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For those of you who don't know my story, I'll just give you the quick and dirty abridged version. Through a series of happenstances and misfortunes, I wound up owning an auto shop in Las Vegas. This is not what I planned to be doing at this point in my life (I'm 27), but I've been told that life is what happens while you're busy making plans. A few years ago I was selling scar therapy products to plastic surgeons when my father-in-law and master mechanic approached me about taking over the family business. I'm still not quite sure why I said yes, but I did. It's certainly not for the money. If you think I'm a rich fatcat laughing all the way to the bank, then you are dead wrong. But, I've been making the most of it for the last few years, and I've learned a whole hell of a lot. You'll have to excuse me if I sometimes don't have the same technical understanding that some of you do, I'm a salesman by trade, but I'm smart enough to admit what I don't know, and I've always been a quick learner. That's enough backstory for now. If anybody really cares enough to delve deeper into it, ask me. In fact, let's make that a rule for my thread: If anything I post ITT requires further explanation, ask me. I'm not shy about sharing, and I will gladly talk about my business with anyone curious enough to ask or dense enough to listen. Those among you with a sharp memory may remember the thread I posted some time ago about doing the engine in that Ford Lighting for a very neglectful customer.   That poor loving truck has since been in two accidents and totaled (frame damage) with a new engine just shy of 10k miles    The shop has built this reputation in town over 35 years, of fixing things which otherwise cannot or would not be fixed. I like to think we're not the cheapest shop in town, but we're up among the most competent. We pride ourselves on finding and fixing problems the correct way, the first time, and being honest with our customers. Check this poo poo out.  My neighbor flagged me down on my way out the door this morning, and asked me to peek at their late model Mustang 5.0. They got a  GROUPON OIL CHANGE and were up-sold a belt. Drove it home no problem, parked it, went to jump in it for their morning commute, and found a puddle of coolant under the car. Now, I'm not a classically trained mechanic, BUT, I'm reasonably sure that the belt routing does NOT go through the lower radiator hose. I told them to tow it back to that shop and make them fix it for free, because it's covered under their warranty now. That's about par for the course for a majority of shops in my city, unfortunately, and I see this kind of thing all the time. The cheapest job is not always the cheapest job, but a lot of people don't understand what that means until they've been hosed like this. I do not let jobs leave my shop half assed, I refuse to do business that way. Repairing the $17 specials is a big source of revenue for me.Living in the desert gives me a decidedly unique car culture than what most of you are accustomed to. Nothing rusts, but batteries, tires, and hoses are never long for this world. But I'll take that seven ways to sunday, because of cars like this.    Sorry for the quality, I'm not the greatest photographer sometimes. That's a 92 Geo Metro with 42k original miles, and probably the last clean one still on the road. I smog check and charge its A/C around this time every year. I tried to buy it this time around, after that Suzuki Cappuccino thread got me hot and bothered for a Japanese 3cyl drop top. Alas, the owner was not receptive to my $700 firm offer. Oh well, maybe next year. SMOG CHECKS! I almost forgot to mention those. Nevada is a smog state after all the morons from California moved here because the cost of living is cheaper, then subsequently started voting in all the same retarded emission laws that made the cost of living soar in the first place, but I digress. We're a G2 Certified Smog Test & Repair Facility(tm), and that is not an easy thing to say. DMV takes this very seriously, and fixing cars which have failed smog is a big moneymaker for the shop, since ONLY a G2 Certified Smog Test & Repair Facility(tm) may perform the repairs. I plan on making this thread a repository for all the hosed up poo poo I see, so let's get started with my current shop project, replacing the engine in a '99 Chevy Express 2500.      The biggest thing wrong is it had no compression on cyl #5, and the customer is wily enough to install a new engine. It's got a lot of other incidental jobs that will also be done with the engine out, because to not would be silly. Radiator, hoses, water pump, engine/tranny mounts, belt pullies/tensioner/harmonic balancer, fuel pressure regulator, alternator, power steering pump, umm... I'm probably forgetting something but you get the idea.  There's our new long block, fresh from the dealer. I install dealer engines for one reason, warranty. If that engine is at all suspect under the 3year/100k mile warranty period, it's the dealers problem and not mine. Customer can take this van to any GM dealer nationwide and get their poo poo warrantied. That's pretty awesome, and although Jasper and Engines Direct and a whole bunch more re-builders can beat the dealers price on a long block by a few hundred bucks, and I do price them out, the warranty work is my responsibility. Ask me about my forklift. Have a picture of my ridiculous dog, Turbo, for your time, and thanks for checking out my downward spiral into madness. (Pet Volcano crosspost?)  
DrPain fucked around with this message at 21:19 on Mar 10, 2014 |
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Mar 10, 2014 20:24
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cursedshitbox posted:I miss that forklift. and some of the shop shenanigans. Official book time is 23.8 hours, and I'd like to meet the super tech who can make that happen.
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Mar 10, 2014 21:14
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Voltage posted:1) Very cool - one of my unlikely aspirations is to run a garage so I'm interested to see how this works! 1) I suggest locking yourself in a dark closet until that feeling passes. 2) No, but I've hired and immediately fired half a dozen jerkoffs with ASE etc... 'training' 3) We've never got into an Audi timing mess, thankfully, but we do service all makes and models.
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Mar 10, 2014 21:32
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Slavvy posted:Is that an unusual camera angle or does the dog actually look like that? Also, do you make jokes like the turbo is whining or the turbo burst a seal? He was eating something at the time of that picture, but yes he's usually in various stages of derp. I make Turbo jokes with regularity. I mean no disrespect to anyone who didn't crawl out of a pumpkin patch with ASE certification, I'm just speaking personally. There very well may be legit ASE guys out there, but I haven't met any.
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Mar 10, 2014 21:47
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Seat Safety Switch posted:I remember that Lightning. Too bad it's dead. The dog! Where do I even start? Turbo is not just a clever name for a car guy's dog, that dog is legitimately FAST. You'll never catch him unless he wants to be loved. He's a 9lb shih-tzu, all black with white racing stripes on his legs, and does just about the most ridiculous things I've ever seen a dog do. Spastic would be another apt description for him. Standing still that goofy dog can jump about 3.5-4 feet straight up into the air, and even more if he gets a running start. My wife got him for me for Christmas one year, and honestly she'll never top that. He is my little buddy and I love him to death. He loves to play fetch, he does it on instinct alone, and will continue with that till he is absolutely exhausted. If you throw something, anything, he WILL retrieve it. He has a thing for my socks, when I come home and take my socks off he thinks I am throwing them for him to retrieve. I'm trying unsuccessfully to break him of that habit, even though it's hilarious when he digs through my laundry on laundry day and makes piles of socks.   The forklift I inherited. It's a 1947 model year, so I've been told, but nobody is quite sure of the make. It's a bit of a Frankenstein's monster at this point, but it's extremely loving useful for taking deliveries, and my neighbors/property super really love me for having it around. It's earned me more than a few favors, and bailed me out of a few more lovely situations. Fantastic tool to have handy. I highly recommend everyone learn to rebuild hydraulics and buy one. The possibilities are endless.  Here it is stabbing the lighting's engine in, I just looked and realized I don't have many pictures of it doing work, but I assure you we use it regularly. The only reason we got the cherry picker out for the van's engine is because everything in that van is packed so tightly together, and we could not get the forklift's boom in there. Speaking of, that lighting has had one foot in the grave the whole time we've ever been servicing it. Immediately following the fresh engine install on the lighting, the owner ran no less than six thousand loving actual miles without getting an oil change. Per Ford, an oil change at 500 miles is required, and 3k thereafter, to keep the warranty valid. So I can't imagine that it would have lasted very much longer anyway. I'm kind of glad it's been sent to the big hook in the sky. Rest now, young lighting, your suffering is at last at an end. I considered putting up the money to buy it back from insurance for crazy project shenanigans, but honestly I want to own no part of that poor neglected machine. lovely mechanics? I briefly tried to employ CSB because I was tired of his project thread languishing in stages of incompleteness, but my father-in-law, Mark, can sometimes rub people the wrong way, myself included, and CSB moved on to better things. I was spooky slow for some unknown reason at that time anyway, no hard feelings. Mark's talent cannot be overstated, I've seen that man do the impossible more than once. His business and interpersonal skills, however, leave much to be desired. I've fixed the business end of things, but at the end of the day he's a crotchety old man set in his ways. Love ya, pops! As far as non-goon mechanics, I've tried UTI graduates, I've tried light line techs from dealership teams hoping to train them up, I've tried hiring the all-star techs away from other shops, and they all end up loving me. I've bailed mechanics out of jail so they can show up to work on Monday, then come Monday, and their loving toolbox is gone and their loving job is half done. I'm kind of over trying to hire new blood, and will be sticking with my old man mechanics until something forces my hand to hire again. Here's what I know about hiring mechanics; The good ones know they are a rarity, and are all happily employed. So they'll only jump ship for a ridiculous wage, and that would force myself to be selling work of questionable necessity just to make the money I need to pay for them. I don't blame them, go make your money, but I don't want to up-sell magic beans to people just to get my A++ tech a guaranteed 100 hours of flag time per week, either. DrPain fucked around with this message at 23:40 on Mar 10, 2014 |
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Mar 10, 2014 23:20
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It's interesting to read all these romantic notions of shop ownership/management. Guys, this poo poo sucks. I haven't had a decent night's sleep in months. I have the city, county, state, and feds on my rear end for the most menial of stupid bullshit. Maybe if everybody involved were getting filthy stinking rich that might be ok, but that is far from the truth. I don't get sick days. Hell I don't even get days off. The shop is closed on weekends for the benefit of my employees, but I've always got thoughts about the shop rolling around in my head. I've grown to hate holidays, because it means lost revenue. I pay for 100% of my insurance. When the shop is slow, I get to sign everybody else's checks and not pay myself just so I can make it through another week. I could go on. Heavy is the head which wears the crown.
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Mar 10, 2014 23:58
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Goonshop: Laughing all the way to the bank(ruptcy). It's officially A/C season, I wrote my first compressor estimate for 2014 today, a 2006 Pontiac GTO, no less! We've been working on the owners families cars/trucks for about a year, but this is their first time in with their GTO. The sunlight makes pictures facing the garage doors turn out really, really lovely, so I'm gonna post car butt shots mostly when we use the two post racks unless I can figure something else out.   This A/C machine is tits. Another handy dandy tool.  PUT A LS IN... oh.  Customer states A/C inop and noisy. Test & inspect A/C system to find bad compressor and metal filings throughout system. Recommend flush system, remove and replace A/C compressor, drier, expansion valve, vacuum and charge. Total est, $1650 plus tax. They'll be back next week for the repair. BOOM. That'll pay some bills. The noise however was not coming from the A/C, rather, inside the engine. We suspect a valve lifter, but that would require further diagnosis. When it's back for the compressor we'll have more time to investigate that.  Meanwhile work continues on the van's new long block, we got all the old bits transferred over today. Looks like exhaust manifolds were going on in this picture. Those valve covers are wrong, and won't fit in our van so we're going to reuse the old valve covers, no biggie.
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Mar 11, 2014 00:55
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Motronic posted:Wait....what......you just went from an A/C job to a longblock on the floor. You ARE a salesman. I mean, we did an oil change on a beat to poo poo '00 Toyota Echo, and a starter on a '03 Taurus today too, but I didn't feel those were really thread-able. They totally bit on the A/C, I have them scheduled to drop it off the morning of the 17th, and this customer has never nocall/noshow'd before. The compressor is absolutely bad, no question. I wouldn't sell it if it wasn't. We routinely replace leaky o-rings on compressors rather than replace the compressor itself when we can manage it. Most shops won't even attempt that. A/C in Las Vegas is a huuuge part of what we do here, naturally. I would love to do nothing but A/C, brakes, and tune-ups all day everyday, but unfortunately to earn repeat business and loyal customers you gotta do the other stuff too. DrPain fucked around with this message at 01:41 on Mar 11, 2014 |
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Mar 11, 2014 01:11
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kastein posted:I take offense to this, my engine hoist is offroad capable and will pick up a bridgeport no sweat. That 23.8 is R&R time. I bump our labor quotes by a fair amount when we know the book is being a filthy loving liar. Book time is a funny thing. As I understand it, the times are determined by having an experienced tech with professional tools and a hoist do the job three separate times. Those times are then averaged into 'book time'. So sure, if you know exactly what tools you'll need to do every job beforehand, and have all your sockets laid out neatly on a bench in the order that you will need them, and don't spend any of your time going "WHERE THE gently caress IS THAT TOOL I JUST HAD", then you might have a fighting chance at 'book time'. Believe it or not, I've had a bit of a terrible customer drought lately. Probably because I don't take their poo poo and fired them all.
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Mar 11, 2014 16:44
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cursedshitbox posted:I'm not sure that one makes all that much torque. but its all in the tranny. Uh, no, the off camber hills in my lovely parking lot are loving TERRIFYING in the forklift with two bad rear tires. I've got it up on 2 wheels before, and came close to ditching it.
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Mar 11, 2014 17:47
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 This is my woe begotten 96 Ranger 2.3L with 258k miles, and I've had a hell of a time getting it passed smog this year. I nabbed it from a customer a year ago when they didn't want to fix it, and of course when I didn't own it yet it passed smog no problem! 96 is the first year of OBDII smog checks, so in order to register my vehicle I must please a computer designed 20+ years ago. I think this is rather silly, and I know it would pass a tail pipe emissions probe. When I first bought it I immediately did an oil change, fuel filter, timing belt, fuel filler neck, and purge control solenoid to get it running right and fix some evap system leaks. It came with stock 14" wheels and lovely old rubber, but I ran those until the tread started peeling (I am the tread separation whisperer, you see), then jumped into these cheap black 15" steelies. I had to modify the spare tire mount to fit a 5th full size 15" steelie as a spare, and I had hoped that would provide a little more rear end end traction, but the truck just laughed at me and fishtails anyway. I ran it that way up until about a month ago when I had it up on a hoist for an oil change and replaced the old worn rear end shocks to stiffen up the ride. Radiator was leaking at that time so it got replaced, too. I'm convinced the old radiator must have been partially clogged, because it's been running a LOT colder ever since we installed the new rad. Now that my registration is due and convinced I must have a thermostat issue, I replaced the stat, housing, both temp senders, all to no avail. A genuine motorcraft thermostat and some cardboard in front of the radiator got the temp up to where I'd like to see it for now. It's a 96 so it'll smog with 2 emission monitors unset. The 5 monitors this truck has being EVAP, EGR, O2 Heater, O2, and Cat. EGR and EVAP set no problem, but none of the O2 monitors or cat would set, as it uses the O2's to check the cat, so that makes sense, but an O2 heater should set from a cold start. Yesterday I threw some O2 sensors in it and welded up an exhaust leak, and I've got good upstream and downstream activity, but still no further monitors set. Took it on another drive cycle today (4 days before my registration is expired  ) and FINALLY got the O2 heater and O2 sensors passed their monitors and smogged the loving miniature beast.I'm just glad this wasn't a customers car, because goddamn, I'd be more pissed off if it was. Quit being so loving needy, you're a cheap old truck and I treat you well!!! It runs great now, though, to be sure.  TREAD SEPARATION! It's an unfortunate hobby of mine.   This is a a customer's very awesome 86 Chevy C30 dualie pickup. The truck's name is 'Earl' and I'm sorry that I don't have better pictures of the truck itself, but use your imagination, it's a clean old truck and I love it to death. I had to move a fridge and some furniture, and my ranger was not up and running at the time, so I offered this very cool, longtime established customer a discount on their bill if I could borrow the truck for a few hours after we finished the repairs on it. They agreed and off I went. I loaded up my things and began driving towards my new house. I get on the beltway about a mile from my house and the left front wheel starts dancing on me. I thought maybe the wheel was out of balance, turns out the loving tread was ready to peel away and thank god it didn't wrap around the steering on the freeway when it did let go. Customer was cool like the other side of the pillow, I paid for the tow back to the shop and they bought a new tire. "Better you than me!" They said. Nice people. I don't borrow customer's cars anymore. DrPain fucked around with this message at 01:02 on Mar 15, 2014 |
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Mar 11, 2014 20:36
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The most rust we'll ever see are on transplanted cars, and those are usually never very bad. I was silly enough to buy a 1990 4Runner that spent untold years parked out in the southern utah snow, and ugh can I just say I do not envy you poor bastards who deal with that poo poo on a daily basis. DrPain fucked around with this message at 21:20 on Mar 11, 2014 |
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Mar 11, 2014 21:02
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1986 was a good year. We had two examples in the shop today as old as I am. '86 Blazer with a ridiculous suspension lift and steamroller tires. It's been burning oil like a motherfucker on 5/8 cylinders for several years. We've tried to sell the owner a new engine once or twice, but they insist on feeding it spark plugs till they sell the truck all together. They say it's for sale, but it never gets sold, you know how that goes. It came in today for an A/C charge, smog check, and the rear u-joints tend to get angry every so often because of the extreme lift, so we replaced those too. Too soon for another set of spark plugs. I think by this point in time if they had bought an engine at the first sign of trouble instead of feeding it plugs they would have saved money by now. I've explained this to them, but some people are immune to good advice it seems.  '86 Monte Carlo SS. Sweet ride, shame about those wheels. Also in for a smog check, and some oil leaks. The wheels are all, all wrong for the vehicle and rub on the body something fierce. The owner is a widow and the car belonged to her late husband so she isn't changing it as a tribute to him. I don't have the heart to tell her that her husband bought the wrong drat wheels and they don't fit. She wouldn't listen to me anyway, as I said this car is now her tribute to her late husband's questionable automotive tastes. This car is a bit of a basket case, the suspension work is gone to poo poo, the upper control arm shafts are loose and the shims have fallen out of place. We're going to do our best to get it as safe as one can expect with the wrong drat wheels installed.
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Mar 12, 2014 00:35
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InitialDave posted:Have good people dealing with the technical details, listen to them when they say something is impossible or just plain wrong (but make sure they can back it up), and balance that against the fact that it's not their business, and technical people are often not all that mindful of the realities of a business. I do, and I try to make it make sense to me before I go shooting my mouth off to a customer. Sound advice, thanks! Mr. Wiggles posted:I'm so not jealous that you guys have to deal with smog checks down there. That's simply not a thing here in the cow counties. I'm dreading it if I ever move back into civilization - I think I might have one car that would pass smog. Well the good news is you know where to find me should you ever require assistance.
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Mar 12, 2014 00:59
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BrokenKnucklez posted:Firing customers is the best business decision you can make as well. My G/Fs dad runs a muffler/small repair shop and as of a couple of years now, he just has been firing customers because hes sick of the bullshit. Surprisingly they come back and stop bitching and just do what tells them to do. It's seriously one of my sick joys in life to watch people deflate and start apologizing when I tell them "Hey, listen, maybe you should go find another shop to piss off, huh?". Mostly it'll be someone who roars into the shop and DEMANDS we install "ALL NEW PLUGS AND WIRES", without mentioning a complaint, then when they pick up the vehicle come at me with the "YOU SONS OF BITCHES THAT MISFIRE IS STILL THERE! YOU BASTARDS RIPPED ME OFF RABBLE RABBLE RABBLE". Sorry bro, I've got your authorization in writing on a work order which states "Customer request all new plugs and wires" not "Customer states misfire". Big difference. I hope the plus and wires you ordered us to install on your vehicle fix whatever it is you think is wrong.  That was the last customer I fired. I tried to get him to let us diagnose his problem, but 'what do you know you're just some dumbass mechanics' is the attitude I got from him. I've got a way with people and a real high tolerance for bullshit too, so it takes a special kind of rear end in a top hat to get fired from my shop, but it does happen maybe once or twice a year on average. DrPain fucked around with this message at 02:10 on Mar 12, 2014 |
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Mar 12, 2014 02:07
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Slavvy posted:You're just a dumbass mechanic what would you know! Why, I'd fit these plugs and wires myself if it weren't for *reasons* Bingo. This was of course his spare vehicle he allowed us to work on. His daily is some manner of PORSCHE and the word always fell so elegantly out of his big stupid mouth. He had to make sure everyone knew that beater was not his daily.
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Mar 12, 2014 15:30
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BrokenKnucklez posted:Was it a worn out old Boxster? Don't know, never got to work on it. But that would not surprise me.
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Mar 12, 2014 15:32
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We are rocking & rolling today, we have many fun things going on. First up is a 1991 Chevy pickup. Don't let the multitude of 454 SS stickers and badges fool you, it's only got a 305.  This is a referral from our friends the hispanic mechanics next door. They aren't a smog shop, and therefore cannot perform failed smog repair like we can, so their customers failed smog repairs are another big stream of income for our shop. It's kind of a funny relationship we have with the shop next door. We don't speak much Spanish, and they don't speak much English, yet we manage to communicate and get along just fine. I would describe it as Han-and-Chewie-esque. I'll be Chewie for all you social justice jerks out there.   Holy poo poo I take bad pictures. This truck came in with not one but TWO failed smog tickets. It failed on the machine Monday of this week at some drive by smog hut for 1.8% carbon monoxide (you're allowed 1.2% maximum). The owners took it home and 'tuned it up'. Some tune up they did, on Tuesday it failed again for 2.0% CO, AND 550 ppm hyrdro carbons (unspent fuel, you're allowed up to 220 ppm), AND visible smoke. Pre-1996 model year vehicles are subject to a tail pipe gas analysis and a visual inspection which checks for tampering and visible smoke. We repaired some vacuum lines, adjusted ignition timing, repaired the mickey mouse wiring to the O2 sensor, replaced the sensor itself, to get it passed smog. With that out of the way, we were able to add to the ticket replacing a leaky oil pressure switch, and leaky thermostat. About $450 out the door for all that including the smog. I'll give Juan (Han) a fair kickback for the referral, he's a super nice guy.  Next up is CSB's favorite 1990 Jeep Cherokee Wagoneer. This very stately single-owner jeep has been around the block a time or two, with the original 4.0 at something north of 270k miles. And when I say single-owner, I mean it. Check out his litany of registrations.  This jeep has been on it's last legs for quite some time, yet the owner refuses to let it finally die. It's in today for what I really hope does not turn into a headgasket job, but that's what all the symptoms are sounding like. Further diagnosis will be required, obviously, but we've got the approval to do whatever is necessary as the owner has been coming to us for a very, very long time.  One of my parts store sales reps was kind enough to bring a Seafoam rep by, so we got a ton of free Seafoam swag today. The rep wanted to demo their new aerosol product, so my 96 Ranger got the full Seafoam treatment. The aerosol product does not produce as big a smoke cloud as the stuff you pour in, and I was disappointed. I won't turn this into a shameless shill, but drat I love Seafoam, and free stuff owns.  After much mechanical convincing, we got the engine stabbed into the van yesterday. Further reassembly took place today.  Slowly we will entomb the new engine piece by piece and hopefully it will be running soon.
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Mar 12, 2014 22:51
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It's the 4.0 auto. I think it's ready for a rebuilt engine, but I got outvoted by the mechanical staff and we're doing a headgasket, I just got the word.
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Mar 12, 2014 23:04
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ShittyPostmakerPro posted:Do you guys have a facebook page? I love your updates, and I'm sure potential customers might like to see what kind of work you're doing and how successful you seem. Um, yes? But I don't think my customers would appreciate every 3rd word being "gently caress" "drat" "rear end" etc... And I really, really, hate pandering.
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Mar 12, 2014 23:23
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kastein posted:Symptoms? You're way more of a professional mechanic than I am, but my old 4.0 had been run for 100 miles (not consecutively, it leaked like a sieve and occasionally I forgot to fill it up, then just said gently caress it and drove another 5 miles home with zero oil pressure and rattling lifters) without oil, had a ring ridge probably 7-12 thou tall, horribly gooped up pistons and valves, sludge over a half inch thick everywhere in the head, copper showing on something like 2/3 of the surface area of the rod bearings, etc and that drat thing ran like a top and had good power with no bad noises... at over 250k miles. They're stupid hard to kill. I've read your thread and are... are you talking to me when you say "professional mechanic"? It's been leaking oil like a sieve, first we fixed the power steering reservoir and valve cover gasket and told him to steam clean it. He did, and oil is still leaking from the right hand side of the head itself, so uh, that was a pretty easy diag. "Professional mechanic" 
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Mar 13, 2014 00:08
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interwhat posted:Mmm, I want to live this life and not the dealer life. Hmu if you're interested in an Audi/vw guy from the rust coast! No ASEs but Audi and vw certified and that's what counts! Yeah? Wanna trade? I'm not sure what you mean by full height, but we have the one 4 post drive up rack that we have the vans engine job on currently, and we also have a pair of two post rotary lifts.  Here is one of the two post lifts doing some work. We put a fuel pump in this '01 Expedition the day after Christmas, and I remember that because I thought to myself "Who the gently caress has this kind of money to spend, literally the day after Christmas?". Anyway, they called me shortly after new years to say that it has been stalling at 1/4th of a tank on the gauge ever since we put the fuel pump in. I told them return to the shop ASAP for warranty service. Clearly it must not be a very big priority for them, because they just showed up yesterday. We suspected either the float got damaged on install or something is wrong with the sending unit, so we warrantied it out. I'm a little concerned now though, because the float on the old pump seems to be operating normally, and the gauge is still reading 1/4th tank with the new module assembly installed.  The suspected defect pump in question. We're going to test drive it today and see if we can get it to stall. DrPain fucked around with this message at 18:23 on Mar 13, 2014 |
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Mar 13, 2014 18:15
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Precision.
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Mar 13, 2014 18:19
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The thermostat housing on my Ranger 2.3L is a real mother bitch, too. Timing cover is right there in the way, as is a wiring harness, and it's real easy to let the stat get cockeyed in the housing trying to fit it past all that poo poo and get it bolted down. I did mine about half a dozen times before I finally got it right, and with the correct stat, too.
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Mar 14, 2014 18:06
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kastein posted:Assuming that the fuel level sender shows more fuel as a higher resistance, you should check the black/olive green traced wire at connectors 415 (at the fuel pump), 148, and 160. Measure voltage to ground at each point, anything over say 100 millivolts is probably cause for concern. If it isn't that, I bet it's a corroded pin in the signal wiring from the sender to the instrument panel... which is a yellow wire with a white tracer and goes through all the same connectors. Update on the Expedition: We tested the float out of the tank by manually moving it to the top and bottom of it's travel. The gauge never went below 1/8th of a tank with the float at the bottom, and indeed, it does go about 1/8th of a tank over full with the float at the top of it's travel. Also checked what the ECU was reporting on our scan tool, and it matched the gauge, give or take. To satisfy my own curiosity, I ordered a GENUINE MOTORCRAFT fuel pump and ran the same test, and the gauge is working normally. So clearly there is something not exactly correct in the way this sending unit reports its information to the ECU on this vehicle. I'm on very good terms with my parts suppliers so that allowed me to buy the OE part on my charge account for testing, and return it later that day. I called the customer and explained the situation. I offered him the option of paying the difference between the precision pump and the motorcraft pump (about $100) and we would install the OE part labor free, OR, just make a mental note, maybe even a note on the dash, that 1/8th tank is the new empty. He chose the latter, as he does not plan on owning the vehicle very much longer. Status: resolved.  OneOverZero posted:Last legs or not, if this is a clean as it looks, I absolutely WOULD fly cross-country if said owner is interested in selling. I'll feel him out for you, have some more pictures in the meantime. It absolutely was the head gasket leaking oil on the passengers side. Pretty badly, too, as the customer described it, "pooling", and towed it in. The drivers seat is badly worn out and collapsed on the left side. I find this infuriating, I have no idea how the owner drives like that, but I also have a bigger rear end. Also, there is some kind of problem with the neutral safety switch that got 'fixed' years and years ago by installing a start button. I wasn't around yet for that job so I can only tell you what I've been told.         Meanwhile! I get to fire a customer today! Check out this piece of crap '02 Mitsubishi Galant.  The customer is a broke student and known idiot. They have hosed us on quite literally every job we've ever done on their car. I spent far too long in college myself, so I "get" the broke student lifestyle. Because of this, I am sympathetic to their situation, and try to help them out within reason. This person, however has pissed me off for the last time. First time they came in, THEIR FRIEND WHO KNOWS ABOUT CARS (this is a common theme with this customer) says they needed a new alternator, but couldn't install it. We very graciously installed a customer supplied part (no warranty expressed or implied) and ate the loss in profit on the part, hoping it would earn their business in the future. No big deal. Second time they came in, the lube-n-tune or whatever by their house had diagnosed a bad right rear wheel hub while they were there for an oil change. "OH NO NO!" they said, "I'M GOING TO MY MECHANIC WHO I TRUST!!". They arrive at the shop, we confirm the diagnosis (which I was not expecting coming in hot from a lube-n-tune), and write an estimate parts & labor to repair it. It was a nominal amount more than the lube-n-tune's estimate, so they went back there to have that job done. I didn't charge them diagnosis time, again trying to earn their future business and establish trust, but in hindsight, I really should have. Third time they came in, it would not idle. After ruling out all the easy poo poo, we found a crack in the weld on the intake manifold, creating a gigantic vacuum leak. Once again, our estimate was too rich for their blood, and THEIR FRIEND WHO KNOWS ABOUT CARS (the one who couldn't install an alternator) had offered to fix it for much, much less. That's their choice, and I understand why they would choose that option given their situation, so I charged them a full hour of diag time and sent them on their merry way. I got a call a week or so later and come to find out, THEIR FRIEND WHO KNOWS ABOUT CARS could not locate a replacement manifold at any price. They did not call me to schedule the repair, but rather, ask where I had found the part. Unbelievable!! "JUNKYARD" I told them, it was a lie, but I've got to protect my profit at this point in the relationship, and so "If you want the job done, you may schedule it with me" was my final answer. After that I figured we'd never see them again, they got pissed at me for not divulging my parts source. About a month ago they came in, the car is misfiring and shuddering something fierce. We diagnose bad valve cover gasket leaking oil into the plug holes, which in turn causes a misfire. To make matters worse, all 3 engine and the 1 trans mount are shot (guess who just replaced those!!), and the engine is doing it's best paint shaker impersonation. I told them we were far too busy to take on any more work at this time, basically politely yet firmly told them we don't want their business. They called me every tuesday morning for the next month to see how busy we were, and if their job could be scheduled. That kind of persistence must have struck a cord with my sales background, or maybe I thought they had finally learned that the cheapest job is not the cheapest job. But for whatever reasons I scheduled them in for yesterday morning, completely against my better judgement. God I should have gone with my gut on this one. The car was dropped off very early yesterday morning, before I got to the shop, and the mechanic who opened the shop and took the car in did not get a signature on the work order, officially approving the work. Usually not that big a deal, and mostly an unnecessary formality for the vast majority of good honest people we do work for. For this particular customer, however, I really needed a signed work order for peace of mind. By the time I got to the shop the mechanic has already removed and replaced all 4 engine/trans mounts, and was working on the valve cover gasket and tune up. This is a great time to illustrate why the 'book time' is a big loving liar for a lot of jobs. This valve cover comes off in no time at all, and the entire remove & replace gasket job pays .5 hours by the book, BUT that is assuming the old gasket is still pliable and comes out in one piece. It didn't.    New gasket is blue, must be for RACIN'.  As you can see, the old gasket was so brittle and baked-on that it literally had to be dug out of the valve cover piece by lovely piece, taking significantly longer than the half hour book time. C'est la vie, life goes on, can't change the quote now, nothing worth getting worked up over. The job was finished, and the invoice written up. I call the customer and they claim that they did not want the mounts done, only valve cover and tune up. What? I'm holding here in my possession as I type this the work order which very clearly says otherwise. After much back and forth I tell them they can either pay for the job or I'll put a lien on the vehicle. Of course they didn't sign the work order, so I guess technically legally speaking they did not approve any of the work, but we for sure talked about doing all of it, or I wouldn't have written it down on the work order. I'm really not trying to be an rear end in a top hat, I swear! The customer eventually became irate and hung up on me, I parked the vehicle inside and have not heard from them since, but this will absolutely be the last time we touch that vehicle. 
DrPain fucked around with this message at 00:20 on Mar 15, 2014 |
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Mar 14, 2014 22:18
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cursedshitbox posted:You always wanted a shop project car. now you have one. If I end up owning this car I will set it on fire. That is not hyperbole. Good lookin' out on the Jeep, Ken. You are, as always, a master of your craft.
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Mar 14, 2014 23:55
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Huggable Bear King posted:Huh, well I actually feel much better about that little gently caress up now. It paid the Chrysler price 
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Mar 15, 2014 16:28
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The customer with the '02 Mitsubishi came by this morning with someone pretending to be a lawyer. I say pretending because the person refused to identify them self and dodged the question when I asked "Sir, have you passed the bar?" and "Sir, are you an officer of the law?" and "Sir, is your name on the title of the vehicle?". They made all kinds of vague and empty legal threats, droning on about unauthorized work and quoting the Nevada Revised Statues to me as if I don't know the ridiculous draconian letter of the law by which I am unfortunately governed. After much arguing, I had one of my guys pull the new engine mounts back off, and re-install their lovely broken mounts. I told them in no uncertain terms that we don't want their business anymore. In the course of our argument I explained how we have lost money quite literally every time that miserable car has been in our shop, and I had him holding back laughter after maybe 15 minutes because even he could see how goddamn ridiculous the situation is. We operate on mutual trust and respect, and do good honest work for good honest people. While I understand what the law states, it would be absurd to operate in full compliance of the letter of the law, requiring customers to sign their name in writing to every stupid dollar we want them to spend. Absolutely no work gets done that way, let's be real. The van is up and running, although we had some problems getting timing set. First we had the distributor 180 degrees out, then we had plug wires on #5 and #7 crossed. But once we found our mistakes, it set crank/cam correlation easy peasy and now runs like an absolute champ. Took it out on a test drive and it had developed a severe water leak from the water pump. We warrantied it out and, fingers crossed, god willing, that'll be it!!! I called the customer with the good news and they were elated. See you in 500 miles for an oil change, my good sir. Guess how many pieces of paper the van owner signed before we did literal thousands of dollars of repairs? If you guessed none, then you are correct!! In other shop goings on, the aforementioned '06 GTO returned for the previously diagnosed a/c job!  We fixed a fuel vapor smell by installing a new gas cap on a 94 suburban! Work continues on the jeep!
DrPain fucked around with this message at 01:02 on Mar 18, 2014 |
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Mar 17, 2014 23:51
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Slavvy posted:Does Nevada not have some kind of clause where phone authorisation is equivalent to a physical signature? That's what happens in NZ and it is a legally valid method. No, and this wanna-be lawyer friend harped on that fact with extreme conviction.
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Mar 18, 2014 00:45
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cursedshitbox posted:gently caress that guy in the arse. seriously. It seems to be a thing almost anywhere though. I've had poo poo like this happen to me a time or two. Can I sublet your expert, discreet, rear end wrecking services?  The only thing that concerns me now is that Mitsubishi has way more problems lurking, timing belt is not in good shape, for example, and I just have a funny feeling that whatever, whenever something else brakes it'll be my fault in their lovely opinion. I do not accept personal checks, and I kind of even hate waiting 30 days net for some of my bigger contractor type accounts. Slavvy posted:I've gotta say, the fact that you have a direct, personal stake in your successes and somehow manage to run the shop without being an absolute piece of poo poo is genuinely heart-warming. My bottom line has seen better days, for what it's worth, but thank you.
DrPain fucked around with this message at 01:39 on Mar 18, 2014 |
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Mar 18, 2014 01:35
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Update on the van, I just called the dealer for core pickup, and was informed that there is no core deposit. So I've got an entirely rebuild-able Chevy 305. Now I kind of wish I was able to snag that 92 Geo, because I already found a carb/manifold/rebuild kit. some texas redneck posted:Not even the same line of work, but the pizza place I currently deliver for is the first one I've worked in about 10 years that accepts checks. Though I only handle a couple of them a week, we still have a bunch of checks bounce (I'd guess 5-10% of them). More than credit card disputes for sure. It's a little different when I'm risking hundreds or potentially thousands of dollars though. I don't think a bad check on a $20 pizza will sink you guys, but yeah it sounds like that lady didn't want pizza all that badly then. DrPain fucked around with this message at 19:07 on Mar 18, 2014 |
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Mar 18, 2014 19:03
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which we normally won't take, but she claimed she hadn't gotten her debit card yet (which is probably true since she's rocking temp checks). The account is from a bank that mostly deals with people with poor banking history (one of those that primarily has branches inside of Wal-Mart, and charges fees for every-loving-thing you can imagine, including just checking your balance at an ATM - I used them briefly years ago). Only reason I accepted it is I've delivered to her is she's a semi-regular. Boss wasn't too happy about it.
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BrokenKnucklez posted:No core deposit on the block? Thats.... unusual. Right? I guess the 305 is slated for obsolescence and the dealer has enough in stock that they don't want the cores back anymore. We vary rarely see transplanted vehicles, and the ones that do show up usually spent at most 2 or 3 years back east so what rust did accumulate isn't going anywhere now.
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Mar 18, 2014 19:09
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Is it even worth rebuilding these? I'm looking at like $800-$1000 in (new) parts alone. My gut says no when a new long block can be had for twice that. Maybe if I could find a salvage manifold, but even at that, I'm not sure I want to spend that money on a 305. DrPain fucked around with this message at 20:11 on Mar 18, 2014 |
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Mar 18, 2014 20:08
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IOwnCalculus posted:Except that everything you do on a 305 to make power, will make twice that on a big-bore SBC (302, 327, 350, 383, 400). That's about what I thought, rats. I'll give it to my junk man next time he comes a calling.
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Mar 18, 2014 20:27
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kastein posted:Give me a list of donors for the manifold and I can probably find you one for $30-50 up here. Though you can probably get a whole good running takeout 305 for drat near free instead of fixing that one. Very kind of you to offer, but I'm going to fold this hand. I dig the coffee table idea, though, or perhaps a wine rack, if I can't get more than $100 scrap for it. DrPain fucked around with this message at 21:23 on Mar 18, 2014 |
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Mar 18, 2014 21:09
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dreesemonkey posted:You have me worried about being fired from my mechanic. I'm taking our car there tomorrow after an acquaintance did work on and now it doesn't for poo poo. He's a mechanic, but apparently didn't think a multiple cylinder misfire, blowing plumes of gas, and having about 1/3 of the power as before was in any way cause for concern. Did the shop return the vehicle to you in this condition? I'm confused, but from what I gather, you had a shadetree mechanic do some work, he hosed it all up, and now you're taking it to the professionals for a proper fix? That's nothing I would fire someone over, hell it's how I meet a lot of customers for the first time.
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Mar 18, 2014 21:24
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dreesemonkey posted:Fired from my regular mechanic, the competent one. I felt like the kid being sent to the principal's office when I called in. I was willing to give this guy a shot because I'm fairly friendly with him and his wife, and he has a shop with a lift at his house. And I'm kinda cheap and if it had worked out I probably would have paid half what I'd pay at my regular mechanic (timing belt/water pump, valve cover/intake manifold gaskets, PS pump). But I got what I paid for ($450 labor ~$250 parts - I'm guessing my regular shop would have been $1200+ since they don't accept customer parts) Standard procedure for un-loving a shadetree hackjob and then fixing THE PROBLEM is book time plus a little extra. Just don't give them any grief, they haven't done anything wrong and are bailing you out of a situation you got yourself into. Be a good customer and don't get angry at them for your mistake. Take your lumps and chalk it up to an expensive lesson learned. The cheapest job is not the cheapest job, and hopefully you know what that means now.
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Mar 19, 2014 00:31
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In my experience, people who specialize in alignments will try to sell you an entire new suspension, and then do the alignment. I still haven't found a good shop in my town to refer my customers to. It really makes me look bad when a customer leaves my shop and then gets an estimate for control arms and the whole nine yards before an alignment can be done. Makes me look like I didn't notice all of that, when in fact the car is fine, and that alignment shop is just being an rear end in a top hat.
DrPain fucked around with this message at 15:51 on Mar 19, 2014 |
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Mar 19, 2014 15:48
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I've had people try to sell me very expensive alignment racks, but I find a beer can and a brightly colored string works just fine. Most newer cars don't even have that many adjustments.
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Mar 19, 2014 18:47
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CommieGIR posted:I want to know more about this method. My Audi needs an alignment https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wjZUu_d08t8 Set the toe, and let 'er go! This guy never actually touches the wheels with the string, but I like to and sight line it, same way you look down a gun barrel.
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Mar 19, 2014 19:09
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