The Jaded Mechanic Podcast Nov 4, 2025

Check Engine Chuck and Ryan Mullen Talks the State of Auto Repair

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Car

Toyota Highlander

The Toyota Highlander is a type of SUV that is popular for families. The 2004 version is one of the earlier models and is known for being dependable and spacious.

Part

timing belt

The timing belt is a rubber belt in your car's engine that helps keep everything moving in sync. If it breaks, your engine can stop working properly.

Car

Toyota FJ Cruiser

The Toyota FJ Cruiser is a type of SUV that looks unique and is built for driving off the road, like on dirt or rocky paths.

Part

brake booster

The brake booster helps you push the brakes more easily by using air pressure, so you don't have to push hard to stop the car.

Term

ABS module

The ABS module is a part of the car's braking system that helps keep the wheels from stopping too quickly, which can help you maintain control while braking.

Part

master cylinder

The master cylinder is a part that helps the brakes work by pushing brake fluid through the system when you press the brake pedal.

Part

brake light switch

The brake light switch is a small part that turns on the brake lights when you press the brake pedal. This helps other drivers know when you're stopping.

Part

crank sensor

A crank sensor helps the engine know how fast the crankshaft is spinning and where it is positioned. This is important for making sure the engine runs smoothly and efficiently.

Term

relay

A relay is like a helper switch that turns on other parts of the car. It uses a little electricity to control bigger parts, like lights or motors, making them work when needed.

Term

CAN network

A CAN network is a system in cars that helps different parts talk to each other. It makes sure that things like sensors and controls can work together smoothly.

Brand

BMW

BMW is a car brand from Germany that makes luxury cars, known for being fun to drive and high quality.

Brand

Mercedes

Mercedes is another car brand from Germany that makes luxury cars, famous for their comfort and technology.

Part

high pressure fuel pump

A high pressure fuel pump helps send fuel to the engine quickly and at the right pressure, which is important for the engine to run smoothly.

Brand

Audi

Audi is a car brand from Germany that makes luxury cars. They are known for their stylish designs and high-tech features.

Brand

Dodge

Dodge is a car brand that makes trucks and fast cars. They are well-known for their pickup trucks, like the Ram.

Brand

Chrysler

Chrysler is another car brand that makes different types of cars, including family cars and vans. They are known for their comfortable vehicles.

Car

Dodge DRB3

The Dodge DRB3 is a special car from Dodge that some people really like because it's different and not very common. It has some cool features that make it interesting to car fans.

Car

Dodge DRB2

The Dodge DRB2 is an older version of the DRB3, and it's also a unique car that some collectors and fans appreciate for its history and design.

Term

OBD1

OBD1 is a system in cars that helps check if everything is working properly. It can show problems with the engine and other parts so mechanics can fix them.

Term

DRB1

DRB1 is a special tool that mechanics use to check and fix problems in certain cars, especially those made by Chrysler. It helps them understand what's wrong with the car.

Car

Toyota 4Runner

The Toyota 4Runner is a type of SUV that is built for both on-road and off-road driving. It's known for being tough and reliable, making it a popular choice for outdoor enthusiasts.

Company

DRB3

The DRB3 is a special tool that mechanics use to check if there are any problems with certain cars, especially those made by Chrysler. It helps them understand what's wrong by reading error codes.

Car

Mitsubishi Sebring

The Mitsubishi Sebring is a car that Mitsubishi made, and it was sold under the Chrysler brand as well. It's a mid-size car that has a distinct look and was made in partnership with Chrysler.

Car

Honda That Honda

The Honda That's is a small car that looks a bit like a mix between a van and a regular car. It was made a long time ago and is known for being easy to drive in the city because it's small and can fit into tight spots. People might talk about it because it's different and useful.

Term

ABS units

ABS units help your car stop safely by preventing the wheels from locking up when you brake hard. If they fail, it can cause problems with braking, which is why they might need to be replaced.

Term

Takata airbag recalls

Takata airbags were found to be dangerous because they could explode and hurt people when they deployed. This led to a lot of cars being recalled to fix the problem.

Part

spark plugs

Spark plugs help start the engine by creating a small spark that ignites the fuel. They wear out over time and need to be changed to keep the car running well.

Part

coils

Coils help send electricity to the spark plugs to create the spark that starts the engine. If they fail, the engine may not start or run smoothly.

Part

injectors

Injectors spray fuel into the engine so it can mix with air and burn to create power. If they get clogged or fail, the engine won't run properly.

Part

ECM

The ECM is like the brain of the engine, controlling how it runs. If it doesn't work right, the engine can have problems or not start at all.

Part

AM sensors

AM sensors check how much air is coming into the engine so it can mix the right amount of fuel. If they don't work, the engine can run poorly or inefficiently.

LIVE

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My co-worker is my arch nemesis.

We have hated each other since day one.

We will never be friends.

We will not look in the same direction.

And the only way he knows how to check,

how to diagnose a car is he'll spend hours checking fuses with a power probe.

Just hear beep, beep, beep.

It'll just go fuse to fuse.

He thinks the fuse controls everything.

And if it's not a blown fuse, then he doesn't know.

Welcome back, ladies and gentlemen,

to another exciting episode of the Jada Mechanic Podcast.

So, you know, last night I had on a Canadian guest

and tonight to keep it balanced

because I want to be fair.

I don't want to be divisive

and sell that political bullshit.

I've got two fine American gentlemen with me tonight,

not just one, two.

Our good old friend, check engine Chuck.

Let's go, guys.

And Mr. Ryan Mullin, who is a new guest to the podcast,

but we're very excited to have him.

He is a man of high esteem.

And we have looked forward to having him on here

for a little while now.

We wanted to do this recording at Asta.

And yet we just ran out of time.

It was absolutely nuts.

And I mean, both of you guys have been to Asta last year.

Ryan, I didn't even get a chance

to talk to you at Asta last year.

And then this year, I only got a chance

to talk to you a little bit.

So, I'll say for the last year.

Last year, the time change messed me up bad.

Going back three hours

and then having to wake up at six in the morning.

I'm not a morning person and that just was rough.

Yeah, I was a zombie last year.

I never really got a chance even to connect with you

a ton this time.

But I just want to say it was,

it really meant a lot for us that you attended

both years and especially this year.

And I got a chance to meet you.

So, I think it's pretty cool.

Oh, I love it.

Yeah, Chuck.

It's so much fun.

Chuck Bragg's about you nonstop, right?

And I mean, we kind of all have seen where you,

how, where you've come from to where you are.

And I mean, it's just, that's the power of this,

like we call this the power of networking on this episode

because I mean, it's like,

almost 20 years ago when I started talking on Facebook,

this was the end goal for me was to be able to have

technicians from anywhere in the world

or at least in the country be able to help one another

out with trying to fix a car and then talk about the industry.

And I mean, you know,

I always looked at it as like for the guys that don't necessarily

have a mentor.

It's even more important, right?

Because I've been very fortunate.

I've had good mentors in the shop,

but somebody like you that if you don't,

this just opens up this ability for everybody.

And I mean, I thought it was so cool.

And Chuck is just brags about you all the time, man.

So, you know,

And I don't the people that I work with,

there's no one I can ask questions to my work.

Yeah.

So it's big to have people that you can ask

when you run into something

that you've never seen before.

Yeah.

It's crazy.

Hey, Chuck,

when we talked with Brian,

same thing, right?

Young guy in the shop by himself,

like you're not in the shop by yourself, Ryan,

but I mean,

nobody else to feel stuff to like.

I forget that that's such a common thing in this industry.

You know what I mean?

I forget about it.

I'm spoiled that I've always had at least one other person

that I could I could bounce ideas off.

You know, right?

I mean,

I think a big difference between Brian and Ryan's situations,

though.

I know that's that's funny to say Brian and Ryan's.

But a big difference is that Ryan has the ability

to stay there as late as he possibly wants

and the ability to work on anything he could possibly want

to as to where Brian is a lot more restricted at work

for having the ability to do any of that, you know?

So Ryan's lucky to have a leg up and be at that shop

in order to devote all of his free time to learning

how to die better, you know?

Yeah.

So, Ryan, can you kind of fill me in and fill us in?

Like, because I'm not really too familiar with what your shop

situation is like.

Like, I know that it looks a couple of your lives you've

shown like, I don't know what 50 cars in the parking lot

and they're all sitting there waiting for Diag.

So, I mean, tell us a little bit.

So we have a lot of cars.

We and let me quickly tell you where I came from.

So I sold parts for 20 years, mainly for BMW,

also Mercedes, Volvo, Audi, and Infiniti.

And so then, so from selling parts, I know the parts on the car

and I thought that would translate.

And my boss, so then I have a pretty bad background.

I went through a lot of hard times.

I was homeless.

Less than five years ago, I was living on the street

with a sleeping bag and then like a year later,

I bought my first snap onto a box.

So I, when I first got back on my feet, I was living in

sober living and they make you get a job and telemarketing

will take anyone.

So I started telemarketing and I figured out how quickly,

how much I hated that.

So I did that to get a car and then I needed my AC

car.

So I went by my boss.

I knew from when I sold parts to BMW.

I used to sell him parts and he had just moved.

He used to be at a gas station, you know,

like a little two bay shop that's attached to a

gas station.

So he used to be there and then he had just moved

to a bigger location with four bays and it was

just still him in one mechanic.

So he's like, I went there to get my AC filled

and I was not working anywhere at the time.

And I'm like, he's like, I need a mechanic.

If you know anyone, I'm like, how hard could it be?

I'm like, I know enough about the car parts.

I'm like, it'll be fine.

And then like 15 minutes in, I'm like,

this did not translate at all.

The first job he gave me was like an airbag on

a big Lexus SUV.

And I'm like, how do you do this?

He's like, look it up on YouTube.

So I started searching stuff on YouTube.

And that's how I learned how to do things.

So yeah, it's the service information system.

Yeah, we have all data.

And but like, I didn't know how to use it.

And like the instructions in there,

there's not instructions for a lot of things.

Some stuff, there's really good instructions.

Some stuff, it's limited.

So and I mean, and if someone's put a video on YouTube,

walking through how to do something, it makes it a lot easier.

You just play the video as you work

and pause it when you need to.

Yeah, you'll never see me run down that

because I still do that a lot now.

Because we're on Pro Demand.

We don't have an Identifix, which is fine.

I'm not missing Identifix like I thought it would.

I still think it's a great program,

but we don't have it.

My boss doesn't pay for it.

It's cool.

But like, I mean, I'm still,

you know, I'm 50 years old and doing this 30 years

and I'll still look a YouTube video up

on how to pull a door panel off, right?

Just because before I get.

Because the screws are hitting on the door panel.

And that's not in service information.

I agree, same thing.

Yeah, I always said, like, if I was a really smart guy,

I would not be fixing cars.

I would be like, because I'm an arrogant SOB

and I think that I can see all the problems

that it's with service information.

So I already should have come up with a better one by now

and it would have all been like AI and, you know,

virtual reality and all that.

And of course, now NAPA is unveiling something like that.

So I'm I fucking miss my opportunity again.

But can we back up for a minute?

So I kind of heard some of your story

from the toolbox tours videos that you did,

which was pretty cool because, I mean,

I think I'd seen you on TikTok with Chuck

and all that jazz, right?

But I mean, when I started hearing that story

about, you know, homelessness to this

and obviously in the throes of addiction,

all kind of stuff.

And I was just like, wow.

That's pretty fucking amazing stuff.

So hats off to you because I mean,

I haven't gone down that road myself.

So I would be just full of it if I said,

oh, yeah, I know what it's like because I don't.

But I mean, you're a testament to, you know,

got some food on you.

The biggest thing about staying sober

is keeping yourself busy.

And like, that's why I mean, I work,

my normal working hours are eight to seven

Monday through Saturday.

So that's a lot of hours as it is.

And then I stay there.

I go live every night after work and I'm there till

lately it's been like nine.

It used to be like 10, 11.

Yeah.

But still, then I'm going to go in tonight.

This is today's Sunday.

I'm going to go in tonight after this

and go live for a little bit.

And I got a car to diagnose.

Yeah.

He says 10, 11, his time.

I used to be on there with him

till like 3 34 in the morning by time.

So he would be on there till one or two

in the morning sometimes.

So I remember waking up in the middle of the night

and just looking at my phone

and you clowns be in there.

I don't mean clowns in a bad way,

but you know what I mean?

They're like, I know Sonia in the morning.

Like it's just like good on you.

So working that much hours a week, Ryan,

like I'm going to ask is the pay good?

Or is it kind of?

Yeah.

That's good, man.

It's good.

That's what I want to hear.

I don't want to hear that.

That's why I haven't like this shop

doesn't exactly fix cars the right way.

Everything's fixed as cheaply as possible.

That's what the customers want.

That's what my boss wants.

It's not the way I would fix cars,

but anywhere else I go, I would be taking a pay cut.

Right.

Yeah.

So tell me, see the airbag thing.

What's kind of the first,

Chuck's heard me say it.

What's the kind of the first light bulb moment

that you had that you're like, wow,

I might be able to actually have some proficiency

for this kind of stuff, the dioxide.

For sure.

I know it off the top of my head.

We don't do a lot of engines and heavy work.

We have another shop that we send the stuff to.

Right.

So we had sent this, I think it was an O4

Highlander, Toyota Highlander out to have the heads redone.

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only focus on one side of the shop.

But Tectonic 2026, presented by Tectmetric, is different.

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And you don't need to be a Tectmetric customer to qualify.

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to get the early bird pricing.

And they put it together and that had time in correlation codes.

And they could not figure it out.

They tore the timing belt off this thing

like 10 times, tried to line it up.

And it still had correlation codes.

I think we figured out eventually that they took too much

off the surface of the head and that changed the distance

to the crank.

Yeah.

So that was the first car I used an oscilloscope.

I checked the timing on the oscilloscope.

And I literally, like, six or seven mechanics

had their hands in this thing.

My boss said, if that car is not fixed today,

I have to give the customer his money back.

And it was a lot of money.

And he said, take all day, do whatever you need to.

If you can fix this car, great.

And I ended up doing a bunch of stuff.

I took the timing belt off and jumped it back a tooth

on one of the cams.

And ended up fixing it.

And Chuck Angel, I never came back.

I was so hyped that so many mechanics tried to fix it.

And they weren't able to.

And I was that that's that's part of what lit the fire.

Chuck is sitting there grinning because it's fucking awesome.

It's fucking awesome.

Before you came on, we were talking about like how

Chuck was talking about his mutant Subaru there.

And I'm just like, I'm shaking my head because I'm like,

you know, I have the same response to that car.

I know why it's not about the money anymore.

It's it's a pride thing.

And then it's like a learning thing.

And then it's like that endorphin kick that you get from

being able to solve something that like you said,

two, three, five, 10 other technicians are not

been able to solve or wouldn't even touch.

I've not been like, I've never gotten kind of high that,

you know, addicts get, but it's got to be similar.

You know, I'm yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah, for similar.

Yeah.

I can see how we get addicted that you guys would be

three in the morning, like just trying to get down there.

You're just chasing that.

And I think it's so cool, man.

And I, and I, I got to say it again.

I, I don't know you know you very well, but I'm proud

of where you are.

Ryan, let me put it that way to where you are.

And Chuck is too, because it's so many people don't

make it, Ryan.

You know what I mean?

They don't make it out.

And it's crazy because like we talk about the mental

mental illness side of this, this industry and what it

can do to you.

And for you, it's saved you.

Like that's so.

Chuck, that's crazy, man.

Yeah, it is.

It's wild.

Yeah.

I think I do think that having the mind to have no

problem losing an extremely high amount of money to

figure these cars out is like part, it's, it's part of

chasing a high, you know, so I, I think that part of

the mind definitely mixes together with it.

I think you have to have a little bit of an

addictive personality because if you don't, you're

going to be the tech that after 15 minutes of

looking at a car, can't figure it out.

It goes, ah, I'm done looking at this.

Just get a part.

You know,

Ryan, what does your boss think of you?

Does he think like you're some

Sabant, you know, like, I mean, like some crazy.

He would trade me for a tire tech and a loop tech

any day or someone that shotguns parts.

Really?

He would trade me for two guys that'll shotgun.

He would rather I just shotgun parts all day long.

He doesn't see the value in it.

But that doesn't.

Usually, usually the cars that make it to me have

already been, had parts thrown at him by

everyone else there.

Right.

But then he should.

Oh, by people that you work with as well.

I've already tried.

Yeah.

Okay.

Yeah.

So that's a different wrinkle to that whole thing of

trying to.

So what the process is, like Chuck is sitting there

and on his head is the process is the car

should go to you first.

You do the Diagon.

You delegate the repair to somebody else.

Two days ago, my boss scant.

I hate to make this about bashing because

I really like my boss.

But like this FJ Cruiser came in with a

bunch of ABS codes.

That has the ABS module with the master

cylinder and the pressure thing and the

booster. It's all one unit.

It's very expensive.

Like old.

They scanned it through that thing in there.

It was like $900.

They threw it in there.

Had all the same faults.

So he brings it over to me.

I'm like, I need the original one put back in.

This one's a different number.

I think it's for an automatic car.

This car's manual.

So he sends it to the other mechanic.

Has him put the original one back in.

The car needed a brake light switch.

It was $20.

Yeah.

I never heard the follow up on that.

Brake light switch, fix the car.

Oh my God.

Add a brake light switch correlation fault.

And it compares the master cylinder pressure sensor

to the brake light switch.

And that's it.

Man.

I just made me want to hit myself in the head

with a hammer.

That was so stupid.

Don't take it like we're running down your

boss. I'm not trying to say that.

I just, I, you know, the challenges you're

speaking of, Chuck and I have talked to

lots of technicians that are in the

exact same place.

You know what I mean?

Where they either don't want to

spend the time, give you the opportunity,

yada, yada, yada.

You know what it is?

And I, I don't know.

It's sad to me though, that you're, you say that

with a pretty straight face that your boss

would trade you for two, for a tire attack

in a, in a parts shotgun.

Because I mean, you're, you're a special

guy already in this industry in terms of

what you know in the short window that

you've learned it.

You know, and you're already influencing

a lot of other people with your, with

your story and your ability and all that

kind of jazz.

And it's like, to think that this industry

is not getting that is, it puts me in a,

in an angry spot because that's, that's

who I advocate for is guys like you guys,

right?

That's who I want to see be appreciated

and paid like a million dollars a year

and all that kind of stuff.

And it's frustrating to me when it's

not happening, you know?

The thing that pisses me off is how

often it works, like they scan a code

and throw a part at it.

It works so often that it drives me

crazy.

Like I want to do the right process,

check powers and grounds, check the

signal.

It takes me two seconds to scope a

crank sensor, see if that's the fault.

They would rather they get a crank

sensor fault, it's getting a crank

sensor before it comes to me.

Yeah.

But Chuck, you know from being out

there, a lot of the time then it is

somewhat though like that, right?

That you can kind of still, I mean,

we say that, you know, DTCs are not

part numbers, but they kind of are

sometimes, right?

Chuck, like you can still go to a

lot of cars and cries or evap,

right?

You know, it's got an evap fault.

You know where you're going,

right?

You're going to go right to the

ESM right away.

And but man, that's, I understand

both sides because it's like shop

owners that talk to lots of shop

owners and Chuck, you've seen it too,

they don't want a guy to spend

three hours hooking a scope up and

look at a crankshaft waveform if

the thing doesn't start

and or has a glitchy one or

whatever, you know, three hours

later they come to go, yep, it

needs an $80 crank sensor.

Like from the shop owner standpoint,

that's real tough sometimes to

justify, right?

That's the thing is when I get a

car, so I 80% of what I do is

diags, mostly almost all day long

as I do diags, we have like five,

four other technicians now they

can replace the parts.

If something's going to take me,

if I spend more than an hour on

something, I'll tell my boss and

like buy more time, I'll do it

at night.

And when I do things at night,

I'm not making good money on it.

I make $100, $200 if I spend

20 hours on a car.

But some of the cars I'll spend

a half hour and make $100 or $200.

It's definitely not about the money

at night, it's about the experience

and the learning and what comes

with it.

Right.

Now, can you can you kind of set

your after-hours schedule, Ryan,

so that you don't have to take

those cars on unless you want to?

Or is it expected of you at this

point?

No, I don't have to do any of it.

Good.

Because I mean, I mean, Chuck

and I have had lots of

conversations in the past, how

we talk about how like, you know,

we want to see you home and

enjoying the family and the kids

and all that stuff, right?

I mean, Ryan's got kitties, I could

see.

So, I mean, you want to be home with

the kitties, but like, you know,

it's important because if you're not

making money, I'm not going to

lecture anybody that like, don't

do this, you're not getting paid

because I spent a lot of hours

unpaid because I just had to know,

right?

Same as you guys.

But as I got older, I realized

that it's like, I missed a lot too.

You know, it cost me pretty much

a relationship, which is, it wasn't,

you know, it wasn't for the

worst thing that ever happened to me,

that that relationship ended.

But it was, I was definitely, it was

a factor as I was working too much.

Right, it was still a cost at that

point.

I mean, me working for myself,

it's not, it's not that bad

because I take the kids to school,

I'm around in the morning,

you know, they expect that I'm

going to be out for the majority

of the afternoon and stuff like

that.

And then we, because I'm out there

working, we get to do a lot of

really fun things together,

you know, on weekends,

like the fall is apple picking.

And it was the sunflower festival

at the end of the summer.

And you know, all little things like

that.

So the Dutch's County fair.

So while they're little,

I hope at least that makes up for

it, but I definitely do lose

a lot more time than I would

like to lose with them, you know.

Yeah.

So Ryan, when you came to Asta,

did the wheels fall off in the

shop?

Like was it just an absolute like

a shit pile to get back through

when you finally got back?

Like,

I mean, there's definitely cars

waiting for me, but I mean,

they'll just keep throwing parts

at a car until they get it right.

Otherwise, they'll just buy time.

The majority of our cars are

dealers and they come from auctions.

Okay.

And I have a theory that most

cars that are sent to an auction

are sent there for a reason.

It's because people don't want to

deal with it.

So cars like that, I have some

time on.

Bro.

Yeah.

I can tell them that's my

employer right now is a used car

a lot.

And that's all I do is,

you know, it's I keep going back

to that Mazda that like,

you know, the customers in the

waiting room about to take it

and they're finishing the detailing

up and they go hit the push button

to shut the thing off and won't

shut off.

And then panic sets in because

it's like, wow, here's been this

electrical problem that this

car has obviously had in its life.

Finally rears its head at the

most inappropriate time and

everyone panics and is like,

Jeff, go look at this.

Okay.

You know, and then I start

yelling at the detailer because

the parts of the dash went.

I'm like, what did you do?

You know, where did you put the

water and it ended up being

nothing to that?

It's just a, you know,

Ford or Mazda relay,

how they stick sometimes and

things won't shut off.

Well, that's all it was.

But like, as I started looking

in the car,

little things around the steering

column, everything you could

tell somebody had been apart

and looked at the steering

lock module and little things

right that you guys know

what to look for.

You see it and I'm like,

that's why the car was traded

right there.

So, you know, but we fixed

it. It didn't take me too

long. It was $18 for a Mazda

relay. It was available next

day. No big deal.

But yeah, you're exactly right.

You would get these cars from

auction and you're like,

what the hell happened?

Was it hit by lightning or

what? Like, you know,

you guys had a lightning car

yet?

I've never,

I've never seen a lightning

car.

I've been told that I was

repairing a lightning car,

but didn't believe it.

I've never seen one,

never seen one in person.

It's kind of like a,

when we call like

unicorn text, like,

I don't mean it that way,

but it's like a unicorn car.

Yeah.

You know?

I haven't had the pleasure yet,

but a guy of my bane made a

mine way back when had a

old Intrap of that hit by one

and it was like,

it took out every module

in the car.

And I mean,

so think about like,

you know, early 2000s

Intrap of there ain't a ton

of modules there.

You fried every module in the

car.

So, I mean,

my experience with that is

when I've been told,

let's say it's happened maybe

three times in the last like

two years,

what I've been told

that it's struck by lightning

because they've replaced every

module in the car.

Yeah.

It usually comes down to a

broken wire.

Yeah.

They just already have

replaced every module in the

car before they got to the

module or the wire that was

causing a disruption,

a can network, you know?

Yeah.

I've trouble believing in

them.

So, is it Ryan,

is it a lot of high end

stuff that you're getting in

or is it just every day kind

of basic commuter stuff?

I mean, I look,

I work on a lot of BMW

and Mercedes because that's

kind of what I,

I mean...

The auction, yeah.

I kind of say I specialize in BMW

because that's what I'm most

familiar with,

like the makes and models

and engines in years

because that's what I spent

the most time with,

but I work on everything.

I mean, I good on you for

liking that brand.

I mean, it's,

you know,

not one of my favorites

by any stretch, but...

Most people don't like it.

I like driving them.

I'll say that, you know?

Get a high pressure fuel pump

and a tune up in an Audi,

the other day.

I was pretty proud of myself,

but I mean, it wasn't like,

what's all that complicated?

It was like, hmm, yeah.

You know, that's worth it.

I hate, I hate Audi's.

I love BMWs.

I like Mercedes.

So it's not all German that I like.

Uh-huh.

I'm just,

I'm just a redneck woodchuck.

So give me like a pickup truck.

Anything with a dodge symbol

on it or a pickup truck?

I'm a happy boy, you know?

Just give me Chrysers all day long.

I love them.

Because I know you think that's crazy, but...

That is crazy.

It is.

Ryan, did you see Chuck's DRB3?

Yeah.

I don't know what that is.

That's older than before my time.

I think, Chuck, I've got a DRB2

somewhere in my basement

and you've probably never even seen that.

I haven't.

Yeah, it's...

Oh, wait, wait.

It's got the white writing on it.

It says DRB,

it's like a little black,

a little black box.

Yeah, a little small thing with this big.

Yeah.

Yeah, yeah.

Wait, it looks like it's some people's TV remotes now,

really, but that's funny.

Yeah.

Never seen one in person,

but yeah, I've struck my memory up.

All OBD1 stuff.

So it was all DRB1

and that was the precursor to that

was flash codes in the car.

You guys probably don't remember those, do you?

I still get old Toyotas that are flash codes.

Three of our dealers,

all they buy is Toyota and Lexus SUVs

from old forerunners to...

I mean, like even the 90s forerunners

used flash codes.

Yeah, yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah, but I just,

I love the DRB3,

like when Chuck was showing it to me,

I'm like, oh man,

I made so much money with that thing.

It wasn't even funny.

It was such a good tool back in the day.

And back in the day,

it would come with a scope module and everything.

I never saw the scope module

in any of the dealerships I worked in, ever.

Like it was a mandatory tool,

but I never saw it.

I never even saw anybody use it.

Never got busted out?

Never.

I mean, what are they going to do with it, right?

Like, we're flat rate dealer techs, right?

We're shotgun and parts all day.

Like, we're, you know...

Actually, I didn't even look to see

what card was in this thing.

Ah, good one.

Supercard, nice.

Yeah, this thing's mint, man.

I got, the screen is absolutely perfect.

I know the screens tend to look like shit.

The fan runs perfectly good.

So yeah, I just...

What years did they use that at the dealer?

Right up to like 2000 and about

2005, 2006 is when Y-Tech hit.

But they use that from...

Shoot.

You could even do some hookups on that

would go back to OBD-1 cars too.

Yeah.

The, I always called them the weird cars

like the Sebring built,

or sorry, the Mitsubishi built Sebrings.

There's a lot of stuff that you can only do

with that machine.

Couldn't do it with even with an emulator.

Like I said, the old Cummins,

you know, the old 12-valve OBD-1 stuff.

There's pretty much you're stuck with that only.

Like, yeah.

That's exactly what I bought that for.

Around 2006, Ryan, I think is by the time,

they were phasing that out pretty hard.

They were bringing Y-Tech in and it was...

And Y-Tech hit the ground running really well.

But it had some big hurdles at the time.

Really, really big hurdles.

So I know lots of guys were like,

they love the DiRB3, but I don't even know.

I should go back to my old dealer

and just see if I can steal one.

There's probably two of them sitting there somewhere

and nobody's used it in forever.

Should because they're online for like two grand to $3,500.

Yeah.

I got lucky on that post.

I saw that it was old

and the guy must have just wanted to get rid of it.

Yeah.

And now, Ryan, as we talk about beating up people online

for tools and stuff,

you got some pretty amazing stuff

in your collection in a short period of time.

Tooling and scan tools and your old red brick clock.

Like I'd never even seen one of those before

when I saw that video.

I thought that was pretty cool.

Those are not that old.

Those Snap-on gave out not that long ago

when you bought something.

Really?

But like the first, god, two or three years,

I was in sober living and it was like free to live there.

So all my pay went to tools.

Right.

Like I would just buy so much stuff

because I had no overhead.

Now I have overhead so I don't buy as much stuff,

but that's what I just tried to collect

as much as I could while I could.

Your set up pretty good though, right?

Like I mean, you don't find yourself needing something.

I don't think that you're,

I can't get a job done because.

Right now I'm trying to make a key for an Audi

and I've spent $700 to make $300

and I still don't have what I need to make it so.

It depends.

Dude.

Just let the boss buy the machine.

We lost the key.

Oh, he won't.

No.

Our Lube.

It's about two off the walls right now.

Our Lube tech lost the key.

The dealership said $700.

I said, sure, I can make it.

And then I realized I didn't have the tool

and I like tools.

So I started buying stuff and now I'm in it real deep.

So what's like, how do I ask this question?

When you have to do that for your boss,

is there some way that you can kind of get

a little extra money or is it just like, yeah, okay.

If something requires tools that I bought myself,

I charge my boss.

That's not included in my salary.

Yeah.

That's important because at that point,

you're investing in yourself,

he's not investing in the business.

Like if I program a car,

I bought the J-Box so I charge my boss.

Instead of having someone come out and program cars.

You do a lot of that too.

I wouldn't say a lot, but I do it.

Yeah.

It'll be every couple of months, mainly GMs.

Wow.

So when you do, like, how many different subscriptions

are you purchasing?

Or do you just kind of do it as you need it?

Or do you have like-

Do you have scan tools or OE stuff?

Yeah, OE stuff.

Oh, I mean, well, GM, you just pay 50 bucks

when you need it and then I'll charge him enough

to make someone on top of myself.

But like my scan tools, I pay,

I think I pay $3,000 a year just in subscriptions

on my scan tools that are mine.

Yeah.

And Chuck, where are you on that?

Oh, as far as subscriptions go?

I don't even know.

That's a lot, eh?

Yeah, it's a lot.

I got a lot of different subscriptions.

No manufacturer subscriptions.

I'm not buying manufacturer subscriptions

like for a year period.

It doesn't make sense to me to do that

because I'll have a period where I have like,

oh my God, a program and nothing but GMs.

And I haven't done a Ford this year

and then all of a sudden the year roll over

and then it's like, oh, all right,

it's all Fords this year, not GMs anymore.

Right.

So yeah, I just pay per session

in whichever way that particular manufacturer

is going to work because they're all different.

You pay by hour, you pay by VIN,

you pay by three days, you pay by two days.

But I mean, just on rolling scan tool subscriptions,

probably right at that like three to four grand area.

I don't update them all, you know?

Yeah.

Some of them I will never update intentionally, so.

So how did you guys kind of get hooked up on TikTok?

Like what was the kind of the first thing that,

because Ryan, how long have you been on TikTok?

TikTok?

Yeah.

I mean, I was on TikTok before I was a mechanic.

So I did TikTok, not car related stuff,

but before I was a mechanic.

And then I started making TikToks early in.

So about, I've been a mechanic four years,

so about right about there.

Right.

And Chuck, you've been around at least four, right?

Haven't you?

Yeah, four-ish, I would say.

I don't know if I'm maybe going on my fourth or fifth year.

Yeah, I'm the new one in the group here on that.

I've only been in like just over a year.

So that's pretty cool.

Well, you've definitely been in longer than that.

Me?

Yeah, it has to be.

I've been to ASTA twice.

We started talking away before the first ASTA that I went to.

It might be two years in a bit then.

Yeah, I think so.

Not like, I mean, you were very already really established.

So was Ryan when I came into the bunch.

But Ryan, how did you come about finding Chuck?

I would, so I was already going live like every day.

I think it was a Sunday and I was live and I was working on a car

and I was banging my head against the wall.

I spent like, God, I probably had 30 hours into that car.

And I was just testing random wires just because I was so lost on it.

And then Chuck came into my live and he was just in the comments.

He was sick and just watching my live.

And he pretty much helped me, told me what I was doing wrong.

Right.

And it solved that car like in a matter, I had 20, 30 hours into it

and then it was fixed and it wasn't that long.

I think if I remember it was a Honda.

Yeah.

And it was the problem was that the DTC that was setting,

when you went into service info, you could find out that the DTC sets

when you key the car off, not when you key the car on.

Right.

And that was the big, that was the big hang up was that little piece of service information.

Yeah.

Pretty cool to be able to just find somebody that, you know, yeah.

That's how I've met a lot of people.

That's how Chuck and I first connected was I was just watching his stuff.

And I don't think he was live.

I think he was just doing things and I would comment and I'd have to go back

to whatever I was doing.

And then I would check the comment later and he'd be like,

I can still remember it was early on.

It was about a power problem.

I'm like, oh, I hate that tool.

I hate that tool.

He's like, why do you hate that tool?

And I'm like, oh man, I've watched so many good technicians, you know,

go down rabbit holes on that.

And not knowing that, and I wasn't trying to put Chuck in that class

of guys that get tricked by that tool.

But I was like, oh, I just seen, you know, and yeah.

And then we just kind of, that's how the conversation opened up.

And he showed me how good that tool can actually really be.

And then he's also, you know, he understands a little bit better.

Just why I don't grab it first, you know, just for me, it's,

you know, the old school $3 test light is the, is the tool to grab.

I don't have a load cage yet.

It's, it's coming.

It's good.

Yeah.

Now that the post strike is coming to a restful moment.

We won't say it in, but they'll take a break and go back to work for a little

while, maybe on the load cage.

But I mean, that's, that's old way for me of doing it.

Like I talk all the time, one of my first bosses, he took my DVO,

I'm away and he wouldn't give it back to me until I could like,

you know, come to him with the test light results.

And then he would give me the DVO M because that's just what he believed was the right way.

And it, it's served me well, but I still have scopes.

Like I, I have one.

I never really use it.

So I've used it for, I use it for relative compression test and that's about it.

So I don't, I don't grab it for circuit tests at all.

So the good thing about what I do is I only work out of my bay.

I don't work anywhere else.

So I have my Pico set up with my computer right there and I have a boom.

I just flip it out.

I could put it on the car.

It literally takes me two seconds to scope a car.

Like a lot of people, it takes them so much time to set it all up,

get out of the box, hook it up.

Like Chuck has to dig it out of the van.

I can pull in the car and check for circuits at the same time faster

than I can set up a multimeter.

So that's why I have so much practice with it and it's so different.

If I was working outside, I'm not taking my scope with me.

I'm taking probably a power probe.

I, I'm on Chuck's side with the power probe thing.

The biggest thing about power probes is you've got to understand circuit design.

Yeah.

Like that's one thing that really, so one thing I didn't talk about

is when I first got into being a mechanic,

I realized quickly that no one around me

knew what they were doing for lack of a better way of saying it.

And that's when I found scanner Daner and Paul,

I binge watched everything that Paul's recorded on the internet over a span of like four months

and it like turned a switch in my head.

Yeah.

Like just, and the most important thing was understanding circuit design.

Yeah.

Like once you understand how circuits are laid out and how everything is,

it's really hard to fry something with a power probe.

You're not, you know, we're not to send power.

Yeah.

Oh, a hundred percent.

You know, it's, it's.

Or ground for that matter.

To me, you know, the idea that they used to say,

no, you can't have a jumper wire.

No, you can't have a power probe is like,

if you can't trust the person with that tool,

you shouldn't even be trusting them with the job.

Right.

That's just a simple way it is.

Like do we really want to have to be like turning kids out with a DVOM

because that way we're pretty sure they can't screw anything up.

No, like they should already understand enough that we can give them any tool

and they're not going to hurt something.

Right.

I mean, we're nobody's perfect, but you know,

sometimes surface information is written is wrong.

But yeah, Scanner Daner is like,

man, I've been friends with that dude for,

well over a decade now and talking to him and yeah, he,

he doesn't realize, I mean, he's starting to realize,

but he doesn't realize the effect that he's hit.

You know what I mean?

His footprint in this industry right now is arguably bigger than anyone else's.

I would argue that from the,

from the old school guys back in IATN way back when to,

to up to now,

I don't think anybody's made the impact he has and he,

and the coolest thing is he never even wanted to or tried to.

That was what so, was so cool about Paul's.

It was just like, you know, I'm filming these videos for my students

and that was it and it just took off.

I can remember early on there was him and there was a Ivan from Pine Hollow

and there was Eric O from, you know, South Maine

and there was a guy named Daniel Sullivan,

which makes the load pro tool.

I don't know if you guys have seen that.

And I remember Daniel Sullivan was kind of like on the outside,

he was looking at like everybody.

He was a very upset guy and he was very pissed off

because his patent was stolen and he threw the gauntlet down

and made a challenge to like Paul Danner and Eric O and Ivan

to do like a diagnostic shootout.

And he literally got lambasted on YouTube to where he like,

he pulled this channel down for a long time

and didn't have any kind of interaction with anybody.

And I felt really sad for the guy because like he's super smart

and he really knows what he's talking about,

but it's always about that tool.

He is, he designed it.

He's 100% convinced it is like,

it's the same as the power probe guys, right?

They're convinced that that tool is the best tool

it's ever been built.

I'm not going to argue that it ain't,

but it was a completely different thinking,

different tool than Daniel and what Daniel was doing

was pulling everybody in from that power probe camp

or this other camp or whatever and saying,

no, it's all wrong.

My tool is the best ever and I'll prove it to you.

Well, he just, he caused career suicide.

So, but when he called it, Paul, I was like, well,

you're, you've just stepped over the line there, dude.

Like, you know, so I'm glad there was beef before TikTok.

Dude, I can tell you somebody that was like on IETN

before I was on Facebook, there's always been beef.

Beef's never going to go away, man.

Beef is, and you guys laugh because you know what it's like,

we've seen it, right?

Like, but like, Ryan, how do you handle it with the detractors

and the, because Chuck knows me, like if somebody's not

attacking, they start spouting off at me, like I want to

get in my car and go find it where they live

and like punch your teeth in, like I'm that way.

I'm just wired that way.

I'm not big enough to get it.

I only have 20,000 followers.

I don't, I very, very rarely post videos.

When I go live at night, there's like 10 people there.

Yeah.

Sometimes 20 if I'm on a good night, but like,

it's mostly people trying to help and people that are

helpful and yeah, same people.

So I don't see it as much as other people do.

But Chuck knows, because it's like when he first

brought the location, everybody's like, oh, you

don't need that tool.

You only need DVLM.

And I'm like, oh my God, here we go.

We got to give this, like, I've been given this

lecture for 10 years on why one, you know, surpasses

the other and Chuck's doing the same thing.

And I'm just like, God bless you, man.

I'm not, I'm bowing out of this one.

Cause some of my favorite comments was, uh,

oh, it was, and it was like it, it must have

been commented a hundred times in some form of, oh,

so you reinvented the Tesla, you know, with

like a clown face.

And I was at first I was like, well, no,

that's not what I, and then I thought about it.

I'm like, all right, fine.

Yeah.

I reinvented the Tesla.

Fine.

Yeah.

And, you know, to your credit, it's probably been

the best test built test light in terms of how

what a mechanic has always really wanted in

the test light, right?

It was one that,

I appreciate that.

A, didn't burn my hands.

B, I could get rough with it and it wouldn't

break the bulb.

C, I had way more options just like a pointy

end on one point or a alligator clip on

the other.

Like it's, it's a very effective

efficient tool.

That's what I love about it.

But, you know, like it's, you know, it just, yeah.

I still use mine every day.

Yeah.

Like every single day.

I would see the constant like, oh,

you shouldn't use a Tesla.

It's going to blow up the module and you

shouldn't use a Tesla.

You shouldn't use a DVI.

And I'm like, oh, shut up.

You don't fix cars.

It's obvious.

And Chuck would laugh at me.

Like we'd be talking.

He's like, oh, why do you let them get so,

why do they bother you so much?

I'm like, dude, it's just the way I am,

man.

I can't help it.

Like I just, you know, I can't

entertain fools and when I know that

they don't do what we do.

I don't even want them in the fucking

conversation.

Like they can just, you're, the adults

are talking, go fuck off.

Like that's all I think.

And it's just, you know, I was,

I've been a prick online for a long

time.

So trying to not be a prick.

I do pretty good until certain

subjects come up.

And then it's just like, no, no,

you're wrong.

I don't even want to tell you why

you're wrong.

You're just, you're just having

wrong.

You don't, you don't run into that

though, Ryan.

You just like, you just let it

roll man.

It's rare.

And there's, there's a couple people

that, that used to constantly come

after all of us in the same

comments.

There's one guy told us that

we don't know what we're doing

because we don't measure anything

in micro semen.

Like what the fuck?

Like how is a micro semen?

I still don't even know.

I don't know.

I don't want to know.

Like I think he's trying to talk

about miliomes and using a

miliometer, but I, and like

calculating the length and the

diameter of wire.

Yeah, but that's what it is.

You got to know the length of the

wire and the diameter of the wire

to find the surface area of the

wire to find the exact resistance.

How is that any way better than

low testing a wire?

Does this gentleman realize

all the different like an

he tried to say service

information says the length of

all the wires and an 18 gauge

wire built by one person does

not necessarily have the same

surface area as an 18 gauge

wire of another manufacturer,

let alone the conductivity of

the two different brands is not

always the same either.

So his, his fucking theory is

my theory.

Does the test light fucking

light?

Yes.

Fine.

Next.

You want to know the best part

too?

This is the people that are

commenting these kinds of

things.

You go to his page and you,

first he tells you and you

think that he's aircraft

mechanic.

So you're like, okay, I know

aircraft mechanics can be a

little, you know, a little odd

at times.

And then you start going

through his page and he's,

no, he's not.

He's a aircraft simulator

mechanic.

He fixes the aircraft

simulators that pilots go into

to and training.

You guys have seen that meme

where it's like I'm a sniper,

but only online when I play

Call of Duty.

It's like that.

I had a guy last week and

it's like he told me he owned

two dealerships or two repair

shops and I go to his Facebook

profile and he literally has

like woodworking crafts and a

bunch of chickens.

And I'm like, he's like, oh, you

don't put everything that's in

my life online.

I'm like, oh, okay, dude.

What it was arguing about

something related to how a

circuit worked or car or

something that I'm like,

he's trying.

Oh, no, it was a business

question based on, you know,

how would you handle this in

the automotive realm or

something that I think it

was probably like FreeDiag or

something like.

And I'm like, you know where I

am on that, right?

Like, no, that's the devil.

But he's like, oh, no, you

should do that.

It works for me.

And I'm thinking you've got

chickens and fucking

pallets that you've made into

ashtrays.

It's a lot of repair.

Like, get the fuck out of

here.

Like, sorry, I'm costing a

lot.

I shouldn't cost.

That's the challenges of

online.

The tool thing, Ryan,

when the guy contacted you

about toolbox tours,

how did that like,

were you surprised that they

knew who you were?

No, I reached out to him.

So, like, I found his channel

right when he made it.

And it was.

So at first, when I first

started, I was super into

tools before I moved to

being super into Diag.

So like, I spent like a

year just being obsessed

with tools.

And I found his channel and

he had said,

like, message me if you're

interested or if you want to

be on a channel.

So I messaged him and then a

couple people that he went to

see say that they found the

channel because of me,

because I used to talk about

it on TikTok all the time.

And so he had heard my name

a bunch of times.

And then when he finally

came out, I mean,

a bunch of people had brought

my name up in different

episodes saying I saw this

that Ryan had.

I saw this that Ryan had.

So it's like he'd heard

of me a bunch of times.

Yeah.

Where is he based out of?

Uh, Utah.

Okay.

Yeah.

Cause you're in California.

You're like,

Yeah.

So he's been all over the

country.

Yeah.

Very cool.

Where Chuck's not that far

from me, like a few hours

and I would be at Chuck's

place or I say a few.

It's probably like five.

I could be there, but you

know, so, um, but yeah,

cause I saw that and I've

seen some of his channels

and it's been very cool

like his or his videos on

his channel because it

covers the whole realm,

right?

From young guys starting out

to when you,

when you got in,

was that kind of the allure

was the big toolbox and the

tools and like what?

No, I mean, I grew up

working on stuff in the

garage of my dad and stuff

like that.

And like we were into

doombuggies and dirt bikes

and go into the desert

and all that.

So I'd grown up with tools

and stuff.

And then I mean, I

quickly realized that

when I first started,

I bought as much cheap stuff

as I could Harbor Freight,

Amazon, whatever.

And then just like,

it was like a year before

we got a snap on truck.

And then I just started

replacing the cheap stuff

with good stuff

and a lot of YouTube

and just learning stuff

that's out there and

yeah, just,

I don't know.

I've always liked tools.

So yeah,

I've slowed down a lot.

Are you the expert

like the Mr. Subaru is?

No, no, that guy's

he's got all kinds.

He's got so much more stuff

than me.

Yeah, I'd like to

I wish that now

that would be a good episode.

If the toolbox tours guy

is watching or listening.

If you could get Mr.

Subaru Robert Lays and beyond

that would be pretty sweet.

That would be sick.

I still talk to him

all the time.

The guy from toolbox tours

his name's Dustin.

He's a super nice guy.

I had so much fun

talking to him

and just hanging out with him

because he's

after we filmed the episode

he's there for like

another four hours

doing b-roll stuff.

So we did a lot of talking

and a lot of filming

and it was

it was a lot of fun.

Yeah.

So Chuck, what was the

when you first

had an interaction with Ryan?

What did you see right away?

I don't

to be honest,

I don't remember

why I followed Ryan.

You know, obviously

because you know

he's in the industry

and stuff

but I can't remember

like I remember

okay, I followed this guy

and he posts a tool,

you know halls

and I never see his face.

You know.

So I got familiar

with his name

from seeing him

him in my comments and stuff.

And I think I just

I was sick

and I was scrolling live

or something

and I saw him

dealing with that Honda

and I was like, oh

this looks fun.

I'm like, maybe I could help

someone over the phone.

You know, like I mean

I help people over the phone

all the time

but maybe like

while he's on live

I could help him like

out of the light.

What did that be cool?

You know.

And we started,

you know,

talking for a bit there

and then

I had to go do something

or I or I felt like

shit or something.

I was really, really sick.

So I was like, all right

well, let me know

what you find

maybe I'll pop back

later.

And I think I came back

like what

two hours later

or something like that.

I don't have that good of a memory.

Oh, okay.

All right.

So yeah.

I live in the car

but that's about it.

Okay.

So I came back

like two hours later

I think.

And at that point

I actually started

pulling up service

information and shit

and that was how

we got down to it.

And then

I don't know

how the hell

I think I just started pop.

Yeah.

I think what you just

went

I've made a video about it

and then you probably

I think you saw that video

and you commented on it.

And then I think

you just kept popping

into random lives

and you would come in there

and see what I'm doing.

And if it was interesting

you'd be in the comments talking

and then it

went to eventually

I mean for a while there

you were in my life

like every night

we were diagnosing cars.

Yeah.

I think that was last summer

because your kids

were off of school

and you could kind of

stay up and not have to

wake up early in the morning.

Yep.

That's what it was.

Yeah.

So I just started popping

into his lives

and then I convinced him

to come on to Snapchat

and it was all over from there.

Yeah.

So you wrote him

into Snapchat too

then that's good.

Yeah.

I can tell you Ryan

what Chuck said to me

really recently

is that like

he said you eclipsed

you know

not

he didn't really say

you eclipsed him

but he would never

he's never seen

like the trajectory

from anybody

he's ever met

the way you brought it.

You know what I mean?

So that's pretty cool.

He's uh

I'm not in his lives

anymore

because he doesn't

need me.

Yeah.

anymore.

Well I appreciate it.

I definitely

I've definitely learned

a ton from you.

I mean it

I definitely didn't know

about

reading service information

as much

before started

before Chuck started

helping me.

I mean

Chuck still helps me

find stuff

and service information

that I can't find.

Right.

But that

I I mean

just from him being

in my life

for a series of months

I learned

enough to

figure out almost anything now.

I mean it's

it's

rare that I get

stuck on a car

unless it's like a

one-off situation

that's like

super

crazy.

And now we're

consistently

bouncing ideas off of each other.

Yeah.

You know it's

snapping shit

since I'm

I'm not on live.

Yeah.

You know the

the that's under it.

That's the difference

that we're talking all day

now back then

we would

talk at night

all my life

but now

Chuck

so mean

Chuck taught me

on to Snapchat

when he was

building the load cage

because you had asked

me about though

when you were making

the letter to send out

with the load cage

that's when we started talking.

Send me a copy of the letter

you're like how does this look

do you

have any suggestions

or anything.

And then he's like

I want to

get some guys on Snapchat

and build a group

of just people that

do this stuff

and we each

got a bunch of guys

to Snapchat

and made a group

and started talking

this group's no longer around

but

just having all these

like-minded people

that were all smart

in different areas

different texts

from different dealerships

and just like

being able to pull out your phone

and say what your problem is

and 10 other texts

from around the country

that have specialties

and all different kind of stuff

someone's seeing

whatever you're running into

yeah

not a lot of people have that

where you can just reach

into your pocket

and talk to

like the smartest texts

you've ever talked to

a whole group full of them

it's powerful stuff man

it really is

I spent so many years

on Facebook

but I wasn't doing it

that way

I was

I was again

I was a bit of a person

that was a little lost

in the sense that I was like

always trying to

qualify the people

that were in the conversations

before I would help them

you know what I mean

and that's

why I have so much respect

for Chuck

is because he's

he comes up

from a completely different spot

and

the more Chuck and I

talk about it

the more I understand

exactly what he means

like he said it to me

several times

and I'm like

well I don't get it

but it's starting to really sink

into me

where it's like

it's not even my right

or my place

to be qualifying them

and I'm pushing a lot of people away

and I have

pushed a lot of people away

that I shouldn't have

because I was like

and it

people thought it was coming

from a place of ego

wasn't coming from a place of ego

it was just like

I had this impression

that everybody was lazy

right

because it was like

I thought I was the hardest worker

in the room

and everybody else

should just be like me

and I realized

that that's not the case

like that

yeah I work hard

but I also have an aptitude for it

that some people just don't have

and

Chuck and I

you know

can you teach that aptitude

and

I think you're an example of Ryan

of somebody that we can

and have been able to

right

and that's why

when I think now

of the way I've

acted in the past

I'm a little

you know

resentful of how I

behaved

because

I've pushed a lot of good people away

and it sucks

I'm trying to

trying to make good on that

I'm trying to do better

but you know

that's the thing is

when Chuck

so when Chuck came into my life

he was trying to get a

gauge on if he could

help people like that like

remotely help people

diagnose cars

and I think it made him

really easy with me

because he could tell me to

check a wire

and

go to this connector

check this wire

and know that I checked it

because he's there with me

but like

when you're telling some

random person

across the country

to go check the

check this wire for men

and load tested

check the connector

pen tension

all this stuff

yeah

you have to kind of know

their capabilities to know

that they checked it right

before you move on to checking

something else

yeah that's

that's definitely something

I've ran into

with trying to help other people

is if I go to Ryan

and I go to

or I say

all right go to

C127B

pin six

it should be black and red

let me know what you see there

he would go

okay

and he would do it

you know

or if he didn't know where it

was I'd say

it's the left kick panel

third square connector

up 20 pin or whatever

he'd be like

okay and he'd

find it like that

there's some people

if you're on the phone

with them that one

step might take an hour

yeah

you know

so that's

it's tough

you know

and for me

it was a situation

where it's like

I'll give this example

I've used it before

you would say

go check the grounds

and they would walk over

and wiggle it

like no that's not

okay like

let's think about the other

way like

okay yes it's hooked up

is it good

right

there's like

we need to test that

and it was just a little

things like that

and then

you see me always

trying to face palm myself

because that's

a thing I do a lot

is like

like what

you know

and and

eventually yes

I had to back up

slow down and say

no no like

go grab a test light

and test that

actually check it

check it

you know

and

it took a while

man

it took a while

to like

you got to slow down

to go fast

you know

like you got to be

that way

and it was

but people like

oh I checked the wearing

what did you do

well I just

physically checked it

like I didn't

visually check it

like that's

there

and yeah it's there

right

it wills on

you know it's good

I um

what was I thinking

that's been

that's been the

struggle for me

is trying to

because the way I

communicate is very

just very concise

and abrupt

and and

gruff

and I'm

still learning

this has been

very good for me

to learn

how to communicate

more effectively

and not be an

a-hole

but the a-hole

does come out a lot

still

it's

tough

you know

what um

what do you see

this networking thing

with you guys

what other benefits

do you see to it

besides the

fixing cars thing

like do you have

conversations away

from fixing cars now

that you would have

oh yeah yeah

constantly

I mean so there

there is that aspect

of just having a

group of like-minded

people as well

you are instantly

like-minded

like we

so I used to hang out

at the

at this shop

and we used to joke

around that

none of us

that hung out at this

shop

this is when I was

a kid

18 you know

that none of us had

anything in common

except for that

we all

enjoyed the devil's lettuce

and we all liked cars

and because of that

we all

we had a group of

20 friends that

were just completely

different people

but were perfectly cool

all hanging out

at the same time

you know

right

that's one thing

when I first became

when I first went into

sober living

I didn't have a friend

in the world

I didn't have any friends

anywhere I'd

gotten distance from everyone

I used to talk to

and when

even when I was a

mechanic

first became a mechanic

I had no one

and now I

there's

about 30 people

that I talked to

every day

whether like

like all the people

that watched my life

we started a group

together

and we all talk

and then we

then all the people

that

are like-minded

dyag guys

we all talk

and it's just

it's so

it's more friends

than I've ever had

in my life

like even I had

a large friend group

in high school

but like

nothing like this

like 30 people

or so many people

that I talked to

on a daily basis

all stemming from TikTok

and these are all people

that I've met off

TikTok

just from going live

at night

so many people

come by there

hang out

help with the cars

come back

almost every night

and just hang out

in the comments

and then I want to say

when again

I don't mean any disrespect

I know a lot of people

I've talked to

that have come from

addiction

is that once they

get off of that

a lot of their people

that were

they thought

they were friends

were not really

their friends

right they were just people

that they were getting

high or drunk with

yeah

and that's something

that I think

a lot of people

is what we don't even

talk about

is how hard it is

to leave that behind

because

you're fighting that

and again

I'm talking like

I've been through

and I haven't

so correct me

if I'm not

off you're

you're pretty

on top of it

you know

it's like

you're trying

to get that devil

off your back

and at the same time

you're feeling

like you're either

deserting some friends

or you've been deserted

right I think

that's what

a lot pulls

a lot of people

back and

I don't even think

a lot of the time

it's the

it's the substance

that pulls people

back to addiction

it's the

the people

that you were comfortable

with being

what you were

you know

so that's the thing

is when you start

to get into addiction

you lose all the friends

that you had

before that

and then

once getting out of it

I stopped talking

to the people

that I was friends

with during it

that are obviously

not the people

that I should be

hanging out with

yeah

well then you lose

like when you

first get out of it

you lose everybody

because you're not

talking to anybody

and that's what

TikTok has brought back

it's just

a group of people

that are not

gonna take me back

to that

and not judging you

either

because I've been

a judgmental

dick about

some people's addiction

because like

I really have been

because

so you gotta

to know where I am

you have to understand

it's the prison

capital in Canada

like there's

more prisons

per capita

in my little area

than there is

anywhere else

in the country

like we had

at one point

we had like

that I could

within a five-mile radius

of me

so there was a lot of

addiction

a lot of criminals

right

so we all from a

very young age

were very familiar with

and Ryan

please don't think

that I'm saying

that every addict

is a criminal

but you know

what I mean

like the two of them

are a lot of people

when they go to crime

they do it

because of addiction

so you know

so it was like

I was not

always the most

sympathetic

to that plight

that a lot of people

have been through

and I realized

now a lot of people

when they go to

addiction is

because they're self-medicating trauma

and then they lead to crime

or the crime finds

they find crime

or whatever

and

so it's been a

it's been through meeting

a lot of people

that have been through it

and got through on the other side

that have

as again

it's been a lot of

awakenings for me guys

in the last couple of years

to really understand better

and I mean

I'm blessed

that I've been able

to meet people

that have come out of it

because

it's very easy

my brother worked

in the correctional system

so it's like he has seen

you know the ugliest of the ugliest

the worst of the worst

and there's necessarily people

that are not like

dealing with their shit

so you immediately put them

in this particular category

and I would do that

and I never even worked

with these people

but I would be

exposed to it through him

and now

you know

I'm starting to meet

a lot of people

that I would have never knew

had that in their background

and I used to think

that like those people

were always going to be

those people

I gave up hope on them

and then I meet some amazing people

that have come through it

and I'm like

wow

it's it's definitely not easy to change

yeah

like not at all

yeah

it's powerful stuff

man anybody that does it

you have my respect

because

you know

I know

I have little vices

and I mean it's like

I know how hard that is

for me to like

not eat a cheeseburger

every day

you know what I mean

I know what that's like

it's nothing like that

I mean it's 10 times

100 times worse

but I know how easy

that gets in my head

and I can't even imagine anything else

the people that have been through it

that are listening

you have my

you have my utmost respect

for sure

yeah

it's a big deal

it's a really big achievement

it's the one thing

I think that everybody

that's come through

should be really proud of

this is what you made it through

you know

that's the

and then

in Ryan's situation

to succeed to the point

that he succeeded to

only in four years

that's

it's crazy

when

when I saw the toolbox video

and he's like

you know

they're like

oh he's been a mechanic for years

I'm like this motherfucker

ain't been a mechanic for four years

like he

paid to do it

but he's been fixing

shit forever

but that's not really

Chuck called me a liar too

but me and Chuck first started

talking so

he's like

he didn't believe that I'd only

been a mechanic for like

two or three years at that point

and then I had mentioned something

I was talking to

I actually still remember this

I was talking about cash for clunkers

and I was talking about

like remember back then

we used to pour the stuff in the cars

and used to destroy them

and he's like

I knew you were lying about

being a mechanic that long

you've been doing it way longer

than you said

I'm like no

I sold parts and I was

I remember back then

but I swear

I haven't been a mechanic that long

and like I did little stuff

with my dad when I was younger

but not like

like I'd done breaks

and like

tires and stuff like that

and I've worked

I've rebuilt a two-stroke dirt bike engine

but nothing on me

cars

yeah

so when

when you were starting that

as a teenager with your dad

or as a young kid

how did you

why did you not pick up on that

as a career

like why did you go a different route

I don't know

now that I

now that I've done it

I've regretted it

like when I was in

when I was in high school

my best friend's dad owned a

used car dealership

for BMW Mercedes

and it had a full service department

and it had a wrecking yard

for used parts

like a full yard of car

so in high school

I need a job

he's like go down there

and start delivering

parts

so I was a parts driver

when I was in high school

and then I started selling parts there

and then when that place closed

I went to the BMW dealership

to sell parts

because that's what I've been doing for

four years at that point

and that's how I got selling parts

what did you did that for a long time

what did you think of the dealership

experience from the technician standpoint

that you would watch them

because I know

like you hear me rip sometimes

like I tell the story

I've grabbed parts guys

at the

from across the counter by the throat

you know there's a lot of bad parts guys

there's a lot of useless parts guys

but I worked at BMW

we had a core group of like five guys

who were there for over 10 years

we were all really good

but I've worked with some guys

that didn't know a brake rotor

from a gas cap

they just knew how to pick the numbers

in the system

and charge them out

yeah yeah

did you what did you find

their technicians were like

like were they

did you ever see yourself

and go I wanted to do that

not really

no way

let's go

here's the thing with that too though

at you know

Ryan being

16 18 years old

the cars weren't

where they are today

and I think that

he's got the type of brain that

jumping into it when the technology is

so advanced compared to

if he had started maybe he would have

been burnt out

by the time this technology was here

and he wouldn't have the capability

to be

where he got in only four years

yeah

I mean because you must the technology side

of it is the part that

that

draws me in

really module stuff

and the scope stuff

and the

cloning and programming

and all that kind of stuff

is the stuff that

pulls me in

because I mean like Chuck and I

we've both been kind of that jaded

mechanic

you know in the dealership environment

where we hated life

and you know we were getting

taken advantage of and not valued

and everything

but did you see that from

like or were they kind of

that same way

or did they kind of

were a little more chill

because of the product they're

working on

so I did wholesale parts

so I didn't have a ton of

interaction

with the technicians

like on Sundays and stuff

I would

help technicians

but the most of the time

I was selling the shops

right

so I didn't have that much of an

interaction with them

to like really get into it

I could tell who's a good tech

and who's not a good tech

but

I couldn't tell how they were

being treated

or if they liked it

or anything like that

yeah

so you've never worked on a

dealer

you're a lucky guy

yeah I mean

like as a technician and a dealer

yeah

and I'm very anti-dealer

for someone who's

never worked in a dealer

like I

I'm anti-flat rate

and I'm anti-dealer

I think

I think it really helps you to

work on all brands

yes

I think guys get sucked into

one brand

and they just do what the

computer tells them in the

service

and your

information tells them and

flat rate

furnishes people who want to

learn new things

and expand

and chase

issues

and stuff like that

encourages people

to take shortcuts and

I'm just not

I don't know that I

I would never

originally I wanted to go

work at a BMW dealer

I wanted to be a BMW tech

but

now I could never go work at a

dealer

I think you could kill it though

I think you've got the right

to be so bored

yeah

would you do like 10 recalls

in a row

or like

you know

that's

that's the

that's the big thing is

recalls

like I

I have a buddy who's a BMW

tech

and they are replacing

ABS units

like they're going out of

style

I'm like I could not do that

a hundred times in a row

yeah

yeah it becomes

I remember

the Takata airbag recalls in a

Nissan

I had them down to where I was

doing them in 22 minutes

both the airbags

you know

and I was like

people like

and I wasn't the fastest guy

we had a guy that was doing

an 18 minutes

right like we'd literally

time ourselves

like 18 minutes

both are done

then the job paid like

one three

like it still wasn't a great

paying job

but you're like I got it

down to 18 minutes

like it was

it was cool

and

but we you would do sometimes

six in the morning

and six in the afternoon

so yeah

it just became like

how fast can I do this

and then that's the thing I see

it where it's like

guys do that with break jobs

guys do that with control arms

guys do that with like

alternator starters

you know

and then

so you get somewhere

it's so fast that like

I know I did it

I could grab the part

and put it on faster

than I could diagnose

some of the parts

so like yeah

there's a

I remember doing a

caravan cluster

I could pull the caravan

cluster of the one in the

bay next to me

so fast it didn't even

bother to look up the

wiring diagram

we just yank it out

so fast and plug it in

and see hey look

there it is

the right cluster

shit

it's still not turned on

oh fuck

go get a Tesla

you know

and that was the thing

but it was just the way

you did it

because again

speed was

was everything

but I'm right there with you

everybody knows by now

you know

where I sit on it

where it's like

I'm not even a

Gaines flat rate

I'm against flat rate

where it's the only

option for us

and I'm against flat rate

when it's like

as soon as you get ever

whatever this level

in the dealership

you're put there

you have no choice

I'm not for that

I think it's like

if you've been in there

10 years

and really know the product

and you want to like

bang out some work

yeah

go ahead do it

right

so you finally

through the map channel

figured out

that you had anomalies

with the crank sensor

right

and then

you could not see

no matter how good

you look at this grant

this is

it's quite literally

the power of the Pico

so nothing else

would have this problem

except for someone

just going

let's get new spark plugs

new coils

new injectors

a new ECM

a new crank sensor

two new AM sensors

get all four of the

VVT sensors

get new intake gaskets

get new valve springs

get new head gaskets

you know

yeah

so the power of the Pico

unveiled

that we could see these

anomalies

and they were

they were hitting

with about the same

repetition of

of which the last

symptom of it

is that it would

very occasionally

just throw

a hit of a misfire

on a single cylinder

and then it would throw a hit

and then another hit

and eventually while running

at no matter temperature

they would count up to

enough to become a pending

code

right

do that it would become

one that would illuminate the

light

if the cost were

took it and

and we said it was good

because it wasn't

yeah

I know I've heard people talk

about that exact same scenario

with Chrysler's

with using the aftermarket

crank sensors

like it will count misfires

but not actually

misfire, misfire

you know what I mean

like something that you can feel

but it counts them

and it's just like they

I've seen the waveform captures

I didn't capture them

that is not my realm

and they would show you the

difference of like

see how it's just got a little

bit of saw

on the top of it

and that's enough for the ECM

to detect it

and

you know it's why one of those

things where everybody says

they the aftermarket ones

different windings

the amount of windings in the

sensor what they don't know

it just doesn't seem to work

but

so that that's the craziest

part of all this too

is I was talking with Ryan

he pulled up the math channel

and I saw the anomalies

and you know what fixed it

I didn't let him keep this in it

but you know what fixed it

a Durilast

fucking crank sensor

that looked

exactly like the aftermarket

that I pulled out of it

the aftermarket wasn't seated

incorrectly

it was seated in there properly

but

the AutoZone

crank sensor was my confirmation

that we found the problem

I made him put a Toyota one in it

because it was

two days before I left for ASTI

so he did put a Toyota one

in before the truck left

but

a Durilast

aftermarket sensor

gave me enough info to know

that

the Toyota one would

100%

never

have an

fire come back

had somebody put a crank sensor in

and already

or was it just a failed

yeah

no if I

ended up finding after I saw that

after he showed me that math channel

I went down

I took the shield off of the

crank sensor

I pulled it out

and I went

fucking things aftermarket

god damn it

and this was

the aftermarket throttle body

was the first symptoms

the mix match of aftermarket coils

had the IGF

all over the place

yeah

the

the O2 sensors

the air fuel sensors

were making it

misfire worse

before we got to the crank sensor

mm-hmm

but then

they were

just in the throttle body

you know what

yeah the throttle body

and the

the

the upstream

this is even crazier

the upstream

air fuel sensors on this thing

I never questioned

because they read data no problem

and they were brand new Toyota

right

but

I'm looking at them

and I'm just like

what else can I look at

I pull up the part numbers

they're not even correct for the truck

yeah

they're a Toyota part

they plug in

but they're not correct for the truck

so I went and got densos

and that changed

a symptom

it just that thing was wild man

absolutely wild

if somebody swapped in

because in old Toyota

as you could do that

they'd swap in

like a regular old school

oxen sensor for where a wideband

should have been

it could have been

honestly

I didn't even check to see

if they were wideband or not

I know the ones I put in were

but I didn't check by the part number

to see if the old ones were

20 years ago

this guy's talking about that

they'd get Toyota's

and like certain build dates

within the year

one would be supposed to be a wideband

or it could have been

depending on California

emissions all that jazz

actually they had to be wideband

because they were reading in a

in a wideband fashion

yeah

Ryan what's your kind of

process when you

when you get a car

like you read the code

or whatever

and you you know

duplicate the complaint

or whatever

what's your next

step

what's what do you do

identification

I want to go in and read

I'm not going to go in there

and replace the part

obviously because you guys

know who I am now

but I'm going to go in there

and read all the articles

and see is this

I've only been doing this

a couple years

is there

is this something that happens

all the time

because I don't know

I do it too

that's my exact process

every time too

I had this one car

it was a Sequoia

and I had a bunch of

airbag sensor faults

and

this car had never been an accident

and I plugged in my faults

to identification

and it said

oh down in the passenger foot

well there's two plugs

that people mix up

I went there

surely enough

they were mixed up

I fixed that car

in 30 seconds

it would have

that airbag module

was three hours to get to

if I would have to do testing there

it had two different door

sensor faults

I would have to take both door

panels off

and the center console

and I fixed that car

in 30 seconds

that right there

I read through

and find out

is this something

that happens all the time

or is this something

that I'm going to have to

start tearing into

I'm such a huge proponent

identification in the right hands

and identification

out of the wrong hands

yeah

I know Chuck

and I've talked about that too

right

like it's

that program gets

such a bad wrap

but I mean

when it's used properly

it is the most

it's the best tool

you can have in your shop

I don't care what anybody says

I have fixed

so many cars in my career

with Identifix

the word I learned from Chuck

I didn't even know what this word

it was

was pattern failures

it's all in there

and it's impossible to know it all

when you work on every brand

I mean

skies that have been at a BMW

dealership for 20 years

know all the pattern failures

I don't know them on

Dodge

Ford

Chrysler

Jeep

Chevy

all these brands

yeah

are the guys then Ryan

not sponsored

in the shop

yeah I'm not supposed to listen

they'd be a good sponsor

for the podcast

or really what I should try and eat with them

you should try

yeah

just so

Ryan do the guys at your shop

follow the same process then

and is that how they fix in the cars

when they don't have to roll it to you

no I'm the only one that

diagnoses cars

right

but do they use Identifix and try

no I'm the only one who has it

okay

one guy does use a power broke

you know

one guy does use a power probe very

very often

my co-worker is my arch nemesis

we have hated each other since day one

we will never be friends

we will not look in the same direction

and the only way he knows how to check

how to diagnose a car is he'll

spend hours checking fuses with a power probe

just hear beep beep beep

and he'll just go fuse to fuse

he thinks the fuse controls everything

and if it's not a blown fuse

then

he doesn't know

really doesn't know

yeah nobody's diagnosing anything that

doesn't have a fault that has the name of a

partner

okay

yeah

all right

I get it

what's that like to work with somebody

though that you don't like you have

that much distaste for each other

we keep a bay in between us

so we just don't interact

ever

it's tough eh

that is really I've had

yeah

I've had a guy like that

and it's not me my boss has assured me

that it's everybody that's ever come to

work

because this guy's been with my boss for

like 30 years

and everybody that my boss has brought

an in because he wants to be the best

mechanic there

yeah

so you see he's the threat

yeah

and you expose him daily for what he

really is which is

not you know the greatest thing in the

in the building

and yeah that's kind of a really

bitter pill for him to swallow and

he must hate it

and he knows that

I've only been doing this a couple years

and he's been doing it for like a

deck or 30 years

yeah he's like me he's been doing it

30 years and thinks he's really smart

and then some young punk kid four years

in was like you know

all over the internet famous and you

know

one of the top guys

that's a stretch

you know right

I'm also not young

trust me I'm the oldest one here so

trust me

back in my day

I struggle with that that's some of

the biggest problems I've ever had in

shops isn't fixing the cars it's

being able to interact with the people

being able to get along with them is

really tough

what why is your boss keep them just

just because he's if you give him a

part to replace he can do it

okay

fit efficiently he does all that so

I told you that we have three

different dealers that all they buy

is Toyota and Lexus SUVs

and he just does timing belts like

all day long

okay

like just time about water pump time

about water pump time about water pump

yeah breaks

you give him something to replace to

replace it

he's just an asshole

yeah

Chuck you're lucky you don't work

with anybody really

yeah I stopped babysitting a couple

years ago too

that was one of the best fucking

decisions I ever made

yeah it's

oh man I see it it kind of hurts

me though like it doesn't hurt me

but I wish

I like you guys still have so much to

offer both of these right that I

wish like there was some way

I mean that's the beauty of this

platform is you're still

mentoring a lot of people will go

back to Brian Goche

I say Goche you know I pronounce his

name wrong because I pronounce it

like a French Canadian

because I am one

but you know

he without this platform

where do you think Brian would be

still you know still well

he'd still be doing the same thing

but he wouldn't be

the other day he snapped me

and he said man you gave me the

curse he said I got

wheel bearings to do on that

brake lines to do on that

and I think like oil change and

tires on that one

and I really got to get those done

but all I want to do is look at

the Czech Angeline in the parking

lot

you know

so I think he would

he would be missing that function

had not having this you know he

he'd probably maybe it'd be

more complacent in life

actually

I'm the same way right like if you

tell me there's a dyke ticket

and I've got to get through three

other tickets first before I get to

look at that dyke ticket

I'm going to figure out like how to

get through those three tickets

real fast because I'm just my

I'm dying to know what's out there

what is it you know that's the way

oh you got to put an axle in this

Subaru and then like

you know fuck like can we just

snap our fingers and pretend that

we don't have to do that work

I really want to look at the

Czech Angeline but that's

that's real life right but

when I think of those kids like

we're so lucky we have this because

you know between like YouTube and

tiktok and paul daner and

all the guys who mentioned earlier

like without them

I don't know where this industry

would be because I know when I came

into it there was like I never got

training ever

and Ryan like did you get training

outside of like online

like that's crazy man

that's not only did I not get

paid for going to AST I paid for

it all myself so it cost me

four thousand dollars

flight hotel yeah taking a week

off work yeah it it cost me a lot

and I would do it again tomorrow

yeah I'm going to try and go to

vision this year also

yeah dude I think that's both of

you guys like you're at that level

where vision is and I say that

wrong because it's that's like

trying to say that the training

level is not as good at AST as

it is a vision which is not the

case there's going to be some

classes that were taught at AST

are going to be taught a vision

but there's so much more variety

at from what I hear a vision I've

never been I think you both would

really really really enjoy vision

it's it's the it's the OG of

this of the of the shows right for

20 years people back before

there's Facebook on IAT and it

it was like the yearly thing to

go to was vision

so the the top people you know

people that you've never even

heard of to just hang out in the

circles and like fix incredibly

you know mobile guys that just go

and fix like

you know nightmare after nightmare

and never post they attend vision

and they're sitting in the classroom

with you like who's that guy

well he's been you know 30 years

in some state fixing the most

complicated shit forever

and he doesn't even like he just

knocks it out like it's not even

there you know he's just

really refined killers so yeah

I hope to get there one day I just

I got the same apex thing coming

up and then tools again in this

spring so you know I don't know if

I'll make it to another show between

now and then I feel where you are

because it's the same thing like

I'm not paying at a pocket this

this platform allows me to make those

trips but I still like I lose a

week's pay when I go you know what

I mean like they're not my my job

is not paying me to go to see

right you know they're like yeah

you can take as many days off as

you want no problem

but we're not paying you to be

there like I don't get paid time

off so it's like yeah

it sucks that way because you have to

like really budget then to the like

okay how do I make this work

so what's um

short-term goals long-term goals

for both of these

you go ahead first there right

do you want to see yourself in

business for yourself Ryan

yeah yeah okay I want to see myself

doing what Chuck's doing essentially

okay

mobile biag programming

yeah cloning

that kind of stuff

you got a plan terms just keep

learning into what I'm doing right

now

yeah

yeah I think so well actually no I

definitely know so

I think the only thing is that

I already have

I built up enough of a customer

base and also changed gears with

my business at the right time

and then changed gears with my

business again at the right time to

be able to afford myself the luxury

to spend the amount of time I do

trying to learn

a lot of the newer stuff that I'm

doing

because I already have all the

dyags and programings I'm

I'm going out for so

I know the money's there the

load cages are still selling like

constantly

you know so I'm very lucky to

be able to I mean this

you know I

one of the things I love in my

videos is saying how long I take

on something that definitely

shouldn't take that long for me

right and this this CMA 48

I probably got 30 hours

into trying to learn how to do it

it's an $1800 job because that's

what I quoted

before I knew it was this

complicated

I got $1000 into a DRB

and and cables for it

you know

but I I'm lucky enough to be

able to afford

that time

you know

Ryan still got his day job to pay

for him getting stuck on the key

that he's stuck on right now

so that's the only thing that

while I think he's ready

he has the opportunity to make

himself even more ready being in

the situation that he's in right

now

you know

I mean like

you can't ask for really better

weather than Las Vegas

or Las Vegas to them already

there

Los Angeles, California like to

say where I'm going to go and

do mobile because like

you don't have snow

I just the guy I interviewed last

night he works mobile

in Calgary, Alberta like

the kids minus 60

6 0 minus like it

you know

frees your fucking ears off like

when it hits 60 here

I have thermals on under my clothes

and Chuck

Chuck snaps me every day and says

Ryan it's not cold

yeah

Ryan 60 is not cold

it was 71 here today

so 60 is not cold

like I took my shirt off in the

afternoon like I didn't need it on

at 71 like it's

yeah 60 is not cold Ryan

60 is night

but for you

yeah 75 and sunny right now

yeah it's 50 56 degrees here right

now

so Ryan what's the

what's can you give a timeline on

when you think you're going to

move into that realm

it see I think I'm ready

knowledge wise but

financially and customer

base wise I'm definitely not

it'll be a year

okay probably

yeah what are you going to do about

your boss I guess

Chuck probably said the same thing

what you and that he becomes my

top customer

I was just going to say that

exact same thing

yeah 100%

yeah either he really ponies up

some big money and gets you to

stay

or gives you a steak in the

business or something like that

or yeah you just

I don't even think there's an

amount of money he could give me

to stay

yeah

yeah but I mean you could

probably spend a full day there

every week

for the next infinity

for sure

you know what the amount of work

that he's going to have

I'm going to need and going to

need even more

right like yeah good for you man

so what about you Chuck

Chuck

when we talked at tools I said

within six months I wanted to be

do a module repairs and

at home programming and

shipping modules out to people

and I mean we're we're there

you know so

it's pretty cool

you know we're there to the

point where people are starting

to tag me

in comments as a way of

advertising before I actually

start putting links up on my

web page for this and stuff

you know this

this week I've done like

five different mail-in modules so

yeah

short-term goals this is this

is I'm there I'm in them

I'm in the thick of it right now

you know

I mean like spaceship one there

we'll have a

right yeah exactly

and that's you know

the thing with a lot of these

modules too is

you know

a lot of it is just having

the ability to do it

that's something that

if I find a kid that's

interested in in this aspect

of the business

there's no reason I can't set him

up down here with a laptop for a

couple hours

and say hey listen I'm going to

teach you how to clone

this stack of modules and

to have at it you know

it's going to be kind of my

final question because I'll let

you guys go

it's it's it's a

you know getting late

how do we fix this technician

shortage guys

I really don't know

I've said it a bunch of

times I've

raised labor rates put that

money to

but that like takes an

entire industry shift

I understand that but

seriously that would be

the easiest fix is raise the

labor rates give it to the

tax

and then you have people that

to make

it's up to $20 an hour at

Burger King right up the

road for me

from me

you can't get a

entry level mechanics job at

20 bucks an hour

no and you we shouldn't even

be trying to get him at

20 bucks an hour

and the guys that go all

give him 22

look at the amount of tools

money spent Ryan spent on

tools still

and did starting out

right like if it wasn't for

Ryan's living situation

you probably couldn't have

bought that many tools

and then where would you be

you might be in a

completely different realm

right

like I'm going to say

he kind of started these

kids at like 25 bucks an

hour

once you guys

I think in California if

you have your own tools

it's supposed to be

double minimum wage

which is 30

so that

someone told me that I've

never known that to be

true but I heard that it's

30 if you have your own tools

in California starting as a

mechanic

I could tell you if that was

a law here in New York

and someone tried to go up

to the labor board with it

they'd just

but also

in California it's

$800,000 for a

one bedroom condo that's

attached to the

next door neighbor

right

oh it's a little different

that aspect

I'm so glad I don't live

there

I mean the weather yeah

but everything else no

like I pay $2,500 for

one bedroom apartment

even get a house

almost anywhere

east of me

my mortgage and my housing costs

don't add up for the month

to $2,500

and that's mortgage

like I'm 15 years in

owning on this

I got 10 years left

good on you man

really you know

I'd like to see you

leave that state then

but if you love it

then you love it

you know it's

nothing you can do

I um

the technician shortage

thing for me is like

Chuck and I

kind of talked about this

there's not really a shortage

I mean there's a shortage

of young people

that are necessarily picking it

but there's not a shortage

of technicians right now

there's just a shortage of

really really good ones

that a lot of people seem to be

wanting to hire

you know like when I talk to

the people at Promotive

like they said

everybody that calls Promotive

is trying to hire a diagnostic

tech

they want a Ryan Mullin

or they want a check engine

shop

you know

and they can't seem to

find one

now

a couple reasons

not everyone is as

good as you guys

the other reason is

a lot of them if they are

as good as you guys

they've already been burned out

and they've gone to do

in their own thing

you know

and that's where

look at Ryan

Ryan's a perfect example of that

he's getting ready to think

about going to do his own thing

I don't know what the shops

are going to do

to be able to keep you guys

in the business

and not becoming competition

you know because it's

you know the industry can't

work if it's just a bunch of

mobile guys that show up

like I mean we do need people

with skills in the shop

you know

but I don't know how they fix it

because either

like business wise

I don't even think they know

how to scale it

so that they can make it work

financially

and so you either have to get

them to

which I've said for your

standard lane

don't book that car in

or if you do

you got to have that

really hard conversation

about this is going to cost

like six grand to fix

and you know

like look at your Toyota

you know there's nobody

else in your area

Chuck that's going to tackle that

and see it through

you know what I mean

that's a tough one

it really is right

and it's a lot of people

I told you give up on it

like I said

yeah just

you know

when you said it's a mechanical

thing

I said it's a

fucking solar guy

and engine to move on

collect your money

and look at how stupid

we'd have looked

you know

we'd have looked like idiots

if that engine came

with a new crank sensor

would you say

I was just about to say

because there's a chance

the engine came

with a new crank sensor

and you never would have known

yeah

nobody would not know

why is it but like

yeah

I mean

and that's why I have so much respect

for you guys

because this

I'm not way

where I can just look at it

and go

well I know what it ain't

and you know

if you

if you bolt this in

you'll fix it

but I'm

because I'm not

that way anymore

where I just

have to

have to know

you know

comes with age I think

I can't remember

if it went in the bell housing

yeah I think it's in the bottom

of the bell housing isn't it

I think it was

so if they changed the engine

it wouldn't have came with a crank

sensor I think

there you go

and yeah

I'd have been a real

fucking idiot then

wait wait wait wait

no I think it's in the block

it's it's in

it's in the bottom of the block

it's in the

in the upper oil pan

yeah

yeah so it would have

would have came with a different

crank sensor

would have the engine would have

fixed it

and then I would have gone

see

it was a mechanical issue

and I learned nothing from it

well guys

I want to thank you for coming on

this has been a lot of fun

I really want to do this

I'll tell you

if I go to Apex

and Starship One is there

I'll be sure to like

tell them how much they suck

nice and perfect

and say that I have two really

good friends that

you know

absolutely hate your product

and won't use it

I want to thank you guys

for coming on

this was really really cool

and like I said

I'm sorry we didn't get this

done at Asta

but it was just too hard to

to get everything lined up

scheduling wise was tough

especially the last day

was really tough

and

Ryan man

I am so impressed with like

I have to keep telling myself

that you've only been doing this

for years

because the way people

in our circles

talk about you

including Chuck

but other people too

and then what I've seen

what you've been able to do

man you're like

like I said

there's no ceiling for you

the trajectory that you said

you know

really cool

and I mean

I love

you know

you're aligned with me

on everything

like you know

you don't like the

flat rate thing

and you know

you're a big Paul Daner fan

and I mean that

what I hope is that like

at some point

I can see you guys

doing content for Paul

that's what I really want to see

because I think that's like

you know

I know

I kind of know Paul's

long-term plan

and that's what it is

is to be able to hand it off

to you know

be able to have

it's just a name

you know

it's his name

but other people

will be able to get a lot

more of their stuff on there

and I think like

you guys need to

to make that some kind of

not trying to tell you what to do but

you're really missing out

and the world is missing out

that doesn't know about YouTube

because you're not on

his channel

and vice versa right

like I

this is the whole thing with me is

people like oh

I don't want to be on TikTok

why

if I was never on TikTok

I wouldn't know this

YouTube

and I wouldn't be having this

conversation

and I wouldn't be so

impressed by both of you

another long-term goal

I have is to make more content

yeah

like I'd like to make content

I'm trying to put together a class

on picoscopes

just because I

think I know enough tricks

to put together a pretty good

lesson better than anything I've seen

so I've been like

taking notes on what I put in it

and I'm working on that right now

and I'd like to make more content

but like

when I get off work

and go live immediately after that

I used to record TikToks

after I went work

after I got done working

but now I go live every night

and it takes up all my time

yeah

and I really like the live thing

like I have fun on there

hanging out with a bunch of people

working on cars

I gotta find time to make

content

record

actual videos

I know Chuck has talked about

at one point he wants to do a class

as well

and I think you guys both like

make that a goal of yours

to be able to at some point

teach a class

because

my buddy Brian Pollock

like three

five years ago

you'd have never thought

Brian would have never thought

he'd be teaching a class

and now he's one of the most

popular classes

that when it

when it comes up to be taught

people are there

you know

and you guys are every bit as

you know

popular

you get the same kind of

response

especially with the younger people

that's the key

right now right

it's like the younger people

know who you guys are

and that's what's key

I think

and that's what I want to thank you

guys for

is being such

outstanding

examples of what

professionals industry

and look like

and act like

and I

you know

thank you for that

appreciate it

yeah

thank you for having me

oh dude

I draw the heck out of both of these

I think you guys are great

it's always a blast

yeah

I guess we're not going to see you at

tools probably

then are we

Ryan

you're not going to come all the way

from LA up to

Pennsylvania

yeah that's a bit of a track

that's the thing is

I can't take

work off

yeah

twice in a row

vision

and ASTA

are like

March and September

so it's like

two ends of the year

yeah

but

two back to back

I mean

unless

I'm working for myself

and I'm super successful

and I've got

work coming out of everywhere

and I'm making

money hand over fist

then I would

do it but

with what I'm doing now

I can't do two

back to back

and

if you get to where you're

teaching a class there

guess what

then you can kind of make the

excuse that you got to go to

more of them

because you're teaching

yeah

if anything Apex

I mean Vegas is

three hour drive for me

yeah

45 minute flight

that's easier than

Pennsylvania but

well I'll be in

I'll be in Vegas

for my birthday

for Apex and see

email I'll be turning 50

I'll be there on

what's your

birthday

November 4th

when's the 6th

dude

then that's

there you go

settles it you got to go

you could be in this

you could be in the jail cell

right next to me

I'm down for that

all right guys

thank you very much

everybody that's been

listening

I love you all

this has been a

really fun night

and

I can't wait to see

everybody that's

going to be at

seeming Apex

and you never know

you might bump into

Ryan while he's there

so Chuck

I probably will get a chance

to see you now until

Pennsylvania

but you know

I look forward to it

be talking to you guys

very soon

thank you everybody

thanks for having us

all right

thank you

night guys

love you all

ciao

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 guest

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

A dynamic discussion with Check Engine Chuck and Ryan Mullen dives into the evolving landscape of auto repair and the challenges technicians face. They explore the importance of mentorship, the impact of networking, and the significance of diagnostic skills in today's automotive industry. Ryan shares his inspiring journey from homelessness to becoming a skilled technician, while Chuck emphasizes the need for better labor rates and training to attract new talent. The episode is rich with personal stories, practical advice, and insights into the future of automotive repair.

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Original notes

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In this episode, Jeff Compton is joined by Check Engine Chuck and Ryan Mullen for a conversation about the realities of working in automotive diagnostics. Ryan tells the story of being homeless and in addiction to becoming a sought-after diagnostician, emphasizing the importance of networking and community for professional growth. Check Engine Chuck highlights the power of persistence in tackling complex vehicle problems and the need to continually invest in skills and tools. They also talk about shop politics, technician shortages, and the rewards—and challenges—of building a career in the modern auto repair industry.

Timestamps:
00:00 The Power of Networking

07:13 "Homelessness to Triumph Story"

14:42 Valuing Talent in Industry

18:04 Balancing Work and Family Time

25:23 DRB3 vs. Y Tech Challenges

30:59 "Frustration, Help, and Connection"

36:37 "Patent Dispute and YouTube Fallout"

37:18 "My Tool is the Best"

43:58 "Discovering His Channel Journey"

49:55 Building Connections Through Snapchat

58:33 Addiction, Trauma, and Crime Connection

59:17 Changing Perspectives on Redemption

01:09:09 "Duralast Crank Sensor Solution"

01:12:05 Sequoia Airbag Sensor Fix

01:19:43 "Elite Techs Gather at Vision"

01:21:40 "Adapting Business for Success"

01:28:44 Diagnostic Tech Shortage Crisis

01:32:16 "No Ceiling for You"

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The Jaded Mechanic Podcast

Jeff Compton

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