Chilly807
Elite Member
This reminds me of the days when I worked as a motorcycle mechanic. We had one customer that was... different is the best way I can say it.
I remember he referred to his Mercury Cougar car as the Cou-garrr, with a kind of growling noise at the end of it all. Not a rolling R as in Scottish accent, but in a heavy French kind of accent.
Anyway, he brought a Honda Nighthawk 550 in for an oil change, which I did and he then left. A few hours later he was back, and not so happy with me, not even a little bit. I could hear the argument from the shop, so stuck my head around the corner to watch.
He was complaining that I hadn't put enough oil in the engine, and he had to "top it off", and now it was coming out "everywhere".
The boss gave me the hairy eyeball treatment, as if to say "This is your fault, not what happened to it, but me having to listen to this a-hole on a Friday afternoon".
I just gave him my best helpless shrug, the meaning of which is universally translated into, "Don't look at me, boss, I did the job right and you get paid more than I do anyway.."
I strolled out into the showroom, and asked the customer if he had brought the bike back. He spied me and started foaming at the mouth ( it sure seemed like it at the time anyway). "Yes", he said, "she is outside da doors on da trailer behind da Cou-garrr..." I guess it's pretty obvious when you're trying to avoid smiling if not downright laughing at someone, because it only got worse at that point.
I finally got the Honda back in the service bay, up on the center stand, and checked the oil level. Yep, definitely full now... except where it had been drooling out of any opening it could find. I should mention that the Nighthawk had a "level window" at the side of the engine with two level marks. The oil SHOULD be between them.
I asked my French friend with the Cou-garrr how he determined that there wasn't enough oil in the bike. With a pitying look at me, he said, "I open da cap over here, you see?? And could I see any oil? No, I could see no oil, because dere was not enough to see... so I top her up, took almost tree quarts of oil, by gar.. she is like da lawn-mower, you fill 'er up til she is full."
"Hmm...", I said, scratching my head. "Then what do you suppose this sight glass thing over here is for ??", pointing to the level indicator.
"Ha !!" he said, "Dat is so you can see when da oil she is getting dirty !!" "Dem Japanese, dey tink of every ting.."
It only took me about an hour to convince him that the service manual we had wasn't wrong and he was right, which I got to do since the boss did, after all, get paid more than me and it was therefore my job.
I only wish the accent were "writable", it was like talking to Peter Sellers as Inspector Clouseau..
Sean
I remember he referred to his Mercury Cougar car as the Cou-garrr, with a kind of growling noise at the end of it all. Not a rolling R as in Scottish accent, but in a heavy French kind of accent.
Anyway, he brought a Honda Nighthawk 550 in for an oil change, which I did and he then left. A few hours later he was back, and not so happy with me, not even a little bit. I could hear the argument from the shop, so stuck my head around the corner to watch.
He was complaining that I hadn't put enough oil in the engine, and he had to "top it off", and now it was coming out "everywhere".
The boss gave me the hairy eyeball treatment, as if to say "This is your fault, not what happened to it, but me having to listen to this a-hole on a Friday afternoon".
I just gave him my best helpless shrug, the meaning of which is universally translated into, "Don't look at me, boss, I did the job right and you get paid more than I do anyway.."
I strolled out into the showroom, and asked the customer if he had brought the bike back. He spied me and started foaming at the mouth ( it sure seemed like it at the time anyway). "Yes", he said, "she is outside da doors on da trailer behind da Cou-garrr..." I guess it's pretty obvious when you're trying to avoid smiling if not downright laughing at someone, because it only got worse at that point.
I finally got the Honda back in the service bay, up on the center stand, and checked the oil level. Yep, definitely full now... except where it had been drooling out of any opening it could find. I should mention that the Nighthawk had a "level window" at the side of the engine with two level marks. The oil SHOULD be between them.
I asked my French friend with the Cou-garrr how he determined that there wasn't enough oil in the bike. With a pitying look at me, he said, "I open da cap over here, you see?? And could I see any oil? No, I could see no oil, because dere was not enough to see... so I top her up, took almost tree quarts of oil, by gar.. she is like da lawn-mower, you fill 'er up til she is full."
"Hmm...", I said, scratching my head. "Then what do you suppose this sight glass thing over here is for ??", pointing to the level indicator.
"Ha !!" he said, "Dat is so you can see when da oil she is getting dirty !!" "Dem Japanese, dey tink of every ting.."
It only took me about an hour to convince him that the service manual we had wasn't wrong and he was right, which I got to do since the boss did, after all, get paid more than me and it was therefore my job.
I only wish the accent were "writable", it was like talking to Peter Sellers as Inspector Clouseau..
Sean
