The Wordless Picture Thread

[welshwizard]

Now you hook a machine.to it and read a list of codes and look up what is the problem.

I'd have to disagree strongly with this. In September I'll have worked in the vehicle repair business for 50 years. I was a Bosch system technician. The last five years have been as a technical trainer. Mostly bringing techs up to speed on EV and Hybrid systems. To know what DTCs (trouble codes) are telling you, you must have an in depth knowledge of modern systems. If I had a dollar for every part I've seen needlessly replaced "because the fault code said so" I'd be doing well. Since the arrival of various digital bus systems, like Bosch CAN, which interfaces powertrain management to brakes, transmission, and a whole host of other systems, you need to know exactly what you are doing diagnosis-wise. We have a major shortage of qualified techs in the UK. There are plenty of filter spinners, but not many guys that can use a 4 channel oscilloscope.

[PaulFLUS]

Well that's fair enough. You do have to know what the machine is saying and being intuitive enough to interpret it on top of what you've learned. It is still true though that in the old days you didn't have a machine telling you anything. Something I see a lot is a vehicle shows up in a repair shop with a no start situation. They run diagnostics and it comes back security system codes. So they call me to go out and reprogram the keys or the fob if it's a push button start or something. I'll go out to it, check that the transceiver is sending an RFID signal, check that the transponder in the key reads, if necessary perform parameter reset, program the key back in or a new one if the old one won't reprogram, plus a whole list of other things on a case-by-case basis and I can't get it to work either. The mechanic has done all they know to do, I have done all I know to do and everyone is scratching their head. Usually those go to the dealer and I don't often hear back about the cause. Sometimes though it's replacing the BCM or PCM or ECU but sometimes even then that doesn't fix it.
However, in the old days, although there were schools for mechanics people who were repairing their own vehicles didn't have the diagnostic tools or Google to look things up on and even at one point there were no Hanes or mitchells or Chilton's manuals to look it up in. You had to just learn it from someone else or learn it yourself the hard way. I guess maybe it's not really harder or easier exactly but mainly different. One thing I will say though is that making keys for cars these days very often is easier than it used to be mechanically speaking. There are readers on the market now that allow me to have the information I need to make the key in less than 5 minutes without taking anything apart or putting a file to a key. That notwithstanding, even this long after the advent of transponders in car keys people are still shocked when it cost them $200 or more to have keys made for their vehicle. The programming machines aren't cheap and some of them charge a per use fee sometimes called a token depending on the machine. Also the keys themselves are more expensive and the margins don't match. I actually made better money 30 years ago making keys for cars than I do today.

[outback]

I have to do it all, as a marine mechanic.

Computer diagnostic
Engine repair/ diagnostics
Cosmetic and structural repair
Plummer
Electrical engineer
Hydraulic engineer
HVAC
Trailer repair
ect. ect.....

Yet I do as little possible, to my own vehicle. Go figure.

WHY.!? cause I do it everyday, all day, for a living. I don't want to waste my free time, feeling like I'm still at work. Ive got to decompress.! God knows I've got plenty more things to do, being my wife is extremely lazy. Well...not so much lazy, more of a pro, at procrastination. Until it overwhelms her. Then I have to deal with it.!



So if it needs done, and done right...I gotta do it myself, or pay someone I trust will do it right.

[STF]

I have to do it all, as a marine mechanic.

Computer diagnostic
Engine repair/ diagnostics
Cosmetic and structural repair
Plummer
Electrical engineer
Hydraulic engineer
HVAC
Trailer repair
ect. ect.....

Yet I do as little possible, to my own vehicle. Go figure.

WHY.!? cause I do it everyday, all day, for a living. I don't want to waste my free time, feeling like I'm still at work. Ive got to decompress.! God knows I've got plenty more things to do, being my wife is extremely lazy. Well...not so much lazy, more of a pro, at procrastination. Until it overwhelms her. Then I have to deal with it.!



So if it needs done, and done right...I gotta do it myself, or pay someone I trust will do it right.

I get it Mike, my wife car is desperate for a good clean but i don't have time because I'm too busy shavin

[cudarunner]

Back to pictures--not really wordless but I'm sure my friend Dave would have approved:

[PaulFLUS]

Well I decided at one point that I was sick of working on vehicles and was just going to take it to someone to fix it... Then I got the bill. It's not that I think they're advertised labor rate is too high, hell, my labor rate is $100 per hour unless it's a fraternity hose and then it's $150 per hour from the time I pull up in the parking lot until the time I boil the tires out of it. But when the guy charged me $2,000 to replace a fuel pump that would have probably taken me 2 hours I said all right I can't do that. The problem is for me that I know what it's going to take to do a specific job, usually at least. I'm just not too hip to paying some joker 95 dollars - 125 dollars per hour to stand around and scratch his ass and drink coffee.
Edit: actually it was $1,800 and change but I rounded a little.

[spazola]

,...............

[Gasman]

I dont understand that one at all. But at least it a picture

[spazola]

It's an insulated platform in an old lightning prone fire lookout on top of a peak. Lots of grounding everywhere.

[PaulFLUS]

I dont understand that one at all. But at least it a picture

Yeah, getting a little chatty in the picture post. I'll shut up and post a picture now.