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My name is Jeff, and I'd like to welcome you on a journey of reflection and insight into the tolls and triumphs of a career in automotive repair.
After more than 20 years of skinned knuckles and tool debt, I want to share my perspective and hear other people's thoughts about our industry.
So pour yourself a strong coffee or grab a cold Canadian beer and get ready for some great conversation.
Mr. Subaru [00:00:04]:
A lot of people think that I'm just out here blocking people because I'm a crybaby or I was proven wrong by someone or it's on and on and on. The fact that it's got so overwhelming, I don't have any time in my day to allot for that negativity. So it's easier to block, delete, and move on with my life than get in a squabble fest with someone in the comments or make videos back and forth. So this morning, this guy comes on, trash talks. Block, delete, move on with my life.
Jeff Compton [00:00:34]:
What I want people to do is that aren't necessarily know about you guys. They're gonna know about you when you're done.
Mr. Subaru [00:00:42]:
Mechanics of Tic Tac. Yeah.
Check Engine Chuck [00:00:44]:
And the people that don't know about this event.
Mr. Subaru [00:00:45]:
Yeah.
Check Engine Chuck [00:00:46]:
Follow us and see this. Will then know about this event too.
Jeff Compton [00:00:49]:
Because for all three of you. Have you. Well, you've been to events before, right?
Mr. Subaru [00:00:53]:
I didn't learn about this one till Enright posted about it last year and was like, why did I not know about this?
Jeff Compton [00:00:57]:
And you've been to events before, right?
Check Engine Chuck [00:01:00]:
You never.
Jeff Compton [00:01:01]:
Yeah, yeah, yeah. You're up near me. You're up near the. Farther north.
Check Engine Chuck [00:01:05]:
Yeah.
Jeff Compton [00:01:05]:
Poughkeepsie.
Check Engine Chuck [00:01:06]:
It's not even the distance. It's just the time.
Brandon Sloan [00:01:09]:
Well, you made it a pri.
Check Engine Chuck [00:01:11]:
Oh, that's right. Yeah. But I wouldn't consider that a training event. That was an expo.
Jeff Compton [00:01:15]:
Yeah. You know, so I'm sitting here tonight. By now, if you're listening, depending on how they do the editing of this, you're listening to another episode of the Jade Mechanic podcast. But if you're listening just on audio, you're probably hearing some familiar voices and you're like, how do I know that voice? Well, so my first guest comes from Poughkeepsie, New York. Check engine Chuck, who I've had on before. Chuck, how are you, buddy?
Check Engine Chuck [00:01:41]:
I'm doing very well. How are you doing?
Jeff Compton [00:01:42]:
I'm awesome, man. You know, we've talked about this and coming here for a while, and, you know, we thought it was going to happen last year, and it didn't. And then I got on with one of your lives and I kind of called you out and I said, hey, are you coming or not?
Check Engine Chuck [00:01:56]:
Yeah. And it finally gave me the push to make my way here, which I'm quite excited about.
Jeff Compton [00:02:02]:
And then sitting to my right, the man that knows no introduction or needs no introduction, Mr. Brandon Sloan. How are you doing?
Brandon Sloan [00:02:13]:
Pretty good, Jeff. How about yourself?
Jeff Compton [00:02:14]:
Good, man. Honestly, I got to say, I'm over the moon, tickled to have you three gentlemen here. And you're like, well, who's the third one? If you're not watching on camera, My third guest. Just say hello.
Mr. Subaru [00:02:28]:
Hello.
Jeff Compton [00:02:29]:
That is Mr. Subaru, everybody. Robert. How do you say your last name?
Mr. Subaru [00:02:33]:
Lazenby.
Jeff Compton [00:02:34]:
Lazenby. And I. You know me. I'm Jeff Compton. I'm the jaded mechanic. And we're sitting here at Asta 2024, and it is Friday night, so it's after beer 30, and we just finished. Some of us had the ASOG dinner, and it's Casino Night, so it's gonna be a fun night here. And what has got me really happy is by now, you kind of know this is.
Jeff Compton [00:03:01]:
This is about stories. So, you know, we're gonna talk about why you're all here, what made you decide to come here, and. And what your kind of experiences have been in here. And then obviously, we kind of want to know, like, what got you into this industry? Why are you in it? Why are you staying in it? What do you hate about it? Right. What do you love about it? So, Chuck, they kind of know your story, right? But give us kind of just the colesnortz version of. You're a mobile diagnostic programming guy. You do diagnostic almost 90 to 5% of the time, yeah?
Check Engine Chuck [00:03:42]:
Correct. Actually, at this point, I've essentially completely stopped taking on customer work. Unless it's an old customer of mine that I dearly respect or care about, or if I get a call from an old lady, she's like, my wheel fell off. I'll go help that old lady. But essentially, at this point, yes, I go to other shops or a very small handful of used car dealers and just do diagnostic work and programming and even programming. I'm still. I'm not programming everything. Yeah, there's things that I can't program yet, but the goal is to get to that point.
Jeff Compton [00:04:15]:
That's what you were talking about when we were talking about alive. What you wanted to come here. Well, take that next step.
Check Engine Chuck [00:04:21]:
What's even more interesting is on our last podcast, you asked me about getting into the EEPROM work. I said, well, I'm not. I don't want to put it that way. I'm not getting, like. I'm getting into the EEPROM work. I'm not doing EEPROM work. And the first class I come to take here, it turns out, is about e. Prom work.
Check Engine Chuck [00:04:36]:
And I. The description wasn't good enough for me to know that that was It.
Jeff Compton [00:04:39]:
Yeah.
Check Engine Chuck [00:04:39]:
But now I'm like full thrust into Eeprom where that, that class was incredible.
Jeff Compton [00:04:43]:
Yeah. And who's who taught that?
Check Engine Chuck [00:04:44]:
That was J.T.
Jeff Compton [00:04:45]:
Walker.
Check Engine Chuck [00:04:46]:
J.K. j.T.
Jeff Compton [00:04:47]:
Walker. Yep.
Check Engine Chuck [00:04:48]:
It was a very good class.
Jeff Compton [00:04:49]:
Yeah. Very good guy. Good guy. Now how big is your following right now on TikTok?
Check Engine Chuck [00:04:53]:
425,000.
Jeff Compton [00:04:55]:
Wow.
Check Engine Chuck [00:04:55]:
Yeah.
Jeff Compton [00:04:56]:
I'm not there.
Check Engine Chuck [00:04:57]:
No, I mean it's definitely, it's something, it's something to be proud of.
Mr. Subaru [00:05:01]:
Yeah.
Jeff Compton [00:05:01]:
You know, and we talk. It is a full time job.
Check Engine Chuck [00:05:05]:
I try to keep it as a part time job, but it's essentially a full time job.
Jeff Compton [00:05:08]:
It is a lot of commitment. Right then that's the thing. Like even you, Mr. Brandon, I see the work that you guys put into it and you kind of helped me and said, hey, if you do this, you do that and, and I'm getting there, I'm slowly getting there. It's, it's, it's a tweak thing for me. I gotta tweak things that go slow and. But it's been TikTok in the last year has been absolutely monumental to where I've been able to take this platform and I, you know, TikTok, China and you know, all that kind of stuff. I don't friggin care at this point.
Jeff Compton [00:05:44]:
Right. If I can get why my message out to more people, I'll put it on every platform I can. Right.
Check Engine Chuck [00:05:50]:
Steal my data, everyone else's.
Jeff Compton [00:05:51]:
That's right. Yeah. So Robert, Mr. Subaru, how are you?
Mr. Subaru [00:05:58]:
Tired, Tired.
Jeff Compton [00:05:59]:
It's a lot being here, isn't it? Yeah, yeah.
Mr. Subaru [00:06:02]:
That's every event I'm dragging. I'm just low energy kind of guy when I'm not in front of a camera.
Jeff Compton [00:06:07]:
Now the cool thing about this, and I'm not trying to stir the pot is you're sitting next to Chuck and you guys are cool, right?
Check Engine Chuck [00:06:17]:
Oh yeah, we've been talking for, we.
Mr. Subaru [00:06:18]:
Even picked fun at that last night on TikTok.
Jeff Compton [00:06:21]:
But he's like, yeah. Cause I saw the cart thing and he's like, Mr. Sue, why did you block me? But, and, and when I first met you the other day, because it was kind of a surprise to me that you were here.
Mr. Subaru [00:06:32]:
Yeah.
Jeff Compton [00:06:32]:
And then I said to you, I said, damn, you're taller than I thought you'd be.
Mr. Subaru [00:06:36]:
Heard a lot of that. Everyone, every single person.
Jeff Compton [00:06:39]:
And then when it's like when you, when, when I get to know you, you're not the villain that everybody I think sometimes makes you out to be.
Mr. Subaru [00:06:50]:
The character on social media. Yeah.
Jeff Compton [00:06:53]:
So with Chuck, why did you. I mean, you did block him, right?
Mr. Subaru [00:06:58]:
Yeah. I mean, there was absolutely no malice or anything in it. We never even talked to each other, never commented. Stitched video, nothing. There was just. It was always an influx when any time I had a viral tool video go out there, a lot of his followers would tag him in it, and it was fine. And then there was this one day, had been a. It was a Friday.
Mr. Subaru [00:07:17]:
It was late. I'd been through a thousand comments and all that, and I was wore out. And I think he, like, responded to one of the tags finally. And it was something kind of snarky, and I'm like, all right, whatever it.
Check Engine Chuck [00:07:27]:
Was, I remember very specifically after talking to him, that what I said when I got tagged was, this guy doesn't answer comments. He doesn't even follow anybody. Stop tagging me in his videos.
Mr. Subaru [00:07:37]:
That's what it was. Yeah.
Jeff Compton [00:07:38]:
Yeah.
Mr. Subaru [00:07:39]:
And I try to read every single comment, even if I don't respond to everyone. Cause it's just so. And, you know, it just takes so much of my time. Between emails and YouTube and Facebook and Instagram and TikTok and all the social media platform, I try to read everybody's comments, but I just don't have enough time in the day to comment on it or do anything else. More or less.
Jeff Compton [00:07:57]:
I don't have one tenth of probably the engagement that you do, and I don't even try anymore. I mean, I can keep it up on TikTok, I can keep it up on Facebook, but the other two, like YouTube and Instagram, I'm not following it. I can't keep up with everything. I've got to go to work every day still and fix a bunch of cars. And, I mean, and that's not an excuse because you all have much busier lives than me, right?
Brandon Sloan [00:08:22]:
Yeah. And what people, I think, don't realize is that the amount of followers that we have here sitting in this room today and the comments and the emails that come through, it takes a toll on us.
Check Engine Chuck [00:08:37]:
Yes.
Jeff Compton [00:08:37]:
Yeah. Yeah.
Brandon Sloan [00:08:39]:
We try to get to as many people as we can, and then we still have people that will continuously comment in each comment section, but still will get frustrated because we don't see it and we don't respond, and they get very mad and angry.
Mr. Subaru [00:08:55]:
Right.
Brandon Sloan [00:08:56]:
And that's. I think that's the other side with social media that takes the toll on you, Robert.
Mr. Subaru [00:09:01]:
I literally had that this morning while I was sitting in class. I was trying to answer some emails. No disrespect to the instructor or the class. But I kind of picked the wrong class for me this morning. That it was a little bit less, you know, it was a basic class and it was like, okay, this is already stuff. I know I picked wrong from the description, but no disrespect to him whatsoever. It was a phenomenal class. He did great.
Mr. Subaru [00:09:25]:
But I was just trying to catch up with some stuff early on, and one guy on Facebook just came in to talk trash, and a lot of people just come on just to, you know, talk trash about me or be derogatory towards me. And nothing of content or content. Nothing of substance. You know, it's just hateful or mean.
Jeff Compton [00:09:44]:
Yeah, he's not.
Mr. Subaru [00:09:46]:
Moving on with my life. A lot of people think that I'm just out here blocking people because I'm a crybaby or I was proven wrong by someone or it's on and on and on is the fact that it's got so overwhelming. I don't have any time in my day to allot for that negativity. So it's easier to block, delete, and move on with my life than getting a squabble fest with someone in the comments or make videos back and forth. So this morning, this guy comes on, trash talks. Block, delete, move on with my life. Boom. Here comes four comments on four other Facebook videos.
Mr. Subaru [00:10:16]:
I've got 16 different accounts. You're not gonna block me on all of them. You cry, baby. So block that one again. All of them get hidden again. Ten minutes later, here he is on another account. And it's just like, got 11 more to go through. People say, who has that much free time? And on the third account, he comments, you spend more time on social media than you do fixing cars because you're over here on Facebook blocking all my accounts.
Mr. Subaru [00:10:35]:
Like, well, I'm actually sitting at a trading expo right now. And, you know, it's just, you know, you're damned if you do, you're damned if you don't. Nothing you do will ever be looked upon as the correct way. So always have something bad to say with what you do or how you handle any situation, how you respond to anything. So it's, you know, the catch 22 is just sometimes it's just gonna be quiet.
Jeff Compton [00:10:56]:
Right?
Check Engine Chuck [00:10:56]:
But you see enough of that. And it does take a toll on you eventually, for sure it does. I mean, especially if you. And I'm not going to get into the nitty gritty of this, but a lot of people listening as well as you guys are going to know what I'm talking about. When you stand up for something that you believe in based off your morality, but you know it's going to get backlash, that takes a fucking toll on you.
Jeff Compton [00:11:17]:
Well, remember the. You like some sweet tea? Remember that? The whole thing that started with me and it's like you took that, damn, that's some good tea. And then you went. Started talking about me with the whole thing that started all that with Vermillion.
Brandon Sloan [00:11:32]:
Vermillion.
Check Engine Chuck [00:11:33]:
Right, right.
Jeff Compton [00:11:34]:
And you're like, damn, that's what you say. Strong.
Check Engine Chuck [00:11:37]:
As strong as me, man.
Jeff Compton [00:11:40]:
And that kind of was my. Well, that was my first kick into.
Check Engine Chuck [00:11:45]:
My wife got me into that.
Jeff Compton [00:11:46]:
Into really having like a conversation on TikTok before. I just scrolled it, watched.
Check Engine Chuck [00:11:50]:
Right.
Jeff Compton [00:11:51]:
That was going to be a conversation. And you. You called me out on and rightfully so. I think it was out of context that you were not understanding. And now I think as you know. But the backstory on that was like somebody used the term stealership.
Check Engine Chuck [00:12:08]:
Yes.
Jeff Compton [00:12:08]:
And that triggers.
Brandon Sloan [00:12:09]:
That's where Kirsten had taken a vehicle up to the dealership. I think it was to get a key program.
Jeff Compton [00:12:17]:
I don't remember code cleared because it needed ottaw. And she does not. She did not have Ottawa. And then she had said call it a stealership. Now, this is a person that has worked at the stealership in the past. That's me. That's you. That's you.
Jeff Compton [00:12:35]:
That's you. Right. I don't like that term, just to be clear. And I kind of took that and said with closing off my remarks about why I don't like that term and what I'm here about. And I said, some people that might use that term, maybe they just use that term because they couldn't hack it. I wasn't even calling her out specifically just of the constant. What I see online, the DIY segment. Not calling her a DIYer, but I've always like her because that tends to be what's a stealership.
Jeff Compton [00:13:05]:
It's somebody that feels like the dealership is too expensive. That's who uses that term. If you're a technician and you're using that term, you're offending you, you, you, me, and you might even be offending yourself if you used to be one. Now you can have whatever thinking you have about a former employer. And that's where she comes from. And I know where it comes from. And it's justified. Cool.
Brandon Sloan [00:13:28]:
Yes.
Jeff Compton [00:13:29]:
But it's. If you're going to put yourself out there and say, I'm a member of this industry. To me, you do it with pride. You do it with respect. You don't take the derogatory DIY term, DIYer terms that they like to sling around at us and use it against us. And that's where it went. And so you called me out and.
Brandon Sloan [00:13:50]:
I was like, man, well, it wasn't that. It was not that. I was saying that what you said is going to be held in this context is that other people can take it that way. And the thing is, when I was in that entire comment section, I'm just sitting here reading everybody going back and forth, and I would just refresh it to see the new comments that are coming in. And just watching that post and just seeing all I was seeing on both ends and what everybody was saying, there is a tactic that some of us use that will take one comment out of the comment section and stop that thread by making a video. It'll pull to the top. Now, the algorithm doesn't really do that too much anymore. So I can't.
Brandon Sloan [00:14:46]:
It used to, but it used to. And I could stop the conversation and say, hey, here it is. But if it's not like, in your face, it won't roll, you know, with people to gain the attraction and the attention to say, what's going on here? What just happened? So there's a context into it that we can throw to say where that is and stop it before it becomes detrimental to both parties.
Jeff Compton [00:15:12]:
And everybody, I think, thought that I was piling on her. Right? I was trying to. And that was never the case. The case was standing up for myself. Case was standing up for anybody that would have been triggered by that remark. And you can go. You shouldn't get triggered. You're just a crybaby.
Jeff Compton [00:15:28]:
If anybody that knows me. And I was a new boy on TikTok, but I'm the old hat on Facebook. You know what I am. I advocate for all of us at a level that most aren't and won't ever. So it just kind of. It stuck me and I reacted. That was not a pile on her. And if it came across that way, I stood up for myself.
Jeff Compton [00:15:48]:
I still don't think at the end of it that anything I said, I wouldn't take back one word of it, because I know part of what makes my character is, like, if I say it, I mean it. And I may. I may hurt people's feelings sometimes, and I may apologize. You and I. You and I. You and I. So. But it's it was the way it came out is what I was trying to say at the time.
Jeff Compton [00:16:13]:
And it's going to stay there.
Check Engine Chuck [00:16:14]:
I think it's hard for people to separate the fact that you were coming at the statement, not the person.
Jeff Compton [00:16:18]:
Yeah, yeah. And she has a lot of fans, let's be real. Yeah, she's got a fan club. And everybody immediately piled on me, you fat bearded. And I'm like, cool, man, who are you? You're somebody that like, why are you her fan? Let's really talk about that. If you want to talk about her, not judging.
Mr. Subaru [00:16:39]:
Right.
Jeff Compton [00:16:39]:
But like what do you really know about the context, subject matter that we're talking about at this particular time?
Mr. Subaru [00:16:44]:
You don't.
Jeff Compton [00:16:45]:
You're defending her because you think maybe that's the right thing to do. You're not in the conversation, bro. Get out of it. This is people in the industry having a conversation. Now you may be watching her for a completely different reason. I'm not hate on that. But you're now this subject matter you're not an expert on.
Mr. Subaru [00:17:04]:
See yourself out now in that same topic of conversation. I probably got into that ring as well. I don't know if you saw the video. It was a couple years ago and there was a couple that got really mad about it. About where I was calling out dealer text for a specific instance that happened to me personally. Where I don't think we got in the story Wednesday. No, a buddy of mine, real good buddy of mine, knew him for 10 years. He recently passed from ALS and he had a 17 year old daughter at the time and they were Subaru family.
Mr. Subaru [00:17:35]:
One of the reasons why we became friends always serviced their cars. But this was shortly after he got diagnosed and had already lost the ability to speak and was wheelchair bound. And she had a legacy GT 2005 at the time, needed some stuff done to it, had some steering issues and things and they didn't want to bother me with it. And also the travel back and forth with having to take care of him and move the car back and forth to bring it to me was going to be an issue. So they had a Dodge dealership, I won't name any names, but it was close by and it was a family friend of theirs that was in the service department. They said, well, we'll fix it for you. So I don't know exactly what the issue was because I never saw it beforehand. I only know what was done to it and how it was brought to me after two attempts.
Mr. Subaru [00:18:15]:
But there was an issue with the steering. They Replaced power steering pump and rack twice. Aftermarket parts on both. When it arrived to me, the power steering pump on a Subaru's three bolts that put it on the block on an EJ 255. Two on the front were stripped out, one on the back was holding it. There was a 10 millimeter jammed in the hole on the front which should have been 12 or M8 by 1.25 or. Anyway they stripped it out, stripped their aluminum block for the mount of the power steering pump. And the rack only had one bolt on each of the U clamps for the steering rack and the 17 year old girl's car.
Mr. Subaru [00:18:50]:
And I was infuriated when I saw the condition. It was brought to me after a dealership let that leave not once but twice. And also the fact that my buddy, you know, I was fired up, I was pissed. So I made this video. I didn't use the term stealership, but I was like some of you so called dealer techs that put out sloppy half assed work like this, put a bad look on all of us because for so many years Dateline 2020 and all these things, painting us all as scam artists and con artists and all this stuff. When you do this kind of stuff, which is not only just half assed, it's dangerous, especially on steering or braking components. But a steering rack not even fully bolted in, not even torque, nothing. You know, I went off and again I named no names, I pointed no fingers at anybody.
Mr. Subaru [00:19:33]:
But some people got in the comment section and were very mad about it. Even though I wasn't saying, I was thinking in generalities because we know in every industry there's always good and bad. There's not. You don't always point out someone's good or bad, but sometimes you need to hold people accountable for when they're not doing what they should be doing. And you know, I look at it this way, any car that comes in the bay, whether you know, the industry is set up against us anyway through the dealerships and flat rate and everything else, there's so much against a technician that's in a dealership or even independent that you know, just because you're mad at you had a bad day or you're mad at you're not getting hours that week or whatever, you can't just half ass a car, especially when it's something critical like that, because something happens and some injured kill, wreck something like that, it comes back on you, it comes back on where you work as a whole. There's levels yeah, every car that comes in there, you should work on it like it's your grandmother's car or your mother's car, just some random car. It's a paycheck. Put out the wind, you know, push it out the bay.
Mr. Subaru [00:20:29]:
Oh, well, that bolt, cross threaded screw, it just run out. The impact, that kind of like mentality I see in the comic section a lot on my stuff. And I think people have learned that I'm very particular about the way I do things and how I do stuff and that kind of hack quote unquote kind of mentality that's spread or popularized that run it with impact. How many uggaduggas is that? You know, who, what's a torque wrench that, you know, we've got to do better to. If we don't do better, act better, it's going to be hard for people to look at us better. You know, if we act like the way they think about us, that's going to reinforce that negativity that, oh, they're just a bunch of dumb grease monkeys. If you act like it, they're going to treat you like that. If you act professional, if you carry yourself accordingly, if you talk well and you do what you should and how it should be done and clean, respectable and presentable and change that, you know, that Persona or that image you project, then maybe slowly we can get some shift in the general public.
Mr. Subaru [00:21:29]:
But until then, you know, if they think you're a bunch of con artists, grease monkeys that don't know nothing and uneducated and you know you want to act that way, even if it's on social media playing around, you know, we all joke around and stuff and there's a line. But if on TikTok or social media platforms, the DIYer or the general public that's scrolling and it hits their for you page, they don't know the difference between inside joking and, you know, jabbing each other. And are they seriously like this?
Jeff Compton [00:21:55]:
So right there I'm going to cut you off because. Because you and I have talked about this. What yanks me really hard is misinformation. You and I have had this conversation and you are excellent at calling people out. Let's get the elephant in the room here. The famous video that went around from my favorite shop to talk about as of late Dave's Auto Shop, that video of the intake air temp sensor that. Oh my God.
Mr. Subaru [00:22:25]:
Okay. I wasn't sure which one we were going with. Yes.
Check Engine Chuck [00:22:28]:
You know I made a video about that, right?
Mr. Subaru [00:22:29]:
Yeah.
Jeff Compton [00:22:29]:
Oh, yeah.
Check Engine Chuck [00:22:30]:
Okay.
Jeff Compton [00:22:30]:
Yeah, that was in error. Made to call it a mass airflow sensor. No, no, no.
Check Engine Chuck [00:22:37]:
What was also in error was that PO101 ever existed on a speed density vehicle.
Jeff Compton [00:22:42]:
Exactly.
Brandon Sloan [00:22:43]:
Yeah.
Jeff Compton [00:22:43]:
Yep. But so lots of things are missed. Wrong, right? And misinformation. And I have said and you have said and lots of people have said it should be taken down, right? Oh yeah, right. It should be taken out. It's just blatant wrong misinformation.
Brandon Sloan [00:22:59]:
Yeah. If it's flat out because nobody's in the comment section trying to fix it. Now if I said something wrong and I watched it a couple of times and I missed something. But I mean, something like that is right.
Check Engine Chuck [00:23:11]:
No, but that's the problem is that the comment section doesn't know to correct it. And it's misinformation that now that comment section can believe. There might be people in that comment section that. Don't get me wrong, I don't love K and N by any mean, but people that might have threw out their KN and bought another air filter and put it in there because they think it's going to screw up their mass airflow sensor on an odd speed density.
Jeff Compton [00:23:34]:
Vehicle or a hundred people in the next day all over the Internet world, when somebody posts that I have a Dodge Charger that's not running right, they will say change the mass airflow sensor or clean it. And somebody will do you got a.
Mr. Subaru [00:23:46]:
Cane in air filter.
Jeff Compton [00:23:46]:
And somebody will go, it doesn't have one. And they'll go, it most certainly does. I just saw Dave put one in a video right at the end. That's the kind of nonsense that as a professional, I will always rally against because it's like, it's. Listen, I'm not trying to call him out for if you're just flat wrong, you're flat wrong. Okay? But you then as a professional need to put your hand up and go, hey, I was wrong and make that video and take the old video down.
Mr. Subaru [00:24:17]:
If we look at it face value, this was a hit piece against K and N. For what? Engagement? Yeah, which a lot of his things are targeted at driving the comic section and stuff. I didn't know who Dave was until March. I bought my L5P Duramax. And like a couple weeks later, my girlfriend's father sent me one of Dave's videos on the Duramax crank pin issue. I'm like, what the hell is this? I've never seen this about Duramax crank pins breaking. And Brandon and I talked and we were all about you know, back and forth about this. Like I've never seen this issue before.
Check Engine Chuck [00:24:52]:
Like if anyone thinks those pins hold the crank in place, you're deluded.
Mr. Subaru [00:24:56]:
Now I've talked to some people and.
Brandon Sloan [00:24:58]:
Hold the balancer or the oil drive or.
Check Engine Chuck [00:25:00]:
Sorry, yeah, if those pins hold the balancer, the oil drive in place, you're deluded.
Brandon Sloan [00:25:06]:
So a few of us were talking in a little, little group that I do have is just a couple of builders and together and one of them happens to own a couple of deuce trucks. And we were kind of just throwing the comment section, the conversation around, talking about the crankshafts and some things and what they have seen. And I know there's people that have a million miles on them and it's never happened to them. And there's some people that have happened like real early, even under warranty, brand new and the bolt was just loose. And some people will say that it's not after a water pump replacement. And it may be still an interference fit issue with. Has to do with the torque of the bolt because it has actually changed even with new L5PS. So that just came across to me as well.
Brandon Sloan [00:25:59]:
But I told him, I'm. I'm going to entertain this. I'm going to decide to entertain this since I do have an O2 Duramax that I'm doing the water pump on. I've got the ability to show and explain that and tell them what the torque value actually is in case somebody doesn't know what it is. And just do it very respectfully. And I did it just respectfully in that, in that manner. And it sparked a massive conversation to the point to where I couldn't keep up with the comment section. I just let it go.
Jeff Compton [00:26:29]:
Yeah.
Check Engine Chuck [00:26:29]:
And you become the bad guy.
Jeff Compton [00:26:31]:
Yeah.
Brandon Sloan [00:26:31]:
No, no, just let him. Let them, let, let those in the comment section handle it because that point, it would consume our lives to continue with the comment section.
Mr. Subaru [00:26:41]:
Right.
Brandon Sloan [00:26:42]:
Let them do that. Because we know the truth and we can see the truth and we can still talk about it later as we go.
Check Engine Chuck [00:26:47]:
I feel like if you let it ride, you better hope that comment section is smart, you know?
Brandon Sloan [00:26:51]:
Yeah.
Jeff Compton [00:26:52]:
Well, I've given up on the idea that most comment sections anywhere are smart.
Check Engine Chuck [00:26:55]:
I have faith in my followers.
Mr. Subaru [00:26:56]:
Yeah, I do.
Check Engine Chuck [00:26:57]:
I have faith in my followers. I really do, honestly.
Mr. Subaru [00:27:00]:
Well, see my whole back to that particular video. The only reason I brought it up was because that was my first. I'd never heard of him, knew nothing of him in scrolling before that video was sent to Me by the girlfriend's father that was like, hey, you just bought a Duramax. Did you know that? You know, he, he, he doesn't know. He's not a mechanic. He doesn't know this kind of stuff. He's just average person. And he's like, oh, man, that looks like a bad issue.
Mr. Subaru [00:27:19]:
This and that. Well, going back to the K and N video, you look at the top comments, there should be a GM TSB or recall. They should. There should be a class action lawsuit. You're, you're taking the general public that doesn't know much and you're infuriating them and you're enraging them and you're inciting all this stuff. But then if you watch the video through, you see what it is. I'm selling you the panic to sell you the cure. Cause, oh, this is the big crank pin issues on the Duramax.
Mr. Subaru [00:27:43]:
But if you come and get a Dave's Monster engine with a keyway in it, then you don't have the issue. Now again, you know, make your bag, whatever. But I don't like when someone does that kind of misinformation or stretching the truth or making a mountain out of a molehill kind of thing. You look at the comment section, the average person watching got enraged or got scared if they had a Duramax, should I trade my truck? All this stuff. And that leads me into the whole transmission seal thing that I'm sure everyone knows about right now.
Brandon Sloan [00:28:12]:
Yes.
Mr. Subaru [00:28:13]:
So my girlfriend's father, this was like a couple weeks in between when this happened, or a month. He has a Nissan Titan with a Cummins in it and the ICE in. He has the exact same truck. Yeah, he bought it before he told us he bought it. And I was like, oh, God. Anyway, so anyway, he sends me that video after he sent me the other one from Dave freaking out, do I need to sell the truck? Is it really that there's no parts for this thing? Is everything discontinued? Did I screw up? I was like, well, to a degree, yeah. They discontinued it shortly for a reason. But also like, no, that's a five year old truck.
Mr. Subaru [00:28:46]:
There's no reason they can't get it. Input shaft or, you know, the front seal on this transmission. So yes, I screwed up. I put my foot in my mouth. I jumped the gun. I saw it. And 0 to 100.
Jeff Compton [00:28:58]:
Yeah.
Mr. Subaru [00:28:58]:
So I was like, there's no way. There's no seal for this transmission. There's no way it's a $12,000 transmit. Because again, inside it's getting the rage up. This is a $12,000 transmission. It's how you start the video. This little seal failed. We got to buy a whole trend.
Mr. Subaru [00:29:12]:
This seals not of it. It's the whole thing again. You're creating that bigger rift between the consumer and the technician, which doesn't help the industry at all. They already distrust us. And you're making that divide bigger and bigger. It's not doing us any good. So I see that and I'm like, all right, I'm gonna go get online and start looking everywhere. Stupid me.
Mr. Subaru [00:29:29]:
Everywhere I looked showed the seven speed and the gasser. Because the Cummins and the ISON combo was such a rare option. It's not easily, you know, easy to find it, but it is out there. We all, after the end of it, determined that the seal exists. The truck was fixed, it went down the road. But it became this whole multi back and forth, multimillion view thing covered on these blogs and all this stuff blown way out of proportion over engagement and clicks on social media and Dave Ragebank.
Jeff Compton [00:30:00]:
Sitting there just smiling.
Mr. Subaru [00:30:01]:
Correct.
Check Engine Chuck [00:30:01]:
And what I was saying before about this kind of stuff, standing up for the right thing, taking a toll on you. When we go to Corey's engine, the only reason that customer didn't buy a $12,000 transmission is because he made that video. It's the only reason.
Jeff Compton [00:30:16]:
And see, that didn't come out too much in the narrative, did it?
Mr. Subaru [00:30:19]:
No, no, that video, the finale up the truck's fix is good. That's like 400,000 views. Two weeks after the 2.5 million. 3.2 million. You're the meat potatoes here.
Jeff Compton [00:30:32]:
It's like saying something about Trump and then they post a retraction, but the retraction is two weeks later and it isn't on the front page.
Mr. Subaru [00:30:37]:
Footnote of a footnote.
Jeff Compton [00:30:38]:
Yeah, but it's on page 30. Nobody ever reads right.
Brandon Sloan [00:30:43]:
Because as soon as. As soon as Mr. Subaru, as soon as Robert posted the video about the seal it, I jumped into action and started doing some research on it as well. Because I don't typically see those trucks in the shop. I've never touched one myself. But I do know guys in the industry that do work on them. So all I had to do was just kind of look everything up that and go behind what Robert had already done and verify. Okay.
Brandon Sloan [00:31:08]:
If I take more care to look at the video, I can zoom in far enough to state that the X means that it is a item to replace every time one time use. It's a one Time use part. It does not mean that it is not discontinued or that it is not available. And Dave did interject and apologize for that, that he did make that error and that mistake. But what it incited and created like a five part series like all week. Every mechanic and everybody across the world wanted to see everything going on with this truck. And so I'd already got in contact with a couple of people. I knew it was an AS69RC seal and it did match.
Brandon Sloan [00:31:55]:
And I still got some hate on it because, well, my micro, my digital calipers did not meet or was closed by like what, 3, 300,000th difference on it. But they don't take into account that it is a press fit seal one and it was pulled out and deformed.
Jeff Compton [00:32:14]:
Exactly right.
Brandon Sloan [00:32:15]:
So it's not going to be the same entirely, but it's right. Damn close, right? But I already knew it was the right seal. I didn't care what the comment section said. So at that point we go from a point to where a part that is shown on the screen that is not available, but it is available. But the only way you can see it, if you go to Nissan's catalog, it skips that truck for some reason. And then I had to make a phone call to Uncle Jay. I let him know kind of what was going on with Toby and stuff like that and started asking a little bit of questions, right? And come to find out that the engine and the transmission was supposed to be designed for military use and was licensed to Nissan for what, two years? Like 16, 17 models a year? Only maybe 18. But if those came into the dealership, Nissan can't work on it.
Brandon Sloan [00:33:13]:
It has to go to Cummins. And he only had one where the customer had hit something and damaged it and burned it up. And then they had to get the unit from Cummins. They had to send the customer to Cummins.
Check Engine Chuck [00:33:26]:
Was Jay able to find that seal?
Brandon Sloan [00:33:28]:
No. So what we found into it, it is not in the catalog. Okay, so that's where I came to the resolution that an Re6 R01A is not going to be in the catalog designed for that truck because Cummins has the info.
Check Engine Chuck [00:33:42]:
Okay.
Brandon Sloan [00:33:42]:
If the truck comes into a Nissan dealer, they can't work on it, right? Because it is Cummins stuff. So at that point where we find out that the seal that was actually there is incorrect because it's for an Re7 R01A, which is the seven speed, right? And there are differences where you can get parts on the aftermarket side because it Is physically a hybrid of an AS68 and an AS69 combined.
Mr. Subaru [00:34:18]:
Right? That's what I found Friday night before I made the video. It's a different case because there's no PTO provision on the Nissan like there is for the Dodge version. The bell housing is different because of the different bolt pattern for the 6.7 versus the 5 liter and the input shaft length was different because of the difference in the bell housing and the torque converter. And I think that was the only difference was the tail housing section was different or something too. But other than that, front to back guts wise is basically the exact same transmission. I found that before I found the incorrect seal. But at the end of the day the thing that ticked me off the most about it is it's a lip seal. It's not something special from Nissan only it's not from icen.
Mr. Subaru [00:34:59]:
It was a KOIO seal or an NTN seal and it has a part number cast in it like almost every other single lip seal there is. So don't tell me you didn't take that lip seal out and try to cross reference the KOIO part number or the NTN part number or whoever it was that made the lip seal and it's oh, I called the Nissan dealership. Not available, discontinued. But then at the end of the day, the worst part about it for me personally, because I took tell I handled it wrong. I should have rebutted after his first rebuttal where he picked my rebuttal apart. Cause there was plenty of things I could have gone back on him about. At the end of the day that wasn't the point. The point wasn't to clout Chase Dave.
Mr. Subaru [00:35:36]:
It wasn't to do anything other than to stop the misinformation about the seal and overblown that oh it's a transmission because the seal is not available. All that crap and but then the blowback on it was oh, this guy can't even close is good enough because the seven speed and six speed seal is different. Well, if I had it in front of me it would have been different.
Brandon Sloan [00:35:57]:
Who knows that, right? The people that work on them all.
Check Engine Chuck [00:36:00]:
The time essentially with enough care and enough research it can be found.
Jeff Compton [00:36:05]:
Yeah, right.
Brandon Sloan [00:36:06]:
Yes.
Jeff Compton [00:36:06]:
Oh, anything can, right?
Brandon Sloan [00:36:08]:
Three days.
Jeff Compton [00:36:08]:
Anything can.
Brandon Sloan [00:36:09]:
Three days. We had full all the information.
Mr. Subaru [00:36:11]:
It took us three days, which was my whole point. But people already have that Persona of them a dickhead, know it all, jackass, whatever that they took that ran with that that this guy wouldn't let work on a bicycle. He can't even find a seal. Oh, close is good enough. It's like, well, if I had the truck in front of me and the seal in front of me, there wouldn't have been a close. I would have seen that the seal I pulled out was the wrong one. I didn't have it in front of me. It's not the fact that I'm trying to, you know, fix it through the Internet.
Mr. Subaru [00:36:39]:
It's just calling out the BS of you could find the seal. Don't make this a big deal for nothing. With millions of views again, for that division between the customer base and the mechanics and them to think we're slimy again and all that kind. You know, it comes back to that.
Jeff Compton [00:36:52]:
That's why I keep thinking that we have to keep focusing on the word misinformation. Because if we keep it too much, people want to go. You're just trying to run him down for your numbers to go past his. Right. That's what people want to think about.
Mr. Subaru [00:37:07]:
Right.
Jeff Compton [00:37:07]:
None of us, I think in this room, you've heard me say, I barely look at my numbers. I don't give a crap.
Check Engine Chuck [00:37:11]:
I was happiest at 20,000 followers.
Jeff Compton [00:37:14]:
Yeah.
Mr. Subaru [00:37:15]:
Again, that's what I. Yeah. When you get this big following, you get this audience and the audience is. Can be directed as a weapon.
Jeff Compton [00:37:23]:
Yeah. So moving on with. And we're not getting off of Dave. This is not that we piled on him either, though. Don't take it that way. But it's a situation of the Corey's engine thing. Right. As an industry or as people on a platform.
Jeff Compton [00:37:42]:
When you think about what we did. Well, mostly what you guys did right. For. For. Can you think of. Can you think of. Could you think of any other time in this known history of the industry has we been able to change something to. For the better for a particular individual that deserved it.
Check Engine Chuck [00:38:06]:
It's very easy to do the right thing when everyone is watching.
Mr. Subaru [00:38:09]:
Yeah, yeah.
Check Engine Chuck [00:38:10]:
And. Yeah, no, I. The same thing. Corey would have never gotten that much fresher engine if this room hadn't done something about it. And. And that's why I'm okay with the amount of shit that I got over it. We. We changed the end of that man's life.
Jeff Compton [00:38:32]:
Yeah. I can tell you're getting emotional about it.
Check Engine Chuck [00:38:34]:
Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. I was emotional about it before.
Jeff Compton [00:38:37]:
Yeah.
Check Engine Chuck [00:38:37]:
Yeah.
Mr. Subaru [00:38:38]:
It's a messed up situation. You try to do the right thing to help someone, and then people still attack you for it because of the prior instances. Oh, you got. You took that. L The first time you're trying again. Yeah, like what, what, what dog do you have in the fight? All this stuff is like, well, Corey reached out to us because he didn't have a voice and didn't have a platform to get the attention, so we got the attention for him. We're trying to do what's right here and you're still piling on us like we're a bunch of clout chasing jackasses.
Jeff Compton [00:39:05]:
End of the day, to me, I'll put my hand right up and say, right. To me, it doesn't make a whole lot of sense to me that that particular truck, it was so important that it was numbers matching.
Check Engine Chuck [00:39:16]:
I get that.
Jeff Compton [00:39:16]:
But you know what? If it was agreed that that's what it was going to be, then that's what the fuck it should have been.
Brandon Sloan [00:39:22]:
That's in writing. It is in writing.
Mr. Subaru [00:39:25]:
Right.
Brandon Sloan [00:39:25]:
I have all three copies of the invoice and a web address with the physical picture of the engine as it was sent in and tested on their equipment.
Check Engine Chuck [00:39:36]:
Do you have a picture of the tile?
Brandon Sloan [00:39:40]:
I didn't see any in the background.
Jeff Compton [00:39:42]:
I see. So I'm out of the loop on the tile thing because I didn't catch that. You didn't see the response email didn't bother. I was trying to not go all the way in on that because it was just like it was too much.
Mr. Subaru [00:39:51]:
Another rabbit hole.
Jeff Compton [00:39:52]:
It was too much. Yeah. I have, I mean, like, let's be real. I'm trying to get my own interviews lined up and I. I'm going to.
Check Engine Chuck [00:39:58]:
Get a nasty text right after this podcast airs.
Jeff Compton [00:40:01]:
At the end of the day, it. It's not important that I understand Corey's wishes. At the end of the day, what we as professionals are supposed to be doing is if we say we're going to fucking do something, that's what we do.
Mr. Subaru [00:40:16]:
Right.
Jeff Compton [00:40:17]:
And there's somebody that has a huge platform and a huge following not doing it. And he got caught. It's no other excuse. You got caught, Mr.
Mr. Subaru [00:40:29]:
Right.
Brandon Sloan [00:40:29]:
Yep.
Jeff Compton [00:40:30]:
And it's not a situation that we were trying to dog pile you, but if you're going to put yourself out there, you better be right in your information and you better be have all your ducks in a row. And it isn't haterade that we're all drinking. It's a situation of we're trying to keep things. We're trying to improve this industry. We're trying to improve what people think about what you do. What you do, what you do, what I do. I Don't even really care if they think about what I do. Right.
Jeff Compton [00:40:57]:
It's a situation of we have to act like professionals. And that brings me to the point about. We were talking before we got on here. They're all like, what is your problem with DIYers? When I look at what most of the comments that feed our channels, it's a lot of DIYers. Okay, now, do I think they should not be on there? No, it's not my platform. But at the end of the day, if we all. This. Is this the something to think about? If we all didn't enable them? Just.
Jeff Compton [00:41:36]:
You're not vetted with me. I don't know who you are. I don't care. You're not in my team, you're not my people. Whatever the analogy you want to use, if I'm not giving you the bone, how much longer are you going to follow me for? You're probably going to follow me then just to be angry and troll me. You know what I'm talking about, right?
Mr. Subaru [00:41:57]:
Well, on TikTok, yes, but I think more. I have more actual technicians because of the tool content. Now, YouTube is completely separate than TikTok. Short and long content, short and long format content, completely different subject areas and everything else. And completely different following and everything else. I mean, the YouTube stuff is all. Well, it's not all, but the majority of it is diy. How to repair Diagnostic Subarus.
Mr. Subaru [00:42:25]:
There's some tool stuff and there's some general news about the brand and issues with the brand, but, you know, as in brain fart off the rails here. We were talking about the nastiness of DIYers. I don't really get that on YouTube because it's more people super appreciative for helping them out when they couldn't afford for something else that they were forced to have to learn how to fix it themselves to get by. Because, you know, things aren't that great right now and they haven't been for a while. But at the end of the day, I'm not trying to take anything away from a technician. I'm not trying to pull the rug out from under anybody else in the industry. I'm just trying to help more people out by helping out the consumer directly and also helping out the technician, saving money on his tools and getting the job done.
Jeff Compton [00:43:15]:
And that's what I love about your approach because you. I feel it's people understanding better the complexity of what it is that's actually going on inside of an automatic transmission and how you approach it. From the very first time. You'll hear me back if you listen to some of my episodes. I think I said to Chuck, I said, or somebody, there's nobody out there that I had seen putting the kind of content out with the detail about a particular subject the way you were. And if I've never thanked you for doing it, I'm going to do that right now. Because it impressed the hell of me. Because I'm not a transmission guy.
Jeff Compton [00:43:49]:
But I've seen a lot of them. I've worked with a lot of them. You were the first one that I've ever seen in my 30 some years of career. The guys in the dealership that ever approached it the way you did. You're the first true professional that I ever saw firsthand. And thank you for that.
Brandon Sloan [00:44:06]:
Thank you, Jeff. That does mean a lot to me, especially with the apprentices that I have taught and trained. Because my first one basically did everything before I even got into trying to explain to him in depth of hydraulic circuit diagrams. He's already got. He has went and printed everything off. He wanted to study it and every unit that he took apart. This was his idea that I'm going to study that one section and I'm going to memorize it. I'm going to memorize the specifications, how it comes apart, how it goes back together.
Brandon Sloan [00:44:44]:
And then we got into the diagnostic side of it. Everything that we can look at that, the scan tool information that can tell us from there how to determine whether it's inside, outside. And sometimes an electrical code can be a hydraulic mechanical code and people don't know that.
Jeff Compton [00:45:01]:
Yep.
Brandon Sloan [00:45:02]:
And it. I've had one recently that bit me.
Jeff Compton [00:45:05]:
I saw lots of Chrysler that it would give you an electrical fault, but it was actually what was going on inside mechanically that caused the electric fault. I think Chryslers were probably very common for that, you know. And that's again my background of I never took one out, tore it down, tested the valve body. It was like I did the circuit up to it and condemned that or passed it. And then it would back to them to decide what they were going to do. You know, at that point it probably got a unit. Right. Because it had been overhauled and a valve body and it was still.
Jeff Compton [00:45:35]:
So they probably got a unit and fixed. Yeah.
Brandon Sloan [00:45:37]:
And there are certain situations that why did it fail in the first place? Did you scan it? Did you try to test drive it and see how it was acting first? Now if it comes in and it can't move altogether and it's making a whole Bunch of noise. You're kind of like yeah. Okay. We've got to start from a baseline. We've got to go in and find out why it failed. And we have to find all the hydraulic leaks. That is the most important that I'm trying to push towards others is that. Well you just went in and you found this clutch pack where this band burnt and it failed.
Brandon Sloan [00:46:11]:
But how did it fail? Why did it fail? Yeah, you've got to find that root cause other than just replacing the clutch pack, replacing the band, putting it back together and it still doesn't work.
Jeff Compton [00:46:22]:
Right.
Brandon Sloan [00:46:24]:
And even some things engine related.
Jeff Compton [00:46:27]:
Yeah.
Brandon Sloan [00:46:28]:
Makes can make the transmission fail. The underlying cause or an electrical fault.
Jeff Compton [00:46:33]:
Which. Which one of the Silverados and have that bulletin or whatever that talks about if the mass airflow is skewed.
Brandon Sloan [00:46:43]:
Yeah.
Jeff Compton [00:46:43]:
It keeps taking the tranny out.
Brandon Sloan [00:46:45]:
It'll take the tranny out because it can't progressively. Or it may be getting false information and maxing line pressure out because line rise or the pressure control solenoid that controls the pressure throughout the entire transmission either during the shift and after the shifting holding pressure inside. It's off of throttle position sensor and mass airflow and temperature related stuff.
Jeff Compton [00:47:15]:
Yeah. And that. So that was for me like you were the first tech I've seen that made me wish I knew more about transmissions than I do. That's pretty cool man. Really is. And like for you to be able to reach because like I had zero interest in them. Right. I couldn't even if you.
Jeff Compton [00:47:39]:
If you put a test in front of me what makes them work and how I'd probably fail the test because it's been so long since I went through my trade certification and took the test. I never touched the inside of one since. Taken a few of them out, give them to somebody else, put it back in, it works. Pixie dust inside for all that matters. It was all that mattered at the time. But you were the first person I've ever seen that made me think, God, I maybe should have paid a little more attention. And I'm not the only mechanic technician that says that about you. So hats off to you man.
Jeff Compton [00:48:17]:
Like you are. You know it the detail. For me it's about the detail. Nobody else is talking about there like that I've worked with and I've seen is looking at the front pump and going if that's wrong, this is going to happen. I never knew.
Brandon Sloan [00:48:36]:
The biggest thing that bothers me about my side of the industry is that they've been doing it for 40 or 50 years, but they can't understand a hydraulic circuit at some times.
Mr. Subaru [00:48:45]:
That wraps up this episode of the Jada Mechanic podcast. And if you want to hear the rest of the conversation, make sure you listen next week for part two.
Jeff Compton [00:48:55]:
Hey, if you could do me a favor real quick and, like, comment on and share this episode, I'd really appreciate it. And please, most importantly, set the podcast to automatically download every Tuesday morning. As always, I'd like to thank our amazing guests for their perspectives and expertise, and I hope that you'll please join us again next week on this journey of change. Thank you to my partners in the ASA group and to the Change in the Industry podcast. Remember what I always say, in this industry, you get what you pay for. Here's hoping everyone finds their missing 10 millimeter, and we'll see you all again next time.