213: Don & Kyle 3- Mobile Drift

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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 today's episode.

Thank you so much for joining me On the show today.

I've got Don Smazzle and Kyle Buell joining me again.

We are doing this just about every six months.

Getting together Started last year, last summer, and we first talked and all three of us were just getting our businesses off the ground around that time.

We talked about six months later, kind of caught up to see where everybody was at and how everything was going.

And we're doing it again today and I got to say it's really cool to just kind of check in and see all the progress, improvements and challenges that everybody has as they're growing.

Well, I mean even turning a sole proprietorship into a business and what that looks like and how it takes shape, and the hurdles that you encounter, but then also the successes that you have.

And these are two very intelligent, successful guys that are doing some really cool things with their businesses.

So it's inspiring for me to see what they're doing and I've mentioned it in the show.

They've encouraged me to make certain moves within my business, and so that's what I think is pretty cool to share on the show and we'll keep going with this.

Every roughly six months or so We'll check in and kind of see where everybody's at and how we're doing.

So, anyways, great chat with these guys.

As always I know you'll enjoy it.

So with that out of the way, we'll jump right in.

I think that was probably one of the last Fast and Furious's that I actually saw.

Actually, no, I don't know what number it was, but I was single at the time and I went to.

I went on a date with this chick to one of the Fast and Furious movies.

That was just what we decided to do and it was one where they were chasing an airplane down a runway or something Goddamn stupid like that, and I don't know.

I'm not a big fan of those movies.

The first one was cool, maybe the first two, I don't know.

But she loved it so much.

She was on the edge of her seat and she was squealing and so excited and stuff.

And after the fact that I decided I don't think we can continue this Any further.

I think that was my determining fact.

I'm like, yeah, I'm not really that into you.

Fast and Furious deal breakers yeah, tokyo Drift.

Tokyo Drift is my favorite.

The third one.

Yeah, that's the third one.

That's the third one.

Yeah, I think that's the last one I saw truthfully.

What are they on to now?

Like 26 or something, Something like that?

There's 10 or 11 of them and there's spinoffs and yeah, I don't know, maybe it's one of those things.

Like you know so much about how cars actually work and how stuff actually goes, you can't get into it.

It's like okay, guys.

They fly like 30 feet in the air and then they slam on the ground and it's like, okay, cool, your wheel bearings are still intact.

That's great yeah.

That's very believable.

The realism here does not apply, like the.

James.

Bond cars.

I could understand that was cool.

You know little machine guns popping out of the headlights.

Sure, yeah, sure, you know, like the Ejecto C.

I mean, that was in Fast and Furious, I forgot about that.

Oh, back in the day, the James Bond stuff, the cars, that was the coolest.

I remember it was one of the 90s ones of Pierce Brosnan.

He like pulled out, like I don't know, this little cell phone thing and he was driving the car around with a remote and stuff.

And that's not that far fetched nowadays but that was so cool back then.

I was like, oh yeah.

The one, the one James Bond, the Aston Martin or I guess there were many Aston Martin's the DB9 or the Vantage, whatever, the one where they do, like the barrel, roll off the ice.

Yeah, that was my favorite.

I was like I want to do that on my bike.

Oh, I need nothing about cars then.

Yeah.

Yeah, I had no clue.

Besides, I thought they were cool, that was it.

Yeah, it's like we drive one of these every day, but what they do in the movies, it's astonishing.

Well, what's new guys?

What's going on?

Since I looked, the last time we talked was February, so it's been a little over six months, but we're keeping the trend going here.

Go ahead, Kyle.

I'm Kyle.

Fast and Furious 3, D and K3.

I hope some maybe really cool if someone can make like a Photoshop thumbnail, put our faces into the Fast and Furious.

Well, so, as far as updates, things got real busy.

I bought a big van, bought a Sprinter not a new Sprinter, but a used new to me Sprinter.

Yeah, just doing.

I'm doing a lot more, I guess, working on the business, not in the business, or at least I'm trying to hiring advisor, lawyer, accountant, bookkeeper, getting all my ducks in a row, if you will.

That's probably the newest thing for me.

It's still just you out on the road doing the job.

Still just me.

Yeah, I'm planning on hiring, hopefully in the spring.

I'm hoping to get through the year because I picked up, I've got a good pace can handle like without getting burnt out.

I think I know what I can handle.

So as long as I can maintain that and keep the relationships happy, keep the workload under control and still maintain a home life, then I will make it to the end of the year.

And then the biggest hurdle I think I'll run into is every shop I go to they say they're looking for text body text detailers.

It doesn't matter, and most of my friends who I joined the trade with are no longer in the trade.

So I don't know anyone specific who I can say hey, you want to jump on board, you want to do something different.

So I'm presented with the unique challenge of hiring someone who might be very fresh to the industry or the complete opposite, who's been in the industry, knows a thing or two.

Well, what about area are you in?

And the only reason they ask is because there's a bunch of people that listen to the show and maybe somebody is around where you're at.

That's true.

Try to think of that.

Eastern Ontario and Ottawa Okay, basically service area is Ottawa in the greater cities, like extending from if you're from Ottawa or familiar with Eastern Ontario, like canada bells corners.

The Orleans is like the span.

We got one highway through the city and it's about with no traffic at 25 minute drive end to end.

Okay, so I just did a.

I did a ride along with a guy, a A couple weeks ago who reached out from the podcast.

Those locals like, hey, you know, this is something I might think about in the future and I'm not ready to add a third van at the moment, but maybe eventually.

So, yeah, so there's there's a lot of years that are tuned in, so maybe somebody will be out there.

That'd be pretty cool.

That would be wicked.

Yeah, I didn't even think that jumping into this is pretty cool.

Hey, what's keeping you from Getting the third van Sean?

Is it just equipment workload or what's the deal?

Yeah, I got a secure enough workload, like this summer I was definitely there, but we I'm sure it's the same relatively everywhere but back to school and At this time of year it usually drops off a little bit from the summer volume.

So I want to see where that's at.

I want to see September, october, until the snow flies, kind of where it levels off at, and then say, okay, what would it take to add a third person To what we're doing right now?

And then, yeah, then I gotta get the van, I gotta get the equipment, and that takes a little bit of of doing to get all that stuff Figured out.

But I first see it in the future.

I honestly do, I think.

I think that's the direction it's headed.

There's I.

I still have done very little marketing.

I did actually hire administrative guy recently, so he's doing phones for me, he's doing scheduling, dispatch, ordering parts and Kind of customer relations in general.

He's got a sales background, not a technical background, which I'm okay with.

I'm helping them out with that, but he's got the, the sales background he's.

You know, he's good at schmoozing and so I my.

My goal actually is to kind of target some body shops and get some more of that business and that I think once I get More of that work, then then I'll have you know that room for that third person.

So it's in the future.

Is the Magister guy local.

Yeah, he is, and he can do pretty much all of it remote, which is nice for him, but he can also that go wherever he wants to do it.

He can come hang out with me, which I had him do for the first couple weeks because I had to introduce him to shops and say, hey, this is Mike, this is who you're gonna get on the phone now instead of Sean.

It's a super technical question.

He'll, he'll throw you a me in or whatever.

But you know, here's the guy that is gonna handle the scheduling and everything and and kind of showing him what we do too Right, because he doesn't have a technical background.

So I had to like this is a module program, this is diagnostic.

This is a key job.

This is an 8-os.

Here's the shops that handle stuff really well.

Here's the stuff Really like to screw around, you know that sort of thing, showing them the ropes.

But he's he's handling it really well and I can't express how nice it is to have the, the Volume of phone calls Not coming into me all the time.

Always that has been so great.

Yeah, dude, that one, when I had my wife join and she took over and like actually got the you know the hang and the rhythm man, it was nice till just like.

Look at my phone, I'm just like oh wow, there's no missed calls, there's no text messages, there's no.

I don't stress.

I'm just like over here, I'll do die I sure don't get tired, do, do, do you know before you be in the middle of a die egg and you know shops are blowing up your phone and you just lose your thought and just, it's just annoying.

Don, you were actually one of the Inspirations to making that move.

This is last time we talked.

He told me about how you know you brought your wife on for that position and you were in.

We've talked sense on how Much of a relief that's been for you and that that was a big part of why I Was like, okay, I'm gonna make this decision because it's tough, because he's not out there Programming stuff, die against stuff, making money like my other guy, and so the salary that you pay that person, it it feels a little different.

But I mean again, I'm only three, four weeks into this and a marty like this was a fantastic decision and I will.

I will pay to have my, my sanity and my free time back.

Yeah, don't be surprised if you do lose a couple accounts.

We did, for sure Okay.

Okay, just because you know they specifically want to talk to Sean.

Yeah, that's just what's gonna be.

Yeah, we had that.

We had that issue at the beginning when they wouldn't want to talk to my wife and then.

So she'd be like, okay, let me see if I get a hold of them.

And I'd be like, yeah, sure, let me talk to him.

And they would literally ask me like, oh Well, when can you come?

I'm like Me, man, like that's the whole reason why she's here to answer the phone is to not answer these goddamn questions.

Yeah, so, of course.

And then I would show up to the shops and they'd be like, you know, they kind of got little attitudes, they got a lot of two of me.

They're like, hey, you know, we need your direct number, we need to talk to you directly.

And I'm like, look, brother, like I'm working, just like you guys, man, I'm busy, just like you guys.

If you guys can't respect that man, then sorry, man, is what it is.

This is how it is from here on out.

So you just got to put your foot down.

But yeah, don't be surprised that they stop calling them yeah and yeah, I wouldn't, I would not be surprised.

I'm thinking of a couple shops right now, but a couple of my asses.

I was like you're not gonna have your technicians answering the phone and I mean, if you do, then You're not running the shop very well, but it's the same thing.

Like I am the technician when I come out there.

You don't want me answering five phone calls while I'm trying to figure out your problem.

But that's what I was doing.

I sat in this car, a couple Going a month back, like 45 minutes, and I hadn't done anything on the car.

I just was doing phone calls and getting people back and ordering stuff and this, and that I'm like I haven't even.

I'm sitting in this Nissan center.

I haven't done anything on it, though Like this is such a waste of time.

But yeah, the, the help is huge and it's, it is nice.

So we had three people now and and we we've had a couple meetings, like we had lunch on Friday all got together and I was like, wow, this feels like a team now.

Like it's, you know, it's just me originally, obviously you guys know the solo gig and then I added a second guy, steve, and you know we'd meet up time to time and talk and stuff.

But now that we got three people like there's just like a little different energy to it and I felt that on Friday when we had lunch together, I was like this is a cool feeling to have an actual start of it, of a team, and hopefully it gets bigger.

But I'm I'm enjoying it.

Yeah, that's ironically, since you say that Since last time we spoke.

Well, we got a shop and also with that shop we hired somebody.

Also he's been on three weeks now.

He just finished three weeks.

Strong technical background at Diag at least.

Very little experience of programming, no 8-os experience, but that's fine.

But in the he's been in the industry I'm gonna say 12 years, 13 years somewhere in there.

So Of course, asc, master, advanced level, right, it's guys L1, l2.

So he you know he can wrench and obviously he's seen plenty, knows, you know, knows the ins and outs of a lot of the common issues and stuff like that.

So the biggest thing is obviously his attitude and his attitude in his headspace is right.

So Definitely adding him onto the team was a big plus and a huge help for me, because now it's like those 40 abs modules and steering racks and Nissan TCM's are like, you know, quick, the easy job, but you know, obviously the drive time and the time to do those jobs.

Obviously I'm able to unload them onto him.

Yeah, originally, man, I was shooting for 90 days to train him right along with me, but here lately we've just been so freaking busy I've just been sending him on his own and we've just been kind of Going crashing and burning along the way.

But we're making it work, obviously learning a whole lot.

How'd you find this guy?

Actually we were.

He was following me on Instagram and he reached out to me and they needed a module program at the shop he was at.

So then, yeah, I show up, do you know program, and then, obviously, multiple visits.

Then, of course, you know him and I started talking and he had mentioned that you know he was tired of the monotonous day in and day out kind of stuff.

Yeah, obviously, we started talking and then I started to get to know him and, like I said, the biggest thing was his mentality.

Once I figured out his mentality, you know he Got a good head on his shoulders.

I was like, okay, hey, this guy is somebody that you know we'll invest in and we'll we'll grow him and, you know, bring him on part of the team and and, yeah, so far everything's been working great, that's awesome.

So the I think I'm gonna go ahead and say that's awesome.

So the, the brick and mortar place.

You got what?

What is the setup?

What?

What do you got?

So we just have a shop space.

It's a little over 1750 square feet, it's got a little office in there and then we strictly keep it to mostly Ados.

I do take some Some hero cars, I'll have them brought over there.

Um, just depends really what it is and the shop.

You know, if it's one of my better shops, then you know we take it in, or what have you, um, and then of course we do.

Obviously we work with body shop, so a lot of the Wire, harness repairs and stuff like that, stuff that's gonna take some time.

I just haven't taken over to the shop and just we just do it there and it's just so much night, it's just so much.

It's just nice to have everything.

I mean, obviously I got my shop equipment and we got the mobile equipment.

So, yeah, stuff in the shop, but just conveniently there and then you're in your own environment and you gotta worry about.

That's the key, right there is like it's your space and the pressure, the feeling, the vibe is a little different when it's it was your place and there are certain problems where I could totally understand why that would be a Fantastic thing to have.

Yeah, if I want us, you know, stay there.

Let's say I want to get a late start on the day and if I start at noon and I work till Whatever, nine, ten o'clock at night, if I want to, or you know, I've been going on the weekend, you know, from there at one o'clock, two o'clock in the morning, I mean, nobody tells me anything, it's my place, you know right.

Yeah, you don't have to make sure that someone's gonna be there to open up the shop at a certain time or whatever.

Yeah, then they don't show up after you.

You know, made your commitment and change your schedule around mm-hmm, yeah, I've been tossing around that idea of Of a brick and mortar place and it's obviously, depending on how you do it, it's a decent amount of money to to rent or buy or whatever you do, and I just I'm not quite there.

The 8-os thing, I guess, is the one Part that would kind of pull me towards it.

All right, because I've had a couple of the round view Calibrations with the mats where I just said the tele shop Sorry, you guys don't have the physical space oh well, I can set up a thing on the parking lot.

It's real level, like no dude, it doesn't work that way, and so I have enough space for that.

I guess would be A something that that would draw me towards it.

But I just, uh, I don't know if that's the move for me right now, the direction I want to go, and now, yeah, that was also.

I wanted to get the space first because, in my personal opinion, I didn't want, if I was going to hire somebody, I didn't want him to come to my house, sure, because you know, and then leave.

It's just, it's not professional, right, like I'm trying to build a business.

It's like I'm going to be professional as I can, right, um, so that was another reason.

Uh, a huge part was obviously get the shop, get the guy, then we can just keep growing from there.

Uh but a lot of it was because of exactly what you said.

Is eight Austin space, um, I mean, shops, don't understand, they just don't get it.

And then you have a few that do you know.

But the ones that probably do Probably do their own already.

So there's that, but that's what it's funny.

Imagine that up here in canada there aren't a whole lot of uh Shops who are getting into 8-os, or at least not yet over in the side.

Yeah, you're doing a bunch of that I should call.

Yeah, uh, there are a few shops here in my uh region who are picking it up, um, mainly specifically 8-os, not so much programming and um Diagnostics will always just remain, you know, for A big part of the market.

But yeah, it's, um, it's definitely, uh, it's something I've thought about.

Getting a shop or hiring someone first, and which one to do first.

Do them both at the same time.

The commercial side at least getting commercial space, appears Not very difficult.

It's just that location.

Then if you want to remain, you want to keep the same convenience that you're offering as a mobile tech.

Um, you have to hire at least two people.

Run cars back and forth.

You know, sure, convenience, convenience and availability are definitely like the two top priority of a lot of shops that I've encountered when, I asked them directly to just like hey is there.

You know some feedback as to what I can do when I could change, how can I make this better for you?

Basically, there's like be there when we need you, yeah, that's basically what it comes down to, like what Kyle just mentioned about shuttling cars.

That's probably Not, like I said, the biggest hurdle we have, but that's definitely something that I wish I had somebody dedicated just for that um.

Because, like currently, right now, like my wife will do it.

So not only does she obviously handle the phones and then the ordering parts and the same thing, the dispatching, but Uh, when we coordinate some stuff, uh, most of the shops we deal with they're pretty good.

Some of them actually, will just take care of it all.

They'll bring it to us and drop it off and pick it up and you don't have to worry about anything, yeah, uh.

then obviously there's those instances where it's like, obviously they don't have the people available or what have you, and so there we are trying to figure out.

Okay, hey, go pick up this car.

Hey, they close f5 like we need to go now.

like, hurry up yeah that's a lot of extra time.

Yeah, like windshield time times too.

I've had it where I've been at one of the body shops, and then they'd be like hey, oh my god, this is pressing.

You know that we need it down, we need it out by the end of the day.

It's like Okay, we just know, like I'm charging you additional, like yeah, whatever, whatever we just it's like okay so there's a clock there I am throwing all my eight off stuff from my van.

Like an example I had a Subaru eyesight and they didn't have the space, I didn't have the board with me either.

So there I am, like okay, I'm loading all my eight off stuff into the Subaru to go drive it back to my shop to unload it, do the calibration load.

But I left everything behind them and I just took the car back.

But Uh, I got there at one and then obviously by the time I got done, drove back, it was 430.

They closed at five and we like barely made it and but that's that's last day of the month.

We're delivering this car at five, why you talk to me.

Go drive it.

You know like, come on, now we're screwed.

Now we're screwed, yeah, like but you could take it through, drive through or drive, drive through car wash or every time we clean it during this.

So the the Subaru eyesight um, it's funny you mentioned that I have one that I've been fighting at a shop.

They're going back tomorrow, Actually they.

They said they have it ready for me.

Um, so I got the target and everything, and I got error on this thing, no matter what I did.

And I tried it in a gazillion different like whittings and Different positions and different backdrops and whatever, and I couldn't get this thing to go.

It kept saying contrast error, contrast failure.

When I went to do the alignment, we even tried a different camera.

Um well, they had aftermarket glass in this thing and so that was literally the only thing that I could find and I.

This was also reached out to some people that do aidos and they told me a check for that, and so they poured it oe and glass, oe glass in it.

I'm going back tomorrow morning to try this again, so I will let you know how it goes, but is there anything else that?

I should be looking for to get this stupid Subaru cross track.

It's a 19 cross track to pass the calibration.

How high are the ceilings in this shop?

Pretty high, it's a big place.

Okay, so they have like separate lights, yeah, even evenly spaced apart, kind of thing, like not creating any weird shadows um, I guess I'd have to take a look.

I don't know that right off top of my head.

Yeah it.

I haven't had an issue with lighting as long as um Like there's a light shining like, just hypothetically, toward the car and toward the okay.

The board.

Gotcha, in those scenario, like the light facing directly into the camera, is what would cause the issue.

I gotcha, see, and I'm, but if it's, if it's high enough, even they distributed, it's you okay.

See, I'm the exact opposite.

That's why I got my space, because I go to these places and try to do a calibration and fail, fail, fail, fail, error, fail, whatever, and it was because it's lighting, lighting, lighting, lighting hmm, I did.

I did an eyesight on Thursday morning and I've got a one of the new mono mono camera.

I say, if you want to call it on, I say the single camera in the center on a 23.

So soltera, the new targets okay, no issues with that.

I've yet to go away to be on Wednesday.

Oh, okay, so I will keep you informed.

Or I'll be calling for help, but.

You could.

You could post You're in the eight-ass Facebook groups where there's like a hundred percent Ah, it's photoshopped.

Somebody was saying you could see with you the camera on your phone, the distortion in the aftermarket glass, and I looked.

But I Did it look fine, I could see the target through interesting.

I don't know I.

Actually recently just had an issue with a 21 Ford Mach-E Now for being a dynamic calibration.

Everything was correct, like fuel alignment, tire pressure whether it's.

I was great it would pass the calibration with FDRS.

Then it says in the after past says successfully, calibration successful.

Please make sure like the front camera fault or malfunction Message on the cluster disappears and it never would kept throwing the fault C100178 for alignment incorrect, etc.

Etc.

So I checked the pitch angle.

Pitch angle was, I think, zero degrees the first time I did and that has changed the point to the second time I did it.

And Then I just looked through the weeds a little bit, went through TSB's.

Everything was up to date and everything and Part of the pre-inspection I noticed it was an aftermarket glass.

So I mean you have to Before you rule out the glass and you just show up and say like hey, I'm not doing it because it's aftermarket.

They want obviously proof and one not so that they can go back and adjust it however they need to.

Yeah, I did a bean glass.

Even though it passed the calibration, they would never clear the light.

Weird, there's a bit odd.

Wow, yeah, that's.

That's a tough one and obviously I'm letting my shops know as much as possible.

You know, because of that, like hey, make sure you're doing owe a glass.

But of course you're gonna run into this, going to places they're gonna just like wherever they bail ability.

Yeah, like there was.

So I reached out to a local boss guy I usually do it and he said, yeah, there's a Ford oem glass that are our supplier in Houston and and the shop called the dealer and they're like yeah, glasses a week away.

So there was one local.

It's just, I guess different glass guys use different suppliers or whatever.

They didn't realize there was one in in town.

So, as I Let them know, like well, let me know when you get it sorted, because I can only Do the button pressing and driving, I Can't do the glass.

Yeah.

You guys ever dealt with any lightning strike vehicles before?

Oh?

Yeah, yeah, I mentioned, don you probably see a few of them, huh.

Yeah, well, before before I went mobile action, I was that Toyota.

I had one.

It was a forerunner 18 forerunner actually have the video.

I'm gonna, I'm gonna shoot it in our group and, okay, you can check it out.

But you can literally see the lightning hit the roof rack of the forerunner and the lightning comes out out of the tire.

Yeah, that's what actually where I learned or not why I learned.

That's actually when I started getting deep into scoping, because I Starts obviously scope scoping, communication networks, okay, and that's what really took me into a network die-act with the scope.

I just first it was.

It was pretty evident there you go, it should be there, oh.

Yeah, this is you all.

You have the video of it actually hitting the vehicle.

Yeah, we got it from the customer oh damn.

That's from his home, cam right yeah of course it comes in and of course I mean typical dealership right.

Yeah the first time that you know somebody reads, all struck by like I don't want, I don't want, no, like me.

So of course, dispatcher watch by is like okay, I know you like the next going to challenge, here you go and I'm reading it.

I'm like I was like we're about to make some money.

So that's, wild you know, I got with the service advisor and I was like, hey man, I was like that's what we're gonna do, was like because if I write up a list of modules, the total listing out, so we're gonna start with we need seven hours of die-act and we need two modules.

Remember, we did those two, did die-act and got another list of like four or five modules.

Like here you go, insurance.

They like, okay, go for it.

And then we just kept doing that.

Next thing, you know, 30 something hours of die-act and R&R modules.

Got it all up and running.

I needed two door speakers in the rear and I needed, I think was the AC amplifier.

So it was the two door speakers in the rear and the AC amplifier and they told it out.

After that I was like god damn it, I was like right here, man, like I'm not, like I'm about to clear this thing, like Through and through and look nothing to.

The customer didn't really want it anymore, so he was on the insurance company.

So the insurance company was already like, all right, fuck it, we're just gonna total it.

Well, they dropped like that's happened 27k into it and then they decided up that's it, we're totally it up, that's wild.

Yeah, anything up here there would be struck by lighting, just probably instant, right off.

Yeah, I'd say like I just, I've never seen one, I've never heard of one like locally.

I just went through it on its reverse.

I had an episode about it, but it was ECM, under her fuse box, fuel pump control module, body control module, and that was all we could find.

I mean, we didn't go through everything, but that was.

That was what it needed to get it running, which we got through all that stuff and we did.

We got it running.

And then it had timing codes in it too, which they tried arguing with me about it, like, well, isn't this caused by the lightning?

The lightning strike to I'm like I'd, I dude, it's a correlation check the oil bro.

Well, we're gonna put in cam and prank sensors and solenoids and like, go for it, but you're still gonna have a correlation code, like maybe one of those solenoids is stuck, I don't know, but you're probably still gonna have a correlation code, and they did.

And then he calls me back and he's like, was there anything else the lightning could have done?

Because I think they were trying to get it through on insurance and I'm like I was like no, like those timing chains were screwed long before the lightning came along.

Like that's just the way that stuff works and yeah, so, but anyways, that was an interesting one to deal with because we we had no idea that that's what happened and which, just like module after module after module, like this is very strange that all of these things would have failed at one time.

But yeah, that's definitely one of those that you get that gut feeling.

You're like mmm, I don't know, man, is there something wrong with this car?

Like yeah there's no way.

There's no way.

I can't explain something to be said, yeah, something to be said about trusting your gut right, especially if you hit a brick wall.

You're looking at like three different directions, yeah you do enough this stuff, you can feel when something isn't right, it's just like I Actually just did that last week on a 14 Explorer.

We were called in for a no crank, no start.

Actually, no, it wouldn't even power on the dashboard.

Power on, get there, scan it.

It's a smart key system.

Get there, scan it.

Bcm has an ignition switch, code B 1310, something, another.

We troubleshoot it.

Okay, cool, we're not getting any X run accessory relay Control.

So I bi-direction control and I can hear the BCM click.

And that relay is actually integrated into the BCM so I could hear it click when I bi-direction control it.

But the dash nothing comes on only.

Hmm, very interesting.

So we jump the run start relay while bi-direction controlling the run accessory nothing.

So, based on that code and the troubleshooting troubleshooting tree, I End up calling a BCM.

Of course I check powers, grounds, comms, all that was there I had.

We even went, looked in the RFA.

I'm seeing the ignition switch input commit come into the module and I'm like, okay, well, I mean that ignition switch input should say something to the RFA and the BCM.

Somebody should wake up the bus, right, which would be the BCM in that case.

And no, nothing happened from the BCM.

So they get to use BCM.

I show up, program it and now that code is gone Still won't ignition on.

But now the RFA is throwing a Pats identifier Because the BCM was replaced.

So you do a parameter reset, same shit, nothing changes.

So I'm like thinking okay, is this RFA bed?

You're able to program keys to it.

You can erase keys.

I updated it, I mean Everything, but I didn't know what else to do, what to do.

At that point, truthfully, I told the shop I say man, look, this potentially looks like an RFA.

I said.

I said there's nothing really I could check to test.

I mean everything is here.

I don't understand.

And then I said you know what Better yet I Just said hey, man, I'm not the bow out of this one, this is just because it was one of those gut feelings.

I was there and I was like man, this is, this isn't right.

Man, there's something wrong with this thing.

Yeah, I'm gonna get suckered into and be married to this thing.

So I told them I say man, I don't have time for this right now.

Then you know, if you guys can wait, then cool.

But if not, man, I'm not about.

And I said don't even worry about the, the diagraphy man, I'm just gonna eat it.

We'll just call it a loss on both ends and I was like man, just kind of Cuz, I gotta keep business moving and that's obviously just coming from being screwed.

Enough to when you learn like no, no, we're not gonna do this turn, say no yeah.

Yeah, you've let a car eat your day or it's like, okay, and I got a, sacrifice my pride a little bit here and make a business call on some of these things and I I'm really bad at that, but I'm trying to get better and making those calls.

He's just saying sorry.

This is not something I want to get involved with.

I I even told the shop to go say, hey, man, I'll buy that BCM off of you guys.

I know you guys paid for it.

There was 60 bucks and they're like no, that's fine, they're like we're just gonna chunk it on the shelf.

I was like, okay, cool, whatever.

Yep.

I.

Recently came across.

It's not a identical situation but one that actually, like I, had enough time allotted for it and anytime moving forward.

I'm just waiting for approval at this point.

But To make it quick, it's a 15 caravan flex fuel and Prior to me showing up, the shop had what do they do?

They did, I Think, an injector for an open injector circuit code months prior.

They changed the squirt plugs and I think they changed valve cover gaskets.

And While they did the valve cover gaskets, I think they changed both camshafts on bank one and all the rockers.

Okay, I should explain the issue.

The issue was they were chasing a misfire when the car originally came in cylinder 5 and then Months prior had a cylinder one injector code.

So they replaced the injector.

Months later, some refinement fire Find all this stuff and they never really got down to the bottom of the cylinder 5 misfire.

But in the midst of all this it started throwing a p0, 171 and 172 for fuel system bank one and two rich.

Okay, so apart from so you know what they did.

They did a couple injectors, spark plugs, an ignition coil and valve cover gaskets, camshaft and rockers on bank one, the head on the back.

So at this point they.

They called me in to they wanted.

They asked first if I had a Pressure chance to receive to go in.

So I was like, yeah, sure, I mean they.

They told me that they were chasing a misfire cylinder 5.

So I went in.

So in 5 compared to cylinder 1, compared to bank 2, everything looked normal.

I even stuck a borescope down the hole just to look at the valve seats and the valve face just to make sure they weren't like Kind of corroded or weird-looking.

They weren't a hundred percent.

He told me he did a leak down the compression test and leak down showed, I think, 15 to 20% Leakage on bank one compared to bank two.

Okay, so I was like you know, kind of looking at something Weird valve seats on those, you know they're not the greatest.

Anyways, long story short, it's still Hang rich.

It's minus 30 trims all the time.

No matter what you do, they've replete.

Oh yeah, so once it started doing that, they replaced the PCM, they replaced the map sensor, they circuit tested everything from the map sensor to the PCM.

Hmm, they did I fuel sample test, bunch of other things.

I showed up, I did the basics.

I did fuel sample, forced it rich fortune.

Forced it lean doesn't change you as soon as it goes into open loop.

So you rev it and you let off the throttle.

It goes into open loop real quick, it trims, go to zero obviously, and it runs mildly better, and then they just plummet again.

Okay, so I went further and I just they had another ECM that they had already replaced.

I just made sure it was up to date.

No change.

You can do a fuel composition reset, drive it.

It's always, always, always, always super rich.

Okay.

So I'm waiting for approval to see if the owner of the vehicle wants to do anything more, because they've had it, I think, over a year.

Oh, wow, yeah, so, and they've, they put the customer, they put the owner of the vehicle in a loner.

They haven't.

I don't think they paid for anything as of yet.

So I spent like a couple hours in it, got my basic data.

I went even as far as like Manually changing the resistance in the map sensor reading to pull it, because it was I wanted to pull it down, right, I was like I'm forcing this thing one way or another and didn't do a thing.

It just threw a barometric pressure sensor low code and I was like what the heck?

So the interesting things that I found that I mentioned to them was that the barometric pressure reading and KPA is 300 KPA and for our region we should be about a hundred KPA.

Okay, right, and no matter what I did, I could not get that down without it setting a code, without it setting a code.

And I tried, I looked at why tech, I looked at Autel snap on just to see if, like, is the PID being misinterpreted as like, hpa or mercury inches about mercury, yada, yada, just to see if the value is inconsistent.

So, anyways, that's, uh, it's, it's one of the cars I haven't solved, that I may never get to solve, but like, luckily they allotted me the time and like any, any time moving forward, you know, I'm just waiting for approval, sure, sure, but like I, at this point, my, I think my next test is

so, okay, the way it works.

Barometric pressure sensor is the map sensor.

The barometric pressure is Calculated as soon as you like, crank the vehicle or ignition on, I'm pretty sure.

So, as soon as you ignition on, it reads the resistance value in the signal wire from the map sensor to determine Atmospheric pressure.

Okay, right before the engine, before the engine's cranking, really.

So I and the map sensor reading is reading perfectly.

It passes the map sensor test as per FCA data.

It's constantly rich.

I, you know, I blocked off every port on the the intake, you know, check the oil.

The oil is fine.

They change.

I recommend them like you guys change it.

It smells like gas, first of all.

Yeah, I mean, it's running.

Yeah like, as it's pulling fuel away.

Is the engine actually running lean, is it misfiring and stuff like that.

Like, is it?

not smells rich like, almost burns your eyes.

So it actually is running Really really rich.

Okay, okay, like stupid rich.

Oh, I know, it's like I.

I I'm just amazed at the amount of parts, like it's all the parts, all of them that are responsible for fuel control, even the oxygen sensors.

Huh, that's still super rich I've got.

What do you do at that point?

Hey, when you run out of parts, I've got a volt flag in a shop.

Not a exact same Problem, but a similar situation.

Where they've been through this thing, donna's one too.

Fix it.

No, they have to put another PCV out in it.

So it's, it's, it's.

So.

We had it there at idle and I'm scoping this map sensor because of course data live data was all wonky so It'll idle fine sometimes.

So obviously the concern was it was a surging idle, then it would Miss install, then it would just stall out.

So then you start back up, run like poop, stall out again, okay, cool.

So they call us, we get there, we, we smoke it, we smoke the crankcase.

That was the first thing we do smoke the crankcase, valve covers, pew and smoke.

So I'm like guys, this is unmuted air, like we can't have this, like you need to fix this.

So, anyways, they put a new valve cover gasket on.

They're like, hey, it's doing the same thing.

We show up again, we smoke it again just to make sure.

Yeah, okay, it's the leaks gone and we have an O2 code for for I forget the exact code, but it was an O2 code and it's stuck low pretty much.

So you start looking at map and yeah, sometimes it runs great and you can drive it.

Drive me, they shop, drove it for four days and then they started messing, messing up again.

So then when they call us back out.

We're looking at it and of course it's running beautifully, there's nothing wrong, mm-hmm.

So we start checking some things and it's a 2.5

Jetta, right.

So we check the intake bolts and I mean I kid you not, man, probably four out of the six Finger tight I can loosen with my hand.

So, all right, cool, we tied them down.

We're thinking, all right, cool, for sure, that's it.

I mean that that's it, we're good, we tied it up.

We're like, hey, man, we're good, we drive it.

Make sure, okay, cool, shop keeps it.

They drive it for a few days.

All right, cool, everything's hunky-dory.

They call customer hey, come pick it up.

They pick it up.

Customer takes off, comes back two days later, same thing.

I'm like what the hell, man?

So we started looking at map, map, pid day, pid day, obviously.

And yeah, it gets wonky and then dies.

I'm like, hmm.

So we scope it and Sure, shit man.

You see the signal.

And at idle, no input changed and nothing.

Nothing changed with the car, like there's no one in it, no AC, nothing, nothing should be changing.

And there you see the signal start fluctuating.

So we pull it off.

Of course it has oil.

Okay, cool.

So pull off throttle body.

We look in the intake yeah, there's a value of oil in there.

Like, okay, this is great.

I'm thinking, well, maybe this is just residual, so we clean it.

Clean the map sensor, put it back on runs like shit.

I'm like, no, we're gonna get a map sensor, so we go get a Bosch, slap it in.

We do the TSB update.

That idols, idols.

Fine, I was fine.

We drive it, it's fine.

And then it starts acting up again.

I'm like man, I guarantee you there's gonna be oil in this freaking intake.

Then we just open the butterfly valve, open the throttle body up and yep, there's oil in there.

And I'm like, all right, they're gonna replace.

There's a valve cover again.

Supposedly that's like the third one they've put on.

So I'm like a guy's look.

I'm like either one of two things you guys are putting low quality parts in on this thing or his guy has.

You know he has excessive pressure, is crank use pressure, which I know he doesn't because I checked with a vacuum gauge and it's good.

So I'm like, okay, this is just quality, quality of parts.

But of course you know the shops like oh, we've replaced that.

There's no way.

It's that I'm like, well, it's that.

I don't want to tell you, partner, I mean, it is what it is.

So, yeah, we just, we just took it back to them today to put a valve cover on it.

So we'll see, there's gonna, they're gonna get one from Volkswagen.

We'll see what happens.

Hmm.

So that that reminds me real quick.

I'll add one more thing to my caravan story.

The only unique thing about it is I stuck a pulse sensor in the exhaust and the overlap between Bank one, bank two is Like significant I wouldn't say significantly.

It's fairly different, like there's an obvious difference in Pressure change.

Now I didn't put the pulse sensor in the intake just to see if there was an issue with, like an overlap or valve sealing, but but if I'm seeing it in the exhaust, I could probably see in the intake, sure?

So yeah, I don't know if, if excessive overlap you know putting hydrocarbons back into the intake would create such a weird rich condition.

But yeah, it's a little far fetched.

I Cuz it runs fine technically, like you can just step on it and it revs up.

It doesn't like bog, it doesn't pop, okay, it's just always rich.

It's got plenty of fuel, lots of power.

She's got lots of fuel, that's for sure, yeah.

Yeah, the Volkswagen at this shop.

At the first time they called me out it was for timing codes and this is an old Passat with a 2-7, like at 2002 or 3 or something.

An old one, no, the actual V6 it was in, like the Audi's and stuff.

And the one where you needed a special bar to line up the cams.

They had two holes in them and the bar went across the front of the engine.

I actually had the tool Because I used to do these back in the day when I was a tech and so I know the motor and everything and I look at it and the data pitch show it's out of time.

The compression, relative compression shows it's out of time.

The misfire show it's out of time, like those things out of time.

Okay, simple.

And there and I told them I was like you guys need a special tool Line up the cams, otherwise Good luck.

And I borrowed it to them.

Actually, because I just sits in my toolbox in my garage.

I have no desire to do Audi timing.

You know like I have no desire for that.

So here, yeah, I'll borrow the tool for X-mon dollars and you guys can use it.

So do it.

They get all back together, blah, blah, and they call me back out.

So they'll light on.

Come back out and timing codes again.

Data pins are showing it's out of time again.

Everything same tests.

It's up like sorry guys, you must have did this wrong, click something, something screwed up.

Did you look at the chains under the valve covers and all that stuff?

Yeah, yeah, we looked at that.

Oh, it's one of those, yeah.

Yeah, so the the cam the cam that's run off of the belt.

Just for everybody listening who doesn't know, the cam is run off by the belt.

That is the Exhaust cam, and then it has a chain underneath the valve cover from the exhaust cam to the intake cam and between there there's a, there's a adjuster that will change timing with oil pressure, right.

So like, well, we're gonna go back into it, we're gonna go over it again.

And they're like, okay, we changed the adjuster this time because we think it was messed up and we'd read it at the timing.

And it was the same thing again.

And so I come back out there.

I'm like, hey, still out of time, guys, and I'm looking at this from a scan tool, testing perspective, right, like I haven't had it apart physically.

So I'm like, guys, you got it.

You like, are you reading the process?

Blah, blah, blah, and they're, you know they're an okay shop, but you know this sort of thing just isn't their specialty.

And so I'm questioning whether they're doing it right, obviously because still out of time.

And so then they, they called me out while they had it apart and and I'm charging to go out there, and they're okay with this because they want to get this car fixed.

But they could.

They're like we have it all apart.

Can you just come tell us for sure that this isn't time before we put it back together, because our tax tired of taking this apart.

Okay, line up the chain marks and I line up everything.

It's all there, yep, yep, this looks good.

This looks like everything I can see is in time and whatever, and they put it all back together and same thing.

It's all at a time, you know.

So I'm really going over my stuff.

Now I'm like is there something up with the tensioner or something that I'm missing?

Is there something else that I'm I'm missing and I can't find everything.

Everything's pointing me back to this thing is out of time, and so I'm like, hey guys, I Don't know I need to spend more time with this, like maybe even taking it apart and looking at stuff, but I don't have the time for it.

So this is just going into you guys, a story like I Ran out of things to do on this car besides taking it apart myself, and I don't know, maybe there's a wrong camshaft or something weird with this car, but everything we could find the thing was in time, but it's still out of time and yeah, that's waiting.

They want me to dig back into it.

But I'm like this is on my way back burner, like I don't have time to take apart a 2003 Passat, like it's just not part of my, my daily thing to do and I don't know if I'll ever get to it.

But so like you hear it in the RC test yeah, yeah, I guess.

Sounds like it's skipping fast.

Yeah, the three or lower the other.

Now it's like in my hand the wrong bank and I check that and I was yeah so I find it.

I find it fun the questions you ask yourself we're in the middle of something.

Yeah, am I doing this right?

Sometimes, when it's too easy like I'll test something and I'm like, oh, that's it I'm like nah, that was too easy, I did this wrong.

Yeah, sometimes right.

Yeah go back, load this ground about leaving them from behind right putting on the back burner.

Lately it's tougher.

Me, it seems or I should say us, cuz it's no longer just me, but it seems like we have quite a few of those Not have a 17 f 350 with some road and damage inside that oh, high-speed bus one.

I can't communicate anything on it, but I scope, I scope the splice pack and I can see everybody.

I Get to the gateway, my terminating backbones at 60 ohms, but it just I can't talk to it.

They put a new gateway in it same shit.

And I can't talk to the gateway to program it.

So I'm like what the fuck man?

Like why can't the hell's going on with this junk?

And I mean when I say that there's some road and damage, like it's, it's pretty bad.

Like there's road and droppings like under the carpet.

Like I got there.

They're like, hey, we need you to program this BCM and I was there for something else.

And I'm like, okay, cool, they're like.

I'm like what's truck or what car, what they're like, that's the f 350 over there in the corner.

So I walk up to it.

Dude, the whole front's taking part, like the whole interior is taking part.

I can see the metal floor, the center console is gone, the seats are gone, the bottom parts of the dash are ripped off.

And I'm looking at them and the guy's like, look man, I'm gonna pay you regardless where the works tonight.

He's like, just give it a shot, okay you know that's cool.

Yeah, I was like okay, bro, Cool Whatever.

So connect Whatever scan.

I get a pre scan and I'm like and that's like I'm looking at this thing and you know IDS.

Oh, they tells you fail, fail, fail or not there, or whatever the whatever the case may be, and I'm looking at the list- I'm optional.

Yes, it's optional.

I'm looking at it, I'm like I'm looking and I'm like man.

I know this thing has ABS, like it has to have freakin ABS, and ABS is under optional and I'm like Hell.

So yeah, man, I'm going through all the list.

I'm like I'm like, yeah, like nine modules that are like offline.

I'm like I don't know that these is gonna work.

So, of course, ids, I can't program the BCM, so I use four scan, able to talk to it, able to do as built.

So I love the as bill.

Okay, cool, try to do the parameter reset.

I can get in.

We try to do the handshake.

That doesn't work.

It times out, errors out.

Um, so I'm like, hmm, so here I am like looking at can lines.

I was like, oh, I'm just gonna jump it from the BCM to the PCM, get the parameter reset to work and then it should start.

That was high heat, that was really high, high hopes I had there.

That was three months ago, and then I would get like suckered into it, right, because I'm like well, now I want to know, right, that curiosity in me, yeah so here I am with just the use scope, and here I am pulling out the Pico and I got all this crap out.

And next, you know, I'm three hours into this thing and I have a bunch of data but no direction.

I'm like, oh, okay, and that's when I learned.

Well, I didn't learn my lesson.

Then I went back on a Saturday.

I was like, hey guys, I'll come back on the weekend because I wanted to know I was like I need to figure this out.

You know I hate that try.

Yeah, and I'm like I'm right here Shrinking Saturday and I'm, you know, at this point I'm like literally going by, module by module, on high speed one.

I'm like, okay, you Are you talking?

Yes, okay, you are you talking cool, yes, you're gonna do this.

Slice back, okay, cool, we're gonna hear.

But like I'm going down the network and then I told I asked myself I'm like, don't, what the fuck are you doing, man?

Like it's, it is Saturday.

You now have six hours into this thing because you're here three hours.

You were three hours a day before or a couple days before.

And then I realized I'm like this is not a smart business move.

What are you?

Why are you?

Why are you doing this here?

I'm so, man, like, get the hell out.

So, yeah, I walked in, I told the shop, I said amen, my saving grace.

And I just did a quick visual right to pop the driver side, no, passenger side.

I decided to dash off right the little panel there and I'm peeking in.

I'm just just looking in to see if I could just Hopefully see something obvious, right, and I could see the the top of the glove box from the backside.

You can see all the you've wrote it fingerprints, right, okay, and I'm like, hmm, I could see some wires that are like kind of just it just looks.

It doesn't look normal, right, just something looks weird.

So I pull the tweeter from the top off and I find some wires to don't like guys, you got pulled a dash.

I was like we don't even know, I don't even know what's back there.

I was like we just need to pull it.

There's wires are a tune, there's evidence, like we just need to pull this fucking thing apart and let's just see, because I have no idea.

So I tell them they're like, okay, cool, yeah, we'll pull it.

I go back two weeks later.

I'm like I walked through the shop, I don't see it there.

I'm like, hey, where's the Ford and the text like, oh man, fuck that for it.

I pushed it outside.

It's sitting out there.

I Was like I was trying to see that where they're very I was like hey, I don't blame you man.

So I don't know what they're gonna do with it.

I don't even know if they pulled it Isn't it just wild how broken cars can get In, like the simplest scenario, like that for truck.

He said the owner of the vehicle was just driving down the road and then a couple things happen.

See, and what?

Now it's a bucket, yeah, it's a mother back.

It's very important piece of information I mentioned was so they use me and they use another guy to this programming.

Then they caught us when we were on vacation, I think, so they called the other dude out and they put a PCM in it originally.

So that guy came out couldn't do the parameter reset and that's how they said hey Well, you must have a broken wire from the PCM to the BCM.

So that's why the whole interior got dismantled.

So they have this remand PCM from I don't know where.

They don't have the original, of course.

So now we have yeah so now we have a new Module into this network.

It's new PCM, and now we got this new BCM and a new gateway.

So now we're trying to figure out.

Okay, well, is it?

Do you guys induce a problem here?

I mean, you know, all those questions are coming into play and it's like nothing makes sense.

Yeah, and then when?

I told him.

I said those just say hey guys, I just I can't, I don't have time, dude, I don't have time for any this, especially now that you know we got a, I Got mark on board and we're trying to get him trained up and, you know, get him up and running efficiently and properly, yeah, that's.

The thing is like how many profitable jobs are you missing out on while you're down in the trenches with a yeah Rotten infested?

network issues there was.

So I don't mean to bring this up, don bring up scar.

There was.

I had an F-150.

Like two weeks after that same sort of issue and I Think one I think it was a medium speed bus was down and I'm scoping it same routine, everything's good.

I'm like no way I'm getting stuck in, stuck into this again, or like what Don did.

Anyways, I was like you know what, I'm just gonna unplug the gateway.

I unplugged the gateway and then the vehicle started without the gateway module.

Explain that, I don't know, that's kind of weird.

Anyways, I plugged it back in and everything works, so I know.

And then their concern was just the blind spot light.

After that, like that the dash was dark and it would start.

So they, that's what they were concerned about.

Okay, and then the blind spot because they replaced the tail light.

In all honesty, in those scenarios I actually ask myself what would Bernie Thompson do?

Get the channel out.

Like I what?

I can't remember how long I watched one of his videos.

It was like they degaust the crankshaft, yeah, because of like a magnet.

I was like I think I need some of that on this caravan.

Something ain't right.

It's just like take his wild approach.

This is logical approach if you will Throw it into your daily mix, but it's just so difficult to to make it make business.

Well, in 99% of the time that like crazy wild outside of the box stuff isn't needed and doesn't apply.

It's a just regular normal broken wire or open or whatever like that's.

That's just about everything, so you don't have to go crazy and get out the degausser.

But okay, there's a couple cars out there that are just Complete balls and yeah, like you say, like some of these guys can really really get broken.

I think in 10 to 15 years a lot of the cars that are out there right now newer are gonna be broken.

That's gonna be real tough for the majority of people that sort through these problems because I don't know, Absolutely.

It's just getting any easier and the problems are more unique and more complex Than than ever before.

As far as what I'm seeing on newer vehicles, eight, eight, eight channel gateways and vehicles, and then you explain to Sonya you got four high-speed bus networks.

And it's just like what.

Yeah, that's how the car runs.

Yeah, like we still get called.

We saw a lot of older GM's down here, obviously because you know we're in the south.

So I mean guys struggle to diagnose class 2 networks, so yeah it's like Cadillac with a radio pulling it down the other day.

Like I had a 22 grand wagon here with the network issue and it was on the BH bus.

We had To.

Oh, we had 120 ohms.

So we had an open and long story.

Short, it was in the driver seat module.

I got it nailed in in about a couple hours to me a couple hours.

First off was obviously getting Acclimated with the vehicle.

I'm like, okay, where the freak?

Or where's this module, where's that module, you know, obviously.

So I'm in front of the computer for a solid 35 minutes looking at where's this one.

Okay, this module's here connected.

View this.

Getting all the ammo together in the actual testing was this quick, yeah.

But we got an arrow down and, yeah, that driver seat module is bringing down like four, four modules.

So once we got it, we got it offline and I jumped it with a resistor.

Everything was hunky-dory, but it was a yeah, it was one of those that I was telling mark.

I was like man dude.

I was like way too, these become normal.

It's gonna be real, real serious then.

Yeah, that's why I can't see moving on from die.

I guess a part of my business.

You know some people Like yeah, I'm going full eight us from full programming or whatever.

And I mean Diagnostics is one of those things where I just don't seeing it being replaced with anything remote or simple or Big box company or anything like that.

Like it's, it's all.

No, it's gonna be a need, and I think even more so going into the future.

Yep, absolutely like Just how you started the conversation at the Subaru.

You're having issues calibrating it Like things out of your control, programming people, putting in use modules or modules with one number difference, or like not knowing you can't put a use module in this.

Not knowing how to make that use module work is just as important, as like diagnostics, like that is the what makes Mobile techs make it look easy, make it look smooth, you know, but they've spent hours at home on the bench or hours with a car Trying to calibrate it and whatever you know.

Diagnostics is like it's like almost just the bare bones of it.

It's like, yeah, it applies in every other aspect, but it's like the car has this issue that it's not as like it's not as easy to comprehend as like it's just because of it's a windshield or it's just because you put a used module Right, right, it's like no, there's a physical issue in the car.

Go find it.

That is, our diagnostics was our number one service that we sell 100%.

I mean it's, which is why I'm pretty bad, like when you look at my like KPIs, when you look at what, at what we sell the most of it is dyag.

So Is that by volume of right, by dollar, or both?

Both Okay.

I mean so we charge 180 for the first hour dyag.

And then, well, I matrix my stuff, so I have matrix labor times.

But I mean we're at the point where, like if a new shop calls us and they want dyag, we just tell them hey look, it's 180 bucks for the first hour, which I'm thinking about actually bumping that up, I think about going to 250 truthfully, just because of how much we do.

And then I tell them like look guys, and I tell them up front I mean most of them obviously they understand, they understand what a matrix is.

So I tell them is I gave me after that it's a matrix.

So I Mean you want two hours or roughly.

I think it's like 432.

I don't know 50 something, 56.

I can't remember.

So yeah, usually when I tell a shop I'm like hey, man, look, if you need a couple hours, you're excellent at dollars, so get pre or poor for 600 bucks.

Then let us know mmm.

But yeah, I mean they do, because obviously the cars broken, they can't figure it out.

They got a customer that they have to impress right, or they need to take care of, so yep, yeah.

I gotta pay to play, yeah both sense.

I guess, yeah, awesome tools, yeah, is there, and if so, what is it?

The decision-making process and buying new tools for you guys?

Business.

Oh, I was just looking at one today.

I gotta list September that I'm gonna buy yeah.

Yeah, pretty well, okay, yeah, if you need it, you need it.

Is there anything that stops you from buying a tool?

The shop depends on the shop.

Okay, I look at that.

I'm like I don't like you guys, I'm not gonna buy this.

Sorry, go find someone else.

This DME for this Porsche and this is for one of my buddies.

Right, my ass, dude.

Like it is, it's a continental SDI six.

So when you read the flash with flex, well, first hexprog won't read this.

Pretty good, it says it does, but it won't.

You Read the flash with flex and it scrambles the data.

So the MCU is coming alive, obviously.

And then there's the data's getting mixed.

I can literally read it once, read it again and read it a third time and compare all three bins, and they're all different every time down.

I'm like god, dang it.

And they have as an external e-prom.

So I was like, all right, cool, I'm just gonna swap the e-prom, leave the flash back to the way it was originally, and I Should be good now because the immobilizer is also in the flash and obviously I'm.

I don't see many Porsches, so this is like my first one where I'm actually having to make a use module working a Porsche.

Okay, and it's been a struggle because, well, this is another one that, like I need time to sit here and mess with it.

And you know, I mean you know how Benchord goes.

I don't have to explain that to you.

Yeah, it's one of those.

It's just a pain, man.

I even provided a module Because they couldn't get one.

So then I get, I found one, got it, and then I find out, oh, the customer doesn't have money right now.

So I'm like, oh man.

When he has money you guys tell me and then I'll make this a priority again.

But until then it's on the back.

Sure, yeah, yeah.

I wanted.

So you go.

I had a Hyundai recently with a used module that I went through that on.

I think I was messaging you on that, don.

I'm trying to figure out how to swap the vins on that thing, and that was uh.

That was learning process, for sure, and that's one of those things where there is a tool out there that'll do it.

But I'm like, hmm, I don't know, I'm probably not gonna see that many of these and I'm not in an emission state, so I'll just I'll do it the hard way.

I sent some pictures of that forward to the group.

There you can see the.

The rodents damage.

You could just see that.

There's paw prints everywhere, there's poop and there's Bell sauce rappers that are too.

Oh yeah.

Yeah, if you look you mean the rats?

Had a reason to be fire sauce.

And then you can see Pillar there on the driver's side that had liners all stained.

So I don't know that's from urine.

Oh, no man.

But that was my first red flag.

When I saw that I was like, hmm, that's us.

So I went to that, to that C pillar, and just just did a visual, looked around at the bottom and I pulled the bottom part of it out and I saw a bunch of rodent poop and I was like okay, yeah.

I was like yep, yep, there this is.

This is gonna be a big issue here.

Yeah, those critters.

They don't.

Did you check splice pack seven?

I did check splice pack seven.

Okay, just just make a chair First one's a check.

I was like, uh, please be dislodged, Please yeah.

I got.

I gotta explain something quick.

Don and I run across like the same issues Almost like once every couple weeks, like I'll be working on a BMW headlight and he's working on a BMW headlight.

He has an issue with splice pack seven.

I have an issue with splice pack seven.

I Don't know what, what's happening with it, but it makes it very convenient actually To get through your car.

Like there's this this one time I Just finished it, I think.

Like the day prior he was at a body shop and it was just a simple thing.

Like the passenger rear window doesn't work.

I was like I just go to the door module, reset memory, operate the switch from the door and it'll work.

He's like no Thanks.

Once I were actually once I might call them.

He's like oh, my diagnosis, BMW is a headlight.

And I was like, oh yeah, I'm freaking in.

Yes, I'm like yeah, or he's like yeah and I was like hmm, I was like left or right.

He's like left, no, it was right, it was right, mine was right.

Yeah, and I was like oh really I was like mind right to 30 miles like a.

I was like, hey, you die I get, then tell me what the problem is.

So I did, I Did, I got.

I found my issue because I had a job to go to.

I wasn't gonna sit around and wait and I told them the problem.

And that's where his problem was to.

You guys have heard of like electron entanglement, right?

So you have like two particles that are Way far away from each other, but if one turns, the other one turns like you guys got something like that going on.

I like it.

I like only you had a caravan, only I had an F 350, right, yeah, yeah, tomorrow you get a call.

Caravan.

We've replaced everything.

It's running rich all the time.

I got it.

Fly to Canada, bring a sweater and a beat and your tube.

You guys had to fire any shafts.

No, what not?

Like, not.

I haven't told the shop, like I'm sorry I'm not working for anymore, just I had a few shops I would call and just ask questions and now it's just a DNA.

Do not answer sure, Okay, okay you know it's like sorry guys, it's like divide the feeling you get.

It's like I Can't help you.

I'm sorry, yeah, whatever I'm going to do is not gonna help you, that's a good way to put it actually.

Yeah, I had to do that for a couple pieces recently and one of them that I'd worked with for a decent amount of time, but I don't know.

It's almost like what I'm shooting for kind of outgrew what that shops doing and they weren't willing to like.

You say I can't help them, they're not willing to improve in any way, shape or form and Just didn't didn't all line anymore, I'm like and the guy got kind of pissy about it, but I'm like, sorry man, like the stuff you're asking just does not work for me and what we're we're able to provide.

So this, you know, had to make it call.

It's kind of tough on that one Like sometimes it's like you say, like I'll put a do not answer on some, some numbers, where I'm just like that I don't want to deal with these people, but like to actually make you into the decision to like, yeah, I'm just not gonna do you know, business, I don't do that often.

It does, doesn't happen often, but it had to.

I just like, yeah, this place and this guy, just I'm shooting for bigger and better things, I guess.

Yeah, it's a personal thing.

Yeah, like as much as business is a personal.

It's like I want to go into this direction Because I'm skilled and I value and respect myself.

It's just like this.

It just doesn't align.

like you said, self-worth, yeah yeah, it's funny because I have the exact opposite to Some of these shops.

Like you look at it from the outside and it's like, oh my god, like this is a shop.

But then when I go in, like, hey guys, you need to do this, this, this, this, and then call me and then I'll come back Because of course it's a car that has, it's a total turd bucket, it's got multiple problems, or I should say multiple components that are faulty that can all create the same issue.

So I'm like look guys, like, first off, we ain't, I'm not, I'm not gonna fight and uphill fight and waste hours on my time.

You need to replace those things.

Then call me and then I'll come back.

And don't go dormant.

You know, get an OEM or get this, get that, and then they do.

They'll call me and be like hey, we put all the stuff on.

What can you come?

So then I show up and it's literally like okay, poke, poke, poke, check, check, okay here, boom, all right, here we go right here.

Bad connection, whatever voltage dropper Kyle doesn't see a lot of this but whatever bad relay.

So corrosion is the thing up here.

You know, but it's a that's kind of crazy man, because that there's some shops that I've got rid of, that we fired, and you look at them and they're they're nice shops, like they're big shops.

You would expect like, hey, these guys are gonna be professionals.

Yeah, sometimes you're surprised by the.

The amount of money in the building doesn't necessarily equate to the Level of service that they're providing.

And I, for me, it's just like, as you increase the volume of shops that you get to, you end up finding, okay, there's X amount of shops that are really easy to work with and they know what they're doing and Everything works well.

And then it's like, okay, I want more of those shops, I want to keep those and this.

There's other places.

Like man, it's always a pain in my ass to go there and to deal with stuff there.

I don't want those shots, you know.

So I Love, I love the shops that have the.

They have the vehicles in the Bay, they have the old parts there.

They leave everything there, it's a fresh battery and I'm like, oh, this is beautiful.

Yeah, I got my money.

I'm like having all the charger.

Yeah, it's like that Yep, that is I'm not breaking yeah.

I walk in I'm like dude's got a brand new battery.

The new parts of here is like Beautiful, I'm gonna start it, let it run for a while, charge up the battery a little bit and program real quick and get out of here.

I'm not even putting a job by.

It's not a Any GM ever, except new ones.

You don't know until you try that.

Yeah, I.

Think I said at once for a blind spot programming I think it was on in Acadia Was like, oh cool, it's gonna be.

Like like the crews like no big deal, not took 45 minutes.

It was like I had I made the mistake.

I scheduled it Like a half hour block.

Yeah, cuz I knew it's a GM.

It's like, okay, I, there's my saving grace, like there's my little break for the day, something easy.

And then now it took time to like Push my schedule all around.

She get that's the way that always works.

This is like, yeah, this one will be quick.

I don't even say that anymore.

I don't even let those words out of my mouth because it always makes it not quick.

It's the opposite.

Man speaking of programming.

Oh, we had a good one on Friday, so it was a 17 Pathfinder.

I sent mark out to it and they put a T, they put a trans in it.

So of course you know you gotta do the all the work procedures and then update the calibration to, you know, for warranty compliance.

So he goes to the process, does everything, goes to do the update and, and you know, nissan will launch the, the authentication page for you to sign in.

Okay, well, he had his Wi-Fi off so he Obviously consult prompt of a message.

You know, do you want to go offline mode, retry or manually connect to a network?

So he turns his Wi-Fi on and then he just hit offline mode.

I think Obviously it was just a mix up there, I'm thinking meant to click retry and you hit offline.

Well, then it took him back, obviously, to the home page and the TCM was a no-com.

So he's trying to go back in through reprogramming configuration.

And Let me actually backtrack real quick, sorry.

So when that prompt comes up, for the ones that don't know your listeners that don't know when that prompt comes up, it's usually after the file gets loaded into the VI, right?

So after the 90% it gets a hundred and then it prompts you the, the authorization.

So that happened and then he had home.

So then he went back on their reprogramming configuration, goes into transmission, can't talk to it.

So he's like what the hell?

So then he goes back to the home page but he can see the VI.

So he obviously goes under transmission and single system tries to go in.

It can't talk to it.

So they calls me I Team view in and I'm looking at it.

I'm like holy shit, I was like it's gone, like it's, it's a no-com.

And yep, people are flagging to you zero, one, one, one, one one.

Okay, I'm with last com, with the TCM.

So I'm asking him like, hey, is there another Pathfinder around, another CVT there?

And?

And there wasn't.

Because I was gonna tell me, go steal that, go steal that TCM and see if we can well, hot swap.

And you know, I'll edit the CSV.

I'll edit the CSV to see if I can.

You know, just put all the zeros and see if it'll go.

And no, no luck.

So I'm like, alright, man, hey, I was like I don't understand how this happened, like I Couldn't understand why.

You know that module is offline.

I'm like man, they never erased, never erased logic block and never did any of that in the normal sequence.

So I'm like mass is very weird.

So anyways, he leaves.

I go back later that day and the bus went to sleep obviously.

I key it on and I see a prindle and I'm like, hmm, okay, scan it sure shit it's there, so I don't know, I don't know.

In that process, when it waits for authentication of it, just takes the module and makes it go offline.

I guess it gets ready for programming.

I don't know.

Okay.

But, I figured I'd share that maybe somebody will run into that and They'll panic.

Just don't panic.

Let the bus go to sleep.

As long as sleep cycles as long as the second loading bar there on your flashing with consult, as long as that second bar Doesn't move, you're okay.

Okay.

So yeah, it's, it's on my list of things to try before I call something is let's do a Capacitive discharge.

I mean, you got to be careful if you don't want to shut the key off Depending on the situation right away.

Baby, let's try a few things, but all it's fails like yeah, let's just try to cap discharge and see what happens.

Sometimes that's even like bus sleep cycles.

There they work wonders.

But it's like Especially newer vehicles, euro and a few Christler stuff, domestic goofy goofy, goofy, goofy stuff.

Yeah, you're like.

You're like, hold up, I'm not.

This is does not disturb me, this does not bother me.

Yeah, shut the key off after you're done, Just like you know.

That all happened or what have you.

Of course I hop on, hop on the net, start looking for a TCM, because I'm like, all right, we're gonna get one, I'll flash it, we'll get it back in the car.

And my biggest thing wasn't it's not the money and it's not the module, it's obviously the inconvenience to our customer.

It's like, hey guys, look, I apologize like we don't know what happened.

Of course we just I just took blame for it.

I just like, hey, look goes our computer, our computer crashed.

Yeah, you know I apologize, it's just something that out of our control.

You know, we're gonna go ahead, we'll make things right, we'll get a module, get everything squared away.

And I'm just, I just need you guys to get time from your customer, obviously, because I got to source the module and you know, may take a couple days and shop was totally understanding.

They're like, yeah, no, it's cool, no biggie, you know, just keep us in the loop.

And they they were gonna look for a TCM also got told them I say, hey guys, if you guys can find one sooner, great, just go ahead and get it.

And then you know, we'll work out the the money's after at the end and it's all said and done.

You know if I got to write you guys a check or whatever the case may be, yeah, no, we were able to get that going.

So Very, very.

I thought it was very weird.

I never had experienced that before on an e-sign.

So yeah, that's, that's goofy.

I I've had a lot of those, like I say, the Chrysler stuff where it's after programming event or after doing something To the modules as far as a reset or whatever, and then like something won't talk or some function won't work or some weird codes are there, and then yeah, you do either a cap discharge or a key off and Everybody's happy, we're all good to go.

I've wasted some time, you know, tracking some stuff down.

Then that all I needed to do is that key off for a certain period of time and then it was fine.

So I don't know what's, what the deal is or how stuff gets screwed up between Communication and networks and things like that, but it can be really weird issues.

I Wonder if the key off programming like newer GM stuff.

Wonder if that's maybe part of it.

I Don't know, obviously not, but I haven't actually done like I said.

It's a bit weird, I won't lie.

I Everything's black and everything's off.

You're like it's programming.

It's working.

Yeah, I think there's.

There's been a like for 8s, calibrations and new new stuff.

You need to program the module to unlock it, to do the calibration.

I Think that's just part of their serial data configuration, mm-hmm, kind of like a gateway.

It's kind of odd, okay.

But yeah, it's going in a new direction it seems.

Yeah, it's a global be.

Now I haven't seen anything with that yet, but that's their new architecture.

Yeah, I had a real well-dried Nissan frontier TCM Same same other guy that the other shop uses.

Well, this other Amco they use him to sometimes when I'm not available.

Well, he went out there, try to program it blank unit.

Well, he bricked it.

It was an OCOM, so I show up.

This happened on Saturday.

I showed up Monday mid-morning so it's had plenty of time to sleep.

I get there, no print.

Oh, scan it, it's offline, like it's dead.

So I go tell the shop and the shop was pissed because the guy didn't tell him anything.

The guy just said oh yeah, I can't program it's keep, it's kicking me out.

And he left.

He didn't tell him.

Yeah, he didn't tell him it was a no-com.

So when I get there, when I get there, I'm like guys like this is a no-com, like it's dead.

So they were mad, right, obviously, yeah, that's a $1,200 freaking module, brand new.

So I'm getting ready to leave and I go about to get in the van.

I was like, wait, I walk back inside Like hey, you guys have the old one.

They're like, yeah, we do.

So I get it and it communicates and they're replacing it for whatever Speed code or I don't know what the hell they were replacing it for.

But I go into reprogramming and there's a fucking reprogramming.

There's an update available.

Actually, no, it wasn't available.

I had to go and edit the CSV file to make it flash the same thing over again.

Okay, so at the authentication page I stopped.

I had it plugged in, obviously the original, and then I unplugged, it, plugged in the one that was installed in the trans, and then we fucking forced it through and, yeah, it came back to life and of course, shop was super freaking happy and of course I got to charge a premium on that one because yeah what else are we gonna do?

Modeling it plus labor and all that.

Yeah, it's good when you can be the hero.

Yeah, few, few and far between per se Okay.

Well, cool guys, this was fun.

We'll let's do this another six months.

Just keep it going.

Number fast if you're used for number four, I'll have to look up and see what happens in four.

But we can Reference something for we'll get our.

We'll get somebody to make up the Movie page.

We'll get you in an eclipse spider drifting through Tokyo.

There's, there's Han DK.

You see the the on.

I can't sure.

Gino.

But yeah, you gotta be.

You gotta be Vin Diesel's character, or Don.

Yeah, sorry, we didn't know Surprise all right boys.

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

Thank you, kyle and Don, for joining me on the show.

Really appreciate that.

Also like to thank everybody out there for listening to the show, all the feedback I've gotten and the people have reached out wanting to be on the show, and so, hey, if that's you you're in this industry, you're a passionate person about what you do, you've got something interesting to say or share?

Shoot me a message, either on Facebook or my email, which you'll find in the show notes, and we'll see what we can do to get you on the show.

But with that all out of the way, let's get out there and start fixing the world, one car at a time.

213: Don & Kyle 3- Mobile Drift

Aston Martin DB9

Solterra Soltera

Ford Explorer

Volkswagen Jetta

Volkswagen Passat

Ford F350

Ford F150

Dodge Charger

Nissan Pathfinder

Nissan Frontier

About this episode

Original notes