Bought a used Verus for about 3k that’s all up to date almost a year ago now. Just to have at home for side jobs and my own vehicles. I work full time as a mechanic at a Volvo Mack dealer. So I wanted to buy a reputable scanner to replace my cheap 1000 dollar launch scanner. .

So far I’ve found that if you use an SCT X4 to tune your 6.0 it’ll rewrite the vin as the sct model and serial number. And then the verus can’t connect or in my buddies case, thinks his 04 is a 2015 due to the placement of the numbers in the vin it rewrites. This doesn’t occur on my 6.0 but I use an sct livewire, so the livewire must keep the vin in place through its tune process which is convenient for me.

I’ve also found that on 2016 rams there’s no way to close the vent solenoid on the evap system, just the purge valve. So that’s annoying since I’m trying to find a small evap leak P0456. So now I’m waiting on my buddy to bring my “loaner” launch scanner back to see if it can do it.

Anyone else notice anything odd about the verus? Overall pretty happy with it. Just starting to notice some odd quirks.

Why even include that "feature" everyone knows it dont work

I swear its been a bad luck streak lately. Dude comes in to have balljoints replaced in his ram 3500. I get them replaced with a new alignment, its drives great, he comes back a few days later saying its driving weird. It had memory steer really bad, I thought it was weird to all of a sudden have memory steer. Turned out it was a bad steering box. Then yesterday did brakes on a ladys van and trying to diag why the brake light on the dash was on, then BOOM, the fuel sending unit stops working, like wtf? Its like whats next a car comes in for a wheel bearings and the motor blows up?

I did a pump and a rotted steel cooler and line . Pressure was dry , rack was wet. Informed cust and they declined rack . Fix and send on way 128k , returns today 148k , demands to know why other shop told her she needs hoses . They filled it , found rack boot leaking fluid and showed cust.. she asked how much and i shot from the hip 1400$ installed , she started crying and asked about payments. She admitted shitty credit . What do i do ?

Just curious who you guys consider the worst manufacturer to work for.

Don't really know if this applies to every auto value store but feel like I should let more people know that they had a mishap with some really nice hobby level scanner the, Bosch 1350. It's no where near as advanced as the regular scanners but they have live data and a ton of other features, it's a $200+ scanner going for like $85. Might not be a bad grab for someone that's always pestering you to check something.

Hi all, I own a full service shop in beautiful south east Alaska. Small island community of 8500 people. I’m having a hard time finding mechanics or knowing where to post the job in the lower 48. I have tried indeed but that ended in more spam then anything productive over a years time. Any advice on where I can try and connect with people interested in a job in Alaska?

Puddle Of Mudd Evanescence God Smack

It’s Friday. What is being blasted through your shop this morning.

Bit of background. I'm fully automotive certified but wanna get out and into fleet work.

School bus company wants me to join.

Good idea? Anyone have any input?

What tools would you recommend that I'll need in Heavy truck work that I wouldn't have in my automotive tool box?

I left a dealership I was working at a while ago because of reasons (way too far away and ridiculous hours) boss man said that training was provided by having a person come to the dealership and teach, rather than having to go to tafe. Is that the same for all places? Or are some places different depending on what type of shop it is, and I may have to go to tafe? Thanks

I'm acquiring two new wheel alignment systems, Hunter local distributor is an asshole, but considering they have the monopoly on this area, Hunter factory refuses to sell me directly. Even though the local seller was selling way more expensive than other regions, of course I refuse to deal with him for guarantee and parts so:

I have been looking for a wheel alignment system, one like the hunter quickcheck which brought me to the Technovector 8

And one like the hunter pro alignwhich brought me to the Technovector 7

Have you tried technovector? What was the good, the bad and the ugly?

Thanks for your time, guys

IS THIS RIGHT? Or am missing something, honestly.

Looking for some flat rate veterans advice been doing this a while but I’ve mostly been hourly until I took a new position. I’m flat rate now at a Ford dealer.

I work in their quick lane area doing mostly basic maintenance and a few times a week some diagnostic work and repairs. Not trying to say Im a top level tech but I’m a a bit beyond a lube tech and I’ve been at this 5years or so, 10 years if you want to count my time turn wrenches in the backyard. However, I’m here getting the experience needed to be a better tech.

Okay, now that you have a good idea about me. Here is my question in y’all’s shops does someone hand out work , waiter or drops? or (like in mine) they’re hung on a wall. If we got waiters… grab those. And a drop for later.

The issue I’m seeing is our helpers (mostly just 1) are getting treated like flat rate technicians even though they’re hourly and the hours they do turn go to the shop foreman. Who pays something like 20% of their checks.

Our 1 helper is grabbing drops of the board and hold on to work stating “ I have to make sure I get hours for the shop foreman” while me and my flat rate colleagues are pulling in 10-15 cars a day just to get 8 -10.

Over the last 2 weeks I pulled in about 106 cars over 12 days. I hit something like 98 hours or so.. my average ticket time was .9 hours

I’m ready to have a conversation about this but I want someone else imput before I do. I would think that techs get waiter with more than 20k on them Then any drops. Once waiters are done and everyone has work THEN the helpers can grab or can have drops

IS THIS RIGHT? Or am missing something, honestly.

I'll get straight to it, I have an interview at JLR. I'm looking to see if anyone has any experience in their service department. How was the training? Quality of the shop? Clientele consistently get services done? Diagnostic software, legit or junk?

I did a land rover/ jaguar search here and read the small amount of info there was.

Howdy!

My husband and I own a small mobile mechanic business. No employees, just us. Recently, we've been considering raising our rates. Husband has a good relationship with his customers and is worried that he'll piss off/loose a bunch of them if we go any higher. I think he should be paid what he's worth. I'm curious what others are charging for similar/same services. I've tried using Google, but it doesn't show rates in our area. Just gives an overall range for the country.

Some relevant information: -works out of a van with own tools -strictly mobile, we do not own a shop. We go to you. Don't normally work in bad weather, but we will if customer is desperate enough -specializes in big stuff. Farm equipment, semis, trailers, construction equipment, etc. -does mechical and electrical, but can't scan engine codes -we are insured -have been told that we are the cheapest mechanic in town, but we haven't called around to confirm. -located in North Arkansas -customers mainly consist of small: farmers, trucking companies, construction companies and landscaping businesses

Any techs in here that work for a Mercedes dealer? If so, how do you like it? MB in my area is hiring technicians and I'm interested to hear from other techs that might have experience working for Mercedes.

Definitely not complaining, but I’ve been looking at 68” epiq snap on boxes and I’ve seen decent ones go for 4-7k. The new ones cost about 15k. That’s a 8-11k loss on the purchase. Seems possible to buy a toolbox for 50%+ less and trade it in with positive equity to get a bigger toolbox for less.

Been dabbling with transmissions recently, had a transmission tech quit recently so I picked up some of the slack in his absence. Only got 3 years in the field but I got a decent head on my shoulders and I’ve become pretty damn good at electrical diagnosis including network concerns, draws, and intermittent communication concerns. I’m now getting thrown to the wolves and doing transmission work exclusively at the Ford dealership I’m currently working at. Not looking for help but just general advice to help keep me from losing my shirt. Any tips for a new transmission tech?

So my last shop was a super small independent place in rural Alberta Canada. We did basically anything that rolled through the doors, but largely miled out old chevy trucks. I managed to get to about 100 hours left till I'm a third year apprentice, im 33m, started late after years of getting it prommised but never actually getting signed up. Then the boss started running the shop into the ground. He fired half the staff and started expecting me to do all the farm tires and service calls. That's not what I want, I'm a mechanic, I already put in my time as a lube/tire tech. He never talked to me about adding responsibilities, just expected me to do it with no change to pay or even a thanks, just lots of anger when i said no. So I quit. Found a job at a dodge dealership about a week later, and for the last month or so all they are giving me is tires and oil changes. Ive done all the level 1 dodge courses, i have all my tools, etc. Is this normal for 2nd/3rd year dealer techs? Should I try and be patient still and wait it out till I finish school at least or should I try to find another shop again? All I want to do is work on cars, but I feel like shits always getting in the way and stopping me, I can't escape doing tires, almost feel like giving up and just flipping burgers so at least I'm not killing my back and joints...

So I got my left forearm done before I was in the shop and didn't have to worry too much about getting it dirty.

I've been wanting to do a full sleeve on my right arm, but I've been holding off to accrue more PTO so I could have 2 full weeks of healing before heading back into the shop.

Have any of y'all gotten new tattoos on your hands/arms while working in the shop and if so what did you do to keep them clean?

Apologies in advance for the long-winded post. Like the title says, I'm sort of hung-up or possibly overthinking this. For background, I am a tech of 10 years, have gotten my certs in the past, and would consider myself very proficient in all fields except EV/brand new technologies.

Present day, I am 2 years into my job now as a fleet manager/maintenance operations/sole technician for my company. Our fleet consists of 70~ vehicles ranging from 2016-2022. The people that hired me are very business minded, but have absolutely no concept of anything automotive.

This is also a brand new shop, because we switched to servicing in house instead of bringing them across town. I have supplied 100% of my own tools and equipment.

They assumed I would only be doing roughly one oil change a day and had no idea of what else goes into maintaining a fleet. Well, since we cannot afford to have downtime to repair bigger issues, the to-do list is piling up, and I have roughly 240 hours worth of servicing to all of the vehicles. They assume things are very easy and fast because I am good at my job. Not seeing that I have spent thousands of hours building experience and knowledge.

Many of the newer vehicles need programming when getting repaired, which I have no problem doing. And I seem to be taking on more labor intensive work because it's my job to save the company money. Like rebuilding transmissions and engines, solving complex electrical gremlins of everything around the shop etc.

They do not seem to realize the difference between someone reprogramming PCMs and rebuilding transmissions and a simple lube tech. I feel that I should get an increase in pay for taking on more than what I was hired for, but trying to explain the complexities of these things causes a deer in the headlights look and I feel like I'm driving myself insane.

What are some ways (if any) that you have been able to communicate information like this to people that have no frame of reference in this field?

TLDR:Business thinks my job is easy, even though it isn't and doesn't see the importance of having someone competent enough to tackle most problems. How do I explain this to them.

Tried looking on Google and Amazon. Couldn’t find them. These ones just snap on to my air sprayer. Google just shows me ones that screw on