In our case too, the hoist had been problematic for some time as well.
An in-ground, center cylinder , H style arms. It would get to near full extension then pause…then POP up the last six inches.
With the van, the arm extension saddles were in use and when it popped up is threw the van up an extra inch allowing one saddle to fall over. Then the leaning wobbling van caused anothe saddle to collapse and in a series of overloaded off balance arms and saddles the van came tumbling over to the right and slammed onto the ground on it’s side.
A car in the next stall was un-touched.
But you don’t fire the tech over the dealer’s capital equipment failure !
Yes, I have mentioned that example before and it still grates on me. This mechanic was very good at what he does (suspension/brakes/alignment) and the lift was a 2 post model that had separate supports for the front and rear of the car.
The front was fine but the rear would take spells where it would abrupty drop a few inches and cause a heart murmur or two.
When I first went to work there we went to lunch one day and he was complaining about that ilft. He had told the service manager countless times that lift was going to kill somebody.
One day after completing a lot of work on a Pontiac and before reinstalling the wheels he had called the service manager over to show him something on the car. I just happened to walk by when I heard the yell and both guys jumped out of the way as the lift lurched and the Pontiac went over sideways. Thankfully, the car was falling towards the opposite side from where I was.
The whole thing appeared to be in slow motion and the Pontiac was declared a total by the insurance company.
Ten minutes later the mechanic was out of a job, as disgusting as that is.
The very next day they had a service company come around to repair all of the lifts, starting with the one that upchucked the Pontiac.
Seeing as how they were adverse to even replacing burned out fluorescent light bulbs it’s no wonder they chose to ignore the lifts.
It was disgusting they fired the mechanic over a problem he had been complaining about for almost 6 months amd especially when the service manager was almost killed over the very thing the mechanic was complaining about. (And this was one of those large multi-line megadealers)
I would add; Go there and take pictures of the car, many pictures and save it. Every discussion with the dealer would go in a log book with time and date and every promise would be in writing. I feel they will try to make this go away as smooth as possible, but more human errors down the road are always possible. Body work on cars is an art and also with a shock like this, sometimes electronic issues pop up down the road. You should be able to put the blame where it should be.
With hydraulic lifts that leak, you get air in the system, which compresses or expands at the most inopportune time, causing the lift post to shoot up or drop down fast. If it’s a dual post truck lift (one post at the front & one at the rear, each post independently controlled), then one end of the vehicle on the lift can jump up or drop down, leaving the car at a 45 degree angle in a heartbeat. This happened where I used to work.
The bosses told us we couldn’t keep adding hydraulic fluid every week (to keep the air out of the system), since it was hazardous waste & was leaking into the ground, but they seemed to want us to continue to use the lift to get work done. One of the mechanics, who had an “I don’t give a %&#@” attitude, ordered a case of olive oil & had it charged to the shop.
Not illegal to leak olive oil into the ground, is it?!
I had a boss who purchased a new diesel Oldsmobile back in the late 1970s. Before he could take delivery of the Oldsmobile, it fell off the lift. He had special ordered this car and had to wait another month for a replacement. He had so much trouble with the replacement diesel Oldsmobile that he was always hoping it would also fall off the lift.
The building where I work is equipped with elevators that work on the same principle as the lifts in garages (I think that these passenger elevators are called passenger lifts). This elevator is always having problems and the building is less than 30 years old. An elevator mechanic told me that the cable type elevators are actually safer.
I can’t picture how this “x-ray” procedure will work. In all my years I never was never told “get Mr. Highlanders truck ready to get the frame X-rayed”. Now there is a procedure called magnafluxing, but it finds cracks and I never heard of it being used on a truck frame. Magnafluxing to find cracks involves a pretty well stripped down component. Are you guys suggesting the the truck be stripped to the frame and then the frame stripped down? At most all that is required here is a 4-wheel alignment. X-ray the frame,never heard of the process in a shop environment, perhaps at the highest level of a fatal accident investigation I could see a frame X-ray being used.
Vehicles falling off lifts is not uncommon, as old school mentioned. I have witnessed this occurence several times in my career.
One time an ‘in ground’ hydraulic lift catapaulted a Jeep off the lift .
This is becoming more uncommon as modern lifts have safety features. Chances are the dealership is using old outdated lifts. I refuse to work with an antique lift.
If the dealer meant to say measure on a frame rack then that makes sense and should be performed but no one “x-rays” frames.
A bent frame should mean it’s totaled…
If you get a good tech on a good rack the frame can be straighter than new. The days of bent frames equals total loss does not always apply now.
Just for hoots, you should ask the service manager if you can be present and watch the X-ray process; just being curious and all you know.
Tell him you will stand back, wear a lead vest while watching the entire procedure, and then see what he says. My gut feeling is that darting eyes will be followed by a no one is allowed in the X-ray chamber because of insurance regulations/radiation danger statement.
You could even ask about what affect the radiation will have on the Highlander’s electronics.
thank you. X-ray was the dealer’s word, but I think it has more to do with lasers, etc.
I think we are in good hands, met my body work guy, very confident and reassuring…thank you for the bent frame comment. I’m just sick that I took in a perfectly good car and will end up with a wrecked and put back together car…and that’s it.
I asked a neighbor who owns a body/frame shop about this situation, and he looked at me as if I was a nut. Apparently there is no frame x-ray and straightening without dissassembling the Highlander. Another problem I can see is that, Toyota may now document that this car has been in an accident with possible frame damage. This shows up in Carfax all the time. I think I would take steps to trade Highlander for a new or good used one.
About ten years ago I took a do-worker to pick up her Honda Corolla, after having been postponing the delivery time all afternoon. Upon arriving at closing time, we observed the paint being rubbed out from an accident, due to a lift drop. Lots of bondo and straightened metal, in a big hurry. Dealership offered a new car, once the gig was up, but an attorney was still needed as they tryed to make Additional Dealer Profit on the accident. Good Luck
The difference in the protection a Union would provide and a lawsuit like you speak is vast. Just for one, the Union would have prevented the termination a lawsuit would be after the fact and the outcome would not be guaranteed and could be costly. It is common to say that a lawyer would not be needed in cases like this but you had better have someone that knows the law on your side if you want to prevail in such a lawsuit. Front end/alignment mechanics are very resourceful but prevailing with such a lawsuit might tax this resourcefulness.
That was a Honda Civic, I have corolla’s on the brain. By the way, the reason the Civic fell off backwards, was that the oil changer had left the oil pickup device under the oil pan. When the hoist was dropped the front of the car stayed up on top and there she goes.
When I was wrenching in the old days, we had to be very careful with rear-engined cars. If the blocks were set just far enough foreward, when you removed the front tires, the car would start to go up. There were a number of times that I would hold on to the front bumper yelling for help to strap the front down till the tires were back on.
