Product Safety Australia has just sent out this video warning of the dangers faced by home mechanics who fancy a bit of motoring DIY. We’re not entirely sure if an “anti-manual” is the best approach, but the message is otherwise quite sound.
According to the stats listed at the end of the video 46 people have died in Australia over the last 10 years from accidents involving car jacks. Every year around 160 people are injured while working under a car.
You can watch the video after the break and also check the Product Safety Australia website for more info.
2 replies on “Don’t be a jackass when working on your car”
This reminds me about a personal experience with car jacks gone wrong when I was much younger. I had used two scissor jacks to jack up the back of my first car to rotate the tyres and to inspect the brake pads (drum brakes). The screw holding the drum on had rusted solid. Try as I might I couldn’t get it off at which point I lost it and kicked the thing out of sheer anger and frustration. The kick was just enough force to tip the scissor jacks off their centre of gravity and the car fell over onto its axle. In the process, it buggered the jacks (the very thing I needed to rectify the situation). I don’t think I’ve experienced that level of inconsolable rage since 😀
The big lesson for me is that it’s surprisingly easy to push a car off a jack/s. I always put a wheel (or two) underneath just in case (this has subsequently saved my bacon with the very crude jacks that come with a MINI)
Yeah, I’ve had a jack fail on me too. It was just after finishing an oil change. There was no damage done thanks to having a brick under the tyre as an extra precaution. I wasn’t actually under the car at the time, but it still gave me a fright.