2 big ones for me first transmission I ever did professionally was on a h6 Subaru. Could not get it to line up. Torque converter popped out and I didn’t realize it. Ran it in with bolts and the rest is history broke the front pump on a 6k dollar transmission. 2nd was working on my moms ford freestyle chasing a misfire on the rear bank dropped a socket down the intake and didn’t realize it. Ended up changing that engine for free😊 we all fuck up.
Subaru makes a special tool that keeps the torque converter seated in the transmission (for when you’re doing head gaskets). Reseating the torque converter is a nightmare on that transmission.
Had to pull a junkyard transmission for a Mk 4 VW Jetta because I blew out a chunk of the back of the case on my press trying the bread trick to get a bearing race out of a blind hole. Bought the special tool after that. On the plus side I was able to use the better gears to make one decent transmission between the pair.
I did a head gasket job on a triton 5.4. It was actually going pretty damn well. Got it all wrapped up, engine fired right up, and proceeded to dump engine oil all over the floor. That's what what happens when you install the left cylinder head on the right side of the engine. Whoops....
had an 08 santa fe that i did a water pump and timing belt on(personal car) water pump failed again after a couple months. reinstalled the crank bolt to turn the engine over and it had mushroomed itself in the crank. couldnt get it out so ended up tapping a new hole with an m10 bolt and washer to hold crank pulley on. worked for a few more years after that till the transmission went haha. but lesson learned to always measure depth or put a spacer.
I swear this guy reads my mind. The other day I felt bad about buying a third party blower motor on Amazon cuz I couldn’t afford oem. And he released a video that day saying be careful with oem parts because sometimes you don’t know what your buying. Yesterday I hit my socket wrench against the positive terminal of the battery. Sparks flew and my dad diagnosed it as a bad starter motor. And I was feeling dumb and he released this video saying “hey it happens.” Really like this guy.
Dude, its odd how often this happens , I swear this isnt a coincidence , I think of something and same day some youtuber I follow release something similar
While doing some service on a Dodge Avenger with the Mitsubishi V6, I didn't notice one of the metal rings that reinforced the plastic wire loom fell into an intake port. The car ran great but had a minor rattle noise before stopping completely. Luckily, that was pre-2010, so a used engine was like $600. That is why I use painters tape or my fabricated tools to block intake ports and still double-check.
I had one the other day did a ford water pump on a 3.5l and didn't check the timing chain. Yup she stretched had to do the job again pretty much and replace the chain as well.
I did a cam and lifters on a 6.2 vvt v8 in a gmc Yukon Denali. I couldn’t see the cam pin because of the vvt actuator. I put it all together and cranked the motor, smoking every intake valve. Then when it didn’t start I cranked it again and it sounded like the starter wasn’t engaging with the flywheel, so I had someone else crank it and found that the crank was spinning. My boss just stared at me for 10 seconds and said “go home and come back tommorow”
I left somebody caliper bracket bolts loose. I was fine for a few days. The I got a call at midnight one night. His wheel locked up and threw him in the ditch on the opposite side of the road. I went out and fixed it on the side of the road and pulled him out of the ditch, and apologized. Now I triple check every time I do brakes.
I was doing an airbag light diag on a GMC Acadia or something similar back in approximately 2018. Had the seats out, center console out and I was at the airbag module. I just touched one plug on it to unplug it and blew out both side curtain airbags from windshield to the back hatch on both sides. Car was sent out to an airbag specialist, parts alone were $15k. He wound up finding some numbskull had tapped an aftermarket accessory into the power wire for the airbag control module up under the dash. Freaking airbags sounded like a shotgun blast! The construction crew out behind the shop actually came in to make sure no one was seriously hurt.....
That's why you always assume someone has been touching things they shouldn't have. Especially if the vehicle has a remote-start or sound system installed. Always disconnect the battery and let it sit for 20 minutes before touching airbags, luckily your face wasn't in the way of one of them.
Bmw 330i. Customer broke a intake tuning valve. Debris entered the cylinder and damaged the head and valves. I failed to rid the intake manifold of the remaining debris. So I did it twice.
My mess ups when I started working as a mechanic I was helping. 1. Idk the repair but ng Saab 9-3 but we had a floor jack and car was on lift we were talking and he was lowering car and the floor jack handle was straight up and went thru the radiator… 2. Helping out doing clutch on a diff Saab 9-3 and put it back together and bled the clutch and we didn’t tighten the line on slave inside trans housing so had to take it all back apart… 🙃 haven’t any other expensive or really bad mess ups since the first year or so starting out.. nothing really notable 😅 knock on wood. Edit my most recent and humiliating fail was I was doing dod delete n stuff to a immaculately clean low mileage pick up was lifting it and the lift doesn’t have a safety stop and I didn’t think of it when lifting and crushed the roof 😅 thankfully most dents came out and scuffs came off left with little to no concerning damage and customer was okay with what happened. Craziest thing tho! He got truck back was super happy then got it ceramic coated at a dealership and detailed and driving it home that day it was snow storm and totaled it into a tree
I hate getting pulled off engine work and make sure the service writers know it. Got pulled off a used car inspection on a MLK without a oil dipstick. Forgot if I filled it or not. Move it out back for another sidetrack event and later see a salesman coming in the parking lot killing mosquitos due to 15 quarts of oil in the engine. I would have caught it if he hadn't grabbed it mid inspection so after that I disabled every used vehicle parked out back that was incomplete.
my worse mistake i did was put the incorrect pio filter on a car. it was my first shop still work as a gst. done many oil changes on the same make and model with the same engine. I knew how much oild it needed knew what filter it needed. still to this day I don't know what happened but I grabbed the incorrect filter and spun it on. filter felt tight and when I started it uo it didn't leak. got a call a few hours later and the customer said the oil filter came off. we towed the car and. found the oil filter sitting in the engine bay. looked up the number and it was the wrong part number. when my boss showed me I was dumb founded. I checked the filter and the wrong filter would spin onto the housing and with enighr force you could rock the filter up and off. luckily the customer was smart enough to turn. the engine off and no major damage was done to the engine. always check part numbers before installing them. and check your work
There are mistakes and then there are catastrophic failures from not paying attention or understanding or rushing through. Also, don’t use any mind altering substances. Count fasteners. Take photos.
Have you ever heard stories about customers? Who would get fluid changes in their vehicles. Then drive around the corner of the shop And drain it out and intentionally put in the wrong type of fluid soap will damage the car and they could try to Sue the shop for the value of the car engine.. I hear they do that to get a free engine or cash for their car value.
Happens just about every single day, been saying for 20 years the customers are a bigger problem in this industry than the mechanics. I've seen everyone from 20 year old men to 75 year old women try to get a free engine/transmission out of a shop. Some do it indirectly by ignoring oil changes, I've had bearings spin from vehicles while they were in my bay.
Using little 1/4 air ratchet, I popped off a lot of bolts. Haven't broken any bolts lately, so I don't do nearly as money bolt extractions today. Most shops don't go into engines and transmissions anymore. They replace everything or tell the customer with the clunker it's not worth the cost of repairs. It's probably not worth my time either. So screw ups are rare these days. Dealerships go into engines under warranty or used car lots may try to fix stuff to sell the car, but internal engine and transmission work is becoming a thing of the past. Come to think about it in the 80s and into he 90s we built performance engines in shop, but it was mostly because machine shops were cheap and we didn't have the cash to order a crate engine from Summit or Jegs or PAW. Remember those big PAW catalogs and waiting months for parts! Well, waiting months for parts and tools is back! Snap-on 1)4 Dr impact universal out of stock! I'm just gone order a pinless from Matco.
Diagnostics as a whole are becoming a thing of the past, vast majority of guys today just pull up Identifix & load the shotgun. It's probably been 15 years since I've seen someone other than myself pull out a vacuum gauge to diagnose a valve-train, most mechanics don't even own one now.
@@ryanwilson3632 My dude most mechanics today can't even cite the 4 cycles, they have no business using any of that. Testing is worthless unless you understand the system you're working on. I've witnessed so many guys looking up TH-cam videos, this industry is dead.
@@COBRO98 I guess I just be different, I went from being a regular mechanic to doing, ADAS calibrations, Mobile diagnostics and programming. I much prefer that. But it's more body shop type stuff not diagnosing motors. The pay and training isn't there anymore to make good techs.
My biggest mistakes have been listening to customers that lie. I had flipped a mini van because had no choice. It was that or run into 50 mph traffic Came in for alignment and brake pedal went to floor on me on back roads in industrial park. Parking brake didn't work brakes didn't work so I shifted to first gears and swerved nasty and flipped thee fricken thing before entering a main road. Customer said ya once in a while pedal goes to floor. just have to keep pumping it. Dumb as hell would that not bee issue before alignment? Well I wasn't hurt even though was scary but car was damaged heavily. Was a sh=it mess
2 big ones for me first transmission I ever did professionally was on a h6 Subaru. Could not get it to line up. Torque converter popped out and I didn’t realize it. Ran it in with bolts and the rest is history broke the front pump on a 6k dollar transmission. 2nd was working on my moms ford freestyle chasing a misfire on the rear bank dropped a socket down the intake and didn’t realize it. Ended up changing that engine for free😊 we all fuck up.
I've actually heard of that being a very common incident your not alone on that.
We all make mistakes. But not like that. 😳
Subaru makes a special tool that keeps the torque converter seated in the transmission (for when you’re doing head gaskets). Reseating the torque converter is a nightmare on that transmission.
If you don't tape off open ports into an engine, you shouldn't be working on automobiles. That's just pure laziness.
I timed a 5.7 hemi wrong once during a cam job, then didn't roll it by hand. Thundered every intake valve into the pistons when I hit the key
Had to pull a junkyard transmission for a Mk 4 VW Jetta because I blew out a chunk of the back of the case on my press trying the bread trick to get a bearing race out of a blind hole. Bought the special tool after that. On the plus side I was able to use the better gears to make one decent transmission between the pair.
I did a head gasket job on a triton 5.4. It was actually going pretty damn well. Got it all wrapped up, engine fired right up, and proceeded to dump engine oil all over the floor. That's what what happens when you install the left cylinder head on the right side of the engine. Whoops....
had an 08 santa fe that i did a water pump and timing belt on(personal car) water pump failed again after a couple months. reinstalled the crank bolt to turn the engine over and it had mushroomed itself in the crank. couldnt get it out so ended up tapping a new hole with an m10 bolt and washer to hold crank pulley on. worked for a few more years after that till the transmission went haha. but lesson learned to always measure depth or put a spacer.
I swear this guy reads my mind.
The other day I felt bad about buying a third party blower motor on Amazon cuz I couldn’t afford oem. And he released a video that day saying be careful with oem parts because sometimes you don’t know what your buying.
Yesterday I hit my socket wrench against the positive terminal of the battery. Sparks flew and my dad diagnosed it as a bad starter motor. And I was feeling dumb and he released this video saying “hey it happens.”
Really like this guy.
Dude, its odd how often this happens , I swear this isnt a coincidence , I think of something and same day some youtuber I follow release something similar
Got pulled off a GM 3.4 came back didn't check the push rods and destroyed the intake valves on start up.
While doing some service on a Dodge Avenger with the Mitsubishi V6, I didn't notice one of the metal rings that reinforced the plastic wire loom fell into an intake port. The car ran great but had a minor rattle noise before stopping completely. Luckily, that was pre-2010, so a used engine was like $600. That is why I use painters tape or my fabricated tools to block intake ports and still double-check.
I was a car hop at Chev long ago. A stoner tech raised up a Blazer with the removable hard top - sprinkler head pierced through the top and let go....
I had one the other day did a ford water pump on a 3.5l and didn't check the timing chain. Yup she stretched had to do the job again pretty much and replace the chain as well.
Is the Toyota inline 6 harmonic damper bolt special tool "JTC 4013" ?
I did a cam and lifters on a 6.2 vvt v8 in a gmc Yukon Denali. I couldn’t see the cam pin because of the vvt actuator. I put it all together and cranked the motor, smoking every intake valve. Then when it didn’t start I cranked it again and it sounded like the starter wasn’t engaging with the flywheel, so I had someone else crank it and found that the crank was spinning. My boss just stared at me for 10 seconds and said “go home and come back tommorow”
Good stuff thank you for sharing
thank you mike
In aviation we call it "The dirty dozen" in order to reduce maintenance mistakes.
I left somebody caliper bracket bolts loose. I was fine for a few days. The I got a call at midnight one night. His wheel locked up and threw him in the ditch on the opposite side of the road. I went out and fixed it on the side of the road and pulled him out of the ditch, and apologized. Now I triple check every time I do brakes.
I always use loctite on brake components.
Always tighten things as you install them so you don't forget later, blue threadlock is a good idea for caliper bracket bolts as insurance.
I was doing an airbag light diag on a GMC Acadia or something similar back in approximately 2018. Had the seats out, center console out and I was at the airbag module. I just touched one plug on it to unplug it and blew out both side curtain airbags from windshield to the back hatch on both sides. Car was sent out to an airbag specialist, parts alone were $15k. He wound up finding some numbskull had tapped an aftermarket accessory into the power wire for the airbag control module up under the dash. Freaking airbags sounded like a shotgun blast! The construction crew out behind the shop actually came in to make sure no one was seriously hurt.....
That's why you always assume someone has been touching things they shouldn't have. Especially if the vehicle has a remote-start or sound system installed. Always disconnect the battery and let it sit for 20 minutes before touching airbags, luckily your face wasn't in the way of one of them.
I did the same thin FRM! But it just ruined the nose of the cam!
Bmw 330i. Customer broke a intake tuning valve. Debris entered the cylinder and damaged the head and valves. I failed to rid the intake manifold of the remaining debris. So I did it twice.
My mess ups when I started working as a mechanic I was helping. 1. Idk the repair but ng Saab 9-3 but we had a floor jack and car was on lift we were talking and he was lowering car and the floor jack handle was straight up and went thru the radiator…
2. Helping out doing clutch on a diff Saab 9-3 and put it back together and bled the clutch and we didn’t tighten the line on slave inside trans housing so had to take it all back apart… 🙃 haven’t any other expensive or really bad mess ups since the first year or so starting out.. nothing really notable 😅 knock on wood.
Edit my most recent and humiliating fail was I was doing dod delete n stuff to a immaculately clean low mileage pick up was lifting it and the lift doesn’t have a safety stop and I didn’t think of it when lifting and crushed the roof 😅 thankfully most dents came out and scuffs came off left with little to no concerning damage and customer was okay with what happened. Craziest thing tho! He got truck back was super happy then got it ceramic coated at a dealership and detailed and driving it home that day it was snow storm and totaled it into a tree
I hate getting pulled off engine work and make sure the service writers know it. Got pulled off a used car inspection on a MLK without a oil dipstick. Forgot if I filled it or not. Move it out back for another sidetrack event and later see a salesman coming in the parking lot killing mosquitos due to 15 quarts of oil in the engine. I would have caught it if he hadn't grabbed it mid inspection so after that I disabled every used vehicle parked out back that was incomplete.
my worse mistake i did was put the incorrect pio filter on a car. it was my first shop still work as a gst. done many oil changes on the same make and model with the same engine. I knew how much oild it needed knew what filter it needed. still to this day I don't know what happened but I grabbed the incorrect filter and spun it on. filter felt tight and when I started it uo it didn't leak. got a call a few hours later and the customer said the oil filter came off. we towed the car and. found the oil filter sitting in the engine bay. looked up the number and it was the wrong part number. when my boss showed me I was dumb founded. I checked the filter and the wrong filter would spin onto the housing and with enighr force you could rock the filter up and off. luckily the customer was smart enough to turn. the engine off and no major damage was done to the engine. always check part numbers before installing them. and check your work
There are mistakes and then there are catastrophic failures from not paying attention or understanding or rushing through. Also, don’t use any mind altering substances. Count fasteners. Take photos.
Have you ever heard stories about customers?
Who would get fluid changes in their vehicles. Then drive around the corner of the shop And drain it out and intentionally put in the wrong type of fluid soap will damage the car and they could try to Sue the shop for the value of the car engine.. I hear they do that to get a free engine or cash for their car value.
Happens just about every single day, been saying for 20 years the customers are a bigger problem in this industry than the mechanics. I've seen everyone from 20 year old men to 75 year old women try to get a free engine/transmission out of a shop.
Some do it indirectly by ignoring oil changes, I've had bearings spin from vehicles while they were in my bay.
I had a tech that forgot to torque cam bolts more than once ok timing chain jobs. Moved him to flat rate after the 2nd
Using little 1/4 air ratchet, I popped off a lot of bolts. Haven't broken any bolts lately, so I don't do nearly as money bolt extractions today.
Most shops don't go into engines and transmissions anymore. They replace everything or tell the customer with the clunker it's not worth the cost of repairs. It's probably not worth my time either. So screw ups are rare these days. Dealerships go into engines under warranty or used car lots may try to fix stuff to sell the car, but internal engine and transmission work is becoming a thing of the past.
Come to think about it in the 80s and into he 90s we built performance engines in shop, but it was mostly because machine shops were cheap and we didn't have the cash to order a crate engine from Summit or Jegs or PAW. Remember those big PAW catalogs and waiting months for parts! Well, waiting months for parts and tools is back! Snap-on 1)4 Dr impact universal out of stock! I'm just gone order a pinless from Matco.
Honestly the cost of repairing engines just isn't worth it anymore. Might as well throw a new unit in with a warranty.
Diagnostics as a whole are becoming a thing of the past, vast majority of guys today just pull up Identifix & load the shotgun. It's probably been 15 years since I've seen someone other than myself pull out a vacuum gauge to diagnose a valve-train, most mechanics don't even own one now.
@@COBRO98 I mean guys now are using pressure transducers, labscopes and in cylinder and other methods to test for valve train problems.
@@ryanwilson3632 My dude most mechanics today can't even cite the 4 cycles, they have no business using any of that.
Testing is worthless unless you understand the system you're working on. I've witnessed so many guys looking up TH-cam videos, this industry is dead.
@@COBRO98 I guess I just be different, I went from being a regular mechanic to doing, ADAS calibrations, Mobile diagnostics and programming. I much prefer that. But it's more body shop type stuff not diagnosing motors. The pay and training isn't there anymore to make good techs.
No wonder they drug test 🤣
My biggest mistakes have been listening to customers that lie. I had flipped a mini van because had no choice. It was that or run into 50 mph traffic Came in for alignment and brake pedal went to floor on me on back roads in industrial park. Parking brake didn't work brakes didn't work so I shifted to first gears and swerved nasty and flipped thee fricken thing before entering a main road. Customer said ya once in a while pedal goes to floor. just have to keep pumping it. Dumb as hell would that not bee issue before alignment? Well I wasn't hurt even though was scary but car was damaged heavily. Was a sh=it mess