Share your lessons learned here. (buy, how to, check, story)

[square peg]

Here's what happened when I added power steering fluid to the master cylinder.

I caught my mistake right away and siphoned it back out with a turkey baster. I thought that would be the end of my adventure. A couple of months later brakes got real spongey. I stopped by my local mechanic and made an appointment to undo the damage.

When I got home I lost all brakes while backing ever so slowly into my downhill driveway.

[mr.man]

As a young boy i used to search thru mom's bag for goodies, until one day i came across what i thought to be a chocolate bar, turned out it was EX-LAX. Let's just say me and the potty became real close friends!

[motormaker]

Bummer SP.

[Crew Chief]

Originally Posted by motormaker

Or loosen any fittings.

YEP!!!

[poconoproud]

Lesson Learned: Don't forget to re-park your mother's car after the propane truck leaves, so that you don't back into her car with your own.

[Vienna]

NeVeR try to put spaghetti noodles down the garbage disposal Wasn't Me!

[cynwldkat]

Don't call into work and say you are sick if you are not----chances are you will end up sick the next day---bad Karma!!

[Tek_Freek]

We installed a fence at our first house. One of the holes had a chunk of concrete about a foot down and my brother and I decided to break it up using a crowbar and sledge hammer.

I was holding the crow bar and he was swinging the sledge.

I should explain that my father worked in a circus many years ago and taught us the proper way to swing a sledge hammer. If you've never seen a team of men hammering in stakes for a circus then you don't understand.

Anyway, I would hold the crowbar, he'd slam it with the sledge, I'd pry at the concrete until I couldn't get anymore loose then hold it again....

At one point I was prying with my thumb held over the top edge of the crowbar for leverage. I was getting a big chunk loose and said "Okay" because I was having success. My brother thought I meant I was ready for him to swing again.

As he told me later, "It's a good thing I saw your thumb and pulled back as much as I could, or you would have lost the end of you thumb".

I did lose the thumbnail. It took almost a year to grow back. The end of the bone was shattered and if I hold up my thumbs you can see that one is about half as thick top-to-bottom as the other.

Communication is very important.

[Tek_Freek]

Originally Posted by Vienna

NeVeR try to put spaghetti noodles down the garbage disposal Wasn't Me!

Ditto potato peels! BAD, BAD, BAD!!!! Wasn't me, either.

[Blueberry]

Back when I was young and inexperienced (let's not forget ignorant!), I was housesitting for a friend who's kitchen floor desperately needed to be cleaned. Bleach didn't work. Neither did ammonia. My next not-so-bright idea . . . What if I mix the two? Can you say TOXIC CLOUD???

Thankfully, I was right next to a window that I immediately threw open. I shoved my head out the window to get a couple of really good cleansing breaths, then I held my breath while I went throughout the apartment opening all the other windows. After running outside to get another deep breath, I rushed back in and took care of the toxic soup, then exited the place for a couple of hours to let the air clear.

SomeONE was definitely looking out for me. I've since learned my goof is usually a fatal mistake.