Why me

[scott degroot]

Good customer brings in their 2005 Mercedes Benz CLK55 AMG today for a few issues, one of which is a battery problem. Pop the hood, hook up a battery charger on low and go about doing other things the whole time the car is in my sight. After about 1/2 hour go in the office to do some paper work and come back out to find the hood closed, upon closer inspection find small pea shaped ding sticking up in the hood where it slammed down onto the - battery cable clamp off the charger when the hood struts decided that they were tired and gave up...not making any money on this job...oh well tomorrows another day and it's Friday

 

[Gavin Allan]

ARRGGGHHH!!!



At least the battery didn't explode while charging like the one that did on us years ago when we were working on the Principal's car in Auto Shop in High School. The teacher was let go after that school year!

 

[JohnnyB]

I thought you were going to say the battery blew up. I blew one up in my Bronco years ago. What a mess, battery acid everywhere.

 

[Richard L]

Wow, that is weird??? Never heard of a gas spring failing like that. Imagine if your head was under the hood when that happened?



It might be a good idea to have a few adjustable Prop-Rods around the garage to use as a Safety backup. I have one of those cheap extendable cargo bars that fit in pickup bed to keep cargo from sliding around....I have never used it to prop open a hood, but something like that might work?



....Rich

 

[scott degroot]

I've got a few adjustable hood props just for this reason as it's not uncommon for cars coming in the shop to have bad hood lift shocks on them but usually if they are bad they don't work from the get go...at least the battery didn't explode.

 

[Brandon Poorman]

My dad had an 80's camaro that did the same thing with the hood schocks. He use to clamp a vise-grip on the inner rod of the gas shock to keep the hood from falling.

 

[Richard L]

Brandon,

Clamping vise-grips onto the rod is the quick fix solution for holding up a hood when the gas spring is already broken, but is the worst thing to do to a good gas spring as it will most likely ruin it.



The rod on the gas spring slides in and out of the shock body through a very tight seal since the pison is under gas pressures of up to 2000 PSI or more. If you put a nick in the rod, you will surely damage the seals and the gas spring is doomed to fail soon. Most piston rods are hard chrome plated (some even use black chrome) to prevent the rod from getting nicked, chipped or scratched...but that cannot stand up to the pressures applied by the vise-grip jaws.



...Rich

 

[Tom Schindler]

I have a feeling the old shocks were bad a Brandon's Dad did not want to buy new ones.





Tom

 

[Robert Caffyn]

I'd have put a call into M-B and tell them thier product failed, cause damage and its now their responsibility to fix it at no cost to you or the customer!!! But thats just me, Bob