Techs on Social Media

T

t1snwrbrdr12

Joined
Feb 28, 2015
Messages
1,012
Location
MD
You all follow any techs (dealer or independent) on social? I guess it tends to be more dealer techs, but my goodness they seem so young and dumb now.

I used to be a real tech, both dealer and independent, now work for a fleet. I try to follow various techs online to keep up with the real world and know what’s going on with newer cars. I don’t get any training or insight like that anymore.

A Toyota guy I follow just posted a video of asking all his fellow techs what’s the worst job they’ve done and why. They were all young, and every job that kicked their butts was ridiculous. If I remember right, they were complaining about a transmission replacement on a truck, an axle seal, a short block, etc etc. I couldn’t believe that these jobs bothered them so much and that they couldn’t beat warranty times…they flat out admitted that they basically took double or triple the times!

I follow a Honda guy or two as well. While they seem to do good work, they can only “diagnose” these things because they see it all the time. Lean code? Spray brake cleaner right exactly here to find this pinhole in a hose buried under the intake that you’d never know about. Turbo boost code? Replace the turbo. But on a side job, I’ll simply adjust the waste gate rod to take out the slack and it’ll be fine too…through the shop it’s getting a turbo recommended though…the adjustment isn’t even an option.

In my personal experience with my local Honda, I had thought relatively highly of the “shop foreman” as he helped me sort through a lot of noises with our new odyssey. He dismissed me showing him the noises at first, but after 3 or so visits finally found me to be right. But now with noise that has returned I’m being passed off to another “shop foreman” as the one I’ve dealt with is at a loss. The guy hasn’t even made any attempts yet besides lubricating the strut bump stops. Hasn’t disconnected the swaybar, hooked up chassis ears, nothing. He has been on test drives and heard the noise, admits it’s abnormal, but says nothing is obviously wrong either.

Quality of techs these days is rough
 
I think it's the environment the tech's work in - devised by "efficiency experts" that are demanding repair times that are impossible to meet unless you take shortcuts and risk damage to the vehicle.

I don't know of any techs that clean vehicle's engines before they open them up; there is no time given for cleanliness. If you are lucky, they might use an air hose to blow off debris, but probably not.

Today's vehicles don't have the room under the hood older cars had because of aerodynamic design and minimization so everything is harder to reach without taking off three other things.

Anyway, there is a reason the field is hurting for people. It's a horrible job and the pay rate is stacked against you.

I follow several YT channels, and they all say pretty much the same thing. Rainman Ray's, South Main Auto, Royalty Auto, etc. All of these guys own their shops and don't run "book" rate jobs as a race, just for pricing. If the job runs longer, they go with it.

Dealer techs nowadays, IMO, are getting screwed over pretty bad. From my personal experience, every time I take my car in for warranty service it comes back with something broken by the tech and dirty inside with greasy fingerprints on the steering wheel. They don't even have time to take care of the little details that matter for customer satisfaction because their supervisor will berate them - I've seen it happen with my own eyes more than once.

No way I would do that job and suffer like that.
 
Last edited:
AZjeff said:
Are young techs supposed to be able to do a job as fast as an experienced tech? Who is teaching young techs? Should a 3 year tech expect to make the same money as a 15 year tech? I don't know the biz just asking questions.
Click to expand...
In my experience, everyone can do jobs as fast as each other once they’ve done them a few times. Sometimes the younger ones are even faster because they are more frantic and worried about making as may flat rate hours as possible. Most dealer techs (after they’ve “matured” or slowed down a bit) want to do a job with zero chance of it coming back…heck, even zero chance of you or another tech knowing they were even there. There were plenty of times I was accused of not doing a job because every hose clamp, wiring harness, retainer, etc, is perfectly back in place.

You usually learn by just diving in and doing it. If you start out as hourly then you can learn by floating around and helping. If you don’t, then you just dive in. If you get stuck, there’ll be someone you can lean on for some help. Maybe a salaried shop foreman, maybe another tech that you end up giving up some of your time to (8 hour job, give them a half hour or hour on your job).

The seniority (and certifications and ability) of the tech should affect their hourly rate. I passed all my ASEs within my first year of being employed and I was 18-19. My shop (a dealership) was supposed to give $2/hour extra for entry level guys like me when we passed ASEs, but they’d never had anyone be able to pass more than one at a time. They didn’t follow through with their $2 per hour per ASE promise for that.

But we did have a relatively young master tech that was actually really really good come and go a lot. It was a game some of the more qualified techs had to play to keep getting more certifications and money. One shop would only put so many people through the in person highest level manufacturers trainings. If your shop was not training you to your desires, you’d leave and find one who would. Of course every move you make is for more $. it’d really bother the types of guys who just stay at one shop forever, but some people were way more motivated than others.

My shop at the time in particular didn’t love that I learned so easily and progressed so fast. They expect people to stay hourly / lube tech / helpers pretty long. I think partially because most shops force the flat rate techs to pay the hourly help. Whether that is out of a shop fund or personally out of one or a small group of techs hours, that way it’s less out of the shop $.
 
I have 2 Toyotas and a Lexus, so I follow the Car Care Nut on YT: https://www.youtube.com/c/TheCarCareNutI
I do watch some Scott Kilmer once in a while just because he cracks me up: https://www.youtube.com/@scottykilmer

As for the quality of techs these days, yeah, I've seen some issues. Local shop that I've used for 20 years, seems to have fallen victim to the inexperienced and lazy tech issue the last few years. Getting cars home and there are still tools sitting on the cowling of the car when you open the hood. Brought the tools back and all I got was a "thanks". Same shop had to replace the actuator on my inlaws Kia Sportage because it wasn't blowing warm air. I do all the oil changes on this car BTW. They call and say the oil is dirty and ask if we want and oil and filter change. I politely decline. Fast forward a few months and it's oil change time. Drive the car up on ramps, get underneath and low and behold, my Wix filter is gone an a Valvoline filter is in it's place. Go to drop the drain plug, and I need a breaker bar to get the oil plug out, only to see that its been stripped near the bolt end by being overtightened, probably with an impact. Took me driving a screwdriver through the oil filter to even get it to budge. This place used to do the best work, but some of these newer techs just **** about customer's cars, they just want to move onto the next job. Its a shame really. I have my Sequoia back there now as there has been a rubbing vibration issue when the car has sat awhile have a brake/rotors/new tires job. If they screwed something up again, it's time for a new shop for me. Disappointing that I have to look for this stuff AFTER I get a car back from repair or service.
 
Social Media is just a highlight reel of what people want you to see and who knows what real or made up. They could be just saying things to drum up controversy and therefore content. I don’t believe anything I see on social media or what have you so no I don’t follow these people.
 
Ugh Scotty kilmer? No.
South main auto- I like this guy
Eric the car guy- back when he repaired I watched
Rainman ray I like
I liked to watching diag and repair. I stop watching when they start doing project cars.
 
t1snwrbrdr12 said:
You all follow any techs (dealer or independent) on social? I guess it tends to be more dealer techs, but my goodness they seem so young and dumb now.

I used to be a real tech, both dealer and independent, now work for a fleet. I try to follow various techs online to keep up with the real world and know what’s going on with newer cars. I don’t get any training or insight like that anymore.

A Toyota guy I follow just posted a video of asking all his fellow techs what’s the worst job they’ve done and why. They were all young, and every job that kicked their butts was ridiculous. If I remember right, they were complaining about a transmission replacement on a truck, an axle seal, a short block, etc etc. I couldn’t believe that these jobs bothered them so much and that they couldn’t beat warranty times…they flat out admitted that they basically took double or triple the times!

I follow a Honda guy or two as well. While they seem to do good work, they can only “diagnose” these things because they see it all the time. Lean code? Spray brake cleaner right exactly here to find this pinhole in a hose buried under the intake that you’d never know about. Turbo boost code? Replace the turbo. But on a side job, I’ll simply adjust the waste gate rod to take out the slack and it’ll be fine too…through the shop it’s getting a turbo recommended though…the adjustment isn’t even an option.

In my personal experience with my local Honda, I had thought relatively highly of the “shop foreman” as he helped me sort through a lot of noises with our new odyssey. He dismissed me showing him the noises at first, but after 3 or so visits finally found me to be right. But now with noise that has returned I’m being passed off to another “shop foreman” as the one I’ve dealt with is at a loss. The guy hasn’t even made any attempts yet besides lubricating the strut bump stops. Hasn’t disconnected the swaybar, hooked up chassis ears, nothing. He has been on test drives and heard the noise, admits it’s abnormal, but says nothing is obviously wrong either.

Quality of techs these days is rough
Click to expand...
Try watching The Car Edition (UK). They're young crass technicians who are entertaining but would not be BITOG approved and will do some serious wrenching with an engine hanging from a cherry picker or sitting on top of a stack of tires. Most of their content is comprised of short videos.

 
Last edited:
LouC said:
If having a wacky running or electronic/sensor/wiring problem check out Pine Hollow Auto Diagnostics. Guy is a wizard.
Click to expand...
That, and there is the actual "Car Wizard" (David Long), who used to costar in 'Car Issues" with Tyler Hoover.

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt16382820/



He is so deadpanned its hilarious. He perfectly offset and complimented Tyler's eternal goofiness.
 
t1snwrbrdr12 said:
In my personal experience with my local Honda, I had thought relatively highly of the “shop foreman” as he helped me sort through a lot of noises with our new odyssey. He dismissed me showing him the noises at first, but after 3 or so visits finally found me to be right. But now with noise that has returned I’m being passed off to another “shop foreman” as the one I’ve dealt with is at a loss. The guy hasn’t even made any attempts yet besides lubricating the strut bump stops. Hasn’t disconnected the swaybar, hooked up chassis ears, nothing. He has been on test drives and heard the noise, admits it’s abnormal, but says nothing is obviously wrong either.
Click to expand...
That's kind of a Honda issue. This is a hot take, but....Honda dealer techs tend to be less skilled than many brands since their vehicles are very simple and as a result, the techs are not exposed to intensive repairs (e.g. driveline overhauls or engine overhauls) or heavy troubleshooting. Honda isn't a full line automaker (no trucks) so your exposure is just limited.

The more senior Honda techs are often doing lower-skilled r/r repairs or wallet flushes all day....stuff that a C-Level tech would be doing at most other brands.
 
  • Like
Reactions: D60
I watch quite a few of them. South Main Auto, Pine Hollow Auto Diagnostics, Royalty Auto Service, Diagnose Dan, Scanner Danner, Schrodinger's Box, Phillip Bailey, Advanced Level Diagnostics, and some others. I have learned a lot from watching them, especially on the diagnostic side of things.

Of course, I have been working on vehicles since I was about 15 or 16 and so learned a lot of stuff just on my own since this was way before the internet and back then I didn't even have any service manuals to look at. I have always been very mechanically inclined so figuring out how stuff worked was pretty easy for me. These days I try working on as much stuff myself that I can and I have pretty much all of the tools to do so.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

S
What is this thing inside my new AC compressor? Does it come out before installation?
Replies
11
Views
476
CleanSump
B
2020 Sorento warranty work; CV boot
Replies
6
Views
417
zzyzzx
JTK
2021 Chevy Traverse AWD problem
Replies
11
Views
863
JTK
D
Where to take a Mercedes for an oil change when no MB dealer is nearby?
2 3
Replies
45
Views
4K
JeffKeryk
F
Crazy to consider a high mileage Ford Flex Ecoboost?
2
Replies
20
Views
432
ford46guy
Back
Top Bottom