I thought this was a pretty good video, makes some sense…
IMHO:
Here is another reason, as emissions and fuel mileage standards keep going up and up and up over the years, vehicles are getting more and more complicated, with HV, PHEV and EV’s becoming the standard and just plain ole daily driven ICE vehicles becoming a thing of the past, more and more mechanically inclined people are staying out of it as it is no longer just a “mechanical” field to get into, now ya got to really know computer stuff…
Funny, the whole reason I got into mechanics is because I am VERY mechanically inclined and sucked at the normal everyday school work stuff lol, I do have an associate degree in Automotive Technology and used to be the guy that would tow vehicles from other shops cause I could find and repair the issue with most vehicles, my downfall is/was I worked on about anything that came to the shop, from Corollas to 2.5 ton bucket trucks and even did a couple years working on all terrain Big forklifts (Case, Lull etc) instead of specializing in something or a brand… But I’d rather build an automatic transmission, or whatever than to mess with this can buss crap… lol
Does any NON mechanics know what this is used for, the real reason??
Well, I’ve been saying the same thing for years. I’m an advocate for hourly or salary versus flat rate. The variance in job times is something the business has to absorb, not the worker.
It’s no different than a lot of industries or products. When I started in electronics, you could be the jack of all trades. I did everything from circuit design to mechanical design to software. Now you really have to specialize in a particular discipline. It is {almost} impossible to stay abreast of the latest technology and tools in every discipline. I don’t know anyone that can do that anymore.
That same thing is now happening to the automotive repair field. There is still a place for the purely mechanical technician but there is also a place for electrical and systems level technicians…
Heh heh, when you mentioned working on fork lifts, years ago I remember the disabled fork lift in the lower level. The teeth on the fly wheel was stripped so no start. The engine had to be pulled where it sat. Now try to hire furniture movers for an hour or two.
I think we need to get away from cheap junk parts and get back to the good old days of a shop that would replave a leaking seal instead of the complete component, reline brakes ect.
Nack when I was a teenager, we had a mechanic in town who would reline brake shoes. He had his own machine and would rivet the friction material in place instead of bonding it. He had 8-10 different sizes of shoe material and the big advantage was that he could have the old material off and have the new material riveted on in about 5 minutes for four shoes. Yes, these were asbestos shoes. Yes, he also buffed on the friction material when he was done. With no mask. Anyone here remember when you had to return your old cores when you purchased remanufactured ones? You know those factories had clouds of asbestos floating around, as well as the back of the trucks that returned the cores.
BTW, the old local mechanic who worked on these asbestos shoes most of his life did not die from lung cancer. He got shot by a jealous boyfriend of a lady he was courting at the bar. He ended up in a wheel chair and mamahed on his oen gor a bit but quickly declined and ended up passing in a nursing home.
A case of premium beer would get your shoes relined. He smoked while he worked as well. This shop closed around 90 or so after he got injured. Good memories.
Yep, I long for the days of asbestosis…from what I’ve read some are very susceptible, some aren’t. Guess I wasn’t. I remember the clouds of brake dust as we used compressed air to clean off the old parts prior to installing new shoes.
The Car Care Nut makes things sound better than they are, I think he has been away from dealerships for 20 years.
40-hour work week? Every shop I worked for had a 9 or 10 hour shift and were open 6 days/week. We were not required to work every Saturday, we usually worked 2 Saturdays per month. Work 55 hours/week, get paid for 60 hours sometimes, 35 hours others, get used to it.
25 years ago, large companies began buying car dealerships in my area, Autonation, Sonic, Ascent and others. Today most local dealers are corporate owned. Since then, service department managers have become primarily bookkeepers, focused on daily net profits and hardly any time supervising the department.
Gone is the “family” relationship between management and technicians, managers give monthly lectures on “more production” and more money. Technicians’ complaints go unaddressed until they start loading their tools to leave, few want to work for these companies.
If you want to succeed in any tech field you need to be able to change. My first DIY car work was all mechanical. Points, plugs, timing and carb adjustment. I could see and touch the parts which made sense to me.
My first engineering projects were mechanical, but the test equipment was all computer driven. Worked on shock absorbers with mechanical bits but a few years later, shocks with wires coming out of them controlled by a computer. I learned to understand the drivers for the shocks as well as the algorithm that controlled them. The best electrical and systems engineer I worked with could feel most of what I did so we could have productive discussions about what to adjust.
I later learned how to DIY modern cars with tools to access the computers. Yeah stuff is complicated these days but learning to deal with things you can’t see is needed to move forward. That takes better pay to attract those techs that have to work harder to learn more complicated systems.
I don’t believe the old shoe frames can be cleaned in 5 minutes; old rivets, friction material and bonding material removed, and frames cleaned?
New brake shoes for your Chevrolet cost $18.25, who has time to putz around with rusty brake shoes? The replacement shoes are rust free with an anticorrosion coating.
Technicians need to complete a brake job in a reasonable amount of time and move on to the next vehicle.
I’m convinced he died a poor man. Is that productive work? Can you pay your mortgage with beer? A technician’s workstation is worth $150/hour, beer is not in the financial plan.
Bing had a good point: furniture movers are scarce.
I finally talked to the owner of the furniture store who is selling out and he gave me the names of his movers for outside work. I’ve known him for 30 years so not sure if it would work everywhere. Two guys for about an hour. I paid them $150 each. They really struggled moving the treadmill down but the rest was easy peasy.
If you look at asbestos fibers under a microscope, they
have hooks on them like a fish hook. So they get stuck in your lungs which is why they are dangerous. Spraying with water though prevent them from going airborne, I guess.
Nope, he just opened his shop on June 6th 2022, not 20 years ago, he left the dealer to open his own shop in 2022… So he is up to date and a certified long time Lexus/Toyota Master Tech…
Most of the dealers around here only do jiffy lube stuff on Saturdays.. We do have a huge Ford truck only dealer that runs 2 shifts and stays covered up… but for the most part, no major work on week ends…
And yes I agree, you have to take the good with the bad…
Now I retired (Sept 2021) from a company that is open 7 days a week and only closes 4 days a year, and the techs are required to work 48 hours a week (5 days), but if short staffed it is nothing for them to work 6 days a week(m-f 7-7, sat 7-6, sun 8-5), but some work many more, but you have to average 48 hours a week to get a raise, they want the techs turning at least 120% also, and all but some GS are flat rate…
I have watched a number of his videos, he didn’t seem to be completely familiar with Lexus problems of the last 10 years. Perhaps one reason is that Toyota technicians can’t perform Lexus recalls or warranty repairs.
I guess they try to offer some protection for the dealers. Many years ago the kids integra stalled in the hot sun. Based on testers comments I guessed it was the fuel relay. I stopped at the closer Honda dealer but they wouldn’t sell me an Acura part. So I had to go to Acura to get it. Of course the box said Honda on it. Guess I shouldn’t have told them it was for and Acura. Most of the parts are all labeled Honda except fir some fluids.
NEVER do this! Even if you think the brake pads are asbestos-free. Even if you are working outdoors. Always think safety, and blasting a huge cloud of respirable brake dust is extremely unsafe. Aerosol brake cleaner will remove the debris, without making it airborne.
Training courses and special tools differ between brands. Dealers must meet all requirements to be able to perform warranty repairs.
Many repairs and some recalls are the same for both brands, but they do not allow dealers to choose which repairs to accept from customers of other brands.
The electronic parts catalog supplied to dealers don’t include other brands. When we had used Toyota vehicles in the shop for recon, the parts department would call a Toyota dealer for filter and wiper part numbers, then use our own stock. We have part numbers on Mitchell-on-Demand, but the counter boys don’t read well.
We use a family-owned shop for maintenance and repairs. Dad runs the back end and I’ve never met him. His son and daughter are out front dealing with customers. I’ve had several conversations with the son about his concern for EVs and how they will reduce his business. I imagine that the EV part of hybrids will affect his business in the same way.
Yep, when I started in medical technology we pipetted body fluids by mouth into test tubes, added reagents, read the optical density on a spectrometer, calculated the results, reported the results by hand written reports.
By the time I retired, one tech could do the work of six people that took a day, by putting the blood vial on the instrument, instrument read the bar code, performed the tests. Tech review results, “releases” results, now posted to patient’s chart, all within less than an hour.
Dang! I recall those days but had conveniently forgotten about them
Nonsense. They are plenty smart and adept at managing modern electronics. My kid is better at navigating complex software interfaces than I am. Most of them are. They just need the proper attention and motivation…
