ok, so first of all Ive worked at this shop for almost 2 years, and in january or so I'll hopefully be leaving and getting a job at The Newark Port Authority (union job, start at like 60k a year, possibility of 150k+ in under 10 years, after 10 years you ge 6 weeks vacation, 16 holidays, 6 sick days bla bla bla)



Anyway in my almosty 2 years here the funniest thing ive ever witnessed happened today, and i came home on my lunch break just to let you guys know.



The shop is in a VERY rich town, franklin lakes, where everyones wife drives an escalade or a hummer, all their kids first cars are bmws or benzes etc. there are holuses that go for like 10+ million. Just so you understand why this car came in our shop.



So anyway a guy with a Z06 comes in today. He wants a coolant flush and an oil change. so the run-around kid is given the car, but not allowed to drive it in cause the owner insisted on doing it. SO anyway run-0around kid does the rotates and oil changes and bla bla bla.



So im over in the 4th bay, this kids in the 1st bay. I'm doing balljoints all the way around on a dodge durango, im working on the drivers side so i cant see this kid or anything.



I hear him do the stuff to the z06, lift it, drain it, bla bla lba. Hear it go back down and him start it up after a bit. Its running for a while so i figure, ya know, he put the oil in and is doing the coolant service now, just waiting for the thermostat to open to check the level etc.



All of a sudden i start hearing a faint knocking and then the most nasty sound from an engine ive ever heard.



this dumbass FILLED THE COOLANT AND PUT NO OIL IN THE CAR! He was running this car, and giving it throttle to try to speed up the warming up process so the thermostat opens quicker AND HE SEIZED THE GUYS MOTOR!



anyway, im pretty sure hes fired, but im about to be late, gotta go, fill ya in later.



kevin.

wow. someone's gonna be a tad upset about that one.

Rofl are you shitting me? LOL

Poor stupid kid.

A hard lesson to earn so early...

i didnt know oil was that important. i thought it was one of those things you could use if you felt like it

jk

did the run-around kid atleast top-off the headlight fluid ?

i heard that and a transmission help with gas mileage.

btw, anyone know where I can get some DOT approved blinker fluid?

WALMART? https://www.nopistons.com/forums/pub...1047683664.gif

h a p o n e d

Wow, I got nervous just reading that (not, really...), I can't imagine how he must feel...goodness...I'd just turn around and run away...

Id blame the person who was in charge. Parts kid shouldnt be working on cars.

haha, i would have quit. that sucks.

how much will that cost to fix?

well if it's a Z06, probably more than our precious little rotaries.

Damn, please tell me he replaced the can of "honk" thats a sad sad story

Ok so im outta work finally.



Here's an update:



After about an hour of trying to think of what to tell the Z06 owner our service manager went out and told him that the kid didnt tighten the oil filter and the oil came out without him noticing it and caused the motor to seize (no, the kid just didnt put oil in)



The only thing the guy said is "well, what does "seized" mean". At that point i just stop listening and then I just started hearing this guy bust out screaming like i heard him over my impact gun.



Anyway the guy made our service manager fire the kid in front of him, in the office, right then and there. He then demanded a free rental and to use his words "none of those cheap **** cars either" so we called our local Enterprise, they found a loaded Chrysler 300C they had available for rent a couple towns over so they went and got it and the guy basically said "I'll be driving this around, for free, until you call me and tell me my car is running better then it was when it came in here. Not only that but I will save every gas receipt for the gas i put in THIS car and I expect full reimbursement when i return it to you".



So basically This kid just cost us at least in the range of $15,000, on the vette alone since our regional manager doesnt want to take chances and is having one of the best chevy dealers in our state do the motor swap, and i know a motor swap on a99 maxima was $8k with labor (I got a 99 maxima for free with a seized motor from a customer and called just for shits and giggles to see how much nissan wanted to do the swap...then i swapped in a junker motor for $800 https://www.nopistons.com/forums/pub...IR )



Yea so overall i wouldnt be surprised if this tops around $20-25,000 when everything is totaled up.... and now we've got one less kid so we have to get someone and waste time training them.



the kid that did this was only allowed to do the coolant service because we had been gradually stepping him up to bigger things and he had done multiple coolant services before.



There was no reason why this kid should have fucked this car up, a coolant service and oil change are probably the simplest things we offer besides a tire rotation or something.



I think if the bill's too high to have chevy swap in a motor our regional manager will probably have me and/or one of the other guys, he let me do a blazer motor swap last month....one of the few motor swaps we do, normally we dont get involved in that stuff, but of course we cant exactly turn this guy away lol.



oh AND he laid tracks with the 300C when he left the parking lot.



kevin.

that makes me luagh, Midas had problems with that and started a QC program. Alot of shops forgot to put oil in and they payed for a lot of replacment motors. Myself i had a mishap involving a defective cheap ass valucraft filter. The motor didnt blow just came close to losing all the oil **** happens sometimes but generaly you do the oil change completely before even starting on any other work so **** like that doesnt happen.

so about how long can you run a z06 without oil?

i agree completly... wow thats one hell of a mistake

while holding it around 3k-3500rpm (guesstimate by the volume of the exhaust) id say not much more then 7 minutes.



he really drained a lot of oil out to cause you figure he pulls the drain plug, then starts draining the coolant, by the time the coolants drained the oils probably been dripping the very last drips for a while.



seriously tho ive never heard an engine go so violently, i actually ducked cause i thought **** was gonna fly at me.



we didnt even really look over the motor, cant see much in the engine bay, or from underneath. I wonder how much theyll even give us for this as a core, GM rates the cores you send them to the point where sometimes you get no credit if a core is beyond reasonable repair.



kevin.

guess thats what insurance is for. probably be cheaper just to pay it out of pocket though

Well that sucks ass. But I have to admit thats kinda funny.

thats the state of affairs today, you hire people who want to learn and want to be given a chance to prove themselves, you give them a simple task like coolant and oil, I mean it doesnt get much simpler then that. Then he messes up. Oh well, he would have probably fucked something else up anyhow.



Its sad when people cant carry out simple tasks.

I hope his self esteem wasnt damaged

I hope it was

you mean brain right?

Wow, one more reason, why I'll do all my own work......









But maybe I should have that done to the FD, I could get a free engine rebuild!!!!!

Haha. The 300C will be back at your shop within a week. He will get water in the transmission. Hahaha.



That does suck though honestly, but **** does happen, and you live and learn.

https://www.nopistons.com/forums/pub...1047683785.gif https://www.nopistons.com/forums/pub...1047683785.gif https://www.nopistons.com/forums/pub...1047683785.gif

like youve never fucked up before

Yeah no ****, most places would have this "apprentice" work with a "journyman", and he would inspect all work prior to start up.

sounds like banzai's SFB

Kevin, so was this guy proficient enough that he didnt need somebody double-checking his work? Or was somebody else their at the shop supposed to be watching him?

I talk from first hand frustration because I work with people like this everyday.



you guys ever stop to think that since they gave him the simple task that im sure they trained him on it already, I mean its not rocket science. Maybe this guy worked there for a while. How long can you carry someone before they have to start producing work on thier own?



You know how much it takes to employ a person these days? Thier wages, workers comp, ss, uniforms, etc...

In my shop I have to get at least $42 a hour to cover expenses on some of the lower paid employess. So now I put a guy making top pay along side someone training, how long do I have to carry the guy before he starts pulling his weight?



Im sure the guy didnt start yesturday and they handed him that job, he has probably been there for a while and cant do much more then a basic oil change and coolant flush, they probably should have **** canned him a while ago.

Preach on brotha

Fair enough I've never lived that side of the story, I am an apprentice though



Yeah it's a costly mistake and it shouldn't have happened, and he was fired, end of story, he has to live with that weight on his shoulders for the rest of his life, and probably will be hard pressed to find another job in a shop considering he ruined a damn vette engine



I don't think it's justified to say you hope his ego is wrecked, because anybody who's referred to as "the kid" is young and eager enough to jump a few too steps ahead of himself being so excited to work on a corvette, and **** it up because of it



guaranteed his ego is fucked, do you really think someone just learning is cocky enough to think they've done everything right and never had any problems? Like thinking "I know I put oil in" but didn't? He's thinking "thisisawesomethisisawesomethisisawesome" because he's a kid, not a guy who has been in the trade for years.



Not asking you specifically I'm just trying to clarify, you know what I'm talking about? Guaranteed that kid (for lack of a better way to put it) has his tail between his legs when it comes to even touching a wrench again, even though he might have been a good worker.. I don't think it's justified to wish the feeling of complete failure on the kid, guaranteed he feels it, it probably happened because he was too ansy/eager to be working on it in the first place



You ever jumped ahead of yourself? I have..



Anybody ansy or eager to get work done is a GOOD worker and worth your investment, but people like that can jump too far ahead of themselves, that's when mistakes happen





It's a damn shame this time he jumped ahead of putting oil in it, that is, yes, incompetent, but it stems from being eager to work on something













Just trying to say it doesn't seem to me he's a total slack ass kid and deserves it because he's a slacker and doesn't check anything over, he just got too ansy... $20,000 to ansy.. and it cost him his job



that's just how I percieve it

ive done countless oil changes. dunno the first thing about a coolant flush, although i have an idea, ive never done one. maybe next spring ill do one on the FD, maybe...

I agree.



Someone should have checked up on him, especially on a high dollar car like a Z06. No need to hold his hand while he turned the wrenches, but if someone experienced was checking on em they would have heard the engine ticking as soon as he started it up, and saved the shop 20k in the meanwhile.

So, what happened to the lights & buzzers to warn this kid that something bad is about to happen?



My wife is a "turn the key & go" driver.



BUT- She knows to stop driving & call me if the big red "OIL" light comes on.