How stupid am I?

Every now and then we do something that has a negative impact on our lives. Often in retrospect we learn that the outcome would have been different if only we'd thought it through.

Some times we act rashly in the heat of the moment. Sometimes we try to cut corners to save money and/or time. Sometimes we just take our eye of the ball.

This thread is about discussing those times when with hindsight you say to yourself "how stupid was that?"



G.

Ps. I'll explain my motivation later when I have more time.

 

A few days ago, I'm not sure how many exactly, the oil light came on in my car. When I had a convenient gap later in the day I checked it and topped it up.

Yesterday the light came on again. As I backed away I noticed the yard was looking rather dappled. There are fallen leaves in that area so it was difficult to diagnose in that light and from that distance.

When I came home I stopped short so I could study the dark patch. Sure enough, it was a patch of oil. I didn't bother checking the oil at this time as I thought it might just spit it out again.

To be on the safe side I canceled my one job for that night and booked the car in to be looked at.

This morning I decided to put some oil in just to get me to the garage. I opened my bonnet and saw that the top of the engine was caked in oil. I also saw that the filler cap was missing. I had forgotten to put it back on last time I topped it up.

So as it turned out there was nothing wrong with my car. It still cost me a day without work and a £92 garage bill. I won"t be doing that again.



G.

 

See if you can top this one .

I bought my 'new' 2nd hand car from a garage - under the warranty it was back and forth to a diesel specialist - must have cost the garage and absolute fortune to resolve the various issues.

Any how - just after the car had been returned for the 3rd time from the diesel specialist - I promptly broke down in Chester - on a fairly busy road. I 'phoned the garage, who towed my car and took me home. The car went back to the diesel specialist for the 4th time.

When I went to collect the now running car - I was told that I had run out of fuel - and that they had reset the fuel indicator needle (I think they said this last part to stop me looking like a total baffoon).

The car has run perfectly ever since .

 

@clanless Fuel helps. When I was a kid and new to driving I ran out of fuel at least a couple of times.

I have twice in my life put the wrong fuel in my car. The first time was about 20 years ago. I was looking around to find the air pump rather than concentrating on what I was doing. I got the car towed to a garage who drained the tank. It is an expensive mistake to make as you have to pay for 2 tanks of fuel.

The second time was only a couple of years ago. I was picking up at an airport and for reasons I don't recall, I passed up the chance to fill up with fuel earlier in the day. Stopping for fuel with passengers is not what you want to be doing. In my haste I picked up the wrong nozzle. Thankfully I realised what I had done and stopped. I then topped up with the right fuel and came home.

At this point I probably had about 1/3 petrol to 2/3 diesel. Every day for the next couple of weeks I topped up with diesel to keep the ratio high. It must have worked because no ill effects presented.



G.

 

Ohhh flashbacks....OH put 3 litres of petrol in our diesel Espace when in the UK back in June, realised what he'd done and topped up with diesel. 'It'll be OK' he blithely said. Wrong. Two days later the car stopped while going round a roundabout Three months later, we finally got her back, the garage that she was taken to not being very well up on old Renaults. The fuel pump and injectors were the least of it. Timing completely thrown out. An expensive little mistake that ended up costing about £2k in hire cars, flights, garage bills, ferries etc. I wonder how much one of those companies that you mention would have cost? @JWK

 

One of my work colleagues had bought a new Volvo. His pride and joy. After 3 days of commuting up and down the M6 he said he was amazed at the fuel economy . Another two days later he stated the fuel economy was astounding . That night he ran out of petrol on the M6 - faulty fuel gauge

 

And just today. Bought eggs. The carton fell out of my shopping bag anf fell far enough to partially crack one egg....so I threw it out because they say never to store a broken egg. Then 20 minutes later I started some hot pepper bread dough which requires 2 eggs...

That's just a small one... but the most recent..

 

If Mr Kandy put the wrong fuel in his car it wouldn’t be his fault that he did it,it would be mine for not telling him not to do it

 

I very nearly did the same thing in my Mk2 Astra - I thought that the temperature gauge was the fuel gauge - in my defense it was a new car to me

 

Am I right in thinking you can't put diesel in a petrol car these days? the nozzle wont fit?
Always had petrol cars, but still try to be careful when filling up.