Another attack on technicians, with no regard for the actual outcome.

here is the book on Amazon

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00KEW9ENS

I haven't bought this book, nor will I. There is no reason to believe that anything new will be discussed in it. The one thing that I can agree with the author about is that good techs(mechanics) want the bad ones out because they ruin things for everyone. Where this book is going to fail, just like every other attempt to educate the consumer is that everyone lays the blame for the overselling on the technicians without really getting involved in examining why it happens. If that is never done the only thing that will continue to change is the number of qualified shops and techs who can repair vehicle problems when they occur.

Just imagine where the consumer will be without truly qualified technicians, who don't oversell and strive to do exactly what the customer needs each and every time. The dealerships and chain stores don't favor these people because their productivity is typically lower per hour than the ones who are selling services, while they demand a better pay rate and benefits. There are many reasons for that, not the least of which is the way the flat rate pay is managed especially at the dealerships. Imagine doing a major repair such as a head-gasket on an engine, or some internal transmission work. If it is customer pay "the book" allows for one labor rate, while warranty pays maybe half for the exact same job. They call it flat rate, but there is nothing flat about it and the technicians routinely get taken advantage of. Meanwhile they are being trained to sell services in order to make up the time that gets lost when they do a warranty repair. If they don't sell those services which they must do in order to be profitable by the end of the week, the technician can end up losing his/her job, even if they have perfect quality in their workmanship with the more difficult repairs.

Consumers will read that and quickly write it off as not their problem but that is because they aren't looking at the long term effects of the management practices that have been in place for the last twenty to thirty years. Today inside the trade we see a serious shortage of qualified technicians. The ones that are carrying the real high tech load are typically in their late 40's and up and life is going to do what life does and they will all too soon be gone from the trade.

What this author likely doesn't understand is that is exactly what the dealerships and the manufacturers want, because when you can't get your vehicle repaired efficiently and correctly that will drive sales of new cars. Some may think "so what", or they may think that it doesn't make sense for them to not have qualified techs to service their cars and generate resales. The facts are if someone is dissatisfied with their present vehicle, they worst they will do is switch to a different manufacturer for their next purchase. Meanwhile someone else will be doing the same thing in the other direction. That's a win/win for the manufacturers and the dealers at the consumers and the auto technicians expense.

There once was a time when there was a shop on every street corner. You don't see that anymore do you? Between the cars getting better and requiring less repairs and now longer service intervals, shops have been closing with no-one in line to replace them. There was once a time when a tech could have a career plan that ultimately lead to owning a business. That has all but been destroyed due in part to the cost of the tools and equipment required to open a shop, let alone the rent for (or cost of)  a properly zoned location. On top of that the wages produced by today's pay-scales for technicians puts that goal well out of reach. You might be paying $100/hr for their services, but most techs make under $20/hr. To add to the problems is the need to specialize inside the trade No-one can do it all anymore, and especially the idea that one can work on all makes and models. It is simply too expensive to tool up and train for even a handful of manufacturers and any business that cannot generate a return on its investment is doomed to fail. That makes the career of being an auto technician little more than a dead end job, that gets attacked at every turn, which BTW is all this author is really accomplishing with this book, and of course the feedback to it.

No one ever considers the natural reaction to the action of attacking the trade like this. Here is what the ultimate outcome from this book will be.

It is correct that overselling is wrong, no argument about that at all the author is right on the money with that perspective. But what constitutes over selling VS making correct inspections and advising the consumer about their car? IMO the latter is always going to be subjective opinions, nothing more, nothing less. When a tech, especially a younger one takes to heart the suggestion that selling is wrong they naturally stop selling completely and the result is in fact another wrong when they fail to recommend proper service that is truly needed on someones car and that ends up causing an otherwise preventable mechanical failure. The consumer involved may then go back to the shop laying appropriate blame on them and the result is another nail in that techs coffin and they move ever closer to doing something else with their lives. Think about it, how many times do you see someone say they that are an ex-mechanic? They demonstrate knowledge and passion, yet they weren't able to make a career as a technician. Isn't it time that someone starts asking why?

Lastly, doesn't it seem strange that the manufacturers and the dealerships never rebut these books and articles, in part or in whole? It's not because they agree or disagree with any of the points that get made. The facts are these things all lead right to where they want to be anyway, and that is a shorter turn over of the vehicle fleet. They don't want cars out there that last several hundred thousand miles and fifteen to twenty years (or more). They darn sure don't want people who can make them last that long either, because it is expensive for them to train and provide the equipment and tooling to do so, and they make more money selling the cars anyway. It takes decades to learn to be the technician that consumers need us to have, and as one former shop owner puts it we have become a trade that eats its own young. We haven't been attracting the people that we truly need to work on the high tech computerized systems that are on today's cars because as a career we have nothing to offer them compared to what they can earn in other fields. On top of that it takes a truly capable person some twenty years to master the trade and even if they started coming into it tomorrow, there is no reason for them to stay in it long enough to get good at it.

Instead of praising this author, thank her for helping to contribute to you being less likely to finding a great technician that can solve the difficult problems that can occur on today's cars. That is really the only thing that comes from any of these efforts because they never look at the actual cause for the problem and try and effect any changes where the blame really lies.

Myth, "You Can Clean a Catalyst".

The hard part is getting some "experts" to understand that it is their lack of understanding that allows them to believe in it.  From an e-mail related to a forum.


Hi Joe.



" I think the point being made in the forums about cat cleaning was only a desperate maneuver to pass
a smog test, not to restore a cat's efficiency."



That unfortunately isn't how it is presented either in the forum, nor especially via the advertising that the company that is promoting cataclean is putting out there.



When you wrote this



"It's entirely possible. Actually lacquer thinner works quite well, so maybe that's all that product is. I've also heard of people removing the CAT and dumping it overnight in a bucket of laundry detergent."



How should a reader interpret your post? It sure looks like you thought that cleaning catalysts was possible.



RB had written" ."Fast forward to late December where at around 158,500 miles the truck started throwing an intermittent SES light. I ran it over to the dealer and my Service Advisor told me that the fault was the dreaded “catalyst efficiency” DTC. I had resigned myself to spending a few hours under the truck trying to install spark plug anti-foulers(and cursing the stuck O2 sensors) when I ran across an ad for Cataclean: http://www.cataclean.com/ It was apparently developed in England and is now sold over here by Mr. Gasket and Prestolite"



Instead of pointing out that is tampering and not only has an impact on the systems ability to test the catalysts correctly, it totally ignores the fact that testing of the catalysts is only a small part of the responsibility of the downstream sensors. Your post makes it appear that you supported his statements. If you want XXXXX to truly educate the consumers, then you shouldn't be standing by and supporting the myths like RB posted. Did " the cleaner", make a difference? The answer is, if it did it didn't occur inside the catalyst and if you knew that you shouldn't have let his comments stand unchallenged.  



Look up this code. DTC P2096.  Use any platform that supports it, and then explain what would happen if someone tampers with the location and therefore the exhaust sampling of the downstream O2 sensors. 



You wrote" You know, some folks don't have $1700 to spend, so if some snake oil gets
them passed the Smog Monster, even for a few weeks, all well and good."



Sure I know some folks don't have that kind of money laying around, but they also don't have the money for another car payment which is where they will end up if manufacturers and dealers have their way. Proper education, service and care would decrease the occurrences of the major failures be they mechanical or emissions related. Your Mini wouldn't have lost it's catalyst to a major failure had you been more attentive to a misfire that occurred in the past. You are looking at your catalyst failure as its own single event, when in fact that kind of a failure is caused by something else and should be preventable.

Just a little update

It's been really busy the last few weeks, so I haven't had much time to write. I have more to put up from the last few posts to complete the stories, but in the mean time here are a few pictures from work we did in the shop this week.

This is from a 2011 Subaru Outback that the customer was reporting difficulty shifting into first gear. A short trip around the block revealed noise from the throw out bearing. If it wasn't for this bearing failing, the clutch itself would likely have lasted a few more years. I'll add more to this this story during the coming week.

Here are a few photos from some of the repairs we did this week.

This is the connector that was found to be dropping the power and ground connections for the canister vent valve on a 2002 Ford Explorer. Can you see the other problem that we addressed at the same time?

 

These captures are from a 2004 Chrysler PT Cruiser with a 2.4l turbo.

Close examination alongside a known good waveform shows that the cams are out of time.

 

Here is the pressure transducer with the crank sensor and the cam sensor.

A Weatherbug Spring Auto Tip.

We got to the shop this morning and found this on weatherbug.

http://weather.weatherbug.com/weather-news/weather-reports.html?zcode=z6286&story=8134

Well they asked for a reply, so why not?
................................................................
Who wrote that article? Does he/she actually have any formal training to work on cars?

O2 sensors:

     "Faulty sensors are the most common reason for a failed emissions test. Precise oxygen sensors can increase your mileage efficiency by an average of 10-15 percent. Replacing a faulty oxygen sensor is easy and costs between 60-80 dollars on average, which is inexpensive compared to the amount of gas money it can save. The most obvious way to know when your oxygen sensor needs to be replaced is if the "check engine" light appears, but they should ideally be replaced every 50,000 miles." 


    Nobody should just on a whim replace an O2 sensor,  or as they are more correctly named on most cars today an air/fuel ratio sensor. The cost to replace some of those components isn't the fifty or sixty dollars as suggested by the article but quite often can approach three hundred dollars per sensor. Besides, the computers on today's cars constantly test the performance of these sensors so they should be left alone until either the PCM reports them as failing or if a emissions control specialist technician proves that they need to be attended to. With today's cars some of the O2 and air fuel sensors have the potential to be lifetime components. That essentially means if your author was a tech and doing that work for someone else, the advice given would be a rip-off of that vehicle owner.

Spark Plugs:

"Spark plugs are good indicators of engine condition. Spark plugs should be checked every 30,000 miles, even if your car is low-maintenance."

    In many cars scheduled maintenance for the spark plugs occurs at the 100,000 mile range, not 30,000. Plus many engine designs today have the spark plugs buried under the upper intake manifold and you need an experienced hand to deal with some of these because of the complexity at even that level.

Engine Oil:

"Oil filters: Oil filters are easy to replace and can help prevent unnecessary wear and tear of the engine. Oil filters should be replaced with engine oil every 3,000 miles."

   Extended oil drain intervals are the norm today and the old 3 month or 3000 mile has been inaccurate for at least a decade. We have O.E. recommendations that run from the 5000 mile range to as much as 15000 miles. In fact there are some manufacturers maintenance reminder systems that could allow a car to go even further mathematically, but in practice routinely average 11,000. The real advice that should have been given would have the writer explaining to the readers how to choose the correct oil for their car so that it meets all of the O.E. requirements. Today vehicle owners cannot just grab any oil that shows their recommended viscosity on the front label.

Filters:

    "Air filters: Cars run on both gas and oxygen. If the flow of air is blocked by a clogged air filter, a car`s performance and fuel efficiency will go down. Air filters should be checked and replaced every 12,000 miles."

     A dirty air filter does not impact fuel mileage. Now power, maybe but mileage no. We have cars on the road today that do not have a scheduled air filter replacement. The ones that do it is often in the 30,000 and as much as 50,000 mile intervals.

    "Transmission filters: A blocked transmission filter can produce transmission slippage, engagement problems and engine hesitation. This filter should be changed every 12-15,000 miles to extend the life of your automatic transmission."

    Transmission filters on many designs are not serviceable without major disassembly and are considered a lifetime component, only to be addressed if the transmission needs a repair.


#weatherbug, #O2 Sensor, #transmission, #service, #air filter, #engine oil, #gas

The Impala, part #2

     The main question asked at this point is how to proceed. It quite often happens that the information that is passed onto the technician about the symptoms that a car is displaying turns out to not match what was initially described to him/her. The Airbag (SRS) and ABS lights flashing on, instead of the turn indicators suggests a completely different issue, and the scan tool is now the next thing to bring into play.


     So connecting the TechII scan tool, and going straight for the Airbag system there was no communication found with that module. Other systems were communicating on the data bus, and they of course had active codes for the airbag module communication failure and historical codes for multiple modules losing communication. When a module has fallen off of the data bus the thing to do is confirm power and grounds. In this case with the turn signals are also being affected, looking for something common to both systems makes for a logical plan and what they share is the same power connection from the ignition switch. The fuse for the turn signals is in the fuse block on the drivers end of the dash, and measuring power on that fuse showed 7v. Meanwhile any fuse that wasn't getting power from the pink wire pin "B" of connector #2  was a showing battery voltage of 12.2v. That's a big voltage drop to that circuit.


     The customer was then brought to the car and shown what we had found, she didn't have a turn signal issue, she had an ignition switch problem that was even shutting down her alternator at times and it was a good thing we squeezed this in. It was kind of fun to show her the turn signals not working, which is the symptom that she noted, then show her the airbag module not having communication with the scan tool, and then by jumping power to the turn fuse, all of the systems that were affected came back to life. When the jumper was removed, they all shut right back down, which by the way is exactly what the car was going to do to her real soon, stall out and leave her stranded somewhere. That pin of the ignition switch also powers up the fuel injection system, and all she had to do was drop just a little more power and that would have shut the engine down too. At this point it was time to get a charger on the battery, and get a new switch ordered and installed and we had her back on the road in a couple hours.


#Tech II , # Airbag, #ignition, #ignition switch, #SRS, #battery, #module, #fuse, #jumper wire, #data bus, #turn signal

From the Saturday Morning Mechanic Show

     I do a live radio show and one of the callers had an interesting question. Her 2002 Chevrolet Impala would randomly make a buzzing sound and the turn signals would not work correctly when she tried to use them. She also mentioned that the lights on the dash would flash to which I asked her if she was referring to the turn indicators and she said yes. I then asked her if the four way (hazzard) flashers worked normally when she pushed that button and she said yes they did.

    This is a common description of the flasher unit failing inside the four way flasher button, but like any failure it needs to be confirmed before one simply replaces a part. The caller had already had several people look at the car for this issue but it wasn't acting up when they did so they did the right thing which was to ask her to return when it did act up. Just because failures of that switch are common, that does not mean that it is bad this time. In the past if a shop would replace that part based on nothing except experience, and doing that failed to fix the car, they would end up with an unhappy customer and be refunding the money and it didn't matter how it was explained, they were danged if they did try, and danged if they didn't.

    She called us at our shop a few hours later that day and to their credit even armed with more information her local shop didn't want to see the car, nor change the flasher without confirming the cause and she wanted to know if we would look at it. I told her pretty much the same thing, except we would start testing and see if we can determine anything. She showed up about 3:30pm and we brought the car in the door. Now when we were talking she changed the story a little bit. The lights that were acting strangely wasn't the turn indicators, it was several of the other lights on the dash which included the airbag light, and the antilock brake lights. She also said quite happily that it started doing it on her way down to the shop. Now things were starting to make more sense, when the ABS and SIR lights started coming on, that's when the turn signals wouldn't work and a buzzing could be heard in the dash if you tried to use them. That's a completely different scenario compared to what she seemed to describe while we were on the air.

    Based on this updated information, what path would you choose to start your testing? Do you have any expectations as to what you are likely to find? Use the comments to field your ideas and I'll respond with what you would have found.

#4way, #four way, #Chevrolet, #Impala, #turn signals, #Radio, #saturday morning mechanic, #antilock, #brakes, #buzz, #hazzard