Wrongly Blamed at Work for a Mistake?

[Donald64]

Earlier in my workshop, reading some old parts catalogue* I came across some info which vindicated me for an issue when I was an apprentice Datsun mechanic.
I was doing a first service on a new model of a small Datsun van. It was fitted with a totally new 1.5 litre diesel. So I fit the oil filter given to me. Factory fit oil filter was a plain blue metal can with no printing at all on the body.
So it has a 3/4" thread on the engine. The stores gave me an M21 filter. It seemed to screw on just fine. No leaks. The customer collected the van and on the motorway, the oil light came on.
The van came back to us on a breakdown truck.
The foreman mechanic said I'd left the filter loose. The service manager gave me an enormous telling off. I nearly lost my job. I was 16 when this happened. Only left school three months earlier.
So 45 years later, I find out the true cause of the loss of oil from the parts catalogue.
The van was fine btw.
I wonder if anyone else has a story where they were blamed for someone else's error?
As an apprentice with virtually no experience, I believe I couldn't be held responsible. The filter was in a very tight space. It felt completely normal to my inexperienced hands. If I was qualified, fair enough, but up to the incident, I'd only really made tea, swept up and fit about a thousand number plates

* I am mildly autistic. I will read absolutely anything. In fact I read my entire waking hours if I am not working. I have done so quite literally continuously since I was three.

 

[Exhaustgases]

I've worked at places that some other employee damaged something and put the blame on me.
Which one will they believe the one that has been there for years or the one thats been there for a few weeks?

 

[Vil_Riker]

How did the parts catalogue help with determining the cause of the under-tightened filter?

 

[JohnnyG]

Life happens, forget it.

 

[JeffKeryk]

Blame is part of life, both working and personal life, and deserved or otherwise.
All good. Let it go.

 

[Oillover]

Blame is part of life, both working and personal life, and deserved or otherwise.
All good. Let it go.

Easier for some ppl, than others.
But i fully agree.

 

[JeffKeryk]

Easier for some ppl, than others.
But i fully agree.

I used to carry a bag of rocks around. Someone told me to let those stupid rocks go.
Someone else asked me, since real estate in CA is expensive, why give people free rent in your head?

 

[I<3oil]

How did the parts catalogue help with determining the cause of the under-tightened filter?

I'm assuming it said put filter X on as that's the correct part but whomever gave him filter Y to put on, was wrong, years ago.

 

[Donald64]

How did the parts catalogue help with determining the cause of the under-tightened filter?

It was a slightly larger metric thread, actually M20. The van's engine was 3/4" UNF.
Sorry for the typo and lack of clarity.
The filter felt tight. I double checked it too. Because the filter was in such a bad location, added to me thinking all was fine.
As I said, only a limited amount of experience. Shouldn't let a boy (me) work on stuff without checking everything.

I had completely forgotten about it btw until today.

Does anyone else do this: You are fitting some part and you break it. With me, it's always a plastic trim part.
So you just bust the expensive part, but every time you hold the two separate pieces together as they once were as though they will magically fix themselves.
When I was foreman at a Citroen garage, we used to have a box of six NGK plugs and one French Eyquem (sic) plug. The drawer of the French plug got the worst job.
However, every single time we had a particularly bad job in, Mark B always, but always chose the bad plug.

I was a bit too much of a lenient boss. I found out that some mechanics were working like demons in the morning, then getting stoned in the afternoon.
It was when I noticed how much brake cleaner we were getting through that my suspicions were raised.

They were using gallons of the stuff as air freshener to disguise the smell of their "cigarettes"...

They came unstuck one day when I asked them to look at a brand new Citroen CX Turbo. It wouldn't start. As it was the afternoon, they were suddenly clueless

This was nearly 40 years ago.

 

[Speedy3861]

Have spoken recently to two people who have moved to Pennsylvania from NYC, they said since legalization, the city literally reeks of marijuana everywhere. Question: if everyone is stoned, who is going to do the work? Anyone want to go to a surgeon who's a stoner?

 

[Donald64]

I won't start a new thread, so as not to waste folks time who find anecdotal tales a bore.
May I also share this.

Manual Transmission Work?
I used to be the World's Expert.

In the late 1980s a young mechanic has a run of bad luck with things continually going bad. He did a short service on a Citroen BX Turbo Diesel. A new model of BX.
He returned from road test and said that there was a strange noise as he went to park up.
Every time he drove forward, there was a grinding noise from the FWD gearbox.

What was supposed to be a quick job ended up with the car being off the road for about six weeks.

We stripped the gearbox time after time, but couldn't find anything wrong.
As it was a new model, any part they sent was wrong. A new layshaft looked identical, but the tooth form was machined differently. With this part, the box howled like every bearing was shot.
We took the box apart time and time again.

To cut a long story short, the Reverse Idler was ever so slightly still in mesh when First was selected. Effectively this locked the transmission until the reverse idler was thrown back by about 1/8th" which was the noise we heard.
The reverse selector was the wrong part, fitted from the factory.

So happy customer. I still worked on his cars at my own business until he sadly passed away last year.

So, a few weeks after this debacle, I attended a Citroen factory course. For some reason, the lecturer didn't seem to like me (I later found out it was because I looked very young and he thought they'd sent a kid on a course, so they didn't lose a real mechanic for a week. I was actually 25).

So the lecturer initially tried to catch me out on theory. He couldn't as I was awarded several prizes at technical college and has studied the subject of Automobile Engineering since I was nine. Really.
Then in the practical session, the lecturer quickly stripped a gearbox down to the tiniest components and said to me:

"Put That Back Together."

So I did.

You see it was identical to the transmission I'd had in bits trying to find the problem. It was about as difficult to me as making a sandwich...

By the end of the course he has thawed considerably and said how impressed he was and asked if I'd already done the course.

My Reply:

"No, I haven't been on this course before. I simply love the subject. I am Foreman Mechanic at where I work.
And by the way, I am 25. Not 16. And when you assumed that I lived with mum & dad. I'm actually a home owner. I bought my house outright when I was 24. And you recall on the first day of the course, when you were talking about all the idiots out there: Like the road sweeper or public toilet cleaners?
Well, my partner is a road sweeper. She loves it. You wouldn't believe what she earns."

 

[Donald64]

Have spoken recently to two people who have moved to Pennsylvania from NYC, they said since legalization, the city literally reeks of marijuana everywhere. Question: if everyone is stoned, who is going to do the work? Anyone want to go to a surgeon who's a stoner?

Very true. At least they did the brake jobs and any other safety related work Before getting Stoned.
It isn't legal in the UK, but the stuff is so strong, you can easily feel stoned just driving by a house where they grow it.

 

[weaponoffreedom]

So 45 years later, I find out the true cause of the loss of oil from the parts catalogue.

which was?
they gave you the wrong filter?

 

[Donald64]

Have spoken recently to two people who have moved to Pennsylvania from NYC, they said since legalization, the city literally reeks of marijuana everywhere. Question: if everyone is stoned, who is going to do the work? Anyone want to go to a surgeon who's a stoner?

Very true. At least they did the brake jobs and any other safety related work Before getting Stoned.
It isn't legal in the UK, but the stuff is so strong, you can easily feel stoned just driving by a house where they grow it

which was?
they gave you the wrong filter?

Yes it was a slightly larger metric thread. Most Datsun had a M20 thread. They gave me one of those for a diesel engine with a 3/4UNF thread. Owing to my inexperience and lack of Any Markings on the original Factory Fit filter, I screwed it on and it seemed just fine...

Nowadays, I know my right index finger is 3/4" and my middle finger is 20mm. Works every time. Thanks for your reply.

 

[Bottom_Feeder]

Not entirely what the theme of this thread is about, but...

- I learned early to just come clean when you screw up. Way better to get ahead of it and do what needs to be done to resolve the situation than try to hide it. I once got pulled into a meeting with my boss and two supervisors because I screwed up, not responding to an after-hours issue when I was scheduled to be on call. I completely forgot about it since it was so rare to have anything happen that needed immediate attention. One supervisor was trying very hard to be professional and gently chastise me, but doing so in a tone that suggested he was expecting denial, pushback and excuses. Well, I told him I had been made aware of my mistake first thing in the morning, would work to try to fix the situation and that it wouldn't happen again. It completely threw him off. He told me he was surprised I would admit it and that it 'looked good' that I had done so which I found to be a bit patronizing. My reply was along the lines of, "Well, I'm an adult, so...?" which pretty much ended the meeting.

- Years later, same employer, different boss: I got pulled into HR for a performance review written by my new, crappy, useless boss that stated I was screwing up left and right, and he had told his boss that. Problem is they were all lies to make him look good, and unfortunately for him I had proof. I very politely yet professionally called him out on it and made him look like the fool he was in front of his/our boss. I received an apology from HR and declined to continue my employment after politely demanding (and receiving) double the severance pay they were offering. They knew I could have made a big stink about it but I was satisfied and happy to just leave at that point.

 

[Chris142]

I get blamed for other people's goofs,faulty parts etc every day.

 

[Donald64]

Not entirely what the theme of this thread is about, but...

- I learned early to just come clean when you screw up. Way better to get ahead of it and do what needs to be done to resolve the situation than try to hide it. I once got pulled into a meeting with my boss and two supervisors because I screwed up, not responding to an after-hours issue when I was scheduled to be on call. I completely forgot about it since it was so rare to have anything happen that needed immediate attention. One supervisor was trying very hard to be professional and gently chastise me, but doing so in a tone that suggested he was expecting denial, pushback and excuses. Well, I told him I had been made aware of my mistake first thing in the morning, would work to try to fix the situation and that it wouldn't happen again. It completely threw him off. He told me he was surprised I would admit it and that it 'looked good' that I had done so which I found to be a bit patronizing. My reply was along the lines of, "Well, I'm an adult, so...?" which pretty much ended the meeting.

- Years later, same employer, different boss: I got pulled into HR for a performance review written by my new, crappy, useless boss that stated I was screwing up left and right, and he had told his boss that. Problem is they were all lies to make him look good, and unfortunately for him I had proof. I very politely yet professionally called him out on it and made him look like the fool he was in front of his/our boss. I received an apology from HR and declined to continue my employment after politely demanding (and receiving) double the severance pay they were offering. They knew I could have made a big stink about it but I was satisfied and happy to just leave at that point.

It's things like this that make me happy I worked for myself. I never got on well with authority. Candour can be a very powerful tool.

 

[E150GT]

No but I get lots of crap over my real mistakes

 

[Donald64]

I get blamed for other people's goofs,faulty parts etc every day.

When I was 18 I kept on blaming a parts place for the three faulty alternators they were sending. I had to come clean when I discovered that the customer had Reverse Charged his Battery. Embarrassing and expensive...

 

[MSCH]

Earlier in my workshop, reading some old parts catalogue* I came across some info which vindicated me for an issue when I was an apprentice Datsun mechanic.
I was doing a first service on a new model of a small Datsun van. It was fitted with a totally new 1.5 litre diesel. So I fit the oil filter given to me. Factory fit oil filter was a plain blue metal can with no printing at all on the body.
So it has a 3/4" thread on the engine. The stores gave me an M21 filter. It seemed to screw on just fine. No leaks. The customer collected the van and on the motorway, the oil light came on.
The van came back to us on a breakdown truck.
The foreman mechanic said I'd left the filter loose. The service manager gave me an enormous telling off. I nearly lost my job. I was 16 when this happened. Only left school three months earlier.
So 45 years later, I find out the true cause of the loss of oil from the parts catalogue.
The van was fine btw.
I wonder if anyone else has a story where they were blamed for someone else's error?
As an apprentice with virtually no experience, I believe I couldn't be held responsible. The filter was in a very tight space. It felt completely normal to my inexperienced hands. If I was qualified, fair enough, but up to the incident, I'd only really made tea, swept up and fit about a thousand number plates

* I am mildly autistic. I will read absolutely anything. In fact I read my entire waking hours if I am not working. I have done so quite literally continuously since I was three.

when I ended up being a supervisor, many times I would take the blame for errors possibly committed by my crew,
because I had been unfairly blamed for stuff over the years...

guess who had the loyalty of his crew ?