Don't do this. My 89 F-250 351 C.I. was a little loud, sounded like a small exhaust leak up by the manifold. Figured no big deal, I'll fix it when I can. Had my primary truck in the shop for routine service so I had to pull the camper about a 40 minute ride thinking no big deal either. I've done longer and harder trips with it. Had the windows down but the longer I drove the exhaust got slightly louder. Then right at the end of the trip I started to get a strong exhaust smell in the cab with a slight drip of anti-freeze on the passenger floor. After inspection under the hood and dash, found a hole in the plastic cover for the heater core that was from the exhaust blowing out of the flange where the manifold meets the tailpipe. Now this stupid mistake is costing me $300+ for a new exhaust, $90.00 for the heater box, $38.00 for heater core, and $300.00 or so to swap it out. I'm not a huge gear-head but have basic mechanical knowledge and I never ever thought this was something that would happen. I'm lucky it didn't burn up my truck and camper and that it isn't costing me more but rest assured I'll never make this mistake again. My Dad (if here) would say, "Was the money worth the lesson you learned?" Talk about a "Duh" moment.

 

I know what you mean, I didn't check the lug nuts on my Subaru last fall after swapping on winter tires, so one day while I was driving through town at slow speed thankfully one of the front wheels simply fell off destroying the fender in the process. Stupid on my part this is something that could have been easily avoided, but now I have to buy a new fender, have it painted and then dismantle the front of the car to replace it.. a days work and probably $500 I could use for other things.

 

Just about every time I've put off fixing something it's come back to bight me good. Once I even had to buy another car so I'd have something to drive while my regular rig was in the shop. That actually worked out pretty good because it was a good car and I made a profit on it. In fact I wish I hadn't sold it.