technicalninja

Thought I'd start a thread about the crazy things we sometimes see (and participate in) in the shop.
The "shop" can be anything vehicle related, a dealership, a car meet, your buddies garage, let your imagination be the limiting factor...
But try to keep it "mechanical and funny".


I'll start with Ninja tale #1 "The Mouse"

I once worked at a "Dream Dealership" in Denver Colorado, Roger Mauro Mazda/Fiat on Colfax Ave.
Place was run right; plenty of parts and equipment, awesome technician support. I made big bucks there...

One of the other technicians caught a perfect little "church" mouse and was trying to startle people with the little beast, normal shop hi-jinx.
Everything was fun and games till someone said "Lets send him to the girls in the office through the TUBE".

TUBE is in caps cause it deserves caps. It was a document delivery system as we've all used in the drive through lanes at our banks.
The one at Roger Mauro was on steroids. It was fast. When you received something it came in so fast that the container "bounced" three times.
Sending something was similar to firing a mortar. Everything about the dealership was badassed...
The tube system was quite complex and the main hub was in the "office" where a half dozen women worked doing all of the dealerships paperwork.
We liked them, they WERE friendly.

Now, I never touched the mouse, I did not come up with the idea of carrier launching the critter into the office but...
I'm as guilty as the rest of the other techs cause I was right there with them saying "Yes do it, DO IT NOW"!

Now, you have to look at this situation from the mouse's perspective...

You've finally gotten caught by the giants you've been avoiding all of your life.
Instead of eating you they play with you much like a cat might before the final crunch.
You're dangled by your tail, you're abused but not injured and finally they put you into a clear plastic container.
All of the hairless apes check you out before the container is slid into a dark tube. It's quiet and the darkness is soothing until.
Massive G force pins you to the bottom of the container followed by sideways G force as you make the curves.
At some point you probably achieve weightlessness followed by more side Gs and then the massive deceleration at the end plasters you against the other end of the container.
While all this is happening vacuum is trying to suck the breath from your body and it's pitch black.
A mouse nightmare...

The mouse was not injured or killed by this trip, he was ENERGIZED.
We created Mighty Mouse.

When the poor unsuspecting records clerk opened the container from Service the mouse was under 30lbs of boost running nitromethane!
He jumped girl to girl before finally escaping through the main showroom where he "got into it" with a customer. Major bedlam ensued.
He physically touched all the clerks but one but it didn't matter at that point. He cleared the office of all humans and escaped at mach speed through the front doors.

The "office" was four walls away from Service and we all still heard the screams.

This was the ONLY time I ever saw the owner Roger Mauro in the Service Department.
He advised if we ever did anything like that again we would have to do the record clerk job at record clerk pay until "hell froze over".
He was pissed.
It was worth it...

L337TurboZ

iTrader: (1)

I work at a dealer and have seen all manner of things. One of the apprentice techs first job was to put an engine in a mid 90s Suburban/Tahoe. Simple job. He did it well.

At least until he used my brake cleaner sprayer to clean all the fluids off the engine and accessories. I happened to be doing an alignment one bay over when I heard it. There had been a big puddle of brake cleaner somewhere on the headers or heat shield when it caught fire. I was standing on the driver's side of the vehicle I'm working on and could feel the heat from the flame front. The initial rush of fire was so big and bright it lit up the shop and could be seen on camera at the service drive. Luckily all it did was melt some wire harness plastic and the hood insulation.

The apprentice didnt get in trouble. He learned his lesson and we all got a good laugh from it. The customer was pretty chill about the situation and was a friend of the owner.

My shop foreman son just got a 2015 Canyon for 500 dollars. Someone put sugar in the tank and it was about 7k in repairs to the fuel system. Well 3 months later someone struck the same customer again and put sugar in the tank. They blamed the tech at first saying he misdiagnosed it etc. He drops the tank and finds contaminated fuel.

The customer flips out that it happened to them a second time. Says "I'm not fixing this I'm just buying a new truck what do I owe right now?" They tell him the tow bill plus labor for dropping the tank and all. He offers the truck to the kid for 500 dollars. It has around 40k on it and is immaculate. So Joe bought the truck, we took some injectors off an engine core we had along with a high pressure fuel pump then sent it up to him. Now all it needs are some new converters cause they were damaged by the fuel problems. The truck itself is worth about 16-17k.