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Almost got squished by my car!

S

skeelo58

New member
The car dealership where I get my oil changed told me the other day that I had developed a couple leaks on my car. One of them was a transmission pan leak, easy enough fix, right?

So I had some free time on my hands last night, so I decided I was gonna change the transmission filter, and gasket, since I'm 95% sure the leak was just from a bad gasket. So I jack the car up in the front, stuck a jack stand under there as well (safety first), and roll on under laying on the creeper. While I was under there unscrewing all 800 bolts that hold the transmission pan on (what a PITA BTW), I started to notice things getting slightly "snug", but I just thought it's cuz I was rolling further back under the car. Well a few seconds later, I noticed it started getting REALLY snug under there, to the point where I had to slightly struggle to get out from under the car.

Apparently what had happened was that the jack was slowly letting the vehicle down on top of me. I hadn't raised the stand up high enough initially I guess, but it was raised high enough to where it did stop the vehicle from coming down on top of me and crushing me. That scared the living bajesus out of me. I was thanking my lucky stars afterwards.

On the plus side, changing my filter really seems to have helped. It no longer bangs into Drive, and doesn't have a hard drop in RPM's as I'm cruising from 30-50. I was not expecting that at all. My old one must've been plugged up pretty bad or something.

So take note kids: Always use jack stands! You never can tell when a jack is going to fail, and crush you!
 


That's why i just bought a new jack my old one was leaking oil really bad. Now I have a 2 ton aluminum race jack and it is tits.
 
Yeah we have a 3 ton floor jack. Not sure of the brand. We live on a farm so it's had a lot of heavy use over the last few years. Never noticed it have any sort of leak or anything though, which is why I was so surprised it was coming down on me.
 
Never ever trust a jack. Always set the car on teh stands and relieve pressure from the jack. Even with stands under it, if it's much higher than the stands, the jack could lose a seal that allows it to drop instantly. The hit to the stands may knock them over or bounce off etc.

You get one life, don't become an episode of 1,000 ways to die.
 


I've seen jacks and jackstands sink into driveways before due to soft asphalt in hot sun, changing angles and making cars fall. Not cool.

And while we're at it - Chock your wheels when you've got the front or the rear in the air.
 
Or you can use ramps like i do, you wont have to worry about any fails except your cars brakes which rarely happens.
 
FWIW I didn't want to go into too much extra length before.

1. Chock wheels, brakes or parking pawl are not replacements for these solid manual safety's.
2. Never trust a jack to hold something overhead.
3. If using stands on a driveway, give the home owner a break and use some small plywood pieces to distribute the load and not dig up the driveway.
4. Use an aluminum jack with caution, many of them have had seal failures more often than steel based on the pressure and material used.
5. Make Drunkie jack up his car if he ever stops over.
 


even jack stands are scary, my friends dad got killed....

The New 1031 Fresh FM West Lorne Man Killed While Repairing His Vehicle Local News

West Lorne Man Killed While Repairing His Vehicle
AM980

4/15/2011

An Elgin County man is dead after being crushed under his own vehicle.

Provincial police say 72-year-old Peter Pinter was repairing his vehicle around 5 p.m. Thursday afternoon when it slipped off the jack and onto him.

He was found by a family member and pronounced dead at the scene.


Pinter was working on the vehicle at his Main Street home in West Lorne.
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make sure the ground is sturdy, even, level ie somewhere safe

and the jack stands are in good shape
 
Yeah the ground was sturdy. It is a concrete floor in a heated shop, so I wasn't worried about the jack or stands sinking into the ground like it might on a hot asphalt driveway. I'm just glad I had the jack stand there. If for some reason I didn't, and the car would've come down on top of me, and somehow I survived that, I would've been screwed anyways, cuz nobody knew I was in the shop, and my phone was in the car.
 
Everytime im under my car i always think something is gonna fall and whack me in the face or crush me. Dont know why but after a while i get so comfortable i could sleep under there. Weird i know :(
 
dmahlikGT said:
Everytime im under my car i always think something is gonna fall and whack me in the face or crush me. Dont know why but after a while i get so comfortable i could sleep under there. Weird i know :(
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LOL. I worked on my Fiero all summer rebuilding the suspension, I struggled a lot in the front end- I took a nap or 2 under that car in the burning sun. Legs were way more tan than the rest of me, I guess thats what happens when your buddy snaps a steering rack bolt off in the front crossmember and you spend hours trying to drill/ extract/ torch/ and just overall curse out that damn bolt lol.

The Fiero survived hurricane Irene sitting on 4 stands with the front end sky high, so properly chocked+ on stands (on asphalt/ concrete) there should be no worries :)
 


I never ever go under my car unless I have 2 jack stands and THE Jack sustaining the car plus my wheels if everything else fails :) ( I hate being under my car , reason why I take it to the local self-service center and have it lifted. )
 
Sadly i need a new jack as well because this happened to me last time i used my jack. I noticed it came down on both of my jack stands and the jack wasn't even holding. POS Craftsman jack.
 
rynoman03 said:
Sadly i need a new jack as well because this happened to me last time i used my jack. I noticed it came down on both of my jack stands and the jack wasn't even holding. POS Craftsman jack.
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Doesn't Craftsman give you lifetime warranty on there tools? I would try to take it back and get a new one ;)
 
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