Thread: Anti Land Rover Mechanics. Lazy? Ignorant? Other?

It happens to other brands also.
I met a bloke at Heavitree caravan park in Alice and we got to talking, and it transpired that he had a 3.0 l Nissan Patrol.

I innocently asked if it had blown up yet, at which he looked as if he would punch me and stalked away.

His mate sidled over and said not to worry about him as his second engine had just blown up and he was upset.
Regards Philip A

In all trades there are those who have sufficient product knowledge to successfully repair a good percentage of the jobs they have been allocated and make a good living. They tend to cover their inadequacies when faced with a problem that they are not familiar with by blustering about how all that model/make are crap and they don't usually touch them or refuse to accept the task due to not being trained on that model. When pushed into doing the task it may well become one of those horrible units that are best resolved from a service manager's perspective by replacing it.
I've seen this attitude from when I started my electronics trade in 1982 all the way through to my current role as an IT Architect.
A small percentage of techs are able to apply methodical troubleshooting techniques to a problem and methodically work through a problem to find the root cause and resolve it. Unfortunately the commoditisation of goods has often made labour costs worth more than a good repair and the dumbing down of the repair process and withholding of the knowledge on how a system actually works makes this approach difficult and expensive.
When I started in electronics we used to replace the heads in video recorders and spend time with a CRO aligning them, eventually video recorders were worth about 2 hours labour.

Cars are no different with all the repairs of the "hard bits" such as electronic systems being a swap it till the problem goes away solution and the dealers unable to repair at a deeper level even if they want to.

When you find a competent mechanic understand that his time is worth money and a proper fix takes time sometimes. The others will never change and are best left to swap the pile of spare parts that they have ordered on someone else car.

Interestingly a lot of the people that I run into that are capable of proper fault finding are ex military types, not sure if that's a Canberra thing or if they are still trained the way I was by an old fashioned tradesman in an atmosphere where sufficient time was available to do repairs properly. A lot of the government institutions that used to train apprentices to actually fault find and repair do not exist anymore, Telstra is privatised, electricity commissions no longer exist etc.

Regards,
Tote

Originally Posted by Tote

A lot of the government institutions that used to train apprentices to actually fault find and repair do not exist anymore,

I did my initial 3 years of full-time Radio Technician training at the DCA Training School. Once I went into the field with the Overseas Telecommunications Commission, I did more training each time a new system I had to use/work on was deployed.

These days there are no trainee technicians.

When I was a younger tradesman I would remove a alternator, fault find and purchase and replace a diode.
Fit the alternator with new brushes and bearings ect and Refit and test.
I purchased a new aftermarket alternator the other day for a FJ40 Toyota for 158.00 dollars.
For that amount of money you don't stuff around any more.
But just some times when the maker of the vehicle gets greedy and the alternator is worth ......say 1000.00 dollars to replace the old option of rebuilding becomes viable,but the same maker usually factors in a odd non advailable bearing or something to stop rebuilds.
I drive the 101 Landy around a bit and get the usual oil leak jokes ect.
I often get asked if I did the V8 conversion.............the answer no it was standard with the motor floors a lot of people.
I usually add the constant 4wd and 4 speed box with bullet proof axles ect was being produced when Toyota and Nissan's were still using cast iron three speed boxes etc.
Listen around the fire during a trip and the truth comes out about the reliable Toyota, the number of CVs or diffs,transfercases etc chewed up..,........but it doesn't seem to count.

The whole vehicle repair game has changed.
The skill now is to diagnose the electrics and throw in the new part....,.if it still advailable.
Knowing what part numbers X over from one brand to another helps and having access to information about the brand of vehicle.
The problem is the information needed to repair may only be advailable from a dealer.
If you are not a dealer of the brand you are working on it is very hard.
The vehicle trade does have a shortage of mechanic's as few are silly enough to stick it out for a long time.
It takes time to become good as a mechanic and then your experience may only be in one field or brand.
I note as a old style mechanic............I lack the day to day experience of the newer machines................but I have a edge in listening for a engine knock or setting up a diff etc.
We now just about have the just out of the 100.000 k warranty throw away vehicle with engines not designed to be rebuilt or parts advailable to do so.
I can under stand some Toyota/Nissan/etc mechanic's not wanting to look at another brand..........especially if it a bit different to what they are used to.

A big factor these days is something like 50% of apprenticeships in the automotive game now fail.
The days where a company could afford to have a apprentice working side by side for long periods of time is much reduced.
The vehicles are now changing so much in a sort period of time the TAFE cannot keep up with technology of the vehicles and it is different brand to brand.
It is just so hard to keep pace with even a small specialised field of vehicles these days.
One saving grace in the information source of the internet.
I personally have been getting up to speed on the Nissan CVT transmission.
Many people/ mechanic's don't like it.
I has much going for it and it is looking beyond the stories and hype you truly learn.

When I was still at uni I attended a party and was introduced to several people who were visiting from Canberra, including the brother of the host. He said he was a materials engineer and didn't elaborate. What he meant was (his brother told me later), he was employed by large companies to incorporate 'planned obsolescence' into various components at a prescribed point in the part/components life to maximise profits. I had no idea these sorts of vocations even existed up until then. No wonder he didn't want to elaborate!

Local Volvo repairer was saying something recently about Volvo no longer (or would soon no longer) be making their software available to independent mechanics. He therefore wouldn't be able to work on the newer cars. He is quite interested in what the game will be like when everyone's driving electric cars - he said he was looking forward to less oil and dirty smoke!