The things I see at work

Topic: The things I see at work (Read 5790 times) previous topic - next topic

The things I see at work

Reply #45 – December 07, 2012, 12:33:36 PM

There is no American car company. Period.

If the metal is virgin steel, and every last little part, bolt, wire, gormmet, gasket, what-have-you was made or sourced in the United States, then, and ONLY then would it be an American car.

I don't give a pile of what name is on the trunk lid/tail gate. Nothing is 100% American made.
I worked for 3 years at Dura Automotive, making brake cables for GM stuff. I can tell you we shipped a lot of stuff to Canada, and quite a few of our raw materials came from Mexico, the UK, and I think some of our rubber came from S. America.
Eventually our business went to Mexico, so tell me again how Chevy is 100% US made...

And Tom Renzo, nobody here is bashing you for driving Chevy stuff, so open your mind a little. I've had a lot of problems with the two GM vehicles I have. My grandparents bought both of them brand new. The Caprice had less than 4,000 miles on it when it saw the first of several dealership visits to try to fix the glitchy electronically controlled transmission. It STILL has issues with that. Does EVERY '94-'96 Impala/Caprice/Roadmaster/Fleetwood (the B-Bodies, if you will) have these issues? Hell no.
Lemons exist from every make, so quit bashing jpc because he bought a (seemingly) pretty ed decent car.

The things I see at work

Reply #46 – December 07, 2012, 12:57:35 PM

, I love a good g match! I love you drink beer when I'm reading you guys, and I nominate you for sporthood.

The things I see at work

Reply #47 – December 08, 2012, 12:07:27 AM

So if I got this:

Some cars=good
Some cars=bad
Rust=bad
Therefore rusty car=bad

The things I see at work

Reply #48 – December 08, 2012, 03:50:52 PM

Yes, rust is bad, unless you need plenty of it to mix with aluminum oxide to build your own welding system like they did IN AMERICA a hundred year ago.

i see a lot of threads that lean towards "there is no more america" and that in itself is the real issue , ironic it actually is the real root cause of the rust that was found per post 1.

some of you dont have basic economic skills period if you for a moment cant "be open minded enough" to see the real cause to why our GDP is tanking, but im the minority for the moment..... let those occupiers and anarchist moment younger people smoke a big one and complain about not having more free stuff. The same people who would not begin to comprehend a good product because they are not techically capapble of producing anything other than a bowel moment.

The things I see at work

Reply #49 – December 08, 2012, 03:58:15 PM

another note,,
it use to be, not so long ago, that when a person became of age with a vast amount of experience and they sure as hell knew what they were talking about,,,, everyone else would close thier mouths and open thier ears.... due to sheer respect. couple that with the fact most of these talented people rarely shared what they knew "unless they saw something in you" then they would mentor you.

Now a days, if someone knows stuff, the majority of people have "computer balls" and they bash the people who know stuff.

When i was a couple decades younger we use to call these people the "know it alls" and its my observation that these people who are Type A personality who appear to "know it all", 8 out of 10 of them actually do. So, end result for me was to "put up with the BS" because learning from the know it alls cant be all that bad.

today, 8 out of 10 people dont care to know much of anything because if they did, they might have to work.

The things I see at work

Reply #50 – December 08, 2012, 10:20:40 PM

There isn't the america I grew up in, or the america my father envisioned, or the coutry my grandfather helped build. Just plain and simple.

puppiesanland cars are popular because american cars lacked build quality, and were way behind on gas mileage. Toyota's rot away to nothing, inside of "truck" frames, yet they are still on the roads. Toyota did a gigantic "buy back" program. I can see ford, gm, and dodge weaseling their way out of this one instantly. Gm went bankrupt and cost our country millions of dollars, cut jobs, closed factories, and moved production over boarders and over seas. Then decided not to pay it back.

I am reminded of an old 1980's dodge higher up quote. "Here at chrysler we borrow money the old fashioned way, we pay it back".

The "greatest generation" brought american from the joke of the world, to a super power that conqoured the conquers, built, borrowed and maintained hundrends of thousands of military vehicles, built our modern day freeway system and created the "greatest economy" in the modern day. What have the baby boomers done? Taken the wealth of this nation, pocketed it, hid it, moved over seas, and used our government as the scape goat. Our government was trying to sue ford for NOT taking bail out money that they DIDN'T ask for.

Why is harbor freight huge, but craftsman is dying? Because there is no pride in the industry. When china stands behind and builds a better broduct, for cheaper, why buy the inferior more expensive product?

We are victims of our own doing, and the idea is pass the buck onto the next guy, your sons and dughters, and then your grand children.

If gm can't build cars profitably, why are they still in business? Same with dodge. At least ford decided to try to fix their problems instead of holdig their hands out and asking for welfare.

Imagine if we had volintary rations for products and services now because of a war our contry was fighting. That would be a waste of time.

The problem is the people that would rather take the easy way out, pass the buck onto someone else, and hold out their hands. This is the way my generation was taught. This is the reason for the sad state we are in.

The things I see at work

Reply #51 – December 08, 2012, 10:20:53 PM

The things I see at work

Reply #52 – December 08, 2012, 11:44:57 PM

You seem

The things I see at work

Reply #53 – December 09, 2012, 12:11:09 AM

Put your egos away. All of you, and I will as well.

I'm no anarchist, although I think that one is likely to happen in 20 years or less. As far as smoking a fat one...no, I can follow a ed dodge minivan and get quite the headache from burning chemicals, no need to do it illegally, so don't know where you were going with that.

How can you tell a good car from a bad car, simply by being a bodyman? Are you senile?

As far as quality in the "domestics" vs. the "imports", it's all the same. When Ford/GM/Chrysler-Fiat can give a vehicle a 10 year/100,000 mile warranty, come to me about quality. I don't give a how long anyone has been wiping their ass on a sear catalog, you don't see tons of hyundai, kia, or (insert brand here) in the junkyard with spit-out plugs, failed optisparks, junk shaging allison transmissions, or rusted rear subframes ala Compiat.

Tom, it's not that I have no respect for you (or anyone else for that matter) it's your arrogance towards ALL who've not had greasy hands since 1907. I can tell you this, I'm pretty well read on all the current car magazines, I can argue quality, sales, and general stats all day long, but I don't care to. Got better things to do.
ALL today's vehicles have thinner metal, or more plastic. Weight savings, because every last mother's son wants heated ball scratchers, and a ed bluetooth. All the fancy shiznit comes with a price. Weight. Add in the ever increasing mileage requirements, safety, such, and we wonder why shiznit is meant to last a lot less than our older cars and trucks.

As far as the past generations, America brought it on itself. Wanting more for less, unions, modernizing, etc. I could go on and on here, but this place frowns on political talk, so on that note, I'm gonna STFU. The thing that remains: buy your American Chevy, Dodge, Ford, whatever, buy a ed Yugo, I don't effing care. I'll stick with my 15 year old SUV that's reliable, comfortable, and if something breaks, I can fix it without having to have a degree. Like you, I've made my mind up about my favorite makes of vehicles. I've had rotten shiznitty luck with Chevy. You want to drive 'em and build, more power to ya. I don't give a , my life will continue, as will yours. But do NOT come off as condescending to me because I don't have a gold plated hard-on for GM shiznit.

One last thing....seems like YOU are the one comes into threads, riling people up. Seems like you and your boy both have done it on a couple of boards. Don't throw rocks in a glass house, pops.

Or maybe I'm just bitter because YOUR car company had to take loans from uncle sam to stay afloat...yep, that has to be it. Just a bitter twisted soul. :poke:

The things I see at work

Reply #54 – December 09, 2012, 06:52:30 AM

@ JPC 647

You s

The things I see at work

Reply #55 – December 09, 2012, 07:36:31 AM

Wow, did this thread ever go sideways...

Back on topic:

This post should show that A) It's not just steel that rots out in Nova Scotia - aluminum is not safe either and B) it's not just Asian stuff. As the last photo shows, this failed component was made in USA. So...

The other day a certain 2007 model truck was towed in with a no-start condition. The customer stated that he could make it run by spraying quik-start into the throttle body, which indicated no fuel. Having played knifey-spooney before (this is a Simpsons reference), I knew the first place to look. I dropped the spare tire (itself a daunting task on the rusted out hulks we drive) and sure enough, I found this:

This is the fuel pump driver module (FPDM) from a 2007 Ford Explorer Sport Trac. As you can see the aluminum housing has completely corroded away, leaving the electronic guts exposed to the weather. Ford mounts these on the frame, usually above the spare tire, where things get wet and stay wet. It's common to see them go, although I'll admit this is one of the worst examples I've seen. The amazing thing here isn't that the truck wouldn't start, it's that it ran as long as it did...

...And here is the front side of the offending part. This was an American made part on an American made vehicle, so please, let's dispense with the "Everything foreign is junk" bullshiznit. They all break, and my making a living depends on it...

The things I see at work

Reply #56 – December 09, 2012, 07:57:03 AM

Another one, with no photos this time: We had a 2005 Freestar on the lot that ran like a bag of shiznit every time it rained. If you could keep it running long enough to drive it, the transmission wouldn't shift right. A quick scan revealed codes for the camshaft position sensor as well as various transmission sensors. Looking at the wiring diagrams I saw that all of the affected sensors shared a 5V reference signal. I checked the wiring and everything looked OK, so I determined the cause to be the computer. When I went to order one, the dealership told me they needed some numbers off the old one (kinda like the old A4L, DA9, etc). I went to remove the computer, which is mounted in the firewall, directly under the wiper cowl. When I pulled it out, at least a pint of water ran out of it. I gave Ford the number and they told me it'd be a few weeks until a new one would arrive.

I went back out to the shop and decided to open up the old computer. When I did, I found no visible signs of damage to the motherboard or its components. I plugged it into the harness (with no case on it), started the vehicle, and it ran fine. A quick road test verified the trans was shifting fine too. So the computer wasn't actually bad, it was just scrambling signals thanks to the water that was inside it. I then started thinking that if I install a new computer it will only do the same thing, thanks to Ford's really stupid decision to mount it where they did. So I blew off the motherboard with compressed air, sprayed it with electrical parts cleaner, put it back in its case, and goobered the hell out of it with ultra black silicone. I reinstalled the computer into the van, then goobered up the firewall with silicone around where the computer goes through to prevent water from getting in. Some tweaks to the metal on the wiper cowl and some strategic placement of silicone and strip caulk to divert water away from the area, and everything was reinstalled. Took it for a road test, and it was great. Drove it home a few nights in torrential rains, no problems, and it has worked fine ever since (this was in September)...

It has always bugged me that the engineers that make these stupid decisions get paid so much more than those of us who fix their mistakes do...

The things I see at work

Reply #57 – December 09, 2012, 08:02:51 AM

...And a quick, funny one: The sales department, for some reason, likes to put the hoods up on all of the cars that are close to the road, next to the sidewalk. They do this in all kinds of weather, which keeps us mechanics busy replacing seized alternators, soggy ignition coils, etc. One time a 4-cyl Ford Fusion came in from the front lot with a high idle and a check engine light on. I scanned it and found a bunch of lean and idle-out-of-range codes. I opened the hood and immediately saw the problem: Somebody walking by took the open hood as an invitation for a prank and pulled off all the vacuum lines. They didn't steal them, they just pulled them all off...

The things I see at work

Reply #58 – December 09, 2012, 08:53:17 AM

We see a lot of those FPDMs rot like that, but I have to place the blame on where they're mounted. You live in salt country, just like I do, and we all know nobody ever bothers to clean their undercarriage. Personally, I like to paint the new one before I install it, I've been doing that since 06 when I first saw one rotted out and I haven't seen any repeats.

In the case of the Freestar, I believe there's a TSB pertaining to water entry into the PCM mounting area. If memory serves, it states to apply XG-3A to the EEC connector and around the cover seal. Check OASIS on the next one, you may find it.

If your sales department is anything like mine, you've got to know that in their minds we (service) don't exist and that THEY are the whole show. Why? Because they're stupid, as evidence suggests. You can fix ignorant, but you can't fix stupid.

The things I see at work

Reply #59 – December 09, 2012, 10:29:30 AM

here we go again..... but anyways.

Common, you just listed all the stuff i used to make money on haha. E-150, F-150 fpdm are the same, mounting wise, no. but i always kept a spare one in my tool box, for quick diag and ease of not having to push one of those big s in.

Freestar, Windbag, they were just so terrible, i get scared everytime i see them on the road. Waiting for the rear axle on every ignorant windstar driver who did get the band aid recalls done to come into my lane when it breaks. FORD should have bought them all back. Even if it was just for peanuts. not the 6,000 dollars i saw given out when i was a service advisor at the time.

as for other cars, to me it always seemed like the older jeep liberty's were shiznit.

its sad really. some cars i can tell from the 2012 model year are just not going to hold up well, its sad really.

i think the 2013 escape is just going to be . same with the focus. this new global platform just seemed really cheap to me.