Newby maintenance questions

Bojangles said:
Mechanics dont make minimum wage.
Lube techs are paid minimum wage.
Quick lube places dont hire mechanics
Mechanics dont work for quick lube places unless its inbetween jobs.

Ive worked a few of those goofylube type places as a youngster.
Ive shown up hungover, and sometimes even drunk from the night before.
I worked the pit, so i was never seen.... most of us partied together. Some nights after work me and another clown at 3am would be sitting on a porch killing a keg sitting between us. Working later that day after a short nap.

I could function fine and get all lower bay checks, oil drained, plug and filter back on within 3 minutes per vehicle. From a civic to a 4x4 cherokee (rubbber diff check plugs).
I assume not everyone can do this job with their eyes closed, but for some of us it was easy money.

You take a risk each time u take ur vehicle into a quicklube place and walk away..... NEVER GO INSIDE THE LOBBY!!!

I tallied 60-80 oil changes per shift on avg..... Never an issue.
3 bays side by side, 1 pit man.... 6.5hr shift....2 or 3 techs in each upper bays. Thats about 4 cars per hour per bay. A good pit man can hustle to keep up with the demand of 6 techs up top (2 to 3 per bay). Sometimes id pop up and check tires to mock them. Many of these places gave u weekly or monthly tallies of ur times and numbers. The managers get bonuses for times, quantities of cars, and up charges.... We got food if we won. I was pushed to upsell all the time and would cuss out the manager so loud, people upstairs in a closed lobby would be glued to the windows wondering wtf was happening since i was in the pit and nobody could see us, he also had oil filters fly in his direction a few times as i just refused that bs.

Another place i was a pitman i made region lower bay tech and got some cash and a trip to national competition in Arkansas.... Bentonville to be exact. I was in a fight before the nationals happend and lost my job.... .these kids are overworked and underpaid.... Not well trained.... Not piss tested.... Always watch em.
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Nobody wants a drunk @Bojangles changin their oil. [emoji23] jk
 
I worked at a GM dealership when I was 13 washing cars and doing prep work. The oil they used came from US oil and was pumped into a 275-gallon tank. The only way they could keep the lifters from clattering at hot idle was to put one can of GM EOS in the engine (engine oil supplement). Keep your GM car all GM my white ass. They used AC filters, but things like brakes shoes and pads were priced out with GM part numbers and Cardo units were installed. Anyone that has had anything to do with Cardo rebuilt products and read their disclaimer in the front of their catalog knows that Cardo expects a 30% return defect rate. Almost 1 in 3. Great quality rebuilding there.

On my lunch breakes, the guy that rebuilt automatic transmissions took me under his wing and taught me. Not hard, you need reference books, the ability to read and understand the English language and some special tools, oh, and only one thumb on each hand. Made a LOT of money rebuilding auto transmissions on the side.

That's when I learned if you want something done correctly, do it yourself. The dealer only sees my vehicles for warranty work.
 
Lil G said:
Lol probably wasn’t a bad job if you were drunk. I know when I was s kid I worked at a grocery store. We would push in carts then shotgun a beer between cart pushing
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Well... I always crack open a few "cold ones" while turning a wrench. Just have to have a little pride in your work and take your time.
 
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