Stupid Dealer Tricks
 

Today I installed a new battery. The old one still cranked, but it's over 5 years old and I didn't want to go into the summer on a possibly marginal battery. It was a bit anemic during my winter warm-up starts when I didn't have the float charger on it.

I pulled the cover and found a 3/8" drive ratchet with 10mm socket sitting right on top of the battery!

And it wasn't mine.

Last week I had the 8 in the dealership for an oil change and tire rotation. That was all I wanted, but they do a multi-point inspection whenever you go in, hoping to find other stuff to charge you for.

The tech obviously pulled the batter cover, probably to check it or check the terminals for corrosion (none at all, lol) and left his ratchet sitting on top of the battery when he replaced the cover.

There would have been serious fireworks if that ratchet handle had slid over a bit and dead-shorted between the battery terminals. I think the battery lifting straps helped hold it in place.

I dodged a bullet.

And gained a nice ratchet handle and socket.

free tools woot!

It happens all the time.

I got a free craftsman ratchet like that from infiniti. And yep i found it in my bro's car battery box. I beat the shit out of it and will bring it in for warranty replacement soon lol

Isn't there a red plastic boot over the positive terminal? If there isn't, I usually wrap it in duct tape. This keeps things from shorting out the battery and the gases away that corrode the positive terminal.

No boot over the terminal post connector under the cover. The red plastic boot only covers the part that extends outside of the battery cover. I like the tape idea.

I once found a foot-long o-ring pick tool under the hood of my daughters old VW Bug, after it came back from the collision center when she drove over a landscaping boulder.

On a flight in my aerobatic plane some years ago, I did a slow roll, which, in order to follow a straight path through the air, requires a little negative-g forward push on the stick while inverted. As I rolled towards upright however, it jammed as I tried to pull it back, causing a crazy corkscrew, followed by a dive and rapidly increasing airspeed. Fortunately, though quite uncomfortable, shoving the stick hard forward and skidding the tail back and forth with the rudder, freed the blockage. Good thing I'm pretty conservative about staying high for acro; it took about 3000 feet to recover control.

Upon landing, we found a mechanic's screwdriver loose in the tailcone that had managed to jam itself in the control cables. It kinda burned in a distrust of anyone else working on my stuff.

Found a rag in the back of my Protege's engine bay after getting it back from Mazda, nice little prize I guess.

I remember once in my older accord I had a few window parts replaced. I later took the door panel off to put new speakers in an noticed that ALL of the insulation/sound canceling material had been ripped up and taken out to get to the parts and not replaced :(. I dynamated that s*** up after seeing that. Almost wanted to make them pay for it too.


Never seen a socket still under the hood, however I usually do a pretty good job with that all by myself. I lose sockets/screws to the depths of my hood all the time.

This wins the prize for scary, and should have killed the thread (luckily not you)! :SHOCKED:

Airplane story is freaking nuts!

The only thing people have left in my car is usually makeup, cloths, heels and random accessories after hitting the club with my Honda packed full of girls.

You get absolutely NO sympathy for that post. But a big "Way to go, dude!", lol.

The big question is, how many of said girls are in your (ahem) Honda when you leave the club? ;)

Pics!!!

Lol, I see what you did there. Actually ALL of the girls that left with me came back with me. So four total, you know since my Accord only seats five.

Pics = credibility

No, pictures of girls in my Accord. I do have a picture of four drunk girls passed out in my mini van after hitting the club in L.A. Not a pretty sight. Haha.

https://www.rx8club.com/rx-8-discussion-3/while-waiting-my-rx8-warm-up-i-231099/

Read that thread, post #9 specifically and a few after. What I say is true. :)

Some doctors leave surgical tools inside the body after a surgery...free tools! Woot, woot...lol

Anyway, at least it didn't fell by the spinning belts, and that is dangerous.

haha, free tool!

Good thing the tech left the ratchet there and not else where:eek:

I'm not so sure. If that ratchet had shifted positon by less than an inch, the battery would have shorted and the whole car could have burned...:SHOCKED:

Of course, if he had left it elsewhere, who knows what would have happened? It might have even fallen-out before I left the lot.

Imagine the mech finding his ratchet sitting in the parking lot, wondering, "Did it fall out of my pocket when I went out to the lunch truck?" LOL!

Returning a tool to a mechanic is like removing a thorn from the paw of a tiger.

They really appreciate the gesture, and they wont forget.

Recently a mechanic left a screwdriver in my car. It was a worn out POS. Regardless, I went ahead and returned it to him, and the quality service I receive improved. 10 fold.
--

It can be much worse. Another (very good) airframe mechanic that I took my plane to, often working side-by-side with him, also maintained a Hughes 269 helicopter owned by a couple of guys we both knew well. Certain highly-stressed helicopter parts are life-limited, that is changed out after a certain number of operation hours. Theirs needed new tail rotor blades, so he ordered a pair from an established distributor. Unfortunately, this distributor had money problems that he attempted to solve by having counterfeits made in China for 1/10 the cost, then charging full price for them.

One fine autum day, our friends were out flying, taking pictures of the fall colors, and one of the counterfeit rotor blades disintegrated, chopping off the tail section in the process. Both were killed.

Wish I could say this was the worst of it, but such practices continue. A couple years ago, Congressional investigators concluded that up to 1,000,000 bogus parts had made their way into DOD's supply chain, including many on aircraft. One technique was to buy worn-out stuff as scrap, polish them up, then sell them as new. Boeing is also have problems with this, especially since most US airlines have off-shored much of their heavy maintenence.

http://www.bloomberg.com/video/79705752/

:mad:

Haha, true:cwm27:

I guess I was more thinking about the tech leaving the ratchet at another stupid place like resting in front of the engine somewhere. Can't imagine the noisy that ratchet would have made flying around the belt:SHOCKED: