Oh, how I do not envy any soul in this shop right about now. Chris from TheSupercarSuspects recently scored a Honda S2000, a sprightly little screamer of a sports car that needed some clutch work. He entrusted a shop to handle a simple clutch job. And apparently that was one step too far…not only is there the issue of an S2000 laying on it’s side, freshly fallen from the lift to deal with, but you have the waffling from the guy in the shop who comes up with a couple of different explanations as to what happened.
Without hearing his B.S., what happened here is pretty straightforward: the Honda slipped off the lift and came crashing down to Earth in a scene that, for the mechanic, had to have played out in super-slow motion from the first squeak of movement until the last bit of glass stopped moving on the floor. This is one of the biggest “oh, shit” moments I think a shop can have that doesn’t involve an uncontrolled fire, and they are damn lucky nobody got hurt in the process. The questions may now start to pour in, with the obvious one at the surface: How in the hell did this happen?
And I answer: a lack of training combined with overconfidence in skill. An S2000 is not like a Lamborghini or a Ferrari…they were a mass-produced, easily accessible car that many people have worked on successfully over the years. Getting the car up onto the lift should’ve been the easiest part of the clutch job. Center the weight, ensure that the pads solidly contact the lifting points of the car, and if there is any doubt whatsoever about whether or not things are safe or correct, you DO NOT LIFT THE CAR INTO THE AIR! Like I said before, this shop is damn lucky nobody was underneath the Honda when it started it’s fast trip back to the floor…and if there was someone underneath that car, you had best believe that they were having a drink that night while saying thank-you to someone up in the sky.
Train your people. Re-train your people until they know what the hell they are doing. This scene is going to be a ton of insurance work and potentially legal work. The only bright side is that there is no hospital work coming into play here.
LANGUAGE WARNING: The video is shot by the owner and his crew. You’d probably be saying the same kinds of things if it was your car.
Cuz, tools/equipment , never fail.
or a shop owner with a lift that you have to remove the lift arm feet , to get the car on the lift, so no rubber feet holding the vehicle.
na, not that either.
pfft
Both the arms of the hoist are still parallel, level and up in the air. So the hoist did not fail.
When you have to remove the feet off the arms, to get the car on the lift. it will slide very very easily.
Car had no business being on a 4 arm lift to do a clutch anyways. but YMMV.
Welcome back UPCG.
I help out at a friends chassis shop (mostly race cars, tube frames, etc.), he has some physical limitations (temporary) so I set a lot of different stuff up on his lifts, I am crazy careful, balance and positioning the cars then lift them a couple inches and shake the heck out of them before I’m OK with lifting them, he shakes his head every time but seeing this I know I’m doing the right thing, thanks
That is how I learned to do it and still do.
Looks like the locks failed that keep the arms from moving when it is raised. And without the rubber pad the metal to metal contact makes them easier to slip. I know I have issues with mine occasionally and after seeing this I am going to recheck them. The only issue I’ve had with my 2 post was when I had a Suburban on it and the anchor bolts pulled out on one post. I was able to get the truck down I repaired the concrete floor then welded 2″ angle iron connecting the top of the lift to the cross beam on the building. Very stable now. .