I was wondering if anyone had any freak near-death experiences while doing something as mundane as changing motor oil that some of us could learn from? i.e., car falling off ramps could be an example...
May sound like a crazy topic, but you never know the sort of crazy things that happen to people. Everytime I'm under my car, I'm always laying there envisioning myself trying to drag my skull across the concrete floor while the oil pan is pushing it into the ground if the car ever landed on me for some unforseen reason.

Safety first! Everybody needs to take precautions, such as placing concrete blocks under the frame, if you've jacked up the car. You need to "engineer out the hazard" so to speak.

Does putting on the Orange can of doom fram oil filter count as near death experience?

Well...there was that time I was heading for a brick building at 120 mph. Did manage to avoid the building only to find myself heading for a telephone pole. Ending up just side swiping it.

Oh...I'm starting to get a lot of flashbacks now that you got me started...crash landing in a C-27 (all landings are good if you walk away )...stretch of black ice at night on an unfamiliar country road at highway speeds........

I would go with commerical jack stands over concrete blocks.

You have a slight case of claustrophobia. So do I. Perfectly natural when a 5000 pound object is 6 inches from the ground and 1 inch from your soft squishable body. (Don't let the juices out)

Well, I use steel ramps vs jacks. I think that is one big way of eliminating a car falling on me. I've heard of people putting veh's up on cynder blocks... ??? foolish?

Oh...changing oil...yes safety jackstands with lifts. I even put them under there when vehicle is on ramps. Being crushed by a vehicle is a boring way to go.

Well- there was the time the StoopidBaker nearly got me!

I was in the last batch of kids in Texas who got our driver's licenses at age 14- that was in late 1967. At about age 15 1/2 the most recent raggedmobile had died for good, & Dad found a driveable old ~1960 Studebaker Lark V-8 station wagon dirt cheap- about $65 as I recall! It burned lots of oil & smoked like a fogging machine, but the engine ran well the whole time I owned it.

I was underneath it in the front yard, front wheels up on some rigged up would-be ramps(of my own design!), installing some bushings on the transmission shifter linkage. It began to roll(#%&@*! overdrive transmission!), & I just barely made it out from under in time- the left front tire nearly pulled some hair from the side of my head. After I quit shaking, & Dad quit yelling(he came to the front door just in the middle of it- first near heart attack, then relief, then the yelling! ), he made sure I had a bulletproof ramp & chock setup. Then he said,"You OK? Good. Well, I guess you *still* need to fix that shifter."

So I got back underneath it & installed the Ford bushings on the Studebaker standard transmission(with overdrive). Shifted great thereafter.

I won't count the time the 3-speed transmission from my 57 Chevy fell loose & hit me in the head- heck, it hardly hurt that transmission at all!

Stuart Hughes...
LOL... yes!!! (glad you weren't hurt)
That is funny though...

I use metal ramps, and lock the car in with the parking break.

Not near death but a scary one. About 3 weeks ago I was trying to get a good view of the underside of my tranny and when I was jackin it up to put it on stands, the jack let out a "pop bang" sound and dropped the car. It was only about 8 in of lift but I thought something REAL bad had happened. I was sitting there still jacking it up when the sound happened and then the car dropped in front of me.

That will teach me for using a cheap 15.00 walmart jack. I just sat there for like 10 mins going "woah".

Many moons ago, I put a turbocharger on my Toyota Supra. Well, my lower intercooler hose had an ugly habit of popping off, so I'd have to limp the car over to a spot where I could jack it up and put the hose back on.
My e-brake wasn't working at the time so I'd just rely on the clutch and engine compression to keep the car still. It was working great for me until one day I had to park the car at the bottom of a hill to do it.

I got the scissors jack out of the trunk and jacked the car up. I was tooling around under the front of the car when I heard a groan. I looked around and didn't think anything of it because I didn't see anything.

Heard the groan again. And again. Then I noticed the pulleys turning and the fan starting to turn.
OH ****!


I ducked out of there just in time to see the car twist off the scissors jack and groan forward onto the ground.

I was changing tires on the
widow maker' jacks that came with my car a few weeks back- while i had my hand in the 12 & 6 o' clock positions to remove the tire, the jack gave out, and i moved my hand just in time. I could easily of lost a finger

Personally, I won't get anywhere near the underside of a car without at least two, maybe more, independent and secure means in place to ensure it can't come down until I'm ready.

My reason? Sadly, it's not a "near death" experience -- went all the way in fact. I represented the family of a Navy Chief Petty Officer who tried to save some money by changing the shocks on the back of his wife's car. He used a tire jack to lift the car. It didn't work. Short version: the poor guy suffocated to death with a Ford Escort sitting on his chest.

Then, in a brazen act of insurance fraud, his national brand carrier pretended they didn't have a policy in effect, and I became involved. We won, and I've never worked on a car the same way again. I'll never be able to purge from my mind the look on the man's face in his autopsy photos. He was hurting and dying, and he knew it.

Be safe out there guys. You'll only get one chance to make this mistake. Force your family's lawyer to find a harder way to make a living!