The Dumbest Things Redditors Have Done With Their Cars

Quick disclaimer. I tend to hate it when sites steal content from reddit. There are several blogs out there that survive that way. I get that it works for them, but I try to be at least slightly creative in my posts. Still, every once in awhile something comes from good old r/cars that is just too good not so share.

So today we have some of the dumbest things that redditors have done with their cars. Some of them are pretty cinge-worthy. Take a look:

This guy must have watched Blues Brothers a few too many times

Tried to jump a bridge in a 1988 Oldsmobile. I guess I actually did jump the bridge, cleared the whole top and came down on the asphalt and broke the transmission pan and cracked the wheel studs on one wheel. Made it all the way home and it wouldn’t shift into reverse, then I noticed all the transmission fluid pouring out from under the car.

– gregbo24

Uh, Pittsburgh isn’t the best place for lowered cars…

Decided it was great idea to lower a 2001 Pontiac Grand Prix GTP daily driver 3in front/4in rear while running 20 inch wheels on 30 series tires in Pittsburgh… I could have bottomed out that car in the right pot hole if i wasn’t careful. And forget getting in or out of 90% of parking lots without damn near tearing off the front valence. Then i was stupid enough to put a giant sticker on the rear window with a stupid saying. 19 year old me was a huge douche… Who am I kidding… Im still a douche.

– Smokes35

Way to go, Dad. 

Not me, but I was doing a brake job on my old car (just needed new rotors) and my dad came by to check on my progress and literally 15 seconds after I got out from under the car he was pushing on the spoiler for some reason without thinking and knocked the car right off the jack into the floor. Probably would’ve crushed my ass if I hadn’t gone on a fridge raid for a beer. Thank you beer.

– PowerdbyTib

You can’t get more wrong than 100% wrong.

Did my first timing belt job ever on my old 92′ Miata and I did the timing with the number 1 piston at bottom-dead-center instead of top-dead-center. So it was basically 180 degrees incorrect, completely backwards timing.

I put the whole engine back together and went to fire her up. It drew in air through the exhaust pipes and shot a mothafuckin fireball right out of the intake. It warped the throttle plate and blew the plastic intake tract right across my garage.

I almost ragequit when realizing I had to do the entire job all over again. But I got it done in the end.

– Slyons89

Get in the Zone…

Made a custom cold air intake for my 2012 civic out of random parts from autozone. I was so excited that I just went ahead and installed it in the parking lot. Lost 2 bolts and didnt even have a space for the MAF sensor. On the drive home the revs were limited to 3k and every imaginable warning light was on.

Returned all the parts later that day and lost about $40 dollars on the whole experience.

– NoSpicePlease

Ice Ice Baby

I live in the south where it hardly ever snows, but last year we had a pretty bad ice storm and my car was covered in snow/ice. My roommate was from up north and had a snow and ice scraper that he let me borrow. I didn’t know you were only supposed to use it on the windows. FML

– velocious

Always wanted to do this in a junky car

I was test driving a Dodge Caliber during the “Cash for Clunkers” era (it was one of the cheapest cars you could buy) and I had a clunker I was considering trading in.

It was a manual. My last manual car was a 2002 BMW M3, which had 6 forward gears.

While putting the test car through its paces (no salesperson came with me because they were swamped), I was racing down the highway and slammed the transmission into 6th gear. Except Dodge Calibers do not HAVE a 6th gear. Instead, what I had done was throw this poor brand new car into reverse, at significant highway speed. It made the most horrific, pained, demonic sound you can imagine.

I sheepishly drove back to the dealership and got the heck out of there. I feel bad to this day that I probably took a year of life off of that thing…

This officially is the winner. Just… why? 

Ran from the police. 18 miles in 10 minutes, almost 3 jurisdictions. State police caught me with a Taurus SHO

Easily the stupidest decision of my life. I had a bunch of charges that were dropped down to two. I went to jail for two months, and now have 4 years, 11 months over my head, with 5 years of probation.

– PocketChant

Still, they keep getting dumber

When I was like 17 or 18 when I bought my first car. Obviously, the first thing you do is drop it, aka lowering springs. When it was all said and done, I realized that I had installed the rear springs up side down. That was fun.

Oh! And I also did the “exhaust mod” where you install 4 washers at the mid pipe to create a throatier sound aka create an exhaust leak. That was smelly.

– slmz370

Call Katy Perry 

On the 4th of July I thought it would be smart to light fireworks from the inside of the minivan, out through the open sliding doors, on the interstate, going 70 mph. We lit the carpet on fire. Luckily we had a fire extinguisher in the van. Was it dumb? Yes. Do I regret it? Not a bit.

– saf1

And now for some of my own

Where to even begin?

How I learned not to text and drive

In the middle of winter I pulled out of my driveway and started to send a text. Not 5 seconds later I noticed my car had stopped. I looked up and I had driven straight into a snow drift. I was 16, and it was a great lesson.

Stop Light =/= Stop Sign

Another time I wasn’t thinking. I pulled up to a red light and treated it just like a four-way stop. I pulled up, stopped, and then went. There was nobody around and thankfully no camera but I realized what I was doing right in the middle of the intersection and slammed on the breaks. At this point I was stopped dead center of the intersection so just went forward and hoped that nobody had seen it.

Now let’s here some of yours!