Any other mechanics feel the same way? Ever since I started working for Pepboys & Firestone (Before pepboys) my passion for cars slowly declined to the point where I fucking hate it. Tired of the comebacks where customers are completely in the fucking wrong and try to get free work done cause of stupid ass policy of “you touched the car last therefore it’s your fault.”
Quite literally the worst month of being a mechanic for me. Honda civic head gasket blown due to coolant spewing out of the radiator even though I did tires all around, only time I touched the radiator was to test the coolant. And even then I tested the fluid through the overflow tank (didn’t touch the rad cap at all). In turn my shop had to give a free fucking engine with free labor.
Customer came in for a brake job, I finished the job and got it done properly test drove it felt fine and drove fine. Fast forward 2 days she comes back to complain about fucking RUST on her rotors (My shop stopped using brake clean cause it’s too expensive apparently, decided to use water and dawn dish soap to remove the oil that comes prepacked on rotors). In turn had to give up again free rotors cause the bitch doesn’t understand weathering apparently.
Another customer came in at 6:40pm (Mind you we close at 7) for a brake job. Since we didn’t make budget for the day my manager and ASM wanted the money they took him in, I pull the truck in (1999 Ford ranger RWD, Front rotors & brakes comes with a wheel bearing that need to be pressed in). As I pull it in my manager tells me what the job is and he tells me that it also needs to have outer wheel bearings done too. I TELL HIM “So something I have no experience on?” And he goes “Well we will learn together!” Im like fuck it ok. Fast forward 30 mins after removing the bearings, rotors, and pads, installing the new bearings and I’m trying to fit in the rotor and end up almost getting it on thought it needed a little motivation and ended up ripping off the first 3 threads. Immediately looked at my manager and said “told you I don’t know how to do bearings yet, so what do we do now?” Mind you this is almost 8pm now he decides to call the master tech who’s on the opposite side of town to have him come in and help. While he’s on the way I finally figured out what I did wrong on the passenger side and I continue on the driver side finish it (or so I thought). Master tech finally gets here and we finish the passenger side and fix the mistake. Night finishes and I talk to the master tech about what happened and he agreed that they shouldn’t have taken that job especially since I’m a C tech still in training. Fast forward a month later (a few days ago) the same fucking ranger comes to the shop right before we’re about to close on a fucking flat bed truck and I’m like wtfffff. I talk to the ASM tells me the driver side wheel bearing essentially self destructed cause of the heat, I had definitely put grease in the bearing and fucking lathered that shit up but I guess it wasn’t enough (Yes I made sure everything was torqued down to the recommended spec). In turn the shop had to pay for a New Spindle, Brakes, Rotors, Wheel bearings.
Had my dream car come in a few weeks ago (Nissan S14) for an alignment and was ready to do it and everything, was soooo excited especially since it’s a literal drift middle with a LS3 in it (Made 500WHP, Owner was really fucking cool). The guy also had very Specific specs he wanted for his angle kit in order to drift. Then All of a sudden our service manager declined it! Reason being is because it has aftermarket parts. Obviously I’m pretty pissed but whatever I still got to see my dream car in person with a LS. Later that day a fucking 1998 Dodge 1500 pickup (A show truck that’s very well kept & very clean) shows up for an alignment. And the fucking hypocrisy shows they went ahead and take it in take the guys money and says we can do it! Guess what ! ALL THE FUCKING SUSPENSION ARMS ARE AFTERMARKET LMAO! IT TOOK ME 4 HOURS TO GET THIS TRUCK ALIGNED CAUSE THE CAMBER, TOE AND FUCKING CASTER WERE ALL OUT OF SPEC.
I’m finally realizing why a lot of my friends at different shops have left this career field cause it’s complete bullshit. And also getting fucking paid $16 an hour for work in this heat and being a mechanic is bullshit pay. How is it that someone in McDonald’s can make the same amount as me. It really doesn’t make fucking sense. I already announced to my manager that I will be leaving the company as I’m going back into the army (I was originally in back in 2016 but got sent home in basic training due to fracturing my hip and tearing my IT Band & stress level 4 fractures on my shins.) if anybody else feels the same way please comment down below I wanna see what others have experienced.