Take up computer programming. I'll lend you my Fortran manual.

Need any tips, let me know...

Since I'm licensed in both fields to the highest level...

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John HAUL AWAY, OR CRUSHED CARS!!! HELP ME keep the cars out of the crusher! A/C Thread
"as I ride with my a/c on... I have fond memories of sweaty oily saturdays and spewing R12 into the air. THANKS for all you do!

My drivers:
1987 190D 2.5Turbo
1987 560SL convertible
1987 190D 2.5-5SPEED!!!

1987 300TD
2005 Dodge Sprinter 2500 158"WB
1994GMC 2500 6.5Turbo truck... I had to put the ladder somewhere!

A major difference is where the work is performed...

House calls always cost more.

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John HAUL AWAY, OR CRUSHED CARS!!! HELP ME keep the cars out of the crusher! A/C Thread
"as I ride with my a/c on... I have fond memories of sweaty oily saturdays and spewing R12 into the air. THANKS for all you do!

My drivers:
1987 190D 2.5Turbo
1987 560SL convertible
1987 190D 2.5-5SPEED!!!

1987 300TD
2005 Dodge Sprinter 2500 158"WB
1994GMC 2500 6.5Turbo truck... I had to put the ladder somewhere!

If you had to pick or recommend one uut of the two, which would you recommend?

This sounds like the way of the future, cars will soon become extraordinarily complex computers on wheels.


I'm up for learning programming.

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1998 Ford Escort ZX2 5 speed - 279,000 miles My Daily

1992 Mercedes 300D 2.5 202,000 - Pure junk
2000 Mercedes E320 Black - 136,000 miles - Needs repair

Don't forget to grease the screw and threads on the spring compressor.

Cost of enough tools to work effectively has and is getting even more expensive with time. In the mechanic trade to me is a downside.

Also in far too many cases the industry itself has issues. A local GM dealers mechanics went on strike. The law here in this Canadian province was they should get a certain percentage of the hourly rate.

They were not and this had to be pushed by the employees. I remember the case well as it occurred at the time that ownership of a GM franchise was considered almost a license to steal.

Anyways the modern car is complex enough that a specialty shop to me is a way to go for many reasons. Number one is you have a far better control over your parts costs. So you absorb far better margins on your parts inventory. Allowing you to charge a lower hourly rate. You should still come out far ahead financially than the shop trying to do everything.

Well, I don't know who it is then that deals with the numerous sewer back ups that occur or even just overflowing toilets. At least in the North where most houses have basements this is a common occurrence.

2 years ago, at Christmas, we had a lot of house guests and one toilet stopped working. The cast iron sewer pipes in very low crawl space had cracked open. A fully licensed plumbing company who normally did commercial work bailed us out starting on Boxing day. We had to cut out our flooring to access the pipes. New ABS pipes installed. Heck of a messy job, but they got it done.

This month, my daughter in law had a sewer back up in her basement. Caused damage to entire basement washroom. Now stripped out waiting for rebuild. New shower, walls etc. Plumber has already repaired the piping problem.

Can't imagine who else might have done these jobs. In fact they required a licensed plumber.

By the way, our MB dealer charges $140/hr. Plumbers nowhere near that much. I can fix my car, but can't deal with what plumbers have to deal with.

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Graham
85 300D,72 350SL, 98 E320, Outback 2.5

I had one of those back in 60s. Still helps. Just used an IF statement in a spreadsheet

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Graham
85 300D,72 350SL, 98 E320, Outback 2.5

I took a FORTRAN class in '93 I believe.
Professor Goda

Goda class...Goda sleep

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Greg Schwall

1983 300SD - 465,000 miles

Be ready to adapt and get some new training.

That said, nothing is free. Batteries take a crapload of juice to charge. Plus it's slow, even with a quick charger. On top of that, battery production isn't exactly eco friendly.

Even if the ICE is dead, there's still a lot of crap that can go wrong with a new snazzy tech mobile. ICE is simply a liquid fuel drinking power plant bolted to a boatload of other stuff universally found in cars. That boatload is what will give you job security. Moving parts and electronics getting heated/jiggled for miles on end eventually break, no matter how good they originally were.

I saw a row of "Tesla" charging stations at a travel center truck stop outside of San Luis Potosi, Mexico which seems really weird - hundreds of miles from the next city.

Don't worry, nobody was using them ... but with gas at almost $4.50/gal there people sure are looking.

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1985 300TD 1981 Scirocco 1.6D conv 1986 Golf 1.6D 2003 Golf TDI

not afraid,glad I'm close to death soon

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1999 w140, quit voting to old, and to old to fight, a god damned veteran, deutschland deutschland uber alles uber alles in der welt

You know I always thought it would be cool to learn one trade and go to work and be set for life. But I am not sure it works like that for most people in technology. Automotive is technology. And it changes.

I focused on being a generalist. I learned a lot of different things and worked my way through. I learned cars because I was interested. It certainly made me a better engineer. I got to work on everything from engine controls to long haul telecom hardware. (I am a digital designer by trade). There was nothing sadder than working with engineers who didn’t understand the platform we were making circuitry for. Seriously it is amazing to see how many clueless ABS programmers there are out there who do not know how brake hydraulics work. I literally worked on a project with a programmer who couldn’t tell whether his car was locked up or not in the rain. He consequently wrote lousy ABS control algorithms.

So I think it is worth learning. But being able to hang your hat on it “forever” to feed your kids? I dunno. Be ready to adapt and don’t borrow a ton of money for Snapon tools specific to ICE hoping to invest in your ICE workshop of the future.

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79 300TD “Old Smokey” AKA “The Mistake” (SOLD)
82 240D stick shift 335k miles (SOLD)
82 300SD 300k miles
85 300D Turbodiesel 170k miles
97 C280 147k miles

I'm more scared of having to learn and buy tools for my 15 Volvo. Thing has no dip sticks anywhere and only sensors most of which need dealer software to access. Very proprietary. The good news is 100,000 mi warranty.

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85SD 240K & stopped counting painted, putting bac together. 84SD 180,000. sold to a neighbor and member here but I forget his handle. The 84 is much improved from when I had it. 85TD beginning to repair to DD status. Lots of stuff to do.

I put that at this bottom but will also post at the top so it does not get glossed over.

In the end you need a skill set that is interchangeable across many fields. Having a good foundation in electronics / electrical / pnuematics / hydraulics / mechanical systems will accomplish that.

If you work for a company that touts " Furnace inspection $ 20 " / " Same day service or you don't pay " / " 20 outlets- switches for $ 20 " , you can be assured that you will be pushed into selling marginally needed services.

If you do go down the path of electrician / HVAC , try to lean towards the commercial end of things. If you do residential repairs, you will be educating every customer you come across where as commercial customers generally understand what is going on.

You see the number of people on this list that cry that auto mechanics are evil and charge too much, same thing will go on in the residential side of things.

I probably would not work for a new house builder, everything is about speed and low cost.

Computer programming will do zero to help repairing a car, having electronics knowledge will. Also, electrical ( house wiring ) and electronic skills ( fixing a TV ) , are not the same thing but it is possible to know both.

Some other things to consider. Are you willing / able to do the work you chose on a daily basis when you are 65 ? I got out of the day to day auto repair business at 34 because I could see there was a hard physical road ahead. I moved into industrial / factory machine repair - design. Half of my time was spent in the office doing research / design / directing others and the other half on the floor doing repairs.

Now at 55 I've semi retired and do work for various businesses when they need high level electrical / electronic / mechanical help. This leads to the importance of having a good reputation.

I recently stopped at a machine shop to have something surface ground. The knew me by rep, didn't remember my name but after an actual minute of conversation wanted me to look at a machine that was not operating. This Russian horizontal mill built in 1974 , had the control electronics up graded in the mid 90's and has zero documentation for the upgrade. I'm being tasked to get it running, generating wiring diagrams and documentation. The control cabinet is the size of 4 refrigerators and it pretty full of PLC / relays / contractors / DC drives .

In an area where cost of living is low, it is going to pay in the area of $40 / hr. Their other machines desperately need attention so this is likely to lead to near full time work.

In the end you need a skill set that is interchangeable across many fields. Having a good foundation in electronics / electrical / pnuematics / hydraulics / mechanical systems will accomplish that.

well, Someone has to program all the silly crap that Tesla is offering on its many upgrades to the firmware. BTW I'm sure they don't use Fortran, or Forth or anything like that.
quote (effective Sept 2018):
Tesla added a couple of fun and goofy Easter Eggs for Tesla owners to enjoy even when they’re just sitting in their Teslas, for example:

Here’s what each new feature does:
• Romance Mode: Provides a video of a roaring fireplace on the car’s center-stack LCD screen (or, only screen on the Model 3). According to the on-screen description
“Experience the warmth of our virtual fireplace with Romance Mode. To enable Romance Mode when your car is in Park, tap the Tesla “T” at the top center of the touchscreen, then tap the fireplace logo in your Easer Egg tray.”
•Pole Position: This is an adaption of the iconic old-school racing game Pole Position, still in glorious, pixel-chunky 8-bits but recast with a Tesla and set on Mars. You can only play in Park, and you use the car’s steering wheel to control the car in the game.
•Emissions Testing Mode: Finally, a way to turn your $80,000 state-of-the-art car into a giant Whoopee cushion. You can pick from multiple fart sounds, including Not a Fart, Short Shorts Rapper, Falcon Heavy, Ludicrous Fart, Neurastink, Boring Fart, and what seems to be a fart randomizer.Interestingly, there’s options for controlling what seat the fart appears to be emitting from, which must use some interesting acoustic control.

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'95 E320 Wagon my favorite road car. '99 E300D wolf in sheeps body, '87 300D Sportline suspension, '79 300TD w/ 617.952 engine at 367,750 and counting!