Widow Maker Took Advantage of me. Woundering what you guys think here.

[Kschroers1]

So i was outside today changing my flat tire with the widow maker and she took her toll on me today. It was the RF tire, had parking brake on as well. Busted loose the lug bolts partly before raising. I raised the vehicle up enough to pull the wheel off by now, as im pulling it off, the widow maker gave way, crushing my right wrist and two of my fingers on my left hand. I pulled up the car enough to pull myself free, wrist is only sprained, just real bloated right now from sweeling and i can move my fingers and wrist around enough to know its not fractured or broken. I go around to look back at the car, and my whole right fender is kinked up for where the widow maker gave way and it was crushed by the wheel. So to sum it up, im A ok, but i need a new fender for sure because of the bends. What would you guys do about it? Chase Audi because of the unreliable shitty design that almost took away my right hand , pay out of pocket, or file a claim with insurance comprehensive/go after through them, go to my body shop and talk to my buddie and see what he'll say/do for me? All suggestions would be appreciated since I haft to now call in work to say i cant turn wrenches for a few days and haft to go to the body shop for the car. What can i do?!
The pain is all gone though. Just numb and can barely move my wrist around since its stiff. Fingers are fully funcational. Just have my little dents now, its not too bad though, one of my better incidents!
Heres some pics:

[bcramer]

First, go to the hospital and get yourself checked out. Being able to move your fingers is not indicative of not having a broken wrist. It's a lot easier to fix something early than to wait and have permanent damage.

Also, I would perhaps try to call AoA or your local dealership and see what they have to say about it. It is possible that you may get one of them to foot the bill instead of you.

[Kschroers1]

First, go to the hospital and get yourself checked out. Being able to move your fingers is not indicative of not having a broken wrist. It's a lot easier to fix something early than to wait and have permanent damage.

Also, I would perhaps try to call AoA or your local dealership and see what they have to say about it. It is possible that you may get one of them to foot the bill instead of you.

Wrist isn't broken. I can move it around just fine and had it checked out. Its just stiff thats all. I can move it around and tell that everything is intact. Just sore. It just so happened to smash right before where i can bend my wrist up and down and side to side and can feel the bones move in order and such.
I happen to work for the particular Audi dealership here in my area so, hopefully, they'll take care of me. We'll see.

[Tiesto]

Talk to a lawyer.

[scoobycarolan]

don't bother trying to sue. It'll just be a waste if time. Hit your insurance up and be glad you have your hand.

[wofman]

why did it "give way"? sounds like insurance claim

[Kschroers1]

car rocked back enough to cause it to slip from under itself allowing it to just about crush my hand.

[yettavr6]

I would try to go after vw/audi. They've been using this same stupid shitty useless dangerous design for way too long.

[wofman]

the last 3 posts sum up the issue in nutshell: I'mno lawyer, but issue is did you not secure car properly (not trying to be a jerk here, but why did it shift?) or is the design defective. If this is not a rare event as yetta implies.... Audi is certainly not going to want to admit to defective design, but maybe they have some sort of pattern of settlements???

[thebikedoctor33]

I would try to go after vw/audi. They've been using this same stupid shitty useless dangerous design for way too long.

youre the reason mcdonalds coffee cups have to say "caution extremely hot" and all our side view mirrors have to warn you objects may be closer than they appear.

[Audi Juice]

Check the B5 forum. Just happened over there also. There should be a recall on those dangerous things. Whats cheaper though?....Nation wide recall or a couple of settlements


Link to another broken jack...
http://www.audizine.com/forum/showthread.php?t=238721

[Kschroers1]

the last 3 posts sum up the issue in nutshell: I'mno lawyer, but issue is did you not secure car properly (not trying to be a jerk here, but why did it shift?) or is the design defective. If this is not a rare event as yetta implies.... Audi is certainly not going to want to admit to defective design, but maybe they have some sort of pattern of settlements???

Car was on an even surface road with the parking brake enabled. Their is no other pissible way to secure it on that piece of crap so called jack. The wheel was basically molded to the hub because they havent been off in so long, so i was pushing the tire side to side at 3 and 9 o'clock and it must have moved enough to allow the leg to come out from under it. Im not making anything up, and wouldn't do this to hurt myself. Im a 8-5 technician 5 days a week. Im pretty sure that if i know how to remove an engine out of a Corvette without it falling on me, than im confindent enough to know i securly had that jacked the vehicle in the position that i had the jack placed and on the surface that i had to swap the wheel on. Seems like a simple law of gravity, or lifes a bitch. It doesn't worry me that if i haft to buy a fender and get it painted. Fenders are cheap, and since i work at my Audi dealership that also has a body shop, parts are cheap. And i can install the fender myself. But i would really like to consider either AoA doing something about the parts, and not worry my hand, it'll heal and its fully functional. But i dont wanna go to insurance because i worry about my rates going up and show on my record because of this piece of shit componet that audi calls a tire jack.

[TSlice]

Well, it sounds as though you've already made up your mind as to what you're going to do. Do you want advice or do you just want to rant? For the record, I've used the supplied jack several times and had absolutely no problem with it. People, make sure your parking brake is engaged, and your car is in park (auto)/gear (manual) when using any jack.

[cgmiller63]

I would at least write a letter to AoA and tell them what happened. The more people that complain about the jack the more likely Audi will be to upgrade it or issue a recall. Audi cannot fix what they do not know about.

[artinmoTTion]

R est
I ce
C ompression
E levation

I'd also add some ibuprofen if you're not allergic to it.
Even if you didn't in fact break anything, you will likely have some sort of short term disability from your injury, so you might want to check and see if your dealer has that for you. Also, keep in mind that even if you had a normal X-ray today (can't quite tell if you got one or not), some smaller fractures won't show up until a follow up X-ray if there's a lot of swelling like that. You should probably get an ACE wrap and some motrin on that right away, maybe some ice as well. If it swells more than that and you're losing feeling, you need to go to the ER and be checked for compartment syndrome without delay.

I hope you recover well. FWIW, this year I had 2 Audi "widowmakers" fail on me *in my garage* with the parking break on / car in gear. Everyone at my dealer agrees they're sh*t, and I ended up replacing both with scissor jacks. I'd love to see some critical mass engaging Audi to pony up with a better product. I can't imagine an A8 owner out there on the side of the road with one of these things..........

[Sanjman]

the last 3 posts sum up the issue in nutshell: I'mno lawyer, but issue is did you not secure car properly (not trying to be a jerk here, but why did it shift?) or is the design defective. If this is not a rare event as yetta implies.... Audi is certainly not going to want to admit to defective design, but maybe they have some sort of pattern of settlements???

How about trying to use the widowmaker on a more likely basis such as trying replace a flat on an highway where cars and trucks are flying by you causing your car to rock or even on local roads? I don't know how... but I got through it... SOMEHOW... in the snow filled shoulder... to use this on those conditions, it really should be secure. Also, regardless of applying all brakes, each wheel still has some to move enough to cause the car to just fall doesn't it? I think a good tip would be to always loosen and tighten them pre and post raising the car. I still hate that thing just saying...

[Quattro]

I had this almost happen to me once, the car moving on me...but it was my fault as I never knew you needed to put the hand brake.

On another occasion, with the hand brake up, same thing occurred. I think the jack has a "max" height where it becomes very unstable.

-randy