"Best" disaster

[drapp]

We have loved reading the best shop practical jokes. Non of ours come close to your standards.

What I would like to hear is some of the worst shop disasters. Don't want to hear about people getting hurt just funny things that happen that cause destruction. These things usually require the passage of time so they only sound funny now, not then.

Such as:

Back when I was service manager we had a guy who liked to test park brakes while driving the vehicles on the PDI test drive. (I didn't know this at the time) This particular tech leaves the shop on a PDI test drive. Shortly thereafter I receive I call and he tells me the car made a lot of grinding noise and slid to a stop. I sent a wrecker and towed the car back. The next day the factory rep was in and I told him we had this problem. He insisted that we pull the wheels while he was there. Since we hadn't touched the car since it was towed we put it on the hoist and pulled the brake drums. EVERY part except the axle and the backing plate hit the floor on both sides. Needless to say the rep ran for a product report form and started writing. Only after a new axle was air freighted and an engineer had been dispatched to retrieve the defective unit did the tech fess up. Several months later I ran into the same engineer who picked up the defective piece. He looked at me a said the only way they could duplicate the failure was drive a new car (less than 5 miles on the odometer) at 55mph and yank on the park brake handle. I asked if the plastic handle slid up over the release button like ours did, thus preventing the release of the just applied brake. He said no that didn't happen. I told him the root cause had not been found. This was over 25 years ago and we tell it now and again with a smile on our faces. Even the engineer laughed.
PS - was not the lease bit funny at the time!

[robc]

Oh I got dozens of these.

Tech is working on transmission. Drops the transmission sets it on his bench and sets a jack stands at the nose of the vehicle and calls it a night. I come in the next morning and there the vehicle is, perched up on the jackstands with the back end on the ground. It seems that the lift had a slow leak or the valve wasn't set right and it slowly leaked down overnight.

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** Rob, Editor Dealersedge/WD&S **
Help is only a message post away!
robc@dealersedge.com

[AKTOYPM]

Tech has used car for reconditioning up on a drive on rack in the air.
Tech starts vehicle and gear selector (auto trans) is in reverse. Nuetral asafety switch does not work. Car has high idle and jumps striaght off lift backwards and on to a brand new F-350 being detailed.

Tech puts brakes on vehicle and goes to lunch.
Porter needs to move vehicle out of bay.
Starts car up puts in reverse hits brakes (that have not been bled) panics puts car in drive and smashes techs $10,000 toolbox up against the wall.

[joe r]

Back in the 70's when VW made the Thing model a customer took it out off roading and tore up the front end. One of our techs had it up on the lift that picked the vehicle up by the rear axle tubes in the rear. He didn't think to secure the back of the car and when he pulled the front axle beam off the car fell backwards off the hoist about 6 feet on to the shop floor. One of the loudest noises I ever heard. Fortunately, no one was injured.

Joe R

[LIFESENTENCE]

Tech has car on lift putting on rear shocks. When he goes to install the new ones he gets the 'brilliant' idea of putting his exhaust jack stands under the rear and lowering the lift to raise the rear. Well, as he's lowering the lift somebody starts talking to him and he forgets what he's doing. Once sufficient weight was on the stand the head snapped off and the pointed end proceeded to pierce through the trunk as the car dropped. Amazingly, the car stayed on the lift!

Almost as good was a mechanic just opened business in a shop on a corner of two two lane hi-ways. A van involved in an accident rolled over one of his customers cars. I would've loved to listen in on that phone call to the customer...

[Richard]

Early 90's? I worked at a small Toyota Dealership, and one of the tech was trying to loosen the bolt that held the pulley to the crank (did I mention this tech looked a lot like the Hulk, but not green?) on a Landcrusier. Couldn't get it to break loose, so he got a length of pipe and slid his rachet down in it. In the meantime, another tech was pulling a Carmy Wagon in, and his trashcan blew over, so he parked the car in the middle of the shop floor to get out and clean it up before pulling the car in his bay. The Hulk Jr, gets the socket back on the crank bolt, and steps to the end of this 6 foot section of pipe to really give it a twist.....the Landcrusier tilted forward an inch of so, and the rear swing arms popped out from under it.....the bolt finally let go, and the truck started a slow fall from the rack....everything probably would have been ok, except for 2 things....the LC has a receiver hitch, with a ball installed on both the top and bottom, when the rear hit the ground...the truck rotated on over on the hitch, and landed on it's roof....on the roof of the Camry wagon that the other tech had parked behind the LC while he cleaned out his bay...took about 2 days to clean up all the debris, and at least that long for the Hulk Jr to clean his pants out. No one was hurt except the Insurance Company, who had to pay for 2 vehicles.

[This message has been edited by Richard (edited 08-20-2005).]

[homesleym]

Old twin post hydraulic rack, one side tank blows out, SUV drops off rack and rolls over onto Cadillac in next stall. No one hurt but needed 2 wreckers to clear the mess!!

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[pjpeery]

this will tell you how old i am and how long i have been doing this

a corvair forward control truck on the hoist starts roling to one side the tech is running for his life .. it hit the ground and may have been repairable .. but.........................................

there was about 50 gallons of paint inside the broke open when it hit the floor .. paint everywhere ./. the tech later went to work for ups and is now retired ,, i am how ever still working


paul

[DRCROMER]

Mid 1970 s
Tech was working in the "pit" with a car above him..straight across his bay another tech was working on a steering colum problem,
tech B was upside down in drivers side working on colum with car running..reached up in knocked gear shift lever in reverse...the jolt caused him to fall on to accelerator pedal causing car to shoot across the shop hitting and knocking off the car over the pit..Tech in pit wondered what the #&^*** happened when he looked up and saw one car fly off the rack and another replace it...car B landed right where caer A had been..No one was hurt but it was a wild ride for tech B....

[partsman103]

the worst probably happened at our cadillac store years ago.
We had a lube tech that was in "training" when not performing oil changes. He did an oiul change on a new caddy and the customer called and stated that the vehicle caught on fire.
After having the vehicle towed in, we couldn't find the cause of the fire. (melted the fenders, scorched the hood) a really big mess. Cadillac reps flew in to investigate and pulled a new unit beside the burned unit and started their investigation.
A few days later, while the reps were still investigating the cause of the fire, another caddy shows up....on a wrecker.....burned.
The reps really freaked and this time, cadillac sent down a team of engineers.
They were all over both vehicles and finally found the problem....on another (the 3rd vehicle)before the vehicle caught fire. The lube tech would lay his shop rag below the v/c, by the oil fill to catch oil that may drip onto the v/c. Apparently he forgot to remove the rag in each case causing the rag to ignite when the engine was up to operating temperatures.