Jim Warman

I pulled an out of province inspection into my bay this ayem.... The tire shop in Peace River was kind enough to install 4 new passenger valve stems in his rims before they wrapped them in load range E tires... A tire shop, you say? How very professional....

Now THIS is a hybrid... check out the videos.

On reflection, it almost looks like I'm trying to justify this kind of crap.... relax... nothing could be further from the truth... But that wont keep me from playing the devils advocate... We need a concerted effort across the whole of the industry to eradicate some of the customer (and sometimes technician driven) insanity that we see almost every day... But you will always see someone that is going to alter the GVW rating of his truck with a inappropriate tire... you will see an early SuperCrew with a 5th wheel hitch mounted BEHIND the rear axle... you will open a hood and see a cold air intake that gets hot underhood air.... and on and on. Some of it's illegal but disregarded.... some of it should be illegal and some of it is just plain fucking goofy. (Mickey Mouse in divorce court... "But, your honor... I didn't say Minnie was insane - I said she was fuckin' Goofy). The need to earn profits will drive some people to do some strange things... and we can always justify it to some extent that the guy down the street would do it, anyway (and, most likely he would). What is needed is a crack down on offenders... a massive public awareness campaign and a training program to enlighten those in the trade... How many here use tire plugs? How many here realize that rope type plugs are considered a temporary repair? What can anyone tell us about tire valve stems? One of our biggest problems is that we don't know what we don't know... AHA!!!!! I think I found something here and there's some more stuff here FWIW... I still get to see directional tires on the wrong side of the car

But you DO care who pays, Mike. That's why you aren't racing down to the tire shop with your credit card in your hand. I wish I could be sure of reading the section in the CMVSS that I need to form a better opinion of where we stand.... I wish YOU could read that same section... I wish everyfuckingbody could read it. But what will it mean? Yeah... there's all kinds of wrong things happening because people don't know any better... There's all kinds of wrong things happening because "this is the way we've always done it"... It is going to take a concerted effort to make things right... it is going to take legislation (can you spell political suicide?) to make things right. We can whimper about this kind of shit on DTS all we want. Nothing will change. We need to become self regulating... we need to grow some balls... we need to do a lot of things that will make us a profession rather than a trade. You are complaining about something that has been going on for a long, long time... If it means that much to you, help me fix it....

Number one on the list..... IS THE VEHICLE ROADWORTHY AS PRESENTED? While it is a chickenshit bastard fucked up way for things to be viewed... this would be the hinge for anything in a court of law. We see more than our fair share of BRAND NEW one ton trucks (no duallies yet, as far as I know) with load range D tires. Every last owner has requested these tires.... indeed, part of what closed the deal was the inclusion of these tires. Every last owner will bitch about the TPMS warnings.... But... can you be mad at your sales department? You know fucking well that if they don't make the sale - no matter how distasteful you may realize it has become.... the guy down the street will close the deal... Bottom line... you will do it or you will starve. So.... before we go further, let's look at what various things have to say about tires...... Let's start with the manual I use for Out of Province inspections... No mention of tire load rating.... No mention of valve stems either... but there is another matter - one I hope I can remember to touch upon in a bit. In two pages.... they cover tread depth.... tread section... sidewalls...and type.... At no point am I required to fail, reject or even document (even though I do) a load range D tire on a truck that should have load range E tires. No... there is nothing mentioned about tire pressure... Once we get into the CVIP manual (commercial vehicle inspection program), we get into tire pressures... and you will have to be careful when wording your rejection... We have the direction "reject if any tire is over/underinflated". I need to be absolutelyu sure that the customer sees that it isn't 'me' making this decision... but I am fucking happy to have someone else to blame it on... But it ain't complete without a visit with the ambulance manual... and here is a curve ball... Nothing about load range... Just a cryptic "pressure not within 10% of pressure on OEM certification level". I have spent a lot of time trying to navigate CMVSS and FMVSS (Canadian Motor Vehicle Safety Standards and Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards).. and they are difficult... I never seem to be able to find any section I am looking for... The sections I have read are complex.. difficult to understand (they are written in "lawyerspeak")and open to interpretation... Speaking of interpretation... If I phone Alberta Transportation or Alberta Infrastucture or the Health unit ambulance section for clarification... I get "political" answers... "What do I think?". Well... I think I'd like to have some clarification.... But - if it ain't in the manual... you ain't getting it. Valve stems... our local tire shops like passenger valve stems... rated at 60 PSI, these things are commonly found in load range E tire installations (usually rated max load at 80 PSI). None of my manuals offer me the option or ability to fail a vehicle due to inappropriate valve stems. Bottom line... If you can't quote the "bible", you ain't going anywhere... If you ask, you will be told to use your judgement... when pressed, the manual will not exonerate you... I've probably forgotten a half dozen things I would have liked to remark on... But the inportant thing to remember, Mike - and you must remember I am speaking as an Albertan... - is to cover your ass... I wish I could navigate the CMVSS better than I can... Mike... you see a truck with the wrong tires on it... What you are really seeing is one of the very big probleme with this trade...

Yes, Mike.. the Escape is quie popular in our area... we received our very first Hybrid only yesterday o day before... I think Ford would prefer for us to remove the front bumper cover during this repair to avoid any possible damage... even though I expect the SLT for this op to be re-engineered when Ford finally realizes that this is how it is being done and (so far) I don't think anyone has seen cracked paint or other concerns. Every time we can find a quicker way to do something, they will reflect that in a new time allotment. I've done my fair share of these cooler/condensers but we pretty much leave it as an apprentice type job any more. A long, long time ago, be back in the early 80s..... a guy in an old Chevy pick up drove up to the bay doors... it was obviously flooding... I removed his air filter and, using my little 2 ounce gasket making hammer, I tapped on his QudraJet carburettor close to where the fuel line entered. The truck smoothed out and stopped blowing black smoke. "Five bucks, please", sez I.... "All you did was hit my motor", he complained... "I hit your motor for free - the five bucks is for knowing where to hit it....".

In the 'real' world, one would take the factory time of 1.1 hours and multiply by 1.4 giving roughly 1.6 hours If you've done a few and have the shortcuts down pat.... and the shortcuts DO NOT affect the quality of the repair, you may chose to pass some of the savings on to your customer (God knows repeat retail customers are nice to have) - that is a matter of choice. Too often, we find ourselves pricing ourselves out of the market.... but neither do we want to "give it away".

Dwayne and I hhave mentioned it to each other now and again... not front covers, specifically, usually more of cylinder head/block deck surfacing. I look at some of the marks and "inclusions" and shake my head... back in the stone ages, we would never see some of this crap... But... I guess if you don't cast any extra metal into one spot (even a critical area) or another, you don't have to pay to remove it during machining.

I'm back a day late and a dollar short... as usual. Our partsmonger orders the cables from Ford/ i-Connect by description (those little short USB cables appears to be a technical enough description). Like I said, I keep two spares on hand so we should never have to plug anything directly into the USB ports.

Rotunda is where I think we get them...I keep two spares on hand all the time... I'll try to remember to post the P/N tomorrow at lunch...

That part should have every last one of us screaming loud and long about integrity and throwing caution to the winds... Dp we have to wait until some little kids get killed before we speak up? If we don't start policing our own industry better... the governments of our respect countries will be more than happy to step up to the plate - along with some new taxes and/or "user" (read that as licencing?) fees. Sorry guys... we are our brothers keeper...

Chris... what is more ignorant than having to buy your own stand is the other tech thinking he could use it (comes pretty big from a guy whose tool box is more like a tool crib than anything else ) automatically. Before we modified our large engine stand to the side pads, Kyle did a couple or three bedplates by laying the engine downside up on a portable work bench. Not the most convenient way to do it but safer than trying to hang it from a "skyhook". We've never had getting equipment we can justify and I was the same when I was in my own shop... I guess I'm kinda spoiled.

Who had to buy an engine stand? Whoops... my bad... I see it now... flat rate reading get a guy every time... Worst comes to worst, having the engine "accidentally" fall should help.... but before things got to that point, I would think that the WCB in the Republic of BC works about the same as here... You're employer cannot expect you to do anything that is either unsafe or illegal...

Dwayne... I agree that there are shops that take a cavalier stance on employee safety... this is why we have Workmens Compensation Board. As employees, we owe it to ourselves, our workmates and our employers to treat workplace safety as the important facet it is... To do things we consider unsafe and then grumble under our breath about it serves no purpose. Somebody is going to get hurt and then there is going to be a law suit... We can't just leave it up to Ford OR the employer... we need to be proactive about this stuff, too.

It will boil down to a shops willingness to risk bodily harm to their employees ... and that shops employees willigness to do themselves bodily harm. Why do I need to constantly remind some guys about appropriate footwear, coveralls and other PPE (fire department speak for personal protective equipment). The AC flush machine... I had the shop purchase a chemical mask with the appropriate filters.... goggles.... rubber gloves... few wear the gear and nobody... not one fucking person has asked to see the MSDS sheets for the flush chemical. Safety is a commitment that ALL parties need to make... It's not up to Ford... Here in Alberta we have WCB as the fianl agency... but before it gets to the WCB, each and every one of us needs to take an active role in safe workplace practices... Or... we can spend what days we have left blaming someone else...

Filter replacement... pretty much what Bruno does... Before starting the truck... key on for 20 plus seconds... do that six times. I rarely have any problems... If it starts and then stalls... go get the shop foreman (or pretend to) and by the time you get back, it will likely start and run like a champ...

Brad, rather than back the rockers off, it is important to run the piston to TDC - partly because backing the rockers off could mask a concern with valve geometry - and partly because the cylinder wears more at the top of the stroke than at the bottom. TDC sees the highest pressures. I realize that this sounds borderline anal.... but the last thing any of us needs to do is lie to ourselves....

It surely couldn't have been one of them three story gut bombs, could it? BTW... I came across this and you were the first person I thought of - holy taco from hell, Batman

did he eat them with a fox? did he eat them in a box?

For some Ford models... If the SJB detects a blown bulb ( and "undercurrent" situation) it will command that turn signal side to flash at about twice the normal rate. If you replace the bulb, it will flash... but the "twice the normal" rate still applies.... up until you clear the SJB codes... Similarly, the multifunction switch no longer turns on the turn signal lamps. Instead, it sends a request to the SJB.. The headlight switch is the same... Our diagnostic strategy must be decided by the system we face... We need, so very badly, to be on our toes.... Often, I still get "that look" from a lot of people... I reserve the right to say "I fucking told you so...". What is really sad..... some of these "hot fixes" were available in the smae places Rex was looking... But we're above that, right?

Memory stuff happening.,... Look at the trans dipstick on 09 SD.... It will spec Mercon LV... There was a broadcast message telling us that you could mix LV and SP in a TorqueShift... No mention of (IIRC) the 6R75 that also specs Merocn SP... or the 6R80 that already specs LV... or why, for so many years we couldn't mix Mercon/Dexron 3 with Mercon V - at least up until we are getting out of the Mercon/Dexron 3 business and it suddenly becomes "OK".... Transmissions have come a long way.... They are still simply a group of friction elements.... But electronics play such a huge part in their operation.... I can only say that if you can't diagnose an automatic trans concern, you best refrain from commenting on the operation of the trans... Trading the age old valve body for solenoid bodies should simplify diagnostics (and it does)... but it can't turn an idiot into a genius... After that long ago Mercon V TSB.. many techs abdicated their responsibility.... We don't need to check OASIS again. Truth of the matter is... if you aren't checking OASIS on fucking near everything you do.... you can (and will) have a rude awakening... OH, yes... I have some supreme shit happening... because common sense ain't common.. but flat rate reading is....

With the "smart key" technology (push button start) that we now have, integrating a remote strt into the works is about all they can do to retain market share. Ford states quite plainly that current remote starts will not work with smart key. Unfortunately this is also bringing some electronic baggage that many will not appreciate... Anyone that has had to deal with turn signal malfunctions on a 09ish half ton or such will understand this part. FWIW, who doesn't think it strange that you now need to clear codes after a bulb replacement?

I've had customers complain about heat even with the aux heater... (let's not forget that there are CONDITIONS... regarding several facets of the vehicle before the heater will function). Also... about 90 amps at about 13 volts is only about 1200 watts... The engine block heater is about 1KW and it takes a couple of hours to imnpart any appreciable heat to the engine... Downside... the Ford hype would make most of us believe we can start the truck on the coldest morning and almost immediately have to peel our shirts off because of the heat... The reality... the 6.4 is a cold hearted bitch and needs all the help it can get... I firmly believe that the aux heater is there to try and get the friggin' thing to mimic a gas pot... Not to give us livingroom comfort in a few scant minutes.

I can't speak for the "auto ship" on parts. There will be this behaviour when tools are involved, but my experience with parts is that there is going to be a wait because everything is going in to production. Larry, I would have thought that you would have a grasp on this long before others... As for pricing.. each department in the dealership is usually a separate entity.... We don't see it but then we don't get to see the books... The numbers game is complex... if you don't understand it... don't pretend to - sorry - there's nothing more to be said... I( don't have a real good grasp on the numbers game ... I can say that even after I paid several good people a significant amount of money to help me understand it.... I thought I might help you guys understand the real world... even though it isn't my "JOB"... However... I get the feeling you guys can educate me in the realities of finance.. who will be first? FWIW... this is a challenge... put your purse down and cowboy up....

Well... our weather finally "broke".... above freezing one day and a day and a half later, Dwaynes water line is froze up... Yep -29C ( - 20 F for the uninitiated).