That shop in Bakersfield that burned me on a head gasket job

Back in March I took on a head gasket job on a 2006 Freightliner at a shop near Bakersfield. Owner kept rushing me saying his driver needed the truck by Friday. I cut corners on the torque sequence, just did it fast. Truck came back 3 days later with coolant mixing in the oil. Cost me 14 hours of labor to redo it plus I had to buy another gasket set out of pocket. Now I make every customer sign off on a timeline, no more rushing. Any of you guys had to learn a hard lesson about rushing a job?

2 comments

2 Comments

cora8637d ago

Had a similar thing happen years back but with a timing chain job on a Ford van. Customer kept showing up in the bay asking when itd be done and I caved to the pressure. Skipped the whole "crank bolt torque to spec" step because the tool was a pain. Two weeks later that chain jumped and bent all the valves. Learned the hard way that saving 20 minutes costs you 20 hours. Now I just tell customers the truck is done when the torque wrench clicks, not when they want it. You ever have a job where the customer hovering made you mess something up?

mary_foster927d ago

Oh man, that van story really hits different. @cora863 I had this one time with a neighbor's riding mower where I was just trying to get it done before he came back from his fishing trip. I figured a quick bypass on the safety switch would be fine since it was just a mower, right? Well, three days later he calls me saying it won't start at all and he's standing in the garage looking at a melted wire harness. Ended up being way more work than if I'd just done it right the first time. I mean, I still get nervous when someone stands too close while I'm working, but I've learned to just put my headphones in and point at the sign that says "no customers past this point.