Phoenix Smart is a diagnostic tool model the host recommends. They use it for things like programming and troubleshooting cars, and they say it’s a good value.
Here, “programming” means using the scan tool to update or set up the car’s electronic modules. Shops do this after repairs or when parts are replaced so the car can recognize and use them properly.
In this context, “diagnostics” means troubleshooting a car using a scan tool and tests. The goal is to figure out what’s causing the problem, not just guess.
A scan tool is a device that plugs into the car to talk to its computer. It can show error codes and sensor readings, but you still have to figure out what the codes really mean.
An independent repair shop is a regular mechanic shop that isn’t a dealership. The speaker is saying that switching to that kind of shop let them focus on certain brands instead of being tied to a corporate setup.
BMW is a German car brand. Here, the speaker is saying they ended up working on mostly BMWs for years, which is different from many repair shops that handle lots of different brands.
The aftermarket is everything that happens after a car is already sold—like independent repair shops and parts sellers. The speaker is saying most shops don’t specialize in just one brand like BMW.
Public auto auctions are places where cars are sold by bidding. The speaker is saying that if you don’t have one nearby, you might not realize how rough some of the auction cars can be.
A wholesale auction is where cars are sold in bulk to buyers like dealers or other businesses. The speaker is saying that cars coming from these auctions can be in rough shape, which affects what shops deal with.
Here, “tech support” means getting help from someone who knows how to diagnose car problems. It’s not just fixing the car—it’s figuring out what’s causing the issue.
Company
auto logic
The speaker is name-dropping a company that does automotive tech support. They’re using it to say, “people who do this for a living think the same way.”
Person
Perkins
Perkins is a person the speaker mentions as having experience with automotive tech support. They’re basically saying, “even someone else who does this agrees with me.”
To diagnose means to figure out what’s really wrong with the car, not just what it seems like. It’s about using clues from tests and symptoms to find the cause.
A compression test checks how well each cylinder in an engine is sealed and how much pressure it builds. If one cylinder is much lower than the others, it can point to an internal engine problem.
A misfire is when a cylinder doesn’t properly burn the fuel-air mix. It can cause rough running, hesitation, and warning lights, and the engine’s computer can usually detect it.
IMib is BMW’s special diagnostic connection box/interface. It helps the technician hook up advanced test equipment to the car so the factory tests can read the right signals.
A two-channel scope is a tool that shows electrical signals on a screen, two at once. It’s useful for seeing timing and relationships between different signals while diagnosing problems.
A cylinder is one of the engine’s combustion chambers. In a compression test, you measure each cylinder and compare them—if one is much lower, it points to a problem in that cylinder.
Timing is when the engine’s spark and valve events happen during each cycle. If timing is wrong, the engine can misfire or run poorly because the cylinder isn’t doing the right things at the right time.
Term
testing's done
In diagnostics, “testing’s done” refers to the specific measurements and test results that prove (or disprove) a hypothesis. The speaker notes a challenge when you can’t see how the testing was performed, because you may not get the exact results you need to continue troubleshooting.
Identifix is a service that helps mechanics diagnose car problems. Instead of just telling you the answer, they help you follow a step-by-step process so you know what to check next.
A hotline service is like calling an expert when you’re stuck diagnosing a car. They usually tell you what to check next and how to think through it, not just what part to replace.
A diagnostic process is a step-by-step way to figure out what’s wrong with a car. The idea is to test and confirm the right clues in order, so you don’t jump to conclusions.
A three-wire sensor has three wires that do different jobs: power, ground, and a signal that tells the car what it’s measuring. If one of those parts is wrong, the sensor can’t work correctly, so checking the wiring is a key diagnostic step.
EVAP is the system that keeps fuel vapors from escaping into the air. If there’s an “EVAP problem,” it usually means the car isn’t capturing or controlling those vapors correctly.
The car measures how much pressure is inside the fuel tank. That helps it verify the EVAP system is working; if the pressure doesn’t behave as expected, something in the venting/valve/sensor part of the system is likely wrong.
This sensor tells the car what the fuel tank pressure is. If the readings don’t change when the car commands the system to vent, the sensor or the valve controlling the vent is probably the problem.
EVAP valves are the “switches” that open and close paths for fuel vapors. If opening the vent doesn’t change tank pressure, the valve may be stuck or not working.
This is when you troubleshoot by ruling things out—checking the most common causes first, then narrowing down. It’s not always the fastest method, but it’s often what you have to do when you can’t test everything directly.
The brake caliper is the part that squeezes the brake pads onto the spinning brake disc. If it’s installed wrong (like upside down), it can cause problems like poor bleeding or the brakes not working correctly.
Bleeder screws are small valves you open to let air out of the brake system. If you don’t notice where they are (or the caliper is installed wrong), bleeding can be confusing or ineffective.
Pico seven is a special diagnostic tool that lets a mechanic “watch” electrical signals in a car. Instead of guessing, you can see what the sensor is doing on a screen.
“Active crank shaft sensors” are crankshaft position sensors that generate a signal using active electronics (rather than relying purely on passive magnetic induction). They’re used to provide precise engine timing information for ignition and fuel control.
These are wheel-speed sensors that measure how fast each wheel is turning. They help systems like ABS and traction control know what the wheels are doing.
FlexRay is a “data network” inside the car that lets computers talk to each other quickly and reliably. It’s used when timing is important for control systems.
A three-phase motor is an electric motor that uses three electrical “channels” to spin smoothly. Cars use them in various electric systems because they’re efficient.
Plug-in hybrids are cars that use both gas and electricity, and you can charge them by plugging them in. Because they slow down using the electric system sometimes, the brakes may not get used normally and can need extra attention.
Regenerative braking is when the car uses its electric motor to slow down and recharge the battery at the same time. Since it can reduce how much you rely on the brake pads and rotors, the brakes can get neglected and start sticking if you don’t service them.
Brake calipers are the parts that squeeze the brake pads against the rotors to slow the car down. If they don’t get serviced—especially on cars that use regenerative braking—a caliper can stick and stop working smoothly.
Porsche is used as another example of a car brand that has adopted this engine technology. The takeaway is that it’s no longer limited to one manufacturer.
“Infinity” is likely referring to Infiniti, another car brand. The host is listing brands that now use the same kind of engine valve technology.
Term
ASC tests
“ASC tests” sounds like a kind of certification or skills test for technicians. The speaker is saying they take it for learning/keeping up, not to claim they’re already an expert.
Car
BMW diesel
BMW diesels use exhaust-cleaning systems to meet emissions rules. If something goes wrong, the fix often involves checking the SCR system and related parts.
An SCR lockdown is when the car limits performance or changes behavior to protect the emissions system. It usually happens when the car thinks the exhaust-cleaning system isn’t working right.
Emissions systems are the set of components and controls that reduce pollutants from the exhaust. On modern diesels, this can include SCR, sensors, and engine/ECU logic that determines when and how the system should operate.
ASE is a well-known testing program for auto mechanics. If someone has ASE certifications, it means they passed official exams that prove they know how to diagnose and repair cars.
The drivetrain is everything that sends power from the engine to the wheels. A transaxle is a combined transmission-and-axle unit, often found on front-wheel-drive cars, and it can be tricky to diagnose because it affects both shifting and wheel power.
In a manual car, the clutch is what lets you smoothly switch between driving and shifting gears. If it wears out, the car can feel jerky or slip, so mechanics replace it.
Axles are the parts that send power to the wheels. Axle seals are the seals that keep the transmission or differential fluid from leaking out where the axle goes through the housing.
A manual transmission is the kind of car where you shift gears yourself. It uses a clutch to change gears, and repairs can involve internal mechanical parts, not just sensors.
Term
difffs
A differential (often called a “diff”) is what lets the wheels spin at different speeds when you turn. It’s part of the drivetrain, and fixing one usually requires specialized mechanical work.
An automatic transmission shifts gears by itself. The way it’s diagnosed and repaired can be different from a manual transmission because it relies on control systems and internal hydraulics.
Term
park and four neutrals
That phrase describes a transmission that won’t properly engage the selected gears. Instead of driving in the right gear, it behaves like it’s in neutral. When that happens repeatedly, it strongly suggests something internal is failing or not being controlled correctly.
These are small sealing parts inside the automatic transmission that help keep transmission fluid pressure where it needs to be. If they wear out or leak, the transmission can’t apply the right gear. The speaker is saying pressure loss suggests the seals (rings) may be the problem.
The intermediate shaft is a moving part inside the automatic transmission that helps carry power and support the parts that make gears happen. If seals on it leak, the transmission may not build enough pressure to shift correctly. That can show up during specific shifts like 1–2.
Automatic transmissions shift using pressurized fluid. If the pressure drops (pressure loss), the transmission can’t clamp the right gear parts together. That often leads to slipping or the wrong gear being selected.
Drums are part of the automatic transmission that help the clutches/bands grab and hold for a given gear. If a drum is cracked, it can’t apply correctly. That can cause the transmission to act up in specific shifts.
LIVE
Welcome to the Automotive Diagnostic Podcast.
We're going to explore ways to sharpen our diagnostic skills, find learning resources,
and hear from experts in the automotive field.
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 today is Justin Morgan.
If you're not familiar with Justin, he does tech support for BMWs
through a company called LMV Bavarian, which is based out of Minnesota.
And Justin's joining me on the show today.
Talk about how he got where he's at and what exactly he does.
And we're also going to talk about why being a beginner at things
is actually a really good thing for you and maybe to encourage you a little bit to do so.
And on that note, we're going to talk about Pico 7 and the class
that him and Seth Thorson are teaching at ASTE this year in September.
Really great to finally get to sit down with Justin and have a talk with him.
Super smart guy, really impressed with what he's done.
So I enjoy this talk quite a bit.
Hey, before we get going, I wanted to remind everyone that I am a authorized
distributor for top done tools and I've already helped out a number of listeners
to the show, get their hands on some of these scan tools that top done offers.
Of course, they have all kinds of things.
They have Ados and thermal imagers and voltage maintainers and battery testers.
You name it.
You know, my focus is really on the scan tool thing because I use some of them personally.
I have an older Phoenix Plus and then I have the newer Phoenix Smart,
which I really like, really nice tool for the price point.
The reason I started doing this is because the shops that I go to,
I'm coming in and doing programming and a lot of time diagnostics and they're asking me,
well, what tool do you use?
What tool do you use?
And sometimes they're thinking, oh, I got some magical tool that tells me the solution
right on the scan tool.
And obviously that's not true.
But I had enough of shops asking me, what tool should we buy?
What tool should we have?
A lot of people, hey, we're tired of the snap on deal.
And hey, if you like snap on, that's cool.
I get they have their strong points.
But again, for the price and what these top done tools can do,
I found myself recommending them to the shops.
And then they'd go, where do I buy one?
And there wasn't a local distributor to where I'm at.
So I signed up for it.
That's all I got into this.
But I figured, I have the podcast.
I have a lot of people who are into this stuff.
And I would offer that up to listeners.
I could get you a deal on the tools as a listener of the show.
So if you hit me up Facebook Messenger or through my email,
which is in the show notes of this episode,
I will be happy to answer any questions you have,
get you set up, get you a tool, and then I'll help you out with any questions you have,
help you get it set up, whatever you need.
So with that all out of the way, let's jump into the episode.
Well, good evening, Justin.
Thanks for joining me.
I appreciate it.
How is it going?
Hey, I'm super glad to be here.
Really, really glad to be here.
I actually feel bad because it's taken me,
I told fans though I'm about a month shy of a year owing you this podcast,
because we're coming up to AST next month.
And pretty sure I told you day two of AST last year,
I would do a podcast before I got roped into giving that time slot to somebody else.
So I'm sorry it's taken me almost a year, man,
but I'm glad I'm here.
Really am.
No, it's all good.
I have a lot of people that I end up talking to like,
yeah, hey, let's do a podcast.
And if I don't put it down on my list,
or if I'm not intentional about it,
I'll forget to get back to people.
And then I get caught up with 100 other things.
And then I'm like, oh yeah, I was supposed to reach out to that guy and it never happens.
And so yeah, but anyways, glad to have you here for sure.
I think you were in the room when Keith was recorded,
and you were giving him hell or something like that.
Yeah, I was actually, I was in the room right after you guys had set up that super fancy studio
there in Dilsa's room, which was probably some of the best adapting I've ever seen in my life.
But yeah, I had to peace out and go back to work because while I was at AST that Friday,
I was still working remotely.
And that's actually what interfered for me doing my podcast was I told you,
I would do one at like two or three or whatever.
And then I had to bail and I didn't expect tech support to be that heavy that day,
but it was fairly significant.
So, but we're here now.
So we're gonna, we're gonna party.
We're gonna see what we can do.
Yeah, definitely.
See if I can give you a better show than I gave fans low,
because I kind of sandbag for fans low just so I could give you a game.
I like it.
I like that.
So, so what's new?
What's going on with you lately?
Work, work, work, you know, full-time job, LMV, Bavarian tech support for our independent
shops working on BMWs.
And then this year has been really good as far as me being able to get back out and do
in-person training probably took on more than I should have.
But we have a company motto at LMV and it's when in doubt, throttle out.
So we just never stop.
So I'm at, I think, did the math on it.
72 14, 26 in-person training events so far this year.
And we still got AST and Bembers to go.
And there's been, there was a rash of webinars in that.
There were some weeks where I was teaching Saturday, Sunday,
come back Tuesday, Wednesday, do webinar, get on a plane Thursday night, Friday morning,
go somewhere, teach Saturday, Sunday, come back, do it again.
I did that for like three or four months.
Just good.
It means guys are hungry.
They're wanting to come to training, which is all the great things that we want.
So yeah, just busy, busy, busy.
So just enjoying a couple weeks off of no travel right now.
And then we're going to fire back off and jump back on the road and do some cool stuff.
Yeah.
I was going to say, hopefully you get a little bit of time to enjoy the summer.
He says, I know how it gets when you're working like crazy.
And then just it's over like that.
And all of a sudden that's, are you, are you in North Carolina?
Is that where you're at?
South Carolina.
South Carolina.
But I'm so close.
I could be in both.
So I am literally just below the state line.
So I just tell everybody I'm from Charlotte, North Carolina,
because you can find that on a map.
You can't find where I actually live on a map.
So, well, yeah, we, we get nine months of cold up here.
And so it's like, boy, you got to try to soak in the summertime while you can and get out
there and get outside before it's freezing cold and white stuff everywhere.
So, yeah, see where the opposite we get, we get like nine and a half months of summer.
So, which is, it's really funny because, you know, I hang out with all you guys from Minnesota.
So Ellen V's based out of Minnesota.
So Seth Thorson, you know, he's Minnesota fans low.
I mean, nobody else will hang out with him.
So I have to also from Minnesota in that general area, Red Wings.
And then you're in Minnesota as well, right?
Yeah, I'm about half hour north of cities.
Yeah.
So not sure why I gravitate to people towards Minnesota.
I can't stand the weather you guys have up there.
It seems like every time I go up there to the office, because I do have to do that sometimes,
it's always negative.
Like, and I think Seth does it on purpose, but he flies me up there in the wintertime
and it'll be like 20 the first day and then it'll be like negative 30 the second day.
And I'm just like, nope, time for me to go.
But yeah, let me know how did you end up getting like connected with Seth,
working with him, doing what you're doing on BMWs?
You know, I'm glad you asked that.
Nobody ever asked me that.
So everybody assumes that I worked for Seth in the shop and I never worked for Seth.
Seth's had the tech support group since end of 09 beginning of 2010, somewhere in that general area.
As soon as he opened the tech support company, LMV Bavarian, I was actually a member in the
shop that I worked at down in North Carolina.
And I was actually in North Carolina when I was working at that shop.
So I met Seth early on when he started out doing tech support and he was doing training on site.
He actually used the shop that I was at working at just prior to me starting there
as a location for one of his classes.
So fast forward 10 years, I'm in the group as a member for 10 years,
calls me out of the blue one day and I'm thinking, oh, I've screwed up.
I've done something I'm not supposed to.
And he says, hey, I'm looking to potentially expand.
And I'm kind of at the point now where I cannot handle it all as one person.
Do you want to come to Minnesota for a job interview?
And I was like, sure.
Meanwhile, it's October.
So you already know how that story goes.
The lake's starting to freeze.
All the good things are starting to happen.
So yeah, I got off the plane, froze my butt off.
We did a working interview.
We actually did a case study on a problem that was becoming fairly common at that point
to see if we could come up with our own test procedure.
Senior Fanzlo actually came and helped us out a little bit.
And we got the case study done.
I got back to Charlotte and Seth offered me a job.
And now I'm almost three years in full time.
I actually had a few month phase in where I was still in the shop
full time and I was doing this part time to kind of phase in, get guys used to me,
make sure I wasn't going to drown.
And now this is what I do probably 50 to 60 hours a week is remote tech support just for BMWs.
So was the shop that you were at, was that a European specialty shop or?
Yep.
So I've been very fortunate in my career that the longer I spent in the trade,
the more I got to specialize.
A lot of guys never get that opportunity.
I've been very fortunate.
I started out working on everything like everybody does.
And very quickly I went, this is stupid.
I don't like this.
You can't keep track.
Like, and I have a brain that gravitates towards,
I don't want to say being an expert because I don't know that I ever will be an expert,
but trying to be the absolute master of whatever it is that I do.
And you can't do that when you're doing 35 car lines.
So almost immediately within the first couple of years,
once I got out of the corporate stores and I got into an actual independent repair shop,
I backed away from all the Asian, backed away from all the domestics.
Then I was only doing European.
And then it was like every year or two, I would drop a couple of car lines.
And it got to the point where for about the last, I would say 10 years,
85, 90% of what I was doing was BMW.
Which is kind of unheard of in the aftermarket world, right?
There's not very many shops that will allow a technician to only work on one thing.
Now the last shop I was at in order to get to that point,
I had to make a deal with the boss.
And the deal was I could do all the BMW,
but I had to take every BMW that was handed to me to which my reply was,
sure, I might bitch, but I'll bitch while I'm working.
And so I had the opportunity to really become,
again, I don't want to say expert because I just, I feel like I'm not an expert,
but I got to really specialize only working on BMWs.
And then the vast array of customer base that we had, we had a ton of body shops,
we had a ton of used car lots, we had good car lots, bad car lots,
the worst car lots you can think of.
And we also had public auto auctions, which if you don't, yeah,
if you don't have a public auto auction in your area,
let me explain to you how bad this is.
So all the cars that go through the wholesale auction,
whether it's Mannheim, Hendrick, whatever, at the end of the week,
they might have a whole bunch of these cars, hundreds.
This public auto auction rolls in and says,
hey, we've got $20,000 in liquid cash.
How many of those cars that didn't sell can we buy?
And they're literally buying them by the tonnage.
And they take them back to their lot, and they take as many of those cars as they can,
and make as many sellable vehicles as they can,
which on a good day are rough wholesale cars,
and they put them on their public auction lot,
and they charge people $20 to get in on Thursday night,
and they start pushing the cars across the auction line at damn near retail pricing,
and people bid them up, and they're extra crappy.
Like, they're the crap of the crap, like they're just turds.
And I'm talking two cars welded together to make one car.
I'm talking powertrain out of this one, wheels off this one,
interior out of this one, just you name it.
I can tell you, if you think you're really good at diagnosing cars,
work behind those guys for a year or two,
because you'll learn real quick, you will never be able to diagnose man-made problems fully.
Because these guys can invent things that you've never even thought of.
I had a car that was rewired one time,
they rewired most of the engine bay after a fire,
and they only had two colors of wire.
It was like working on a freaking freight liner, man.
Everything was yellow, or everything was white.
It was bad, so bad.
I hated it at the time, but it really made me
it made me a stronger technician, because at that point,
now you've just got to rely on your detection skills,
you've got to rely on your critical thinking skills.
You know how the system works, you know what it takes to make it work.
Nothing else is going to be right.
The location is not going to be right, the wire color is not going to be right.
At a certain point, service information just kind of goes out the window.
So you get to be really good.
I call it the almost like James Bond,
because there's no game plan.
You have a bunch of skills, and you get to use them in very uncommon ways.
So that was fun.
It was fun.
Right. Probably sucks in the moment, but what you get out of that at the end of it,
yeah, a normal pattern failure car now is just going to be just a breeze.
It's nothing compared to the crap that they're sending at you that way.
Yeah, the joke in our shop was if we ever got a virgin car,
we wouldn't know how to fix it.
Like if things were where they were supposed to be,
and they had like the right brake calipers or the right wiring,
or we wouldn't know what that we wouldn't know how to fix them,
because they wouldn't have been screwed up.
So it was it was interesting.
And I don't recommend anybody do that, but it's, you know,
those cars are going across the auction line whether they get fixed or not.
So at one point, we just said,
we're just going to do what we can to make money on this and do the best job we can.
And and we sort of a lot of those cars out,
a lot of those cars went right back to the junkyard.
So but yeah, it was fun.
So awesome.
So then, yeah, so now you're doing over the phone tech support specifically for BMWs, right?
Yep.
So we service independent shops pretty much across the entire country.
We've got some guys in Canada.
At one point, we still have a couple guys in Australia.
We had we had two guys in Africa.
We had two guys in the UK.
And we've currently got one guy in Jamaica.
So yeah, it's occasionally we get to deal with engines.
We don't even have in this country.
But yeah, it's it's fun.
Okay.
We only get to work with independent shops, which is fun.
And we basically provide like if you've ever worked at a dealer, you always have some level of
engineering or some level of field support that you can reach out to field service reps,
technical, you know, whatever, Puma, Tissara, whatever they want to call it at your dealer.
Basically, that's what we are for the aftermarket.
We offer that resource like you get a jam.
Here you go.
We're going to we're going to do our best.
We're going to dive in there.
We're going to try to see if we can get you through this problem.
You know, we every every tool that we have available to us, we're going to use, you know,
team viewer, I'll remote into any tool you have that has access to me.
I don't care.
You know, if you have a scope and it has team viewer on it, great.
If you have something I can remote into whatever, you know, I've remoted in some weird stuff.
I've remoted into not too long ago, I were a team viewed into someone's cell phone.
Um, and they were running the, you know, the new generation snap on multi meters,
the advanced meter, they were running the, they, I guess they were running the app for
that on their phone or their tablet or whatever.
And I remoted into that device so I could physically see what we were doing on the
graphing function just so I could say, okay, yeah, there legitimately is no voltage drop there.
So yeah, it gets, it gets exciting sometimes.
This is really exciting.
Yeah. And talk about being creative too.
I gotta imagine trying to do this stuff over the phone.
You've really got to have that extra level of problem solving skills,
because you're not only trying to fix the car.
You're trying to do it through a really difficult medium where you can't necessarily
see it, maybe pictures or videos, but you're dealing with a human that's going to potentially be
creating some problems.
And you know, anybody that you talk to that does tech support,
any of the guys at auto logic, Perkins will tell you the same thing, because he does some tech
support on the side through his group. For the most part, the guys that are involved in the
service are pretty good. I would say it's going to follow the typical bell curve,
just like the rest of the trade does. You got 80% right in the middle that,
you know, they're, they're doing it. They're just missing something.
10% that are freaking superstars. And when you get a post from them, you don't even want to
call because if they can't figure it out, why am I going to figure it out? And then you have
that bottom 10%. That's just whether it's workload, whether it's their mentality, whatever,
they're just, they're just looking for an answer. They don't care how they get it. They just want
an answer. So some of that plays in. Honestly, when I started, I was hung up big time on the
fact that I can't see it. I can't touch smell it. And I don't even know what color it is.
I have no idea what's going on with this car. What I have learned is that is mostly a benefit
because I am completely removed from the situation. So I am not trapped in that. I hate to say box,
but I'm not trapped in that battle. And normally when I get tagged in on something,
it's already a battle, right? It's already a science project. So the guy's already frustrated.
He's irritated. He's done everything that he can think to do to diagnose this car. And it's not
that I'm any smarter. It's that I'm literally a thousand miles away. And I can go, well,
what if we go about it from this direction? And they go, huh, you know, like I got a misfire.
Well, let's start at the back. Let's check tire pressure. You know, something crazy like that.
It's not always that crazy, but you get what I'm saying. You go about it from a different
because I am completely removed. I am not emotionally involved in this car. I'm not
going to say I'm not always emotionally involved. There are plenty of times where it turns into
a real crap show and now I'm emotionally involved. But it's actually turned out to be somewhat of a
benefit because I can back up and I go, look, I get it. The car is a nightmare. It's on its fifth
owner. It's not been taken care of. My job is actually easier because I'm not worried about
all these other things. I can break the system down and say, okay, if we unplug this, this should
be the response from the vehicle or this should be the substitution from the vehicle. Does it do
that? No. Okay. If it didn't do it, we're going after the control unit. If it did it, I no longer
care about the control unit. I no longer care about the circuitry for the most part. I'm worried
about this one component now. And it just allows me to kind of remove it. And I can kind of understand
why some doctors are referred to as not having a good bedside matter. It's because they have to
remove themselves to be able to do their job. They can't be emotionally involved. You know,
that's why we thankfully have nurses that will be emotionally involved because otherwise that whole
process would be brutal. But for me, I can be emotionally disinvolved with the car. And sometimes
that helps. Sometimes it's not good. But for the most part, I think our guys do a pretty good job.
Now I can't speak for the other services because I don't know what the customer base is, but
for the most part, our guys do a pretty good job because we have a standard format. They have to
give me as much information as they can about the car. So I don't know what I'm getting into.
I can do a little bit of research before I call. You know, I'm not just having to get on the phone
and go, oh, well, you know, I've got, I've got fault codes. I've got testing that they've done.
I've got service history or lack of whatever. So it kind of helps. It's not as bad as everybody
thinks it is. It's not a picnic by any means, but it's not as bad as everybody thinks it is.
Okay. Well, yeah, having the proper interview sheet for a customer or somebody working on the car
would definitely help. And you can create that to be as helpful as possible for you going into it.
But then also, like you're saying, you're not involved with, let's say they did a compression
test, right? And maybe they were missing something during the test. You're not involved with that
test. Like as a technician, I'm like, I did a compression test. It's fine. But you got,
you got to see it for yourself. You know, and I mean, even when I go into shops, sometimes I run
into that, right, where the guy's like, I already checked the compression on it. I was like, I get
that, man, I'm not doubting you, but I have to see it because it's part of my process. And I'm
kind of starting fresh and you find a lot of problems that way. It's just like, you know,
they're missing something, they're doing something wrong, their tools, whatever. And going back over
everything is tough when you're in it, the weeds, and you're the guy that like, I know
it has compression, you know, you are so correct. Like, and I'm sure that you run into this because
for people that don't know for some reason, you don't know this. Sean is mobile dyke. And Sean's
really good at what he does. There are times where you show up on site, just like there are times
where I get tapped into a case and I say, all right, well, you know, it's an engine performance
issue, it misfire or whatever. Let's do a compression test. I already did a compression test. It's good.
Really? What does good mean? Right. So and then we go back and we check it. So BMW hasn't added
benefit all of our modern cars. There's no published spec for compression. The compression is
actually the specification for it is hidden inside of a test plan on the factory scan tool.
And one step further, you actually have to to get into that test plan and get to the point where it
tells you what the number should be. You have to have the factory measuring interface, which for
BMW is called an IMib, but it's basically a two channel scope that kind of tags into your vehicle
interface. You know, it hooks to your computer and it the tool uses it in conjunction. So guys
will tell me, oh, I check compression there. It's all good. They're all even. Yeah, but what number
did you get? I don't remember. Well, let's do it again. Just just hit one or two cylinders. Just hit
one unaffected and one that's, you know, flagging for misfire. They'll come back and they'll tell
me that 140 psi. One's 140, one's 147. Okay. You got a timing problem. What? Yeah.
Compression for that engine. I've, and I've checked like three or 400 of them in
this specific engine is like 230 psi brand new out the box and 205 is normally what I see.
Like you're at 140, like dude, that's low. That's like 40% low. That's bad. So then they don't get
that. And like you're saying, sometimes guys get upset about that and I get it. I'm not there to
tell you how to do your job. I'm just, I'm here to tell you that I'm a professional punching bag.
I get beat up a lot by cars and because I'm able to get beat up and document those and
remember things, I can go, well, that should be 220. That's, you're at 140. That's, that's a problem.
I get that they're all even, but that doesn't make them all good. That just means they're all bad.
Just some are less bad. But yeah, you're right. So that part does create an issue because you
can't see how the testing's done. And sometimes you can't get the specific results you need.
But most of the time, if you kind of, kind of push just a little bit,
you'll get them to do it and then they'll come back and they'll, oh, okay, well,
and you'll discuss how you know, and then, then, then we're good and we carry on. But yeah,
that part can be a challenging working through someone else's hands sometimes can be a problem.
I remember when I first started out as a tech, we got Identifix a couple of years after I started
you know, the hotline service you could call if you really have something weird and
we did call a handful of times and it was almost always like if we'd actually make a hotline call
for something where the, the tests or the system that they would have me look at,
they didn't give me like the specific answer, but they would always kind of nudge me in the
right direction to get me thinking about, oh, okay, I got to, I got to check this component,
right? Or why didn't I look at this earlier? You know, they're, they've got their process,
their experts on that car line, obviously, but they've got this process. And now they're kind
of putting me into the process of this is the thing that you should be checking at this point.
We got to get this measured correctly before we move on to here. And again, they're not like
giving me the answer. Occasionally, maybe you'd get one where they just, they know where it's
going, but it's like putting you in that right spot. And then hopefully as the tech your brain
starts, the gears start turning with that. And you're like, oh, okay, okay, I see where we're
going here. And then then you can do the rest of the testing yourself. But yeah, that outside
perspective really changes it for you. And so I do that now with like actual friends and networks
through social media and stuff like that, right? Like I'm getting my butt kicked on something,
reach out to some people, hey, I got this problem. And again, a lot of the time it's just
giving me that thought process to get me to the solution. It's not always the solution. It's
rarely the solution. Because we've seen weird stuff, but thought process and going back,
did you check this? How did you check it? That sort of stuff is that's huge. That gets you the
answer almost always. And I think you're, I think you're dead on it there as
and I think if you talk to most anybody that does what I do for a living, again, regardless of who
they work for, whether it's identification or auto logic or whoever XYZ, I think most of the
time you're going to find that we're not calling you back and going, yeah, it needs this. Most of
the time we're calling you back and saying, okay, let's back up, let's take a 1000 yard view here
and just say, this doesn't matter. This doesn't matter. Let's focus on this one thing. Let's test
it. And we might get to the point where we're having to diagnose to exclusion, right? Which is
the worst dyague ever. I hate diagnosis by exclusion because there's always that air of unknown.
But very rarely, I think, do you get tech support guys? And I'm sure it happens, but I would say
most tech support companies are going to lead you to a path versus just call you and go, oh,
yeah, this, this, this, yeah, totally needs an engine, or it totally needs this module.
And I think it's the same way whenever we do that networking online, because I do the same
thing for guys that I know, we'll discuss things. And what's funny is, is most of the time when
guys reach out to me, it has nothing to do with the BMW has nothing to do with the BMW. Now,
fortunately, I get to hang out with some pretty smart guys, probably some guys that are way
above my weight class. But normally when they call, they're just looking for that outside view.
You know, it's I just talked to somebody yesterday, a really good friend of mine
about a freaking Nissan. And I quit working on Nissan's years ago, but it doesn't matter.
There's only so many ways to do something. And, you know, if it's a three wire sensor,
it's got to have a power, it's got to have a ground, and it's got to have a signal wire.
That means it can only work that way. So by us backing up and looking at something, we were able
to, I think it was an evap problem. But we were able to kind of narrow down. And I was like, well,
you know, if you release the vent and the fuel tank pressure doesn't drop, like, I feel like the
pressure sensor is not doing its job, or the valve's not really doing its job. And it's not super
easy to get to that fuel tank pressure sensor. So let's manually check the valve and see if it's
good. And if it passes process of elimination at the minimum, you're pulling that tank down to
get to that sensor. So at least we're in the right path. I kind of hate diagnosis by exclusion,
but I think that is the Achilles heel of support is unfortunately, we find ourselves on the bay
a lot of times. And texts that are still in the bay full time, you'll, you'll, you know this to be
true. There's times where you get a cut and dry answer. And then there's times where you rule
out everything you can, and you're still left with A or B. And there's no right or wrong way to
choose A. Some guys will always choose the least expensive. Some guys will default to statistics
and say, well, with this issue, if it's not these other things that I tested, it's not circuit,
it's not voltage, it's not this, it's most of the time this component, they'll default to that.
There's not a right or wrong answer there. And there you're never going to win every battle.
I don't care if you're on the bay working full time, you're never going to win every battle you
get into. If you do, please call me, but I don't know anybody that's ever won every battle they've
ever gotten into with a car says you can't do it either. If you are winning it, then I feel like
you're probably not challenging yourself and you need to have a different role in your shop.
Which my joke there is, I tell guys all the time, it's like, eventually you're going to do something
that seems stupid and it seems like first day stuff. Like I tell guys all the time, if you've
never put a brake caliper on upside down, you ain't done enough brake chops. It's going to happen.
You're going to get whether you did it or whether the part store got you, you're going to get two
rights or you're going to swap the right and the left and you're going to go, damn it, this won't
bleed. And about two hours later, you're going to go, wait a minute, the bleeder screws on the bottom.
That's like, that's going to happen. But I feel like if that's the only thing you're running into,
you know, the only thing you run into that's a challenge is when you make a mistake.
I feel like you're probably not quite in the right role you need to be.
Now, guys will give me flack about that and say, well, that's where I make money. I get it.
I get it. But to really become a master of your craft, I feel like you have to challenge yourself.
And I'm not saying you got to get in a boxing ring every day. I just feel like you should be
challenging yourself. Well, yeah, if you want to improve, like if you want to stay status quo,
you're happy where you're at, you never don't want to get any better. Okay, that's one thing. But if
you have hopes of improving and growing, and I don't know for me keeping the job interesting,
you got to suck at stuff for a while. Like that's something new that you're that you've never faced.
Like you just you're going to have to be a beginner at it for a while. And that's not fun for most
people. But working through that is how you get there to, you know, get closer to that expert
and understand that stuff. But like I said, for me, it keeps the job interesting. Like if I
was still just doing break rotors and ball joints, like I was this attack, I probably would have left
the industry because after a while after I figured it all out, I was boring. Like, okay, another set
of ball joints, great. I got I got to have that little bit of some extra push me. But yeah,
sometimes you got two parts, you're like, hmm, it could be this and it could be this. And I have no
tests to prove it. How can I come up with a test? Oh, I don't have anything. Well, I guess well,
like you say, I guess we're gonna find out. Yeah. Yeah, right. That's a tough place to be in. So
I like the way you worded that. So I'm actually on my Facebook right now. So eight days ago,
I shared something. And I don't share a lot on Facebook. I never really have. I'm just not that
guy. The only reason I'm on Facebook is because I kind of have to be. But by no means am I the guy
sharing everything. But I posted something the other day and it might be the most shared thing
that I've ever posted, which I've been on Facebook a long time. And it's literally just a picture
that says be brave enough to suck at something new. And I feel like that's exactly what you just
said, like you because you even said to suck, like I feel like if everybody regardless of our
trade, if everybody in the world was brave enough to suck at something new, even just one time a
year, I feel like the world would probably be a lot better place than it is right now.
Yeah, I wholeheartedly agree with that. Be brave enough to suck at something new. I feel like
I'm going to put that on my wall when my office is actually finished.
Well, it humbles you. And for me, it gives more respect to the people who are really experts
at that thing, right? Like I've tried it. I failed or it was really tough for me. And then I'm
watching this other guy who is just breezing through this. I realize he's got a lot of time
into it or maybe just a very intelligent person. But now I'm like, wow, I have a lot of respect
for that person because I have at least a little bit of an understanding of what it takes to what
they're doing. And that's been that's been so cool is just to find the different areas of the
automotive field, whether it be programming or keys or diagnostics or bodywork or whatever and
just seeing all the different like the pros, the top of the top, do their thing. I'm always really
impressed by that. And I'm trying my best to seek more of that out, like get connected with more
people that are way smarter than me. I like that. That's dude, I'm telling you, the minute I started
hanging out above my weight class, I got way better, way better. Because now,
and it's not so much that I can fit in with them. It's so that when I'm sitting at a table having
a conversation with them, it's not all just blowing past my head. And I've been fortunate enough to
accidentally run into some really smart people. I hope to run into all of them eventually. And
you know, when you hit me up the other day, you were talking about you mentioned something that
you wanted to talk about, which I'm totally cool with. Like you're driving this I'm just here to
run my mouth. You had mentioned, because I'm going to do a class at AST on Thursday, which I'm
actually, there's not a lot of things and I'm not I'm gonna I'm gonna whisper this because I don't
want to get a big head. But there's not a lot of things that I'm proud of Lucas for. This is one
of them. Okay, I just we'll keep that secret. Yeah, you could just edit this out. So this year,
they're doing some full day classes on Thursday, which are not part of the core AST. Now that seems
just looking from the outside in on Facebook, that seems to create a little bit of chaos,
because guys don't quite understand. Well, if it's a three day event, I should get a three day pass.
These add on events are not part of AST because all the money that they gain from those classes
is going to get dumped right back in to the North Carolina apprenticeship fund. And I remember
exactly what they call it. But it's the apprenticeship fund for North Carolina. And what they do there
is is they support high school kids and they support kids that are going into secondary school,
trade school, scholarships, advancements, whatever they need. It's a scholarship fund for
apprentices to get new people into the trade. And I was like, yeah, sure, I'm totally on board.
I'll do a class if that's where the proceeds are going. Sign me up, buddy. Sign me up.
And Luke, I think, has actually got, I know he had to, he's screaming as soon as he listens to this
because I shouldn't know this, but I don't. I'm almost positive he has one of his first
apprentices full time in his shop. And I think the second one's still with him too. Both came from
that program. Oh, that's cool. So, and I know you do some teaching. So that's kind of cool to see.
But we're doing this Pico seven. And where I got off my beaten path here was is be brave enough to
suck at new things is this Pico class I'm doing is seven. It's Pico seven class. And a lot of
people don't like seven. And I think most of it's because it's different. Now I realize that this
is not 100% software, right? 100% software means that it's ready to go. Everything just works.
But in reality, there's nothing we deal with that has 100% software.
People can't see this, but I'm holding an Android phone up right now.
This thing gets software updates every month. Piece of crap.
I'm staring at my computer. It has OE software on it. It got an update today, right in the middle
of my day, right when I absolutely didn't need it to happen. BW drop updates. And once they drop
updates, you can't use the tool until you update. So it's not like other manufacturers where you
can kind of like bypass it for a week or two. Now, update drops, you're locked out till you do it.
So the point of this is software is never done. Okay, it's never done. There's always going to be a
patch. There's always going to be an update. The minute that it gets finalized, and it's just
everything works. Now we have to redo the interface, what they call the UI, the user interface,
because it no longer is as efficient as it should be for the latest operating system. In our case,
10 and coming 11. So I get it. There's, I used Pico for years. Like I think,
probably 13, 14 years at this point. In fact, my first second,
Oh, I was just, how long was six out for? I don't even know.
Oh God, six came out. So fans was going to yell at me too. But I think six stable came out. Oh,
six ish. Okay, I think I don't remember. It's been out for a long, long time, long ass time.
It was due for an update. Now, the reason that they jumped on it as early as they did was is
because they knew six was struggling with 10. And they knew that six because of the core
programming that was used is not going to work on Windows 11. And unfortunately, at some point,
we're all going to have to go to 11, just like we all went to 10. So six is not going to work on
modern computers. Now they're not telling you you can't keep using six. They're just not going to
support it. If you need technical support, won't install this doesn't work. That doesn't work.
You submit a bug report. There will be no more updates for 66 is not going to be supported
by Pico anymore. You can still use it. They're not going to lock you out of it. They're just not
going to support it. So guys are going to have to learn how to use seven. And I say guys at
meaning everybody in the trade, trade. I'm probably getting yelled at by
one of the females in Atlanta right now cat. She's probably like, but everybody in the trade
that's using Pico is going to have to start using seven. Now, I will admit two things. One, I'm on
the beta team for the software to when seven first came out, not super wild about it. Did not
freaking I hated it. It was brutal. I hated it. Yeah, it's because it was new is what it was.
I sat down and I asked myself, all right, what do you not like about it? And every time I got to
that answer, it was because the button's not where it used to be. Okay, well, that's not a software
problem. That's a you problem, buddy. So we're going to do an eight hour class,
but we're going to throw a twist at it. So again, because my life is BMW, that's all I really care
about anymore. All the other car lines are dead to me. This is an eight hour Pico seven for BMW
text. Now, does that mean that if you don't work on BMWs primarily, you can't come to training?
No, it does not mean that. What it means is, is that all the examples, all the things that I'm
going to be scoping all of the sensors that we're going to learn about all the systems we're going
to learn about are on BMWs. But Sean, communication networks, right? Do they not typically migrate
to other manufacturers? Yeah, electricity doesn't care if it's a Honda or BMW or it doesn't care.
So the nice thing is, is we're going to be able to do a live, we're going to be doing live demo,
so it's not hands on, it's kind of hard to do hands on when you have a large class.
It's not impossible. It's just difficult. So we're going to do live car demo. We're going to go through
basics of Pico seven operation. We're going to do some advanced functions of Pico seven,
but we're also going to mix in real world stuff. We're going to mix in how this sensor works
and how to scope it properly. And I'm not just talking about old stuff that nobody cares about.
I'm talking about active crank shaft sensors. I'm talking about active two wire magneto resistive
sensors for wheel speed. I'm talking about the latest communication networks, Flexray. We're
three phase motors. We're going to throw some stuff in there that fortunately,
BMW was the first idiots to use. There's two things that are always going to be true of BMW.
One, it's always going to leak coolant and oil.
This is the second phase of ownership. Always going to be coolant and oil. Two,
BMW is never satisfied with the status quo on networks and they will always continue to be on
the forefront of networks. Whether they're dumb or not, we got to have networks and we got to have
proprietary networks that if we're lucky turn into standards, but the good news is Flexray is
standard and it is already migrating. It was paid for in a consortium by a bunch of manufacturers.
You're talking chip manufacturers, engineering firms, industrial maintenance and six huge car
manufacturers. So this ain't going away. This is here to stay. So we need to know how to deal with it.
But I think it'll be a good class. I've always had good response. I actually just finished redoing
that class because initially when I started teaching it was six only. That class was six because
that's all we had. Then towards the end of last year, I made it six and seven. So we were kind
of dipping our toes into the seven. Now the class has a hundred percent seven. I don't even use six
anymore. I wish I could share my desktop right now. I have six. I have stable seven and I have beta
seven all on my computer at the same time. I can't tell you the last time six was opened. I don't
know. Good enough that 95% of everything I need to do, even advanced stuff is in there and it works.
At least on the early access side, I know there are times where the stable release is kind of broken.
So I'm not recommending anybody go a hundred percent seven unless you want to deal with the
early access software. But guys, it's almost there. It's freaking bomber now.
Yeah. It's one of those things too where you just got to reserve yourself and say,
yes, I'm going to, I'm going to do this. I'm just going to use it. I'm going to figure it out. It's
like when they got rid of the home button on the iPhone, right? That was, I don't know, a couple
of generations ago. And I had had an iPhone since 08 and I always had the home button down at the
bottom. And now it's done. Now you swipe up from the bottom. It drove me absolutely crazy for the
first like week. And then I got over it and now it's just normal operation, right? So you adapt
to this stuff pretty quickly if you force yourself to do it. But I mean, I've been
procrastinating on because when the, when I'm about to pull out the Pico, I'm just like,
ah, six, I know, I know all that where everything is. I need to, I need to get this done quickly,
whatever. And so then, you know, I won't do seven. Most of the time, actually, when I've used seven,
it's when I download known good and it automatically comes out as seven or somebody sends you a file
and says, Hey, man, when you get a minute, can you look at this and you open it and you're like,
Oh, man, it opened it. Well, I guess I'm here already. I might as well. So not 10 minutes ago,
I said, be brave enough to suck at something new. That's exactly what we're talking about.
Be brave enough to suck at something new because like when you go to first use it,
I mean, it's like learning it all over. But once you start using it, you realize how much easier
is just the, I know in six, a lot of people don't even bother learning about math channels,
don't know what math channels are, they're difficult, they're all man, that's you're
getting really scientific. If I can figure it out, anybody can figure it out because listen, I,
I'm at the border of licking that window right there. The one set beside me, right?
I can tell you right now, almost everything in seven is easier to operate. And the stuff just
makes sense. Even the math channels, like the included math channels now, there's far more
math channels included and they're usable math channels. I mean, it's just, I'm really impressed
with where sevens come and it's gotten there pretty quick. You figure during a worldwide
pandemic where the entire world was shut down, you know, supply chain issues, work issues, labor
issues, and these guys still got to a stable release software in about 14 months. It's pretty
impressive. And when you find out how many guys work on the Pico project, you go, wow,
because there's not that many, you know, it's not like Microsoft where they have like thousands
of people programming. It's Pico where we have like, I say we, where they have like, I don't know,
15. Okay. Yeah. Yeah, it's, I'm super impressed. But
so that being said, if anybody's coming to AST and you're on the fence about using seven or you
don't understand how things go by all means, come join me for the day. I think it'd be a good time.
Anybody that's been in class with me knows at minimum, we're going to have a good time.
But we're also going to try to learn as much as we can. You know, it's
try to show you everything I know, which probably won't take long. It's a good eight hour class.
It's fairly fast paced, but I'm never going to leave anybody behind. Just it's not worth it. I
would rather dump some content and everybody be on the same page when we left than have anybody
left missing the boat. So I think it'd be good. Hopefully, hopefully the AST crew's happy with
it. And like I said, the, the one thing that really got me on board with it was the goal of this,
which is those Thursday classes is to support that apprenticeship program, which I thought was
honestly, I don't know that I would have, I don't know that I'd have been in Raleigh for an entire
week to do AST if it wasn't for that. I would have just come in for the weekend and then
roll back out. But as it is now, I'm going to come in Wednesday and I'm going to leave Sunday evening.
And that, that's why is I think it's a good deal.
Yeah. That's, I didn't know that about the scholarship. That's awesome.
Or apprenticeship. And I'm sorry if you mentioned it already. Seth's teaching the course with you.
So Seth is, so Seth and I are going to do the Pico class together. And then Seth is also going
to do a, the title of the class is dipping your toes into Teslas, but it is things that you're
going to run into if you just want to start getting into working on Tesla. Okay. It's not
going to be what people think it is, but it's going to be far more useful than what people think it
is. That class is going to talk about things that you are actually going to do right now,
things that you need to be able to access to do them right now. A lot of people forget that a
Tesla is still a car and not a very well built one, which is why guys that work on BMWs like to
work on Teslas because we're like, Ooh, look, another thing that falls apart. Man, I'm telling
you, there is tons of work that has nothing to do with hybrid systems on these Teslas.
There's suspensions, there's brakes. A lot of guys don't know this, but you have to do, and it's
not just Teslas, a lot of hybrids, especially plug-in hybrids, you're going to do brake maintenance
twice as often as you would on a regular car, especially where you're at. Yeah, especially up
here. I know. Because the brakes just aren't getting used. You're doing regenerative braking.
So if you don't service those, if you don't tear the calipers apart and lube the pads and lube
the slides and service the brakes, change the fluid. Next year, your caliper is going to be
seized up rock hard. So he's going to talk about that, you know, parts resources, tooling resources,
things like that, things that get you prepared. And then I'm going to do, so he's going to do
that separate by himself. And then I'm going to do a, I don't remember the catchy name that they
came up with, but it's basically a BMW bus class specifically for CAN and Flex-Ray, separate of
Pico class. So there's three classes being presented by Team LMV, which should be a good time.
I'm going to take all of them. Don't do that, because then you won't ever want to talk to me
again. That's going to be so mad. No, I'm just, it's going to be a good time. I think looking at
AST is overall, and last year was the first year that I went as the first year I've ever been to
AST. And I'm ashamed to admit that considering that I'm only like 90 miles away from it.
I was super impressed last year. The turnout was good. The event location was good.
The class levels were there. Good friend of mine, Dave Patrick, teaches for CPI. He went on a
marathon. I think Dave did four classes in two days. I think he taught every time slot he could.
Just tons and tons of content available to guys in this region,
not just domestic, not just Asian. There was Euro stuff. It's a good event. It really is.
It's a really good event. I was super impressed. Yeah, I had a really good time last year. I'm
looking forward to it again. So I know some of the stuff that Seth's done with Tesla is up here.
And what appears to me is on the cutting edge of the European side of things.
What goes into that? I'm sure there's some stuff that you can't talk about. But how
does somebody even begin to approach something like a Tesla where I know they keep a lot of
their stuff proprietary? And I know a guy who works for Tesla and he's told me some of the stuff
about how secretive they are and how much you need their software system to interact
their laptops and all that stuff. But I mean, even whether it's that or BMW, what's the approach
in order to gain the knowledge and the skills you need to offer tech support or work on these types
of vehicles? So Tesla, I can't speak for a lot. I don't do a lot of Tesla. Now, Seth,
that's like Seth's new addiction is Tesla. I've seen new it's been going on for several years. I
think at this point, I think he's got three of them now. I know he's got a plaid and I know his
wife has an X. And I'm thinking there's one other but I don't remember. But the process is the same,
it doesn't matter. What you do is you get in as many fights as you can. And you run that fight to
completion. That's how you do it. You get in as many fights as you can in person working on cars.
That's the same way you get experience, right? How do you get to be guys always want to know,
well, how do you get to be a superstar at programming, crash the shit out of a bunch of
cars? That's what you do. You know, you program stuff. And when you have one go down on you,
you don't back out, you stay in the fight till it comes back up. That's where you learn stuff.
The it's no different than BMW. You know, I've been very fortunate that I worked at two really
good jobs where I had a fair amount of leeway to, I'm not going to say break things, but break
things or get things wrong, I guess is a better way to say it. And that allowed me to further it.
But then I thought I was good at my job. And then when Seth offered me the tech tech support position,
I said, well, I don't know if I'm good enough for this stuff. I really, I just,
I've seen what you've dealt with over the last 10 years. I just don't know that I'm at that level.
And he goes, no, just like, I've been here for 10 years. I think you're ready. I think you can do
this. He says, the fact that you're concerned whether you're ready or not tells me you're ready.
That's okay. Get in the fights, get in as many fights as you can. Leave yourself a way to get
out of them. And I don't mean to like shed blame. What I mean is that, okay, if I diagnosed this
wrong, is there enough money in the budget that the shop can make it right? You know what I mean?
Does that kind of make sense? Like, yeah, right. Have a pad for your mistake. Because obviously,
you can't always expect the customer to pay for your mistakes. Sometimes we have to own them,
not always, but sometimes we have to own them. It just depends on what the mistake is. But
get in those battles and then training more training, a little bit more training,
get in the boxing ring some more, get a little bit more training. Guys laugh at me because
so now because I do tech support, because I also do training in person, because we were talking
earlier, I've been on this rodeo with training, they automatically assume that I no longer have
to go to training because I am some expert, Messiah of the automotive industry.
I'm not. I'm still a student of this craft, just like everybody else is. I learn a lot every day.
I try to get all my mistakes out of the way by like nine o'clock in the morning.
That way I can have a good day the rest of the day. But I'm telling you, I still do,
I think this year I'm up to 34 hours of training myself, not performing, attending. I have attended.
Yeah. I still attend training, online training, in person training, reading myself.
You know, anything I can do, reading white papers occasionally, even though that's
way over my head. Yeah, I've tried a little bit of that. I'm like, I don't understand that word.
I don't understand that word. You know, when you're on page two and you've already had the
dictionary out 12 times, you're just like, this is brutal. Yeah. I normally what I do is by the
time I get to the point where I'm on a white paper, I'm just reading like one specific section of
something. I'm just looking for a specific detail. It's not mentioned in service information or
anything. It's kind of laid out in engineering standards. But that's, that's kind of what it
takes is, you know, and again, I do that training. I continue to do the training and it's not just
BMW training. I kind of keep my, because again, we, we just talked about electricity doesn't care.
Systems don't care. If the system is worth having, eventually it's going to find its way
to most car lines, right? You'll get variable valve timing. Everybody uses variable valve timing now.
Variable valve lift. That's now a thing on multiple car lines. You know, that used to be
just a BMW thing. Now it's a BMW thing, an infinity thing, a Nissan thing, a Porsche thing,
like everybody out east got it. Like it's got it on the L one. Yeah, right? Yeah. And that brings
me to my next thing. So then I tell everybody, guess what? I still take ASC tests and they go,
if they go, ha, it's, if it's not that it's, well, I just don't see the point.
So I want to jump on this soapbox just for two seconds, only because the other day when I was
cutting grass, I was listening to you, Keith and PJ. So, and I wasn't in that podcast. I'm
ASC tests. I'm very much in the same regard as Keith. I'm not using that test to demonstrate
that I know anything. I'm not using that test to even pretend that it makes me an expert,
which I think you actually said, when you got out of school, you tried to get yours as fast as you
could, but you 100% knew that like you weren't an expert in anything. Like just, yeah. And I think
that's exactly what you said, but I'm the same way. I'm not using it to say that I'm a master. I'm
not using it to say that I'm better than this other tech. I'm using it for one thing and one
thing only. It is, no, I'm going to say it. It is the only measuring stick that we have in our
trade right now. Okay. It's the only measuring stick we have. And I use it to see where I am weak.
That's it. I don't use it to show me that I know something. I use it to show me where I'm weak.
If I take because June, yeah, June this year, I had to research A1 through A8 minus A2. So that's
seven tests. I had to research L1. I took L3 and I have an L4 scheduled. So in June, I took 10 tests.
I was actually surprised at how good the tests have gotten. There's been like you said on L1,
you had variable valve lift. I was blown away that a lot of five gas questions came off of L1
and there was modern systems. I was impressed that I took breaks, which is what eight was that A4,
A5. I took breaks and I had more electrical questions than I had hydraulic questions. I had
track control problems more than I had hydraulic, more than I had measuring. I was kind of shocked
in a good way. But I use that test to kind of keep myself within the bounds of going, oh,
I'm weak here. I'm not like these specific questions, but this sub subject. That's where I need,
that's where I'm weak. When I took the A9 test, I'm okay at diesels. I grew up in a heavy duty
diesel family, but most of everything I work on is light duty. I did really well on that test.
I do tons of emissions problems, tons. If I'm on the phone with somebody for a BMW diesel,
it's involving the SCR. It's SCR and this, right? There's a body systems issue and it's an SCR
lockdown. I got three out of five questions on emissions systems wrong and I went, how's that
possible? But I figured it out. What I was doing was I was not slowing down and reading the whole
question. So which taught me something, which I tell guys all the time when they're in class with
me, it's just slow down, take the blinders off, quit reading repair corrections, start reading
repair instructions and everybody's like, they're the same thing. It's just whether you read it
before or after you screwed it up. It's the same piece of paper, but I still take ASEs.
Does it mean that I'm better than somebody else? No. Does that mean that our friend,
in Africa, because he has like 4,000 ASE certifications? He has all of them, like all of
them. They invented tests for him to take. Does that mean he's the best tech in the world?
No, not just for passing the test. What makes him the best tech in the world is that he's from
nowhere with zero resources and still manages to do things that guys won't do in this side of the
world. That's what makes him the best. That is really, really cool. It is. But I just shout out
to him. I think he's like the coolest guy in the world, but I try to take the tests again,
not because it makes me look smart and because it looks cool on the bottom of my email when my
title's like this long. It's just to keep myself grounded and keep myself focused as to where I'm
strong and where I'm weak in a subject. And then I still do in-person training because just because
I am now a trainer doesn't mean that things aren't still changing daily. And I need to be aware of
those and not put my head in the sand. So it's kind of cool. But guys, for some reason, guys are
shocked when I tell them that. It's like, I'm still doing training. And they're like, yeah,
I was in your class. I was like, nope. Right after that, Tuesday, I was in a class myself as a student.
And they're like, huh? Well, that's, that's why. Yeah. I've got, I got actually got two tomorrow
morning. I'm going to, I got to research the L1 and then I'm doing the L4 for the first time. So
that'll be my, that'll be my morning at pro metric tomorrow morning. Yeah. The, the, I think it's,
I forget the numbers too, but the manual drivetrain and transaxle, that is by far my weakest test
out of all of them for sure, because it's the stuff I did the least of. Like I changed some
clutches and, you know, a couple of axles and axle seals, but I wasn't the drivetrain guy,
like rebuild and diffs and taking apart manual transmissions. I don't know that that many people
are anyways, but that's the test that I really actually have to study for. Cause I don't know
that stuff. You know, and that's, it's funny because almost everybody says one of the same
two tests, automatic trans or manual trans. That's always the ones that get everybody.
And I think it's because most of us, especially in the aftermarket, like who rebuilds transmissions?
Transmission shops. Transmission shops. Like the average general repair or diagnostic guy or
whatever is not building transmissions. And so most of us are like, if I can't fix it with fluid,
I can't fix it with a valve body. It ain't my problem. It needs a transmission.
And I used to be the same way, but then I took that test and I'll be completely honest. I bombed
the automatic transmission test the first time I took, hell, I bombed it worse the second time I
took it because I had no concept of how anything worked above the valve body. And then it got to
the point where we were constantly having issues with getting transmissions built locally.
They always came out with problems. We'd send them in for a park and four neutrals,
and we'd get it back and have a park and three neutrals and a, and a first gear. Something's
wrong with it. And it was like, all right, I've got to be able to start diagnosing this and
reasonably knowing which component or components have failed. So I can tell the shop to be like,
pay special attention to the Teflon ceiling rings on the intermediate shaft between
A and B, because I have massive pressure loss going into B from one to two, according to the
pie chart. So it's got to be leaking there or the drums cracked. So make sure you check that.
That way I don't get it back with a bad seal and have to start the process all over. But that's
really what taught me how to diagnose automatic transmissions was I finally just got irritated
and just pulled one out, tore it apart till I found what was wrong, stared at applied charts,
failed to ASC, passed the ASC, then passed the ASC with even more points. And then now it's like,
I think when I restarted it, I think missed like one, maybe two, I think it was two.
But again, that doesn't make me an expert in automatic transmissions. That just means that
I have been able to make myself not weak in that subject anymore. So that's what I use them for,
but that's my soapbox on ASCs.
Yeah, I like it. Cool, man. Well, I appreciate you spending some time with me this
evening. This is awesome. I'm glad I can do it finally, man. I try to listen to as many of the
podcasts as I can, which I actually have kind of been splacking because I've had all these
time on airplanes. And I'm going to be completely honest, I keep forgetting to download the freaking
podcast before I get on the plane. So like I'm way behind, like I just told you, I just listened
to the one that you, Keith and PJ did, and that one was like what, two months ago, something?
Yeah, I was beginning a summer close to it, something like that.
Yeah, so I'm behind on yours. fans loads. Carm is going to disown me because I haven't
listened to any of his podcasts in weeks, but I like the podcast. I just wish I had more free
time. So hopefully guys are listening to it. And in my incessant rambling, we've
gotten something, I hope, but no, it's been a good time, Sean. I hate that it took me a year
to get here, but I'm glad I came. Really Me too. So thank you.
All right, that's going to do it for today's episode. I want to give a just and one more
break. Thank you for spending some time with me. Really appreciated and enjoyed that talk quite a
bit. Hopefully you did as well. Also like to say thank you to everybody listening
and all the feedback I've been getting about the show. Really appreciate that as well.
Other than that, let's all get out there, start fixing the world one car at a time.
About this episode
Justin Morgan joins the Automotive Diagnostic Podcast throwback to talk about what happens when you’re brave enough to suck at something new. The conversation connects beginner mindset to real diagnostic work: remote BMW tech support, case-study learning, and why “service information just kind of goes out the window” on hacked wiring and severe damage. Along the way, they compare scan tools, explain structured troubleshooting (including compression test plans), and share how training, software updates, and hard cases build stronger technicians.
I'll be out of town for the holiday weekend, so I'm re-airing one of our most popular episodes form 4 years ago with Justin Morgan. We chat about a number topics including a great lesson to keep trying new things even though you may have to start out a beginner level.
