The best 0.1 hours of your life: Thoughts on tools, training, and auto repair from VehicleServicePros.com's Craig Truglia.
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Why do some techs have counterfeit scan tools?
By Craig Truglia - Tuesday May 7, 2013
"Thou shalt not steal." I can't remember which commandment that was, but I'm sure many overseas counterfeit manufacturers don’t remember that one either. I am not going to defend the practice of using cloned scan tools. These counterfeits are of lesser quality, can damage vehicles and are just theft by a different name. Yet, I know a lot of people that buy and sell cloned equipment. The question is, why? Many technicians are very proud of their big purchases. The huge toolbox, scan tools, the line of electric power tools and so on. I think buying tools is like buying a sports car. In a sick sort of way, it feels good to spend money on them. It just makes us happy for some reason. So, I don't think people have cloned scan tools... -
Who pays for the misdiagnosis?
By Craig Truglia - Tuesday April 30, 2013
A couple cars that I serviced the other day got me thinking. One was a 2011 Mercedes ML350 that came to my shop with brake lights that flashed in the wrong spot and set a "brake light failure" notice on the instrument cluster. We diagnosed a bad rear SAM module. It cost about $400 just for the part. However, it turned out that we were wrong with our diagnosis. It didn't need a $400 module, but rather a $16.50 wiring harness. I told the customer that I misdiagnosed it and he owed me nothing for the computer I put into the vehicle and he was happy. Another car was a 2002 Honda Accord that would not go into reverse. The tranny shop sent it to us after rebuilding the whole transmission. Why? The vehicle still didn't go into reverse... -
Why bother to keep a clean shop?
By Craig Truglia - Wednesday April 10, 2013
Would you go to a doctor's office with blood splatters on the wall? Would you feel comfortable with the dentist working with his Bahamas t-shirt on when it is hot out? Then, why do so many of us work in dark, dirty and disorganized shops? When I see pictures of brand new shops, I am amazed at the photos that show how clean some of them are. Granted, they are doing a photo shoot, so they are on their best behavior. Even yet, I can never make my shop that clean. I have a normal three-bay garage in a suburb of New York City. I don't have those shiny floors that resist dirt. Yet, people still compliment me on my shop's cleanliness. I think my region has low expectations for these things. Nevertheless, people can tell when you do the... -
How did this wheel get this way?
By Craig Truglia - Thursday April 4, 2013
How did this wheel get this way? Yes, a saw was involved, but we didn't cut this rim into pieces for the heck of it. The real cause is that someone did not torque the lug nuts on this wheel that was on a Mercedes E320. Two of the nuts broke in the hub. Because Mercedes lug nuts also double as wheel studs, the rim was locked in place. We tried drilling the studs, but the bits were not able to reach far enough into the rim to drill a thick enough hole. The repair? We had to get a whole new steering knuckle, pads and a caliper installed after removing the old ones backwards and sawing the old rim off. What would you do if you ran into a similar situation? -
Light duty "bead to bead" retread tires offer fleets an alternative
By Craig Truglia - Monday April 1, 2013
My experience with retread tires is fairly extensive, as I used to put them on post office trucks. To be honest, those vehicles never had a single issue on the road. Retread tires "will perform as well as the best major brand new tires, with an adjustment rate as low, and often lower, than that of virgin tires," according to Harvey Brodsky, managing director, Retread Tire Association (RTA). ( www.retreadtire.org ) "During a visit to a retread plant, I said to the plant manager that I'd bet him that their adjustment rate for their retreads was under 1 percent," Brodsky said. "He said I'd lose the bet because their adjustment rate was under 1/2 percent. New tire manufacturers can only dream of having an adjustment rate that low." I...
