maybe thats why its snap oversteer, the DTSS fights the the inclination for the rear to kick out so once you over power the DTSS its like "HELLO I'M SIDEWAYS!"

Slow Rotor

Alright here is something stupid i did the other night. Mate and i were getting rather drunk and thought it would be funny to start my car up and see how loud it was (turbo is currently not on the car) so i did it, ran for 5 sec and shut it down.

Got up this morning and saw some oil under the car hmmn wtf, realised i'd ran it and the turbo oil feed line that was blanked off with a plastic bag and zip tie had sprayed oil all through the bay, my air filter i had just left sitting in the bay was swallowed up by the power steering belt resulting in new air filer and belt and my rag blanking off the ic piping had been sucked down a fair way, if it was smaller woulda gone right to the IC lol. Moral of the story is don't touch your keys when your drunk. Lucky i didn't run it for long it lost a fair bit of oil in a short time

Pele

iTrader: (28)

Gotcha...

I was always able to control my oversteer in the FB and trucks... Mostly with the throttle and a bit with some increased steering angle.

The FC doesn't respond nearly the same. It won't get sideways unless I put a lotta effort into it.

Spectator

iTrader: (1)

You sir, earn one of the top 5 stupidest things done on an FC in my book. You will always be remembered in my heart, not by your login, but by your actions. Its an honor.

Also,

It makes no difference...just remove the flywheel nut instead of the lock nut.

And I got another one. My first time pulling an engine out of an FD. Spent 2 hours trying to pull the motor out without the tranny with no sucess. Its like the tranny is holding on to the motor for dear life... Pissed, we finaly go inside to look at the FSM on RX7city.com and we then notice that it was a pull style clutch...The bitch was out in 10 after that. Why we didn't go check the FSM 1:45h earlier? Beats the **** out of me...and FSM is my middle name...Even more so ever since that day.

Spec.

Spectator

iTrader: (1)

The same **** happened to me about 7 years ago, but only, the hood was clipped all the way, its the car that was a rust bucket. I was driving a 1989 Tercel (That my girlfriend had proudly payed 50$ for the day before..) at 140kmh in "dense" but moving traffic, and in the far left lane of the highway...I was going fast enough for the hood to pop and smash against the roof and windshield, but not fast enough for it to launch in the air and out of the way...Meaning that the hood effectively became one with the roof, rendering all visibility to none, aside from the small gap between the hood and the firewall. And when a hood snaps like that, its in a blink of an eye, POW! I instantly turned into Ace Ventura, driving with my head out the window at 120-140kmh, switching from blind spot to head out the window to blind spot to head out the window until I could park on the right side of the road...Anyway, you get the picture. You would be surprised how quick eyes dry up at 140kmh, blinking is literally useless.
Anyway, after that, I tried to close the hood back but couldn't since it had become like a "V" shape...I didn't have any tools or anything so I took off one of my shoes and pounded on the hood to invert the V shape so the hood would clip back on...That was some snazzy custom work let me tell ya.
Anyway, after not going over 70kmh for obvious reasons, we're almost to destination, when, while going down a rather steep road made of gravel, there is a sign indicating a sharp turn. So I press on the brakes a little more and the front left wheel locks up...I immediately release the brakes but the **** stays locked up rendering my steering wheel useless!! All there was left to do was to enjoy our trip towards the ditch, at about 25kmh...We litteraly end up tipping in the ditch. Anyhow, we end up walking to destination and calling a tow truck to have the shitbox towed to a scrap yard...And later on at dinner time, I learn that the piece of **** hadn't run for the last 9 months...

To this day I still imagine what the poeple in the cars next to me said when they saw they hood pop in my face like that...And me sticking my head out the window at 140kmh...

Spec.

EvilWankel

iTrader: (2)

That happened to me with my first FC. I guess the spring that keeps the lever up that opened my hood broke, and apparently I forgot to close my hood all the way. So I was taking my brother to the chiropractor to get work done (was just in a car accident), and it decided to fly up going about 70 on the freeway. I also had to pull the ace ventura move. I ended up using a bungy or something to keep it down on the way home, driving about 25mph the whole way, listening to my fan shroud rub against the fan. Finally got it home, took the hood off, threw it in the grass upside down and started dancing all over it until it had some resemblance of a normal looking hood. I was glad my windshield didnt crack.

Theres more. Just yesterday I was putting in my koyo rad, finally got everything stitched up, started it up to check to see everything was working, everythign looked good so I went inside for about 5 minutes to let it warm up to check that the efan would kick in. So 5 minutes later I came out to a nice sized lake of coolant on my garage floor, I forgot to clamp down both bottom hoses that go to the radiator. Doh.

I got my intake swapped to the s5 intake, and one day I pulled off my TB and such to replace the o2 sensor. The next few days I was unhappy, car was running a lot slower than normal. Turns out I hooked up the throttle cable but never put it on the mount.

Left bolts off my intake when I was just starting with cars (a local rotary mechanic gave me a sarcastic quote I wont soon forget "Mazda must not know what they were doing Nick, they dont know ****, why did they use all those bolts anyway?")

Got so mad one time that my fuel filter refused to mount up that I punched a dent in my fender. 10 minutes later I realize it's upside down.

Another dumb move - buying used tires from a mexican tire shop in L.A. county. Driving my GSL-SE back from California, I feel a pretty good vibration in my seat going about 80mph, unphased, I keep driving. Maybe 30 seconds later the tread on the tire rips off, but of course it wont come all the way off, instead it decides to hang on with about 5 inches of tread and the rest just ends up beating the **** out of the side and bottom of the car. I had skid marks all over the car, and a bashed in wheel well.

Idiot lights didnt work in another FC, didnt have AC or PS, blew my alternator belt on the freeway and didnt notice until I got off and saw all the steam coming out of my hood. That motor was done quick.

First FC again - just got the car, tried to drift, and understeered it into a cinder block wall. Drifting FTL.

Thats not it but I cant remember more!

need RX7

iTrader: (4)

Today I finally got my CAS unstuck (it took 2 of us 45 minutes with pry bars and a rubber mallet) Long story short, I got it out, lubed it up (giggity) and reinstalled it. I lined up the marks on the gear and body of the CAS and reinstalled, being careful to make sure the rotor didn't move during installation. I started the car and hooked up the timing light... and discovered that the timing marks on the front pulley were nearly 90ş off. I pulled it and reinstalled it at least 3 times, but it was wrong each time. At taht point I decided to step back and figure out what I was missing. After about 35 seconds of WTFing, I realized I had failed to manually rotate the engine to align the yellow timing mark I was ashamed of myself. After a couple minutes, all is well again... and my CAS is rotatable!!

Dinnercoat

Steam from a blown alternator belt, I don't get it?

I had the same thing happen to me, alternator belt blew up on the freeway. I just pulled out the pieces and tried to make it as far home as I could. =P I made it within 10 miles or so, if it'd happened during the day (instead of at night) I probably would've been ok.

need RX7

iTrader: (4)

If you have your airpump removed, the alternator belt is the only one turning the waterpump, if the belt goes it's done for.

Dinnercoat

Ahhhh....

Pele

iTrader: (28)

Hence a double sheave pulley or an idler over where the air pump used to be.

You'll also notice that the alternator belt only touches a side of the water pump pulley. The air pump belt wraps around the water pump pulley a little more.

If you've got a sticky fan clutch or it's really hot and you've got a functioning stock fan, this may cause the belt to slip.


Both of the above solutions result in more belt touching the water pump pulley which means less slip and both result in two belts driving the water pump which adds redundancy to a critical component.

kel

so I bought an FC in mostly good shape, but the A/C doesn't work. The previous owner tells me that a mechanic says the compressor is shot ($600). I found someone on the forum with a complete A/C system for sale and bought it for $100. Then got a set of gauges for R22 - another $100.
On a beautiful Saturday, I started the project. The one smart thing I did, was to jumper the compressor clutch directly to the battery before I started removing things. It engaged, and hmmmm, there was cool air coming out of the vents.
Now, I'm troubleshooting electrical. I tested the pressure switch, the Logicon - even plugged in a spare. I read diagrams and tested other crap. just after sundown, I give up for the day.
Sunday with fresh eyes, i start again. can't seem to figure it out...everything seems fine, but no power to the A/C clutch - even the electric fan comes on when you press the switch on the logicon.
Several hours of frustration later, I'm off doing something else and discover a bad fuse under the dash. Lo and Behold, the A/C clutch works and I have icy-cold air. Not only that, but now the clock works, the cigarette lighter works (for my radar detector; no smoke in this FC) AND....the mirrors work!
All that for just $200, a day and a half of work and a new pile of RX junk in my garage.

jake1191

iTrader: (1)

Was driving with my girl last night around 3am and missed a turn so i had to turn around. So i found an empty road that was quite large. Pulled the e-brake at a good enough speed to spin the car around. Kicked the clutch and had it sideways all the way to the red light. Looked in the mirror and noticed a dark crown vic behind me. So i made the turn and pulled over. Sure enough it was a cop. All he said was nice driving, nice car, and don't get caught doing that again. I made it off with a warning and a really horny girl.

The Shaolin

iTrader: (5)

I got a new one.

We were installing springs, struts, and swaybars on the best handling 0HP car in Wisconsin. I jacked the rear up, put the jackstands under in the usual place, and then set about pulling the struts out. We unbolted one side, and the strut would NOT come out! My dad set out popping that strut loose with a little leverage from a prybar while I started to unbolt the other side. Suddenly, POW!!! the strut came out and that side of the car dropped about 4" with my head underneath the other side! My dad didn't see it drop, but I nearly crapped my pants. Turns out the control arms are not a great place to put the jackstands when you're working on the suspension *facepalm*

b16eg

iTrader: (2)

this thread is hilarious.

i once changed spark plugs, what is usually an easy job, in -20 degree wind chill. it sucked. thats all i got.

unren

iTrader: (3)

i did something similar, but mine isnt as bad. my hatch glass has very dark tint, almost limo tint. at night i cant see the reverse lights at all, so one night i was reversing into a spot and i poped my drivers side door open. i started reversing and didnt see a hill next to the parking spot, needless to say the door got stuck on the hill and damn near over extended the door. luckily i realized how dumb i had been when i heard the door creaking. now my door opens almost 90* and i can lift it up about a1/4 inch. im too lazy to tighten up the hinges.

o just remembered another thing i did. i was driving my fc and it was snowing (i know... i know...) i rolled my window half way down to smoke a cigg, (again i know) and when i was done the window wouldnt go back up. i knew it was the switch, cause it had been acting funny before. this was before i knew how to rebuild the switches. anyway i try to ghetto rig a switch (bend a paper clip) to touch the two contacts together to get the window to go up. (by now the snow had turned into sleet so i was getting desperate) so i was messing with it for about 5 min and on one set of contacts the paper clip turned bright red in about a 1/2 a second with my fingers still holding onto it. it burned a paperclip size tunnel in my fingers LOL. that was really dumb, plus now i know of this website and have a Haynes manual.

NightHawkR

I was relocating the bottles and other junk infront of the rad support tonight to free up the rooms for FMIC and CAI... after i relocated everything i forgot to connect the small black hose back to the bottle. Then i started up the car and move it aside, i let it run and idle for abit incase i get it flooded with a short start. Walked out the overhaul door for a cigarette, about 5 minutes later i turned my head around and i smell coolant...... the engine bay has smoke coming out, and coolants leaked all over the floor, and i rushed into the car and shut it off. The water temp gauge is showing 220F.......


I hope i didn't damage anything.....

helghast7

iTrader: (6)

whats the big deal about driving an FC in the snow/snowing?

used to do it all the time before my engine blew. personally i think its one of the safest cars out there in the snow...if you know how to do it that is.

i mean after all, all the odds are in your favor:
light so it just kinda floats over the snow and doesnt get stuck
highly manuverable and small so you dont end up sliding into stuff
and to top it off, it only makes like 110hp to the wheels lol

Dusty2Rusty

Was up all night and decided to drive to Tim Hortin's for ma coffee, for some reason my car wouldn't fricking go above 60km/h no matter what gear. When I stopped at the stop sign blue smoke was everywhere......E-brake was up........... I get plenty of sleep now XD