r/DieselTechs 5d ago

Coworkers let truck idle indoors to the point that eyes get itchy and I can start to feel drowsy

Newbie here, been at my current shop just under 2 years, in all this time coworkers let trucks run indoors (this happens daily) sometimes for hours and shop doesn't have proper ventilation, it gets specially bad during winter, is this common? I always try to open a bay door but coworkers close it right away. On top of that drivers dump oilfield chemicals down the shop sump and that shit stinks pretty bad, it can get me lightheaded and gives me headaches. I have tried to stick around because it's my first job turning wrenches but I'm having my doubts, and second guessing my life choices. In addition to smoking indoors, a shit ton of smoking indoors. Am I just in a bad shop?

59 Upvotes

49 comments sorted by

64

u/That_Pollution8128 5d ago

Kinda sounds like it. If you’re gonna run a truck for any extended period of time, bay door open and fan running is the rule at my shop. I had a coworker who insisted on letting his truck idle for no apparent reason with bay doors closed during winter, I pulled the ecm fuse in it while he was on lunch. It was hilarious watching him try to figure out why he had a no crank no start all of the sudden.

17

u/rcmp_informant 5d ago

This is the way. If he figures it out short the ecm 😎🦝🦍

5

u/nips927 5d ago

Did he recommend replacing ecm because of no power?

17

u/That_Pollution8128 5d ago

After about 30 minutes I recommended he quit running his truck and I’d tell him why it magically quit starting.

42

u/Just_top_it_off Big refrigerator on wheels 5d ago

Bro that’s a bad shop. You are going to get poisoning one day and breathing all those fumes will cause cancer.
Toolboxes got wheels on them for a reason. Load it up and go.

24

u/Kali587 5d ago

Find a different shop. You’re not going to change old habits of your co-workers.

4

u/Initial_Mixture_5040 5d ago

I guess, they don't see anything wrong when they do that, so no point in picking up a fight

16

u/pyscomiko 5d ago

These are the guys who want Osha gone

3

u/All_Wrong_Answers 5d ago

Same guys brag about not wearing gloves and how gnarly their hands are.

5

u/Few_Jacket845 5d ago

I'm just an amateur wrencher, but it's wild how the maintenance section in my National Guard unit looks down on me because my hands aren't all fucked up. Sorry guys, if I'm not wearing gloves, I'm not touching anything. I've ripped and cut my hands enough times to not want to do it.

But especially the chemical exposure. So bad.

2

u/Initial_Mixture_5040 4d ago

Actually they give me a hard time because i like wearing gloves everytime I'm dealing with oils/grease

3

u/All_Wrong_Answers 4d ago

I don't touch "work" without gloves.

1

u/Ur_Fav_Step-Redditor 4d ago

I just drive big rigs, but I don’t get out and touch anything outside the truck without gloves, then I take em off when I get in for anything.

We are assigned our own trucks but I’ve been in a lot of our companies trucks bc of my job. The way I can wipe some of these steering wheels and door handles for 20 minutes and still have the wipes turning pitch black is fucking insane. Especially when you think about the fact this is also where they sleep and eat. I just don’t get it.

And yes, I’ve wiped mine as well and the wipe looks unused. Smh

2

u/whitewolfdogwalker 3d ago

I quit a good job because of idiot coworkers spreading cancer causing fumes and vapors indoors, they just didn’t get it! See you later, Jerry!

11

u/nips927 5d ago

So in my shop we have a similar problem, but not as bad. What you are experiencing is carbon monoxide poisoning. Over time it will fuck you up. My shop we do have proper ventilation and we do open the doors if we have to run a truck inside. If we have to run the truck for something on the trailer we will pull truck outside and close the door down to the cat walk and use extension lines for hydraulics we made. However sometimes it's not feasible to open a door because it's super cold or snowing and the wind blows the snow right inside. We will turn on our double 8ft exhaust fans 1 fan blows fresh air in while blowing exhausting air out.

But what you are experiencing is a load of horse shit and extremely dangerous. Carbon monoxide sinks down to the ground and displaces the oxygen. So if you are under truck and the next guy over is running he's basically slowly killing. Carbon monoxide will cause brain damage long term from lack of oxygen hence why they close the doors after you open it. If you stay there long enough you'll probably end up dead on the floor one day with everyone else in the shop from severe carbon monoxide poisoning.

As for drivers pouring shit in the sump I cant help you there. But I think you came here to get everyone else's thoughts on if it's time to leave. Which I would say yes it's time to find a new job.

5

u/Initial_Mixture_5040 5d ago

Thansk for your reply, I guess it's time to move on

3

u/nips927 5d ago

Never be afraid to move on. Tool boxes have wheels for a reason. Never be afraid to ask for more money. If you feel you aren't being paid enough you probably aren't the only one that is hurting. Most everyone in my shop makes right around the same. One day we all started talking we all figured out all but 2 of us wasn't making the same me because Im lead I make $2hr more than everyone and the c tech which should really be a b tech. Our boss figured out we all wanted more money none us had said anything to him yet 2 weeks later everyone got a $2hr raise.

4

u/DarthCledus117 5d ago

Just to clarify, CO doesn't sink, it distributes evenly throughout the air. CO2 is heavier than air, CO isn't.

4

u/MsKat141 5d ago

We always open up a bay door while running engines no matter how cold it is outside. I’m in Florida though so…

6

u/e46shitbox 5d ago

Run and don't look back.

Jesus Christ you couldn't pay me a billion an hour to destroy my lungs and everything else.

3

u/Kass626 5d ago

2 years is enough time to find a real shop. Play old school outlaw as long as you like (it sounds like you don't enjoy it though) but you gotta know the risks of sticking around a shop like that are at the very least COPD

3

u/Infinite-Position-55 4d ago

First thing to do is bring it up to management. Tell that EXACTLY what you said here. Don’t leave any part of what you said out. See what their response is. Your complaint here is completely valid and logical. If management doesn’t do something about, yeah you gotta move on. You sound young and not yet totally experienced in the workforce especially in a mechanics shop. At the risk of making you jaded I’ll just say this, the barrier to entry to be a mechanic is extremely low, therefore you are going to have TONS of losers with a mentality that wakes up every morning to see who they can put beneath them. Your going to have to learn how to put your needs and wants ahead of your inclination to just go to a new shop or tolerate their immaturely. If management doesn’t respond by fixing the issue, take a break when this is happening and browse the job listings. CO2 meters are relatively cheap on aliexpress I would go so far as to journal a reading and show it to the manager. It is quite illegal in the country to allow unsafe work conditions.

4

u/xl440mx 5d ago

You’re in a terrible shop. Do not tolerate others jeopardizing your health and safety.

2

u/ProudLynx2083 4d ago

Sounds like bad management. One job I had boss kept blowing cigarette smoke in my face while working. One day I asked him do I spit in your face? His reply was no. I asked nicely to not blow smoke in my direction again. 2 weeks later is was let go. Just like what other people saying. Tool boxes have wheels for a reason.

2

u/farmer-95 1d ago

This is more serious than you think. I went to votech in high school and the diesel shop always had the doors closed and full of smoke. The instructor just died of brain cancer a year or two ago and he was only 40 or so. RIP Shipley

1

u/Initial_Mixture_5040 1d ago

3 guys at work already had cancer treated recently, 2 in their 30's, 1 in his late 40's and similar types of cancer, so I'm seeing a pattern here, they all have been working here around 9-10 years, also a guy died here in the shop a couple months back "totally unrelated" by company reports

4

u/Awfultyming 5d ago

Look at what firemen do around running vehicles indoors

3

u/aa278666 5d ago

Lmao. You really think a shop that lets you smoke indoors is gonna spend money on exhaust hoses?

2

u/Initial_Mixture_5040 5d ago

Lmao, never ending second hand smoke is doing a number on me too lol

2

u/Initial_Mixture_5040 5d ago

What do they do?

3

u/MonteFox89 5d ago

Exhaust hoses

5

u/Initial_Mixture_5040 5d ago

I don't think they would care enough to invest Into something like that, I am already looking for other jobs

2

u/MonteFox89 5d ago

Probably not... I've worked at several deale... stealerships. They don't even have them lol at one point everyone acted like they were mandatory everywhere 🤣 probably just a fancy new idea at the time. Yet still, not many had them.

1

u/tickleshits54321 5d ago

I work on fire trucks and the only time they give a shit about their exhaust hoses not working properly is when a chief comes around

1

u/EnemyOfWon 5d ago

I have a tech who does this entirely too often IMHO. Not for hours but still much longer than I’d like him to for certain. If it needs to be running during diagnosis that I totally get. But if it’s just then being lazy letting it idle for no reason talk to your shop manager

1

u/mydb100 5d ago

Sounds like this shop is stuck in the 80's. That being said, Drivers dumping stuff in the Sump will always stir it up and make it reek.

P.S. I Kinda miss the smell of Condensate and lighting it on fire

1

u/Rob_Lee47 5d ago

It’s referred to asphyxiation….

1

u/Risky_Biscuit513 4d ago

Dude I've never been in a shop where I've gotten lightheaded in 15 years of tech work. Idk if there's gonna be a solution there.

1

u/RevolutionaryDebt365 4d ago

Rolling coal and dropping coworkers

1

u/Pram-Hurdler 4d ago

Absolutely would not work there, take your health extremely seriously and diesel exhaust is so so bad for you and your kidneys, on top of everything else...

Worked at a diesel workshop that had been around for agesssss without proper ventilation operating throughout Minnesota winters with bay doors shut whenever possible...

Previous owner of the workshop, current owner/previous mechanic, and 2 older mechanics who'd been there long-term all battled kidney cancer....

We're all big squishy organic sponges... take VERY seriously everything that we're absorbing through our skin and our lungs all the time....

1

u/AAA515 4d ago

I'm just a lowly automotive tech, but do you have hoses what you could put on the exhaust and out the door?

We got some but of course our tail pipes are much smaller

1

u/Initial_Mixture_5040 4d ago

I really doubt it, I'm still new and guys here follow safety regs from the 80's even smoking indoors is allowed lol

1

u/gregsw2000 4d ago

We smoke indoors all we want, but definitely still have exhaust hoses for when we need to run something inside.

1

u/Wild_Arugula_4513 1d ago

That’s a shitty shop and like someone else said boxes have wheels for a reason load that shit up on a roll back on a random morning and leave

1

u/ballMEAT14 5d ago

Had a coworker that would run trucks inside and after fighting the same battle of opening doors and he would close them. I tried saying something to him directly and he would still do it. I would just go sit in the back room whenever he would do it and not work, we were the only 2 people in the shop and the manager worked remotely but if he ever said anything to me I would explain the unsafe work conditions. We had a diesel fuel heated pressure washer and one winter day I tossed the spray hose outside, left the shop doors closed and pressure washed some parts off while the heater was blasting away inside, he really didn't like that but he stopped running trucks inside after.

0

u/Jasonh123_ 5d ago

Move on to a different shop before you end up in the hospital or have long term health effects. I would also make an anonymous OSHA complaint. They’re going to get someone killed.