Sam's Club service disaster

FWIW, these are some pics I took on Monday after the accident. Its not a lift that locks into place. I circled the spots were it left marks on the concrete. You notice the service tech in pictures... He was baffled why I was taking pictures.

I noticed it was sitting on some lateral links of the suspension. Thats all I could tell from the back of the car.

But the OP clearly stated that it was a lift, not a floor jack that was used. The OP also clearly stated that the doors of his vehicle were dented/damaged, this was no doubt caused by the hoist arms that had swung clear from the under chassis area. I've seen this exact mishap occur at a dealership I worked at 20 years ago, the mechanic involved was coked up and had rushed setting the lift arms, when he lowered the car, the hoist chattered and because the lift arms weren't positioned all the way in, they swung out, the car fell about three feet, it was bent like a banana. So, while it is possible to drop a car from a hoist, it is not possible for a hoist to lower fast enough to cause the incident as described, the reason is that; right -at- the hydraulic cylinder the fluid path is restricted such that the hydraulic fluid can not escape fast enough to lower the car quickly, you could chop the hose or cut the pipe in two and the car would still lower at the restricted speed. This is all part of the safety standards that all lifts must meet before they can be sold.

larrymoencurly relates his experience from when he was a kid, obviously long enough ago that it predates the implementation of the safety standards I've described.

For the OP: You really, really don't want that Mazda any more, it's going to have hidden damage that Mr. Mazda himself won't be able to detect and you -will- at some point be forced to sign off on the damage claim, leaving you stuck for the duration. Shop for a comparable car, settle for the amount that it will take to put your butt in the seat of the shopped for car. Do NOT accept a wholesale settlement unless you have wholesale buying privileges at an auto auction or such.

Lets hope they dont offer you a lifetime supply of milk, 55 gallons of Nyquil or a cord of tampons as settlement.:)

Seriously, dont forget dealer's also are more "factory spec" oriented. If you go there for repairs, they'll bring it to factory spec, or they should.

Those pictures are fine except to really figure the impact force you'd need to take that lift, put some controlled test weight on it, drop it, measure the indentation into the concretes hardness and so forth, then figure what partso of the frame or whatever have actually taken the brunt of this force and if the whole car hit all at once or unevenly bla bla. Its a lot to go through but I don't even think someone getting killed in this incident would warrant that sort of analysis and again, thank goodness someones kid was running under there at the time.

If the oil pan is caved in, surely it will need to be changed, but if you have that and some door damage, why not have that fixed, get a clean bill of health from the dealer, and move on? Like I've had in accident repairs, every little thing that now will go on , you'll blame on this incident, every rattle, every creak.

Can we ask what state this place was in? I want to avoid the place.

And an overabundance of Mr. Lautrec is the last thing anyone needs.

I doubt the lift can lower (normally) fast enough to cause shock damage to anything.. I'd be looking for impact damage. Have the alignment checked, scan the computer for codes (an indie shop can do this also) and look underneath for impact damage.

As someone else noted, everything that happens to this car from this point onward might cause you to suspect it was from the lift drop.. unless you have an emotional attachment to the car you might consider looking for something else.

Jim

Still playing the part of a fool I see. You think I'm mistaken about something and you get all exited like you've won the damn lottery or something.... lol Do you think for one second that a hoist would be designed so a vehicle could drop like a rock when the release lever is pulled? Remember, your floor jack is designed to jack a car up far enough to get a jack stand under it. A hoist is designed to support a car while someone works under it. You can't compare one to the other. Bob

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I think you are a fool. I don't even know why I haven't killfiled you yet.

Just pointing out the obvious, to someone who walks right by it everyday.

From the looks of the hoist photographed by OP, it is hard to tell what there is or isn't in the way of safety devices. OP should take more photos of the lift, as well as perceived vehicle damage.

I am surprised OP hasn't a photo album by now of both the car and the lift. It isn't like it costs anything to take photos these days.

Lg

And on top of that, no lift that I know of will drop rapidly, except a hydraulic lift if a hose or pipe ruptures. Electric ones won't because they're normally jackscrew types where the motors have to spin under power to LOWER the car as well as raise it.

I'm not saying it didn't happen- making a lift idiot-proof only breeds better idiots. But it does sound fishy.

Well I can =see= the purported cement damage from where OP claims his rotors hit the ground. That's about it. Which is strange indeed. Were it my vehicle, I would have taken a lot of photos for insurance claim purposes. Of course, OP didn't have a camera with him when the incident allegedly took place, but returned to the scene some time thereafter.

Notwithstanding, I would still have photos of the vehicle itself, at least the underside, where alleged damage took place. For example, the impacted oil sump pan, the rotors with the wheels off, and such. Maybe snooping under the car with a trouble light looking for frame damage, or other things like an impact spot on a transmission.

Right now we have nothing to go on in the way of *physical evidence.* Maybe the claims adjustor has this material, but nobody on the n/g here has seen any evidence of the extend of alleged damage to the vehicle. So it is almost impossible to make informed comment about it.

Lg

The hydraulic ones won't drop rapidly if a hose breaks either. Like aarcuda said, they have an oriface at the hydraulic cylinder to restrict how fast they can come down.

No one said his car didn't hit the ground, just that it probably slid off the hoist and not because the hoist dropped like a rock when they decided to lower it.

Making uninformed comments is what you do best Larry. Bob

And I especially note your *fights* on the net with anyone and everyone, especially one in alt.rec.guns or somesuch. With Charlie Cloud.

Go to Google Copy and paste: "Bob"

"joutlaw" wrote

Lawrence and Bob have gone into their usual name-calling argument mode, so no further help can be expected from them.

It's a "low-rise" hydraulic hoist, with a remote motor/pump, controlled by a single hose to the cylinder, likely the LR-60 model here:

Just wondering... is that bay now roped off because it's not being used, because it was the site of an accident (yours), or because the hoist has been found to be defective?

The OP mentioned that they got the car back on the lift and raised it back up... kinda eliminates a lift failure.

I can't speak for the picture, but it's common for bays to be chained off to keep customers out of the bay area. At least, it's common for the places I've worked at/owned.

Jim

Very good find. I don't think the lift is defective though. I think the workers were neglected the safety locks or were not properly trained. B/C when they "accidently" hit the release the car fell to the ground.

I don't know how similar this unit is to floor jack, but if you release all the pressure on a floor jack it will fall quickly. Even quicker with more weight on the jack.

That's what nobody knows, and that's a problem. But not THE problem. THE problem is your car hit the ground with no wheels on it. THAT's the problem. How fast did it hit? Put a junker on there, start the videocamera, and hit the release lever.

IOW, how much time/money do you want to "invest" in this crime mystery to get satisfaction. You know Sam's Club is =not= going to cooperate unless under authority of Law, so you can add legal fees to this, to get a Court Order for the *test.*

Lg

I knew sam's/walmart sh_ts on employees and suppliers, I guess they now sh_t on customers too.

An attorney is the ONLY way to get their attention.

It's funny you should mention Charlie. He likes to talk smart about stuff he knows nothing about. Kind of like you Larry