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You dont always get to take things apart As a main dealer you will have to take in most jobs right now i’ve got a Seat ibiza ( VW polo) sitting on my ramp that the customer tried to strip down got stuck and had it towed here with everything he removed just thrown into the back of the car.
Not saying he’s a good mentor but sometimes it helps not to be spoon fed you need to work it out the hard way.
Should be using elsa pro every day if you’re not sure there is a workshop manual for the removal and refitting of every part.
I personally wouldn’t want to work for Ferrari you cant even get most of the cars on the ramp they need to be lifted onto rollers to raise them high enough. you should get good training but saying that VW training is some of the best training going if you have LEAP access there are a ton of modules online you should be doing.
Top Tip call the apprentice over and get him to do the tyre while you make your self a cup of coffee, that’s the best way I’ve found to do it.
The best DIY way to get them off is either using the hammer and punch or drill them out with a left handed drill bit There aren’t really any electrical equivalents most electric air hammers are very bulky and designed for breaking concrete etc
I really don’t like the idea of this all this and I don’t think trying to estimate a repair based solely on a fault codes will work even if you are very familiar with the car most fault codes have at least 2 possibilities. Another thing who is going to actually going to diagnose them? Every garage will have to have a tech reading the fault data then getting parts to price it up then to the service advisor for a labour time I dont think you’ll find many flat rate techs wanting to spend there time reading fault codes and throwing darts.
Another big issue I forsee is qualitiy of repairs for example say a missfire for a 1 piece coil pack standard procedure is new coil pack + 4 plugs and it’s fixed now say garage A qoute $300 for this Garage B quote $275 but only replace the coil pack + the affected spark plug Garage C quote $ 125 Fit a used Coil pack and a set of working but used plugs. Now these would all technically fix the MIL and which one do you think will get the job?
For me I’d go with the Mac macsimizer due to the 30″ deep drawers and the box configuration but Really the box comes down to how your workshop is laid out and how you work for me I work from my tool cart As i tend to do a lot of work away from my tool box all the most popular used tools are all in my cart so if the day is just routine service work I don’t even need to open my tool box so my box is storage over functionality, your situation will vary and the box you choose should reflect that.
This kind of stuff will never happen because it’s impossible to enforce.
We had one a couple of years ago saying they wanted to make it an MOT fail (state inspection) if the vehicle was modified in anyway from when it came from the factory.
That being said I think independent shops are going to struggle in the future the special tooling costs for cars is just getting more and more extreme profit margins are all cut to the bone.
Having a brand new big box as a new tech kinda raises eyebrows it shouldn’t but it just does I bought a snap on Kra 40 inch top and bottom box it wont last me forever but I’d imagine i’ll get 5-10 years out of it I’m a tool junkie 😉 If you buy a smaller/cheaper box first time round it makes the perfect addition to the home tool kit when you decide to upgrade.
Aye that’s one good thing with working in a main dealership most cars I work on are under 5 years old so my tools get very little abuse sure things still break from time to time but mostly if I’ve bought a good make the tool will just last.
The price of HGV stuff is even worse than light car 3/4 and 1 inch sockets prices are unreal but hey you make more money than light vehicle so no complaining 😉
Tools will cripple you here in the first few years I’ve spent nearly £6000 so far got all the basics but diagnostic and speciality tools add up fast then the cost of swapping “worse makes” for decent ones I started working for VAG at the beginning of the year and retooling for them isn’t cheap either.
I’m in the same boat but remember not everything has to be snap on.
Trident tools
sealey
Teng
Ingersol rand
Facom
Bacho
Macare all good alternatives.
The irwin bolt extractors work very well have a full set of them myself That’s the best option only other choice is drill a 1/4 inch hole then run a left handed drill bit through it.
I must admit I find flat rate a bit strange to get my head round I’m paid on a salary My upsells earn me nothing so I only report what is needed I still have to watch my efficiency as that’s what my bonus is calculated on but I actually get a better bonus for a good CS score so keeping the customers happy I’d have to hit 115% efficiency to make more so I tend to just keep the customer happy spend more time than needed fixing the little niggles mostly FOC