i actually was thinknig this while i was putting the tools in the garage and taking the car down the road.

i just wanted to warm the car up so i could adjust idle and tps volt.

i had the plugs out to look at them, they were changed 2 oil changes ago.

so im going WOT on my way back BOOOOM!!!!!1111

pop the hood and the damn strut falls off the hinge adding to how pissed i am. i see some smoke and follow it to a plug wire hanging on the exhaust. the spark plug attached to it and electrode all crushed. hoping it just fell out from being loose.

after my beer we will find out.

this is why you check everything very well, before you go for a test drive

Short answer? it would make sense...

Why anyone would just fire and go without giving everything 3 checks over is beyond me.

the threads on one of the spark plugs were stripped, so it went in fine but vibrated out. i had spares all good now. was afriad the engine was pooched.

glad to hear it is ok. prolly gave you quite a scare. i always give everything a double/tripple check. i once changed too a donut spare on my 88 charooke and started to drive away, only to realise i had only hand tightened the lugs! i could have sworn i checked them. so now even if i know i checked it i check it again....

I remeber when i did my first tune up on our 79 T/A and i fired it up and the number 8 plug shot out and landed on our lawn it was actualy pretty cool lol.

ya this thing sounded like a gunshot

try taking one out, then putting a new one in it's place then move to the next rather than doing the whole side at a time. the worst thing you can do then is leave the wire off the plug(no big deal)
the other thing is why pull a plug out without having a new one to replace it? things aren't but like 2$, i check mine when i do the plugs.

that's not so bad. being a mechanic and doing like 4 to 10 cars in a day things happen the worst I've done is leave a plug on the air cleaner and a spark tester on the plug and go for a test run then spend like a half hour tring to figure out why it's not runnin right......er how bout doin a water pump and try to put the belt on before the pulley. or putting a car on the ground with all 4 wheels loose?


lol.....last car of the day is always fun......but the beer after is better

Berlinetta 85, I guess that you did not tight that sparkplug up...that is why when the engine got at its maximum compression, the sparkplug just came out of its position....check the thread in your engine, I guess that nothing happened to it.....

i had kinda the same thing happine to my honda while i was on the highway...

sounded like my car was gettin shot with paintballs at first, turned out it just blew the wire off...so i put it back on and got goin again...and the spark plug blew in two...the top part was in the wire...and the bottem was in the block.....damn champion junk!

put a new one in and was good as new

i gotta say the worst thing is draining oil, removing filter, replacing filter, grease all fittings, check tire pressure, fill all fluids, run car and watch oil light go out, pull the car out for the customer, and have them come back because the engine is knocking. oops, i didnt recheck the oil level, then i would have noticed i forgot the drain plug. and of all vehicles, it was a brand new pathfinder. damn me and my 16 year old-ness back then, lol. since then i make sure to check oil, start it, finish up and check the oil again.

always check your work over, and over before you finish up and THINK youre done.

drdave what ended up happening you get repromanded?

I remeber my friend worked at firestone and he did an oil change and when he put the filter on there was a wire by it i guess and he screwed the filter on and then crimped te wire with the filter went to take it off the lift and the car would not start i think he said it was a BMW or Mercadies. He was about 17 at the time.

I don't forget drain plugs I forget to put on filters.

i was surprised, nothing but a stern lecture

yea last time i did the oil, i forgot the drain plug. i realised it when i got a quart of oil in it, and for some reason i looked down and noticed there was oil all over the driveway...... dad laughed at me and told me there better not be a speck of oil on the driveway when i was done. i felt horrible about it, but could do nothing but laugh.


dave, what about the oil all over the ground, didn't that key you in that something wasn't right?

it was on a drive on hoist so it just drained into the pan, and being right next to the shop, i couldnt hear it draining into the pan.

oh that doesn't sound as bad as me with oil on the ground. atleast you had a excuse!!!!!!

Good that engine is not toast. I always check every little thing many times before I even start car, let alone drive it. Now I only work on one repair/modification at a time and test it out before moving on to the next one. Last time I was trying to get 6-7 things done at once and ended up having car in garage for 5 solid days because car wouldnt start.

I usually bring some tools with me when I go on long trips, no telling how long I will be out on side of road if car breaks down, and most times anything that goes wrong is a simple, temporary fix.

can you use duct tape on a cracked block..or broke u-joint.....or axle slideing out? how bout glue..........lol j/k

lol.... duct tape, jb weld and some old pens work well for temporary fixes alongside the road. don't forget some cord, a belt and some grease too!!!!!!!!!

I expected a no call a tow truck.

lemme explan, pens gutted for vacume hose leaks, duct tape for covering a hole in the coolant system(slows down leak) jb weld for metal things that may break or crack(things like sensor attachments, and the cord, wire for holding exhaust up and such....... yea i had to pull over on 495 around dc to wire exhaust up about a year ago..... just to take my ex to the courthouse in norfolk... we lived in pa at the time..... got rid of her soon after...

some things can be temporarily fixed til you can get to a garrage to get it fixed right and correctly.....

no re-read my statment.......then.......lemme know ifi n a tow truck ain't nessasary

DUH!!!!! (chuckling) yea i don't think that stuff belongs in a tow truck or on a tow truck for that matter...... and that would deffinately be some problem that i wouldn't try to fix at the side of a road!!!!!

I worked at a oil change place back in the day.
I was in the pit and I put the oil filter up top because it was easier to replace up top.
I yelled up top, and the guy yelled down are you nuts... I said I can get it off, but forget about tring to get it on. So I pulled it.
He agrued for 15 minutes then walked away. I said clear to fill, he said starting, I said you have the filter on? engine starts, oil goes flying I scream shut it off dip****.

The guy said you should have put the filter on, I said I told you it was a top filter. Super came over and said prove it is a top filter...
I went up got it on in 20 secs...
I told the guy next time tring DOING something instead of nothing and arguing.
The super just laughed.

i think that we all did this kind of stuff at one time or another, heck i just set the engine on fire the other week cause i forgot to check the o ring on one injector....... gonna put a emergency kill switch under the hood when i get the thing back on the road!!!!!
just as a added protection measure!