I finally told a building manager they were wrong about their elevator noise... and it backfired hard

Last Tuesday I get a call about a noisy elevator in a high rise downtown. Manager swears it's the motor mount, been complaining for months. I show up, listen for 5 minutes, and tell him it's actually a worn guide shoe on car #2. He got real defensive, said I didn't know what I was talking about. I spent 2 hours pulling the car and showing him the uneven wear on the shoe. He just walked away mid-conversation. Has anyone else dealt with a building manager who thinks they know more than the mechanic on site?

2 comments

2 Comments

diana_bell7420d ago

Wait, are you sure it was a guide shoe? Usually those make more of a scraping sound, not the kind of thumping that gets managers calling about motor mounts. Ive had a few where the guide shoe wear was obvious but it was actually a loose rail bracket causing the noise to travel wrong. Did you check the rail alignment while you had the car pulled? Building managers can be impossible once they lock onto their pet theory.

evand6520d ago

Did you actually check the guide shoe clearance after you pulled it, or just look for visible wear like chunks missing? Ive been burned before where they looked fine but the clearance was way off and causing a weird thump that fooled everyone as a motor mount issue. A cheap feeler gauge can save you a re-do on a job like that, trust me.