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The Gearbox Podcast brings on industry professionals to explore the day-to-day operations of owning and operating a shop. From common frustrations to industry-wide shifts, this podcast covers it with fun and insightful conversations.
Jimmy Purdy [00:00:13]:
Welcome to the Gearbox podcast. I'm your host, Jimmy Purdy. On this podcast, we're not just exploring the latest trends and technologies in the automotive industry. We're also getting real about the journey. Yes, the bumpy road of mistakes and lessons learned hard along the way. This is the Gearbox podcast. So, Mister Andrew, is it clement Clement Clement?
Andrew Clement [00:00:37]:
Yes.
Jimmy Purdy [00:00:38]:
Clement Clement.
Andrew Clement [00:00:38]:
I don't know how to pronounce my own name, dude. I don't. My name is Andrew. I'm from the YouTube channel rogue wrenching. I'm also in the changing the industry podcast group. I'm in Jimmy's. I I work on cars. I solve problems, I bring solutions, and I talk and I complain a lot.
Jimmy Purdy [00:00:54]:
Of, as I think the majority, especially in that group. Well, that. Shots fired right there. How about that one, huh?
Andrew Clement [00:01:06]:
Well, you had a big transit clickbait.
Jimmy Purdy [00:01:08]:
Yeah. You had a big transition here recently, didn't you?
Andrew Clement [00:01:12]:
Yeah. So I just moved from the great state of Arizona, so I was actually, like, right next door to you. And we just moved to south western Missouri. So I'm in the Springfield, Missouri area now. I've been at independent shops my entire career, and most recently, I now work for a franchise shop. So I work for the local Christian Brothers automotive franchise here in Springfield. And it's a little bit of. A.
Andrew Clement [00:01:41]:
Bit of a change. It's interesting to see things done through kind of the franchise model. I've. I'm picky about where I work, so I don't like to work for anybody that. That doesn't provide a really good work environment as well as, obviously, I like being paid for what I do. So I've been at some really good independent shops, had some really good experiences, and wasn't really looking for a franchise position. Um, but this franchise came in at about 20% more money than any independent in the area offered me. And this is kind of hard to turn down.
Andrew Clement [00:02:16]:
Yeah, it wasn't a small amount, which kind of surprised me, because, like, I'm actually. If you don't watch my YouTube channel, I'm actually decently good at what I do. I'm. I'm really solid in diagnostics and drivability, and I specialize in light duty diesel repair. And I. I can do stuff that most guys can't and do it well. But some shops don't like to offer big bucks, especially for someone moving from out of town, which I guess I.
Jimmy Purdy [00:02:50]:
Think the ego gets in the way, too. I think a lot of independent shops, the owners just have a hard time hiring someone that's smarter than them or better than them or faster than them. Right? Like the season one. Sure. I mean, they get it. And the ones that never been in the shop is obviously different. But there's, there's a pretty big majority of guys that just, they want someone to make sure they can do checks and balances and they can kind of look over their shoulder and see where they are in the process. If someone's smarter than them, then they don't understand their, their process or how they're getting from point a to point b.
Jimmy Purdy [00:03:19]:
And I think they get scared or not scared, but they just don't know. And I think that turns them off. I don't know. It's pretty interesting though.
Andrew Clement [00:03:28]:
Yeah. Well, and actually, on that subject, I ran into a situation, uh, yesterday, actually. I've got a 2007 dodge one ton diesel with Cummins in it. And it's got an intermittent, intermittent problem with an intermittent intermittent associated check engine light and then electronic throttle control light. And the problem is that the accelerator pedal position sensor is intermittently dropping one of the signals. And it only does it for a fraction of a second. But you'll be driving and it'll go to a dead pedal. These are super, super common for the accelerator pellet position sensor to fail.
Andrew Clement [00:04:05]:
And all the aftermarket ones are junk. Like you have to get an Oe part or don't even bother fixing it. So in my, in my write up, I specifically call out an OE part and I get handed a. Are we allowed to say manufacturer brands?
Jimmy Purdy [00:04:25]:
Sure, yeah, whatever.
Andrew Clement [00:04:26]:
Can I, can I dump on somebody? I get handed a duralast box.
Jimmy Purdy [00:04:31]:
Well, that's not double on anybody. That's just the truth, man.
Andrew Clement [00:04:33]:
That's just facts straight.
Jimmy Purdy [00:04:35]:
I just hope when you were going to throw dormant under the bus again, because it's like those guys are trying really freaking hard, man.
Andrew Clement [00:04:40]:
They've got some good stuff, but at.
Jimmy Purdy [00:04:42]:
Least they're trying and I appreciate that.
Andrew Clement [00:04:45]:
So I get handed to Dural ass box and I go up to my advisor and I go, dude, what happened to an oe part? And he tells me, oh, well, it's, it's kind of backward. We can't really get one. So we just, we're good. We're just going to put this one in. And I said, okay. So I go, I put it in and instead we, we took the fault that was intermittent and we went from, you know, you got to drive for about ten minutes to experience the fault to as soon as you plug it in, it's got the fault and it's got a dead pedal so bad out of the box. Unplug it. Take it back to him.
Andrew Clement [00:05:17]:
Say, hey, this one's defective. Get me something else. So he orders me another one, which I'm pretty sure these are all standard motor products rebrands. And so we get one from Napa. It's, the box is the same shape. The numbers on the part of the same size, same, you know, same part number on the part. I put that one in, it's bad out of the box. I take it back, I go, dude, this is junk.
Andrew Clement [00:05:39]:
I need an oe one. And he's, and he's like, well, you know, we've changed this part several times now. Are you sure that you are correct in your diagnosis? And I said, yeah, dude, I'm, I'm 100%. And like, I had to argue with my service advisor because he has, he has never worked with anybody around diesel. He's never worked on these things at all. And it's foreign to him that you could get a part, several parts back to back that are bad out of the box. And especially in a post Covid world with electrical parts, especially electrical parts for diesels. For some reason, nobody can seem to get those right except the OE.
Andrew Clement [00:06:20]:
But it's frustrating when everything. Yeah, it's. My experience has been more, more heavily in the diesel world than general automotive. Although for the last five years, I've been mostly just automotive. So I don't even know what I am anymore. I'm just a really tall guy that complains a lot. But part, part quality is frustrating. And it's frustrating to deal with someone when I, I'm not always, I'm not perfect, I'm not always right, but I know this part's bad and I've tested it and I've proven it, and now we've put this thing in twice.
Andrew Clement [00:06:55]:
I'm paid flat, right? I don't get paid extra for doing this three and four times. So now we're on our fourth part, and I put, we finally got an aftermarket one today that worked. I get handed a box, I go, I put it in, it works. I test drive the vehicle, all is well, ready to ship it. I go to turn the keys into my advisor, and he goes, oh, actually, you weren't supposed to get handed that part. Uh, we, we had to next day air a no e part for you. So anyway, all that being said, ego is a frustrating thing in the shop, which if anybody who knows me is listening to this, you're going to roll your eyes, because I have a big ego and what goes around comes around. Yeah, yeah.
Jimmy Purdy [00:07:41]:
And it's all different, right? And it's all for different reasons. The biggest, the biggest part I think ego is, is the insecurity, right? Like most. The bigger the ego, the more insecure the person is, right? So there's like levels, right, which makes it almost worse, you know. And like in that kind of example is like. Well yeah, of course I'm not 100% sure. An assessment or a diagnostic is not like it's rare that you have a 100%.
Andrew Clement [00:08:05]:
If I had a crystal ball you think I'd be fixing cars? Like really, this is the best guess.
Jimmy Purdy [00:08:11]:
Like of course it could be wrong but like, you know, let's start with step one and make sure you at least get me a known good test part, you know, cuz that's, you know, we're not part swap, we're not parts changers. But I mean we do need a known good part to test our theory when we get come to a conclusion. Right?
Andrew Clement [00:08:27]:
Exactly, exactly. Well, and that was, and that was the challenge. And he was kind of poking back a little and I said, dude, I made sure I unplugged the aftermarket one. I took the original part I took out of this truck that we know is an intermittent. I plugged it in, code goes away. Plug it into the aftermarket one, I can clear the code and it hard resets immediately. And if you look at the voltage coming out of the two different signals, it's reading 1% throttle with no application of the pedal on one of them, which is what it should be. And the other one's reading almost 13% throttle should be one or 2%.
Andrew Clement [00:09:03]:
So it's like, it's like what's, what's.
Jimmy Purdy [00:09:04]:
The common denominator there? Right?
Andrew Clement [00:09:06]:
Yeah, exactly. And if we can do this six times, like, and I should get paid for that every single sink in time, doesn't matter how long it takes me because I've done it four times now and I'm getting really fast at this pedal, which to be fair, it's two bolts, but still it's.
Jimmy Purdy [00:09:24]:
Yeah, and then a lot of that, I think that's a problem in the industry too, is a lot of that gets kind of brushed under the rug, right? I mean, doing transmissions most of my life, I screwed up a lot and I've iron art a lot of transmissions and I've gotten really good at pulling certain models out, mainly because I wasn't doing them right, you know. So if I can pull, I mean I can get a, you know, four l 60 out of a Chevy pickup in under 25 minutes. Right? Like the last one I did, it was like 22 minutes or something like that. I timed.
Andrew Clement [00:09:53]:
And it's like, that's impressive. It takes me like almost an hour to get one of those out of.
Jimmy Purdy [00:09:57]:
So does it. So do I get paid 20 minutes for that job? Right? Like, no, no, you shouldn't.
Andrew Clement [00:10:01]:
And that's, and that's, I think the struggle that it's, it's difficult. I think, when we as an industry are so accustomed to charging the, the unit of measure that we use is not, this is the dollar amount to fix your car. It's, this is, you know, 2.6 hours of labor or whatever the, you know, the number is. And so we're so accustomed to charging based on time, using time as our unit of measure. Whereas if you take someone such as yourself, like you said, doing a, doing a transmission and a Chevy, and you can get it done in 20 minutes, but the book says that it should be, you know, 4.2 hours. We're so used to seeing that number in hours and not dollars. It's not, this transmission is dollar 500 to r and r. It's, it's, you know, three and a half hours to RNR.
Andrew Clement [00:10:50]:
And so when you do in 20 minutes, I think a lot of people get kind of hung up on that. And the reality is that you've got, I mean, I don't even. How many years have you been doing transmissions? How many years have you been in this industry? I guess, actually, it's going to be.
Jimmy Purdy [00:11:03]:
Rolling close to 15 by now. Yeah.
Andrew Clement [00:11:05]:
Yeah. So you've, you've been in the game a while. You've got a ton of experience under your belt. You've, you've done a ton of work to build your skillset to be where it is today. And we shouldn't penalize you being good at what you do. Right. So the fact that you're good, the fact that you're fast shouldn't come out of your check or your shop's profit margin. Um, and I think the same thing applies to somebody like me.
Andrew Clement [00:11:29]:
So there's my favorite examples. I really like Duramax water pumps because they pay like six, six and a half hours. Again, I just talked about not liking the time thing, but that's the industry we work in right now.
Jimmy Purdy [00:11:41]:
Right.
Andrew Clement [00:11:41]:
Pay six and a half hours. The last one I did, I did in like an hour and 25 minutes. And it's like I've just done them enough that I'm fast. But when I get handed a ticket that says six and a half hours and I turn it in in 2 hours, I get this kind of look from the service advisors like, hey, are we going to cut the time back? It's like, why should I not get paid for my experience? You know, if a seasoned carpenter can build a house faster than an apprentice carpenter, the price shouldn't go down because he can do it faster because the value is not in the time that is spent. The value is in the, like the finished product.
Jimmy Purdy [00:12:18]:
And you can even take that a step further. I mean, the value is, is in time. So if it can be done faster, you should be paying more. Right. If someone says, hey, your house is going to be built in six months, someone else comes and does it in four months, you should be paying them more to get it done.
Andrew Clement [00:12:32]:
Yeah, we don't.
Jimmy Purdy [00:12:32]:
Because now you get, we don't even live in your house. Sooner.
Andrew Clement [00:12:35]:
Yeah, exactly.
Jimmy Purdy [00:12:36]:
You know what I mean? Like time is money. Like if your time is valuable, you should be paying someone to get it done. And half the time, you know.
Andrew Clement [00:12:42]:
Exactly.
Jimmy Purdy [00:12:42]:
Also. And then I'll take that and flip the script a little bit. So as I move, you know, in the, into the role of being an owner and having five, six technicians in the shop, that's what makes it really difficult for me to see a transmission take three and a half, 4 hours, pull it out. Right. And in my mind I can do it in 20 minutes. And that's a really hard thing for me personally, but, but I see that in a lot of other owners as well. And I talk to a lot of other, talk to a lot of other people in the industry. Right.
Jimmy Purdy [00:13:11]:
And it's, it's, it's not unusual to have that mindset where I can do it. And then you either get upset and you hold these standards that are just not achievable because this technician didn't live that life that you lived, or you just step in and do it yourself because you get so frustrated that you don't even know how to communicate enough to be effective. So you just step in and you start pulling transmissions out because you're like, I can't even watch him take 3 hours to do it, I'll just do it. Right. And that's a problem.
Andrew Clement [00:13:42]:
Yeah, well, and that, and that becomes an issue both, both from the management side. So I am currently employed as a technician. The goal is, I'm not sure if shop ownership is where I want to end up, but some sort of business ownership is where I want to be. So I'm thinking about more. I'm thinking about things from an owner perspective, but that's one of the things that you run into with a lot of these technician turned shop owners, which is, I think probably the vast majority of our industry is, is that. And you get that. Well, you know, it, it's physically painful for me to watch you take 3 hours to do a job I know I can do in 20 minutes, you know, and, but when, whether, whether it's you as an owner or me as a senior technician steps in and just does it and doesn't take the time to maybe point out the shortcuts or point out what they're doing wrong or, you know, an error in their process or whatever, that it is the right tool for the job. You know, we're, we're doing ourselves a disservice because we're setting that person up for failure because we're not teaching them how to be better.
Andrew Clement [00:14:42]:
We're just saying, step aside, let me do it. And that's great for today, but what about next week when you're out sick and they have no idea what they're doing, you know, and I think taking time to be intentional about building up the next generation of, of technicians and of, and obviously, we're speaking specifically today about this industry, but technician service advisors, taking time to train people and show them the right way to do it is important. And when we take that learning opportunity away from them, we are not only doing them a disservice, we're doing ourselves a disservice in the long run.
Jimmy Purdy [00:15:14]:
Absolutely. Yeah. I mean, that's just, that just nails the point and drives it home as far as what your mind set should be as a manager. Right. As you move from the manager to the ownership role, a lot of the technicians turn. Shop owners miss all that. There's a lot of, they call it going back and filling the gaps. Right? Like, yeah, you're tech, you open a shop, you start making money, you're fixing cars.
Jimmy Purdy [00:15:42]:
Life's great. Busy. I need some help. You get some help. Oh, man, the phone's ringing. You get more help, you start building this kind of, I don't want to call it a house of cards, but it kind of is, right? And eventually you got to kind of step back and go back and fill all that area up. And a lot of that stepping back is learning how to be a manager. And just exactly what you were saying there, like, being able to manage people, for one, but to know, hey, I needed, I need to write these processes down, you know? And for me personally was like, I just assumed we were all on this path together, you know, like, I.
Jimmy Purdy [00:16:14]:
My world is between my two ears. Like, that's it. I got it. I realized, like, all the other paths everyone's taking, like, I just assumed everybody could pull the transmission out. Like, I thought once you had five.
Andrew Clement [00:16:24]:
Yeah, like, can't you just do what I can do? Like, I've been doing this since I was, you know.
Jimmy Purdy [00:16:28]:
You've been doing six years. I've been doing it for six years. So we're the same, right? And then it's like. But it's not right because you.
Andrew Clement [00:16:33]:
I learned that lesson very clearly a number of years ago. I was working for a shop, and I. I had kind of been moved into the role where I was working on six liter powerstrokes. We. I was in a diesel specialty shop. And so we did, we were doing a set of six liter head gaskets. We were doing like one or two of these a week, and I was doing them all. I got kind of shoehorned into this role when they had let somebody else go that was doing them all anyways, so I got really good.
Andrew Clement [00:17:00]:
So a. We were. We had menued out what we called a full meal deal. So it's. It's head gaskets, head studs. Um, we were definitely not modifying federally controlled emission systems, oil cooler, front cover, you know, all. Basically all of the failure points. Yeah, yeah.
Andrew Clement [00:17:19]:
Which, with a little bit of a tweak, uh, we did a couple of tweaks that we did our own way that I. I think are better. And based on the number of trucks that we fixed that way, I think the record speaks for itself, that my methods a little better than the branded bulletproof method, but neither here nor there. The point is, I. We've been doing this for a long time. At the time, I was 22, and we hired someone that was, I think, 21. He was like six months younger than me. And he was the six leader guy at a Ford dealer down in California.
Andrew Clement [00:17:47]:
I was working in Oregon at the time, and I was a little, like, kind of nervous about it because I was like, man, is this guy going to push me off? Or, you know, like, I'm the guy. Is this guy going to come in and be the guy and push me out? Right? And this kid took, oh, my gosh, it was a set of glow plugs on a six liter, which in a normal world is like our tops. If it fights you, you know, it's. It's quick. And easy. And this dude took, like, it was like three or 4 hours to do the job. And when he was done, he had, he took the glow plug wires, the ones that carry all the current to make the plug turn bright orange because there's so much current. And he had mashed them under a bracket and shorted them to the frame and the truck wouldn't start.
Andrew Clement [00:18:35]:
And that was when I realized that just because I've been doing this for, I mean, at this point, I've been in this industry for about eight years. Just because I have eight years of experience, I can work circles around almost every single technician I've ever met that has my experience level. And a lot of that is because the opportunity that I had when I first started, because I didn't do oil changes for two years. I've never done tires as a tire tech. I have probably done ten sets of tires in my entire career because I got thrown into a mix in a shop where they needed someone who could actually do production work. And it was kind of a trial by fire, sink or swim type situation. And I was able to swim and took that opportunity and ran with it. So, you know, the, the variety of what I worked on makes me a much more, I guess, well rounded technician is, is kind of what I've always shot for.
Andrew Clement [00:19:27]:
But to kind of circle back and stop just bragging about how wonderful the technician I am, which I am, fabulous. But talking about, you know, processes and having.
Jimmy Purdy [00:19:37]:
I think that just brings up a good point of, like, talking about building technicians from the, from the inside and having processes put in place. That's all well and good, but honestly, it's really, it's really trial by, by fire, right. And I had a similar situation where I was, like, at a, out of the local community college where I got my smog license. I was smogging cars, right. And I fell into a shop, a transmission shop that needed a builder. And so I started building transmissions, right. And in my mind, I'm like, well, this has got to be the peak of automotive, like, repair, right? You don't. And so this is what I want.
Andrew Clement [00:20:14]:
Those things are magic to me. I don't know how I want to.
Jimmy Purdy [00:20:15]:
Find the hardest thing there is in the industry, and I want to learn how to do it. And it's like, this is a great opportunity. And I had a transmission on the bench, and it was like, here's the book, and, and good luck. Right. And I made a lot of mistakes. Like I said, I pulled a lot of transmissions back out a lot right. Over and over and over. Every three, four in the morning, I'm like, I'm.
Jimmy Purdy [00:20:32]:
And it was just for me, like, right. The owner didn't care. Like, oh, we'll, we'll deal with it in the morning. I'm like, no, this is for me. Like, I'm pulling it back out. I'll be here all night until I get it right, you know? And that was just what I wanted. I wanted to learn how to do it and do it right. And I could not stand going home knowing that it was not right.
Jimmy Purdy [00:20:48]:
You know, a lot of that's ego, right? Like, a lot of that is ego. I didn't. Oh, yeah, no, I wasn't getting paid for it or nothing. And I see that a lot that's missed with the younger generation or the younger techs coming in. They get hit once or twice, and all of a sudden they're on, you know, the job hunt. Like, well, maybe I'll go do h vac because this is really hard. It's like, everything's gonna be hard, man. Like, every.
Andrew Clement [00:21:09]:
Everything is hard. I think this industry is definitely hard. And I just want to. Because I did not do the whole, like, stay and work all night thing because I got to get it right. Like, that's not something I've done. I've. I've worked my fair share of late nights, but a late night for me is usually like 30 to 40 minutes late. Like, I I'm.
Andrew Clement [00:21:26]:
I was never the guy that stayed hours and hours late or, you know, went home with a problem and spent, you know, 6 hours researching something. Like, I can count on my hands. Probably. Probably on one hand, the number of times that I had a problem that I couldn't figure out, that bothered me enough to take time to figure it out at home. And I know that some, I think older technicians or shop owners would kind of look down on that and go, you know, really, you don't care enough about this trade or this industry to better yourself on your own time. And I think that obviously, you don't know me super well on a personal level, but what I can do and what I've accomplished in this trade, I think, speaks that you don't have, you don't have to do the late nights and lose your mind and your soul and your family to this career to be successful. You just have to, you just have to show up on time, which apparently is hard these days coming from the guy who was late last week. But, hey, neither here nor there, you know, show up on time and bust your butt while you're there, you know, sitting on your phone all day, um, you know, thinking about other stuff, doing, like, if you can just be focused while you're at work and.
Andrew Clement [00:22:40]:
And put all of your energy into being the best technician that you can be, I think that that does volumes for you.
Jimmy Purdy [00:22:47]:
Yeah, I would never. I would never expect anybody to take that path. Right? Like, any of my guys here, like, it gets to a point, right, when their production starts dropping and they're, like, 60% product, you know, and they're putting 5 hours a day in, and they keep getting their butt kicked by diags is like, okay, so this is what I did, right? This is how I help myself, is go home, and I would watch videos, and I would do, you know, just do all the research in the world when you're at home, because what are you doing watching tv anyway? Like. Like, take that downtime and try to learn a little bit, right?
Andrew Clement [00:23:18]:
Yeah.
Jimmy Purdy [00:23:19]:
I said, those is me. Those is my ego that kept me there. The. The handful of nights that I had to do that, it was like, I just. I just can't go. Like, I'll drive home, and I would turn around and go back to the shop because I was like, there's no way. I'm just gonna be. I'm just gonna be laying in bed.
Jimmy Purdy [00:23:30]:
Like, I'm not gonna sleep. So, like, that was just my wiring in my brain, but I don't ever would want that to be, like, the expectation, you know what I'm saying? Like, that was just, like, I'm just wound up so tight right now. I got to get back down there. But over the years, I've come to the point, like, yeah, when I leave, like, I'm not doing that shiv it anymore. If something really interests me and I'm like, I really want to know how that works. Like, then I'll do the research, because I'm, like, genuinely interested in how whatever it is that works. But for the most part, it's like, it's funny you say that, because in the last couple months, I was thinking maybe even beginning of this year, I started realizing I get back to the shop the next day. Oh, man.
Jimmy Purdy [00:24:05]:
I totally forgot about that problem. Oh, man. I should have been researching last night to get ready for this, and it's like, I don't need to. And it's like, it's become more of a normal, like, to get back to work the next day. Like, oh, that's right. That freaking nightmare. Or that freaking guy got a call. He's pissed.
Jimmy Purdy [00:24:19]:
Off about whatever, and it's like, just ignore it, you know?
Andrew Clement [00:24:22]:
Yeah. And I, so the shop, the shop. The franchise that I work for now is, is, it's really cool for a couple reasons. One, there's some like, I guess, corporate pressure to do certain things. So I've got, obviously I get well paid for what I do and there's, you know, benefits and stuff that the corporate just kind of pushes down and says, this is what you're going to do as far as, you know, benefits for the employees. Like one of the, the abnormal things that my franchise offers is they don't have a, like a health insurance coverage, but they give me a, like, health insurance reimbursement, which is effectively a bonus every month that covers the, my cost to go out and buy health insurance. So that's one thing that's different about working where I work. But the other thing is that the guy that I work for, the guy that owns the franchise that I work for, has never been a technician.
Andrew Clement [00:25:13]:
So he comes out of, I think, construction management is what he did before he got into this. And he's owned this franchise and been doing this for well over a decade now. So he's, I think, worked some of the kinks, but there's so many people that started in this industry that weren't able to leave work at work. And the franchise I work for, which is, again, part of that is the corporate pressure. Part of that is, I think the way someone who's not a technician turned shop owner thinks is at 05:00 I'm putting my tools up, I'm walking out. Generally speaking, every technician is out of the building by 05:05 and work stays at work, you know, and I think that's really important. So I've got three little kids and a, you know, beautiful wife, and I don't like taking away their family time to put into work drama. And it's really nice to be in an environment that supports punch out, leave it at work, you know, don't, don't take problems home with you.
Andrew Clement [00:26:14]:
A shop owner I used to work for many years ago gave me a piece of advice which I think is good advice. There were all things I didn't like about the shop owner, but his advice, or what he said was he said, if you can't make a good living for yourself working 40 hours a week, you're doing something wrong. And I think if, if you're a technician who's listening to this and you're think, and you're thinking to yourself, like, man, I'm working 50, 60 hours a week just to make enough money to get by. There's better opportunities out there. There are good shops that do pay well, that do value you, and you've got to find owners that understand that work stays at work. And when we're done, at the end of the day, nobody's going to worry about the owner shouldn't be going home and stressing about, you know, how are we going to get this cam out or whatever, you know, it's, yeah, that's tomorrow problem. And it's, and it's okay for things to be a tomorrow problem. Like, you're not a bad technician, you're not a bad manager.
Andrew Clement [00:27:11]:
Like, if it just gets the end of the day and it's like, okay, we're out of time to solve this problem today, it's going to go into tomorrow, and that's okay.
Jimmy Purdy [00:27:18]:
But also on the flip side of that, and so what I've heard in the pipeline, or a little birdie told me that you're a really good technician. I don't know where I heard that from, but I've, I don't know who told you that. I've heard that you're, like, really good at what you do.
Andrew Clement [00:27:31]:
Yeah, I know a guy.
Jimmy Purdy [00:27:34]:
So, so to that point, you're, you are speaking from that perspective also. Right. So sure. That that can't be an all encompassing kind of blanket statement because there are technicians that need to step up their game. Right?
Andrew Clement [00:27:47]:
Yeah.
Jimmy Purdy [00:27:48]:
And you're hearing that, like, you might need to look inside a little bit, like, like look in the mirror first.
Andrew Clement [00:27:53]:
Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. And I've, you know, like this. Yeah, yeah, 100%. And that's. And again, I'm, I look at, I look at life, I look at this industry based on, you know, my experience as a technician and what I've seen and what I've done and all those sorts of things. Right? So I, my previous, my previous shop, which, great shop, great group of guys, I got to be careful what I say because I was on the JD Mechanic podcast and I said some, we'll just call them disrespectful things about the people that I work with because I was like, oh, there's no way they're ever going to want to better themselves and be listening to this podcast. And then, like, five months later, my shop foreman, who was one of the guys I was complaining about, he had to give me a ride from somewhere. I dropped a car off or something, and I noticed on his phone that he's listening to the jaded Mechanic podcast.
Andrew Clement [00:28:46]:
And I was like, hey, buddy, you're gonna, you're gonna hear me say some really complaining things about you. So I'm sorry anyways, but that shop.
Jimmy Purdy [00:28:56]:
That I work for, the clicks anyway, that's all Jeff does anything for, just for the clicks, huh?
Andrew Clement [00:29:01]:
Fair. That shop was really bad about not applying pressure to technicians. So it was, everybody was paid an hourly wage, which I'm personally a big fan of, but there wasn't, there wasn't really any pressure to technicians. So we had, we would have, you know, my shop foremone, we'd get a car in that was like a brake job that was going to be realistically hour, hour and a half worth of work that would come in at 03:00 in the afternoon and be promised by the end of the day with a technician available. And my foreman always got uncomfortable. Make promising things out, which, you know, neither here nor there. But there was always this feeling in that shop of, we don't want to apply too much pressure to the technicians. And that's, I think.
Jimmy Purdy [00:29:51]:
Was that a negative thing for you though? Did that feel like it was?
Andrew Clement [00:29:54]:
It was, because I, I find that I, I can produce the most work, the most efficiently when I have a stack of six cars that all have to be done, you know, in ten minutes. Like when there's, when there is pressure to get something done, I find that I'm able to move through stuff quickly and it's, it's really good when I have a stack of cars on me because if I run into a problem on one, I'm not waiting to go, you know, waiting on a part or something like that. I can just jump right over and jump on the next thing. So, like, big picture for the day, I can get way more done if you load me up with, with tickets at the beginning day instead of, all right, here's one ticket, and when you're done with that, we'll give you another one. So I like the pressure because I find that I perform better under pressure. But, you know, there's a fine balance between letting a fire under someone and lighting them on fire. And I think that's a hard line for managers to, to walk, especially in this industry, because we've got to push cars out. Because if we're not fixing cars, the lights don't stay on, the doors don't stay open.
Andrew Clement [00:31:01]:
Nobody has a job if we can't get cars fixed. So that obviously has to be important. But then also the ability to say, you know what? That's tomorrow. Problem. Leave work at work, you know, go home to your family and just decompress a little bit. You know, there's, there's a balance to be had there. And I'm no expert in figuring out how to find that. I've just, I feel like I've been in the ditch on both sides of that road.
Andrew Clement [00:31:22]:
And I think where I'm at now is pretty close to, pretty close to perfect.
Jimmy Purdy [00:31:29]:
Right in the middle. Oh, I mean, it's an interesting theory because it's something we talk about a lot, too, is how to a holding people accountable. Right. And say, hey, you screwed up. Like, go back, do it again. And that's a hard thing for, for the manager side. Right. You put the manager hat on and you got to go out and have that difficult conversation, which doesn't need to be difficult, but it is.
Jimmy Purdy [00:31:54]:
It's as hard, it's hard as, especially from like one technician to another. Right. Maybe it's easier if you're a shop foreman that's never been right and on the floor, but they also don't have the real, they don't have the ability to relate either. So being a, being a technician, Turner shop owner, you can't, you have that edge, but you also have that mental block, right, where you don't want to talk down to someone. You understand how hard it is. You understand all that stuff. But on the flip side, as much as, say I hated having someone constantly giving me pressure when I was a technician and I don't want to breed that atmosphere because I hated it, I also look back and think about all those transmissions I had back out, all that work that I was able to get out, all that learning that I did right. And it was because of that pressure.
Jimmy Purdy [00:32:42]:
But also, like, I really, like I'm going to do, go do this for myself so that I don't have someone breathing down my neck all the time. So it's like that weird dichotomy. Like you're like trying to, you're trying to have a cultivate a culture where you, all your technicians don't have to deal with what you're dealing with. But the only reason why I got to where I am is because of the things I had to deal with. Does that make sense? Like, it's just such a weird roundabout thing, you know?
Andrew Clement [00:33:06]:
Yeah. And it's, and it's, it's really hard. And I think I do kind of want to touch on the, on the idea or the concept of technician accountability because I think that's a really, it's an interesting topic to discuss because I. So I worked for my previous shop out in Arizona. The technician turned shop owner that I worked for very, like, the way our brains work was very similar. So for him and for I, when if I make a mistake, like, you know, you can yell at me, you can beat me up all day, like, I don't. It. Whatever.
Andrew Clement [00:33:45]:
No one's harder on me than me. When I make a mistake, like, it frustrates me to no end. When I screw something up, I want to make it right, like, and that, and that's the way my mind works, right. But then I've also worked around technicians that are, you know, we're 20 hours deep into a timing job, and, oh, I got that chain of tooth off. I wasn't paying attention, you know, oh, well, whatever, I'll just take it back up. I'm just getting paid anyway, you know? And I don't know what the best answer is as far as technician accountability. So for, for me, if you, you know, send me home because I'm in trouble because I screwed up, whatever, it's like, what does that really do? You know, it's, let's just solve the problem, move on. But then I've also worked around technicians that didn't improve.
Andrew Clement [00:34:35]:
I worked with a technician. I worked with him for a little over three years, and the mistakes that I saw him making when I first started were the exact same mistakes that he was making three years later. There was no, there was no accountability to push him to grow more. And, and the, the sentiment that I gathered from the owner was, I would like to get rid of him. I'd like to fire him, get somebody else to fill his shoes, but there's no one else I can hire that can do what he can do. And it wasn't even that he was.
Jimmy Purdy [00:35:09]:
Is that the fault of the technician or is that the fault of the management? Because that scenario that you just laid out is so common, like, unbelievably, unrealistically common. And it's like everyone points the finger at each other. Well, the technicians, not motivated. Oh, well, the manager's not doing a good job or the owner's not doing a good job. It's like, where's everyone's point?
Andrew Clement [00:35:31]:
I think there's, I mean, the, the fact of the matter, I think, is that there's, there's, there's enough blame to go around everybody in that situation because, like, on the one hand, like, yeah, you should be bettering yourself, you know, for goodness sakes, just go out and watch some scanner, Danner, like, you don't have to pay for the premium. Like, just go to his YouTube channel and watch some stuff and, like, learn. Learn some basic things. Right. You know, on the other hand, if we've cultivated an environment where, you know, making mistakes is normal, that the shop I worked for, all the guys were hourly, and we, like, the whole shop, we averaged, if we measured productivity as a percentage. So if we looked at payroll hours paid to technicians versus hours billed from the shop, we were running pretty consistently in the 50% to 60% efficient range. And. Which blows my mind because I know that I can crank through work quickly.
Andrew Clement [00:36:34]:
You know, I know I can beat the book time. I can. I'm typically 120 ish percent efficient on everything that I do. But it's. There's. There's things that management wants to blame technicians for that are actually management problems. And I think it's human nature to try to blame somebody else for your problem. Right.
Andrew Clement [00:36:57]:
You know, if. If I went slow on this job, I'm gonna. Well, the truck was rusted or we had some issue with it, you know, it's not my fault that it was slow when the reality is, you know, maybe my mind wasn't in my work today and I was thinking of other things, and that's why I was dragging. So I don't know what the solution is, but the problem abounds, that's for sure.
Jimmy Purdy [00:37:17]:
Yeah, I think it's just mindset, really. And to be an effective manager, you really have to be able to get in the mindset of each individual person, you know? And that was one of the things, actually, today we're just talking Larry Anderson. He brought that up as getting, you know, individual mental pictures of everybody. Like, you can't just kind of blanket statement everything. You can't just have a policy that says, well, you screwed up, you're going home for the rest of the day then. Right? Like. Cause that's not gonna work for you. That might work for somebody else, right? That'll get him.
Jimmy Purdy [00:37:47]:
Get him to go home and think about it. But realistically, it's not gonna work for probably very small percentage. That's. That's gonna be an effective tactic. But the point is, like, you gotta learn, like, the different ways that you really can get under people's skin. I mean, ultimately, and I think some of the best shop owners are the best guys out there, multi shop owners. They know how to be an effective leader in that sense of really just manipulating people. I mean, and it sounds bad, like it's a bad, negative connotation to say, but, but it's true.
Jimmy Purdy [00:38:17]:
Like, the best salespeople, right, the best owners, the best leaders are really just great manipulators. They know how to take people and make them do the things that they want them to do without them knowing they're doing it. Right.
Andrew Clement [00:38:30]:
Yeah.
Jimmy Purdy [00:38:30]:
And it's so interesting that way because it's like the, you think about it and it sounds so negative that you don't want to be that person, but you have to be if you want to be good at it. I'm sure there's other ways to do it, but, I mean, you get the point.
Andrew Clement [00:38:42]:
Yeah. And I think, I think that's important is there's the, there's, there's management is, I think in the automotive industry, we treat, I, I'm not even sure how to, I had this concept. I'm trying to figure out how to put it into words to explain what I'm thinking. Like we've, I've seen so many times where we put a manager into place who is qualified based on their, their knowledge of how to do the job, if that makes sense. So we'll put it, we'll move a guy up to shop foreman because he's really good at fixing cars. Right. But we don't take into account someone's ability or skillset in actually doing management type work. So managing other people.
Andrew Clement [00:39:30]:
And that being said, I've also worked where we had someone who was good at management but couldn't diagnose his way out of a wet paper bag that was put into more of a management role. And that was equally frustrating because it's like, I appreciate that you know how to manage, but you have no idea what I'm doing here. And so, you know, sit down and shut up. Let me show you how this is done.
Jimmy Purdy [00:39:53]:
It's just like going back and having to fill the gaps. Right. In that same sense where you've, you have all these alcohol accolades and you have all these, you know, you're a great technician. All star, 1520 years in your master technician, certified. You got all, you got all the stuff, right? Oh, cool. This guy'd be perfect for management. Why? He's got zero management experience. And just so you put, you put this guy with all this, this huge bubble of, I don't know what you would call it.
Jimmy Purdy [00:40:22]:
You know, his big technical expertise. Yeah. He's got this big bubble built around him and you pop his bubble and you put him in a completely different environment, then you're wondering why he's not good at that.
Andrew Clement [00:40:31]:
And you wonder why he drowns. Yeah, yeah.
Jimmy Purdy [00:40:34]:
No flow.
Andrew Clement [00:40:35]:
Yep. I worked. I worked for a shop that. That very much did that. There was a shop I worked for. Ended up getting sold. It was bought out by another shop in town. Um, and that shop brought in a guy, which.
Andrew Clement [00:40:51]:
Who I'm still friends with to this day, um, to be the. The shop foreman. And this guy was a really, really great technician. Like, his name is Dave. Dave is a great technician. Like, he's really well rounded. He can. He.
Andrew Clement [00:41:07]:
There is not all. There's basically not a thing on this planet this man cannot fix. Right. And he ran his own shop for a while, which he ran directly into the ground, because this man is not a manager. Excellent at fixing cars. Phenomenal, highly skilled technician, but not a manager. And the shop, as, like, these two shops are kind of merging and moving locations. Like, all right, here's the new manager, and he's a terrible manager.
Andrew Clement [00:41:36]:
Love the guy to death. Terrible manager. And there's this assumption, I think, in a lot of owners heads that, well, if this person's really skilled at doing the job, surely they're good at managing people that do that job, and that is not how this works.
Jimmy Purdy [00:41:54]:
It makes sense if you think about it, right. Like, because that's what you want. Like, if you have a QC.
Andrew Clement [00:41:58]:
Yeah.
Jimmy Purdy [00:41:58]:
Like, you need. Like, that's a good position for your QC. Right. You got to know.
Andrew Clement [00:42:02]:
Yeah.
Jimmy Purdy [00:42:03]:
How this stuff goes together to what to look for. So you can look for the mistakes, you know? But that's still not the right. Like, that's not where you put that. Right, like, that. You don't want some qualified technician just looking over everybody's work. That doesn't make any damn sense. So you want to put them on a pedestal. And what's the pedestals like, the next position up, right.
Jimmy Purdy [00:42:21]:
Oh, you'll be able to get. And granted, sometimes it works.
Andrew Clement [00:42:26]:
Yeah. And like I said, there's. There's a balance because. And obviously, well, I think one of the other issues that I've seen is failing to define roles or positions, right. So it's like, okay, this guy's the foreman. Okay, well, what does that mean? Because when I say foreman, and when you say foreman and when the next guy says foreman, like, we all might be thinking of different, particular roles, right? So in my head, the foreman makes sure the shop is functioning smoothly and making sure technicians aren't getting bogged down on repairs and making sure that nobody's standing around. Right. So there's never a technician that's waiting on a job or waiting on something.
Andrew Clement [00:43:05]:
It's, if you're hung up on that, we'll get you onto something else, you know, keeping, keeping the whole machine flowing efficiently. And if you don't have a manager that understands how to fix, how to do the job, it's very difficult to do that. Right? But on the other hand, if you have a manager that only knows how to do the job, it's great because like technician gets bogged down, he is the man to go solve that problem. But hey, the guy over there standing around, the guy over there has been standing around for an hour. Oh, well, I was fixing this car. It's like, I don't know, I just want more knees.
Jimmy Purdy [00:43:40]:
Yeah, that's where you become ineffective. And that's, that's the key. Like, to know how to manage that situation, to be everywhere at once. Because you really have to be in a sense. And you can't be like called upon to go break a boat loose or called upon because the diagnosis is going south. Like, those are the things that you have to build processes around systems to know, like, hey, when you get to a point, you're going to stop and you're going to send it in and then I'm going to get to it on my list of things. But you have to say that in a way that you don't sound like a dick. Right? Don't bother.
Jimmy Purdy [00:44:09]:
Exactly is what I want to say.
Andrew Clement [00:44:11]:
Exactly.
Jimmy Purdy [00:44:11]:
Coming to me to ask for that stupid question. Like, those are the things and the thoughts that are in your head that you can't let come out of your mouth. And then you have to like filter. Well, meanwhile, in that frustration, you gotta stop for a second and say, okay, so how do I write this down so that the next time they come to me with that sort of question that they need or help, that they know how to be navigated, that doesn't seem like I'm being a dick. And then make them realize like, oh, this is why. Because I'm not the only person in the shop that has a problem right now. And that's the big one. They gotta start realizing like, you're not the only one that's running an obstacle.
Jimmy Purdy [00:44:46]:
We all have problems, right? And I can't, like, I have to take them in priority. I have to look to it. You gotta send it to me and I'll prioritize it. Maybe that problem you have, I know that Dave or whoever else can fix that. So I'll just dispatch it to him to go help you and then I don't have to.
Andrew Clement [00:45:02]:
Exactly.
Jimmy Purdy [00:45:03]:
So that's like. But everyone wants to come to you when you're the lead or the manager, the owner. Because it's like, well, I don't know what to do, and he should know because he's on top. It's like, nobody's on top, man.
Andrew Clement [00:45:12]:
We're all.
Jimmy Purdy [00:45:13]:
We're all in this boat together. Exactly.
Andrew Clement [00:45:15]:
Like, if. If there's a hole in the boat, somebody has to plug it. I can't plug all of the holes, but I think there's something that's really important that the previous shot that I worked for didn't have any processes written down or. Or really laid out, which was super frustrating when we would. We would end up in situations. So, like, my least favorite diagnostic is, hey, I've got a noise in my car. Like, okay, when does the noise happen? What does it sound like?
Jimmy Purdy [00:45:45]:
There's lots of noises.
Andrew Clement [00:45:46]:
Exactly.
Jimmy Purdy [00:45:47]:
Right.
Andrew Clement [00:45:47]:
So we ran into this. I mean, it was probably. It was like it was happening several times a week. You know, I get handed a ticket. Customer states noise. Great. It's a 20 year old car. It's making about six different noises.
Andrew Clement [00:46:03]:
Which one would you like me to fix? You know, and. And we like it through a lot of pain and suffering and tears and hurt feelings and all that, we finally, like, put into place a process, which is if a customer comes in with a noise, either the shop foreman or an available technician goes on a short drive with them so we can identify the noise. Great. Now we're fixing noises the first time. Right. And it's not. Well, that wasn't, you know, the squeaking wasn't what I was worried about. I was worried about the clunking.
Andrew Clement [00:46:30]:
It's like, you know what you're worried about?
Jimmy Purdy [00:46:33]:
What I'm worried about is two different things.
Andrew Clement [00:46:35]:
Exactly. Yeah. You're worried about that little bit of a squeak. I'm worried about the bang when I go over a bump. It's your ball joint about to come apart. But there's. There's a lot of, I think, heartache and hurt feelings that can be avoided by simply laying out the processes and having standards. But then also kind of the flip side of that is, and this is what we ran into my old shop was, if this is the standard and somebody's not meeting the standard, something has to happen.
Andrew Clement [00:47:05]:
Because if we don't hold people to a standard, what's the point of having a standard at all?
Jimmy Purdy [00:47:11]:
Yeah. Setting those expectations, that's. That's huge. That's a big pivotal point for me as well is, is when you hire a technician, you hire a service advisor, you hire port or anybody, and you just assume that they know what that job position means.
Andrew Clement [00:47:26]:
Yeah.
Jimmy Purdy [00:47:26]:
Right.
Andrew Clement [00:47:27]:
It says technician. They should know what that means.
Jimmy Purdy [00:47:29]:
Going back to the assuming thing, right? Like, yeah, you should be able to fix the car. You should be able to do this. You should be able to answer the phone. You should be able to sell a job, you should be able to sweep, should be able to mop. You know, and sometimes it gets a little ridiculous. You know, you start writing procedures on how to, how to effectively mop the floor.
Andrew Clement [00:47:44]:
You might have gone just to push back on that narrative just a little bit. When I was, like, in high school, I had. I did, like, a week long apprenticeship at this, at this local shop, and. And I learned more in a week working in a shop than I did an entire year of high school shop class. So I actually stayed full time at the shop after high school. But I was mopping the floor, and the guy goes, dude, you're mopping wrong. And I was like, it's a mop. Like, how can I be mopping wrong? And he was like, you're taking ten minutes to map a bay.
Andrew Clement [00:48:16]:
There's a faster way to do this. And he, like, shows me how to do it. And I was like, okay, that makes sense. Like, there is a better way to mop.
Jimmy Purdy [00:48:25]:
Yeah, I guess. I guess to that point. Another. Well, it's to your point. And, like, if I hadn't done wrestling all through high school, I probably wouldn't know how to effectively use a mop either, you know, like, we all gotta mop, mop the maps after practice, so you get good at that. So another one of those life skills that you learn early on that you don't realize everybody else again.
Andrew Clement [00:48:41]:
And we just, we just assume, like, it's a mopede. Everybody knows how to. And then you have, you have young people coming in that have never touched a mop in their life, and that's what's wrong with America.
Jimmy Purdy [00:48:50]:
So. Right, so routed procedure for mopping, I guess. All right, I was wrong. I'm proved wrong again. Yes, that's true.
Andrew Clement [00:48:57]:
That's not my goal of coming on here.
Jimmy Purdy [00:48:58]:
I just, it happens bad. That's what I do. I got no, I got no problem being proved wrong. Literally happens to me all day long, all week long. But next year, I'll be smarter than I was this year, so that's all that matters.
Andrew Clement [00:49:11]:
That's, that's, that's the thing. Is. It's, it's that, that drive. It's that drive to want to be better. I want to be better tomorrow than I was yesterday. I want to be better next year than I was now. And when not everybody has that ambition, and I don't know how to, and I don't know if it's even possible to instill that ambition in somebody. But whenever we as professionals decide that we've made it, we don't need any more help.
Andrew Clement [00:49:36]:
We don't need to learn anything else. We've got this figured out. Like, when we stop learning, that's when we run into trouble. Like, I've seen so many shops fall apart or just be the, you know, the classic, the classic shop owner that's working insane hours, can't find anybody to help him, is trying to fix all of the cars. But hey, at least his prices are cheap. You know, it's like, that's how we end up in that position is because when someone comes along and goes, hey, you need to raise your prices so that you're not so busy, so that you can actually make a living within a reasonable amount of time, they go, now, this is how we've done it forever. I'll lose all to learn and adapt.
Jimmy Purdy [00:50:15]:
You probably should learn it and use them all because they're not paying you enough, you know? Yeah, but to the point of like, one step forward in the right direction to, to get a little bit more motivation out of the younger. I'm pretty much everybody is. It really is setting expectations, and it sounds, it sounds worse than it is. But I, when you give someone clear cut expectations of exactly what you want them to do, and then you ask them if they want to be the best at doing that, everybody does. Doesn't matter what it's mopping the floor, fixing a car, selling a job, whatever it is, like, whatever you're doing, your purpose in life at that day, that minute, right, is to be the best at it. And if it's not, then you got some interpersonal shit you need to work on. Most people want to be good at what they're doing. They want to have that sense of fulfillment.
Jimmy Purdy [00:51:06]:
So if you have short cut expectations, like, hey, your technician, you're here to bill 9 hours a day. That's, that's what your goal is. That's what your job is, to build 9 hours a day, have less than a 2% comeback ratio, and kick ass. Right? Like, you're going to be an all star technician if you do that.
Andrew Clement [00:51:23]:
Exactly. And when we give. So I started listening to business leadership podcast like two weeks ago, and I've been listening to this podcast, highly recommended. It's the entre leadership podcast. If you haven't heard it, definitely go check it out if you're in the business. The entree leadership entree entree leadership podcast. It's by Dave Ramsey's company or whatever. Anyways.
Andrew Clement [00:51:52]:
And if we don't have, if we as managers, and obviously I'm hypothetically, because I'm not a manager, I'm just a technician. But if we as managers don't tell, if we don't lay out what the expectation is, then we're setting up our people for failure. This is my least favorite part about starting a new job is it's like, I don't know what the expectation is. I don't know where the brake clean is. I don't know what I'm expected to do when I, you know, we, so we have, the shop I work for has a brake inspection, and I got chewed out like twice for not doing the proper procedure for what they sell as a brake inspection. It's like you guys never told me how you want the brake inspection done, right? Like, you know, you're asking me to do this, this brake release test, see if a caliper's hanging up. It's like, I have done a thousand brake inspections a year for the last eight years and I've never had a problem with that.
Jimmy Purdy [00:52:49]:
I want to just unpack that just a minute before you go on to. So if you were to have say, like training mods or training videos, do you feel like that would be useful? Like, if you went to work for somewhere and they gave you a collection of videos, said, this is our. And they, you watched another technician do the inspection the way they want you. Do you feel like that would be fruitful or do you feel like that'd be a waste of your time?
Andrew Clement [00:53:10]:
I feel like it depends on the technician. So there's different, there's different ways that people learn. So for me, I, here's the thing. I get, I get paid on hours going out the door. So if I get told before you can turn any hours, you have to go watch 2 hours for the videos. Like, I'm like, I hate this. Like, I, you know, I'm not going to want to absorb that, right? If it's like, hey, your first, you know, your first week, you know, we're going to, we're going to pay you the hours you bill does not matter. We've got, you know, day one, you've got, you know, three or 4 hours worth of video that you're going to watch that walks you through our process to do things, and then you're not going to fix anything.
Andrew Clement [00:53:49]:
You're just going to follow this, you know, our top guy around and watch how we do these different things. I think that would be a benefit if it's, if it's in tandem with, okay, we've watched the video that talks about how we want to do whatever this thing is, and now you're going to go do it with someone that knows the process so that you learn the process. Because when we, when we fail to manage expectations, it just leads to frustration all the way around. And when we have expectations managed and we start to develop trust. And when you develop a relationship of trust between a service advisor and a technician, inevitably when conflict of some kind comes up, whatever that is, when you have trust in a relationship, that conflict becomes just looking for the truth. Right. It's a quest. A quest for what's, what's correct or what's right.
Andrew Clement [00:54:40]:
And it's not about me beating you, it's about what is, what is the correct thing here.
Jimmy Purdy [00:54:45]:
And it's a team effort. We're all in this together.
Andrew Clement [00:54:47]:
Exactly. Yeah, we're, we're all pulling that way. And if I'm pulling that way and you're pulling that way, like, of course we're going to have problems. And it's obviously, it's easy to sit back after, you know, a long day and talk about how great, you know, it's just I, ideologically, wouldn't it be great if we just all pulled for the same team? And then you get into work and somebody borrowed your tool and didn't put it back and, you know, it's, or.
Jimmy Purdy [00:55:10]:
The advisor calls you out on a bag diagnostic and you lose.
Andrew Clement [00:55:14]:
All of a sudden it's like, hang on, you want to come do this job?
Jimmy Purdy [00:55:18]:
Well, it's easy. It's easy with, from the 30,000 foot view, right? Like you can take a step way back and you can, and you can see, oh, these are the things you need to do. But when you're in there and you're deep in the middle and thick of it, you know, you're in the weeds, you don't see much that's over, you know, over your head. And I have that problem too with withdeze, you know, high level diags that come in and, you know, it gets kicked to me because this, this is going sideways pretty quick. I'm just going to take it on. I'm going to look at it before you know it. I'm two or 3 hours deep into it.
Andrew Clement [00:55:48]:
Pay somebody to do that, my friend.
Jimmy Purdy [00:55:50]:
Yeah, well, you know, and sometimes, sometimes when the shops flown, that's the difficult conversation. Right. Because it's like, okay, well, I have all this like brakework, suspension work and I got guys that are like just animals ready to go in there, knock it out, you know, and like, so am I gonna hang them up on this high level diag when I have all this gravy work to do?
Andrew Clement [00:56:10]:
Sure.
Jimmy Purdy [00:56:10]:
And they can, and they can build the hours is like, so that's. And so, okay, you guys do that and I'll take on that assessment. And then I get buried in this assessment when I need to be in the office doing my thing and I'm putting the blinders on again. Right. I'm not, I'm not taking my step back like I'm supposed to. So, like you said, it's, it's easy to talk about it, but when you're in the day to day operations, you're like, this is, this just makes sense right now. I'm gonna go do that, you know?
Andrew Clement [00:56:34]:
Exactly, exactly. And that, that's something that previous shop owners I've worked for, I think, have fallen to that trap of you're so busy working in the business that you're not able to kind of take a step back and work on the business. And when you're able to work on. Yeah, I'm sorry, say it again.
Jimmy Purdy [00:56:51]:
Oh, and to define what that is exactly.
Andrew Clement [00:56:55]:
Yeah.
Jimmy Purdy [00:56:56]:
How do I step back? What do you mean work on the business? What am I supposed to be doing? You know, and you feel that. You feel like you're not being useful because you're just sitting there at the computer at the office and you're like, right, yeah.
Andrew Clement [00:57:06]:
Like, we make money when, when cars get fixed. If I'm not fixing cars, what are we doing?
Jimmy Purdy [00:57:10]:
Absolutely. Yeah.
Andrew Clement [00:57:12]:
And it's, yeah, it's, it's, it's frustrating because obviously, it's, it's easy to armchair quarterback this thing from, from here, but, yeah, like you said, when, when you're in the trenches, when you're in the weeds working on stuff, it's, it's just, we just got to turn these cars out. And sometimes, yeah, it does, it doesn't work as perfectly as we can, but in those, in those slow times when we have time to think about it, putting into place processes is really important because then when we get down in the weeds, we've got a roadmap to follow. Right. We're not just, you know, flying by the seat of our pants. We can, we can give, we can, you know, assign work how it needs to be assigned. We can get stuff done. There's. There's processes for when someone gets stuck there.
Andrew Clement [00:57:54]:
Like, this is why having actual written out processes is so important. And I think a lot of, especially small shop owners, miss that because this is a direct quote from a previous shop owner. I asked, what is our process for this? And he's like, well, our process is what we do. Like, no, no. I mean, like, how are we supposed to do it? He's like, well, how you've been doing it is what you're. How you're supposed to do it. It's like, well, that doesn't tell me anything. Like, I've done it three different ways.
Andrew Clement [00:58:20]:
Which one's right. You know, it's.
Jimmy Purdy [00:58:23]:
And it avoids, it affords a decision fatigue, right. Because, yeah, there's only so many decisions that you and I could possibly make in a day, and I don't care who you are. Like, there's a point in your life where you will face decision fatigue, right. And it'll be in the middle of the day and the end of the day, Monday morning, whatever it is. You're just, you just, you can't make another decision. Like, and it. As small as they are and as easy as they are, right. And as good as it feels to start directing that traffic, you get to the point where, like, well, this is the thousandth time I've had to answer this question.
Jimmy Purdy [00:58:59]:
I've had to make this decision, right. And it's just same thing when you're diagnosing a car, making those difficult. You got to make some difficult decisions, right. Like, you get to a point, you're 3 hours, 4 hours in. Like, you shouldn't be 4 hours in on a diagnostic. Like, right?
Andrew Clement [00:59:12]:
Like, dude, on a 1 hour diag, mind you.
Jimmy Purdy [00:59:15]:
Well, well, I mean, there's like, what, a .01 percentage of vehicles that really need like 5 hours of testing, you know what I'm saying? Like, within, within about two or 2 hours, you should be like, on a clear cut path and by hour three at the most, right. You should be making a difficult decision. Like, all right, dude, it's time. It's time to cut and like, call something out, right. And it's hard to make a decision. That's the point I'm trying to get at. Like, and so when you have all these, this information coming to you all day and you have to make all these decisions, and you have to make them quickly because you're paying all these people, and you don't want to take a step back and, like, think about the situation. You're just like, all right.
Jimmy Purdy [00:59:52]:
Done, done, done, done, done, done, done, done, done, done, done, done, done, done, done. And I can move back to do what I'm doing. Right. You. Eventually your brain just says, that's it. Then you start making the wrong call. You're making wrong decisions, you're treating people the wrong way, and it's decision fatigue. And without those systems and processes where a lot of that gets mitigated.
Jimmy Purdy [01:00:07]:
Go look in the binder. Look in the binder. Oh, there's no ansWer. PerFect.
Andrew Clement [01:00:11]:
Check the handbook.
Jimmy Purdy [01:00:12]:
Yeah, it's right there.
Andrew Clement [01:00:14]:
That was but a follow up thought on, I think, the importance of having process or, you know, an employee handbook, whatever you want to call it. But having a written binder book of stuff is, I worked. I worked for a guy, and I hounded him for two and a half years to, like, put together an employee handbook that lays out what the standards are and what some expectations are. And he finally gets us a handbook, right? Finally. And I'm reading through it, right? And I got, you know, I got handed to me as I was walking out the door home, and I, like, got home, and I thumbed through it, and I got back into Work, and I was LiKe, you know, according to this handbook, you should have fired me six months ago. Like, because this says if I clock in more than ten minutes early without written manager approval, I can be terminated for that. And I've been clocking in 30 minutes early for six months. Like, you know, it was.
Andrew Clement [01:01:07]:
It was like this generic corporate baloney he found on the Internet. Tweaked a couple of things, went, all right, here's your handbook. It's like, it wasn't really thought through or specific enough to actually be effective, and so it was like, it's not worth the paper it's printed on, so.
Jimmy Purdy [01:01:23]:
And who else is on that? Yeah, there's got to be. I know there's at least a. At least ten people listen, right now, they're guilty of that, because we all are, right? Like, everyone says, get an employee handbook together. So you go online, and you freaking chat GBT.
Andrew Clement [01:01:38]:
Employee handbook. And then, yeah, chat GBT. Make me an employee handbook for an auto repair shop. Right? Like, just take.
Jimmy Purdy [01:01:47]:
Well, then you gotta review it. Like. Like, ask me right now what's in my hand. Employee handbook. I'll be honest. I don't I'm not really 100% sure, mainly because my wife does a lot of the updates in it. But the point is, sure, like, go back through your handbook and read it every year and make updates to it and every six months, even if you need to. Right.
Jimmy Purdy [01:02:02]:
Like, that's one thing that's also missed. Yeah, if they want. If.
Andrew Clement [01:02:06]:
Yeah.
Jimmy Purdy [01:02:07]:
And you want them to take it seriously, then you need to take it seriously.
Andrew Clement [01:02:10]:
Exactly. And that kind of ties back to the earlier thought of, if you're not going to hold people to a standard, there's no point in having any standards at all. Like, a standard is worthless if a. If nobody knows what that standard is. Like, is it even a standard? And. And if we don't hold people to that standard.
Jimmy Purdy [01:02:30]:
Yeah, and that's. That's where the, the fuse on the dynamite gets lit. Right. It's. It's those small things that you, that, you know, as the owner, you know, as a manager, you wrote this stuff out and you can see someone getting away with it, and you're letting it slip and you're letting it slip and you're letting it slip and it's like, it's like the give and take, right? Like, so you're given a little bit and. And the technician's taking a little bit. The advisor's taking a little bit. Right.
Jimmy Purdy [01:02:52]:
Like, or the employee, we'll just put it that way. The employee's taking a little bit. Cause you're giving a little bit. Right. And it's like give and take. Give and take. Like, before you know it, you just blow up. You know what I'm saying? Like, you get to the point where, like, something stupid happens, they're like, they, they show up ten minutes late, which they've done for the last hundred.
Jimmy Purdy [01:03:09]:
For the 102nd time. But you've had a hard morning and now you're ready to, like, get after them, and it's like, that's ineffective leadership.
Andrew Clement [01:03:17]:
You know what I'm saying?
Jimmy Purdy [01:03:18]:
But you're so freaking fired up and you're like, this is it. This is the morning I'm going to blow up on them. And meanwhile, they're like, dude, this is like, I've been doing this a hundred times.
Andrew Clement [01:03:27]:
I did this yesterday and every day for the last month and it was fine. And now. And that's, and that comes back to the. Having the standard, right? And if this is the standard, the. An effective manager should be like, hey, here's the deal. 07:00 a.m. is your start time. If you're not here by 07:00 a.m.
Andrew Clement [01:03:47]:
then we're going to count that as a late abs, however you want to call it. We're going to count that against you. And if this happens, if this happens more than three times in a month, you're going to get fired. What can we do to help support you in making sure that that doesn't happen? How can. How can we, as management, support that team member to meet the standard that we're laying out for them? Right. So it's not just get your butt out of bed ten minutes earlier and show up to work on time? Cause that's easy to say. Well, my breakfast took longer to make this morning than normally does, and I was, you know, 30 seconds late. It's like, you know how we.
Andrew Clement [01:04:28]:
As. There's a concept that I heard on a podcast, which is a little more for the owner mindset, so more. More for you than. Than for me, also. It applies to everybody. But don't take this the wrong way, but everything is your fault.
Jimmy Purdy [01:04:41]:
Oh, yeah.
Andrew Clement [01:04:41]:
You know, and. And if. If Andrew is late to work, that's Andrew's fault. If Andrew's late to work because there was a crash on the freeway, that's still my fault because I didn't leave with enough buffer time to allow for some unexpected things. Right. If. If you have cultivated a. A culture where we don't really care about times, you don't get to be upset when people overrun their lunch break or they show up late to work or they leave early.
Andrew Clement [01:05:09]:
It's like, if you've created that culture that says the time clock doesn't matter, you don't get to be upset when people take advantage of that.
Jimmy Purdy [01:05:18]:
Yeah. Just because you had a bad day.
Andrew Clement [01:05:20]:
Yeah.
Jimmy Purdy [01:05:21]:
And if you're struggling for ways to, like, to put some sort of disciplinary action behind that, and it doesn't have to be like, I'm going to give you three times, then you're fired. Right? Like, one thing I've realized is that just having a conversation is all, is, like, enough. Like, you can say, hey, what happened? Right? And you give him a pass. Like, I got no problem with that, man. If you show up ten minutes late once a month, I'm not like, I get it. Like, it's fine. I don't care. I'm gonna talk about it, what happened.
Jimmy Purdy [01:05:50]:
Right. And it's gonna be quick. Like, oh, whatever. So and so. Make sure it's just not something that doesn't make sense. Right. Like, I just wanna know you're being honest with me. And then we're good.
Jimmy Purdy [01:05:58]:
Happens again.
Andrew Clement [01:05:59]:
Exactly.
Jimmy Purdy [01:06:00]:
We're going to, we're going to go in the office and we're going to sit down and just like you said, we're going to sit down and talk and we're going to find out how I can help you not be late again. And we're not leaving the office until we come up to it with a solution. Like, nobody wants to do that. Right, but that is so effective.
Andrew Clement [01:06:18]:
Exactly. But when, when we as managers are more, we have those, those private one on one conversations with our people more often. You know, when, you know, you were ten minutes to, like, when, when going and chatting with a manager in a, in his office or in a one on one setting is not abnormal. When we're, when, as managers were, it's normal to be like, hey, man, let me talk to you in the office for a minute. It's not because you're in trouble. And we build this culture of, like, how can we work together as a team when they're, it's easier to have the more difficult conversations if we're regularly communicating with our people. Right? If, if we're, if it's like once a year, the boss calls you in and goes, okay, we're gonna sit down, having a performance review, it's like, this is uncomfortable for everybody. And if you tell me, hey, this thing you've been doing for a year, it sucks, stop doing it.
Andrew Clement [01:07:09]:
I feel like crap because I've been doing this thing for a year. Whereas if, you know, once a week, I don't know, once. So I worked for a shop that every Wednesday. So we closed the shop down for an hour for lunch, and the boss bought lunch, and we just had a company sponsored lunch and kind of immediately just went over our numbers. Where we're at for the week, what are some things we're doing? Well, what are some things we need to work on? And there was this time where we sat down and talked about the way things are run. If somebody had a problem, we could voice it at that meeting. And it was like every week we were doing this. And so stuff got fixed.
Andrew Clement [01:07:46]:
It was like, hey, the AC machine is going to need a filter this week. It's like, we can get on that and get that fixed. That doesn't get, you know, lost going up through the chain or whatever. Like, there was a, a regular process. And if I needed something from, you know, from the owner, it wasn't abnormal for an employee to walk into the owner's office and close the door behind them and have a conversation. Like, that's just, that's how it works, you know? And, and when we, when we cultivate that culture of it's okay to have conversations, even if it's to correct bad behavior, when that's normal, it's much easier to have the harder conversations.
Jimmy Purdy [01:08:25]:
Yeah. I think it's like there's a lot.
Andrew Clement [01:08:26]:
Of word salad and maybe didn't make sense, but.
Jimmy Purdy [01:08:28]:
No, it makes sense. It makes perfect sense because that is another thing that we assume. Right. Like, a lot of us, I think most of us have an open door policy as a shop owner or as a manager and even anybody else in the shop, you just assume if someone has a problem with you, they'll come up and talk to you and tell you about it. Like, that's, that's an. We all assume as human beings, right? Like, if someone has a problem, what I'm doing, they'll come up and tell me about it. No, they won't.
Andrew Clement [01:08:53]:
Yeah, not so much, really.
Jimmy Purdy [01:08:55]:
95% of the population is very, very un. Does not want a confrontation, especially with someone they barely know, like, you know, and then above that, someone that they work with that they see every day, they don't want that confrontation. Cause obviously, in your mind, you build it up to be a lot worse than it's gonna be. Right? And so to your point, like, having just an open door policy is just not enough. Like, just assuming that your guys or your employees will come up and tell you when there's a problem going on. They will not. Right?
Andrew Clement [01:09:23]:
Yeah.
Jimmy Purdy [01:09:23]:
And just as much, just as much as being on the other aspect, I'm not going to go point out every wrong thing that they're doing. Right. I'm not going to do that either. But it's, it's still one of those things that you just assume that it's going to happen. Like. And same with that. Well, if I'm doing something wrong, the boss will come tell me, well, I probably should. Right.
Jimmy Purdy [01:09:42]:
And I gotta get a little better, and that's taking my battles. Right. But it's like one of the things that everyone just assumes if they're doing something wrong, they will get told that they're doing it wrong. And it doesn't work that way. You have to have that open communication that's really, really hard to build.
Andrew Clement [01:09:56]:
Yeah. And that's, and that's thing is, like, and I feel like a lot of people, when, when there's a difficult conversation to be had, a lot of us just kind of, like, we get inside of our own head and we just kind of psych ourselves out of, you know, thinking about it. I had. I had a situation a couple weeks ago where I had to. I've had, like, I had, like, a couple of. Of different out of state trips where I had to take time off. And one of these trips, I had a meeting. It went kind of sideways.
Andrew Clement [01:10:24]:
We ended up having to reschedule, and so I had to call my boss and tell him, hey, I need to take another trip, you know, and take half of a week off for the third time in a month, you know, and it's going to put me over my vacation days. But this is really important to me, and I need to do it. And I, like, I spent, like, 30 minutes psyching myself up for this, and I was really worried about it. I was like, what is he going to say? What if he says no? Like, this is really important. I got to do this. And I finally, like, this is dumb. I got to call him. I call him.
Andrew Clement [01:10:52]:
He answers the phone. I was like, hey, something came up. I need a couple extra days off. And he's like, yeah, no big deal. We'll make it work. Like, it was like I had gotten myself so worried about what, you know, what is he going to say or what's going to happen? Or how am I going to communicate this? And it was like, it was a two minute phone call, and it was no big deal. And I went through all of that worry for nothing.
Jimmy Purdy [01:11:16]:
You can take a step further and say, you get to the point. You don't even make the phone call. So then you go to work, and then you're pissed off at him because he wouldn't let you take the time off, and you're like, you didn't even call me, man.
Andrew Clement [01:11:26]:
Exactly. Exactly.
Jimmy Purdy [01:11:28]:
You got this animosity. Like, dude, why are you so pissed off? Because I needed some extra days and you didn't give it to me. Like, you never asked.
Andrew Clement [01:11:34]:
You gotta ask, bro.
Jimmy Purdy [01:11:37]:
Oh, I guess I didn't get that phone call, did I? Just. I just assumed you were gonna say no.
Andrew Clement [01:11:42]:
Yeah, and that's. And that's the thing is, like, that's where. That's where cultivating an environment where open communication is the normal and not. And again, like you said, not just saying we have an open door policy. Like, you can come talk to me, whatever. It's like, nobody does that, you know? And so when. When you're intentional about cultivating that. That.
Andrew Clement [01:12:00]:
That conversation between, you know, team lead and team member, it's just. It's better for everybody. Cause I'll come to work and I'm all grumpy because, like, by golly, you didn't order the right part for me, and I'm grump at that. And it's like, did I ever ask for the right part? You know, or whatever the situation is, it's like, you can't be mad because of what you think someone will say. Like, it doesn't make any sense that you would be grumpy because, well, they're probably gonna say no, or they're probably gonna. Whatever. Like, communicate. Communication solves so many problems, and I'm obviously.
Andrew Clement [01:12:40]:
Yeah, yeah, that's. That's. That's the other.
Jimmy Purdy [01:12:43]:
On yourself to say, you know, what? Is there something I can do to solve this versus getting mad or complaining about it? What can I do to help solve this? Right?
Andrew Clement [01:12:55]:
Yep.
Jimmy Purdy [01:12:56]:
And that's. I mean, that's. Every day it's. It's. For me, it's like, what could I have done to change? Like, because there's always something you could have done differently to have a different outcome than where you're at right now. Like, for everything. Like, just in life in general, but definitely in the shop, right?
Andrew Clement [01:13:11]:
Like, oh, yeah.
Jimmy Purdy [01:13:12]:
If I wasn't, you know, stressed out about that, I would have made a better call on this. If I was like, there's always.
Andrew Clement [01:13:18]:
If I had checked that fuse first, we could have found the problem.
Jimmy Purdy [01:13:22]:
Yeah. And then, well, then you go down the what if, what if rabbit hole. And that's a whole different mental construct you got to keep yourself out of, but move on with your life. Right? But, like, yeah, owner, you know, owners, you know? Like, you. You made the mistake. Like, own the mistake. It's cool. I won't do it next time, but don't let, you know, lose sleep over.
Andrew Clement [01:13:41]:
Own it, learn from it. Move on to don't. Don't sit and dwell on it for. And that. I think that applies to every. Every aspect of your life, really. It's like, we all make mistakes. We're all human, you know? I I can.
Andrew Clement [01:13:53]:
I can go around and. And get on all the. All the podcasts that I want, and, like, I still make bad calls from time to time. I still screw stuff up, you know?
Jimmy Purdy [01:14:01]:
And, oh, yeah, I have absolutely no. No idea what the hell I'm doing as a shot. I got. I'm learning every freaking day, man. Like, I learned recording these things with. With you people more than anything else I do. So it's like, I gain more out of this than the people listening, to be honest. I have literally no idea what the fuck I'm doing.
Jimmy Purdy [01:14:23]:
But I'm learning.
Andrew Clement [01:14:25]:
On the other hand, I know every. No, I'm kidding. I don't know anything. I just, I've watched a lot, I've observed a lot, I listened to a lot. And, yeah, it's, it's a, it's, that's thing is, if you're not, if you're not willing to learn, what, what's the point? You know, we had a. One of my, what his position is. I think he's the shop manager, not the foreman. The shop manager came through.
Andrew Clement [01:14:54]:
We had a sheet from one of our vendors. It's a class coming up, you know, and it was like, hey, do you have any interest in going to this class? And it's like a, it's something voltage. It's an electrical diag. Class. I don't remember the details of it. And, like, half the guys are like, well, you know, I don't know. It's, you know, it's on, it's after work, and it's like, dude, it's free food and learning. Like, just go.
Andrew Clement [01:15:19]:
Like, I don't. You tell me there's a class. It's like, you know, am I dead? No. Great. I'm going to the class. Like, you know what?
Jimmy Purdy [01:15:28]:
Are you gonna go and watch tv?
Andrew Clement [01:15:31]:
Yeah. And I mean, like, I have a family, so it's like, I want to spend time with my kids, but also, you know, how much more money I make now than I did four years ago because I went to every single class I could get my hands on. And I, you know, I increased my skillset, I increased my knowledge. I got better at what I do, and now I make more money. Not that life is all about money, but, like, the guys that are like, oh, well, I don't, you know, I can't really squeeze class into my schedule. It's like, that's why I'm, you know, that's why I'm up, you know, 15, 20% this year over last year, and you're up 0% because I'm going to, you know, I can do more. I got to use on just like, to jump down a little tiny rabbit hole with a lab scope because I'm kind of a nerd, and I like to think I'm good at it, and I'm not, because every time I get in trouble, I just have to call my good, my good buddy, uh, Sean tipping over from the automotive diagnostic podcast. Quick plug for his podcast.
Andrew Clement [01:16:31]:
If you like cars, go listen to that.
Jimmy Purdy [01:16:34]:
Anyways, he's got awesome content, for sure.
Andrew Clement [01:16:36]:
Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. It was funny. I went on his podcast almost a year ago because I had this. I had this scope trace and this diagnosis. I was like, I don't understand this. And nobody in my shop can talk about this stuff on this level with me. And I got to talk to somebody, and he schooled me, and it was a humbling experience. But anyways, had a.
Andrew Clement [01:16:57]:
I had this. I had this car last week, actually. It's in my bay right now. It's a 2016 Ram 1500. And the customer's concern was a misfired idle that goes away when you come up off idle. And this truck has been to one or two other shops where they have installed 16 spark plugs, all eight coils. They did a compression test, and it tested good. And please tell me they either swapped or replaced fuel injectors.
Andrew Clement [01:17:35]:
It doesn't look like they put a PCM in it. I think they said, we don't know, we're sorry, before we put a PCM in.
Jimmy Purdy [01:17:41]:
Anyways, I guess the PCm would have been like a $9,000 bill because you had it done all the modules.
Andrew Clement [01:17:47]:
Yeah, yeah.
Jimmy Purdy [01:17:48]:
Hell of a parts cannon. Holy shit.
Andrew Clement [01:17:51]:
Yeah, that's. That's the thing. It's like. It's like. And then you come to me, and I go, this should be a two hour diagnot. Like, our normal diag is, you know, is a 1 hour, 1 hour diag. And I'm like, well, first of all, the picoscope doesn't come out for an hour. Like, it's a $4,000 tool, my guy.
Andrew Clement [01:18:09]:
Like, we're not breaking that out anyway. But long story short, I was into the diagnostic portion of it. So we. We do a. Our digital vehicle inspection is. We call it a courtesy inspection, which means that I don't get paid for that, which is a whole nother can of worms that I would love to dive into. But we don't have time on this podcast for that. But in actual diag time, I was into this repair or into this diag for, like, sub 30 minutes, and I had a 90% confidence call.
Andrew Clement [01:18:47]:
Did a relative compression test with the scope and an amp clamp. We saw we had a cylinder that was high on compression and made the call that there's only. There's only one thing or one set of components that can cause high compression on one cylinder, and that is if there's an exhaust valve that's not opening or not opening all the way. And that would track with our symptom. And so we. We sold it as a pull the valve cover and check it. And with the valve cover off, crank it. You can see that the exhaust valve on that cylinder doesn't move as far.
Andrew Clement [01:19:22]:
And I don't even know where we're going with this. Point is, um, pay for good diag. And I got lost with my mental thought. The point is, I'm working on this stupid truck right now, and I hate it.
Jimmy Purdy [01:19:35]:
Well, yeah, watch. Watching the pressure waveforms and knowing what that stuff is, right? So, that's. Yeah, and that's probably what Sean showed you, is I was like, this is. This is how you can watch the peaks in the valleys when you're looking at the pressure.
Andrew Clement [01:19:48]:
Yeah. And. Well, and I didn't. I didn't even go to a pressure transducer. I just. I just put an amp clamp on the battery cable and cranked the engine, and. And I had. And I had, like I said, what I would determine to be a conclusive call in a reasonable amount of time.
Andrew Clement [01:20:02]:
And my service advisor is looking at this squiggle going, you want to sell them a six or $7,000 repair based on a squiggly line? It's like, yeah, dude, I do. Anyways, I took it. Took it apart today, and the roller lifter for the number three exhaust cylinder was like, the needle bearings had locked up, and the wheel was all messed up, and the cam lobe was eaten about 70% of the way into nothing.
Jimmy Purdy [01:20:33]:
Wow.
Andrew Clement [01:20:33]:
Took it apart today and. And found the failure. But it's. You've got to. You've got to have good people. You've got to be able to communicate and trust your good people. And it's okay if somebody knows more than you.
Jimmy Purdy [01:20:47]:
Yep.
Andrew Clement [01:20:47]:
Like, just because you don't understand it doesn't mean it's not correct, you know? And give them enough rope to hang themselves with. Like, I don't know.
Jimmy Purdy [01:20:59]:
Fair enough.
Andrew Clement [01:21:02]:
Like, I don't know. If I don't understand something, it's like, give it a shot. See what happens. If we fix the car. We fix the car. Great.
Jimmy Purdy [01:21:09]:
Make the difficult decision. Damn it. Make the call. That's it.
Andrew Clement [01:21:14]:
Yeah.
Jimmy Purdy [01:21:17]:
Well, thanks again for coming on, man. I do appreciate your time.
Andrew Clement [01:21:21]:
Yeah, yeah, it's.
Jimmy Purdy [01:21:22]:
It was. And, uh.
Andrew Clement [01:21:23]:
Yeah, we definitely talked in circles for a little while, and I would apologize for that, but I don't know about you, man, but I worked all day. Yeah. Get to the end of the day, man.
Jimmy Purdy [01:21:37]:
It's all good.