auto tech
Images are sometimes not shown due to bandwidth/network limitations. Refreshing the page usually helps.
You are currently reading a thread in /o/ - Auto
You are currently reading a thread in /o/ - Auto
Is it worth it to become an auto tech? I love cars and working on them, so why not get paid for it. Also what does one learn taking votech classes as an adult in this shit?
>>13993851
no
being an auto tech is my backup plan for my backup plan in life
define worth it..
it's a job. it makes more money than being a manager at arby's.
can make a shit load of money depending on where you go with it / who you meet / what opportunities are presented.
my life basically failed so being a tech would be a great turn out for me.
>>13993851
>I love cars and working on them
keep it as a hobby, not a career
you'll grow to hate working on your own cars if all you do all day is work on other people's piles of shit
>>13994073
Toyota tech here.
>keep it as a hobby, not a career
This. I still wrench at home, but it takes a lot more effort to get myself to do it.
>>13994073
>you'll grow to hate working on your own cars if all you do all day is work on other people's piles of shit
This. Working in IT professionally did the same thing to me and technology. 95% of my technology just fucking sits because I am so sick of dealing with shit by the time I get home, I don't wanna do anything else
>>13993851
No, don't mix your hobby with your career.
If you love cars now you'll soon learn to hate them. Nothing is worse then fixing customers shitboxes all day just to go home and fix your own.
Don't fall for the huge money meme, unless your a heavy equipment tech in the oil fields.
Don't forget the tens of thousands you'll be spending on tools and storage.
Don't forget the physical strain. Being bent over in weird ways all day is great.
Don't forget the recalls and warranty work. Nothing beats getting paid half what the same cust pay job would.
Don't forget the shop politics. Nothing beats doing Fusion headliner recalls while the guy next to you pulls in PDI after PDI.
>>13994073
>you'll grow to hate working on your own cars if all you do all day is work on other people's piles of shit
This is subjective.
>>13994100
>working in a ford dealership
it's not the industries fault you picked a shit career path
>>13994103
Sure, if you're an underage b& faggot who hasn't worked in the field and learned the hard way
>work in construction
>come home and fix up my house all the time
???
im in it now, doing my apprenticeship at a smaller local shop. i dont hate it but i certainly dont love it.
its better than being a homeless loser i guess. ive got nothing else after this.
>>13994149
A house is an asset and a necessity
A project car is a money pit and a hobby item
The careers are comparable but not the hobbies
>>13994145
I think you're just a pussy.
>>13993851
Not really. I was a tech at a Honda dealer for a few years. Started as a lube lizard and worked up to a level 1 tech.
Things that were good:
>Frequent bantz with co-workers, almost everyday there was something to laugh really hard about
>Could use the lift to work on my own car (depended on how busy the shop was)
>Learned a lot from the older guys, not just about cars but about life in general
Things that sucked hard:
>Flat rate (i.e: full commission) pay so there was never any guarantee of making money each day. There were days were it cost me more in gas/wear on the car than I got "paid" that day. Yearly income can and does fluctuate wildly which makes it hard to budget your life.
>Shitty retail hours (including weekends) with a rotating schedule penned by Satan himself. My shifts were scheduled to be 10 hours a day with no real consistency in the hours. Some days I worked days and some I worked nights, sometimes having to be in at 7am after being there till 9pm the last night. I typically had to "sneak" out of work on day shifts just so I didn't get roped into staying late due to the semi-automated work order system. Every other Saturday I worked an 11hr shift with the manager always begging people to work their "off" Saturdays. He would always promise good paying work but 99% of the time it was bullshit paying lube-oil-filter-rotate jobs all day. Oh yeah, we only get Thanksgiving and Xmas off each year.
>Aforementioned pay system made it tough to swallow the cost of tools needed to do the job. It's kind of screwy that you have to spend tens of thousands in tools while the shop pays you an ever dwindling percentage of the door rate.
Honestly it depends on where you work but the reason I gave up entirely rather than try working at other shops was that all the problems I was having were easily and commonly found in other shops. Even people in other parts of the country were reporting the same shit.
>>13994170
being a mechanic isn't a hobby.
I don't think anyone likes to change the clutch in their own car. you do it because it needs it done. the fun is in the driving/upgrading/customizing/designing not the simple fixing.
>>13993851
>I love cars and working on them
keep it a hobby then, you just lose the drive to work on your own shit if you're wrenching away on customer's cars all day. i mainly got into it because i like tearing shit apart and figuring out why shit wont chooch when i turn a key or hit a button.
if you still want to go for, well, go for it. try to get a job at a small indy shop first, you'll get a whole lot of experience on all sorts of shit. the pay is generally going to be less though.
it's high stress, high volume, and it's hard on your body. definitely not for most people.
>>13994175
K
well when you graduate highschool and go get a certification from Wyotech or UTI and end up putting your personal projects off for years because you're too tired from wrenching on literal shitboxes all day you'll see
>>13994182
Just to add more that I suddenly remembered:
>Warranty pay rates from the OEM's are laughably low. You'll almost always lose your ass on them.
>Pulling gas tanks that are full of gas fucking sucks. The pumps always die after a fill-up.
>My body was almost always sore and in general it always felt like I just got chewed up and shat out by a large machine
>Most shop owners are too cheap to put in A/C so be ready to sweat you fucking ass off all day in the summer. Especially fun because nothing makes that engine bay of a car hotter than running the A/C in the dead of summer.
>The shop I worked at had shitty waste-oil heating that couldn't come close to keeping up with the doors opening/closing all day in the winter
>>13994194
I agree, I don't think you understood my post. If you are an electrician and you come home and cut in some can lights in your house it adds to the value and your living space. If you are a mechanic you aren't going to gain much from working on your car other than the joy of working on your car, which is long gone because you already do that all day, and won't want to spend your own time and money to work for free.
>>13994213
Okay but what's the alternative? You do what you're good at. It's not like anyone dreams of being a mechanic You do it because you gotta get paid.
I can guarantee construction and other trades are harder
the only alternative really is to go back to school and get a job at a desk.
>>13994243
>the only alternative really is to go back to school and get a job at a desk.
desu that's what I plan on doing
so that my relaxation is coming home and going in the garage and wrench or clean or just sit and drink beer with my cars
Working on consumer owned vehicles sucks. The pay is cut-rate, because the customer does not want to pay unless they have to.
Fleet work or heavy equipment work is where it is at, because the company is always breaking shit and always willing to pay good money to fix it.
i thought flat rate warranty / recall work was by the book.. i've never heard of the tech only getting a percentage of the actual rate. that's ridiculous.
>>13994243
Eh, you'd be surprised that getting a desk job is harder then you think it is. My Father owns a glass company, he put out a few jobs a couple months ago. One job was to manage the books at the office, the other job was to install glass, manual labor, etc... Guess which one got 300+ Resumes submitted and the other one had about 2? The managing books one got the 300+ resumes.
>>13994213
Eh...
For some context I just sold my house to because of where my job was sending me. Before I started the house was already in great condition, no issues, recently replaced water heater & A/C, and the roof had been redone a few years previous (very important in Florida). I fixed a -ton- of shit that I left because it didn't bother me but would detract a lot from the house, I had the entire place re-painted to neutral colors and mostly white on the inside for light & space, I pulled up all of the tiling in the kitchen to replace with wood and pulled out the hanging cupboards to make it look more open along with patching/repainting where they had been. I left the counter alone because there's no point making it the way -I- want it if it's not going to be mine and is going to be torn out anyway. I completely rebuilt the back patio with newer & more resilient materials, I replaced everything made of wood on the exterior with new pieces. I replaced pretty much every window/door, lighting fixture, sink, switches, wall outlets et cetera to more modern ones.
None of that -added- any value as such, it just detracted as little as possible. Unless you do major things like a complete kitchen renovation, or construct an addition or a pool, you're less adding value and more preventing loss.
Houses are different from cars obvs, but the same logic can apply.
>>13994243
Harder how? Physically sometimes depending on the trade, but being a mechanic these days is much harder to learn and do the work than anything in residential or commercial construction. Lots of people do dream of being an auto tech if they don't know what the job actually entails. There are plenty of other jobs that don't require formal education.
>>13994260
It is at least everywhere I've worked, it's just that warranty and recall pay shitty hours compared to minor/majors/etc.
>>13994284
That's exactly my point, though.
Going back to school has risks especially if you're at an age where you don't really have time to be taking the risk. That's always been the allure of trades.. hard on your body, sure. But the money is decent and the jobs are plentiful and if you know how to do it you're good to go.
working a trade is about getting by, really. and in that sense they are all the same.
>>13994260
With warranty/recall work the manufacturer determines what they'll pay for the job and it's usually significantly less than what's in a Labor/Time Guide.
One I recall was for Intrepids/etc with the 2.7. To R&R a short block was 9.5 hours warranty time. Meaning you had to pull the engine, swap the heads, and reinstall for 9.5 hours. That was absurd then but things have gotten even worse since 2008.
>>13994383
9.5 hours to swap heads doesn't seem unrealistic, tbqh.
Why do you have to pull the engine though?
>>13993851
It pretty much sucks
>>13994260
What the shop pays you per flat rate hour is considered a percentage of the door rate. If the customer pays $100/hr and the shop pays you $20/hr you are making 20% of the door rate. "Back in the day" mechanics made as much as 50% of the door rate but now only the top tier mechs hit 40% if the shop is generous. Keep in mind too that the labor times are calculated down the the tenth of an hour (roughly 6 minutes). For example the last shop I worked for payed me 1.2hrs to do a brake job with rotor resurface.
>>13993851
DO it regardless of the money.
the skills you can learn are invaluable.
how many ppl do you know with cars anon?
over 9000?
>>13994407
Because the job is/was to replace the short block due to being seized from sludge issues. A common problem with Chrysler 2.7s because the cooling system weeped coolant into the oil.
>>13994407
Because you're not swapping the heads you're swapping the short block
>>13994407
Reread the guys post, looks the recall was for the short block, he had to put the top end of the engine on a new short block. Even if you can do jobs like that in 9-10 hours you have to run the car for awhile, drive it, it takes up a rack, those things add up quick, it's not like it's an in and out job
>>13994422
Yeah, doing work for cheap/free for your friends and family is really great! Every seasoned tech loves being asked about this.
>>13994415
With air tools and a brake lathe I could easily do that. It would be close and I'd be going fast, but I'm not in my garage with a beer do it for free either.
>>13994383
>3.8 to swap recall torque converters on rotted out Freestars.
That was a blast.
>>13994488
1.2 for brakes is fine, but remember that includes going outside to get the car, recording everything on the work order, racking it, doing the job, getting the pads from parts, driving back outside, every minute adds up, especially when you could be doing other jobs that pay better
>>13994497
I'd be psyched to have 3.8 hours to change torque converters.. I could do it in 1.5 and make lots of money.
>>13994554
kek, come up here to the rust belt and have fun. Takes 1.5 just to get the y pipe off and drop the cradle. Every single damn one, both front cradle bolts frozen solid, jam the torch head through the random small hole in the rail and pray the captive nuts don't spin. Forget about any of the exhaust hardware coming off, torch it and forget about it. And the rear engine mount that just loves to break.
Another fun recall was the 3rd row seat latch recall on those shitters. Damn things would rot out so bad the entire inner wheel wells would be gone. Mind you, this thing wasn't even 7 years old yet.
I wonder what it's like to be a tech down south or out west where things actually come apart and brake and fuel lines aren't considered regular maintenance.
>>13994598
wtf
>tfw californian
>the underside of my 30 year old jeep looks like it has 5k miles on it
>>13993851
Honestly, Get a job as something else and keep your passions as a hobby, Nothing worse than hating what you're passionate about.
>>13995613
I'm passionate about engineering.. should I consider not doing it as a profession?
>>13995620
I'm talking about careers that aren't for faggots.
>>13993851
This >>13994073
I used to be big into computers, studied network engineering, got a job in the end, and now I fucking hate anything to do with them outside of work.
>>13995622
Oh, so doing something you enjoy works as long as it's sitting at a desk.
>>13995630
That doesn't make sense. Engineering = shit tier. Get over it.
>>13995633
>Engineering = shit tier
are you 14 lol?
>>13995636
are you 12? You probably weld shit back together all day and call it engineering, pleb.
>>13995643
welding isn't engineering bud
>>13995650
That's the entire point of what he said...
