211: Brittany Grande, General Motors Field Service Engineer

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Hey, what's going on?

Automotive World?

Welcome to another episode of the Automotive Diagnostic Podcast.

My name is Sean Tipping and I'll be your host once again for this week's episode.

Joining me on the show this week is Brittany Grant.

Brittany is a field service engineer for General Motors and she's going to come on the show and share with us her journey in the automotive world, how she came to the position that she's at with General Motors, some of the diagnostic challenges that she works through on a day-to-day basis and her love of Corvettes.

This is really cool.

Brittany is a very well-spoken, interesting, intelligent person and it was really cool to get to meet her.

I know you're going to enjoy this interview, so with that out of the way, let's jump right in.

Well, welcome to the show, brittany.

Thank you for joining me.

How are you doing today?

I'm doing good.

Awesome, awesome.

Yeah, I found a video on YouTube of you speaking with a gentleman about what you do with General Motors and I was like I really want to hear more about this.

Just for reference, I do mobile diagnostics and programming for aftermarket independent repair shops.

So I'll go in my van and I got a couple vans and we go to shops and just assist with diagnostic issues like hey, this module doesn't communicate and we don't know why.

We've put four different parts in it and it still doesn't fix it.

Or all program modules after replacement.

We use the factory software and stuff like that.

So, anyways, the whole field service engineer I find very interesting because it's, I think, similar to what we're doing out here.

But that's kind of why I wanted to talk to you is hear about it and hear about what you do with General Motors.

Yeah, so the position of a field service engineer.

It sounds a lot like that, however.

So my job spectrum I only do GM vehicles, right.

So we're talking Buick, gmc, chevy, cadillac, and the way it works is we work on the toughest vehicle concerns, right?

So a customer brings their vehicle into the dealership, technicians working through what we have, technical Assistance Center, which is a remote center to provide technical advice and assistance.

If that center is not able to quickly and efficiently help the technician diagnose and repair the vehicle, then a field service engineer is sent out and we have, like, other job requirements and stuff that we do outside of that as well, but that's our main focus.

Okay, so you're actually physically traveling to the different dealerships within a specific area, or what's your range?

Yeah, so mine.

Currently I'm out in Eastern PA, so that's kind of my little region, if you will.

Gotcha.

And then did I see that you specialize in Corvettes, or do you cover all makes and models?

So I tell people that I work on all GM vehicles but I play with the Corvettes.

Okay.

I'm absolutely passionate and love the Corvette.

That's what got me into the field in general.

Okay so I love my Corvettes.

Okay, all right, that's understandable.

How did you get into this role?

What was your journey through the automotive world, like tech school right to the dealership, or what was your path?

So my path was kind of unique and growing up like, let me just say, I did not grow up around cars I knew nothing.

I knew put gas in and turn the key and that was it.

If a light comes on, just take it to the shop.

And so I graduated high school and I didn't really know what to do with my life and so I thought, okay, well, the healthcare has some good job security, so I'll do that.

So I started going to school for nursing and I was actually a florist at a flower shop.

And like all my commute from college to work, I passed a Chevy dealership and one day out front they had the most beautiful car I'd ever seen in my life.

And I didn't even know what kind of car it was.

And that night I went to the dealership website and it was a Corvette, it was a ZR1.

And I had 638 horsepower, 604 foot pounds of torque and I had no idea what that meant.

So I started looking up you know horsepower and torque in these weird automotive terms and over the next two weeks I became obsessed with this car.

I had to know everything about it and finally I built up enough courage to go up to the dealership and drive it, and it's a funny story.

When I go to the dealership, I knew they weren't going to let a 19-year-old drive a $100,000 sports car right.

Right.

So I had a plan and I got all dressed up and I went to the dealership and I said my dad's going to buy me a car for my birthday and this one's really pretty.

And I'm telling you, I had like four or five salesmen with me like looking at this car, right, and they get in and they're like yeah, you know, push the button, start it up.

So I go to push the button and nothing happens.

Battery was dead.

So I get out of the car and like one of the salesmen goes and gets a jump box and they pop the hood and I blew my cover.

I said, guys, the battery's in the back for weight distribution.

Let me tell you about this car, and so I started walking them around this car and telling them everything I knew you know LS9 and Wixen Performance Build Center and all this stuff and finally at the end of it I said you got to let me drive this car.

You have to.

And they did, and it was magical, it sealed the deal for me and I finished up my semester of nursing and I switched to automotive.

Okay.

And yeah, it was a scary change because I didn't know tools.

I mean, what was a ratchet?

You know something as simple as that.

So and you picked up most of that stuff through the tech program like a tech program that you attended.

And yeah, so the one and, mind you, at this point, like I didn't know anything in the automotive realm.

So this was just a generic automotive school that I went to in the beginning and then I ended up actually going to a GMA sub school.

So had I known about the GMA sub program, you know, it really would have accelerated me more.

But this, the one that I started out, was just a generic automotive school, sure, but yeah, that's where I started learning some stuff and I said, okay, well, while I'm in school, I need to start working on cars, right, like.

I need some of that experience.

So I applied everywhere that I could find and this little Monpop shop hired me and they actually specialized in old stuff the 60s and 70s.

So the first stuff I learned were you know how to pack wheel bearings, make brake lines, rebuild carburetors, things like that.

And diving right into it.

That's awesome, yeah.

And then eventually so you went to the GM school.

Was that?

After you started working there, they got you into a program, or how does that work for somebody who, like, knows that they want to work on General Motors cars?

So anybody can go into the GMA set program and what it is is.

It's a.

You know it's a two-part program, right?

So we have the GMA sub schooling and then they partner with the GM dealerships so you can actually, like, start working in a dealership and get paid while you're going to school.

So I mean it's, it's really a win-win situation there and you graduate in two years.

Okay, all right.

And then how did you get or how long did it take you to get from starting out as a technician To moving into a field service engineer position?

What's the path there for somebody?

Well, that was a little unique.

So my, my love for Corvette kind of grew Exponentially and I said I have to get out to the National Corvette Museum.

I just had to, and at the time I was living in.

Southwest Missouri is where I'm from.

Okay so I drove out to Bowling Green, kentucky, and it was like one of their their big events that they are having.

And I get out there and I meet a GM world-class technician and At the time I was working at that independent shop and he was, he was naming off like torque specs and part numbers and all this stuff and I'm like I'm looking it up in the back like fact-checking him.

I'm like this guy really know all this stuff.

And so I go up to him at the end of the seminar and I was like, how do I become GM world-class certified?

Like how do I?

How do I even do that?

And he's like, well, you need to start working in a dealership.

And he just started going through.

You know the different pathways and all the training that's that's involved.

So At the end of the event he said, if you like this, you need to go to some of the other Corvette events with me.

Okay and he's like we can teach people about Corvettes, we can co-host these seminars, we can do this.

And I was like, all right, I'm in.

And so I started traveling with him two different Corvette events around the country, okay, and I started, you know, kind of mingling with all the Corvette people and the Corvette engineering was there and when this position came about, I Ended up applying and it was funny, one of the Corvette engineers Knew me from the Corvette events and had put in a good word, one when it was

, you know, hey, this person applied, you know, do do we know her?

And that's kind of kind of how it came about.

And it's funny.

You know, my passion for Corvettes it's, it's still there.

But when I became a field engineer, I Really dove into having a passion for diagnostics.

I mean it's a different it is extremely rewarding.

Yeah, and it's fun.

I like it.

I 100% understand what you're saying there.

Like when I first Got into this in high school, right as doing the auto tech classes and stuff, like I had that passion for you know my truck and my dad had a 1990 Corvette which he was very hesitant to let me work on or drive, but I got in there every once in a while but it was, it was a passion for me.

I wanted, you know, to immerse myself in everything you know, performance and aftermarket and all this stuff.

And then as time went on, right as a tech, I was doing it every day.

That side of it kind of faded for me.

Like right now I don't, I don't want to work on my own stuff at all, but the, the diagnostic part of it took that, took the place for that.

I kind of I didn't go into it expecting to enjoy it or make a career out of it, but I found those like wow, this is, like you say, extremely rewarding To work through a really challenging problem and get on the other side of it.

So, yeah, so you do a lot of diagnostics in your day-to-day right now, or how does that look?

Oh, yeah, that's.

That's like the main part of my job.

Okay so we're.

We're out there in the field at the dealerships.

You know diagnosing these difficult concerns, and I think one of the most rewarding parts about this job is Not only am I having fun while I'm diagnosing, but I'm also teaching the technicians as I'm going like.

I'm teaching them the techniques that I'm using.

Why am I going?

You know, this direction with it, you know, and how, how you're viewing the concern itself, just kind of Kind of bestowing knowledge upon you.

Know, I love it, yeah.

I love it.

Yeah, I, I, I understand that too is if somebody's willing to you know, learn or ask questions.

When I'm out at a shop like, oh, 100%, help them and say, yeah, here's why I checked this component or here's why you know, yeah, you're sharing your thought process, can be huge for people.

What so you do you dealing with new cars that I, I imagine in a lot of cases, nobody else has even looked at these types of problems on.

If it's a 23 that's in there, you're probably seeing brand new stuff.

What's your strategy for something like that?

Trying to figure out a brand new car, brand new system?

That there's, no, there's not a whole lot of reference out there for it well, yes, we will.

We look at the new, new stuff, but basically, anything that General Motors produces, we're we're hands-on with.

Okay, whether it be a 2012, whether it be a you know Whatever.

Wherever we can assist, we're there okay so any challenges that the dealership has were we're there to assist if needed got you, but the way that I go about like a brand new vehicle, so it's funny you get to eliminate a lot of diagnostics with a brand new vehicle, right, because you're not dealing with Too much dirt and debris sure

you're not really dealing with.

Wires rub through or something like that.

Yes, so you already know what not to look for okay basically, but it a lot of.

It depends on the concern itself and what it's associated with, mm-hmm.

But I'll give you an example of one of the strangest ones that I had.

Okay, and this was a brand new vehicle at the time, but it had been owned by a customer, so this vehicle is a 2016 suburban and it it was one of those concerns where you look at it and you're like really, really, really, and the concern was the rear DVD system remote would work for the first ten

minutes and then stop working.

Oh, weird and.

It's a concern that you know the vehicle is gonna operate perfectly fine with.

But someone put it into perspective for me once.

They said you don't buy a fridge for the ice maker, but if the ice maker doesn't work, you either get a new one or have someone fix it right sure, sure so to me that was like okay, whatever the customer concern is, if the vehicle had it, we need to fix it.

It's just as important, right mm-hmm so you I went out to the vehicle, duplicated the concern.

Sure enough, after 10 minutes it was like the batteries died in the remote.

That's what, that's how it acted.

Okay.

No codes, of course, and before I had gotten out there, you know, of course, there were multiple parts that had been replaced.

We're talking both rear screens, the center stack, the remotes, of course, media disc player, the headliner, which had the LVDS cables in it, and then the LVDS cables that ran through the instrument panel.

Oh, wow.

The whole system, literally A lot of parts.

Yeah, so, uh, yeah, so everything was new and we still had this concern.

So I'm going through and I'm sitting here thinking like, okay, maybe I have some sort of frequency interference, you know, going on, maybe I have this, that and the other.

So I went down that path, kind of had a dead end.

I actually had a couple other field engineers come out.

They tried their hand at it.

They couldn't figure it out.

And then they actually it's cool, we have a bunch of resources at GM, right?

So, we actually flew out engineers like integration engineers from Michigan to the vehicle.

The guys that made it.

Yeah, they weren't able to figure it out.

Oh, wow.

And it was kind of a situation where do we ship this vehicle back to Michigan, Do we?

What do we do?

And I said no, no, no, I'm going to fix this.

It is so simple it is.

And I actually got ahold of the guy that made and designed the remote like 20 years ago and he's like we have never heard of this.

It was just such a one-off situation and I'm like okay, I can fix this, I know I can do this.

And so I was able to find a twin vehicle I mean matching RPOs and I went and got the vehicle and I parked it side by side with this suburban and I'm like okay we're going to do this.

So I started swapping parts back and forth until I could break the known good vehicle.

And so what happened was I took the HDMI port from the back of the console, put it in the known good vehicle and after 10 minutes the remote stopped working.

Okay, so that's a situation where you fix the car, you don't know how.

So what I did was like I'm not going to let this go.

I have to know what this means.

So we sent the HDMI port and the USB like there's like an auxiliary, and USBs with it too.

We sent it back to engineering.

I was like I want to part parts analysis.

Tell me what is wrong with this thing.

Come to find out, the HDMI port had been shorted, Like someone had either put a connector in raw like, like like an HDMI connector.

That was in raw or a penny.

Like the wrongs inside the HDMI were shorted, okay, the media disc player who's the master?

Begins to prioritize after 10 minutes of ignition on, and the HDMI port had higher priority than the remotes.

Oh, so it thought something was plugged into the HDMI when it wasn't Okay, yep.

So it started ignoring the remote input after.

That is not.

That was a rough one yeah.

You know those.

Those infotainment systems can be really challenging, especially in the aftermarket, when you're getting one that you're not familiar with at all.

Like I've never dealt with the infotainment system on this 2014 accurate, I don't even know what components are involved in.

Yeah, You're trying to read through, you know all of the, you know all of the different things that are involved and, oh wait, there's four different options depending on the trim of the vehicle and does it have this component?

I don't know.

That stuff can be surprisingly challenging to work through.

Do you guys do a lot of stuff with infotainment or Off and on.

Yeah, I mean honestly.

I mean we're doing bumper to bumper right, like any system on the vehicle we're working with.

So it's not that we specialize in just one little area, but I do.

I do see quite a few infotainments come through.

What would you say is the most challenging thing that you see on a regular basis for technicians in the field doing this stuff, like what's the majority of things that you guys are getting calls for.

I wish I could say that there was something that stuck out, but I'm getting anything you could think of whether it be vibrations, water leaks, you know.

Electrical communication problems, noises, I mean anything and everything.

What's your?

What's your favorite one of those problems and what is your least favorite call to get Communication problems.

Communication problems.

I love them so much, let me have all of them, regardless of the system.

Like it is so simple when you break it down, and I love teaching technicians about it.

So like, for instance, what are the four things that a module needs?

Power, ground, communication, blinds and a wake up.

Yes.

Thank you.

It is so simple, right?

When you break it down like that, it is, and it gets so lost in all these U codes and and oh my gosh, I don't know what I'm doing.

I don't know how this talks to each other, but when you break it down, it's, it gets so simple.

So, I really like simplifying that for a technician and I love working with that stuff.

It's fun to me.

As long as it's a hard fault, I 100% agree.

Some of the intermittent communication faults can get pretty wild.

But yeah, if it's a, it does not talk to my scan tool or the car.

Right now I'm right there in the same boat, like let's just see what is missing and we're done.

I think duplicating is definitely half the battle sometimes and you know there's different techniques that I've used in the past or I still use.

That helped me get through that and it's looking at the vehicle from a completely different perspective.

So when a technician's going out to a vehicle, you know the first thing they're doing is grabbing the key fob and you know pushing the buttons trying to find it out in the parking lot.

They get up to it, open the driver's door, get in, drive it into the shop park.

It key off.

Key on the actual life of that vehicle is owned by, you know, a mom of three and the first thing she's doing is she's opening up the rear hatch, putting all the stuff in the back, then she's opening up both the rear doors, putting the kids in making sure they're safe, then getting into the driver's driver's seat.

So it's those situations.

I want to know the exact environment and daily use of this vehicle and when you know that it really makes intermittent not so intermittent, because I don't think that there's like this weird intermittent concerns just happen out of nowhere for no reason that you hear that all the time.

No, there's definitely a pattern that needs to be followed and you can duplicate it every time.

It's just figuring it out.

Figuring that out?

Yeah, and that's are you directly communicating with the customer or is it through somebody else in the dealership?

Because that's as a technician, where I found a big issue is in a situation like that where I would like some real concrete details or intricate details of how it happens or how the vehicle is used.

I had to pick up the phone and call the customer myself because there's just there's things that are lost in translation with maybe a service writer or somebody else who's not as technically minded Like I got to hear it right from the horse's mouth to get what I need in order to figure it out.

Yeah, so as a field engineer, typically I'm just working with a technician, but there are times where we will bring the customer in to show us what's going on or just talk to them.

In general, we do have customer concern verification worksheets that we ask all these questions who, what, when, where, why, and as we're going through.

You know, one of the things is like if a dealership's not able to duplicate one of the items on there is taking the customer for a test drive.

Show me what's wrong with it, show me what you're experiencing.

So yeah, I always tell everybody if you want your car to never be broken, just have me in the backseat the whole time and it'll never act up.

I promise it was doing it before you got here.

Oh, yeah, yeah, If I had a dollar for every time I've heard that.

Yeah, that's one of our biggest challenges the intermittent just because of time, Sometimes that duplication process can be so lengthy just to get it to act up, and I'm sure it's the same for you.

Like, I'm relying on my test methods to get me the answer right.

That's how I come up with the component that is failed, or the wire or whatever it is.

I need to see a test fail and then, okay, either you know I proceed with more testing or I know that this component is bad and I try to explain that to shops as, like, hey, if we can't get it to act up, I can test all day long and maybe I'll find something that's outside of the normal range.

But proving it to be, you know, the cause of it obviously doesn't always work out that way.

So I don't like I try to avoid them as much as I can.

But I understand, yeah, if you're in a dealership and you're getting, you know, customer owned vehicles back, like you don't have much of a choice, right, you gotta work through it and figure it out.

Yeah, definitely, I think, one of the things a lot of people like when we're talking about these advanced vehicles.

Right, we're talking about the modules and how they communicate.

You know we're having 30, 40 plus modules put into these vehicles.

It does get complicated and explaining that on a customer level.

It can get you know off into the weeds sometimes, so it can be difficult yeah.

Right, right, yeah, just even sometimes getting the customers to comprehend all of what's going on for their DVD player to work or something relatively simple.

Like you know, the horn now goes through a wind bus, through a module, to this, to that, just to get the horn to honk.

And it's difficult to explain that stuff sometimes.

But yeah, that's the world we live in.

I really do enjoy the communication stuff too.

That's like I say, when it's broken it's good, and I get a lot of calls on it too.

When shops can't communicate, they see that U-Code to kind of get scared of even jumping it at all.

And, like you say, once you kind of get a feel for it and you understand the network construction, it's really not that bad most of the time.

Yeah, and speaking of communication, I can share with you the one time and I have to emphasize that the one time that a body control module was at fault.

Okay.

I've never had a body control module at fault, except for this one vehicle.

Okay, and it was crazy and I wanna throw this out there because, like this taught me a lot, so follow me with this one, okay.

Sure sure.

So this one was a 2017 Acadia and very simple concern when you go up to it and try to remote start, the exterior lights will flash but no remote start.

Okay.

When you try to open the lift gate with the key fob, lights would flash.

Lift gate would not open.

If you were key on, the lift gate would operate as normal.

Okay.

Yeah, so I'm going through this vehicle and no codes of course.

So I'm at a loss.

Because if the power lift gate is working, key on, what is the difference?

Key off and I know that it's sending the signal from the key fob the lights are flashing.

That's fine and long story short.

I go into the inhibit reasons right for the lift gate, and all of them were good.

Like I had no inhibit reasons for the lift gate.

Okay.

Obviously because the key was on and it was working fine, right.

Sure, but one of those moments yeah yeah, so there's a moment where if you key off on a vehicle, you're still communicating, just for a little bit, right, yep.

So I keyed off just to see if any of the inhibit reasons would change.

And I got an inhibit reason for vehicle over speed.

Oh.

And I was like that's weird.

Okay.

So body control module.

How fast do you think we're going with key off?

And it said zero miles per hour.

Am I going to let that.

That doesn't make sense.

So I go to the engine control module and I do the same thing.

Key on was zero miles per hour and when I turned key off it was 136 miles per hour.

Oh weird.

Okay.

So yeah, definitely that's going to disable remote start and disable the lift gate if we think we're going 136 miles an hour.

Sure.

So I'm going through and I'm like why?

Where does the engine control module get its speed on this vehicle?

It gets it from a communication message.

So you know we're not dealing with the cable and gears anymore, we're actually communication messages, awesome.

So I'm going through and I get to the wake up signal.

What does the module need to communicate properly?

And I found that the wake up signal to the ECM 12 volts with key on, 1.5

volts with key off.

There should be zero.

Okay.

So I disconnect everything.

I'm going to the body control who sends it out to the ECM and from the BCM.

It was going from 12 volts to 1.5

.

Okay.

And somehow the 1.5

volt with key off was interpreted as 136 miles per hour.

Oh weird.

So I put a new body control module in it and it fixed it, that's the one time.

Interesting Okay.

So always check key off too, which is the weirdest thing to me.

But yeah, that's what I learned on that vehicle.

Yeah, I have had a lot of shops call me out for module replacement, right, like, hey, we put an ABS module and we put a BCM in and it's well, probably not BCM for this one, but they'll replace the module.

And then I get out there to program it and it doesn't talk and it's that wake up circuit that's the BCM sends out to all the different modules and it's just something that's overlooked or not checked with their normal checks before they do a module.

I've had some weird ones too, where the splice where that wake up circuit comes together under the carpet was corroded and you get some weird issues from that as well.

But I'm trying to think I've done a lot of GM BCMs but I've done a lot of programming right, and so that doesn't necessarily mean that they were bad, it just means that they were replaced.

So I know that I've condemned at least a few of them.

On some older stuff, yeah, it's usually for outputs that don't work, like this driver is failed, for whatever, and even that a lot of times is, you know, the component is at failure and it's taken out that driver, or something like that.

But yeah, going back to the favorite or not so favorite calls, what do you hate working with or what is your least favorite, and why is it TLC dealing with anything with TLC?

I Think, with any manufacturer, they do deal with challenges, especially with what we're dealing with In this your time and space.

There has never been a moment in the automotive industry where we are changing from ice to electric vehicles and With those advancements, you know we're gonna have growing pains.

Yeah, you know, because we see the advancement in the technology in the vehicles we're gonna have to evolve in, you know, the service and service technician environment as well and and we're seeing that and you know it's it's just one of those times where you know this is very unique, this is a very unique time for us.

So Mm-hmm.

So we're working through it.

My least favorite.

Honestly, I can't think of a Least favorite thing to work on.

I like working on them all.

I never liked the noise diagnostics.

I mean sometimes it's easy.

You like it Okay?

I have a unique one for that too, I have so many stories.

I have so much.

You know you.

You ask me the question of what is it strangest, concern or something like that.

Yeah, I have so many.

It's like man this was a 2016 suburban, I think no Yukon and the customer concern was driving on the highway.

There's a whistling noise.

Okay and, sure enough, I get out to the dealership and they had, like, the windshield taped off, you know, the the cowl was all taped up, you know, and you would drive down the road and it was just this loud whistling noise like high-pitched whistling noise.

Okay and you know I'm going through with a Microphone chassis air tried, stethoscope tried, figuring out all these different things.

We tried the bubble test no air leaks.

And then finally I Pop the hood and I'm just doing a visual inspection.

Just what do I see?

And you know the groundstrap that goes from the engine to the firewall.

Uh-huh.

So the way that they had it tightened, the end of the eyelet was actually itching on the edge of the firewall and I'm like no, there were witness marks there, like it had been, you know, kind of moving.

I don't think there's no way like a scratching metal, itching noise is making this noise.

But sure enough, all I did was move the groundstrap, retighten it and the noise was gone.

So it was never a wind noise to begin with.

Sure, yeah that, so I get it.

I get why noises can be frustrating, but I think they're fun.

Well, that's good, I'm glad somebody enjoys doing.

Again, it would come down to whether it was intermittent noise or yeah, something where you can only duplicate going down the road can be really challenging to work through because, like, you can use chassis, ears and stuff like that but you can't always be on the component.

But I remember at Firestone I would actually go in the trunk sometimes and have somebody else drive the car on.

So I come like I gotta figure out where this Noise is exactly originating from.

I've had weird stuff like that too with the pieces of weather stripping like coming loose at a certain.

What was it?

It was the old Chevy Blazer, the.

The weather stripping would come loose and start slapping but it sounded like a Front-end suspension noise the way it was like Reverberating through the vehicle.

And we were, we were like tearing apart the front end, like what is rattling up here.

And then finally I had somebody drive it.

I like stuck my head out and I see this piece of weather stripping oh my god on the top of the car.

Yeah, sometimes you get a noise, even like a wheel bearing.

We've had some of those where or you think, you think it's a wheel bearing but it's something completely different.

Or you think it's like yeah, it's the left side, 100%, and it's the right side.

We're very you know when you sit in the passenger seat and you're like wait a second.

Yeah.

Yeah right, it's weird how noises will transfer through your vehicle.

But have you done anything with the, the NVH, where you can Like actually connect it to?

I think you connect it to, like, the frame of the driver's seat I've never owned one myself, but it'll actually pull up like a scope and a waveform of the First order, second order.

Well, all that stuff, you guys use those.

Yes, so it's called the Pico scope, yep, and it's just a fancy oscilloscope, but yeah, I love that thing.

Even when I was a tech I that, as soon as it came out, I was like I want to know everything about this.

Yeah, so I use it on communication systems.

I'll use it on battery draw issues.

I'll use it on, obviously, vibrations, and I think it's difficult Because there's a little bit of a learning curve right on To distinguish what you're seeing in a graph and applying it to the car.

Mm-hmm right.

So if we're talking T1 tire vibration, that's one high spot per revolution of the diameter of the tire.

Okay and then all of a sudden, everybody's lost right?

No, so then if you have T2, that's two high spots per revolution of the diameter of the tire.

Okay so let's say you have a 20 inch tire Going down the road or 20 inch diameter.

If you have two high spots, that's the same as one high spot per revolution of half the diameter.

So it could be a 10 inch component With a high spot.

Oh, okay.

So now you start to see the difference between a T1 and a T2.

Mm-hmm and how you can apply that to okay, what is 10 inch diameter on a vehicle?

Got it be a torque converter, could it be a hub, could it be, you know, a rotor or whatever.

So you start going down that wrap interesting of frequencies.

Yeah, I have a.

I have a picot scope but I just use it for like electrical and pressure stuff for the engine.

I never got the the NVH kit, but I've seen some of the videos on.

It looks really interesting If you if you're trying to track down that stuff, I'm sure it's extremely valuable to have.

Oh yeah.

Yeah, I love using the scope, though I don't pull out my pico as much that you say.

I got like a little you scope that's about this size and I do most of my Communication stuff with that.

But anytime you need like really good detail or two channels or more, yeah, the pico is the way to go for sure, definitely.

Yeah, and that's that's some of the stuff that we check in the dealership, so that's another part of my job.

So we do something called state of health, so we can do that.

So we go in and we check dealership equipment tools to make sure that they have everything that they need to do their job efficiently, and the pico scope is definitely one of the things that we're looking at and checking chassis ears, things like that.

I Usually take that opportunity to try to Teach them more, because I'll see the hesitation.

You know, but I want to make sure that you have it, know how to use it, and of course we provide all that documentation too.

So yeah, that's awesome.

That was going to be one of my questions is you know, are you seeing it actually be used In the dealership?

So is it one of those situations where it sits in the box and the leads have never been open, sort of thing?

No, I do see it used in the dealership.

I think its main usage is for the vibration aspect of it and we've started pushing the training for Using it for battery draws and electrical Intermittent concerns and things like that.

You know something that a fluke is too slow To see.

Sure the pico can get it.

Does gm provide Known goods of any type as far as the, the waveforms and the patterns go, like if you want to do a cam crank on something?

Do they have a reference library?

We do, we do, and I think pico actually has their own too.

Yeah yeah, so I mean we're really pushing that, and I think a lot of other manufacturers are as well.

I mean it's a great tool.

I'm starting to see it more and more often, even if it's not necessarily a pico when they'll include known good scope captures of particular things, whether it be yeah, communications network or a cam crank waveform or something like that, and that definitely was not always the case In service information.

It's ohm, check this wire and then ohm, check that wire.

Now they're starting to include more and more as time goes on, so that that's immensely helpful.

And, yeah, maybe Remove some of that hesitation from technicians, right, like if they have like okay, this was supposed to look like.

Well, let me hook up and see it doesn't look like that or not.

You know, rather than I have no idea, what this is supposed to look Like.

Is this good, is this bad?

I don't know.

I I never pull the scope out until I'm in trouble, so I don't know.

I don't know what the good looks like, right?

I've heard that before.

Um, and I mean it brings up a good point when we're talking about tooling like Like pico scopes.

Mm-hmm.

I think it really is just such a jump from what we we used to think about when we, when we talk about Skilled trades and, you know, working in a shop, you know we're dealing with very advanced diagnostic equipment and I, I, my hope is that, as we, you know, start to normalize some of this equipment.

Um, you know, you see technicians with laptops instead of wrenches walking around, right?

Um, I'm hoping that that starts to change the general Um Viewpoint of skilled trades jobs, right?

Yeah um, I mean the environment's changing, the tooling is changing and the training is changing as well yeah, I, I, so I I taught at a college for about five years for the automotive program and and that sort of thing.

You know, doing the lab scopes and looking at waveforms and things of that nature attracts a whole different type of person.

Then you know what you traditionally apply to repairing vehicles right, and obviously we still need you know people to to fix the vehicles that are into that side of it.

There's nothing wrong with that.

But we also need somebody to figure out why the remote on the rear dvd screen doesn't work right, and so it's.

That's a different, um, I think it's a different set of like passions that you're into right, like, and so I'm, with this podcast and with other things, trying to get that out there like, hey, there's a whole other side, there's a whole other world to the automotive thing and we definitely need people to fill some shoes out there right now.

Absolutely, and that's, that's a huge part of it.

So, um, you know, I'm, and, and one of the reasons I'm here, right, like, so we, we want to have that open dialogue because, because you know, talking leads to action, action leads to change, right, and you know, I love being on this side of General Motors now, um, because I've been there as a service technician, I've seen it, I've lived it.

Now I'm on the GM side and I'm actively participating in creating that change.

Um, for supporting our current technicians and helping recruit other technicians as well.

Um, so I mean, on the supporting side, you've heard of the GM excellence program, right?

Mm-hmm, maybe a little bit.

Yeah, I don't know all the details about it, but I've heard of it.

Yeah, man, it was so cool so I wish it would.

It would have been around when I was a GM tech, um, and it's.

It's one of those things where, let's say, they keep up on their training, um, and each quarter General Motors, like Like, provides your account with points and of course you can use points to, like you know, buy something if you want, like GM accessories or what, what have you.

But you can also put those points on a visa and one point equals $1.

You've got cash money now.

So for someone like myself like I'm GM World Class certified that's an extra $6,000 a year.

Wow.

That's not a little bit of money.

That's quite a bit of money that we're just giving technicians for doing their training.

So I see what General Motors is doing and, in fact, I'll tell you a little story.

So I started with General Motors in well, after being a technician, I started with General Motors in November 2016.

Okay.

I think it was December 2016,.

I went to my first conference out in Michigan.

I get there and I'm terrified.

30 days ago I was just a technician in a dealership and now I'm here with the GM people.

Yeah.

I'm in this meeting and one of these executive leadership people suits.

He gets up and he starts talking about how invaluable our technicians are and how we want to help them, provide them with everything that they need, and how they're the backbone of our service departments and all of this.

I sat there and I was like, did anybody think to tell the technicians how much General Motors values them?

Now we're having these talks right, we know it.

On the GM side, we love our technicians and we want to provide them with everything we can, and there is that disconnect that we see because we don't own the dealerships.

We don't.

But as we're going through it, we also see the trend of we don't have that many technicians at this point and we're seeing that.

I think the negative connotation that I touched on earlier I think that's a big part of it as well of why people don't want to be in the field.

But one of my hopes and one of my passions that I have is I want to help change the technician environment for good, but I also want to help bring diversity into the dealership.

I think it's important I think that will help this downward trend that we see people leaving the field.

I think when we change the narrative from turn-in wrenches to computer technician, I think that's where we're going to really start to see a whole different population coming into the dealerships.

Yeah, if you're able to present that to the potential candidates and obviously it involves developing that role, like you guys are doing, and a lot of shops are finding out as, hey, we need this diagnostic technology-centered person Technician, obviously, but we need a technology person involved with these vehicles and

then showcasing that to potential applicants like hey, we need to come in and figure out these computer networks and solve these electrical issues on the vehicle.

Again, it attracts a different kind of person.

But yeah, for so many years it was grease monkey turn-in wrenches and we're still fighting against that to a point.

Like I said, I was with the college for a while and we would talk with high school counselors and things like that.

The image has definitely shifted over the years.

It's not what it was if you go back to the early 2000s, but there's still some way to go.

But, like you say, I'm passionate about it and I try to get that message out there as much as I can.

Yeah, I mean, it's a little bit of an elephant in the room.

It's not uncommon for me to be the only female in the shop.

Right.

And my hope is that that changes.

Yeah, at some point, that's just normal.

Yeah.

And I think that when we're talking about the way that you diagnose something, just someone that's interested in puzzle solving, or how things come apart and put together, regardless of your gender, people can do that and take an interest in it, and then suddenly you can fix cars, you can diagnose.

Yeah, yeah, if we're limiting who comes in and does that to a certain type of person, you're missing out on so many different walks of life and perspectives that can really add something to the diagnostic specifically.

But they'd have a perspective on something that you'd never think of, right, and I like that.

When we were in college too.

We bring the kids and sometimes not even kids, there'd be adults come into the program like what did you do prior to this?

How can you take that experience and apply it to what we're doing now?

Because everybody's got something a little bit different, right, everybody's got a different way of thinking through a problem or a perspective, something they've dealt with in the past.

And, yeah, I never wanted to say you had to grow up on a farm fixing your dad's tractor to be in here, like, obviously, hey, you'll have a great advantage and be able to fix stuff, but everybody can bring something to this in order to just add their own personality, their own experience to the job, which is, I think, really valuable.

Absolutely, and I think you touched on it.

Personally, not coming from an automotive background, there were those subtle small things that I had to learn from, let's say, mentors in the shop or things like that, and I see that GM is actually doing things like that to where we can grow our own technicians, things like TechTube I don't know if you've seen it TechLink, things like that.

We have these resources for our technicians to show, let's say, how to set up the PicoScope, if you don't have a shop form in there that has the time to show you how to do something.

We're providing those types of information because we're visual learners, right?

I think the majority of us are hands-on visual, and just reading about it wasn't enough, and so we started putting out resources of.

Here's a video of how you do this Let me show you, and I think that's just absolutely important and, like I said, I have a passion for it and I see the work that goes into it, and the good news is there's not just me who was in the dealership prior.

There are other General Motors employees that have been in the field that know what it's like and we're creating that change to make the environment better.

That's awesome.

That's all you can do is what is your circle of influence right?

Where can you make that change and then really focus on that and try to make it better?

Because there's a lot of shops that I go to that still kind of operate in maybe an old school way and it's really tough on the technicians.

I feel bad for a lot of places I go to because they're not getting the support like what you're talking about as far as getting them what they need, getting them the training, giving them the encouragement that, hey, we appreciate you and that's why I see so many of them walk out and go to other fields and become an electrician or an HVAC or whatever.

And if you're listening to this and you got a shop, take notice of this sort of thing and start implementing as much of this as you can.

An independent, obviously, you're not going to be able to do all of the exact things that you're talking about.

You can get your guys the training, you can get the equipment that they need.

You can give them the support, help them, help remove obstacles throughout the day.

That's the big one.

I have one guy working for me and my thought process is like okay, how do I remove as many obstacles as I can from him getting to the goal, and then okay, now I need to go do it.

Yeah, absolutely, and that's why I enjoy the, if you will, monday and part of my job, because to me, it's extremely important to go into a dealership and analyze their equipment and make sure that they have what they need, because it is absolutely crucial.

Something as simple as you know, for instance, we all diagnose vehicles differently.

Right, I do have access to engineering tools and things like that, but I don't do that.

When I go into diagnosis of vehicle, I'm using the exact same equipment that the technician is using, because I want to see those problems, I want to experience them, so I can take that feedback.

And, you know, whatever challenges that are in their way, we're here to work through them and make their job as easy as possible so we can get the customers back on the road.

Sure.

Yeah, that's really good, because how else would you know that their equipment is not set up right or it's broken or it's missing something, unless you're the one actually using it?

Exactly Like yeah, I've got my PicoScope to you, yeah.

Do you guys provide remote assistance at all, or are you going in to the shop every time that you're working on a vehicle?

I do provide remote assistance as needed, and a lot of the time we'll use video chat, like what we're doing right now, so I can actually see what the technician sees, so he can show me and point to things, and we do that from time to time.

Like you know, during the pandemic we were trying to be very safe about things and going into dealerships.

You know you have to work closely with people, so you're wearing your N95 and all of that, but remote assistance really took off during that time and we were able to fix vehicles, you know, just like we're sitting here today, yeah, so it really helps out in that aspect.

I think the only thing that I'm not able to fix remotely is noises.

Sure, yeah, that's tough.

I've gotten the video or audio file on my phone like somebody texts me, like what's this noise?

And it's just like you just hear the engine running.

Like yeah.

Okay, yep, yep.

So that part of it, yeah, would definitely not work.

But, yeah, having a link to what the technician's seeing.

I saw a couple like prototypes for glasses that the technician would put on.

I think the idea would you could like pull up wiring diagrams or component locations on them, but I think it was for tech assistance as well, so that the person on the other side you would be able to see what the technician's seeing.

I don't know who.

I think it was Nissan that I saw the prototype put out for, but I'm sure there's going to be all kinds of augmented reality, you know, going forward in the future and things like that to help tax.

I do enjoy the remote stuff, but I think my favorite part is the hands-on stuff.

Mm-hmm.

You know, just being there in person, that's where you're going to get the most value and be the most efficient.

I think oh, for sure so.

I like being out in the field.

Yep, yeah, you got to see, you got to feel, smell and hopefully not taste the vehicle to figure some of this stuff out, right, exactly, Cool.

Well, I want to be respectful of your time, so about an hour here.

Thank you for joining me and spending the time to explain what you do.

That's incredibly interesting and, yeah, we should do this again because I like the stories and it sounds like you got a whole bunch of them.

Sean, thanks so much for reaching out and it's been a pleasure.

I you know.

I will say this this is different than what I usually get to do.

Okay.

Typically I don't get to talk about diagnostics, but it's definitely something that I have a passion for.

So thank you for what you do and thanks for having me.

All right, that's going to do it for today's episode.

Another big thank you to Brittany for spending the time with me.

That was great.

I hope you enjoyed that as well.

I also like to thank all of the listeners of the show and all of the feedback.

I will say this the last episode I put out, or second to last episode I put out, about the website that I didn't name, I was not prepared for the amount of people that messaged me asking about that website.

So I do want to say that was you and I tried to get back to everybody who messaged me.

I'm sorry if it was a short response, but it was upwards of 200 people that I messaged back.

So eventually I was just copy and pasting the website address.

So please don't take that as I'm, you know, ignoring or not wanting to conversate.

That's not it.

I just my phone kind of blew up on that one.

So lesson learned for the future.

But hey, either way, I really do appreciate you listening to the show and actually caring about what I have to say on here.

So I'm not complaining in any way, shape or form.

It's great to have a community surrounding the show.

So with all of that out of the way.

Let's get out there and start fixing the world, one card at a time.

211: Brittany Grande, General Motors Field Service Engineer

Chevrolet Corvette

Chevrolet Blazer

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