Jim Warman

When you consider concern codes and causal codes.... maybe this was where symptom codes was heading all along... How many times do we stare blankly at the RO searching for anything better than "42" for a cause code.

Ford has released SVB 2011-44N on the Canadian website. They tell us to use the GCR process if we wish to make suggestions regarding the new symptom codes. I'm a little surprised that you Yanks don't appear to have something similar. Years ago there was a "back door" that I found and could slip through to the US pages... even took the preliminary test for the Senior Master Challenged a few times. If you guys still have "ask Ernie", maybe he could let you know...

You are quite right - the new engines mpstly have the VMVs attached directly to the inlet manifold - however I like to have the tools I like to have. Some of the jobs I get are........ I would guess "eclectic" might be close. I think where the most damage comes from is that the valve in a VMV is left hand thread. Dwayne, I finally spent some time looking for my own self... New smoke machines always come with a core tool... OTC sells the CEA-049... Now I feel like I went to the restaraunt and cooked my own lunch....

My fancy MAC Schrader valve tool wont... never has...

Do they have one that does R134a valves on one end and VMVs (used to be called cannister purge valves) on the other?

I've seen guys flunk the open book portion of the test out.... At every course we are reminded that a pass mark is 80% for the written portion... One attendee asked about the practical portion.... "Uhhhhh, you either fixed it or you didn't...".

Darryl Drummond? I've been a thorn in his side for nearly 10 years now... BTW.. I am not an artifact... fossil, maybe.... but not an artifact

After a long and frustrating wait, I finally get to go for the 6.7 school. I'll be in Edmonton from the 6th to the 9th of September. Momma has some Drs appointments at the same time so we can kill two birds with one stone... except for whatever the dog boarding house is gonna cost... If anyone is in touch with Darryl, let him know I am still as cantankerous as ever.... but I will be bringing gifts for his "museum"... We were doing some slightly overdue cleaning and came across a stack of diesel diag sheets.... from 1995.... Introducing "the mob". Jake, the chihuahua - aka "Snert".... Koda, the Shepherd - aka Little puppeeee (all 130 pounds of him) and Willy G. (after Willy G. Davidson) the spaniel - aka Bill

Having someone ask ME where I want a truck I'm working on/going to be working on is NOT a stupid question. For the couple of seconds it takes to answer the question.... It beats the shit out of wandering around the parking lot looking for a white super duty "you can't miss it". Add the "leave it run"... "shut it off" scenario... Service advisors flagging your time? Are you serious????? Our SM flags most of the time and the warranty wench takes care of some.... I am sometimes used as a replacement for the flat rate manual when quoting retail stuff. I have a head full of "menu" pricing. FWIW, charging your customer 16 hours and paying you 14 is called fraud and is a criminal offense. Be sure you have your ducks in a row and aren't doing something kneejerk if you chase it.

Weve had a couple of cars come in lately with "cruise blues". One thing I learned is that, when you replace the cruise control module, you have to do a PMI... It doesn't tell you this in the WSM under R&R module... but later, when you get the U2100 DTC, the DTC chart will have you perform it. It appears that the guys on hotline know less about adaptive cruise than anything else. I was told to monitor the PRI_TGT_RANGE PID. I replied that this PID (primary target range) seemed to be trapped at 150.00m and was there any significance to the PID? I was told that the 150.00m was "probably" a distance measurement of some sort. DUH!!! FWIW, further testing shows this PID to be the distance from the primary target - this would be the distance from the vehicle in front. 150.00 meters is the default high limit in IDS. Two days ago, I'm adjusting reluctor gap in an old Dodge and today I'm putzing around with radar.... what a life.

When I see a P1211 on a 7.3, the absolute, without a doubt, very first thing I look for is a chip sticking out of the back of the PCM.... well, after I check engine oil level....

"Hoop the customer even more"? "Hooping" would indicate that we feel we are fucking the guy over... I don't think that this is the case, but we should try to choose our words carefully... Because it doesn't matter what I think... the guy you are trying to impress owns the truck in your bay... And if you don't impress him - somebody else will.

That is one cool avatar....

I'm still trying to figure out where I came up with "Bruno"... If you've seen my last few weeks... that might explain part of it. Farfetched thought.... I was "volunteered" to cook a turkey for a funeral wake happening Thursday and I was thinking of Bruno Gerussi? At a little over 25 pounds, I think this is the biggest gobbler I've ever had the misfortune of meeting.

When you log onto inford you are taken to the main menu page... there are four main sections on this page. "sales and marketing", "parts and service", "bulletins" and "training". In the "bulletins" section select "service bulletin". On the next page, leave the default selections and click on "search". This will bring up a list of service department related bulletins. I do not understand why techs don't read both these and broadcast messages on a regular basis. Click on SVB 2011-43N and the link to the survey is at the bottom of the page. Bruno... apparently there were problems with the early survey - not sure what since my survey submitted just fine. Try the new link.

Well, I'm not sure if the fox has moved into the hen-house or not. That you were admonished to find "something" isn't a whole bunch of any kind of proof. The whole idea behind any kind of multipoint inspection when a vehicle is in for other work is to find an itch and offer to scratch it... The question then becomes "is this a legitimate itch? or are we trying to manufacture one?". With trucks living in the oilpatch, it generally isn't too hard to find a legitimate itch (you wouldn't believe the number of customers that insist on new brake pads when they hit 50% - about 5 or 6 mm) - most customers will thank you profusely - especially considering how many zeros can be at the end of the number on the bottom of the tow bill. I can't speak for the tire rotation since I firmly believe that this is a valuable and worthwhile service. I rotate my tires every 10,000 KMs. My son does too... all of my personal customers do..... (of course, common sense will prevail here - if the vehicle is 2008 to 2010 with an 8000 km interval... and I am presuming that everyone is marking the factory recommened interval rather than "manufacturing" one.... some customers rotate at 8K and some at 16K - not a whole bunch of difference). If you get a car in and it looks like it doesn't need a rotation, it is because it has been getting rotations. If it looks like it is overdue for a rotation - it is too fucking late. FWIW, I like all of my tires to wear out at the same time.... First off, it reduces the strain on the driveline (read that as my wife puts the truck in 4 wheel drive almost as soon as I put the car to bed for the winter) and, most important, the price of one tire is the price of one tire... the price of 4 tires at the same time is a force to be reckoned with. Our dealership cost on tires is too high to begin with... For single tires, we're compettitive.. for a set, I can get a far better deal shopping around. And, of course, I have digressed. "Do hybrids have spark plugs?".... Service advisors have many training opportunities available to the. Most have to do either with customer handling or general product knowledge. I have no idea if any of that training includes anything about spark plugs in anything - let alone in hybrids specifically. One of the ways that SAs learn about 'technical' things is by asking questions... One of the ways that I got to where I am today is because I answer those questions. A little tolerance can go a long, long way. (Surprising considering how intolerant I can be at times). Lastly... assuming that he (the SA) asked him (the apprentice) if it needed brake service or <GASP> a fl.....fl.....fl.... - one of them wallet things. Now here is the worst part of your whole ordeal.... Did he mean "a fluid exchange", a "service" or did he actually indicate that there is going to be an overpriced, dubious chemical involved in the process. For my part, I consult with customers and indicate the manufacturers recommendations on driveline component servicing. I am overdue for my last transmission service on my truck. Am I a flush queen? If you refer back to my statement about my wife and my 4WD, I change my transfer case oil every spring (my Gawd.. I must be a flush queen). Where did your new SA come from? Was it an environment that took advantage of customers.... or an environment that took advantage of manufacturers recommended service intervals? The SA that left.... you say she was disliked by many. Were you one of those that disliked her? Was she one of the grotesque ones? Stop judging books by the cover.... You have a lot of new, raw material to work with.... Don't waste the opportunity.

It would rock if IDS would tell us not to bother with 73.05 because 74.01 is already availble. But for some reason, it seems like Fords right hand sometimes doesn't know what even Fords right hand is doing. As for burn a disc? The PC in our coffee room is on a wired connection. I download IDS software to the desktop and use my thumb drive to distribute it through the shop. This is much quicker since the Toughbooks the shop owns and the Netbooks Adam and Kyle use don't have on board removable drives. Interesting side note.... we've had a couple of 6.7s that were missing 4 lines of data from Mode 6 (the last 4 lines of the NOx section). P164A alone was recurring. All of these were recently reflashed with either 73 or 72 - can't remember. Hotline was stumped but I found reflashing with 74.01 brought the missing lines back.

The latest and greatest late last week was 74.01. FWIW, IDS will announce a change from say 73.something to 73. something else.. but it wont announce a change from say 73 to 74. Used to be I'd get a disc in the mail to update IDS... those pretty much dried up and I'd see a broadcast message inferring that there was a new version... even those are drying up.

I always thought that American beer WAS water... Annhieser-Busch brought out a new beer. As part of the introductory ad campaign, they had a "name that beer" contest. Whoever won, would get free beer for a year and appear on national TV. The contest was won by Gertrude Stein, an 86 year old great-grandmother from Armpit, Oklahoma. She had chosen the name "Love on the Beach" for this beer. The President of Annheiser-Busch, along with the entire board of directors was on hand to present the prize on national television as part of the opening ceremony for the Daytona 500. The President of A-B asked "Gertie... how on earth did you come up with a wonderful name like 'Love on a Beach' for our new product?". Gertrude looked up at him and spoke clearly into the microphone.... " I tried the free samples you gave me... and the first thing that came to my mind was that this shit is fucking near water"........

The Chevelle in the big shop has a powerglide with what seems to be a leaking converter drainback valve. My job is to sit on a stool with a drink in my hand critiquing whatever is going on at the time. On occasion, I may actually have to stand up and demonstrate something or make a visual inspection to recommend a suitable "next action" - might be diagnosis or it might be just assembly or disassembly process. If I see a misstep or an improper technique, I am allowed to remain silent until later in the repair process. I feel that having one of these neophytes having to partially disassemble something to rectify a misstep can be a powerful teaching aid... and everyone gets a good chuckle after they stop calling me names. One of my perks is being able to drive any of these (and many other) cars should I feel the urge. Having a solid knowledge of Holley and Edelbrock (the Edelbrock being a clone of the old Carter AFB) carbs and breaker point ignition systems helps. Power corrupts... absolute power corrupts absolutely.

Oh yes it is... a 10,000 pound, clear floor, assymetrical post lift with 145 inch columns and about the same spread.... I need to rebadge it as a 6,000 pound lift so we don't have people pestering to lift their work truck. I wish I could say "neener, neener, neener", but most anything I need a hoist for, I can do at work. Still, this is part of my "will work for beer" program.

While I've been busy with renovations on the home front, a good friend has been busy with his own renovations... though his level of physical exertion usually stops at getting out his cheque-book. His efforts thus far include the new mancave - this separate building has 14 foot walls and 2 large bays. One overhead door is 12 foot and the other is 8. A BendPak XPR-10A will be installed in the bay that the Viper is parked in. As for the old , attached garage? This will become the new home of the Viper, the Vette and be the winter home of one scooter (though I have been made to promise it will be polished and waxed before it is allowed entry) - after all, this is now a living area with cars parked in it.

Are you looking for the 310-193 type fuel pressure tester for checking diesel fuel flow in the bay? This would be the one with the metering orofice so you don't need to drive the truck to gauge fuel delivery performance. If so, this would be an easy thing to "clone". I'd have to do some searching, but I do have the orofice size written down somewhere.

Actually, that is "lift number 3". Not enough techs regard their personal safety with enough importance. We have numbered each lift and have an inspection sheet (that, sadly, is only half heartedly administered) that must be filled out once per month. Having mentioned "halheartedly administered", I feel the need to mention that if a tech is using a hoist that has a defect and he doesn't report it - or, worse yet, doesn't bother looking for it - the preponderance of the culpability will be on his shoulders. I see it every day... some youngster wearing nitrile gloves hoping to avoid carcinogens working under a hoist that is both poorly positioned under the vehicle and doesn't have the safety dogs "set". It isn't war or pestilence or famine that will kill us all... it is cavalier attitudes.

In my bay??? An Out of Province Inspection with wheel alignment...