On Sat, 27 Feb 2021 08:42:12 +1100, "Fred" wrote:



"Ed Pawlowski" wrote in message
...
On 2/26/2021 1:12 PM, Fred wrote:


Yes, I know many states do not regulate automotive technicians
with a mandatory licensing system - but they SHOULD.

That's completely mad. Anyone with real mechanical skills doesn't
need 4 years of study to do a decent job on modern cars.

And I know quite a few "mechanics" with university degrees
who went "back to school" to get a trade after their university
degrees didn't get them a "job"

And I know quite a few mechanics that never need to go back to
school to turn a pile of rusting metal into a fully restored vintage car.

I know people like that too. Some could not change the radio on a new car
though, an a lot of the other electronics.

That stuff is normally left to car radio specialists.

You don't need 4 years but you need more than the old days.

That’s very arguable indeed given that there is very little
to do on modern cars now, just change the oil, redo the
brake pads etc as required, change the plugs etc. Even
with fault finding, its much easier to do now with the
OBD2 telling you which sensor has failed quite a bit
of the time and no timing etc to do anymore.

Makes no sense to require formal qualifications.

I'lL call you on your BS
The OBDII tells you what reading is out of spec. That is ALL it tells
you. It takes an educated professional to know what can cause that
reading to be wrong and how to test and PROVE what the problem is
instead of throwing half a dozeh expensive components at the car, then
cross their fingers and hope they didn't STILL miss the real problem.
That's why the "pinpoint tests" in the factory manual for a given
error code can cover 7 pages in the factory manual - and why the print
version of a typical factory manual con be over 6 inches thick. (and
cost several hundred dollars - and why they are virtually all now in
electronic format indexed 7 ways to sunday) Many won't fit on a CD any
more - and some require double layer DVDs.
Servicing variable valve timing and gasoline direct injection, not to
mention computer controlled transmissions and turbocharged engines and
anti-lock brakes, and active colission avoidance, and traction control
- and canbus controlled door locking systems - and even tail-lights
with computers in them -
Good luck sucker of you don't have a well trained mechanic working on
it. Just the electrical wiring will blow the mind of most "mr fixits"
- whenthe doors lockand unlock by themselves driving down the road -
or the alarm goes off in the middle of the night - or the windows go
up or down by themselves (or don't when you want them to) or the car
won't start or the doors won't unlock (or lock) from the FOB - or the
airbag light comes on - and particularly when the problems are
intermittent - - -. There are no "adjustments" any more - sure. They
require less scheduled maintenance - for sure - but those are the
SIMPLE jobs that the uneducated guy with grease under his fingers and
a $50 tool kit could do.

Also, Today's cars , on the whole - have a LOT more miles on them. A
car with 10000 miles on it is just nicely broken in and you are not
going to scrap it just because there is one small problem that you
can't fix (but you would be surprised how many cars end up scrapped
for what would have amounted to a "simple" problem 15 years ago )
because you don't have a properly trained mechanic to fix it.

ANd just for the safety and liability reasons untrained people should
NOT be screwing around with safety related stuff - even "simple" stuff
like brakes

We've all seen the posts from guys (possibly even guys like you)
asking what to do next to fix whatever small problem on their car
after replacing half a dozen or more parts - at a cost of several
hundred dollars - that an educated mechanic could have told you in 10
seconds, without seeing the car, were NOT going to be the problem just
from how you describe the problem - - - - . Many times it's "my
mechanic has replaced all these parts and it still has the problem" or
"I've haf 4 mechanics look at it and they don't have a clue"

Right - they are noit properlyt trained - and they LITERALLY don't
have a clue.