Ever notice that specific car jobs come in bunches?

[Seanbev24]

My shop works on whatever pulls in, and I hadn't done a fuel pump in a couple months. Now, all of a sudden I've had 3 bad fuel pumps in my last 5 shifts! Plus, they were all Ford products. Today was a 96 T-Bird with an intermittent no start. The others were an 04 Mercury Sable and an 03 Focus, which both always started and ran, but were bogging and misfiring. I'm getting tired of gas fumes!

I've had this happen before with things like clutches and timing belts. Anyone else?

[Lotek]

Things happen in threes, don't ask me why.

Just had 3 Volt battery recalls dumped on me today, coincidence? I think not...

Cue the Twilight Zone music.

[engineboy]

Yep. Done 3 subaru head gasket jobs in 2 weeks, and another coming in on wed.

Sometimes I dont get any for months.

Same thing with fuel pumps a couple months ago...did 3 in a week....havent done one in 2 months now.

Weird the way that works.

[Lotek]

You ever notice when they fire someone the work picks up, but when they hire a new body the work goes away for a week?

[Seanbev24]

Originally Posted by Lotek

You ever notice when they fire someone the work picks up, but when they hire a new body the work goes away for a week?

Haha yeah, and the new guy has this look that says "why the hell did I take this job?"

The nice thing about these fuel pumps is I got some good experience with my scope/scanner and I was right all 3 times. The Sable and Focus were both returnless systems and the Focus didn't have a schrader valve, so I used my new low amp probe.

[engineboy]

Originally Posted by Lotek

You ever notice when they fire someone the work picks up, but when they hire a new body the work goes away for a week?

JUST did that.....and yeah it always seems that way.

I fired a guy 2 weeks ago, then I got buried (Im the only tech) and now I have a guy I want to start...but it died down the day after I interviewed him.

So now he is waiting till it picks up again....which seems to be this week.

[geologist]

Head gaskets on 3 420a engines.

[Dust]

Chrysler Crossfires. Always come in threes. At least one will be a strange electrical issue, with a strong possibility of being brought in on the hook.

Chrysler Pacificas. See above.

We're not a Sprinter store, thank goodness, but we occasionally do Sprinters. It will ALWAYS be a completely unheard of electrical problem, usually involving the security system.

[ecsimonson]

I get the same thing with computer repairs. Hard drives start dropping like flies, next week is printers, the next is spyware/virus removal and all the same pain in the ass infection. I don't get it, other than the spyware crap infecting multiple folks at once.

[c/o say]

Yes end of last year I think I had about 5 chevy intake gaskets. Before that it was clutch jobs.

[MoToys]

Does make you wonder.

[W650Mike]

We sit at the Dunkin Donuts just down the street.

When three people with similar problems get there we decide which shop to swamp - after finishing our coffee, of course. Generally speaking, it's preferable to choose an indy that allows us to help the tech since many of us have already diagnosed the problem and researched the cost of the parts and flat rate time. I think the techs secretly appreciate our assistance even though they have a hard time expressing their gratitude.





(This is what I tell a tech and good friend of mine!)

[JamieK]

Similar situation here. I'm in a dealership parts dept., and somebody will buy an oddball part I've never sold before. Before the weeks out, I've done sold two more of them. And then I'll never sell another one. Or a shop I haven't heard from in ages will start calling me everyday for a week. They're having a run on our cars. Then I won't hear from them again for months.

[Seanbev24]

Originally Posted by W650Mike

We sit at the Dunkin Donuts just down the street.

When three people with similar problems get there we decide which shop to swamp - after finishing our coffee, of course. Generally speaking, it's preferable to choose an indy that allows us to help the tech since many of us have already diagnosed the problem and researched the cost of the parts and flat rate time. I think the techs secretly appreciate our assistance even though they have a hard time expressing their gratitude.





(This is what I tell a tech and good friend of mine!)

Excellent. My only other request is that while trying to help, you keep questioning the price. I wouldn't want to overcharge for something you saw your brother in law do once.

[FLACOMAN]

Cars get jealous also.. if you work on one , the other will fail , in a completely unrelated way!

[SpiderGearsMan]

chevy truck pumps are always steady business

[Mr.Nutcase]

there was a day were I just did jeeps...

[Moose-LandTran]

Nah, i just get all the shit jobs all the time. It's endless!

[softailgarage]

I first noticed this back when I was in Transmission parts. One week would be 90% 4L60E orders, then 4R70W the next week, then F4A22,23 and so on. Brought it up at a Managers meeting once, the owner thought I was crazy so I never mentioned it again.

[BigAl62]

At my work we sell used cars and they buy (at auction) whatever is the current hot seller, so I would work on the same cars for days on end (Taurus, Explorer, Trailblazer, Tahoe, etc.). We do tend to see trends in the type repairs each type vehicle needs (such as rotors on Libertys, steering shafts on Impalas and Malibus, etc.) and the parts department runs out of stuff all the time because of this. Some weeks I just put the tools I've used one day in my cart and pull them out day after day to do the same stuff over and over!