Charles "The Humble Mechanic" on YouTube Success and Helping the Next Generation of Techs
The Jaded Mechanic Podcast
Charles "The Humble Mechanic" on YouTube Success and Helping the Next Generation of Techs
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We want these kids to come in young and enthusiastic and want to work hard. And then we immediately, yeah, we bring them down and then wonder why they don't want to work and like why they don't care about what they're doing. Well, we just crapped on them for four months and told them how bad the industry is. What do you expect from them?
We are here in sunny, beautiful Las Vegas at the APEX and SEMA show. And I'm sitting here with a good friend of mine, Charles, the humble mechanic.
What's up?
How's it going?
It's good, man. It's full sema, APEX chaos. And if you've never been to SEMA or apex, it's hard to really convey how chaotic. Oh, it's this whole entire week actually is. But it's good we're here. We're doing the thing, checking off things as we go and not feeling guilty or bad about missing the things that we said we would do because it happens every time.
I know I said I was gonna be living over at the promotive booth and I haven't even gotten over there yet. And I've been trying to get over there so there. And I have, there's a big shindig that they're throwing tonight, right. That I'm, they're putting on and I'm gonna be there tonight and I'm gonna show up this afternoon. But I was talking to you yesterday, trying to find you around this place is crazy. Trying to find everybody else around this place is crazy. I'm just, I'm over the moon. You've got a car here.
Yes, yes, I do.
Yeah, tell us about that.
Yeah. So Last January, my 2019 Golf R was hit, rear ended and totaled. And you know, I, I, I waver on this thing of like, it's just a Golf, but it's my car and I really like this car. And it actually was part of a special edition package that Volkswagen did for the Golf R in 2019. So they only made 13 in the color of this car, which is bright yellow. Car was hit, car was totaled. I retained ownership of the car and now I have myself with his $30,000 check.
Yeah.
Burning a hole in my pocket. So we're like, what are we going to do to this car? So the shortest version possible is it's a full Audi RS3 swap. It's got a wide body kit. And the, the guy that did all the bodywork is also here. He's super big on the Internet. So, yeah, it was cool. Koni said, hey, we got some new coilovers coming out for that car.
Yeah.
Do you want to put them on your car? I was like, yeah, they, they're yellow, so they match. Which I like to believe with my whole chest that they did that for me.
I believe 100.
There's no other reason why. And then they asked if they could display my car in their booth. And I was like, well, I'll tell you, for a lot of people having a car at the SEMA show is huge dream come true goals. Right? And so it was very cool. Big honor to be able to have a car that actually had a lot of work done to it. Even though it doesn't look like it, you know, from.
Yeah, it's amazing. It's amazing.
If you know the car or Golfs in general, you look at it, you're like, what the hell is this thing? Even. But if you don't know, you would just walk right past it and go, oh, there's a bright yellow Golf. And that's, that's what I wanted it to be. Right. I wanted it to look like it came from the factory that way. So it's cool. It's really neat.
When I went by and saw it, I was like. And we've talked, I don't know, a ton of a Volkswagen. They weren't in my. I didn't get a chance to wrench on a lot of them. So they're not the ones I've driven. Have been fun. But yours has a very. It's just a very cool look.
And I'm not big on yellow cars. You know what I mean? I'm not big on yellow.
Yellow's polarizing, man. I think people are either like all about it and love it or just they don't want that bright, obnoxious car.
My father was an auto body guy, so he always immediately. If it was repainted yellow, it's because it was the cheapest color you could buy.
Really.
Because it was. Think about how much fleet back in the day, school buses and everything. Yellow was a cheaper color.
So.
So you'd always go, that was done cheap then if it was done in yellow.
Yeah.
Or. But the hot rodder guys that I was always akin to like bright, you know, yellow. I think that's why I'm such a mopar nut. Right? Is because look at the wacky stuff that they're.
Purples are amazing.
We were talking before we just turned on. That was always a goal of mine was to get here to SEMA as a 14 year old kid and then when you reached out to me and asked and said, I got a car there, I'm like, ah, dude, that's every gearhead's dream. It's cool, right? To be able to have a car.
Here, I need to make sure I always, like, calibrate my appreciation for that. Because it's actually the second car I've had at sema and the first one was borderline. I didn't really feel like it should have been there, but it was cool. It was. So it was a 2022 Golf R that I shipped to a company in California and they used it for R D to prototype all of their new Golf parts. So they, being in the Bay Area, they drove it. So that was really, really cool. But I think this one actually does feel special because that one was a brand.
Like, yes. This was in 2022 and it was a 2022 car. So it was a brand new car with some suspension components on it. It's like going to a show and having someone win first place for bags and wheels. Right. That's not a build. No offense to anyone that thinks that, but I don't think it's a build. This yellow car, so many hours of gutting through wiring harnesses and the nuts and bolts were easy, you know? Geez, I don't even know how much hours in body work that the car has had on it.
And that's not a space I exist in.
Right.
That is a wizardry and art form that I don't understand it. And frankly, I just don't ever see myself getting there. And I'm happy I have a guy.
Yeah. It's. It's like from watching dad do it all my life, there's a. To say it's a skill is putting them so mildly. It's not a skill.
That's way under.
Yeah. Whole other. It's an art form.
Yep.
You know, it just. The things I can remember him doing now and then when I try to replicate it later in life to just make something passable for safety, I'm just like, dad, how did you do this? Of course, like, you know, I can't. He's been long gone. But I just. I try to remember. There's no muscle memory there. It didn't bleed into my genes. I just wish it had.
You're kind of a big deal on YouTube.
I don't know about that.
I mean, maybe we were just talking. You're one of the. Not the OG OGs, but I mean, you're in some of the long running names, right?
Yeah. I've been. I started making YouTube videos in 2014 and it really came from a place of like, just wanting to help. And I remember one of the very early videos I did was how it sounds so silly that this has to be a thing. But keep in mind, I exist in the German car world and I think that it would be a really easy thing to convince everyone that a lot of things in the German car world feel very over engineered.
Yes.
Right. Like it doesn't need to be that hard. You know, one of the things, and this, you know, that kind of 2000 vintage of Volkswagen and Audi as well, was the way the jack works. So rather than being but a traditional jack that you would slide under the car, you know, I'm thinking of like a crank jack. A Honda Civic would have this one. It sort of pivots like Jaws. Right. And I'm.
I'm showing Jeff what it looks like, but none of y'all can see this. It works fine.
Yeah.
If and only if you use it exactly right. If you don't do it right. I have seen the result of cars falling off of this jack.
Yeah.
Like they joke in the community about it being the widowmaker. Then if you use bad habits on top of that, you could lose a leg because the car is going to come off the jack. And I thought, man, like, I've used this jack a ton of times and I've never had a problem with it, but I have witnessed other people have this problem. So what I'm going to do is I'm going to make a video on how to use it properly. And this, Jeff, was so long ago that I filmed it with my iPhone 3GS with no audio at all. And this was even before, like, it was a common thing where you could jump on Amazon and buy a tripod adapter for your phone. So it's my wife holding my iPhone, sitting on a tripod because we have nothing to mount it with, and me yelling, yeah, on how to use this jack. And this was a time where I had no idea how to edit a video.
I. I mean, I could hit record on my iPhone, so that was really easy. I didn't know how to do any of this stuff, so it was all a learning curve for me. And so anyway, I. I make the video, I post it, and I just forget about it. Yeah, man, it was like two weeks later, I get this email and it was, oh, my God, thank you so much. I would have never figured out how to use this jack if I hadn't saw that video. And I was like, oh, that's really awesome.
That's so cool that I was able to help someone. So I go to the video and it's got like 25,000 views of a video that, like, I didn't have any subscribers at all. Right. I'm like, geez, like, that's huge.
Yeah.
So, yeah, that sort of kind of showed me that there would be a path to these things that I know I now have an opportunity to share with people that maybe it'll be helpful for them. Maybe it won't, but it's cool. Like, why. Why wouldn't I do that, at least to try?
So when. When I was listening to you this morning on one of your videos, it. The way it. The way it flows, the way the editing kind of feels, it feels very kind of like 1990s, 2000s, like, hot rod TV kind of stuff. The sound quality seems to be there, like the. The way you put your sentence, all that kind of stuff. And I'm thinking I grew up on that dynamic, right? That's why guys like Stacey David and everything. That's what got me into this.
Who was your influences? Like that before? Because, like, I'm old, so before There was a YouTube, there was a Nashville Network, and that's how we used to watch it. Saturday and Sunday mornings was like guys out in the backyard wrenching on stuff. Right? But who's your influences, man?
What's crazy is, you know, in the space, I don't know that I really have any. I don't know that there was, you know, there wasn't a. Like, I'm going to put on my schedule to sit down on Saturday mornings and watch, you know, Stacey David or any. Any of those other TV shows that were out there. So really, it all comes from a place of. It sounds so corny when you just say the words out loud, but it all comes from a place of really wanting to, one, deliver a message that is helpful for people in some regard to be somewhat entertaining. And three, and this may be where that comes from is I want the vibe to kind of be like, if we were friends hanging out, this is what it would be like. Now I will say we kind of PG 13 it up a little bit.
Yeah, right. Because, you know, shop talk can get spicy real fast. And I spent the majority of my career in a. In a shop, so I just. I never wanted like a dad to have to send his kid out of the room before putting on one of my videos or whatever. Yeah, man, it's. I. I wish I had, like, Some, some pedestal level person that I could look to and say, you know, this is who I would want to emulate myself as, but I really don't.
And I think that's probably good because then you. What I also wouldn't want to do is just become like the, the Teemu version of that really good, you know, really polished, well put together thing. But thank you for that compliment.
I really appreciate that. So what, how did you gravitate towards the Volkswagen European kind of dynamic? Because was that something that your family had or. No.
Couple. Couple of things. So one, I think for the most part everyone has a VW story of some sort and I think that's really cool. Like, I think that lends a lot to the heritage of the brand. And you know, everybody's aunt had a Beetle that they drove to high school or Mark 1 Golf or whatever. For me, it was not really that, even though I also have that story right. My grandparents had a bus and they drove the family around the whole country. That kind of common story about having a bus.
But So I in 2022 went to tech school, I went to UTI. Happy to talk about that because that seems to be a pretty polarizing situation. But listen, for me it was the right choice.
Right.
I got a lot out of it and I went in not knowing a whole lot about cars. I also worked really hard to make sure that I capitalized on all of my time there. Yeah, at the time, once you finish the like, quote, poor automotive program, you could sign up for manufacturer specific training. And it came with some benefits that in my head you were a fool if you didn't take advantage of like they paid back $15,000 of student loans. They gave you, you know, x thousand dollars worth of free tools. They had arrangements with dealers. So you were guaranteed a minimum starting salary of like 15 bucks at the time, which was pretty good. In 2002.
Yeah. And there were some other perks, I'm sure that I just don't recall. The reason I chose Volkswagen was purely a numbers play. So they had Mercedes and BMW and Porsche, Audi, Volkswagen. There may be another one, but I don't remember. I didn't qualify for the Porsche because I had never worked in the industry before. Right. Again, I came into tech school knowing nothing about cars.
I didn't want to work on BMWs or Mercedes. BMW was a lot of clientele driven, no offense to BMW clientele.
But I'm right there with you.
You know what I'm talking about. So it was coin flip between vw, Audi and At the time, there were more Volkswagen dealers, more Audi dealers. Sorry, more Volkswagen dealers than audi dealers, more VWs on the road than Audis. And so I thought that if I went the Volkswagen route, it would give me more opportunity if I ever decided to move or go somewhere else. Right. As a young technician, that's really important. Once you get to a certain level of technician, you go wherever you want, kind of command your own salary. Right.
But I just wanted to set myself up to give me the most options as I move through. Through my career. So it wasn't until I had been working on vws for a while where it's like, okay, you work on these cars all day. You have all the special tools to work on. You probably should drive one and own one. And my first Volkswagen was a 96 Cabrio, I believe, that I bought from the dealer for like, $200.
Yeah, didn't.
Didn't run. The top was all crusty. I put a battery and an ignition coil pack in it and drove it home that day. And they were pissed. They were really mad that I was like.
But I. I have countless stories from where I worked at the dealer of buying, you know, stuff that came in and the customer didn't want to put any more. Older, older Dodge. I'm gonna really date myself. Older Dodge shadows. Older Dodge. And they might have a ton of miles on them, but you'd rack them. And it's like, it's got a new tranny in there.
Yeah, right. And it was like, tranny doesn't shift. Fix a couple wires. Transmission's not in limp anymore. Park the car. Let's all transmission, make some money. Like, that's. That was my thing, right? And guys would be like, oh, like we would have fixed that car.
You decided not to fix that. Right. So I bought it for you for $200. I was gonna part it out. Look, and I'm driving around doing donuts in the parking lot for you. Like, you know, a couple hours later. Like, it was just. I was.
I came in at the right time where I was the same as you. Like, there was so much opportunity. I didn't do it at UTI school. I did a similar kind of school and bounced around in the industry. And, like, it took a while to get my feet really where I had a good grasp of what I was doing. But then when I was there, there's no ceiling, man, It's. It's incredible. I like the.
The Golf, the Volkswagen bus story, because I was thinking the first day here, I didn't get a chance. Gabriel Glaciers.
Yeah, yeah.
Fluffy is here and he like, he's the Volkswagen boss. Aficiono, right? Aficionado. And yeah, I would have loved to seen him, but I've seen the videos of his collection. Like immaculate. Right?
Nuts and those. Like, I had the opportunity, I think it might have been last year to go to the ID Buzz reveal for us. And they had this big party in Huntington beach where just, you know, hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of buses roll through. And I'm, I'm not an air cooled guy. I, I have a lot of appreciation for that, but that's just not the world I exist in. And so I, I see this guy with this bus and it, it didn't look like anything special to me. Just, it was nice. It was really clean, good paint, good body.
I was like, hey, man, like, I don't know much about this world, but help me out here. What's. What's something like this bus worth? He's like, oh, I think I have it insured for $200,000. And I'm just like, oh my gosh. And it wasn't like, it wasn't a 23 window. It wasn't anything special. Just a really nice example. And I was like, man, that's amazing.
But they're not making more.
That's right.
So it's worth what it's worth. And good on it for having good insurance.
So going back to the technician thing, give me an idea of. Do you remember a pair that really like, was a light bulb moment repair and at the same time, maybe a repair that kicked your butt?
Yeah, I mean, I got 800 million repairs that, that kicked my butt. The. The one, there's two. I'm thinking of both Touaregs on. So I actually started with Volkswagen right when the Touareg, the phaeton and the R32 launched.
Okay.
And what I didn't know as a young technician was you weren't supposed to want to do things that were hard.
Right.
You're supposed to complain about that and not do that and wait for the easy gravy work to come in. But I was young and stupid, so I was like, I'll do it. It sounds cool.
Can't be that hard.
Yeah. And so honestly, it was one of the best things that could happen to me because it put me in a position that I didn't know what I was doing. But neither did anybody else because these were all new cars, they were all new architecture. And one of the really hard things as we age as technicians for a lot of people, I never really felt like I was this way. But I know this is a challenge for a lot of people as you sort of push off new technology because you, you already know the old stuff and for whatever reason, you don't want to learn the new stuff. And hey, look, if that's you, that's fine. I think personally it's a mistake. Yes, but I'm.
Who am I to say anything to anyone? So I started at this time where these really hard cars would come in, they would have complaints, you know, 15, 25 complaints on an RO and that was not uncommon either. So I worked really hard to like become the expert on that. But man, I had this torag get towed in with a dead battery. And that was like every day they get towed in with a dead battery, no big deal. So test battery, battery failed. You didn't get paid for much more than that. So blow the faults out, ship it. Two days later, Tori gets towed back in, dead battery, same car.
It's like, all right, well, it's not that I chased this car for two weeks. It was like intermittent can bus failure. You could start the car with the alarm going off and drive it around with you. Yeah, all the things you're not supposed to be able to do, right? But yeah, I started up alarms going off and just driving around. And those had capacitors in the alarm horns too. So you couldn't just unplug it, you know, and still go off for like 10 more minutes. This was the first really hard diagnosis that I had that was truly hard. Not because I was learning how to do it, because it was really weird intermittent problem.
Sometimes the car was fine and we eventually got to the place where it was, we're gonna unplug every module in the car till we find the bad one. And that's what happened. I think it was like a driver's seat module that ended up being the problem, intermittently pulling the can bus down. But it really taught me, like, okay, you're gonna run into hard problems. You're gonna be able to figure it out and that's okay. So like when you're really stressed out and like worried because you're not going to make any time because you're a flat rate tech and you know, it's hard to manage diagnostic time in that regard. It's going to be okay. You're going to figure it out.
You just trust yourself to do the job you know how to do and you'll be fine. You might not win, but you'll be okay. And, and you'll fix the car. The other one also was a torag. And this was right before a recall came out. So there was like a 1 volt drop on the positive cable that went from a jump start post to the starter to the alternator. And it would do weird stuff, like weird crap, weird lights coming on, hieroglyphic warnings in the cluster. I mean, you know how important battery voltage is to cars, right?
Huge.
And the higher level we go up in technology, the more critical it is that the battery is good in the vehicle. And so we found this problem and I got paid like 18 hours to replace this battery cable that I had done before lunch. And then I got to do it again. And then they found out that somebody ran their mouth at a training school that you could do it without pulling the engine out. But.
Right.
That was one of my, like, most efficient, proud, like, I crushed the time. Suck it.
Book time isn't that. We saw there was a post that went around social media and it was a Honda and there was a recall. And there was a guy up there doing the video showing how everybody, how he drops the subframe down and beats the recall time.
Yeah.
And recall time, I think it was only like three hours, but he gets, oh, I'll do it in 45 minutes. Well, you know that next time that you're gonna, next week, you're gonna get Chris Enright and I were talking about.
That, like, update on the recall. 45, you know, whatever. 70 time units.
Yeah. Do you like, that's always been the rub for me is it's like I, I wasn't a gatekeeper, but I always kept my cards really close to my chest.
I think, I think there's a place to share that information. So, like, for me, if I were share that with the guys in the dealership that I worked with all day long, that's a home run. Yeah, that's everybody's. We're. We're lifting everybod. Right. The, the thing I would never do would be go to a training class and run my mouth. Right.
Because look, we have some ego in this industry. Right.
So every little bit.
Yeah, just a tiny bit. And so everybody wants to be like the guy that has the fastest thing. And so when you start having these kind of measuring contests, if you know what I mean, it's a real quick gateway to someone that you otherwise wouldn't want to have that information to get it. And look, it's in the manufacturer's best interest to pay you as little as Possible, sure. Right. They're not in the business to give away money. So why, why are we, why are we doing this stuff? Look, it's cool you found it. It's cool if you share it with the guy next to you, but otherwise shut up and do your job.
Unless you want it to go away.
Yeah, yeah. And keep your punch times accurate, you know, make your paperwork look the way it's supposed to look, all that kind of stuff. I had so many Eureka moments like that where it was just like I can remember back in the day, there used to be PT Cruiser. You could unplug the cam sensor connector, you can unplug the ignition coil when you're doing a cylinder head job or any of those jobs of whatever. And they'll plug right into each other.
Yeah.
But the car won't start after. And I remember my good friend across the bay did a head job, put us back together, gets the key, won't start. All bunch of weird codes. And we just kind of go over and I'm like, he spends about an hour on it or whatever. He comes over to me, he's like, look at this. I'm like, that makes no sense, man. Why is there 5 volts there when there should be 12? What's going on? It's like, oh, like that was a eureka moment. It wasn't a eureka moment in the sense that it's some great technology thing.
It's what's my process. Okay, well, that wire color according to the connector and the wiring diagram shouldn't be in. That connector and Chrysler are known for not getting the connectors right in the diagram. A lot there's known for wiring problems. So I'm just like, what if this is unplugged and plugged in here? Car starts right up, right? Like little things like that. So I'm not like, I'm not the go to guy. It's. And I tell everybody, like, listen, I'm not super smart.
I just, I'm very fortunate in my brain seems to work in a very simple process based manner. And I just always apply the process, work the process and the process will work. Right.
Like how many times have you been doing something, you know the process, but you feel like today I'm going to skip the process? And those are the ones that get burned. One of my favorite examples is, you know, whenever somebody would in the shop would have a problem, oftentimes they would come to me for help. And that's really great. I love being that guy. But I would also ask a lot of them like, beforehand. Right. So, like, don't come to me and say, hey, Charles, I have this code. What's wrong with the car? Because I'm not going to help you.
Yeah. I'm the same.
If you do your legwork and get to a place where you can't do anything else, I'm on board. I will stop what I'm doing and bend time and space to do everything I possibly can to help you out. So my favorite one was, I checked the fuses and they seem good. That was. It was always, I checked the fuses and they seem good. I'm like, well, seeming good and being good are not the same thing.
No.
So did you check all the fuses? Yes. Are they all good? Yes. Why don't you go check them again? Go check the fuses. Come back. I have a point to the story, I promise. I hope. Anyway, so come back. I checked all the fuses.
They're good. My next question is always, are they all there?
Yeah.
Right. Because to me, checking to be sure the fuses are there is part of checking the fuses. So it's easy to skip that step. And now you spent three hours trying to diagnose a car that my, my guy that does it cheaper pulled fuses to take them out and look at them and put one back in the wrong hole.
Do you know how many guys that do mobile diag and programming and all that kind of stuff, they get cars from the auction and it's just a missing fuse. Yep. My friend Matthew Scridge talks about the time. He's like, if I had all the money back that some shop has paid me to install a missing fuse. Not a burnt fuse, but a missing fuse. He said, I'd be, I'd be out a million dollars. Yeah, I've done that. And the frustrating part of that is that fuse that's missing might not even tell you that it's for that function.
But in this, if you break out the wiring diagram, it feeds one leg of whatever it is you're trying to do.
Yep. And you can't. This is another thing. I run into the guys, like, I checked the fuse for that circuit. Like, that's cool. But do you know if another fuse might have some influence on the system you're having a problem with? And look, if you don't. To me, it's easier just to check them all. And then, you know.
Right. You don't have to assume that the two you checked because the wiring diagram said that was the only two, but that was only one page of the Wiring diagram for the engine. You weren't looking at the ABS wiring diagram that has also a fuse. So skipping your process, man. Gosh.
How long did it take for you to get good at track wiring diagrams?
Thankfully, part of the training that I did with Volkswagen was very heavy in wiring diagram reading. And so my wife would make fun of me because. Because I would come home from school with just this binder of wiring diagrams and colored pencils and just start tracing them out and tracing them out. And so, you know, I. I got pretty good at it pretty quick. Definitely, you know, not an elite level wiring diagram interpreter or anything. And I. I think a lot of that is because there's so much information missing from the diagram.
But so I just. That that yellow car we were talking about earlier, one of the pieces of that puzzle was repinning one of the ECM connectors. It's a 91 pin connector that probably has, I don't know, 65 wires in it or something like that. And what I did was, for the week before I started to do this part of the project, I just, at night, I would take the wiring diagram I like to look at digitally most of the time, but I also like to have a print copy as well, so I can make notes on it or, you know, again, break out my colored pencils and trace them. I still do that today, 25 years later. And I would just look at it and just, okay, I got a 91 pin connector. Let's see what this does. And then I spent like four days repinning this connector.
And it's a body connector for a 2019 Golf R&A 2018 Audi RS3 combined together. And so I just took my time, one wire at a time. Went through it step by step. And to me, it wasn't hard. It was a lot. And there was a couple of wires that I got in the wrong location and back up and move it. And that was really fine. When you are not in this world or you look at it, you see me have these hundreds of wires splayed out, laying over the fender and a harness that's 10ft long stretched across the floor.
You think, holy crap, how could anybody ever figure that out? And for me, it was just. Just one wire at a time.
Just like eating an elephant.
Exactly. That's exactly what I was gonna say. And if you don't. Right. It's like, it's a balance. You have to look at the whole picture. You have to know I have this whole big task to do. But you're not going to do it all in one magic wand wave.
So you just break it down and go one thing at a time. And for diagnostics, for something crazy like a wiring swap, like that, whatever it is, and you just make your check and you go on to the next thing and you make your check and you go on to the next thing. And then after about five things, you kind of go back and go, okay, did it, did it, did it, did I really do it? I wrote down my reading. Right. And it, it makes it, it makes it intimidating and challenging, but attainable.
Yeah.
And I think that if we didn't get so overwhelmed so quickly, we would have success faster in stuff like that in particular.
So how do you, like, you've done a lot recently because, you know, you and I have talked in the past and you've been involved with Paul Danner and all that kind of stuff with technician shortage and all that. And you've always been a real good standout for people that are saying, get into this industry. Right. I think we have a real responsibility right now to address that problem head on that there's such a shortage and to not be, you know, because even the name of this JD mechanic and everybody thinks I'm. I can be negative, but it's a situation. I want people to know that it's like, this is still. I could never do. I've done anything else.
Yeah.
You know, the Lord tried to push me in a different direction and they wouldn't have me. So I mean, I'm back here doing this. So, I mean, and it's like, this is a wonderful career to pick, but I just want people to be going in with eyes open, not being sold that it's like, well, this guy on the Internet said that it's. It takes only this long to do. I want everybody to know the reality of what you're going to face when you get in there. That's the biggest thing. And to make it so that the people that are listening are addressing the fact that what you and I went through coming up, it might have worked for us. Yeah.
But I mean, it's obviously not working for as many.
It's different.
And let's, let's maybe just try a couple different things changing going forward. You've done some amazing tool giveaways for, for the young people. Like, I'm. I want to get to a point where one day where I can do that. Yeah.
The cool thing is, is everybody will always take, always take free stuff so easy. But listen, like, I, it's so crazy, right? And, and you have, having had been a dealer guy, maybe you can understand this too. If you've never been a dealership focused person, this, this might not resonate as well. I went to uti. There's a polarizing situation. I had a great experience.
Yeah.
I worked on German cars. That's a polarizing thing. I had a great experience. I worked at a dealership. Polarizing thing. I had a great experience. So to me, these experiences are there because I had them.
Yeah.
Right. So if I had them and look, there's nothing special about me. I'm not smarter than anybody. I'm not better at anything than anybody. In fact, I feel like if I can do this, you should be able to do this easier than I can do this because I'm kind of stupid. But at the dealer, you're told this story. You're told you're not a mechanic, you're a technician. Right.
I use those terms 100 interchangeably. To me, there's no difference in it. It's, you fix broken cars, but you're told that when you're at the dealer, you're the best, you're the most elite. No one else can do what you do. And you believe that because what you see is cars that come from independent shops or other dealers that are just hacked to pieces. Right. The Walmart oil changes, for example. Right.
The duct taped on the filter or whatever. So you, you've inflated your ego to 3700. But. And I say you, I'm talking about myself here.
Sure.
When you actually take those dealership blinders off and see how big the automotive industry is and really how small fry you actually are, I used to consider myself a very good Volkswagen technician. Probably would have said, I'm a great Volkswagen technician for a good chunk of my career. Right. And I had all the awards and accolades and cool guy stuff to back it up, all the certifications and all that other stuff. When I finally opened up my eyes to the automotive industry as a whole, I was hit with about three harsh realities. One, I'm not nearly as good as I thought I was. Not even close. Borderline.
A lot of people would probably have just called me a parts changer. Some of that's a product of being at the dealership. And you just see pattern failures all day long. So, you know, I'm not going to ever beat myself up about that. To. My experience at the dealer that I worked at was very unique and very different because our worst problem was it took three more minutes to get your parts than it should have or the AC was set to 74 instead of 72. Jeff, that's real. Like, there would be mutiny over 2 degrees of air conditioning in the shop.
And you've been around long enough to know, like, bro, if that's your biggest problem, you are in a utopia.
Yeah, yeah.
There was a third thing, but I kind of forgot what it was at this point. But, yeah, like, I had such a great experience, so I'm back on track. So the fact that I had that means someone else could. And if we're not being honest with guys and girls coming up in the industry, that there are places that are really bad.
Yes.
That you don't want to work at. End of conversation. That exists. But there are also, and I like to believe today we are on a path better than ever to have more good shops that do care about their apprentices, that are taking care of them, that really want to grow you as a young technician into the. Whatever it is you want to be. Advisor, manager, whatever, elite technician. I think we're in a better place now than. Than we ever been.
But there is endless. Literally. I mean, look around here. Did you ever think that you could do a job that some rant, pick one person. Here, they have a whole job that they do in the automotive industry. It's not just fixing broken cars, it's not just selling parts. It's top to bottom, whatever you want to do. Yeah, you can do it and you can make a great living at it.
I. And it goes back to me for the culture, Right. Like, I can't. I can't sit here and say that dealerships are all terrible and they're the devil. And I can't sit there and say they're all independent shops because I've worked them both. The dealer I had in Ottawa was really good. Like, I mean, there was lots of opportunity. I could become a really good technician.
Money was good. And then I went to another dealer where I was not treated properly. You know what I mean? So it's. I can't sit here and say all dealers and this. And it's wherever you land and whatever you put into something is what you're going to get back out of it. Right. If you go in with that negative headspace all the time, you know, I. Jobs that kick my butt and you're going back in, you're like, oh, that thing is still sitting there waiting for me.
But if you just put your. Put your blinders down, put your good music on, you know, get in there, go back to the wiring diagram, go Back to the problem, troubleshooting, whatever. You're going to get through it, just like you said, and then it makes you better. It's. That's when you're really, truly investing in yourself. Because it's not about like, if you're like me, I want to be able to put my chest out and go. I'm the go to guy right here. That's.
Does that necessarily financially always be the best path? No, but it's. You do it because you take pride in what you're doing and, you know, it's the same. Like I, I'm so blessed that I was given opportunities. I was thrown in a deep end of the pool and it's like, here's the scan tool. Go over and figure out how to make that recall. Do that software update. Yep. Okay.
How do you just follow the instructions on the page? Look at, look at. I uploaded, I flashed a module. Didn't even know what that meant. I just followed the instructions. Right. And then it just goes on and on and on and on and on until you're like, you're. Why is the transmission not shift? Why is the check engine, like, why does the battery go dead? And just apply it. We are so fortunate now the information has come so far so fast that there I truly, I say every answer you ever want is out there.
You just have to put the work in to find it.
When we talk about how much more complicated cars are today. No, no, I don't think anybody can disagree. I think you're a fool if you do. You know, within reason. But what comes along with that is the expansion of what we can actually do while sitting in the driver's seat looking at a scan tool. Right. Yes. There are infinite more sensors and modules and doodads and doohickeys in these cars, but that gives us access that you never had you in in 1984.
You couldn't plug a computer in and like. Right. It doesn't tell you what's wrong. It doesn't do that today. But you can sit in the driver's seat and just scroll through. You couldn't do that in 1984, counting.
Flashes on a bulb.
Like, I'm so thankful that I don't have to try and. Because, I mean, I would have screwed that up 100 times over. Was that three? Was that four? Was that a long flash? Was that a flash? Did I blink at the same time? One flash. Then I got to do it six more times to make sure our blink patterns are, you know, cued in.
So do you Feel now that you've kind of stepped away, I don't want to say stepped away from the technology, but that you're not in the dealer rat race anymore or whatever. Do you feel like you're slipping behind? Do you kind of wish some days that you. Do you feel a disadvantage, Charles, or do you feel like you're still got enough available to you that you can keep right along going where you need to go?
Yeah, it's a little bit of both, really. Like not being in the dealership day to day. I think there are definitely things that are common happening now that I'm just not aware of.
Right.
The flip side is one of the biggest challenges I had at the dealer was staying up to date with the information because it's coming out so fast and you're in the day to day grind. Get the oil change done, get the timing belt on. There's a waiter. Do the tires. You got brakes on this one. This car doesn't start right. So the day goes by in a snap. And that happens five, six, seven days in a row.
Now it's 12 days in a row and you haven't checked tech bulletins or anything. And so now I don't have to do the rat race. I can take a step back and make sure that I'm looking at bulletins every day or every other day and, and try. So while, yes, I do feel there are parts of me not being in the building day to day is a day disadvantage from a technology standpoint. I now have more freedom and opportunity to stay up to date with what's happening and continue to challenge myself to learn and get better and not, you know, feel the, the pressure of flat rate crushing down on me while I'm sitting trying to learn how to. How a system works. Right. There's nothing worse than trying to diagnose a system as you're learning how the system works.
And that's what happened at the dealership.
You phone up the phone engineering and they're like, gee, we haven't had this come in for one yet.
I would always get, this is not supposed to do that. I'm like, well, yeah, but it is. It can't do that. I'm like, it can.
Yeah.
Here's the video, buddy.
What, what do you think, Charles, about when. Now, when we all have a platform now and we all are some. A lot of us in this genre are content creators. Do you feel it's okay for somebody? And I don't want to say, like, be smart if you're working a particular place, and you want to gripe about where you work, take the uniform shirt off. Yeah, right. But do you feel that that is a negative that they shouldn't be doing, or do you think it's helping?
I think it's both. So I started doing this at a time where not a lot of people were doing it, right? And it was like, if you tell someone today that you're a content creator, you're a podcaster, or, you know, you make YouTube videos, nobody really bats an eye. Maybe they look at you a little weird because you're an adult, you know, doing a Minecraft channel like you're 13.
Yeah.
Or I usually tell people I just screw off on the Internet all day, and that gets weird looks, and then they don't ask anymore about it. But when I started doing it, it was taboo, right? Like, I got in trouble a handful of times for filming at the dealership, and I was asked not to do it. And, like, look, it's not my building, so I have to be as respectful as I can. I did a lot of it anyway. It's situational to me. Right. Case by case, there are some folks out there that are creating awesome content that if they worked for me in my building, I would be like, oh, my God, this is a blessing. Thank you.
Yeah, this is cool. There's a lot of people that are real dumb about it, and then they're wondering why they got fired. And, like, bro, I would have fired you too.
Yeah, right?
Like, so you have to be careful. I think it's good overall, right? Like, I exist in this space. I think it's great. I think it's great that we have not only the opportunity to share kind of our story and what we do, but we have the opportunity to win customers and help each other out. Like, hey, everyone that works on Mopar stuff, I found this. Put it in your saved folder in case you run into it. Like, that's how I first found that Volkswagen 2 liter turbos were causing system lean faults with an oil leak. Right.
I saw it on one of the tech forums. I was like, holy crap, dude. And three days later, we get one rolling shop. One of the guys was getting his butt kicked, and I walked over. I'm like, hey, man, this is wild. But check this. He's like, yeah, sure enough. Pouring out of the rear main seal.
Yeah.
So I think it's good. I think you just really have to be smart. I think if you as a content creator, treat this as you would treat it if it was your name on the building. That's probably a pretty good guiding light.
Yeah, yeah. Don't, don't, you know, use the, the, the service bays to stage wrestling matches and all that kind of stuff and.
Or do it because I like watching that stuff. Just don't be surprised. You get fired.
But if they call you in Monday morning and go like, hey, congrats on 20,000 hits, but here's a pink sleigh. Yeah, we can't really do that.
Just, Just be smart about it, I think. And, you know, it's. I did it without permission, and that's fine, but you better be able to deal with the consequences. Right. It's the equivalent of going to your boss for a raise and saying, if you don't, I will. If you're not prepared for the I will, you better keep your mouth shut and not go in the office in the first place.
So going forward, what do you think? Like, we've heard some people talk that they think the car culture is going away. Do you think, what, like, we're here and you and I were talking how this is like, I'm still walking around, my mouth hanging open. Right. And I probably will be. It'll be hanging open next week after I come home. Because all the things that I, I saw, the young people are still into cars, right?
I think so.
But it's just a different way now. Like, they're, they're there. I don't want to say it's all the tuning market is what it was 10 years ago, 15 years ago, because we know that that's not quite the same. Right. The cars are what kids are getting creep, you know, really turned on by is different.
Yep.
But I don't think the young people are losing interest in this at all. I just think that they're. They're embracing the technology and doing different things with it.
It's 100%. They're doing different things. And, like, the way we do them is very different. Right. We were talking about reading magazines earlier. That's how you consumed card content. Now all you got to do is whip your phone out.
Yeah.
And scroll through and like, look, we. It's like having a kid. Right. We look at our children and we think, I want them to have all the opportunities that I didn't even know, I didn't have until many years after. But then we, on the same hand, look at them and go, you don't know how good you have it. Right. If I would have done that when I was a kid, I would have got my butt beat or whatever. Right.
But, like, we created that environment for them where that's not a thing they have to worry about. So it's important for us as sort of elders in the car world. I hate breaking my heart to say that. Made mid. Mid elders. Maybe we'll go that route to make sure that, like, we let them do their thing as a community. Right. I think tilty wheels are real stupid.
I think 20 degrees of navigate negative camber is dumb.
Yeah.
I think it looks dumb. I can't imagine how horrible the car drives. But that's okay. I don't need to like it, but I also don't need to crap on it. And really, it's kind of like when you have a young apprentice come in the shop and you got the old guy that's barking at him how bad the industry is. And, oh, you'll. You won't be this excited in a year because I've been dealing with this. It's like, we want these kids to come in young and enthusiastic and want to work hard, and then we immediately.
Yeah, we bring them down and then wonder why they don't want to work and, like, why they don't care about what they're doing. Well, we just crapped on them for four months and told them how bad the industry is. What do you expect from.
Yeah, you told them that, like, they started in the quick lube and that it only gets worse from here. Right.
Which message does that send to them?
It's the complete opposite of the reality. You know what I mean? So if we can get them enthused about. And that's why there's so much of the mentorship I think needs to. That's the biggest key. I think if we can unlock the shortage thing is we get the mentorship figured out. That means it's like, listen, I know that you hate doing 20 oil changes in a day, but if I got a second, I want to come over here and show you something really cool that we're doing. And then that's going to fire their. Their light bulbs off to be like, wow, man, I can.
I can get out of the quick lube and I can get into what Charles is doing.
They are there for a reason. Right. You didn't go to their house and remove them from their bed and drag them into an oil change bay to change oil. They came there for a reason. I genuinely feel like it's up to us as leaders and mentors in the automotive industry to figure out as best we can what that reason is and try and cultivate Whatever we can around that for them. And now you're thinking like, nobody ever did that for me. You're right.
Yeah.
100%, you're right. But you know what? Maybe you would be way better off had somebody done that. Maybe not. I don't know. I do. I don't have the answers for this. But what I do know is if we just crap on them and bring them down all the time, they're gonna be the grumpy old man at 26 instead of 52. And where does that leave our industry? Right.
Do you want that to be your legacy as you get out of the industry and pass the torch to the next generation? I sure as heck don't.
No. No. It's a daily grind for me to remember that I have to be like, you know, part of my. The way I am. And everybody takes it as I'm always talking about the negative, but I'm not. It's just a situation of keeping the perspectives balanced. Yep. What's the, like, going forward? What's your goal still? Because you.
I'm sure you still have some.
Yeah, I have one of those goals that will never be achieved. Right. So we kind of look at it as in achieving percentages. And I really. My overall goal is I really want to make the automotive industry better for everyone.
Right.
I'll never get to a place where I can just hang my hat up and say, I did it. Yeah, I made it.
I'm the one that was responsible.
That'll never happen. There's too many. There always will be too many things to do. But if I can look back over my career and go, you know what? I helped people find their thing as technicians and be better and elevate the expectation they have of themselves. I think it's a victory if I can show people that aren't in the industry but, like, they still have a car, right. That, hey, look, you've had some bad experiences. Right. Everybody has a bad mechanic story.
And if you don't, the person sitting next to you does. They have three of them.
Yeah.
And the whole reason I even started making videos is that wasn't what I saw every day. That was so different from. From my experience. But I want them to understand, like most technicians in most spaces are not trying to rip you off.
No.
We really do want to help you get your car fixed. Right. I have a really good friend named Bogey, and she put it to you this way, you know, Bogey, and she's like, this is what I tell my customers. Your car is broken. We. We don't need to argue about that. Right. We have the same goal.
You and I are on the same team.
Yeah.
My goal is to get your car fixed. Your goal is to get your car fixed. So if we're fighting with each other, how are we ever gonna get this. This third party thing that is actually the enemy or whatever? How are we ever going to get that done?
Yeah.
We never will. But if we work together, we got a real shot at making it happen. Right? Nobody. Nobody gets up and, like, I can't wait to get my check engine light diagnosed. Cool. 250 bucks. Yeah. Like, nobody feels that way.
And so I think part of the reason, like, a lot of people say you talk about the negative all the time, since everything we deal is negative. Yeah, everything. Something's broken, somebody's mad all the time. But if we just understand that, like, customers, we care about your car, we want to do a good job. We didn't leave that grease stain on your car on purpose.
No.
I promise you, it was an accident. We didn't break that thing on purpose. We didn't misdiagnose something on purpose. Right. We're human. We make mistakes, and that's okay, but we genuinely care, and we really do want to do a good job for you and get you on your way and move on to the next thing.
I appreciate you, man. It's like I said, it's you. You have such a good enthusiasm. I've never seen you have, you know, too much negative ever.
Yeah. And I mean, it's too easy to get sucked in that hole, man. It really is.
And that's. That's why I was like, so. I was so blown away when you came up to me at Aston and stopped me. You know what I mean? And to say, hey, dude, like, I love the podcast because, like, I don't know how many people that are already in the realm. I'm reaching with it. You know what I mean? Or can collapse. So when they come to me and they go, dude, like, I love this episode, I'm like, you listen to me. You know who I am.
It's wild, and you get it too. But it's like, I still pinch myself and get goosebumps talking about it, because it's like, this is so. I wouldn't do it for. I'm not getting rich doing it. If I never made a dime, I wouldn't care. I'd still be having the conversations. I'd still be trying to highlight and lift up people that really, I feel. Lift me up.
You know and lift the industry. So the fact that it's like, people now put me on the same kind of classification of he's a content creator like me. Like, I'm just like, no, man, I'm just.
I feel. I feel that same way about myself, too. Right. You know, you have friends in the space that are huge, and, you know, you're in the same conversation. It's like, man, I don't deserve to be here, but holy crap, I'm thankful. I am.
I'm thankful you sat down with me today, man.
Yeah, dude, I appreciate it. Super, super fun chat. And you know that. Look, this job is hard. This industry is hard. It's mentally hard, it's physically hard, it's spiritually hard, but it can be so rewarding. And think of this is what drives me probably more than anything from a car repair standpoint. Think about the fact that you know something that most people don't.
Yeah.
And knowing that allows you to be the hero for someone. And it's like, selfishly, such an incredible high and something that I love. So I chase that feeling. And the cool thing is, is it makes somebody else have a really great day.
Yeah, for sure. Listen, you made my day already. Likewise, man.
I appreciate it.
I. We'll have you on again at some point. I mean, I'm going to continue to follow you and lift you up. Yeah, likewise, you know, because I just love what you're doing. So appreciate that. Thanks, everybody. I hope to see you, Sema.
Bye.
Bye. Hey, if you could do me a favor real quick and, like, comment on and share this episode, I'd really appreciate it. And please, most importantly, set the podcast to automatically download every Tuesday morning. As always, I'd like to thank our amazing guests for their perspectives and expertise, and I hope that you'll please join us again next week on this journey of change. Thank you to my partners in the ASA group and to the Changing the Industry podcast. Remember what I always say, in this industry, you get what you pay for. Here's hoping everyone finds their missing 10 millimeter, and we'll see you all again next time.
About this episode
Charles 'The Humble Mechanic' shares his journey from technician to YouTube influencer, discussing the importance of mentorship in the automotive industry. He reflects on his experiences at SEMA, showcasing his unique Golf R build, and emphasizes the need for a positive culture to attract new talent. The conversation touches on the challenges facing young technicians, the evolution of car culture, and the significance of sharing knowledge within the community. With a focus on helping the next generation, Charles advocates for a supportive environment that encourages enthusiasm and growth in the field.
Original notes
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Jeff Compton is joined by Charles, known as the "Humble Mechanic." Charles talks about his journey of content creation on YouTube, beginning with simple iPhone videos that unexpectedly gained traction. He emphasizes the importance of mentorship and fostering enthusiasm in young automotive technicians to address industry shortages. Charles also shares insights from his rich experiences with Volkswagen vehicles, highlighting both rewarding and challenging repair stories.
00:00 Delayed visit to the booth; found you eventually.
04:08 Appreciate having a special car at SEMA.
07:13 Community jokes about "widowmaker" jack accidents.
11:43 Beneficial automotive program with financial advantages.
16:46 Embracing new technology is beneficial for growth.
18:30 Persist through challenges; solutions will emerge.
20:55 Competition leads to secrecy and minimal payment.
25:57 Repinned 91-pin connector on yellow car.
28:38 Experience reality, not promises, in career choice.
30:59 Realizing I'm a small part in automotive.
34:50 Instructions are straightforward, information is widely available.
37:04 Freedom to learn tech without rat race pressure.
42:51 Expressing dislike doesn't justify discouraging enthusiasm.
43:35 Mentorship enthusiasm can transform perspectives and engagement.
47:50 Blown away by unexpected podcast listener recognition.
49:44 Comment, share, and set automatic podcast download.
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The Jaded Mechanic Podcast
Jeff Compton
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