Engineers?

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Winston

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I am an engineer and work in an office full of em. None of them are into cars though. My neighbor a couple cubes over says that his daughter ruined the engine on her Camry. Turns out it ran out of oil? Changed it 5k ago and does not understand how it could run out?!?! So, I started asking my neighboring engineers if they ever check oil and a few of them don't ever check it. Just change it. Some are 3k jiffy lubers and some 5kers and some are "whatever the mfg says". Go ahead ans slam my coworkers if you want, but they really are nice people and smart too.

I think cars are just too reliable these days, so noone checks anything.
 
Just because someone is an engineer doesn't automatically imply they're an expert on every subject or have common sense. One may be able to solve partial differential equations and yet not know how to change a tire. E.g., Steven Hawking versus Smokey Yunick.
 
My priest drinks.
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I wouldn't say it's unusual, unless these engineers are somehow involved in maintenance and reliability of mechanical equipment!
 
My lawyer gets high.

We have a member in my family who has a PHD in Physics. Worked on the missile defense system and now teaches at a University. I found out about a month ago he runs Amsoil but never changes/checks it for 25k miles. LOL. I'd love to get a sample of that! Very smart guy in a analytical sense.
 
Well, I worked for several years with engineers, even though I'm not one. They were great people. My only complaint was, they always wanted to have meetings, analyze, and talk about stuff. I don't know how that plays into checking or not checking the engine oil, but just my observations.
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I've been doing this for ten years, and I've met all types of engineers; brilliant, stupid, ignorant, educated beyond their intelligence, smug, humble, invaluable, worthless, methodical, careless, full of @#$%, foolish, you get the idea. One really can't draw a stereotype, as there seems to be so much variation in this population. Barely getting an engineering degree doesn't require a high level of intelligence, yet being a good engineer garners much less respect than it deserves.

I'm more car savvy than most engineers, but I started turning wrenches when I was 9 and have been doing it regularly ever since. My mechanical aptitude has very little to do with my education.

In the electronic hardware engineering group I was part of until recently about 50% of us were darned good wrenches. I find that most software engineers (I do a fair amount of that as well) don't have the level of mechanical aptitude that I've observed in hardware and mechanical engineers. Don't get me wrong, they can work on computers, but that tends to be the extent of it.

Don't even get me started on Ph.D's.

Have I left anyone out? LOL
 
Unfortunately, not all engineers share our passion for oils and engine longevity, nor do they have any interest or knowledge in lubricants and tribology.

Few universities teach tribology, lubrication, or even provide good courses in basic physics.
 
I'll go out on a limb here and say they know golf like the back of their hands and talk about it insistently until you're on the verge of puking...no?
throwroses.sml
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Quote:

I am an engineer and work in an office full of em. None of them are into cars though. My neighbor a couple cubes over says that his daughter ruined the engine on her Camry. Turns out it ran out of oil? Changed it 5k ago and does not understand how it could run out?!?! So, I started asking my neighboring engineers if they ever check oil and a few of them don't ever check it. Just change it. Some are 3k jiffy lubers and some 5kers and some are "whatever the mfg says". Go ahead ans slam my coworkers if you want, but they really are nice people and smart too.

I think cars are just too reliable these days, so noone checks anything.

Click to expand...
 
Engineers are all over the place interms of common sense and practical application of knoldge. The really great engineers are often well grounded inthat they have common sense, strong analytical skills and are able to apply their analytical skills in a very practical way. Their are a lot of very bright engineers that really are not that great insoite of their intelligence.

In fact the best engineers that I ever had the pleasure to work with at GM were very down to earth individulas. All of the best ones started out either as mechanics/technicians or manchinist. Then after years in the industry they went back to school for engineering many of them on GM's dime. GM periodicly toss's a lot of money at these guys to try to keep them on after they reach retirement age. Many of the young men and women comeing out of college today have no practical experince or knoldge! Most of them are not car people and have little to no automotive historical knoldge.
 
I am one of the few who is both a degreed engineer and a an ASE and smog certified mechanic.I have been both wrenching and "solving for X" my whole life. I NEVER tell mechanics that I am an engineer. Every time I have interviewed with a car company I am always asked questions about my experience with such and such a problem, and when I tell them how I solved the problem, the engineers insist that my solution is impossible! Too bad it worked at the time...engineers have a VERY difficult time with communication.On the other hand, I have never met a mechanic who could solve an equation. Some problems REQUIRE math to solve, and that is where mechanics check out with glazed eyes. In all, I prefer working as a mechanic. I used to enjoy modifying cars, but the cost always went out of control when done on a professional basis. Wish I could find the rich customers who pay for all the freshly painted semi's at the vintage races!Working on a full race Ferrari Testarossa for cash? Sweeeeet....
 
carock,
my boss (an engineer, as am I) has a wife who is adament that proficient engineers are slightly touched with autism (like Einstein, Franklin etc are reputed to be)...she may have a point.
 
I come from a family of engineers and while I tried to go a different direction I ended up in a very similar field.

It is my experience that while engineers are usually practical, pragmatic people, they are not always hands on, or perhaps more specifically they will pick and choose what they get hands on with.

While my father could handle all manner of tasks - plumbing, electrical, and structural, he never would have bothered changing his own oil or doing any other work on his car. I assume that he checked the oil, because I remember him checking tire pressure frequently. I don't recall ever having to top off oil on any of their cars, but they probably did 3000 miles OCIs. We had cars that had terrible transmission and brake problems , but i think we just never had anything that needed top up.
 
My dad is an engineer. Degree in mechanical eng, but ended up more of a computer engineer. Absolute whiz with computer software, hardware, and home electronics. He bought an oscilloscope to use at *home*. For fun.
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Carwise, he knows the basics. He taught me how to do oil changes and replace spark plugs. Anything much beyond that gets sent to the shop, though I'm sure he could solve more complicated stuff if he had the inclination.
 
"Many of the young men and women comeing out of college today have no practical experince or knoldge!"

All they know how to do is drink beer like pigs, take all sorts of drugs, find dumb stupid women easy to sleep with, and write bad checks.
Send them all to Iraq, they will get smart real quick.
 
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