[Thermodynamics]

Once my brother took my vehicle (Brezza) for a long drive. Some time later I got a call from him that the vehicle is not starting up after he re-fueled it.

- I asked him which pump, it is a COCO pump
- Are you sure he filled Diesel, he checked with fueling guy, the guy replied yes it is Diesel. We did not trust, spoke to manager, checked CCTV footage and confirmed it was indeed Diesel
- There can be chances of adulterated fuel, or water, get a bill so we can investigate the case
- I asked him to check if any errors thrown on information panel, He said when I turn the key, he can notice some red symbols on engine, battery etc.,

Man, I was confused, had no clue. I suggested him to call on road assistance. It took 1 hour for the service personnel to arrive.

Here is the climax. The service person said, vehicle is perfectly fine. Then what the deal was it. He replied, "Sir, you must press CLUTCH before cranking"

He had to shell out 500 bucks as service charge.

[ashlok94]

I remember my “oops” moment was when I diagnosed a dead battery in our M&M Quanto.

I happily unbolted the old battery, took it to the nearest Exide dealer and got a replacement. The dealer asked me if I needed a mechanic to install the new battery in the vehicle and I replied in the negative with the self assured way of an auto geek.

I used my brand new toolkit to reposition the battery it’s bay and even cleaned out a few leaves and stuff from the engine bay and also telling off the driver to be more careful while cleaning. A few neighbourhood drivers also assembled to see me in action. Once the battery was connected and I was happy, I started the car and felt like a hero.

My brother took the car out for a spin and it started at the first instance. Everyone praised me for my DIY spirit.

The next day, the car refused to start. I was stumped. Opened up the bonnet to see that the cable connecting the negative terminal was dangling away. It hadn’t been tightened properly.

Since that day, I’ve memorised the old adage, “Lefty loosey, righty tighty!”

[ajmat]

Call it memory lapse as opposed to knowledge

Circa 2009 - Had a Swift and a Skoda which did not require depressing the clutch to start.

My mother had a Getz which needed the clutch depressed to start. I rarely ever drove this car. She goes off for long stints abroad and the car sits and sits and shits unless a week before she comes, I realise that I better start it.

Go to her residence, damn thing does not start! I call Amaron to come with replacement battery, they come and replace battery in. No one really thought of checking the battery!

Battery replaced, I turn key - nothing

I press clutch - oh!

I then realise - "Whoops, I dhould have pressed the clutch!"

Cars is 4 years old, so what the hell, I pay and send the battery wallah on his way.

No one is the wiser till today



Another time was in the UK, I rented a van in winter to move house. Given keys to a frost covered Ford Escort van. Start the van - damn washers dont work to clear windscreen - non functioning washers are illegal.

Go to the office and complain!

"Ye pipes are frozen mate! Start the car and let 'er warm up"

quick exit!

[Suryendu87]

Some of the OOPS moments from my driving years.

1) I learned riding on my father's Rajdoot. However, owing to lack of practice, when I got my first bike, a discover 135 in the year 2008, I was not confident with gears. The return journey from showroom to home was on the then NH-5 which goes inside Bhubaneswar town. At every signal on my way back home, I stuck to extreme left, got down from bike and crossed by pushing the bike. After crossing on foot, I would sit down on bike, take my own sweet time and ride away and it did not stall even once. All this was to avoid the mental pressure of honking and unpleasant dialogues if I stall the bike after a stop in signal.

2) Fast forward to year 2015, me and my friend were learning to drive from a driving school and had our learner's licenses with us. We paired up with one more friend who had a valid DL but was inexperienced and rented a Nano from zoomcar for practice. Our rent window was from 11PM-5AM and target was to practice on interior roads of whitefield and marathahalli on a Saturday. For those who don't know about Bengaluru, on weekends roads in Whitefield are mostly deserted.

The zoomcar parking was in 2nd level basement of Park square mall and we had to negotiate two levels of winding and ascending ramp to come out of it. Being nervous drivers, we managed to stall the car midway of ramp. After stalling, we would reverse down the slope, and again start from the base. All 3 of us tried in succession and after 30 minutes and nearly umpteen attempts, I managed to bring the car out of parking. All this while, we had mall security guards for company who kept asking if there is any trouble with the car, and our collective response was no power to climb

[Mad4bhp]

Mine happened in 2012. Went on an assignment to Qatar. I was amazed to see the wonderful collections they had. We were provided cabs for pick and drop. I was inclined to drive seeing the wonderful roads and cars. After few weeks of knowing the driver, I managed to convince him to give me the car for a short ride. It was a Honda accord. Sat in the drivers seat. Started the car and slotted the gear to D and after few hundred meters slammed the brakes. I was changing gears in an automatic car and slammed the brakes thinking it was clutch. The car came to a sudden halt and thankfully the road was deserted. The driver was shocked and had almost hit his head on the windshield. My confidence was busted. 😁 Lesson - don't think you know everything and always don't use your left leg in an automatic.

[ashishmathur14]

I had my first moment in 2010 when my cousin gave me his Chevrolet Optra . It was during a wedding in the family, and I was given a task to chauffeur off some relatives to Hotel. All was fine until we reached the hotel; To exit hotel, I had to reverse the car on a ramp into the main road; The car refused to engage in reverse gear; whatever I do; Luckily, I was on a ramp and I was able to coast it with a little hand from security. I came back and asked my cousin on how do you engage the reverse gear? That's when I came to know that the reverse is towards the right of 1st gear and need to pull the ring to engage. (First time on this gear set up)

In 2017, I had another moment when I borrowed my BIL's brand new VW Ameo AT to attend a party in West Inn, Pune. On the entry gate for security check, I was asked to open the boot but failed to find any lever in the car to unlock. After several attempts, the security gave up and allowed me to go in; after handing the car to valet; I called up my BIL to check how the boot opens; and he answers - Its Automatic, press the VW logo and it will open.

Third one, this may happen with many of us when we first drive an automatic and press the clutch to change gear? I just did that while driving on a highway at almost 100 Kmph.
Plain lucky not to have any other vehicle behind me.

[Tapish]

Originally Posted by avingodb

At some point I used to believe that car's price did not include tyres in it at all and that one had to pay separately for getting the car rolling off the showroom.

Its actually true if you are in Chandigarh. Tyres/ alloys are a separate budget

[crdi]

During my college days, a late night fuel filling gave me some extra fuel!

I had asked the pump attendant to fill up for some amount (now I don't remember how much I had asked for). Anyhow, when I looked at the dispenser meter, I was alarmed that he had very much overshot my requirement and was beyond the monies I had in my pocket. I hurriedly signalled him to stop and was getting worried about paying up (days of tight pockets, no atms and almost middle of the night). The chap was either too sleepy or inebirated to comprehend what I was trying to tell him and before I could stop him, he reset the machine and again filled for the amount I had asked for. He might have thought that I was asking him to set the meter to zero.

I am a bit ashamed to admit that I left the pump sheepishly without owning up for the additional fuel.

[giri1.8]

Originally Posted by StepUP!

This happened with me when I had hired Jetta through self drive. The person dropped car at my place and left. I started from my place in Jetta. Tried reversing the car. I tried multiple times to engage reverse gear but car always chose 1st gear! I was like what the heck, I can see 'R' on the grarstick beside '1' but each time it engaged first gear!
I called up the person who had dropped the car to ask how do I engage reverse! Then he told me to press the gear lever down before engaging reverse. I felt very stupid when I disconnected the call.

Exactly the same thing happened when we had bought a brand new polo in exchange for a swift sadly we didn't have anyone to help as it was late at night. Took a while but I figured it out after almost 15 mins of confusion.

Much worse incident: Our older chevy had pull up mechanism for reverse, my uncle pulled the ring to engage reverse but released it before engaging instead of reverse he slotted into first and banged a van parked in front, Van had no damage, but our car had a shallow dent on the bonnet.

[vsbabu]

This one is actually my colleague's that I witnessed. As is the usual cure to midlife crisis, he went and bought a bike at the age of 45. He had a KB100 in college 25 years ago, so our man got a Z800. Both of us go for a long drive with me riding my Classic 350 struggling to keep up with the Z annoyed at having to ride at 80kmph.

After a break in the middle of nowhere, we start again. Superbiker takes 5 minutes extra to kit up jacket, gloves etc and so I decide to get a lead. Even after a while no sign of the familiar Z noise. I got worried and went back only to find superbiker trying to crank the bike repeatedly and it is not starting. Wild contemplation about push starting this beast gets discussed.

Since he was in cold sweat and I didn't have a clue, I put on my best Sherlock Holmes face and walked around the bike twice. Mainly to make him feel better.

Suddenly it struck me. After all that dressing up in proper gear, he was trying to start it with side stand still engaged. Took it off the stand and it purred to life in a second with the familiar japanese engine refinement.

And I continued to chase it with my Enfield being stressed out. ...

[adneeraj]

I had 2. And I was ashamed the first time..
This was 2005 my dad's Zen. Had only recently started driving and dad let me drive Satara Pune stretch.
Given the NVH in the Zen then, there was a continuous tak-tak noise.. The T pronounced like the one in tabla.
The car had only come out of service a day earlier and I was furious. Checked for and damage to the tires, punctures or anything amiss to my amateur eye then.. Found nothing, drove on. Dropped my dad and mom home and went straight to the service station.. Called for the service advisor and asked what kinda alignment balancing was done n all that.. He came to understand what noise I was worried about.. After pointing out, he said it's just the noise that small stones stuck in the tread are making... That was a facepalm moment #1

The second was in 2014 when I got my Fiesta Classic. My first week of ownership. I continuously feel that the indicators are taking a bit of an effort to engage.. I knew the setup was the opposite to the usual - left stalk indicators and right for the wipers.
Complained about this in the first month checkup. The service advisor was clueless too for a while.
Then I showed him how the stalk is not engaging the indicator and goes off after 3 blinks.. And he had the most amusing look I've seen. "That's the lane change indicator saar" facepalm moment #2

I've been using that ever since..

[dark.knight]

This isn't an oops moment for me personally, since I figured it out in 2 minutes fiddling with the controls.. but for anyone who has never driven a BMW before, the gear lever will perplex them quite a lot to begin with.

BMW gear levers aren't the standard PRND auto options.. you need to unlock from the parking mode first using the button on the side, then move it sequentially up or down to R, N or D, but the lever will stay centered always and the only way to know the mode you're in is to see the indication on the lever. Engaging it back to park is easy as it only needs a press of the button on the top of the lever. Simple stuff but it will be intimidating for first timers.

One time where I was genuinely perplexed was in taking out the Yeti from its parking space.. this was years ago and I never could slot it in reverse until I was told that I had to push it down (or up? I think it was down) and slot it leftwards up to engage it. Without that lever push-down, it will only slot in 1st gear.

I don't think most situations qualify as "oops" moments though, its not our fault for when we're used to something for so long in our own car, that operationally other cars may vary due to technical/design differences.

[DWind]

My personal Oops moment was when I had rental in UK way back in 2005. I had got a Citroen Picasso. This was my first common Rail Diesel and while I was impressed with smoothness and torque delivery I was stumped to not able to find where the speedometer was. The Speedo was a digital console which was center mounted almost to drivers eyelevel (a la Civic). It did not help that the speeds toggle button was set to KM/H and when I was driving in 30 MPH zone and matching with other car speeds there was no display matching close to 30 for me to identify that it was speedo. So for one full day (i was delayed already as I had to meet another friends group) I was driving blind by matching my speeds (including in Motorways) with cars around me.

Finally, once I reached my destination (in Wales) for the night I took out the car's instruction manual out to understand where the speedo and how to find the toggle button. And Knowing French penchance for having controls different from other car manufacturing world it was eye opener. Thank God! I did not have to deal with rain. Would have been tough to handle wipers and aircon and front defogger

[COMMUTER]

I had my most embarassing incident when I was getting ready for work one day. I hastily got into my car put it in reverse and heard a loud crash. I have reversed without opening the gate! The indica collided into the latch of the gate and has left the heavy rolling gate bent on the groves at an angle to the wall. The car had a dot where it hit the latch without even the paint scratched off.

That incident made me take it easy at work.

[abhi182]

On my erstwhile X1, i managed to get stuck in slush ..
Mind you it wasn't exactly SUV territory slush.. Just a teensy bit in front of a mud path driveway.. nothing that say an alto would have trouble managing

No problem I think to myself, engaged the first gear in manual auto mode - wheels turn a bit but no luck
After seeing my misery after repeated tries, some helpful locals came and helped push the car out of the slush

Next day, I was talking to a colleague expressing my disappointment - till he asked me if I had disabled the traction control :-/