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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?
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amy_craig285mo 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.
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robertcarr5mo 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.
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king.val2mo 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.
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terry8355mo 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.
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