Had a customer's truck catch fire in the bay on a Tuesday morning

It was a 2018 Ford F-250 with a fuel line leak we missed during the initial check. The whole thing went up in about 30 seconds, smoke filling the shop. Anyone else had a close call like that and changed their inspection routine?

4 comments

4 Comments

amy_craig284mo ago

Missed a fuel line leak on a truck that new? That's a serious oversight. Our shop would have triple checked everything after a scare like that. You're lucky the whole building didn't go up.

robertcarr4mo ago

Man, that's a scary thought. But you know what gets me? The pressure to turn jobs around fast. A tech might do a quick visual check, see no drips, and call it good to meet a deadline. I've seen guys skip the full pressure test because "it's a new truck, lines don't fail." Complacency with new parts is a real blind spot.

king.val1mo ago

...and I mean, I have a buddy who works over at a shop on the other side of town. He told me about this time a customer came in with a 2019 Ram 1500, just for a tire rotation. No reason to even look at the fuel system, right? Well, they put it on the lift and one of the junior guys noticed the undercarriage was a little too wet near the tank. Turned out the fuel pump housing had a hairline crack from the factory that was slowly seeping. They caught it before it ever dripped on anything hot. My buddy said that was the day they started doing a quick flashlight walk under every vehicle that came in, no matter what the job was. It only adds maybe two minutes but it could save everything.

terry8354mo ago

That pressure to work fast is a real problem. It makes you skip the little steps that catch big problems. Like maybe you don't put the truck on the lift for a full look underneath because it's "just an oil change." Next thing you know, a small leak you missed turns into a huge mess. Shops need to build that extra check time into the job, no matter what.