Subscribe
Share
Share
Embed
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.
Brian Gauthier [00:00:06]:
They took their truck in for a recall and while it was there, the dealer said, hey, you know you do for brakes. And him not being a car guy, he just said, yeah, whatever, do my brakes. So he gets it done. Now mind you, this is a 2019 half ton Silverado.
Jeff Compton [00:00:19]:
Yep.
Brian Gauthier [00:00:20]:
Pads and rotors, front and rear.
Jeff Compton [00:00:21]:
Yeah.
Brian Gauthier [00:00:21]:
$2900.
Jeff Compton [00:00:23]:
Yep.
Brian Gauthier [00:00:23]:
Blown away.
Jeff Compton [00:00:24]:
It's a lot, eh? Welcome back, ladies and gentleme gentlemen, to another exciting episode of the Jaded Mechanic podcast. Still here in Beautiful, beautiful Raleigh, North Carolina at the AST 2025 Expo. It's a little bit later at night, some people had a couple drinks and we're sitting here and we're going to record an episode. So you obviously can see that we're back here with check engine Chuck.
Check Engine Chuck [00:00:55]:
And actually this year I did not have a couple drinks before the podcast.
Check Engine Chuck [00:00:59]:
So that's a big plus.
Jeff Compton [00:01:01]:
We'll. We'll compare. Yeah. And then another new friend of mine, Brian Goche. How's it going?
Brian Gauthier [00:01:06]:
Good.
Jeff Compton [00:01:07]:
Well, I say Go Che the in the Canadian way, but how do you pronounce your name?
Brian Gauthier [00:01:10]:
Gothier.
Jeff Compton [00:01:10]:
Gothier, but in Canada.
Brian Gauthier [00:01:12]:
Oh yeah, I know, Gauche.
Check Engine Chuck [00:01:14]:
That's a common last name there.
Jeff Compton [00:01:16]:
Yeah, A lot more than you think.
Check Engine Chuck [00:01:17]:
Really.
Jeff Compton [00:01:17]:
Yeah, for sure. So. But it's cool nonetheless. No Canadians in your, in your family?
Brian Gauthier [00:01:22]:
Sort of.
Jeff Compton [00:01:22]:
Sort of.
Brian Gauthier [00:01:23]:
Yeah.
Check Engine Chuck [00:01:23]:
Okay.
Jeff Compton [00:01:24]:
Right on. Gotcha. Yeah. Cool. So.
Jeff Compton [00:01:27]:
So.
Jeff Compton [00:01:27]:
And this is your first time here?
Brian Gauthier [00:01:29]:
Absolutely.
Jeff Compton [00:01:30]:
Yeah. And we have Chuck to thank for that. Beyond grateful of kind of convincing you to go and helping you out get here. Chuck's been, I gotta say, you have been the most fundamental this year for getting people attendance at this, at this show. And I'll take the second right now to thank you for that because that's been pretty cool. And it's again, I talk all the time about triple effect and ripples that we do in this industry. And dude, you made a huge splash last year, right. Just by me convincing me, twisting your arm, right? Like, hey, are you gonna go or not?
Check Engine Chuck [00:02:02]:
Right.
Jeff Compton [00:02:03]:
So then he gets there and he's like, I saw it in Chuck's eyes. He was just, he was walking around completely eyes like popped out of his head, blown about how cool that was for to change his life. And I mean that's all we wanted to do, both of us now since is be able to share it with so many people. So I'm glad to have you guys here. What do you think?
Brian Gauthier [00:02:22]:
It's an experience. Yeah, it truly is. I've never been to anything remotely like this the closest thing I've ever experienced is O'Reilly's would put on small classes, and I always found those to be far above my skill level.
Jeff Compton [00:02:37]:
Right.
Brian Gauthier [00:02:38]:
And the instructors there would, would speak so far above me that I, I went there for the food at that point.
Jeff Compton [00:02:45]:
No, to, to touch on the skill level here because I think, I think you a little, you undersell yourself. And I think Chuck has said that, you know, you're, you're picking stuff up, but you're pretty new to this.
Brian Gauthier [00:02:56]:
Well, yes and no.
Jeff Compton [00:02:57]:
Okay.
Brian Gauthier [00:02:58]:
So I've been in the mechanic industry.
Jeff Compton [00:03:00]:
For.
Brian Gauthier [00:03:03]:
Over 20, 21 years.
Jeff Compton [00:03:05]:
Wow.
Brian Gauthier [00:03:05]:
I've been at the current shop for going on 13. So I've been involved in the automotive industry most of my life.
Jeff Compton [00:03:13]:
Right.
Brian Gauthier [00:03:14]:
Everything from tire swaps to starting out in brakes and suspension and the usual stuff.
Jeff Compton [00:03:21]:
Yeah.
Brian Gauthier [00:03:22]:
Unfortunately for me, I fell into a shop that needed my help more as a warm body that could produce work.
Jeff Compton [00:03:32]:
Yeah.
Brian Gauthier [00:03:33]:
And that work is brakes, struts, tires, stuff that when I tell the. I tell people all the time and they look at me like I got two heads. I average 10 to 12 cars a day by myself.
Jeff Compton [00:03:45]:
Yeah. I believe that.
Brian Gauthier [00:03:46]:
And it's, it's not that every job is big and I'm super fast at it. It's, you know, I'm doing brakes on a 2019 Camry and then at the same time, I have a two bay garage. The second bay I've got tires and brakes on a Silverado. And then just as soon as one's done, I'm pulling another one. You know, I'm doing five or six before lunch. I'm taking lunch. Snapchatting him.
Jeff Compton [00:04:07]:
Yeah.
Brian Gauthier [00:04:08]:
And then right back at it.
Jeff Compton [00:04:09]:
Yeah.
Brian Gauthier [00:04:10]:
But throughout the years, it hasn't been an issue. And honestly, it didn't become something that was relevant to me until TikTok.
Jeff Compton [00:04:19]:
Right.
Brian Gauthier [00:04:21]:
Covid hit. We all. There we go. I get it. We all jumped on TikTok and started making videos and meeting people. And you know, I started realizing that being in a small town of 5,000 people, being in a shop that's considered highly respected.
Jeff Compton [00:04:39]:
Right.
Brian Gauthier [00:04:39]:
Doesn't mean we're the best there is.
Jeff Compton [00:04:41]:
Yeah.
Brian Gauthier [00:04:42]:
The, the amount of stuff we would do and then turn around and, and we would pull something in and it's got can network codes and I didn't know anything. And I said to my boss, I said, what do we do about this? Oh, just send it to a dealer.
Jeff Compton [00:04:56]:
Right.
Brian Gauthier [00:04:56]:
And. Okay.
Jeff Compton [00:04:57]:
That's what we do to back up for a minute. Where's, where are you located?
Brian Gauthier [00:05:01]:
Green Main.
Jeff Compton [00:05:02]:
Green Main. You told me Maine before.
Check Engine Chuck [00:05:04]:
Yeah.
Jeff Compton [00:05:04]:
But I was trying to think where in Maine. Right on.
Brian Gauthier [00:05:06]:
Right. Central Maine.
Jeff Compton [00:05:07]:
Beautiful, beautiful state.
Brian Gauthier [00:05:09]:
Yeah.
Jeff Compton [00:05:10]:
Most of the time a little Canadian.
Brian Gauthier [00:05:12]:
Like, go as high north as you can. It's beautiful.
Jeff Compton [00:05:15]:
Yeah.
Brian Gauthier [00:05:15]:
So, but.
Jeff Compton [00:05:17]:
So you had spent the bulk of your career then never really getting exposed to too much kind of diag work. Like any kind of troubleshooting, it was just somebody. Somebody would. You would look at it and inspect it and be able to tell what part it needed. Broken spring, you know, leaky shock, that kind of stuff. Swap that out. Brakes, tires, all that kind of jazz, you know. But nobody ever mentored you in how to troubleshoot electrical.
Brian Gauthier [00:05:43]:
Anything electrical related. So we. We install a ton of plows. And then of course, that is more labor intensive when it comes to the electrical part of it than the actual putting the plow on the truck. And that's whenever we get to the electrical part of that. Or if we had a customer come in that had an issue with it, my boss would just take over.
Jeff Compton [00:06:02]:
Okay.
Brian Gauthier [00:06:02]:
And he had installed thousands of plows. So I just let him do. Became annoying when it's like, well, I'd like to do this too. And it wasn't going anywhere. Every time we got into something where I was like, oh, maybe I could figure this out after watching several videos. I mean, I followed Rich Chuck for. For years before we even talked. And I would watch most of his videos and I'm like, man, he's not a dealer.
Brian Gauthier [00:06:27]:
How come he's not sending it to the dealer?
Jeff Compton [00:06:29]:
That's right.
Check Engine Chuck [00:06:29]:
I think you got on my radar because I would get a comment if I didn't have a Diag video by 3:00pm he's like, hey, where's my 3:00pm Diag video, dude? I know, like, what's going on here. But I think it's very easy in your. Your location in a rural area.
Jeff Compton [00:06:42]:
Yeah.
Check Engine Chuck [00:06:42]:
To get shoehorned into a hard part. Specific business. An undercar specific business. Where probably every shop in the area is ascended to the dealer type of shop. But the beauty I think that comes out of that and what you learn at events like this and what you learn from everyone else's videos and you actually starting to convince your boss to allow you to do more before he sends it to the dealer is that it's very easy for someone to become the premier shop that is the dealer alternative.
Jeff Compton [00:07:13]:
Yes.
Check Engine Chuck [00:07:14]:
In the area. Once you get that experience under your belt.
Jeff Compton [00:07:16]:
Yeah. Because you know, Chuck and I have talked before. Right. You can only go so far, if you just say, I only do undercar because you're and. And ship everything else to the dealer or to the specialty shop. Because here's the reality, right? The dealers forever have kept their undercar prices where it's competitive in with the aftermarket. They do that intentionally, right? That's why the brake prices go out the door at their lowest margin. The.
Jeff Compton [00:07:42]:
The labor is trimmed a lot of time from what the actual book time labor is on a brake job to move it out to get. So that. Because what they want to be able to do is while the customer is there for, say, a check engine light and the inspection gets done, they can still sell them a brake job. Right. Whereas the undercar specialists that are out there and they do it for $40 less an hour, then they have to really compete. They have to really work hard. So I've always felt that the undercar specialty, right, it's not always. It's a short game, right.
Jeff Compton [00:08:13]:
You can only go so far in that in your career, and it limits how much exposure you're going to get. Because as long as the dealer keep slashing the prices on the undercar stuff and cars get more and more complex and the customer takes it there, it's under warranty or whatever. You get less and less of the undercar work if you run a shop like that. So I've always felt that it's been important to be the alternative to the dealer. Even better than the dealer. Right. That's the ultimate goal, is to be able to offer them the same level of expertise and a better level of service, even at a higher price. And it works, you know, 100%.
Jeff Compton [00:08:49]:
Chuck's getting paid a lot more now than what some of the dealers are getting paid to solve a lot of problems because you can do that. That's what expertise brings. So not to run you down.
Brian Gauthier [00:08:58]:
No.
Jeff Compton [00:08:59]:
You know what I mean, right?
Brian Gauthier [00:09:00]:
No, I. I'm 50. 50 on what you're saying.
Jeff Compton [00:09:02]:
Yeah.
Brian Gauthier [00:09:03]:
Purely because of the quotes that I see coming in from my customers where if they do go to the dealer for something or they have a newer vehicle, they go there for a few years. Some of the quotes that they bring back are crazy.
Jeff Compton [00:09:16]:
Crazy in terms of the price.
Brian Gauthier [00:09:17]:
I have a customer who, it's a friend of ours. They took their truck in for a recall while it was there. The dealer said, hey, you know, you do for brakes.
Jeff Compton [00:09:27]:
Yeah.
Brian Gauthier [00:09:28]:
And him not being a car guy, I actually, I messaged you about this. He just said, yeah, whatever, do my brakes. So he gets it done. And so we're having a conversation later on, and he says, yeah, I got the brakes done. I said, oh, just curious what they would they get you now, mind you, this is a 2019 half ton Silverado.
Jeff Compton [00:09:46]:
Yep.
Brian Gauthier [00:09:46]:
Pads and rotors, front and rear.
Jeff Compton [00:09:48]:
Yeah.
Brian Gauthier [00:09:48]:
$2,900.
Jeff Compton [00:09:49]:
Yep.
Brian Gauthier [00:09:52]:
Blown away.
Jeff Compton [00:09:52]:
It's a lot, eh?
Brian Gauthier [00:09:53]:
And I couldn't believe that. I said, and you paid that? He goes, well, yeah, I needed brakes. Like, buddy, we get like depending on quality of part. You know what you want installed. Call it 400 an axle. That's 800 bucks.
Jeff Compton [00:10:07]:
Yeah.
Brian Gauthier [00:10:08]:
And I'd have done the same job with the same quality parts.
Jeff Compton [00:10:12]:
Now what do you do about the parking brake caliper in the back on that car, on that truck? Excuse me.
Brian Gauthier [00:10:16]:
Get a scan tool, put it in service mode.
Jeff Compton [00:10:19]:
So you have the scan tool at the top.
Brian Gauthier [00:10:20]:
Yes. When I joke around, I say we beat two rocks together. It's a joke.
Jeff Compton [00:10:24]:
Okay.
Brian Gauthier [00:10:26]:
Beyond that, it's not a joke, Right?
Jeff Compton [00:10:29]:
Yeah.
Brian Gauthier [00:10:29]:
Some of the stuff that when I started really talking with Chuck, you know, he said, we'll just pull up the wiring diagram. And I said, cool, hang on, I'll Google that. And he said, excuse me. What?
Jeff Compton [00:10:39]:
Yeah.
Brian Gauthier [00:10:39]:
And he goes, you don't have wiring diagrams. Says, no, should we. He goes, how do you. How do you fix stuff?
Jeff Compton [00:10:45]:
So right then and there, not to try and. But this is how we have conversation is part of that $2900 brake job that they charge your customer versus you. Quoting it out at 800 or even a thousand. Right. Almost. Call it one third. Let's just do round numbers. 3 grand and 1000.
Jeff Compton [00:11:02]:
Part of that extra 2000 bucks covers the service information package that the dealership is forced to have. So you see what I mean? So it's not like for years in this industry, we always used to try and be cheap, cheap, cheap, and undercut, undercut, undercut. But it was always like the shocks. Heard me talk about the first shop I ever worked in. They didn't have a service information system. They had a bunch of old CDs from all that or something. And they were like, back then, the car could be five years different. And for the most part it was still.
Jeff Compton [00:11:33]:
The wiring harness was the same and it was the same engine and the same sensors. Right now everything is changing every five weeks, hypothetically. So you can't operate without one for the most part, Right. Unless. And we're talking, talking, dude, before there was Google, right? So what my boss would have to do is call up to the shop owner up the street that had one and say, hey, fax me. You ever seen a fax machine?
Brian Gauthier [00:11:55]:
Oh yeah.
Jeff Compton [00:11:55]:
Fax me, fax me. Pages off.
Brian Gauthier [00:11:58]:
I'm a little older than you than I look.
Jeff Compton [00:12:00]:
Okay, well, I don't know, almost 37. There you go. So you've seen fax machines? Yeah, oh yeah, yeah. And he would fax the pages down and then he would walk out and hand it to the technician. Now we undercut that shop up the street door rate by $20. Why do you think we could? Because we didn't pay for that. Right. So that's something always when we're, when we're comparing, we compare job to job, which is okay to compare job to job, but when we compare job to job, we have to remember that sometimes the reason they have to charge more is because they're, they're equipped differently.
Jeff Compton [00:12:34]:
I don't want to say better, but equipped differently.
Check Engine Chuck [00:12:37]:
Yeah.
Jeff Compton [00:12:37]:
So that's when we, when we, the technicians are always talking. You see it in all the groups all the time. Oh my God. You're ripping that person off charging that much. Well, you don't know their overhead and you don't know, they're like. It's the same thing. It's just you and your boss at your shop. Right?
Brian Gauthier [00:12:51]:
Correct.
Jeff Compton [00:12:52]:
So that dealership has 8, 20 times the payroll just in non flat rate people. So 20 times the payroll of people collecting the salary, it makes their door rate necessary to be $160 an hour. Right. Whereas your, your boss door rate is 95. So there's the differences right there. Right. So you're not wrong to say to your, your friend, we could have. But my, my point to you, Brian, is that your boss is only shortchanging himself.
Jeff Compton [00:13:24]:
He's doing good by his customers, but.
Check Engine Chuck [00:13:27]:
He'S only shortchanging himself, which in turn shortchanges you.
Brian Gauthier [00:13:30]:
Yes, I was gonna say, I think the only one getting shortchanged right now is me.
Jeff Compton [00:13:33]:
Well, but you know what I mean. You collectively, your team, his team, which is just the two of you. He is. And again, that, that's, that's a fear based thing. It really is. You know, it's. It and it's talking. Chuck and I talked about.
Jeff Compton [00:13:47]:
You and I. Some of the earliest conversations you and I had, Chuck, was about value of what you're actually giving to your customer. Because I, I would. Chuck and I were talking and I'm like, dude, you're underselling yourself, man. You need to charge more. You're one hell of a talented guy. You can charge. I Probably told him you could charge as much as you want and you'll be good.
Jeff Compton [00:14:06]:
And it's just a fear thing. Right. It just has to come with, with that. So please don't take it as I'm running you down.
Brian Gauthier [00:14:12]:
No, no, I understand.
Jeff Compton [00:14:13]:
Yeah. But the $800 brake job is like in the circles I run in the industry, we kind of just like, we don't laugh about it. We just shake her head because there's so much left that you're not getting exposure to. You're not getting a service information program. The only training you're getting is at O'Reilly's afternight. That's free. You know, you're not getting. They're not collecting money to.
Check Engine Chuck [00:14:40]:
Provide the service information for one.
Jeff Compton [00:14:42]:
Yeah.
Check Engine Chuck [00:14:42]:
What happens when you're charging 8 to $900 on a four wheel brake job on, let's say 19 Equinox and you didn't have the service information to read before? Because why would I read it? It's a brake job.
Jeff Compton [00:14:54]:
That's right.
Check Engine Chuck [00:14:54]:
And then you nuke the ABS module because you didn't read the service information. That tells you I need to take off the reservoir cap before I compress these calipers. And then you hope and pray that someone like me can come and reprogram it and I may or may not be able to. That's not up to me. Not up to my tooling. That's up to how hurt the module got when those pressure values got changed.
Jeff Compton [00:15:13]:
Because I know some sharp guys just like him that some they've been able to recover and some they haven't. So the first time that you dropped that error onto a customer's car and you do the right thing and take care of it, because you should be right, all of that money that you spent that would have bought your subscription for the year, Right.
Check Engine Chuck [00:15:31]:
And you've got to do four more of those brake jobs to pay for that ebcm, the programming. Maybe a rental car for the time that they're down. You're in Maine. How available is a part like that?
Jeff Compton [00:15:40]:
Plus the other thing that we can't scale is what does it do to your reputation? Then when that customer takes that car out of there goes, man, I was without my car for five weeks. They didn't charge me anymore in the brake job. Excuse me, but they had my car five weeks because of this brake job. When did they fall? And of course they don't understand that. Like if you try to tell a customer that you can kill a module now by doing a Brake job. Nobody believes you.
Check Engine Chuck [00:16:04]:
Right.
Jeff Compton [00:16:04]:
But we in the industry know what's happening. The pressure is going back. It's a dumb design. 100%. It's not obviously, engineered that well. If when you push fluid back up into the master cylinder, it corrupts a signal.
Check Engine Chuck [00:16:15]:
Right.
Jeff Compton [00:16:15]:
That's stupid.
Check Engine Chuck [00:16:16]:
And then in the eyes of the customer that spent the $2,900 and had no problem doing that at the dealer, if their brake job was $900 and this was the result of this, they might in their own head, if they had all the facts go, I would have paid two grand to avoid this. Two grand extra.
Jeff Compton [00:16:31]:
And. And they. I'll guarantee they will tell you there's no way I'm ever paying a $900 brake job again.
Check Engine Chuck [00:16:36]:
Yep. I'll bring it to the dealer forever now.
Jeff Compton [00:16:38]:
Yeah. So not trying to. We're not here.
Brian Gauthier [00:16:41]:
No, I'm absorbing.
Jeff Compton [00:16:43]:
Yeah. You know what I mean? You're not like, tell me, then, what's your kind of goal for you? Because we'll go back to the conversation of. You feel like a lot of this was out of your reach, Some of the things that you were watching or not out of your reach, but you're definitely behind. Is that fair to say? Absolutely. Okay, so what's the goal for you? Immediate goal, like, say, when you come home from this, and then say, next, in a year's time, what do you hope to be better at?
Brian Gauthier [00:17:10]:
I mean, the generic response would be electrical diag.
Jeff Compton [00:17:13]:
Right.
Brian Gauthier [00:17:15]:
If I can get into just understanding more of what I'm looking at and being able to take this information and say, oh, okay, this isn't Chinese to me anymore. I can understand this. Or I can enough where I'm not calling him every day saying, hey, man, I got this code. Like, what do I do with this? You pull up all these different codes. And now understanding. I was in a class today that was talking about, what do you do if you scan a car and it pulls up 14 coats? You know, you're only looking for one problem, but how do you select which problem this is?
Jeff Compton [00:17:48]:
Yeah.
Brian Gauthier [00:17:48]:
So that's. I want to be able to be more confident with that.
Check Engine Chuck [00:17:52]:
Can I tell you what my goal is for you when you go back?
Brian Gauthier [00:17:55]:
So.
Check Engine Chuck [00:17:56]:
And again, not to me doing what I'm about to say is nothing, but to help you. I really. I don't care about your boss. Why would I care about your boss? You now have service information.
Brian Gauthier [00:18:08]:
Where did that come from?
Check Engine Chuck [00:18:09]:
You. I gave him an identifix login, one of my logins. Okay. So my goal would be that this experience gives him the confidence to go back and explain to his boss, this is why we need service information. And the only reason that we've been getting by for this short period of time and that I've been reading service information so we don't run into a master cap situation is because I have it. I don't have it forever. This is something you need to pay for.
Jeff Compton [00:18:35]:
Yeah.
Check Engine Chuck [00:18:35]:
And if that means you need to increase your prices on the brake jobs, sorry, I think you need to increase the prices on the brake job 100%.
Jeff Compton [00:18:43]:
Because when you talk about the amount of cars that you're pushing through for every day, there's enough money coming in there to cover the cost of the service. Right. We're not talking going out and having to get three or four service information providers like Chuck might have or lots of other shops. I know they might have three different OEs. They might have Identifix, they might have Pro Demand, they might have Motor, they.
Brian Gauthier [00:19:04]:
Might have all that.
Jeff Compton [00:19:05]:
I know shops that run with OR that are just aftermarket ones and then two that are like oe. So it costs a ton of money every month for them. That's why their brake job sometimes is 2900 bucks now. And here's what I hope for you with this login, that when you get a car and it's got a check engine light on, I want you to be able to just slow down, take the time, look at it and actually start to read the service information and start to understand the systems. You may still need to reach out to him and go, okay, so this is what I know now about the system. Where would you go? And he's going to tell you he's going to help you. Right. But what I want to see happen is that your boss begins to see that like, wow, Brian can actually fix some cars, not just hang parts.
Jeff Compton [00:19:52]:
And then maybe your boss sees the business potential that is there. You know, it's. But he has to.
Brian Gauthier [00:19:59]:
It'll be tough. And the reason being is he just hit 60. He's got. When most people have a full plate, he has three.
Jeff Compton [00:20:05]:
Yeah.
Brian Gauthier [00:20:06]:
He's doing stuff with the town. He's running a business. He's got rentals, he's got the fire department. He's a very busy gentleman. When his eyes open, he's working.
Jeff Compton [00:20:15]:
Right.
Brian Gauthier [00:20:15]:
One of the things I do admire about him, he is constantly doing something. I think he shined in the 90s when GM, when he did more GM stuff, rebuilt motors, rebuilt those systems, TBI getting out of the carbureted system, getting into vortex systems, that stuff. People made phone calls to him because he knew.
Jeff Compton [00:20:39]:
Yeah.
Brian Gauthier [00:20:40]:
And as we got into the LS world, he knows a fair amount, but so a very big job that is potential at the shop right now. And this discussion is to the point where if you understood the. How much? I hope we get this job. How much? So I got a hold of Chuck the other day right before I was leaving for Asta. We had a 17 Tahoe come in with a collapsed lifter.
Jeff Compton [00:21:10]:
Yep.
Brian Gauthier [00:21:10]:
And so it comes in and my boss immediately says, I listened to it, it needs a motor. I said, well, I want to go listen to it. So I go out and I fire it up and I listen to it and I put the scan tool on it and okay. Yep, this cylinder.
Jeff Compton [00:21:25]:
All right.
Brian Gauthier [00:21:26]:
I'm gonna pull a valve cover. You know, he's gone to lunch, he's gone to do something. I can pull this valve cover in like three minutes. Yep. And I can see what's really going on here.
Jeff Compton [00:21:33]:
Yeah.
Brian Gauthier [00:21:34]:
And the valve cover comes off. I find the lifter's collapsed. I can see the rocker moving. And I'm like, all right, cool. I've now diagnosed that I know what the problem is.
Jeff Compton [00:21:43]:
Yep.
Brian Gauthier [00:21:44]:
So. So I've never rebuilt one of those. I've never done this kind of job. But I'm like, geez, you know, I've rebuilt Chevy 350s in the past. It's not exactly the same, but I have an idea.
Jeff Compton [00:21:54]:
Yeah.
Brian Gauthier [00:21:55]:
And now I start researching it. I'm reaching out to him saying, hey, have you done this before? You know, what are we looking at here? Is this something that's within my realm? And the discussion turns to, you know, yeah, it could be. So, all right, cool. So then my boss, he comes back, we have a small conversation about it, and the typical answer is, no, we're not getting into that. We don't have the time for that. That's going to tie up the shop. We can't do that.
Jeff Compton [00:22:19]:
Right.
Brian Gauthier [00:22:20]:
And for the first time in a very, very long time, he looks at me, he goes, well, build a quote. See what you think. All right, okay, we could do that. So now I actually have to do in more research and pull up a quote and see what it's going to cost and whatnot. Again, reaching out to him because there's programming involved and it's deleting it or whatever. So I'm like, alright, cool. So go back with my information and say, hey, you know, I think this is Possible, is it gonna take me a little longer than someone who does it every day? But if I never do it, I'm never gonna know how.
Jeff Compton [00:22:54]:
Right.
Brian Gauthier [00:22:55]:
So I said, hey, this is what we can do it for. And my. The only downfall was he was like, yeah, well, I'll tell him, like, two or three grand over that, just in case. I'm like, why?
Check Engine Chuck [00:23:05]:
Like, in my opinion, if he goes for that, that's fine.
Jeff Compton [00:23:09]:
I don't have a good buffer. I don't have a problem with it.
Check Engine Chuck [00:23:10]:
That's a good buffer.
Jeff Compton [00:23:11]:
I don't have a problem with it.
Check Engine Chuck [00:23:12]:
And if you lose the job because of it, it sucks that you won't get to do it. But my goal with you being able to go back with the service information thing isn't just the service information.
Jeff Compton [00:23:22]:
Yeah.
Check Engine Chuck [00:23:23]:
It's the perspective. And it doesn't have to be his perspective, because he didn't come to this event, obviously, but we can. We could feel the aura of other people's perspective. And I think that your perspective will be changed by the time you get back and you want to do this job, obviously. And I think that that might have a defining effect on him, especially if he's got all of these things going on, that maybe you're coming back with a different perspective that allows him to see how it might be a little more fit to start giving you the reins on things that he normally wouldn't of giving you the reins on things for the sheer fact that he seems to be going in that direction just.
Brian Gauthier [00:24:02]:
Before you came here, I think it's.
Jeff Compton [00:24:03]:
Gonna be like a snowball. And if you do get an opportunity to do a job like that, I think your boss, very quickly, because I think he likes the color of money, will realize we need to do a little bit more and a little bit more, a little bit more.
Brian Gauthier [00:24:16]:
Over the years, what I've come to understand, without being directly told, is that we wouldn't take on anything that he couldn't bail us out of.
Jeff Compton [00:24:25]:
Right.
Brian Gauthier [00:24:26]:
So we wouldn't get into rebuilds or bigger, you know, electrical stuff. Because once you take it apart, if you can't put it back together now, you look, you got the egg on your face. Yep. And if he can't get us out of that. So that's what it's been.
Jeff Compton [00:24:40]:
What's his level, like when you say you guys have got a scan tool? If he hooks a scan tool up and looks at data, does he actually know what he's looking at?
Brian Gauthier [00:24:47]:
Probably in the majority of it, I would say.
Jeff Compton [00:24:49]:
All right. And he can wire a plow.
Brian Gauthier [00:24:52]:
Yep.
Jeff Compton [00:24:53]:
So could he wire. I'm not, let's not get into can diagnostics and that work and stuff.
Brian Gauthier [00:24:57]:
Like I would say, once you hit can, that's probably the end of what he can do.
Jeff Compton [00:25:01]:
Right.
Brian Gauthier [00:25:02]:
I mean, as far as finding shorts, a broken wire, understanding why the tail light doesn't light up, he can do all that.
Check Engine Chuck [00:25:08]:
Yeah. But Brian, who found the last two broken wires on the Tundra? Oh, yeah, on the. What was it, a Silverado evap thing or. The evap thing was the Tundra.
Brian Gauthier [00:25:20]:
The Tundra was a whole bunch of issues.
Check Engine Chuck [00:25:22]:
What was the two broken wires in the back of a truck?
Brian Gauthier [00:25:27]:
One of them was Tundra, and that was for the fuel pump driver module.
Check Engine Chuck [00:25:30]:
Okay.
Jeff Compton [00:25:31]:
Correct.
Brian Gauthier [00:25:31]:
And then the other one, it might have been a Silverado with an evap issue.
Check Engine Chuck [00:25:37]:
I think that's what it was. So who found those?
Brian Gauthier [00:25:40]:
Yeah, I did, finally.
Jeff Compton [00:25:42]:
So I, I.
Brian Gauthier [00:25:43]:
So before we continue to give you a little bit of a backstory to it, when Chuck really started helping me out, we had the joke going. You know, how. How long before you're sending it to the dealer? And my boss, we do towing as well. 24 hour towing. So he would go off on a tow call, and I would reach out to him, and I'm like, hey, man, this is what I got. This is what I'm dealing with. And he's like, okay, how long do we got?
Check Engine Chuck [00:26:08]:
Give me, give me five minutes. Let me pull over on the side of the road. I'm going to call you on Snapchat real quick. I'm going to pull open diagrams y get through this, you know, and he.
Brian Gauthier [00:26:17]:
Would just start unloading stuff and it after. And he, he helped me immensely. I. The, the amount of gratitude I have doesn't fit in this room.
Jeff Compton [00:26:26]:
Right.
Brian Gauthier [00:26:27]:
But I, I started feeling like I was bothering him. And even though he'd say, no, no, you're not bothering me. You're not bothering me. He's trying to run a business. He's trying to do have family time. And the most annoying part to it is I'm like, hey, man, I need help with this. And he's like, yeah, all right, I'll make the time. So by the time he.
Brian Gauthier [00:26:42]:
He does have a moment and he sends me this information, you know, an hour later, he's like, how far did you get? I'm like, it's gone. Like, I. We had to move on.
Jeff Compton [00:26:51]:
Yeah.
Brian Gauthier [00:26:51]:
So we never got to complete this task, and now I wasted his time.
Check Engine Chuck [00:26:55]:
In a sense, it's not A waste of my time. If it was a waste of my time, I wouldn't answer the call.
Jeff Compton [00:27:00]:
Yeah.
Check Engine Chuck [00:27:01]:
I wouldn't, I wouldn't try to reach back out to you. And this goes for anybody. It's not like, you know, you're not that attractive. I just, you know, I, I, I like to help in the ways that I can help because I've had immense help from other people that have helped me without asking anything for it. And I wouldn't be where I am if I didn't have that help. No, don't, don't get me wrong. I mean, I would say 99% of myself is, you know, self taught. But if we think about the hundred hour Tundra.
Jeff Compton [00:27:31]:
Yeah.
Check Engine Chuck [00:27:32]:
You know, my literal, hardest diagnosis, I might have figured it out. But you know who created the math channel? You know who knew how to do the math channel? It was Ryan.
Jeff Compton [00:27:42]:
Yeah.
Check Engine Chuck [00:27:43]:
You know, and he created a better math channel than I did. And he said there's some anomalies here. And then at that point I noticed we have an aftermarket crank sensor.
Jeff Compton [00:27:53]:
And what was it?
Check Engine Chuck [00:27:54]:
It was an aftermarket crank sensor.
Jeff Compton [00:27:56]:
Not the math?
Check Engine Chuck [00:27:57]:
No, not the math. I don't know where you got the map from. No. Oh, maybe because before I looked at this truck, they put a factory map on it. That was the only factory part that was obvious thing.
Jeff Compton [00:28:05]:
Yeah.
Check Engine Chuck [00:28:06]:
And that was the only part that the used car lot I was doing this for, that was the only part that they put on it.
Jeff Compton [00:28:11]:
Right.
Check Engine Chuck [00:28:11]:
This thing got passed around to, it's been a couple Toyota dealers before it got to them. An independent shop, obviously with the aftermarket throttle body.
Jeff Compton [00:28:19]:
Yeah.
Check Engine Chuck [00:28:20]:
But what a wild ride. And what I said in my, my last video on it when I finally figured it out was if I thought more like a dealer tech. And I just looked for, okay, I see aftermarket parts, we're going to replace everything aftermarket. I probably would have looked at that crank sensor to make sure it wasn't aftermarket and the truck would have been fixed.
Jeff Compton [00:28:37]:
Yeah. You know, but it's one of those things where if you don't know the history, you can't let the history corrupt you. You just have to work the process. Right. Start at the beginning also.
Check Engine Chuck [00:28:47]:
What do you learn from that? Yeah, you learn nothing from that.
Jeff Compton [00:28:49]:
That's right.
Check Engine Chuck [00:28:49]:
You learn that Toyota's don't like aftermarket part. You don't learn the anomaly that caused the issue.
Jeff Compton [00:28:54]:
You fixed the truck.
Check Engine Chuck [00:28:56]:
Right.
Jeff Compton [00:28:56]:
But you're not understanding what fixed the truck.
Check Engine Chuck [00:28:58]:
Correct.
Jeff Compton [00:28:59]:
Yeah. Or why the truck was broken.
Brian Gauthier [00:29:01]:
Correct.
Jeff Compton [00:29:01]:
So, and, and I'll say this about Chuck, right? I don't know too many more people that are more giving of their time than him in this industry. And I really said something because I know a lot of people in this industry, right. Like it's, it's, it's getting big. But like I, I, I've never seen somebody then that I constantly is showing me how much time he's giving of himself to other people and I think that's really cool. So he doesn't mind, he's frustrated, I think when the car, truck goes away because you start to do something that's just a technician nature. I've had thousands of vehicles that I did a diagon and the customer decided to take it out there. Those cars drive me nuts. They drive me nuts almost as much as the ones that I couldn't fix because I wanted to know what's, how would I have resolved it? Would I been right, would I been wrong? You know, that's, that's the crap that will eat at you.
Jeff Compton [00:29:51]:
So Chuck's bothered by the fact that the truck left, but he's not bothered by you asking, you know, so ask away. We want to see, we want to see growth in this industry. I want to see growth anyway. And that's, you know, you're just an example of that. It's not a situation of, you know, we think, we think there's potential in you. That's why people are pouring into you. As I like to say, you know, it's a good thing.
Brian Gauthier [00:30:15]:
Oh, I really is. You know, like I said, the amount of gratitude I have because throughout the, throughout the years, being in a small town, being in an area that no one's ever heard of, not to say that, you know, we aren't a decent shop and that we can't get it done, but at the same time knowledge has not been accessible.
Jeff Compton [00:30:35]:
Yeah.
Brian Gauthier [00:30:35]:
Without, you know, I, I don't make a lot of money. I don't, everyone says, well it pays to, to, you know, it doesn't cost for training, it pays. And I understand. But when you have to decide of I have to pay my bills this month or I'm going to do some training. Yeah, that's what it turns into.
Jeff Compton [00:30:51]:
Yeah.
Brian Gauthier [00:30:52]:
And that's what I've been battling when you, when you're in that position, it's so hard to, you know, when I reach out to several other people and I have a, an hour long phone call with someone only to be told, well, yeah, you know, this isn't free, you know, Knowledge isn't free.
Jeff Compton [00:31:07]:
Yeah.
Brian Gauthier [00:31:07]:
And I. Okay, well, you're clearly not someone I can reach out to anymore. And not because I don't have respect for you, but I can't afford your time, you know, And I can't be picking up the phone and saying, all right, man, here's my credit card number. I got a question.
Check Engine Chuck [00:31:21]:
For every one of me that is willing to help people for free, you're gonna find one of them.
Jeff Compton [00:31:25]:
Yeah.
Check Engine Chuck [00:31:25]:
One of the. I thought one of the coolest things about Steckler's class was that at the end of the class.
Jeff Compton [00:31:32]:
Yes.
Check Engine Chuck [00:31:32]:
He said, listen, I want you all to take down my phone number, and if you have a problem, I want you to call me. And if I have the time, I'm gonna help you.
Jeff Compton [00:31:40]:
Yeah.
Check Engine Chuck [00:31:40]:
And I don't expect you to pay for it at all.
Jeff Compton [00:31:41]:
That's right.
Check Engine Chuck [00:31:42]:
And to know that there's other people that are like that is very uplifting.
Jeff Compton [00:31:46]:
Because.
Check Engine Chuck [00:31:58]:
For Brian right now, I feel like his ceiling is much lower than he wants it to be.
Jeff Compton [00:32:03]:
Yeah.
Check Engine Chuck [00:32:04]:
And I think that he's going to go back with a lot of the tools that helps him explain how he can raise that ceiling with his boss together.
Jeff Compton [00:32:11]:
Yeah. And that's the thing, and you have to think about it like this, like I have to be, because I've been guilty of it myself, is that if I've ever tried to say to somebody or deny them, I'm not helping you because it's not for free. It's not even necessarily so much for the technician that's asking the question, but I want your manager, owner to do better. Right. Now, that seems a funny way to put it, because it seems like I'm punishing you for who you work for. But the only way change happens sometimes is when you then go to them and say, the guy that I've always been asking because you won't do this, he's tired of being asked and now he needs something in return. Or he just gave up on me. Because then it's like, you want them to go, what's the final straw? That before I finally break down and buy a service information system, you know, so that's why I want you to always, you know, don't look at that person, immediately stops helping you or want something in return as being greedy or gatekeeping, because they are gatekeeping.
Jeff Compton [00:33:10]:
But there's something to be said in this industry for why when people gatekeep, sometimes it's to protect the industry and it's protect. To help the industry evolve. Right. Like I am a big believer that you only should try and continue to reach down and help somebody up who is only going to go plop back down again because they don't want to take that next step to just not fall down so much.
Brian Gauthier [00:33:34]:
You want to help someone who's willing to help themselves.
Jeff Compton [00:33:36]:
Yes, absolutely right. So when, when we see that it's not. I don't think it's gatekeeping. I'm very upfront. I think it's doing what's right for the industry. And the unfortunate thing is sometimes what's right for the industry is people just not being in it or getting out of it. You're going to see that it's going to change. Chuck and I have talked about this.
Jeff Compton [00:33:55]:
It's going to change in industry. You're going to see a lot less shops.
Brian Gauthier [00:33:59]:
Brian Paul already seeing it.
Jeff Compton [00:34:00]:
Yeah. Talked right now like the 2024s and 2025s. In three more years when they hit some of the shops that have service information but don't have OE service information, you're not going to be able to get fixed. Brian talked about a 21 GMC terrain they had with a battery drain and what it ended up doing to the car. Brian is one of this. It's not one of. He's the smartest guy I know and it was four hours from him from the time he looked at the car until it finally could get it again. Because the battery drain on that particular thing corrupts the BCM and then you have to re unbrick essentially these the BCM and the BCM file that you need is listed in a tsb.
Jeff Compton [00:34:40]:
That's not in the aftermarket service information. It's only in the oe. So it took Brian four hours of.
Check Engine Chuck [00:34:47]:
Finding, digging through information.
Jeff Compton [00:34:49]:
Yeah. And then recovering a body control module. All that bricked because the rear wiper motor seized up, drained the battery down and then guess what? Lost corruption for the keys wouldn't start. It was a complete no go. Right. That's not the always are doing this and they know what happens and they're completely fine with the fact that the only people that have access to that information are their own people. They don't care about us and our ability to fix their car. So as long as they keep giving the, the access to the information, we can be on an equal playing field if we so choose to invest in ourselves.
Jeff Compton [00:35:28]:
But if we just to say I don't, I don't need that, well, there's going to be even a lot More cars that are going to come in that we can't do. Because think about it, you tell your customer up and it's like, I went out there and I put a new battery in it. Now you've got a theft problem. That happens. But it's, it's happening more and more every day. But it used to never happen, but we would see little things once in a while happen. It's like, you know, people have been talking about what's coming people have been talking about what's coming for the last 10 years and now it's, it ain't coming, it, it here. And we're, we're, we're trying to see more people actually pull them up and go, you got to do something.
Brian Gauthier [00:36:07]:
I feel like every 10, 15 years this happens in a sense because you look at the guys from call it way back that dealt with points.
Jeff Compton [00:36:16]:
Yeah. All right.
Brian Gauthier [00:36:17]:
Points was the system and that's what everybody knew.
Jeff Compton [00:36:19]:
Yeah.
Brian Gauthier [00:36:20]:
And then you moved on and carburetors turning into TBI or points turning into hei.
Jeff Compton [00:36:26]:
Yeah.
Brian Gauthier [00:36:27]:
And that was, oh, geez, that's the dealers trying to take over. We're never going to be able to work on this. And then the group of people that adjusted to being able to work on a carburetor and being able to work on regular distributors and then we moved on to Vortec engines and then you get into that stuff and now, oh, this is a fuel injection. We can't work on fuel, there's too many wires. As a computer now, we're never going to be able to fix this and it just progresses and it truly turns into, as you've said, investing, whether it's in knowledge or tooling.
Jeff Compton [00:36:56]:
Yeah, so both.
Check Engine Chuck [00:36:58]:
Yeah, both, definitely. I think the big thing back then though was what you needed to have back then was a fundamental understanding of the new technology that was coming out. Now we're verging in the last five to seven years into where it's becoming a struggle to get access to the tooling or information needed to get that job done. So we're going beyond just a fundamental understanding. We're going to a point where things, things that were originally just a password or if your battery died and you had an old gm, you would just have to make sure the battery stayed good enough for 10 or I mean three 10 minute cycles of the key.
Brian Gauthier [00:37:40]:
And it would reload again.
Check Engine Chuck [00:37:42]:
Now a couple years ago we were able to figure out key stuff with tools that would do algorithmic based decisions. And now we're at a point where we don't have a choice but to connect to the OE in order to get the, the seed information or the key information from the seed from the vehicle.
Jeff Compton [00:37:59]:
Yeah.
Check Engine Chuck [00:38:00]:
And if you don't pay to play, you're going to fall behind.
Jeff Compton [00:38:04]:
There's right now, I don't think yeah ever in this industry. I think Chuck would agree. Never in our industry before has there been so many people capable of fixing but didn't have access to what they needed to do the fix. And that's like before we used to talk about a lot of people just weren't capable. I've watched the capability come up with the average technician in the last 20 years since I've been in. Like it's, it's crazy good how so many people are Ryan Mullins as we talked about like crazy, you know, of how fast somebody can pick this stuff up if they really invest in themselves.
Check Engine Chuck [00:38:37]:
I mean that's one thing Jim said too in both classes. Coconuts. If you take 20 minutes of extra time every single day to sit down after you've done everything you need to do is 20 minutes of free time instead of scrolling on your phone that you read information about the subject that you want to learn about after three or four years, I think he said you'll be in the top 4 or 5% of that particular industry. And Ryan is a prime example of that because he went from being a, being a parts guy thinking that that would translate to a mechanic. I hope we could get him on here, man. Yeah, translating that, that would translate to a mechanic five years ago realizing he stepped in a big pile of shit that he had no experience for to now. Like I, I used to go on his lives to help him. He doesn't need my help anymore.
Check Engine Chuck [00:39:28]:
Yeah, he doesn't need my help.
Jeff Compton [00:39:29]:
You know, he has a crazy understanding right now of everything that's going on and it's cool as hell because it's not ten year old cars. It's like three and five year old cars. And he's like right there, he's just so nonchalant about it. You know, this is the middle of the night. You could tell he's had a bunch of energy drinks. He's like, okay, here we go. And it, and he's so, he, it's so refreshing because like I look at Ryan tackle a car and it's like watching a kid with a new toy every time. You know what I mean? Like, he is just so enamored with the, the, the wave, the waveform and, and what he's doing.
Jeff Compton [00:40:01]:
It's so cool to watch like it is. So it's very motivating to watch. It gives me hope for this industry. That's what's cool. And that's why I have hope for you. Because I want to see. I don't want to see somebody with potential work in a $95 an hour shop that won't buy service information. I don't want to see it for my industry.
Jeff Compton [00:40:20]:
You know, I'm not running down your boss. I don't mean it to sound like that, but I've also. You shared a joke. Sometimes Snapchat's like, I've eaten a lot of peanut butter in the last. You know, and I want to see better for you. You know what I mean? I'm not, I'm not asking you, like, what's your home situation like? Are you starving? I don't think you are, no, but.
Brian Gauthier [00:40:37]:
I eat just fine.
Jeff Compton [00:40:38]:
Yeah, but you know what I mean? But I like you to have.
Brian Gauthier [00:40:42]:
So Asta wasn't something I was pre budgeted for and talk about making split decisions on a moment's notice. I get a text from Chuck and he said, hey, I gotta talk to you. And I'm thinking, oh, man, what did I do now? I'm like, I just sent him beef jerky. I just sent him a whole bunch of. What did I do? I. I pissed him off. And I'm like, I'm. I'm panicking.
Brian Gauthier [00:41:04]:
And then. So a few minutes goes by, phone rings. He's like, hey, man, got a question for you. And I'm like, yeah, what's up? And he's like, hey, do you want to go to asta? And I said, first off, what's Asta? I don't, I don't know what this is. And he explains it. And I'm like, wow, that's really, like, I'm interested in that. He goes, do you want to go? I'm like, that's not really in my budget.
Jeff Compton [00:41:23]:
Yeah.
Brian Gauthier [00:41:23]:
And he goes, I didn't ask you that. I asked if you want to go. And I said, okay, well, I, you know, I kind of have to think about this. And he's like, no, no, I need an answer. I'm like, oh. I go, do I have like, five minutes? He goes, yeah, call me back in five minutes. I need to know. Okay.
Brian Gauthier [00:41:40]:
So I'm already like, I'm gonna make this happen, right? But I gotta talk to the better half, make sure she's good with it. I get us, you know, what is this gonna Cost me to get here. And so we, I end up talking to her and she goes, yeah, you need this. Let's. Let's make it happen. So I call Chuck back and I'm like, hey, man, like, I'll figure it out. I'll sell a kidney. I'll be there, right? And it turned into like, all right, cool, I'm going.
Brian Gauthier [00:42:04]:
And then it took a few days to like, okay, no, I'm going. I need to figure this out. So, all right, I make a phone call and. Because just like everywhere else, you need the real ID to fly. So in the state of Maine, if it can be made difficult, they're going to Times that by 10, because why not? So I call and they say, yeah, you got to make an appointment. Okay, when's next available appointment? Now, mind you, this is like two and a half months prior to ASTA. And they said September 1st. I said, oh, okay.
Brian Gauthier [00:42:34]:
How long does it take to get the real ID from there? Two, averaging three weeks. I said, okay. That puts me literally hoping it comes in the mail to get on a plane.
Jeff Compton [00:42:43]:
Right.
Brian Gauthier [00:42:44]:
This isn't gonna work. So now I'm like, all right, what's it gonna cost me to drive here? I don't care about the time it takes me to drive here. I don't mind driving. Yeah, I like seeing the countryside. It doesn't bother me a bit. I drive a new enough truck where I'm not too concerned about, you know, having an issue with it.
Jeff Compton [00:43:00]:
Right.
Brian Gauthier [00:43:00]:
Not to say I didn't prepare, but I said, all right, I. I tallied it up and I said, okay, it's. It's gonna cost me a hundred dollars more to drive down than it is fly. I'll have my vehicle. I can come and go as I want. It is a 15 hour trip wasn't exactly the, the greatest time. What?
Jeff Compton [00:43:21]:
That's a lot of seat time.
Check Engine Chuck [00:43:22]:
That is.
Brian Gauthier [00:43:23]:
Well, and again, it wasn't that. I don't mind that you set the cruise control at 80, and when you're in an F250, everybody moves. Yeah, that's fine. Not a big deal. As I was talking to Chuck the day before, I had gotten up at 5. I had a record call to go to. We're a 24 hour towing service. I took care of the tow call.
Brian Gauthier [00:43:43]:
I went to work. I only had to work, thankfully, roughly about half the day. And I said, great, I'm getting out a little early. I'll get some time to relax. A couple things, you know, a couple honey do lists. Couple things to do take the ACs out, whatever. Got to make sure everything's all set for I'm gone that way, she's all good. And I said I'm going to go to bed at like 8, 9 o'.
Brian Gauthier [00:44:03]:
Clock. So about 9 o' clock we let the dogs out to go to the bathroom. They got sprayed by a skunk. Yeah, I remember. So now we're dealing with two dogs who are not exactly excited to get sprayed in the face. We're not excited this happened. And they're running through the house. Yeah, you got to be kidding me.
Brian Gauthier [00:44:20]:
So now we're dealing with this. We're giving the dog baths. We're trying to handle this. You know, she's telling me to go get rid of the skunk, you know, whatever. So. All right, now it's closer to 11 and I'm finally laying in bed and I, I'm already wound up. Yeah, I'm not ready for sleep. I'm laying there, we get the TV on, doing everything.
Brian Gauthier [00:44:39]:
I'm thinking I need to fall asleep. I'm leaving at 1:30. I'm on the road at 1:30 and I. It's not going to happen.
Jeff Compton [00:44:46]:
Yeah.
Brian Gauthier [00:44:47]:
To the point where I'm laying there and I'm, I'm trying to not touch my phone. I'm trying to not do anything that's going to wake up my brain. Finally I'm like, I'm done. I'm clearly, I'm just not going to bed. So I reach over, I grab my phone. It's 1:26. All right, let's go. Got up through the rest of the stuff in the truck.
Brian Gauthier [00:45:06]:
She looks at me and said, did you get any sleep? I said no. She goes, are you going to be okay to drive? I said, I got full coverage and I hit the road and I, I mean, I feel like I made good time. I actually, my first stop was in Connecticut. I got my first coffee from there because nothing in Maine is open before 6, so. Wow, that was a little brutal. So got first coffee and then, you know, I'm just, I'm motivating down the road and I'm just watching all these Snapchats come in. Hey guys, I'm already here. Hey, I'm gonna get there soon or hey, my flight's delayed.
Brian Gauthier [00:45:37]:
Hahaha. And so I was like, all right, cool, whatever. And I ended up getting here. I mean, she said it was four, give or take about four o' clock and everyone was filtering in. I went right up to my room after checking in and everything and just Laid on the bed, stared at the ceiling for like 15 minutes and was like, all right, I need to eat, so I have to go downstairs. So I threw out a Snapchat to the group and I said, hey, you know, what are we doing for dinner? Crickets. All right, you know what? I ain't got time for this. I walk downstairs, I'm eating dinner.
Brian Gauthier [00:46:13]:
All sudden he's like, well, we're going to do this. I'm like, I already got food. He goes, well, fine. Brian's out. I'm like, dude, it's been a day. Yeah. So we end up. They went and did dinner and whatnot.
Brian Gauthier [00:46:23]:
I. I think I went up to the room for a little bit, and then they were downstairs hanging out, and so I. I'm gonna go join them. I want to meet everybody, and I haven't got to meet anyone here. So we're sitting there and everyone's having a conversation, having a great time. They got drinks going on, and he looks at me, he goes, how are you still awake? I'm like, dude, I'm in zombie mode. I don't know. Yeah.
Brian Gauthier [00:46:41]:
Like, I. We. I think it was 10 o'. Clock. I said, I'm done. I'm out. Knowing that we had class the first day, I just wanted to be alive, so. But it was.
Brian Gauthier [00:46:53]:
It's an experience just to be able to be like, all right, I got a plan. I gotta pay the hotel. I gotta pay. Make sure, you know, I can travel, eat, and just be here. Basically.
Check Engine Chuck [00:47:05]:
That. That being said, if we could step back a minute here and go back to the call me back in five minutes thing.
Jeff Compton [00:47:12]:
Yeah.
Check Engine Chuck [00:47:12]:
There's two main caveats to that. One of the only reasons that you're here is because Asta was nice enough to tell me I could pick someone of my choice to bring and they would cover their registration.
Jeff Compton [00:47:24]:
Yeah.
Check Engine Chuck [00:47:25]:
The second caveat to that is that this motherfucker got on my live and bullied me into signing up for last year.
Jeff Compton [00:47:33]:
Yeah.
Check Engine Chuck [00:47:34]:
But the thing that I. I had in the back of my mind when I told you that. You have five minutes to answer me. You have five minutes to answer me. I could have waited a day, I could have waited two. I could have waited a week, was that if I didn't pressure you, I was afraid that you might not come.
Jeff Compton [00:47:48]:
Yeah.
Check Engine Chuck [00:47:48]:
And if I was able to transport myself back into the body and mind of me a year ago, before I came to this, I would be intensely envious of the person that I am today. After coming here for the first time last year and coming now. And I can tell you that I might have my own business, but I have to influence my own business the way that you need to influence your own paycheck and financially. The me today is a very different me than last year, and I'm doing nothing different except I changed my perspective and my mindset on how I was doing things and. And how I was valuing myself and standing up for the value of myself.
Jeff Compton [00:48:29]:
And that's. I. I have to kind of cut in and go and. And I haven't really said it to you in a. In a. I mean, I think, you know, but I'm very proud because I've seen the growth in you, appreciate it in the last year. And I always. I have.
Jeff Compton [00:48:42]:
I've respected you from the moment I saw you. I respect people, you know, real knows real. I respect people that are. I can see are putting effort in. Are at the level that you already were. And it's not that you overnight became an even better technician, but it's just you. I saw a switch in you where you're like, man, I'm worth it and I'm going to start charging for this. It's all the perspective and it's.
Jeff Compton [00:49:03]:
And it's. It's not me trying to corrupt. Everybody looks at me sometimes when these. When they hear me rant. And it's like, you're trying to corrupt people or I'm not. But I know how close all of us are to really feeling like I am good, then I am better than a lot of people. And it just. It's a.
Jeff Compton [00:49:20]:
It's a mental thing, and all it is is value. I. I am good because my boss couldn't fix that truck, and I did. I'm good because my co workers couldn't figure that car out, and I did. It's that perception that I'm not the same, that something makes me different. And it's either can be effort or it can be ability. Either one, it makes me different. And I'm gonna shine with that.
Jeff Compton [00:49:46]:
And that's all I want to put on to the other technicians that listen to me all the time, is there's varying levels to this. I'm never gonna be as good as a lot of people I associate with. But, man, I have done some things that have make me very proud of who I am in this industry. All I want to be able to share is like, remind people I'm not better than you. I just come at it with a different thing that a. It ain't gonna beat me right And B, I also know when to walk away. And that's a tricky thing to know. Right.
Jeff Compton [00:50:17]:
And if I'm. If it's not gonna beat me and somebody else that beat. And I got it, I'm gonna. I'm gonna wear that with pride. There's nothing wrong with that. Arrogance is not arrogance. Arrogance is confidence. Right.
Jeff Compton [00:50:29]:
It's all in the person that was receiving. That's when they choose to use one of those two words. We've all seen it. No, that's a really confident person. They go, that's an arrogant son of a bitch. Right. It's all. Most of that is you see them as an arrogant SOB because you don't feel good about yourself.
Jeff Compton [00:50:48]:
If you're a confident person, you recognize another confident person. It's all about perspective, man.
Brian Gauthier [00:50:54]:
Yeah.
Jeff Compton [00:50:54]:
Yeah.
Brian Gauthier [00:50:55]:
If you had talked to me a little over two years ago and you said, where do you see yourself and what are your goals and whatnot? I would have told you. I'm already there. I've been at a shop for a long time. I'm not bouncing around. I know enough to get by, and I'm pretty confident what I do, the skills I have, I have mastered, and I. It's not a concern.
Jeff Compton [00:51:17]:
Yeah.
Brian Gauthier [00:51:17]:
And I'm always good with that.
Jeff Compton [00:51:19]:
Yeah.
Brian Gauthier [00:51:20]:
When we started running into issues where, like I said, I was reaching out to Chuck and. And, you know, watching what he did and saying, well, ge. I've seen that problem. We sent it to the dealer. You know, how come he's doing it? So then just about two years ago, you know, when you're the mechanic in the family.
Jeff Compton [00:51:38]:
Yeah.
Brian Gauthier [00:51:39]:
Everyone calls you.
Jeff Compton [00:51:40]:
Yeah.
Brian Gauthier [00:51:40]:
Which is, you know, and I love helping family, and I'll. I'll help anyone that deserves that and whatnot. But my. My fiance's mother reaches out, and she has this 91 Cadillac, and it's. I already don't want to work on it.
Jeff Compton [00:51:53]:
Yeah.
Brian Gauthier [00:51:54]:
But it's her baby, and she loves it, and she's. And it's in very, very good shape for a 91 Caddy. It's still a 91K, but she says the AC doesn't work. And my first thought is, I don't. I don't work on ac. Right. Never have. Don't know.
Brian Gauthier [00:52:08]:
Can't tell you. And she goes, well, you know, it's. It's a black car with black interior. And, like, of course, the fiance's like, well, it's my mother. I'm like, all right, I'll figure something out. So I go get the car. I Bring it down. It's been in the barn for three, four years.
Brian Gauthier [00:52:24]:
I. I go bumper to bumper on it. I get it running pristine. I got it all cleaned out. The brakes are great. The tires are great. It just needs the AC done. We have a shop that's not far from us.
Brian Gauthier [00:52:34]:
That's what they do. Cooling and heating and H vac. That's. That's what they do.
Jeff Compton [00:52:38]:
Right.
Brian Gauthier [00:52:38]:
And they're amazing at it. So I call and say, hey, guys, you know Brian at Lindy's. This is what I got. What can you do? And they said, oh, that's an old car. It's gonna have to be converted to 134A. All right. This sounds expensive. Okay, well, not.
Check Engine Chuck [00:52:53]:
Sorry not to completely cut you up. You guys don't have an AC machine. You don't have. Okay, better yet, you don't have a set of manifold gauges. I got an extra set I'll send you. All right, so go on.
Brian Gauthier [00:53:04]:
So, no, we don't do ac. So. And in Maine. In Maine, you have to be licensed. You can't touch it.
Check Engine Chuck [00:53:10]:
601.
Brian Gauthier [00:53:11]:
That makes. No, that's Chinese.
Check Engine Chuck [00:53:12]:
Tomorrow when I. I'll set you up with your 601.
Jeff Compton [00:53:15]:
Anyway, so when it's 601, is that just to buy the refrigerant?
Check Engine Chuck [00:53:18]:
That's just to buy the refrigerant.
Jeff Compton [00:53:19]:
Right. So you can service the car. Technically, yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. See, in Canada, it's the same kind of thing.
Brian Gauthier [00:53:25]:
Unless we have a machine to evac it, we can't. Just.
Jeff Compton [00:53:28]:
So you need.
Check Engine Chuck [00:53:29]:
Well, you can't let it into the atmosphere, but that doesn't mean you can't look at pressures.
Jeff Compton [00:53:32]:
Yeah. So you can hook up pressures. And if you want to go buy a vacuum pump, you can buy a vacuum pump and a vac and then put it in. Put it into something. Right, right. That's all within legal. Your legal rights. The six.
Jeff Compton [00:53:43]:
The. The. And I'm just making assumptions, but it's probably very exact same in Canada. I only need the license to go buy the damn refrigerant.
Check Engine Chuck [00:53:51]:
Correct.
Jeff Compton [00:53:51]:
That's it. I can hook up and do whatever I want to the car. And there ain't nobody walking around going, what did you do with that? Like, you're supposed to document everything. And guys do. But it's the same. The shop I work at right now, Chuck, we don't have a working AC machine.
Check Engine Chuck [00:54:04]:
Really?
Jeff Compton [00:54:04]:
Really. We have an older. Older snap on that has stopped working. I don't know what's wrong. Vacuum pump. Who Knows. Who cares? I don't care.
Check Engine Chuck [00:54:11]:
Right.
Jeff Compton [00:54:11]:
And it's the same thing. It's an old R134 machine.
Check Engine Chuck [00:54:14]:
Right.
Jeff Compton [00:54:15]:
Well, we don't even see a lot of 134 cars coming in anymore.
Check Engine Chuck [00:54:18]:
Right.
Jeff Compton [00:54:18]:
Canada. So it's a 1, 2, 3, 4 thing. We have never. They never bought a machine, and now they're like, do we buy a machine? Like, I'm not sure what machine you buy now, because they're talking. They're going to get rid of 1234 and the next refrigerator is going to flow out. So, like, you're going to see shops are going to have three machines, a 134, 1234, and whatever that comes next. Yeah, that's a lot of money for a shop that goes back to. Why is the brake job cost $2900 or $800? Not to.
Jeff Compton [00:54:49]:
Not to keep a jet horse, but.
Brian Gauthier [00:54:51]:
You know what I mean?
Jeff Compton [00:54:52]:
Yeah.
Brian Gauthier [00:54:52]:
So anyway, I send this car to that shop and they do the conversion on it. And he calls me and he said, hey, it's all converted. Everything went well, but the AC doesn't work. And I went, excuse me. Like, I'm a little confused here, like. And he goes, it's all converted, but we can't get the system to power up. It doesn't work. And you either have to pay us to figure it out or, you know, and to be honest with you, it's an older car, and the technicians here don't really want to do it.
Jeff Compton [00:55:21]:
It.
Brian Gauthier [00:55:21]:
I said, all right, well, what do I owe you now? It was 400 bucks to do what they did. I thought that was fair. I picked up the car, I bring it back, I start probing around, checking things to the most of my ability. And very quickly I find out that this was pretty low.
Jeff Compton [00:55:35]:
Right.
Brian Gauthier [00:55:35]:
So I reach out to Chuck, and this is the first time I've ever really, you know, conversated with him. And I'm like, hey, man, like, I have this problem, and if it would mean the world to me if you could help me, and I will pay you or whatever you want. Like, I. I'm not trying to get it for free.
Jeff Compton [00:55:49]:
Right.
Brian Gauthier [00:55:49]:
And he's like, well, I'm a little busy, but I'll catch up with you. I said, okay. So day goes by. He gets a hold of me, and I explain what's going on. And he's like, sounds like a relay issue. He goes, but we'll check this, we'll check that. He's telling me, you know, while he's on the road, hey, check this. Let me know what you find.
Brian Gauthier [00:56:05]:
Do this. Let me know what you find. So I'm trying to take detailed videos and send them back to him. I'm like, this. Am I doing this right? Is this what you want to see? And he goes, okay, yeah, yeah, yeah. And he said, yeah. I don't know, man. Like, it.
Jeff Compton [00:56:18]:
It.
Brian Gauthier [00:56:18]:
It's acting like a relay, but, you know, I'm not there to check this. I'm like, all right. I said, well, at this point, he seems confident. What's a relay cost? So I make a phone call, get a relay sent up. Hilarious that they didn't have one.
Jeff Compton [00:56:32]:
But it's.
Brian Gauthier [00:56:32]:
It is a 91 Caddy. Pop the relay in, and boom, the whole system's working. Everything's fine. I get a whole Internet, like, dude, it was the first relay.
Jeff Compton [00:56:41]:
Yeah.
Brian Gauthier [00:56:41]:
Like, this is unbelievable. And he's like, yeah, I. I knew it. I should have just told you. It was so, like, all right. So I. I call up the radiator shop. I'm like, hey, like, not.
Brian Gauthier [00:56:50]:
Not for nothing, but just so you guys know, if you're running to it again, that was a relay. And the guy's like, are you sure? I'm like, I put one in. It works. It works perfect. And then, you know, later on, I get. We became better friends where, you know, he didn't mind if I, hey, what do you think of this? Or, you know, start talking back and forth. And I think really quickly he felt bad because, well, he saw what I was going through. Yeah.
Brian Gauthier [00:57:12]:
And it just kind of escalated from there. And there's been a few what I call small wins. And to. I always kind of laugh because, to me, like, it's a huge win. I figure something out. I diagnosed this. I found the problem, and I repaired it. To him, it was five minutes.
Brian Gauthier [00:57:29]:
Yeah. He already knew what it was. And he was like, yeah, you'll figure it out. To me. I'm like, holy crap. I did this.
Jeff Compton [00:57:34]:
It's the best feeling in the world, isn't it?
Brian Gauthier [00:57:36]:
It is. Yeah.
Check Engine Chuck [00:57:37]:
Sorry.
Jeff Compton [00:57:37]:
That's. I think we're. We all get addicted to that, whether it's a dopamine kick or whatever. Right? I know. Like, I like my ego stoked. So a challenging car. I. I know that's the only reason that.
Jeff Compton [00:57:48]:
Oh, I love it, you know, is because it's like, it's replacing something that's missing in our lives, whatever. Like, whether. You know, And. And. And it's perfectly cool. It's the best thing in the world. And, I mean, that's why when I know that you get excited about. I know how you feel about it.
Jeff Compton [00:58:03]:
That's why people are going to kind of want to continue to help you.
Check Engine Chuck [00:58:05]:
Yeah.
Brian Gauthier [00:58:06]:
You know, it's because of him that I. Well, back to that relay. We were trying to test things, and he goes, do you have, you know, what do you have to test this with? And I'm like, I don't know, man. Like, what's going to work? He goes, do you got a light bulb? I said, yeah, I got. I got a light bulb. I go over the shelf, rip one open. I don't even care. Walk back over, and I'm messing with it.
Brian Gauthier [00:58:25]:
And then later on, he comes out with the. The check engine, Chuck, load cage. And I don't think. He was like, yeah, it's live. And I was like, take my money. Sent it to him. I said, I don't even know how to use this yet. I'll take one.
Jeff Compton [00:58:36]:
Yeah.
Brian Gauthier [00:58:37]:
And it wasn't long after, he's like, man, I wish you had a power probe. And I'm like, I can squeeze that this week, Rich. I have a power probe now.
Check Engine Chuck [00:58:44]:
So let me ask you a question, too. Where. Where's the load cage? Home or work?
Brian Gauthier [00:58:48]:
At work.
Check Engine Chuck [00:58:49]:
It's at work.
Brian Gauthier [00:58:49]:
Yes. Oh, I use that as often as I can.
Check Engine Chuck [00:58:52]:
Phil has seen you use it. Yes. I'm sorry to drop his name there.
Brian Gauthier [00:58:55]:
That's fine.
Check Engine Chuck [00:58:55]:
Okay. When he first got that, do you know what he said to him? What do you need that for? We're never going to use that here.
Jeff Compton [00:59:04]:
It's just a fucking light bulb.
Check Engine Chuck [00:59:05]:
It's just a light bulb. But to see that he's been able. Back to the perspective thing to change his perspective. Not yours, your boss's to. Now, where has he ever asked to use it? Or he's just seen you use it?
Brian Gauthier [00:59:18]:
No, he's just seen me use it. It's because of his. I don't want to give him an excuse because of everything on his plate. When we get a car in that needs that amount of diagnosing, he's usually busy with something else. He might come, take a look, depending on what it is. But I'm usually. I'm trying to get in there. I'm trying to get as far and deep as I can and figure it out before he says, all right, we don't have time for this.
Jeff Compton [00:59:43]:
Right.
Brian Gauthier [00:59:45]:
So.
Check Engine Chuck [00:59:46]:
But he's seeing you actively using it at a moment.
Brian Gauthier [00:59:50]:
Yeah.
Check Engine Chuck [00:59:50]:
Then his perspective has already begun to change.
Jeff Compton [00:59:53]:
Yeah.
Check Engine Chuck [00:59:53]:
For the better.
Brian Gauthier [00:59:54]:
For you. So he still I mean, I bought the whole power probe kit. I mean, it comes with everything other than the. The brake finder, which I want one anyway. So I will use that literally every chance I can. And. And not. I'm ex.
Brian Gauthier [01:00:09]:
As he's drilled into my head, extremely careful with it. I'm not just throwing power everywhere I can, but I'd rather use that tool because I love the audible noise. I can go do something else. I can turn the key. I can do whatever I want to do. And I can hear it. Yeah, I don't. Because I'm working alone.
Brian Gauthier [01:00:24]:
I'm bleeding brakes by myself. Don't ask how. So I'm doing everything I can so that that tool is a second person to me. So I'm using that tool every chance I get. And he'll come in and he'll go do something small that requires a test light or something. And I'll look over, and I'm like, hey, man, try that. And he's like, test light's fine. I'm like, okay, yes, it is.
Brian Gauthier [01:00:46]:
But you should try this.
Check Engine Chuck [01:00:48]:
You should ask him what the amperage of the test light he's using is. Yeah, that's the question.
Jeff Compton [01:00:53]:
There's. There's different ones, right. If you use the wrong one, you can cause some damage, so they say. Or if you use the wrong one, you're not getting a true result that you may be looking for, like an accurate result. You use too small a one where you should be really trying to load, you're not showing anything. Still, it's a little bit better than the DVOM, but not much more. Use a tiny little 194 where we should be using like a 307.
Check Engine Chuck [01:01:16]:
Right.
Jeff Compton [01:01:17]:
That's what an example. Right.
Brian Gauthier [01:01:19]:
Oh, even going to a multimeter, like you were just discussing, up until, I would say, a year ago, never used one, other than setting it to voltage and saying, is this alternator charging?
Jeff Compton [01:01:32]:
Right.
Brian Gauthier [01:01:32]:
That is the only thing I've ever used it for. I've never used it for anything else. My first class that I took here at ASTA really revolved around that. And I'm going, oh, I can use this for a lot more.
Jeff Compton [01:01:43]:
Yeah.
Brian Gauthier [01:01:45]:
Which is great. Again, I just haven't had this knowledge I haven't had.
Check Engine Chuck [01:01:48]:
We got someone, if we could get them the PDF from that class.
Jeff Compton [01:01:51]:
Yeah, I'll work on it.
Check Engine Chuck [01:01:53]:
Yeah.
Jeff Compton [01:01:54]:
The other thing I'm gonna. I wanted to do. You're familiar with Scanner Danner?
Brian Gauthier [01:01:59]:
Vaguely. I've heard the name. I.
Jeff Compton [01:02:01]:
So Ryan Mullen credits a lot of Ryan's, you know, learning to Chuck and SK so I'm going to ask you as a favor to me that, you know, you just dedicate 20 minutes a day to go and watch. You don't even have to sign up for his premium membership. But I'll talk to him about getting you one. I don't think it'll be a problem too. And we'll get you set up with him. And then there's, I don't know, thousands hours of free videos of his that are on YouTube. I just ask that you think about, like, watching one of his every day, right? And one of his. Eric O.
Jeff Compton [01:02:40]:
From South Maine and Ivan from Pine Hollow and. And just watch their stuff, you know, that's geared toward. And I guarantee you, young man, you will not have to. If you come back in a year and you've been watching one of them, like, every day or four a week, you know, you are going to be absolutely amazed. And. And Chuck and I will be bragging about you the way Chuck brags about Ryan, about the growth that you will make in your ability to solve this stuff. And by then, you're going to be like, I want every problem car that gets towed into my boss's shop.
Brian Gauthier [01:03:14]:
So. Yeah, Sa. I already do.
Jeff Compton [01:03:54]:
Yeah.
Brian Gauthier [01:03:54]:
It feeds back to like. So was it a month ago, two months ago, the Subaru. Subaru can network issues.
Check Engine Chuck [01:04:01]:
I had a. Oh, he had a Subaru with can network issues that he couldn't duplicate.
Brian Gauthier [01:04:06]:
They were intermittent. Yeah. So you would drive this car for 15, 20 minutes. Flawless. Other than it's a Subaru with 197, 000 miles, and then out of nowhere, it would not shift out of park. The gate, all the lights came up. It, you know, multiple things stopped working. And you might have that problem for an hour.
Brian Gauthier [01:04:27]:
You might have that problem for three minutes. Right there. There was at one point where I pulled in the yard, all the lights are on, and I put it in park, and I'm like, all right, cool. I don't even shut it off. Run inside, grab the scan tool, run out, plug it in, turn it on, look up, lights are gone. What's going on? And so I'm reaching out to Chuck again, saying, like, this is what I'm running into. And he's like, ah, it's. It's difficult.
Brian Gauthier [01:04:49]:
You're gonna have trouble. But, you know, figure it out.
Check Engine Chuck [01:04:51]:
So.
Jeff Compton [01:04:52]:
All right.
Brian Gauthier [01:04:52]:
Well, it was one of our slower days, a rarity, but it worked out perfect where I was able to put four hours on this car. Now I, I'm not going to say I got far with it, right, because I. The information I had wasn't information I understood and all. He was particularly busy that day and I was already feeling like I was bothering him again. So he's like, you got to do this, you got to find this and then you're gonna have to test this. I'm like, all right, cool. And then a little bit goes by and he goes, how you doing? I'm like, dude, those wires are so buried in the dash that I don't have enough time to dig them out, to find them, to test them. And maybe someone who has dealt with Subaru furthermore, or maybe someone as experienced as him would show up and know exactly where he can plug in and how to do this.
Brian Gauthier [01:05:37]:
But I had the center console out, I had a chance, the seat out of it, I had part of the dash out of it. And I'm now at the point where I either I have enough time to put this back together or I have enough time to go further, but I'm not going to be able to put it back together. And mind you, we haven't even contacted the customer to say, hey, do you want me to do this?
Jeff Compton [01:05:56]:
Mm.
Check Engine Chuck [01:05:56]:
Right.
Brian Gauthier [01:05:56]:
So I'm just doing this on like, hey, if I figure this out, great. If not.
Check Engine Chuck [01:06:00]:
So I barely remember the cars I worked on two days ago.
Jeff Compton [01:06:03]:
Right.
Check Engine Chuck [01:06:04]:
But with what he's telling, I do remember the Subaru being a Subaru. And I remember thinking, this is perfect because this is a single network, high speed network car. It sounds like I had you digging towards a junction connector if you were pulling dash stuff apart.
Brian Gauthier [01:06:18]:
It was a center connector.
Check Engine Chuck [01:06:19]:
Do you remember how we got to that point? Did I have your resistance checking at the dlc? Did you, did you have no communication with the scan tool?
Brian Gauthier [01:06:27]:
I had communication, but it was dropping. Like I couldn't see the ABS module. After a little bit, I could see topology was showing.
Check Engine Chuck [01:06:35]:
I was trying to have them have the system at a specific junction connector. Then.
Brian Gauthier [01:06:39]:
Yeah, okay, so, but I. So again, this turned into a vehicle that I was waiting. Like, this car's not worth a lot. Okay, so how much is this customer truly going to put into this?
Jeff Compton [01:06:48]:
Right?
Brian Gauthier [01:06:49]:
It's already not that great. It was a. His kid's car that he drives to high school.
Jeff Compton [01:06:52]:
Yeah, right.
Brian Gauthier [01:06:53]:
So finally we get to the point where I say, all right, I just have to put this back together. We're going to talk to the customer and then we're going to see do they want to pay us anything. To actually dig into this. I did this on, like, my boss look, walked out and said, what are you doing? And I was like, you should go in the other room. So we put it all back together. We contact the customer, and my boss asked like, hey, this is what's going on, Kind of. We may or may not be able to figure this out, but if you want to pay us, like, four hours, we'll keep going at it. If not, you're welcome to come get the car.
Brian Gauthier [01:07:27]:
Don't worry about the time we have in it. You know, you didn't really. We didn't talk to you about that. And he goes, no, I'm gonna. I'm gonna get a new car. So now I'm like, oh, I'm okay with this. Does he want to sell it? And what's it worth, Right? Because I'm thinking, if I buy it for 500 bucks and I can play with it, whether I do or don't figure it out, I can part it out, sell it, crush it.
Jeff Compton [01:07:47]:
Yeah.
Brian Gauthier [01:07:49]:
At that point, if I sell it for 300, then I paid 200 bucks for some knowledge. And I'm good with that. I'm fine with that. And he ends up saying, well, yeah, I'm gonna sell it, But I want 1500. And I'm thinking, this thing doesn't even run. You're not going to sell it. It sold in two days. Some guy.
Brian Gauthier [01:08:05]:
That's a Subaru guy come and got it and drove it away. And I was like, but this is the. The repetitive of like, I want to fix this. I'm starting to understand the vehicle's no longer available. One of the biggest things. And I had him for, like, six hours. I wasted. I won't say wasted.
Brian Gauthier [01:08:26]:
He helped me for six hours on a truck that was potentially hit by lightning.
Jeff Compton [01:08:30]:
Right.
Brian Gauthier [01:08:30]:
Whether or not it was. That was like the. That was the assumption. Because it was driving down the road, something happened. The truck no longer runs, and it was a 2007 Silverado. You hit the key on it, and it just clicks. Like the starter is bad. Okay.
Brian Gauthier [01:08:46]:
But you go to the starter relay, cross the relay, and it turns over, but it won't run. So starter is good. It's turning over. We're, you know, we're testing wiring. We're seeing if we have, you know, testing load down to it. We're checking the wire, seeing if there's bad grounds.
Check Engine Chuck [01:09:02]:
I. I think if I remember, he had no comms with the PCM on that one.
Brian Gauthier [01:09:05]:
Okay. So we would destroy. That's right.
Check Engine Chuck [01:09:07]:
It Was red, right? Yeah, yeah. He had no comms with the pcm.
Brian Gauthier [01:09:10]:
So he. He shows me on. We have a launch torque for 431. Torque.
Jeff Compton [01:09:17]:
An older one. Yeah. Okay, you.
Check Engine Chuck [01:09:19]:
You guys have a torque?
Brian Gauthier [01:09:20]:
Yeah, I think it is.
Check Engine Chuck [01:09:20]:
Is it a Chinese one or American?
Brian Gauthier [01:09:23]:
It's from Mac. Right off the truck.
Check Engine Chuck [01:09:26]:
Then he's either a Torque 3 or. Yeah, or a Turbo 3.
Jeff Compton [01:09:30]:
Good toolbox in its day, though.
Brian Gauthier [01:09:32]:
Yeah, but either way. So we plug that in, and he's like, oh, yeah, I have one of those. I know exactly how to use it. I'll run you through it. And he says, you need to know what it can and can't communicate with. So go to this, and it's going to show you every module that is currently talking. Okay? So, boom, this whole list comes up and. Oh, no, pcm.
Brian Gauthier [01:09:49]:
The PCM is not there. Okay, so we're now going to mess with that. Well, you would leave this truck sitting there for five or 10 minutes, not even touching it. Key on, walk away. And you would come back and refresh the screen. And the PCM's talking now. The TCM is not.
Jeff Compton [01:10:03]:
Mm.
Brian Gauthier [01:10:04]:
Okay. All right. So you start kind of messing with some stuff, all right? And then all of a sudden, it resets again, and now something else isn't talking. There's no ABS module, but yet your TCM's back, and now you don't have PCM. There was no consistency to it, so. And I got. Apparently it intrigued him enough where he was calling me, like, all right, man, let's work on this. Like, what are you doing after work? All right, cool.
Brian Gauthier [01:10:28]:
So now it doesn't run. So load it up on the tow truck, back it around, drop it in the garage, call him. Hey, man, you available? I'm busy with the family. All right, well, I'm here for a while. I already brought this truck in. I'm gonna start just checking stuff. So. Messing with it, messing with it, messing with it.
Brian Gauthier [01:10:43]:
And he. He comes to the assumption that, hey, you. You may need a pcm. Everything is pointing to the PCM on. This is bad. You know, we try this one. Try this. Tell me the info.
Brian Gauthier [01:10:56]:
Try this, try this. Tell me the info. All right, do this for me right now. So we're doing all these different tests, diagnosing as best we can. And, you know, the. One of the things he had told me early on was, if I'm gonna help you, if I tell you to do it, this is how you do it. Don't argue. Okay, cool.
Brian Gauthier [01:11:11]:
We could do that. So we get to that point where he's like, I'm. I'm fairly confident this is a pcm. You know, this is it. It fits the bill. We've tested everything. It fits the bill. So I said, all right, I'll go, I'll go talk to my boss.
Brian Gauthier [01:11:24]:
So I said, hey. And by then he had. He'd know. He knew of Chuck and he knew how much he was helping me. And I said, he is fairly confident this is our problem. We can fix this truck. Now again, we are in. I mean, the hours I put into this are just catastrophic.
Brian Gauthier [01:11:40]:
Yeah, to the point. But it turned into. It wasn't a money, it was. I want to know what's wrong with it. So we get a PCM ordered, we okay the pcm, talk to the, the customer. He's like, yeah, whatever. I need my truck back. Cool.
Brian Gauthier [01:11:53]:
We plug it in. We have no way of programming, so we have to make a phone call. The guy that programs in our area, he might be by tomorrow, he might be by next week.
Jeff Compton [01:12:03]:
Right?
Brian Gauthier [01:12:04]:
It's when he's available. So about a week goes by, he's still checking in with me every day, like, hey, man, what's happening here? If I recall, after plugging in the new pcm, obviously the vehicle won't start, but we could get it to do like a three second crank. You could hit the key. And it actually kind of wanted to crank. And we're like, oh, good sign. We're getting somewhere. So the day that the guy shows up to program it, he comes in and plugs. I'm sending him Snapchats left and right.
Brian Gauthier [01:12:33]:
He's here, he's here.
Jeff Compton [01:12:34]:
Just look at this.
Brian Gauthier [01:12:35]:
It's happening. The hood's open, we're gonna do this. And the guy sitting there about five minutes and looks at me, he goes, there's no calm. It's like, what? And he goes, there's no communication. So what do you mean? He goes, I said, well, there was no communication with the last pcm. When I plugged the new one in, I had it and it wasn't dropping it. As far as I could tell, it was always there. And he goes, well, I need to let you know that if I go to program this and I lose communication, that's it, you know.
Jeff Compton [01:13:01]:
Right.
Brian Gauthier [01:13:01]:
And you still owe me.
Jeff Compton [01:13:02]:
Yeah.
Brian Gauthier [01:13:03]:
So we're looking at the boss, and the boss is like, well, no, don't do that. Let's. Let's see what else we can find. So he leaves is what it is kind of thing. I'm Talking to him. And he's like, all right, well, you've got pin fitment issues. We got, you know, we start wiggling some wires here. We're getting reaction.
Brian Gauthier [01:13:19]:
Stuff's happening. All right, you got a bad plug. Well, can't get a plug right. So now I'm on market. I'm not done with this. I'm on marketplace. I find a guy parting out a truck. I'm like, hey, man, how much you want for the whole damn thing? Okay.
Brian Gauthier [01:13:32]:
I drive an hour and a half. I purchased this truck, okay. There's no transmission in it. It's a pile of crap. And I look and I'm like, yep, same one. Let's go. I'll take it. It bring the truck back, chop the harness.
Brian Gauthier [01:13:44]:
I'm in there one wire at a time, putting this all together. And I'm like, this is gonna work. This is gonna freaking work. Got it to the point where it was all put back together. It looked like hell, but if it ran, I was gonna be so damn happy. And it would do the half crank thing. You'd hit it, go root, Rick, and stop. So, okay, call the programming guy.
Brian Gauthier [01:14:04]:
Come on back. We fixed it. We're good to go. He shows up the next day. He happened to be in town. It was perfect. And he plugs into it. And within five minutes, he goes, I got no calm.
Check Engine Chuck [01:14:14]:
I can't remember if you were. Did you verify that he had no communication by plugging in the scan tool? Do you remember that?
Brian Gauthier [01:14:22]:
I don't.
Check Engine Chuck [01:14:24]:
I don't remember enough of this truck to remember how we got to where we were.
Brian Gauthier [01:14:28]:
So by now, this truck has been at our shop for three months.
Jeff Compton [01:14:31]:
Wow.
Brian Gauthier [01:14:32]:
The customer has already went and purchased another vehicle.
Jeff Compton [01:14:35]:
He's.
Brian Gauthier [01:14:35]:
He's given up on it. And not that he's upset with us. It was an older truck. He didn't really care, but if it was fixed cheap enough, he was gonna do.
Jeff Compton [01:14:43]:
Yeah.
Brian Gauthier [01:14:44]:
So now we're at the second point of this guy says, I'm losing communication with the pcm. What do you want to do? Like, I don't know. I. I don't know what to do at this point. So the boss says, all right, we've wasted enough time on this. Let's put it out back. We'll. We'll figure it out later.
Brian Gauthier [01:15:01]:
And he goes, I'll try to buy the truck off the guy, and we'll figure it out. I said, all right, cool. So he ends up talking to the guy. The guy says, yeah, whatever. I'll just sell it to you for 500 bucks. I don't care anymore. I want the truck gone. So we buy the truck.
Brian Gauthier [01:15:12]:
I'm telling him I'm excited. Like, we own this thing now. I'm, you know, I'm going to work on it when I can or I'm going to buy it off of Phil. Whatever we got to do. So a week goes by, I come to work, truck's gone. I'm like, what's. Did we move it? Where's. Where's the truck? Oh, we sold it to the, the pick apart place.
Brian Gauthier [01:15:30]:
They come and got it. And I said, why'd you do that? We're done with it. We put enough time into it. And I, I was like, okay, so now if anyone needs a brand new GM PCM for an 07 to 10, I have one. I don't have a truck that it belongs to anymore. It's never been used.
Check Engine Chuck [01:15:47]:
I feel like I need to buy that pcm.
Brian Gauthier [01:15:49]:
Yeah.
Jeff Compton [01:15:50]:
Yeah.
Brian Gauthier [01:15:51]:
Actually, I think I still have the bad one too. But again, this is like horror story after horror story of stuff that I want to dive in. I'm not scared to dive into this.
Jeff Compton [01:16:01]:
It. The more you tell me, the more it's like, okay, I want to put the hammer down on this and call it. Because it's getting frustrating listening to. Because I was. I've been in shops like that before and you see shops like that, you do a lot of business for shops like that. Right. So my. I, I have goals for you, but I want to see.
Jeff Compton [01:16:21]:
Right. And Chuck has goals for you to see. And you know, it's, it's a situation of we're not ever going to, you know, be big brothering you, you know, into like, listen, you need to do better. That's not what this is about. And I want you to understand I'm not here to pick on your boss or my, my ultimate goal. I would love to see you get to a level where you can leave that shot behind. Right. And not, and not part on bad terms, but just like if, if.
Jeff Compton [01:16:48]:
Or here's the other scenario. If he's at 60 and say in three more years, you're like, you pull a Ryan Mullen and you become absolutely like a killer.
Brian Gauthier [01:16:57]:
Yeah.
Jeff Compton [01:16:58]:
I would like to see if there was some way that you could purchase the shop. That's what I would like to see for yourself. And then you watch yourself become this good mechanic, great mechanic. And then we have to get you guided towards becoming a great businessman because it's not like you will see. And Chuck and I We talk. There's a ton of guys out there. They're just killer mechanics. Business wise they're really struggling.
Jeff Compton [01:17:23]:
Right. And that's my whole thing is I want to be able to bridge this gap between technician and owner, technician and shop manager, whatever, doesn't matter. Guy turning the wrench, guy doing the numbers. I want to bring that to a more cohesive unit and understand that as one transitions maybe to another, that there's. The learning never stops is my point. Absolutely. You learn how to fix cars now, you learn how to do business and then we fix most of the problems in this injuries. It's just that and it's lack of confidence.
Jeff Compton [01:17:52]:
But that would be my ultimate goal for Brian. Would you see like in three years from now that shop is yours and you own it or your boss comes around and you guys become where you're not sending everything away, you know, and you're not giving.
Brian Gauthier [01:18:13]:
We're on the path of at least that the. And. And I'm sure Chuck can agree with me. A year for. Go back a year again. We. You got 20 minutes to figure out what's going on before we're told get on the next one.
Jeff Compton [01:18:29]:
Yeah.
Brian Gauthier [01:18:31]:
This past few, even within the past few weeks when back when I told him I'm going to Asta, he just kind of stared at me and was like, what's that? And I explained to him what it was. I said this is happening. I'm going to this, you know, vacation time, whatever it is, I don't care. I'm going. I'm not going to be here this week.
Jeff Compton [01:18:47]:
Right?
Brian Gauthier [01:18:48]:
And he was like, oh, all right. And just kind of fluffed it off. And then it, you know, as he started hearing me talk about it more with, you know, friends that were at the shop and whatnot, like, hey, yeah, I'm gonna go do this. And they're like, oh, what are you going to do? I said, chuck set up all my classes, man. I'm going for electrical diag. Just everything involved in that because that's what I'm lacking. And it turned into like, oh, all right. Well, he's taking it seriously.
Brian Gauthier [01:19:12]:
So you get to do a few more things. And again we go back to those small wins where trucks that, you know, you're not. We have no communication with. So Tundras not to jump around too much Tundras, we do a crap ton of fuel pump drivers, right. Constantly. I stock them to the point where when one gets towed in and I go out there and I crank it, the first thing I do Is go grab one off the shelf, slide under, and go to see if I can drive this into the shop because I don't have to tow it.
Jeff Compton [01:19:44]:
Just like the old Ford ones. Yeah. Yep, yep.
Brian Gauthier [01:19:46]:
So we do a ton of those, but we.
Jeff Compton [01:19:49]:
I don't know.
Brian Gauthier [01:19:50]:
It was a few weeks back. Tundra gets towed in, doesn't run. Crank, no. Crank, no start. Grab one off the shelf, plug it in. Crank, no start. Oh, okay. And he's already written it off of like, well, we tried.
Brian Gauthier [01:20:05]:
Well, no, like, let me get in there, you know, Let me try something. Give me. Give me a little bit of time on. He's like, well, yeah, if you want to.
Check Engine Chuck [01:20:12]:
Okay.
Brian Gauthier [01:20:12]:
Before you change your mind, you know, grab tow truck, load it up, drop it in the garage. And I'm Start pulling wiring apart. And I'm realizing, oh, okay, I gotta. I got a broken wire here. I already figured this out. Fix the wire. Crank, no start. What is going on here? So now I'm talking to him.
Brian Gauthier [01:20:28]:
I said, I'm right into this. This is what I'm doing. He's like, all right, you gotta load. Test this. You gotta load. Test that. All right, I'm on it. And then trying to load, test the pump.
Brian Gauthier [01:20:35]:
And he's like, I don't know if you could do that.
Check Engine Chuck [01:20:37]:
I'm like, well, he put the load tester in line on the pump and hit it. And I was like, oh, man. I'm like, I really hope that pump doesn't have a, you know, go to it. But he lit up the light bulb going through the circuit, and the pump did not run. So the light bulb was able to light off 4amps. The pump did not use the rest of the amperage. Amperage and run. Here you go.
Jeff Compton [01:21:01]:
Needs a pump. Yeah.
Brian Gauthier [01:21:03]:
So, I mean, again, for me, a small win. I mean, a huge win on my end. But, like, we figured this out, we got this running, we got the truck fixed, and away it went. I've got another one that unfortunately, the customer passed away while we had his truck. So that's. We. That was a bunch of other issues that we fixed on it. And now we're like, what do we do with the truck?
Jeff Compton [01:21:24]:
So your. Your boss is making progress.
Brian Gauthier [01:21:26]:
Starting to.
Jeff Compton [01:21:27]:
Yeah, yeah.
Brian Gauthier [01:21:27]:
So that's coming around to it.
Jeff Compton [01:21:28]:
That's good.
Brian Gauthier [01:21:28]:
And to the point where we. He didn't really say a whole lot about asta up until I went to leave, and it was like, two days before. He's like, I'm going to help you out with that.
Jeff Compton [01:21:41]:
Like, okay, wow, that's cool.
Brian Gauthier [01:21:43]:
I'm like, all right, so I don't expect anything. I didn't ask, whatever. So the day I was getting ready to leave, he hands me some cash and says, here's, you know, for gas on your way down or whatever. And then says something that I think blew us both out of the water, where he's like, well, if you're at the expo and you see something we really need, just call me and I'll give you the credit card number perspective. And I went, really? Now? Will that happen? I don't really know, but that's not the answer I usually get, right? So, like, all right, something's going on here. Can I tell them about what I brought with me?
Check Engine Chuck [01:22:18]:
Oh, yeah.
Brian Gauthier [01:22:18]:
Okay. So when we all got into the ASTA group, as you know, we all started talking and somehow everyone got focused on me. And I was like, all right, this is really weird, but we got talking about the fact that we do a lot at my shop, but we also don't transmissions 17 to 19 or 14 to 19 GMs. I do one a month by myself. I mean, takes me. I put up on the lift, four hours later, it's on the ground ready for programming.
Jeff Compton [01:22:47]:
Right.
Brian Gauthier [01:22:47]:
I feel like I do pretty good at that. Again, this leads us back to our programming guy is. Could be tomorrow, could be next week, could be two weeks from now. I've had customer trucks that they dropped it off and then they show up at the next day and they're like, oh, I see it outside. And I'm like, yeah, tranny's done. Like, oh, okay, so I can get it. Well, no, it needs to be programmed. Like, oh, how long is that going to take? I'm like, I'll let you know.
Check Engine Chuck [01:23:09]:
So how do you get there? He gets here.
Brian Gauthier [01:23:11]:
Yeah, exactly. I don't have control over that. And we. We run into this more and more. I had a traverse a couple weeks back that was reduced engine power, can network issues. Whole bunch of stuff going on. And I'm again talking to Chuck here, and he says, does it have backup sensors? I said, yeah. And he goes, go.
Brian Gauthier [01:23:32]:
Go under there. Real. Just do.
Check Engine Chuck [01:23:33]:
Just humor me.
Brian Gauthier [01:23:33]:
Go under there and look at the module. They're up on the back bumper. All right, man, whatever. Go slide under there. He goes, it might be corroded side obstacle.
Jeff Compton [01:23:40]:
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Brian Gauthier [01:23:42]:
And I look and I pop it out and sure enough, this thing is like, split in half. Yeah, it's bad.
Jeff Compton [01:23:47]:
Yeah.
Brian Gauthier [01:23:47]:
I'm like, oh, okay. So I could just change this out. He Goes, well, needs to be programmed. Another situation where I can fix this in five minutes. I don't have to put it on the lift, but it's not going to run, right?
Check Engine Chuck [01:24:01]:
It's not going to fix the problem.
Brian Gauthier [01:24:03]:
So I'm telling everyone in the group about this and not to try to make everyone feel bad for me, but I'm just, hey, you know, I'm not going to hide where I'm at and my capabilities. And Walker was in the chat, and all of a sudden, and I have never met this man in my life. I couldn't, up until now, I couldn't tell you what he looked like. And he goes, what's your address? And I'm like, okay, man. Like, I'm taken. Sorry. Thanks. He's like, no, no, I already told.
Check Engine Chuck [01:24:32]:
You, you're not that attractive, right?
Brian Gauthier [01:24:34]:
But he's like, what's your address? I'm like, I don't know. And so I'm Snapchatting just him. And I'm like, hey, what's this guy's deal? Like, I. I don't just give out my address to anyone who walks by. And he goes, no, he's. He's one of the good ones. He just wants to help. I already explained the situation.
Brian Gauthier [01:24:50]:
I'm like, help with what? He goes, he does, he does sets up for mobile programming and stuff. You know, everything you need to program. I can't afford that. So all sudden, they're talking back and forth in the chat in code, talking about all this. Oh, a J2535 4. And you're gonna need this and need that, and what do you think about this? And I'm going, now, mind you, I go to bed at 10, so I usually silence the phone, but I'm listening to them and I'm like, guys, you know, J34 VCR, DVD. I don't know, man. It don't matter.
Brian Gauthier [01:25:25]:
So I don't understand anything you guys are saying, so whatever. And I said, well, Walker, I. I'll just talk to you at asta. Like, we'll. We'll talk, we'll become friends, and then you can, you know, if you want to help me out, we'll talk then. And he was like, I already have your address. I'm like, what? Never mind, whatever. So just kind of like, all right, I don't know what's going on, but whatever.
Brian Gauthier [01:25:47]:
I message him and he's like, he's. He's setting you up with everything you need to program. Like, why? Because he wants to see you succeed. He wants to help you. He's in a position where he can help you.
Check Engine Chuck [01:25:59]:
Like.
Brian Gauthier [01:25:59]:
Oh, like he doesn't have to do that. Yeah, he knows. I said, well, I don't have any money. Yeah, he knows. Don't worry about it. All right, well, geez, you know, between the two of these guys, they're, you know, literally changing my life.
Jeff Compton [01:26:10]:
Yeah.
Brian Gauthier [01:26:10]:
So like, all right. And now again, I wasn't expecting anything, so I'm like, all right, well, I'm not going to get my hopes up. People say things all the time. You know, I've been through this before, but whatever. A couple days goes by and I do sell things off the TikTok shop here and there. Nothing extravagant, but whatever makes a few bucks. And something from Top dawn shows up and I'm. I didn't order anything.
Check Engine Chuck [01:26:33]:
I forgot about this part. This is hilarious.
Brian Gauthier [01:26:35]:
So I didn't, I didn't order anything from Top Don, like. And I, I've seen what it looks like. A. A dongle that. Just a wireless dongle that plugs in. And Topdon had reached out to me about 50 million times trying to get me to promote their 30$.
Check Engine Chuck [01:26:50]:
The. The hell's the name of it?
Jeff Compton [01:26:53]:
I don't know either. I'm trying.
Check Engine Chuck [01:26:54]:
I'm too tired to remember, honestly.
Brian Gauthier [01:26:56]:
The one that connects top not.
Check Engine Chuck [01:26:58]:
No, not top blank. The top.
Jeff Compton [01:27:01]:
Top flight or whatever.
Check Engine Chuck [01:27:02]:
The bi directional control.
Brian Gauthier [01:27:04]:
And it's probably a great product for its price or something. I don't have an interest in it.
Jeff Compton [01:27:08]:
Yeah.
Brian Gauthier [01:27:08]:
So. And I've told them every time that they blow up my phone, like, I'm sorry, I'm not interested. Thank you. Anyway, I don't want it. I. I've had enough of the cheaper scan tools. I've had enough of working with that stuff. I don't want to promote it.
Brian Gauthier [01:27:19]:
So this thing shows up and I don't know what it is. I'm looking at it and I'm like, why did they send me this? What is going on here? So I message him. I'm like, man, I'm about to throw. Look what Top Don did. I'm gonna throw this in the trash, literally.
Check Engine Chuck [01:27:32]:
You're gonna throw it in the trash?
Jeff Compton [01:27:33]:
Yeah.
Brian Gauthier [01:27:33]:
He goes, send me a picture of that. So I sent him a picture and he goes, don't throw that away. Whatever you do, don't throw that away. He goes, that is a very expensive pass through device. You need that.
Check Engine Chuck [01:27:41]:
That's part of what the big arling.
Jeff Compton [01:27:44]:
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Brian Gauthier [01:27:44]:
I'm like, oh, well, good thing I didn't Throw that away. I'm like, oh, boy. So then I'm reaching out to Walker. I'm like, did you send me this? He goes, yeah, I told you I was gonna. Like, I didn't know what it was. Like, so. And he goes, yeah, everything else is all put together, and it's on its way. I'm like, what do you mean, everything else? He goes, you got a laptop.
Brian Gauthier [01:28:02]:
You got all the plugins you need. You got everything you need for this. Like, okay. Like, do you want something for this? He goes, no, don't worry about it. Oh, okay. He goes, just when you get in a position in your life where you can help someone else out, make sure you do. I can do that.
Jeff Compton [01:28:19]:
Yeah.
Brian Gauthier [01:28:20]:
So that. That shows up at the shop, and I. I kind of looked it over a little bit again. My laptop experience ended when cell phones became laptops.
Jeff Compton [01:28:31]:
Yeah.
Brian Gauthier [01:28:31]:
Right. I. I never needed one again. And so I'm like, great, now I gotta figure this out. So I reach out to Chuck, and I said, hey, man. Like, what do I. What do I do with this? And he's like, well, you got to set up an account here, here, and here. Okay, I can.
Brian Gauthier [01:28:47]:
I can figure that out.
Check Engine Chuck [01:28:48]:
So Big three.
Brian Gauthier [01:28:49]:
Yeah. So I'm trying to figure this out. And it was going a little more frustrating than I would have liked it to, because GM wants a password between 15 and 20 characters, and they're very strict about that.
Jeff Compton [01:29:00]:
Yeah.
Brian Gauthier [01:29:00]:
And I don't have the mental capacity to make a password and remember it. That's 15 to 20 characters.
Jeff Compton [01:29:05]:
I can't either.
Brian Gauthier [01:29:07]:
So I'm like. I'm, like, putting anything in there, like, trying to write it in my phone as I do it so I don't forget it. Finally, after, like, an hour and a half. And he had family stuff that night, so I was trying to not bother him. And then. So I'm reaching out to Walker, who. Who also is busy, and I'm like, hey, man, like, when you got a second, I could use a hand with this. He's like, you just set up an account.
Brian Gauthier [01:29:27]:
I'm like, okay.
Check Engine Chuck [01:29:28]:
It's like second nature to us.
Jeff Compton [01:29:30]:
Yeah.
Brian Gauthier [01:29:30]:
Yeah. No, to. It's. It's nothing. And I'm like, great. So I'm trying to figure it out. And then he had told me that I needed to link the.
Check Engine Chuck [01:29:37]:
The VCI to the laptop.
Brian Gauthier [01:29:38]:
Yeah. I had to do that. So I'm trying to do that, and I don't know what I'm doing with this. And so I reached out, I said, hey, you know you had said, you. You give me a hand when you got a second to. To hook this up? And he's like, yeah, just download the app and do this and this and this. I'm like, all right. So now I'm reading through the.
Brian Gauthier [01:29:55]:
The directions, like the whole little fine print. And I'm like, oh, okay. Go to this website, download this, do this. All right. Now I'm two hours sitting at my kitchen table figuring it out. Now I'm like, all right, I got it figured out. So he checks in, he goes, how you doing on it? And I said, yeah, I went in, I went to this website and I did this. I downloaded this.
Brian Gauthier [01:30:11]:
He goes, it was already on the laptop. I already did all that for you. And I'm like, well, you didn't say that. So I end up getting everything as set up as I can get it, and to my knowledge, it's ready to go.
Check Engine Chuck [01:30:25]:
He brought it with him. Tomorrow I'm gonna sit down with him after class.
Jeff Compton [01:30:29]:
Very cool.
Check Engine Chuck [01:30:29]:
We're gonna have a how to navigate, a one on one how to navigate identifix service information.
Jeff Compton [01:30:36]:
Yeah.
Check Engine Chuck [01:30:36]:
Not the confirmed fixes.
Jeff Compton [01:30:38]:
That's right.
Check Engine Chuck [01:30:38]:
How to get to the service information. And we'll get him set up properly with accounts for the big three, get his device verified through Chrysler, which needs to happen.
Jeff Compton [01:30:48]:
Yeah.
Check Engine Chuck [01:30:48]:
And then we could tackle a GM first once he gets back home, which will be awesome.
Brian Gauthier [01:30:55]:
And one of the things they had said to me was, we're not helping out your shop, we're helping out you. Like, however that happens, whatever you do, this is for you.
Jeff Compton [01:31:06]:
Yeah.
Brian Gauthier [01:31:07]:
Like, all right, cool. So it wasn't long after they had sent everything that, you know, Chuck reaches out. He goes, so what'd your boss say? Just what'd he say? I said, I don't know. I kind of ran it by him. The reason he always said he didn't want to get into that stuff was if we screw it up, we have to eat it.
Jeff Compton [01:31:24]:
Right.
Brian Gauthier [01:31:24]:
And he doesn't. Again, this goes back to if he can't bail us out of it, then he doesn't want no part of it. So I'm thinking, great, this is going to turn into something where these guys just stuck their neck out, put in their time and effort.
Check Engine Chuck [01:31:35]:
I just thought of it. His boss is buying a proper battery maintainer tomorrow.
Jeff Compton [01:31:39]:
Oh, good, good, good. Yeah. Key piece of equipment.
Brian Gauthier [01:31:42]:
Yep. And it. It was. I was so worried that we're gonna get to the point where I now have the capability. I now have the people standing behind me and I'm not going to be allowed to do this.
Jeff Compton [01:31:54]:
So I don't think being allowed is going to be a problem. I think it's going to be.
Brian Gauthier [01:31:58]:
So that conversation did happen and it turned into of like as long as you're sure of what you're doing. And he, he has come to actually have a lot of respect for Chuck to the point where if we run into a problem, he's like, well, can you just call your friend?
Check Engine Chuck [01:32:12]:
Well that's news to me.
Jeff Compton [01:32:15]:
And what I, what I would love to see is that if this is something that you have acquired through your own means and you've trained yourself up and you're now doing things that are. If on your customers vehicles that you keep some part of the pie that's.
Brian Gauthier [01:32:33]:
Created from that, I think that's going to be the next conversation because I, as much as I want to just do this, I also want it to not be something that my shop benefited off of me off of them.
Jeff Compton [01:32:45]:
Right.
Brian Gauthier [01:32:46]:
So whether or not, I mean realistically, right now we're paying 300 to program an item which is cheap. Yeah, that's, that's what we pay. So there's no reason that the shop can't pay me.
Jeff Compton [01:32:58]:
Right.
Brian Gauthier [01:32:59]:
Even if it's not 300.
Jeff Compton [01:33:01]:
And if you, the convenience factor alone.
Brian Gauthier [01:33:04]:
Oh absolutely.
Jeff Compton [01:33:05]:
Is worth at least then a little bit above the 300, not waiting two weeks, it's worth 350 then, you know, and that's how you need to approach it. Or you know, and that's the thing. He can tell you that not all cars are the same to program. So not all get the same price. And that's. And that's it. I, I see everybody starting to yawn.
Check Engine Chuck [01:33:24]:
And I'm feeling asleep myself.
Jeff Compton [01:33:27]:
You know. We're gonna check in with you. Obviously not just through Snapchat, but once in a while in three more months or whatever like that. Yeah, I wanna, I wanna see how it's going. And just like you reach out to him, feel free to reach out to me, you know, if he's busy or something like that. I'm not his level, but I mean I can certainly help you through some stuff too.
Brian Gauthier [01:33:46]:
And you know, say the majority of the stuff that I'm probably struggling with is probably easy for the both of you. Anyway. It, other than like that red truck where it was just beating our heads against the wall, everything else has been something that he probably would have figured out in 10, 15 minutes. But I, I've also, we've gotten to the, the point where it's no longer hey, what's the answer? Yeah, it's what would you do?
Jeff Compton [01:34:11]:
What should I just gonna say the beauty of this isn't about how much time it takes you. It's. It's you're learning a process.
Brian Gauthier [01:34:17]:
Yeah.
Jeff Compton [01:34:17]:
You are developing your own process and that's the most powerful thing that any good diag tech ever walks away from this with. Right. It's the process. It's not about like he said, he doesn't even remember cars from a week ago because he's got so many going right now. It's just, it's muscle memory for him through his mental side of fixing the car. His process is so refined. If we all could get to that level. Oh shit.
Jeff Compton [01:34:42]:
You want to talk about like charging more for the dealer and making more money than the dealer. That's how it get, that's how it happens. So Chuck, dude, man.
Check Engine Chuck [01:34:51]:
Happy to be here as always.
Jeff Compton [01:34:53]:
I think you're awesome.
Check Engine Chuck [01:34:54]:
I got to be a friend of the show or something at this point.
Jeff Compton [01:34:56]:
You are and like I said, I don't say it enough. I'm so proud to see the group, the growth that you have had in the last year. It's been really cool.
Brian Gauthier [01:35:03]:
I appreciate it.
Jeff Compton [01:35:04]:
I can't thank you enough for how you've been a champion for this event. It's been fantastic. And you know going forward like you have a home here all the time. You know I heard you say like you will always be wanting to come to this event as much as possible and I mean and that's cool because it's, that's how I felt since the very first year I have and to be see that transfer to the next person and the next person, it's just cool. That's true power in this industry for changing the industry. That's what it's about. Ryan. Dude, man, I, I, from the minute I got added to that Snapchat group and saw what you're at and at first I was like we need to get him the fuck out of that shot.
Jeff Compton [01:35:45]:
Well, it's like I want to, I don't want to. That's not fair to your boss. Right. I feel like he's not as close minded as maybe I made an assumption about and I would like to see.
Brian Gauthier [01:35:56]:
I think the word that best describes him is comfortable.
Jeff Compton [01:35:59]:
Yeah.
Brian Gauthier [01:36:00]:
Why strive for anything more than and.
Jeff Compton [01:36:03]:
At 60 I can totally understand. So if we can get you guys both, you know, moving in a new direction like I said at the best case is like if he wants to walk away in five years and you can take it over, that would be awesome. And if. And if I can say at some point I had just a small part nut proud of that, too, that's makes.
Check Engine Chuck [01:36:22]:
All this worth it.
Jeff Compton [01:36:23]:
Yeah. You know, I can. I can help Chuck. Chuck can help me. And it's like, that's how I'm proud of what we're all doing for changing the industry. So, everybody, I love you all. Thanks for listening. You know how much I love you.
Jeff Compton [01:36:40]:
Talk to y' all soon. Ciao.
Check Engine Chuck [01:36:42]:
Take it easy.
Brian Gauthier [01:36:43]:
Later.
Jeff Compton [01:36:45]:
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 Changing 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.