Be Careful Folks!

[jasper5]

There must have been an issue with the car for it to do that though. Something must have been pressurising the coolant?
I never have an issue with turning the engine off, and slowly releasing the headertank and then dropping the coolant?

Well of course there was an issue with the car...it was in the garage for repair

He didn't get chance to let the cooling system cool down, he walked round to look under the bonnet then BANG

[jasper5]

I've had several injuries working on cars for 41 years.

I have a badly damaged finger that got caught in a fan belt pulley with the engine running.

The whole point of this thread is to warn DIY mechanics that working on cars can be a dangerous business and to take care and watch what you are doing.

Health and safety can only be applied in a limited way when working on cars, but common sense is vital.

[teamster1975]

Hear hear jasper, couldn't agree more.
The daftest injury I got was when I was helping a mate fit the engine back in his Kwak Z1000 and the jaw of a spanner snapped and flew into my face leaving a nice nick in my nose!

[highlander]

Hear hear jasper, couldn't agree more.
The daftest injury I got was when I was helping a mate fit the engine back in his Kwak Z1000 and the jaw of a spanner snapped and flew into my face leaving a nice nick in my nose!

Other than grazed knuckles from changing bulbs, the only thing I've had was on the old saloon - was pulling the gear knob off to replace a torn gaiter, and managed to slice open the palm of my hand (bled like a stuck pig, and stung like a son-of-a-bitch, but no lasting damage)

[Eric]

I pulled an HT lead off when a car was running before.
That gave me quite a wallop and taught me to be careful with stuff under the bonnet because it can hurt!

[mjb]

There must have been an issue with the car for it to do that though. Something must have been pressurising the coolant?

Yeah, a hot engine... probably a duff filler cap allowing it to over-pressurise.

I made a nice coolant-related whoopsie some years ago when the tubby was emptying its coolant in under 100 miles - I got out of the car after a drive to work and went to fill it up. Unfortunately it wasn't as empty as I thought and half way through unscrewing the cap it exploded out of my hand, bounced off the underside of the bonnet and flew about 20 yards oh yeah, and there was boiling coolant shooting out of the reservoir showering off the bonnet.

Thankfully I just got a few very minor burns from the splashing, but I hate to think how violently a coolant system would go if full...

Usually I'm pretty good at assessing the safety situation when working on cars. I have a good sense of self-preservation!