"It takes a smart man to realize that he's stupid!"

                                                                                                           - Barney Rubble

 Although I am not insinuating that anybody reading this is stupid, it is more a reflection on a learning process that I have gone through over the years. You see, when I was younger, I was confident loud and usually wrong about a lot of things and fixing cars was no exception. When I came to the conclusion that maybe not everything going on around me was somebody else's fault I took a personal inventory.

  The first conclusion I came too was that while cars got more complex I was doing nothing to keep up with these changes so I got the training I needed to keep current with the new technology. As a result, the cars got easier to fix and the number of comebacks came down. A side effect of all this was that I earned more money each week, not bad.

  To help me with the "problem" cars that I had come across I made a point of writing down in a journal of how I tackled the problem, what I did to correct the problem and how I could have  better gotten to the conclusion. By keeping track of this "Troubles I have seen" record I was able to work out other problems by referring back to it when I needed a helping hand. Given enough experience you could have a database as large as Tech Assist! Don't limit the experiences to yourself, when you are swapping "war stories" with other techs, make a note of the experiences they have gone through as well. 

  If you have a vehicle that is coming in with a problem or a system that you are not too familiar with, take a manual home or log on to SI on the internet and do some research. Even if you only give it a half hour, it is still something you can do to help yourself. The time spent in the relative comfort and quiet of your home will be one less half hour spent at work while the Flat Rate Clock is ticking.

  Documentation. Oh boy, here's a good item to touch on! Once I was into a head scratcher that turned out to bean intermittently skewed MAP Sensor. After fighting with the vehicle and getting it done I wrote the job up as bad MAP sensor and boy was I mad to find I was only getting .3 for the whole job! Because all that was written was R+R MAP that was all I got. No documentation. From then on when I found myself in a large diagnostic routine the first thing I did was let the Service Manager know that I was embarking on a "Great Adventure" and documented each diagnostic step complete with results. Helped my paycheck quite a bit too.

Looking for Work. When a job rolls into your bay, don't just do what's written on a the ticket, look the car over. It serves two purposes 1. Can point out any needed work for the customer and 2. Helps your bottom line also. Now this doesn't mean start selling work the customer doesn't need (who needs Mike Wallace and his camera crew waiting for you when you come through the door first thing in the morning?) instead an appreciative customer will be glad you took the time to check over the car. Many newer vehicles have less and less maintenance items that require attention but if you take the time to actually look over the schedules in SI for new cars you may still see some things that relate to your customers' needs. I used to laugh when techs would groan when they heard of a Campaign coming out. I would smile because it meant you were going to see some vehicles that may no have been in your shop since they were under warranty! Take the OPPORTUNITY to look these cars over as they may have not had some TLC from a GM Trained Technician! They will have some miles on them and may be due for some badly needed service. Check them out good even the lights. I changed a lot of marker bulbs at .2 a piece changing 5 gets you an hour of time that wasn't their before.

Attitude is Everything If you travel through life thinking everything sucks, guess what, everything will! If you have been in the business for a while, you know it can be very frustrating. What other profession do you know that entails the knowledge of electricity, electronics, thermal dynamics, HVAC, plumbing, hydraulics, geometry, mechanics plus having to possess the hands of a China doll as well as the flexibility of a gymnast. But remember it is a profession. Handle yourself in a professional manner as well as those you deal with and you may be pleasantly surprised at the results. The best way I found out was to Turn Obstacles into Opportunities!

That's just my opinion, I could be wrong. Oh heck, who wants pie!?

Mik Stubing Resident Instructor GMTCNY

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