# Do auto mechanics ever blow themselves up? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [October 27, 2016, 11:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-auto-mechanics-ever-blow-themselves-up/769840 "2016-10-27T11:32:29Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![cwniles](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/c5a1d2/32.png) [@cwniles](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cwniles)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2016, 12:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-auto-mechanics-ever-blow-themselves-up/769840/21 "2016-10-31T12:30:47Z")
> [@Nars\_Glinley](#): > > Depending on your definition of explosion, mechanics have been killed due to tires being over-inflated without the use of safety cages. Here’s a non-lethal but terrifying [example.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ds17MDRB2DE) I was working on an old Coats 4050A tire machine trying to bust some tires off of some rims and the “demounter” (basically a large, heavy metal prybar sort of thing) suddenly leapt free which, and I am not 100% clear on the physics here, seemed to suddenly transfer all of the force directly to my arm which then bent in a very unnatural manner. The customer, who had been idling nearby observing, immediately remarked “man, you just broke your arm!”. Not an explosion per se but there was a Kaboom!, injuries resulting. ---
**Author:** ![Amateur\_Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/59ef9b/32.png) [@Amateur\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amateur_Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2016, 12:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-auto-mechanics-ever-blow-themselves-up/769840/22 "2016-10-31T12:34:43Z")
> [@Nars\_Glinley](#): > > I have 2 friends that routinely weld on live gas pipelines like [this.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cxlftZvKW9U) They’ve both said that you just keep welding until the flames go out. > > No thanks. Better than working on million volt powerlines barehanded, from an insulated lift. Yikes. ---
**Author:** ![Emtar\_KronJonDerSohn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/58956e/32.png) [@Emtar\_KronJonDerSohn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Emtar_KronJonDerSohn)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2016, 2:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-auto-mechanics-ever-blow-themselves-up/769840/23 "2016-10-31T14:11:43Z")
> [@Ludovic](#): > > …it’s just ice cream. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![MacLir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9e8a1a/32.png) [@MacLir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MacLir)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2016, 4:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-auto-mechanics-ever-blow-themselves-up/769840/24 "2016-10-31T16:58:15Z")
> [@Amateur\_Barbarian](#): > > I worked with a guy who claimed his (North Carolina rural white guy) father would routinely weld gas and diesel tanks as long as they were full. The kids always found reason to be somewhere else. LIke South Carolina. The headspace of a gasoline tank is too rich to explode, and that of a diesel tank is too lean. That’s why you NEVER MIX FUEL TYPES! I torch soldered an emergency repair on a gasoline car tank - empty, but not flushed, and didn’t even see a puff from it. (and yes, I am originally from rural North Carolina. 😃 ) ---
**Author:** ![Nars\_Glinley](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/nars_glinley/32/8177_2.png) [@Nars\_Glinley](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nars_Glinley)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2016, 8:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-auto-mechanics-ever-blow-themselves-up/769840/25 "2016-10-31T20:24:33Z")
> [@Amateur\_Barbarian](#): > > Better than working on million volt powerlines barehanded, from an insulated lift. Yikes. Actually, I work for an electric company and I think we pay our lineman an extra dollar an hour for bare hand work. Again, no thanks. ---
**Author:** ![Sicks\_Ate](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/258eb7/32.png) [@Sicks\_Ate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sicks_Ate)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2016, 8:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-auto-mechanics-ever-blow-themselves-up/769840/26 "2016-10-31T20:45:38Z")
> [@Emtar\_KronJonDerSohn](#): > > 😉 I’m with ya. ---
**Author:** ![jbarro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/9de0a6/32.png) [@jbarro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jbarro)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2016, 2:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-auto-mechanics-ever-blow-themselves-up/769840/27 "2016-11-01T02:35:50Z")
This happened near me a couple of years ago and the mechanic died. [Elie Hoyeck, charged under 'Westray Bill', due in court Jan. 11 | CBC News](http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/nova-scotia/elie-hoyeck-charged-under-westray-bill-due-in-court-jan-11-1.3258646) ---
**Author:** ![HoneyBadgerDC](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/honeybadgerdc/32/1033_2.png) [@HoneyBadgerDC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HoneyBadgerDC)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2016, 3:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-auto-mechanics-ever-blow-themselves-up/769840/28 "2016-11-01T03:13:10Z")
Lifetime mechanic here, the closest I have ever been to getting killed at work was a few months before I retired. I don’t remember if it was nitrogen or CO2. They have a pressure relief valve that blows off when they build too much pressure. Very common in hot weather. All the trucks I had worked on in the past had the blow off valve up high. I was under the truck adjust the breaks and it blew off violently, just as I was rolling out from the truck, I would say it missed me by two feet but the gas cloud still almost took me out, I was on the verge of passing out when I got out of it. My face would have turned to an instant ice cycle had I moved one second later. ---
**Author:** ![Tom\_Tildrum](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e95f7d/32.png) [@Tom\_Tildrum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tom_Tildrum)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2016, 3:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-auto-mechanics-ever-blow-themselves-up/769840/29 "2016-11-01T03:19:35Z")
> [@Nars\_Glinley](#): > > Actually, I work for an electric company and I think we pay our lineman an extra dollar an hour for bare hand work. I once worked for a movie company that did something similar. Anyway, I like to think that electricity is like snake venom, and perhaps you’ll build up a tolerance after a while. ---
**Author:** ![Princhester](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/3e96dc/32.png) [@Princhester](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Princhester)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2016, 4:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-auto-mechanics-ever-blow-themselves-up/769840/30 "2016-11-01T04:22:00Z")
> [@Francis\_Vaughan](#): > > Working on an actual fuel tank is potentially dangerous. Then again a friend of mine worked at a service station when he was a kid, and remembers how one mechanic was very careful when a fuel tank needed repair. He removed the tank, drained it, rinsed it twice with water, and then took to it with a welder. It exploded violently. :eek: Didn’t kill him, but it wasn’t good. Other old hands claimed the safest thing to do was to leave the tank half full of fuel. :dubious: His mistake was to drain it and rinse it; this would have left just enough fuel in the tank to provide enough vapour to form a nice explosive mixture. My grandfather ran a mechanical engineering workshop in a rural area and he refused to do hotwork on fuel tanks which cost him business. Most workshops would fill tank with water, to overflowing, before welding on them. This is very safe _unless_ - as has happened more than once - there is a little bit of fuel vapour trapped in a folded seam of the tank. It is of course the seams which tend to require re-welding. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-auto-mechanics-ever-blow-themselves-up/769840.md?page=1)