The Mechanic's Creed

Aaron · August 3, 2010

Jim Warman · August 7, 2010

Now... if we could just find enough people to LIVE that.

TRS400 valve stems in load range E tires....

I have made a study on how little it takes may impact to rattle a wheel nut hard enough to not turn under the torque wrench (you would be FUCKING AMAZED)...

"He doesn't need a tire rotation"... he doesn't NEED a tire rotation because he's been having his tires rotated.... Stop rotating them and it will be too late. FWIW... I don't know about you, but I can always negotiate a better price on four than I can on two.

"Have you checked OASIS?".... No... I was going to waste three hours first.... oops... he said there was a couple of things he wanted to look at first.

You (or even "we") can wave the Mechanics Creed around all we want... If there were that many believers, I would never get kicked off another forum again....

The world is a sad place, Aaron... In 1974 I made a promise to my wife... her folks... my folks... all of our friends and acquaintenances.... and a God I'm not sure I believe in. I would love and cherish this woman in sickness and in health yadda yadda yadda... It has been HARD.... VERY FUCKING HARD (there's a novel in there). But I have kept my promise... Now... be assured I will never pretend to pass judgement on you - your visit to my house revealed things about you... Let's not go there...

Anyway, Debbi and I have been together for nearly 40 years... not because it has been easy... but because there were promises made....

Flash forward to the mechanics creed... I am about to offend many people... I wish I could say I am sorry.... but I'm not.

The mechanics creed has people making a promise.... including a phrase that will have them shun easy money.... People are people and I can't hold that against them...

Sidebar... when I first got married, I found it hard to discontinue some of my former ways... Some of my inlaws added to the problem (we are gonna catch this guy with his drawers at his ankles). I removed my wedding band for work concerns... and the opportunities to stray vanished.. almost.

Anyway.... I made promises when I got married... If I fail at those promises, I will be a failure... Not my cup of tea. (FWIW, the tale of our marriage is not an easy peasy thing... there is some supremem bad shit... but, once again....

What I am desparately trying to say... I made promises I intend on keeping... other people make those exact same promises.... and get divorced...

The mechanics creed is just THAT kind of deal... It is a promise SO easy to make. It isn't hard to keep... but it is so easy to break.

Another sidebar... if you ask a LEO about drunks he has stopped. He will ask if and how many drinks his suspect may have had "tonight". "TWO" is the "popular answer". (FWIW.. you can check this out and find that this is correct in the vast majority of scenes).

Truth, in todays society, is of little importance...

Adam_Dodson · August 7, 2010

"He doesn't need a tire rotation"... he doesn't NEED a tire rotation because he's been having his tires rotated.... Stop rotating them and it will be too late.

Or maybe they just had them rotated at the tire shop last week for free because they bought them there, and you just rotated them back! Often people just drop there vehicle off and tell the SA "whatever service it needs" the SA looks at the milage and makes their decision off of that. Remember when someone rotated tires on a Mustang with 275s in the rear and 235s in the front because the RO said maint2? Never trust the SA!

Jim Warman · August 7, 2010

Jeez Adam.. if you aren't going to trust someone.. it is the customer....

"Oh.. I didn't think that mattered" is the thing you will hear most often from the customer....

Consider this... if we adhere to what we are told to adhere to.. if we have our actions covered in print... if we do not freelance....

Remember this... the world is becoming an extremely litigious place... If you do something that the engineers told you to do.... the panel of your peers that will judge you in a favourable light. Pretend you are better than the engineer?... After 40 years... I wont do that.... you are more than welcome to prove your superiority.

So... let's pretend the tire shop did a free rotation last week.... Nobody told you... nobody told the SA... take me where THAT statement is going.... You do a LOF 2 - LOF 2 says "rotate the tires".

Let's pretend the tire shop DIDN'T rotate the tires and you do a LOF 2.

So.... here you are.... imagining that someone else has done your job for you....

A lot of the jobs I get are jobs where "someone" has done everything they were supposed to do... and I find the concern is something BASIC that was overlooked. Even as simple as water in a fuel tank.

The key..... ASS/U/ME. When we assume things... you make an ass out of me... and you make an ass out of you.

If you are worried about what the tire shop did last week.... perhaps the tire shop is where you need to be.

My worry is OUR shop. The tire shop can embarrass itself all it wants... You are working on the truck of someone I have known for 30 years.... do NOT embarrass me.

Gee... maybe his oil was changed recently... I can get out of that.... Fuel filters? I hope he's done them.... Maybe the tire shop did....

What you are doing is NOT about what somebody else tells you... other than recreating the problem...

Maybe the tire shop fixed the problem and forgot to tell the customer...

Muck fe....

You do what you are told to do... you document what you find offensive/reprehensible/distasteful.... If you want a long and happy career, you work INSIDE the system... not OUTSIDE it. On the back of your RO... you write I didn't rotate the tires because I think the tire shop is a good place. One of these days you will realize how stressful some decisions are.

Tire shop? Ohhh I wish I was good enuff to wurk ther. When tey give me a trukk thay cuddn't ficks.... Wow.

Adam... one very important thing.... before you speak... imagine what it will sound like. I have fucked up enough times to make me am exspurt

Tire shop... fuck me... next thing youll be calling Canadian Tir for advice?

Ohhhh... when you get back to work Posted Image

Bruce Amacker · August 7, 2010

Friday night, and Grampy's had a few cold ones (more than two, I'd bet).

Posted Image

Jim Warman · August 8, 2010

Yeah... but the problem is bigger than that Bruce.... It ain't the hooch... God knows I've tipped a bunch of them tonight...

The problem is that some of this shit incenses me badly... booze or not.... The Mechanics Creed.... There will be a very few that live by it.... there will be many that pretend to it... but you, me, Aaron and anyone else involved in this trade are going to be judged by people that have been victimized by those that say "fuck that... grab the money and run....".

Making it worse is that we are on the middle of a great change... and I feel nearly foolish because I'm not sure anyone else is paying attention. And I will get a bunch of these Posted Image and some of those for speaking my mind on subjects that few dare to broach.

Consider this.... Many of Fords "specialties" were built around a concept called "shop competency". If one tech in the shop had a certification in <that> area.... anyone in the shop could perform warranty service in that specioalty.

That is changing... it is changing 'quickly' (a relative term, yes?). But we are entering a phase where Ford (in Canada, at the very least) is changing to "technician competency". If the tech performing the repair isn't certified in that specialty.... he cannot perform certain repairs to that system. At this point I start to feel like a bit of a visionary.... and visionaries are seldom treated well in the beginning.

Here is an excerpt from an SVB posted recently on the Canadian corporate server....

"Purpose

This is to remind dealers of the Technician Competency requirements for the Brakes Specialty that will be implemented on October 1, 2010.

"

IIRC there was another (might be HVAC) specialty that was to be included at that time but the parent SVB has "evaporated" from the system - at least for my meagre talents. This same missing SVB mentioned the time frame for the inclusion of still more specialties... until ALL specialties are included in technician competency.

I can't stress that this will affect WARRANTY repairs only (unless Ford decides to add a codicile about service part warranty on retail jobs)... and it will only affect "specified" repairs... once the foot is in the door.....

Whooppee... sounds pretty innocuous to me.... They just want to be sure ther customers are getting trained people doing repairs... right?

So... for a while now, we have had "OASIS QuickStart". We can plug into the DLC and either select "new vehicle" from the menu or we can contact OASIS and OASIS will do all kinds of wonderful things... serial number... miles... DTCs.... stuff it wont show me.... Is QuickStart there to help me? Or is QuickStart there so they can test the way it works when inquisitive people use it? Or is QuickStart just "there".... a (probably) multimillion dollar "toy?

Wait!!!! There's more... "interactive PC/ED".... I haven't tried this yet.. it scares the fuck out of me.... I think it wants you to connect the VMM and it will direct your diagnostic efforts.. time for a sidebar...

A few years ago, Ford sent us a spendy looking battery charger. We are replacing FAR TOO MANY batteries. The Midtronics GR1 charger/analyzer was going to change all that... Yep... it will pass a battery that can't handle the load imposed by the accessory delay relay. You know the battery is bad.... I know the battery is bad..... the customer with NO AFTERMARKET TOYS knows the battery is bad... The Micro 490 knows the battery is bad and the standard load test (one half CCA for 15 seconds) knows the battery is bad. Thank you Ford... you have compromised my integrity... you are making me a liar... And the best part. When a tech makes a mistake generating the DTC and the ACES code... you think I can pinpoint exactly what battery I am supposed to retest... even if the recyclers truck was here just yesterday?

Sorry for the digression.... but I think that far too many are missing the significance of some of these developments. We are truly "dinosaurs in the making" and we are doing little about it. Ford (and how many other manufacturers) are dumbing down everything. In a few short years, dealer techs will be replaced by drones... plug in the DLC... push the button.... read the screen. I'll be fertilizer by then so it wont matter much to me....

We live in a global village... there are "pad slap, ball joint guys" all over the place... People that work for what is to us "peanuts" but affords them a standard of living they could never imagine "back home". That is where the "gravy" is going to go. Technical technicians will vanish because replacing a part will be cheaper than testing it (awwwww, I forgot... we already resort to that) ... If things are bad enough... there will be a Ford employee - a virtual "Maytag repair man"... waiting in the wings... Training centre courses may be cancelled that week.

Yep... Grampy been tossin' a few.... might even be seein' stuff that ain't there.... or is it?

There is none so blind as he who will not see.

Fredsvt · August 9, 2010

Hi Jim

I see it all the time. I'm in a different situation since I'm not at a dealership.

But, I'm one who wants to know how a system works, why it does what it does and wants to test it before condemning anything.

I've seen differences in diagnostic strategies from mfr to mfr, many Honda diags are "replace with a known good part" and see what happens. That gets real expensive very quickly. Something I'm not comfortable doing.

I work for a boss and with a co-worker that willingly toss parts, sometimes it works, many times it doesn't. My input is rarely accepted or even listened to, so I just walk away.

I'll take my check at the end of the week and I try to keep the customers I brought with me to this place happy. How long it's going to continue is another story.

I'm getting so discouraged, as I seem to be falling behind, and see so little future ahead of me. I pretty much know I'll work till I die, doing what, maybe tossing burgers, who knows?

Since I'm not of the correct grouping, I can't just sit on my ass and collect...... and that's a whole huge other story... Be glad you live in Canada, a place I should have relocated to a while ago, a much saner and intelligent place than here, at least from my point of view, however cloudy it may be right now.

Adam_Dodson · August 10, 2010

Haha can you guys tell me and Jim have had this argument before?...getting off topic here but...can someone explain to me why you would rotate tires on a vehicle if the drive tires have more tread? I know Superduties wear the rear tires much faster then the front especially the oil burners and FWD always wear the fronts faster. Do you not want to keep all 4 tread depths as close to the same as possible? Especially when we have TSBs on AWD noise due to tread depth differences?

Bruce Amacker · August 10, 2010

Many tire shops will only put two new tires on the rear of the car and not the front due to liability reasons. Common sense says to put them on the front (of a FWD car) but this leaves less tread on the rear tires compared to the front. In a panic stop situation (without ABS) this leads to the car swapping ends because the rear tires have less traction than the front tires.

You want new rubber in the front, you buy all 4.

Posted Image

Keith Browning · August 10, 2010

Many tire shops will only put two new tires on the rear of the car and not the front due to liability reasons. Common sense says to put them on the front (of a FWD car) but this leaves less tread on the rear tires compared to the front. In a panic stop situation (without ABS) this leads to the car swapping ends because the rear tires have less traction than the front tires.

100% correct. Some time ago my service manager came around with a newspaper clip of a lawsuit on this very topic and declared that "2 tires" always go on the rear. He also had some supporting documents about mixing new tires with old tires and panic stops.

Fredsvt · August 11, 2010

Try and explain that to thick headed people.

I've experienced this on my own car in the rain, with nearly bald tires on the rear compared to some tread in the front.

Once you get to a certain speed in a fwd car, the rear just picks right up off the ground, and it starts to move around.

I can see the average texter, hair styler, makeup putter oner, and newspaper reader go spinning off the road in such an instance.

I always put deeper treaded tires on the rear of a fwd car. AWD or automatic AWD I always recommend 4. Subarus and some Jeeps will smoke the center coupling if either end has tires with more than 1/4" difference in rolling diameter.

Brad Clayton · August 12, 2010

Get people in all the time wanting snow tires on the front only. Not allowed to do it, PERIOD!

Mekanik · August 19, 2010

"Have you checked OASIS?".... No... I was going to waste three hours first.... oops... he said there was a couple of things he wanted to look at first.

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My coworkers call me Tommy-TSB, because I'm familiar with new TSB's and check OASIS, as if there is something wrong with that. I wouldn’t keep information from someone, but it seems like I'm the guy that's always saying, "You know, there is a TSB for that." It's usually after someone spent an entire morning trying to solve some weird problem. The worst part is when the TSB only pays .4hrs.