If an air over hydraulic car lift gets low on oil (which is not uncommon on older lifts), the lift will start going up normally and then spurt up in the air very quickly. I used to have bad dreams that the lift shot about 90 feet up into the air and the car was teetering around up there about ready to fall. All the lifts had a safety bar that ran next to the piston and had a little safety foot that flopped out and had to be kicked back in to lower the lift. Most of them were so old they were inop. One guy in the BMW shop went home with an oil drain bucket under the back of the car. The lift failed overnight (with no safety stop) and when he came back in the morning, the nose of the car was on the ground and the tail was still 5 feet in the air resting on the oil drain. Eventually all the lifts were replaced with electric / hydraulic which were far more dependable.
Random: new humongous home going up in the hood…probably 2 retired people!
