Life today in the car biz, and why GOOD mechanics hate it now: the real truth

[Ace-Garageguy]

 

Edited yesterday at 03:26 PM by Ace-Garageguy

[RW033]

I believe in the next 10 years or so cars will diagnose themselves and most shops/dealerships will be just replacing parts that the car tells them to

[Ace-Garageguy]

2 minutes ago, RW033 said:

I believe in the next 10 years or so cars will diagnose themselves and most shops/dealerships will be just replacing parts that the car tells them to

That's pretty much the way it works now, and it doesn't work well at all for anything that actually takes some knowledge and insight to diagnose.

Self-diagnostics and scanners only point a "technician" in the right direction, and there are literally millions of instances where shops replaced every single part the car  "told them to" and it still didn't function right.

I've been in the business over 5 decades, it's badly broken, and shows no sign of getting better, ever.

[Goose1957]

My best friend owns a repair garage. I'm always asking him how he's able to fix today's junk. He's about ready to give it up too. Example, a couple of months ago, the starter in my Chevy PPV went out. No biggie, starters fail. He installed a brand new one and 2 days later, it failed. Borrowed the rollback again, took it to the shop and installed another starter. So far, it's been good. But my friend was out the labor of replacing the starter and the transport of the car. He's a good friend and wouldn't even think of charging me any additional time. But he's a fellow bourbon enthusiast so I bought him a good bottle for his troubles.

Jeff

[Ace-Garageguy]

23 minutes ago, Goose1957 said:

My best friend owns a repair garage. I'm always asking him how he's able to fix today's junk. He's about ready to give it up too. Example, a couple of months ago, the starter in my Chevy PPV went out. No biggie, starters fail. He installed a brand new one and 2 days later, it failed. Borrowed the rollback again, took it to the shop and installed another starter. So far, it's been good. But my friend was out the labor of replacing the starter and the transport of the car. He's a good friend and wouldn't even think of charging me any additional time. But he's a fellow bourbon enthusiast so I bought him a good bottle for his troubles.

Yup. First instance I encountered of "new" parts being defective was in the early 1990s. Replacement cylinders (made in China) for a Porsche 914 engine were so porous, you could hear air puffing through the cylinder walls when you rotated the thing by hand on the stand. My first thought was that my guy had somehow failed to get a good seal at the top of the cylinder where it plugs into the head, but I found the real problem when we tore the engine back down.

Next time was in the early 2000s. '86 Ford pickup, brake master cylinder, made in sunny Mexico by highly skilled, smiling workers.

Seals were put in backwards, just like they were in the next three I got from the parts store. Last one I got, I just took the seals out and put them back in the right way...after which it worked as it should.

Had I known what I'd be facing, I'd have just bought a rebuild kit and fixed the old one, but of course that was around the time parts stores stopped selling rebuild kits for brake parts.

Next one was a couple years later, a new radiator for a 2001 PT Cruiser was so poorly made and out of spec, I had to spend half the day partially reengineering it so it would physically fit the vehicle. And yes, multiple trips to the parts store to double-check the part number and physically compare it to another one they had in stock, and one we ordered. ALL MADE WRONG. (Trying to save the owner some bucks by not buying a factory part, so who got hosed? Me.)

And it's been going downhill from there.

I buy OEM parts when I can get them for repairs these days, whatever the cost, but that's no guarantee of decent quality anymore either.

Edited 20 hours ago by Ace-Garageguy

[1972coronet]

1 hour ago, Ace-Garageguy said:

"technician"

I still scoff at that "title"... same scoff today as the first time I'd heard it. Soooooo many ostentatious job titles anymore...

[Rodent]

56 minutes ago, Ace-Garageguy said:

Trying to save the owner some bucks by not buying a factory part, so who got hosed? Me.

Depending on the make of the car, be sure to check OEM before you buy aftermarket. There has been a flurry of Teams messages at work this week from colleagues working on their own vehicles and checking parts prices.

Aftermarket RAM radiator hose from brick and mortar - $96-129

Aftermarket RAM radiator hose from popular online reseller - $45-60

OEM - $55

Name brand aftermarket from Walmart.com - $40

 

Mazda stabilizer bar end links from brick and mortar - $55-60 each

Popular online retailer - $16-40 each

OEM - $26 each

 

We owned a U.S. built Nissan years ago and I bought everything at the dealer. Brake pads, hoses, belts, etc. were all half or less than aftermarket. Anything maintenance or wear related was dirt cheap. I remember that one belt was $7 from Nissan, $50 aftermarket.

[Tim W. SoCal]

42 minutes ago, 1972coronet said:

I still scoff at that "title"... same scoff today as the first time I'd heard it. Soooooo many ostentatious job titles anymore...

Well, after all the tens of thousands of dollars and hundreds upon hundreds of hours I've invested in advancing my skills and keeping up with VERY rapidly changing technology, as well as maintaining my reputation as an honest maintenance, repair and business man, "grease monkey" is a bit of an insult...

[Tim W. SoCal]

1 hour ago, Ace-Garageguy said:

Yup. First instance I encountered of "new" parts being defective was in the early 1990s.

  Also in the early 90s, my first was disc brake rotors from the C.H.Ina Co, posted all over their box "Factory Finished - Do Not Machine". Finished the job, head out for the test drive, hit the brakes and the rotors are so badly warped the shimmy nearly rips the steering wheel from my hands. Take the front brakes back apart to cut the rotors, doing shallow cuts, mind you, and run into all the air pockets in the casting. These were name brand rotors from a long time, well established parts chain.

 

1 hour ago, Ace-Garageguy said:

Next one was a couple years later, a new radiator for a 2001 PT Cruiser was so poorly made and out of spec, I had to spend half the day partially reengineering it so it would physically fit the vehicle.

Had that experience too, then after drilling the radiator mounting holes in the correct locations, couldn't get the trans cooler line fittings in the radiator to stop leaking, until the FOURTH radiator (delivered next day from the same parts house's warehouse) was installed.

 

1 hour ago, Ace-Garageguy said:

I buy OEM parts when I can get them for repairs these days, whatever the cost, but that's no guarantee of decent quality anymore either.

And on top of that, many OEM parts for cars less than 5 years old are already obsolete and discontinued...

[1972coronet]

20 minutes ago, Tim W. SoCal said:

Well, after all the tens of thousands of dollars and hundreds upon hundreds of hours I've invested in advancing my skills and keeping up with VERY rapidly changing technology, as well as maintaining my reputation as an honest maintenance, repair and business man, "grease monkey" is a bit of an insult...

I'm not speaking of the personnel , only the title. 

I'd never entertain the idea of calling one a "grease monkey" (unless they want to be called as such... haha). 

Even the position I hold at work has an ostentatious title : "Delivery Service Specialist".

Scoff !

[rattle can man]

I marvel at the lousy engineering of aftermarket parts. I still need to get back to the brake job on my Ford Festiva. there are no OE parts out there. New drums, hardware, and shoes. Can't get the drum over the shoes with the cylinder compressed and the hand brake adjuster backed all the way off.