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Hi guys. To be true I don´t remember when was the first time I saw ETC on youtube, but I do remember it was a long time ago. :silly: What I do remember is that I had the chance to live in the US for a year (97-98). In those times I found dial up internet, AOL and the Microsoft Network as my ISP. My mother (who currently lives in Indiana, haven´t see her since because of international issues between US and Venezuela) bought me a laptop, a Fujitsu C352, I believe it was a Lifebook, it had 128mb of ram, 40Gb hard drive, Windows 98, it didn´t have a Lan port but in those times I was just 15 years old and life was good.
When I came back to Venezuela, in that whole year, many things changed, I got into college, and I was able to do Mechannical Engineering and Computer Engineering. The thing is, that was around 2004 or 05. Today in 2015 I am self employed on my own company repairing and doing service to Health equipment (computer radiography and such, from a well know manufacturer, that also makes cameras and camera film, and starts with A).
The thing is, during that time I got married and I am happy since 9 years now (2 years married, 7 years boyfriend-girlfriend). Stuff has happen and yet I am still alive, togheter with the same girl and 2 dogs, and a car.
Today, looking at the mirror, I decided to sit down and write this because, even though it may seem that I know stuff, I have come to realize that I don´t.
With Eric, Mr. Danner, Chris Fix, this crazy guy that has glasses and talks like a Texan (he was in the military, and I am trying not to look up the name in this very instant because I am trying to write is as if we were talking in a bar drinking and stuff 😛 ), and another guy that is in here in the forum (I do remember he has brown hair), they all taughted me that fixing a car is just not monkeying around with a wrench trying to find out what´s going on, there is research, literature, electronic tools and experience.
Today, right now, the current value of the currency where I live is the following: $1 = Bs. 174. That means that whatever I need for my car that I buy on ebay, amazon or any other store online, it will costs 174 times more than normal, plus shipping and handling. Yet, I am proud to say that I have a torque wrench (torque meter?), infrared thermometer, compression gauge, vacuum gauge, 7mm to 19mm tool set (wrenches), almost the same amount for the stuff you use for bolts and nuts (I will not look up the name right now because I am staying true to the topic´s subject), I just remember, SOCKETS, 7mm to 24mm sockets, full set. Volt meter and an automotive volt meter and many other stuff I have being buying as a keep watching you guys. Oh I almost forgot, 4 scan tools for different brands of cars and protocols, the yellow thing that you can use add coolant and also purge air from the system, a 12V mini air compressor. I could say that for the average DIY is quite a lot of things, plus 3 toolboxes (one bigger than the other) and 2 boxes of car stuff that my wife made me organize. :whistle: :silly: :silly: And all that stuff I have bought it in the period of 5 years with the anual government authorized quota of $300, so that means that every year I just have $300 for electronic purcharse and I have to buy in the best way to get as much as possible.
At this point, you can say “God Damm, this guy has Balls”, but no, leave that for the following, between those five years I have been able to become a DIY, fix an old Suzuki Swift from 1996 (Geo Metro cousin) of the following problems: Transmission rebuild (done myself), spark plugs stripped threads (my fault), head removal and installation (December 31-2014, best day ever and I will remember that for the rest of my life) and the car is still running fine, even better I may add, oil leaks solved, carburetor swap, carburetor jet swap and adjustment, exhaust leaks, intake leaks, coolant leaks, radiator swap (2 row core now, full aluminiun), tyre upgrade (from 13 to 14 inch), electric system upgrade, even installed my own stereo system with amplifiers and a bass box (all that later got stolen so I am starting again), and many other stuff.
And yet, I feel that I am not good enough, that´s why I decided, to do as a second job, to become an automotive technician, not a plain mechanic but a reall technician. Right now google is my teacher, plus all the YT videos I can see, and one thing that I have learned when a car behaves wrongly is to use the following phrase: “Let me listen to it and feel what´s going on”, that sole prhase has helped me a lot, I usually hear people saying “Eso es bujía” (That´s spark plugs), and apparently that´s the common reference for any kind of problem a car may have, even if it is the A/C :huh: . So I decided to become a person that doesn´t use that phrase for diagnosis. Do you know that in my country rarely a mechanic has enough tools for diagnosis but they do know when a engine rebuild is needed? I will tell you have they know that, when the tailpipe is smoking blue all the time, you need rings (that´s it, nothing else), and if it does only after acceleration, you need a head job (complete head removal), and those are the two possible thing you can do if it had to do with any other problem, let it be water in oil, oil in coolant, weird metallic sounds, it all comes down to actually disassemblying the engine, and not even having a compression gauge, or vacuum gauge or even an scan tool in the best case, and don´t let me start with the transmissions (manual or automatic, in any case you have to take them down and disassembly them).
In the end, I got tired of those persons that I can´t call mechanics, I call them “Brujos” (witches), or people who think that they can repair and engine, and I know they can disassembly and assembly them, but actually “fix” them I hardly doubt it.
Did you knew that in here we are more prone to use silicon gasket maker instead of a real gasket because “the gasket tends to leak”?, does that phrase sounds right? or even putting tons of silicon gasket maker into a gasket to make it seal better? so much that when you tighten the part the silicon comes out gushing in every corner. I mean, IS NOT RIGHT.
The United States of America, US for short, is quite a lucky place, you may have, taxes, politicians and rules/laws, but the people seem to know what they are doing 95% of the time, the other 5% at least they try to do the stuff right, and I admire you guys for living in places where politicians fear the people who elected them (being US or any other place). And makes me think that people have a good level of knowledge and education to do stuff, therefore do it right. And those 2 things is what is actually lacking in my country, and that´s sad, we have a President that blames EVERYONE else for our problems instead of actually “growing a pair” and doing stuff right.
With the before statement I try to say that you guys have the power to become something amazing, you are actually what I call “the american dream”, not being a rockstar or being Donald Trump, but being someone, and doing stuff the right way, and that makes me sad because people here in my country are not the same as I would like them to be, they don´t go great lenghts to do stuff right, and I feel like I am the only person (with my wife) who tries to hard and achieves so little. Yet, everytime I tune in to YT, for repair videos of cars or any other stuff, I feel like if I keep trying, someday I may become something “close” to an automotive tech, even by just taking online course but my retirement plan is to have a small shop on my future house (when I build it, my wife and I are still living on a small rented room, but last year we bought the terrain and this year -2015- we are planning to build) to offer diagnosis and repair services, just a one man shop, I would not garantee speed, but quality.
All that said, what I was really going to say is that something is hard to understand the significance of the automotive jargon, like stall, misfire, and other words, for my example: my car is has a weber car, well adjusted, but in the mornings when choke it and try to start it, the engine will run then shut off, that´s a stall, but is it the same if it is like starting, then running for 1 second then shutting off again?, could that be call a stall or a misfire? since the engine starts and shuts off inmediately, that also happens when warm, so I don´t know if there are other words to use.
The language barrier sometimes is so tall.
The End. 🙂
P.S.: All that said was to practice my english a little, all that true story but a chance to demostrate the language barrier 😆
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There’s two types of engine stalls, one driver induced and the other not. If you’ve ever had the pleasure of teaching someone to drive a manual transmission you got to experience many driver induced engine stalls – usually in the center of a busy intersection. Anyway, a stall is when the engine stops running.
Misfire is where the air fuel mixture in one or more cylinders is not being ignited. This can usually, but not always, be viewed by noticing that the engine is shaking slightly on its mounts. Misfires are of great interest these days due to vehicle engine computers setting a light on the dashboard. Too many misfires overheat and damage the catalytic converter. In the years before engine computers slight misfires at idle were of little interest.
Anyway, I don’t think it matters what country you live in, doing a good job has value anywhere.
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