Jeep Cherokee VS BMW X5...on a Lift

[Joe Handley]

Found this on NAXJA tonight, let's just say be careful who you let drive your stick shift ride

JEEP IS WINNNAR!

So... today was an interesting day. I've been driving the Jeep around to break in the new gears, but haven't gotten a new inspection sticker yet. On the way to Autozone... I got pulled over and just (thankfully) got a written warning for expired inspection, and had an interesting conversation with the cop about the ammo can in the trunk where I have some fluids and crud.

I get to autozone, get a new downstream O2 sensor, and put it in. Amazingly it turned off my check engine light, so I brought it around the corner to the shop to go get an inspection sticker. Turns out I took it to the wrong bay (around the corner from their other bays), so one of the shop guys took it around the block. He brought it into the inspection bay, and left it in gear... no biggie. The next guy who jumped in to fire it up to run the ODB scanner for the inspection sticker either sucks at driving stick, or was a tard, or something, and left it in gear. He promptly let out the clutch with his right foot (stupid), sending the Jeep driving away and right into the BMW M5 up on the lift in front of it! My Jeep basically hit the header panel into the rear shock mounts of the BMW, knocking the BMW off of the lift sorta, and it seems like it totalled the BMW. Smashed glass, crumpled body panels, dropped the front right corner into the ground so suspension, and fender wells ended up holding up the rest of the weight.

My Jeep got two small punch holes in the header panel which they will obviously replace for free, and a slight wrinkle in the driver fender which they'll replace also. The BMW is totalled.

The real kicker is... the BMW hit was the owner of the shops! The shop monkeys were replacing his brakes for him. Supposedly he'd never seen anything like it in his 30 years of owning the shop!

Guess there's a good reason to fix your own junk, huh?

[dwc43]

We had some incidents when I worked for the dealer, but nothing like that. I got into an older Mustang. I think it was a 65 with a straight six and auto. You had to goose it to get any car on the lift cause it had a hump in the floor that covered the chain (think motorcycle chain) and the hydro lines. When I goosed it, the spring on the carb broke and it went wide open and started smoking the tires. I had the front brakes locked to keep it from going into the block wall until I grabbed the key and killed it. No damage other than a black spot on the floor. Better it happened to me then than to that old man out on the street. Spring was rusted into.

Same lift. Had a mini van on it and the seal blew as I was trying to get it to raise up and trip the safety lock. I had been under it and was waiting for parts and lowered it to start the brake job on the RF while I was waiting on the parts. It started going down by itself and I hit the power button and the seal blew. Covered me in hydro oil, the van slammed into the floor. Funny part, guy comes running over and has no clue about the hydro oil all over me and the floor. He just sees me on my knees covering my face. I was trying to get the oil away from my eyes before it got into them. Opened my eyes just in time too. I hear are you all right and then see him round the corner and before I can yell out (mouth covered in oil too) he hits the oil and goes sliding past me on the floor past two bays and into the block wall on the far end of the shop. He probably did not like it, but it was funny.

I missed this one. I had went to the office to use the cleaner rest rooms and I heard this "BOOM" that just shook the whole building. Went running to the shop as fast as possible. A friend of mine had a baby blue Tempo that he could not get started running at home after working on it (replacing part after part) one weekend. I told him to tow it in to us, cause we needed the scanners and such. Well, Keith Tune fixed it and he stepped inside and sat down. Hit the key and when it started "BOOM!!" The muffler was full of fuel and fumes from my friends weekend of working on it. IT ignited and blew the whole exhaust system off of it.

We had to call the fire dept one time to put out the dumpster. The owners son was cleaning out a back storage room with all kinds of junk from boxes to rubber bumper covers from the body shop and such. He decided to burn it in the dumpster since it was full. High winds and paper stuff flying out of the dumpster set the tall dry grass on fire right beside the building. Had to evac all a the cars that we could start or push out by hand. Left a couple on stands and lifts inside. Owner was so tore up he connected the water hose from the wash bay into one big circle. Fire Dept. put it out in a couple min. Cars and the shop stunk like a fire for a couple days.

Sometimes, stuff happens.

[mountaindewd]

IIRC, The next episode of Wrecked involves a similar situation as the B'mer off the lift. I don't remember what the vehicle is, but, I wonder if it's the same. They described it as a near impossible recovery. Was this near Chicago?

Edited August 8, 2009 by mountaindewd

[Joe Handley]

IIRC, The next episode of Wrecked involves a similar situation as the B'mer off the lift. I don't remember what the vehicle is, but, I wonder if it's the same. They described it as a near impossible recovery. Was this near Chicago?

No, I think it may have been California, we don't have state vehicle safety inspections like that here. Normally if you take it in to have the "Emissions" tested, we have to take the vehicle to an Airteam facility and have them plug in the computer for testing the OBD2 codes and put the gas cap on a pressure tester to make sure that is sealing properly. Until they stopped testing pre OBD2 cars here, they stuck a probe up the tailpipe and let it idle then when the "treadmills" were instituted the did that and ran them on a chassis dyno type that device that tested the emissions at various engine speeds plus they also tested the gas caps too. In many cases the employees that ran these facilities weren't nearly as qualified as the ones that worked at the shop in the above situatuon. Watching them running these cars on the dyno could get interesting though, my Turbo Lebaron would rattle the glass and aluminum boxes the car owners had to stand in while the cars were getting tested. I remember one J-Body Buick Skyhawk that was at least as old as my Chrysler (and was in far worse shape) that had a healthy pull to the left and nearly drove right off the dyno! IIRC the owner was told to get it fixed before it was brought back to retest otherwise they weren't going to touch it again. I'd imagine that depending on how bad that carnage was, they might as well have dropped it to the ground. If it was going to be a write off and the shops insurance wasn't going to get involved, the owner could theoreticly get it running enough some how get it to a dealer and trade it as a "clunker" and take the hit for what ever the X5 was worth.

[Eshaver]

Anyone in the Towing and recovery business should be familiar with the book that National A A A puts out concerning all vehicles that are towed here in the states . SOME CARS JUST AINT GOT NO BUSINESS BEIN TOWED PERIOD. One is ANY B M W !!!!!!!!!! the minute you put ANY B M W on a Hook, the body folds up !!!!!!!!!!! To me that explains a lot as the bodies aren't sturdy enough to me any way to sustain any kind of a crash with out folding up into an unsaleable pile of junk ! I don't care how " well " engineered the B M W is supposed to be . I'll be happy to put a Ford Crown Victoria and stand it up to the last B M W left on a dealer's lot . Guess who's going to win in a severe crash .........

Ed Shaver