Happy New Year

[MR.hp]

Ha Ha, called the Big giant head today and got my pay for the holidays and the lady said she forgot something. Looks like the old manager was trying to hide something on my check. Can't pull that stuff, No wonder he got the boot.

[Fast One]

Joel, My old boss was not a bad guy but I guess he pissed off some customers. There were 2 tech today badmouthing him and said what a bad job he did, Kinda pissed me off as they both had wheels fall of of cars here in the last couple of months. I still think they should both be fired as the both talk on the cell phone and sit and text all day.

Gets better the tool service writer thay put in charge temporary took my my hoist away and gave it to the new guy and he can't fix anything.:rlol: Slow as piss and another cell phone user. Management needs to look at this and clamp down on this practice hard. Oh I forgot the one tech on the sat. that the wheel fell off also forgot to put oil in another truck that day too. Idiot

Bob,

I guess I misunderstood your comments regarding your boss. Based on what you related, I figured that he was a real dick.

Maybe I'm too old-fashioned, but I'm surprised that management allows cellphone chatting/texting during work hours. I'm even more surprised that they'd keep any mechanic who was distracted enough to forget to tighten lug nuts & cause a wheel to fall off. Wheels falling off? Major safety issue, there. I'd expect something this serious to result in immediate action by management. Regarding the oil - any engine damage? I've done it once on my own vehicle - but I figured it out just as the engine fired because the oil pressure didn't come up & the lifters were clattering. I cut the ignition immediately. My own fault for BSing too much while working on my car.

While I'm on the subject....

Over the last few years, I have never been less satisfied with the quality of service at the auto shops I've done business with. It seems like there's a growing number of mechanics out there who don't know how to troubleshoot. If the scan tool doesn't tell them what to replace, they have trouble figuring out what's really wrong. Some want to throw parts at the problem until it works. Others will blame bad parts, when it was their own fault all along. Went through that with my GN's rear-end at the Buick dealer (Lake Country Chevrolet) in Warroad. They screwed up the rebuild three times. Burned the bearings out three times & finally toasted the new ring/pinion. They never admitted any wrongdoing, and twice blamed the parts (which they ordered!). Three rebuilds later (of which I paid in full for the first, and had to pay for labor & materials on the other two), and the shop manager said that it was my fault because I told them to use synthetic lube. Of course, I knew he was full of crap. I explained that I had been using the same synthetic diff lube for ~80,000 miles with no problems - therefore it couldn't possibly be the cause. Next, he said that I have too much horsepower, and that he wouldn't refund any money or work on it for free.

When I moved back here, I took the GN to John @ Master Transmission in Rosemount. He told me what the real problem was - improper diff setup. John rebuilt it again, and it has been working perfectly ever since! I told the dealership owner about this, and even showed him John's report. He refused to do anything about it.

I'm glad there are guys like John out there!

With my GTP, I have had to do the troubleshooting for shops on a number of occasions. 'Back in the day', I rarely had to do this. What ever happened to the idea of troubleshooting to root cause before throwing money at the problem? Do they still teach logical troubleshooting in tech schools - like the 'divide & conquer' method, for instance? I'm noticing this in more than the auto service industry. I see the same thing happening in other service departments, as well - like cable/internet/phone companies and electronics shops, for instance.

Is it just me getting old, or is there a real lack of troubleshooting ability nowadays? If it's real, what is the root-cause? Is it a lack of emphasis on troubleshooting & critical thinking skills in schools? Management/corporate culture issues? Poor pay? A combination of the above? Something I've missed?

I've had problems with getting my GN serviced in the 'cities, as well. Over-torqued upper A-arm bolts that failed during hard cornering (damn near killed me!); original wheels damaged by tire machine (failed to use rubber grips); a broken center cap (over-torqued lug-nuts); front seal leaking only a year after replacing the timing chain & gears. Not really troubleshooting issues - more of a problem with being in too much of a hurry, I believe.

As one would expect, I'm somewhat wary after the above experiences. I am still looking for a 'regular shop' for my GN. A shop that takes the extra few minutes to use a torque wrench for the final tightening of fasteners instead of using an impact wrench. A shop that takes care to not get grease on my interior. A shop that is proactive, and notices things before they become big problems. A shop that wouldn't even think of hot-rodding a customer's ride, unless the customer gave them specific permission to do so.

Any suggestions for a guy who lives in the Coon Rapids area?

[MR.hp]

I know where you are coming from Joel and I do hope tha the new manager is not a "dick" as you say. I will not work for anyone like that anymore and I will walk off my job if that happens as I don't need to work, I just did this to help my son pay for collage as he cannot find a job right now.

[Z28SSMAN]

It's good to hear you got your dough MR.hp.

Joel makes some good points.

Let's face it...people will make mistakes. What pisses me off about society as a whole today is that when many people make mistakes, they blame it on someone else.

Finding a business where the policy is to strive to be mistake free, but if a mistake is made, apologize and do anything reasonable to make things right is few and far between.