ASE Program: Tool Requirements (local Vo-Tech)

[JulianMorrow]

Out of curiosity, I checked the ASE program at my local Vo-Tech. It's a two year program with 10 ASE certifications. Overall cost = $3200. Not bad, considering college students who spend 10-20 times that much on a liberal arts degree and wind up working at Starbucks.

Check the required tool list below--a surprising number of SAE size tools.

**Required Tool Set: Year 1, Approx cost = $150
3/8” Drive Ratchet
3/8" Drive 3" and 6" Extensions
3/8" Drive 6 Point Standard and Deep Sockets: 7/16 "to 3/4 "
3/8" Drive 6 Point Standard and Deep Sockets: 10mm - 19mm
Socket Adaptor 1/2" Female and 3/8" Male
Combination Wrench Set, Standard
Combination Wrench Set, Metric
Screwdrivers: 2 Flat (small and medium) and 2 Phillips (small and medium)
16 oz. Ball Peen Hammer
5 Piece Punch Set
Pliers: Needle Nose, Slip Joint, Channel Lock
Tool Box and Lock

**Required Tool Set—Year 2, Approx cost = $150
1/4" Drive Ratchet
1/4" Drive 3" and 6" Extensions
1/4" Drive Standard Sockets: 3/16" to 1/2 "
1/2" Drive Ratchet
1/2" Drive 3" and 6" Extensions
1/2" Drive Standard Sockets: 7/16 " to 1 and 1/8 "
Side Cutters
10" Vice Grips
Line Wrench Sets, Standard and Metric
Gasket Scraper
Allen Wrench Sets, Standard and Metric
Test Light

 

[kctyphoon]

I think i could find all that within 10 steps of where I’m sitting.. lol

 

[JulianMorrow]

I think I'd change the list as follows:

Year 1: Add 1/2 ratchet & 1/4 ratchet, with metric sockets for both (these items are on the Year 2 list). Delete SAE tools.

Year 2: Add OBD2 scanner, multimeter, 1/2 impact wrench with impact sockets. Delete SAE tools.

 

[ngk22r]

Out of curiosity, I checked the ASE program at my local Vo-Tech. It's a two year program with 10 ASE certifications. Overall cost = $3200. Not bad, considering college students who spend 10-20 times that much on a liberal arts degree and wind up working at Starbucks.

Check the required tool list below--a surprising number of SAE size tools.

**Required Tool Set: Year 1, Approx cost = $150
3/8” Drive Ratchet
3/8" Drive 3" and 6" Extensions
3/8" Drive 6 Point Standard and Deep Sockets: 7/16 "to 3/4 "
3/8" Drive 6 Point Standard and Deep Sockets: 10mm - 19mm
Socket Adaptor 1/2" Female and 3/8" Male
Combination Wrench Set, Standard
Combination Wrench Set, Metric
Screwdrivers: 2 Flat (small and medium) and 2 Phillips (small and medium)
16 oz. Ball Peen Hammer
5 Piece Punch Set
Pliers: Needle Nose, Slip Joint, Channel Lock
Tool Box and Lock

**Required Tool Set—Year 2, Approx cost = $150
1/4" Drive Ratchet
1/4" Drive 3" and 6" Extensions
1/4" Drive Standard Sockets: 3/16" to 1/2 "
1/2" Drive Ratchet
1/2" Drive 3" and 6" Extensions
1/2" Drive Standard Sockets: 7/16 " to 1 and 1/8 "
Side Cutters
10" Vice Grips
Line Wrench Sets, Standard and Metric
Gasket Scraper
Allen Wrench Sets, Standard and Metric
Test Light

Like the ASE tests, that list is waaaaaaaay out of date. Pretty much everything is metric these days.

 

[JulianMorrow]

I also wonder about the quality of tools given the meager $300 outlay over two years. I'm sure the school has an arrangement with a local NAPA or AutoZone.

 

[plinker]

Sound like a decent program, cost wise. I think the tools lists are pretty basic and both years could be combined into one year. Inch tools could be deleted for the most part (1/4dr sets are kinda needed IMO).

They should add multi meter in addition to the test light. Torx screwdrivers & sockets should be added too, along with a basic set of hex bit sockets. Swap out the 1/2 drive sockets for impact sockets and add an impact. 3/8 & 1/2 torque wrenches.

All together, you could do a lot with the tools listed. It might run more then 300$ though for decent tools.

 

[Fedwrench]

I also wonder about the quality of tools given the meager $300 outlay over two years. I'm sure the school has an arrangement with a local NAPA or AutoZone.

the cost was probably based of using Craftsman.

 

[ngk22r]

You are better off seeing if a college offers a Manufacture program and work that way. I know Toyota and Honda have programs through some community colleges and you will leave with knowledge about the brand and actual credentials for that manufacture. Then all you have to do is finish the manufacture training at the dealership when they send you to school.

 

[Fedwrench]

You are better off seeing if a college offers a Manufacture program and work that way. I know Toyota and Honda have programs through some community colleges and you will leave with knowledge about the brand and actual credentials for that manufacture. Then all you have to do is finish the manufacture training at the dealership when they send you to school.

I couldn't agree more Ford has Asset and GM might still have ASEP. You have to get sponsored by a dealer though in many community college factory programs because you spend eight weeks in school, followed by eight weeks at the dealership for two years. I think it's the best way to learn theory and get hands on experience. much better than the for profit instant mechanic places like UTI.

 

[creativecars]

That's not a bad place to start. You have to remember that 1 out of 25 students that start the program will go onto to be an Auto Tech.

 

[JulianMorrow]

That's not a bad place to start. You have to remember that 1 out of 25 students that start the program will go onto to be an Auto Tech.

Only 1 out of 25 who start an ASE program become auto techs? That's an incredibly high drop-out rate. Where are you getting those numbers. That's a shocking failure rate if true.

 

[creativecars]

Only 1 out of 25 who start an ASE program become auto techs? That's an incredibly high drop-out rate. Where are you getting those numbers. That's a shocking failure rate if true.

Some drop out, some continue on filpping burgers, don't like the working conditions, cant leave their mama's basement, get their girlfriend knocked up etc, etc... Taught automotive for 12 years. Had several of my best students do other mechanical type jobs, one in small engines and the other a facilities maintenance tech. It bothered me at first, but everyone must find their own way.

 

[JulianMorrow]

Some drop out, some continue on filpping burgers, don't like the working conditions, cant leave their mama's basement, get their girlfriend knocked up etc, etc... Taught automotive for 12 years. Had several of my best students do other mechanical type jobs, one in small engines and the other a facilities maintenance tech. It bothered me at first, but everyone must find their own way.

I can't imagine a young man choosing Burger King over a local garage.
But I'm sure there's a lot of stress on a young mechanic: time pressure; potential danger if you're careless; even when you do everything right, you're still dealing with toxic substances. Hopefully ASE students will find that training useful later on in life. No matter what job they choose, they'll still save a lot of money just by repairing their own vehicles.

 

[yrly]

the cost was probably based of using Craftsman.

Sears still has a little publicized student program if you don’t mind Chinese tools.

https://www.sears.com/en_us/dap/brand-showcase/tech-students-toolspartners.html

You will need SAE if you work on older cars and lots of small engines and power equipment use it too.

Ford seems to sporadically still use SAE stuff for no reason when you don’t expect it.

 

[Volvotechdude]

I would do the community college route. Way too many guys that work around me did the manufacturer specific programs or UTI. They ended up in a lot of debt and didnt like the car brand they went to work for.

 

[yrly]

Some drop out, some continue on filpping burgers, don't like the working conditions, cant leave their mama's basement, get their girlfriend knocked up etc, etc... Taught automotive for 12 years. Had several of my best students do other mechanical type jobs, one in small engines and the other a facilities maintenance tech. It bothered me at first, but everyone must find their own way.

Small engines are probably pretty lucrative in the right areas so I can’t say I’d blame them. I live in a rural area, garbage pick old stuff, fix it, sell it in my front yard just a few items at a time on the side and people stop by all the time and ask if I will service stuff. Our Facebook local sales pages are loaded with people looking for people to fix snowblowers right now. They’re also relatively easy to service once you’re familiar with them because most use the same engines. It’s easy to get stocks of spare parts from other salvaged stuff.

 

[ihateminimumwage]

I can't imagine a young man choosing Burger King over a local garage.

There's no shortage of people who no matter how much you teach them, they just aren't going to 'get it' and go right back to what they know.

 

[WittHay]

The combined list is similar to the list at the local tech place around here. The value for the tool list is $750 cad or around $550 usd.

That list has nothing to do with the tools that you actually need for your apprenticeship. They are for for working on the vehicles at the college

The foundation training is a 30 week in college program and gives you 450 hours applied to the apprenticeship training. The Red Seal program up here takes 4 years and requires 6000 work based hours.

 

[bczygan]

The community college I attend has the MOPAR CAP program.

https://www.mopar.com/en-us/mopar-cap/for-students/mcap-program-options.html

Bill

 

[Bagherra]

That's not a bad place to start. You have to remember that 1 out of 25 students that start the program will go onto to be an Auto Tech.

Former co-worker of mine went to MMI a few years ago...graduated and worked at a H-D dealership for a year...bought assload of Snap-On tools....

Now he works at a hospital doing maintenance...

Said working as a motorcycle mech wasn't what he thought it was gonna be...

I traded him a bottle of Crown Royal for a 3/8" Snap-On torque wrench!

 

[RPH]

I’m another one that attended a auto mechanic program back in the early seventies. It was set up by the county to bring students together from other schools for various programs. I love working on cars and motorcycles but I quickly realized that cars were not my future. I still work on them but only as a personal project or helping friends. But what the program did do was give me a strong foundation to move on to the areas. Early in my work life employers loved that I had the 2 year program on the resume. If nothing else it proved I was trainable. I went on to biomedical technician for ten years at the major manufacture of medical equipment in the USA. Wages stalled and liability was rising so it was to move on.
Found a job as a field service engineer for an induction heating manufacture. I have spent the last 27 years globe trotting on automotive programs. It involves a lot of high level of electronics, controls, and yes amazingly mechanical skills to make the systems work. These machines can be in excess of five million dollars for the end user. Many will only have one in the plant for that reason. When JD lost the ability to make crankshafts the higher level people see their bonus money evaporating in front of them. Our two hundred dollar an hour service rate is cheap and they don’t care what the overtime costs are. It took ten days to figure the quagmire and it ended up not being a machine problem but a change from the forging supplier. Crankshafts are weird beasts when one is hardening them. One must always remember that programs present the information it’s up to you as the studen5 to leverage that. I do a lot of technical training on this equipment. I put a lot of effort to make it a great program but I can’t pour it into you brain. It’s always interesting to go on a service call and run into one of the former students. It’s then, sometimes that the light comes on in their brain. The corporate pie is only so big. If you fail to take care of your own problems I’m more than willing to come but at a price. Every hour I’m present I’m takin* the cherries from your piece of the corporate pie. Every dollar paid to us is one less for you.
Auto mechanics programs can offer a very strong foundation for building on. Any instructor that feels he failed the program when one of his students move on to other types of service jobs should be proud. You opened that persons eyes and brain to their potential in life.
I did return to my old auto instructor twenty years later at his classroom. Gave a talk to his present day students about how that very program opened my eyes to life possibilities. That was back in the early nineties. Keep teaching guys as some will rise to the top, they are listening more than you know.

 

[RedneckWelder]

Not bad a very basic level of tools for an auto program. We didn’t use much more than that (save for some larger sizes) in my diesel program because we weren’t doing heavy work in those classes we were mainly taking apart components and putting them back together and on the machines we mainly did testing for hydraulic and electrical systems.

I was supplied a 40” single bay box and basic hand tools and multimeter for my program. I added all impact, large sockets and wrenches and specialized sockets, wrenches, test equipment and so on as I went through my apprenticeship and into my career.

 

[OHMS LAW]

Said it many times on here but the community college route is a good route. At least at the one I went to I got a solid foundation In engine performance and electrical and electronics. Sensor data is sensor data from one manufacturer to the next.

The misconception is they teach you how to fix stuff. Wrong. They teach you how stuff works so you know what to look for when it’s broken.

I don’t work on cars anymore but I do work on Peterbilt and freightliners and heavy equipment. Guess what? They are all 12v electric systems.

If you have a passion for it go for it

 

[M_George]

I would do the community college route. Way too many guys that work around me did the manufacturer specific programs or UTI. They ended up in a lot of debt and didnt like the car brand they went to work for.

Also, you can use credits you earn at the community collage should you change majors. Colleges wont except any credits from private schools.
I graduated from Lincoln Tech's electronics program. Later attempted to signup for the Information Technology program at the local community collage and was told that they would not except any credit from Lincoln Tech.

 

[M_George]

Anyway, If you stay with Garage Journal, your going to end up with a lot more tools than what's on that list.

 

[bczygan]

The community college program I go to has it's own fully stocked tool room with every hand tool, test and measurement tools, machines, supplies etc. All you need is PPE.

Bill

 

[JulianMorrow]

The community college program I go to has it's own fully stocked tool room with every hand tool, test and measurement tools, machines, supplies etc. All you need is PPE.

I understand that the school provides some equipment, but a young tech should own basic diagnostic tools like an OBD2 scanner and a multimeter. These are inexpensive items that you can buy for $20 each. The same goes for basic hand tools--you want the tech to start using these tools outside the classroom.

 

[LXCam]

Former co-worker of mine went to MMI a few years ago...graduated and worked at a H-D dealership for a year...bought assload of Snap-On tools....

Now he works at a hospital doing maintenance...

Said working as a motorcycle mech wasn't what he thought it was gonna be...

I traded him a bottle of Crown Royal for a 3/8" Snap-On torque wrench!

I'm a MMI graduate from 40yrs ago. All though I quickly moved on to another trade that training really helped guide my path thru life. I also had to laugh at the tool requirements. All I really remember about the required tool list was it cost me around $400, that was a chunk for a kid to come up with back then.

 

[DFB]

Former co-worker of mine went to MMI a few years ago...graduated and worked at a H-D dealership for a year...bought assload of Snap-On tools....

Now he works at a hospital doing maintenance...

Said working as a motorcycle mech wasn't what he thought it was gonna be...

I traded him a bottle of Crown Royal for a 3/8" Snap-On torque wrench!

Yup big investment I looked into it some years ago. And depending on the dealership you work for often doesn't pay great. Not everyone is cut out for running their own shop either.

 

[JulianMorrow]

If you look at that required tool list--most guys interested enough to sign up for a two year ASE program will already have most of those tools. Even when I was in high school (40 years ago), 75% of those tools would've been in my stepdad's toolbox (metric tools would be the exception).

 

[ngk22r]

I understand that the school provides some equipment, but a young tech should own basic diagnostic tools like an OBD2 scanner and a multimeter. These are inexpensive items that you can buy for $20 each. The same goes for basic hand tools--you want the tech to start using these tools outside the classroom.

I’m going to get flamed for saying this but on modern cars that $20 MM is not going to cut it.

You are going to need a really good MM and the adage here “buy once, cry once” really does apply. Fluke meter for about $150 (amazon has one for a Fluke 115 True RMS) at the LEAST is what you are going to need, this is NOT a want item. There are more expensive Fluke meters out there that are labeled for Automotive but the important thing is True RMS and the ability to change the range. Analog MM do not work when diagnosing modern electronics. Do NOT skimp in this area. Also get an assortment of leads and probes. The big thing to learn is how to probe a connector properly. Doing it wrong will lead to causing more electrical problems as connector pins are very very small these days. One last thing is continuity checks only tell you that something is connected, voltage drops tell you way more.

Get good at electrical, do not take it lightly since it is something very simple but a lot of people struggle with it. Understand the different types of basic circuits and how they work, doesn’t matter how complex a wiring diagram looks, it is all basic circuits in the end.

 

[JulianMorrow]

I’m going to get flamed for saying this but on modern cars that $20 MM is not going to cut it...Fluke meter for about $150 at the LEAST

This is a Vo-Tech, where a lot of the guys in the ASE program will be high school students. Do you really think a 16 year old needs a $150 multimeter? Maybe after they finish the program (which is a big "maybe"), they can upgrade some of their tools.

 

[plinker]

This is a Vo-Tech, where a lot of the guys in the ASE program will be high school students. Do you really think a 16 year old needs a $150 multimeter? Maybe after they finish the program (which is a big "maybe"), they can upgrade some of their tools.

Depends. I got by for a long time with a 20$ Craftsman meter, But I wasnt really working on any vehicles with modern computer controlled circuits either.

FWIW, I've not heard of any kids still in high school getting into the vo-tech programs. Around here, they go after high school, not during. YMMV.

As with everything else, regional difference's play a good size part in all this.

 

[ngk22r]

This is a Vo-Tech, where a lot of the guys in the ASE program will be high school students. Do you really think a 16 year old needs a $150 multimeter? Maybe after they finish the program (which is a big "maybe"), they can upgrade some of their tools.

Did not realize that it was a high school set up, was thinking college / tech school

 

[JulianMorrow]

Did not realize that it was a high school set up, was thinking college / tech school

This particular ASE program is available to high school juniors & seniors as well as adults. The high school students attend for half a day, so it takes longer for them to complete the program. Adult students have the option of attending half day or full day sessions.

 

[JulianMorrow]

I must admit that I’m thinking of enrolling in this program. I’ll retire from Federal Service next month—30 years working in Dept of Defense as a systems analyst. So I’ll be looking for something to do. But at 57 years old, I’m a bit hesitant. I’ll be way older than everyone else in the class—including the instructor.

I don’t need to go to work full-time as a mechanic or anything else. I thought it might be nice to work out of my home as a shade-tree mechanic with a few clients. But this is a half-baked idea at best.

 

[OHMS LAW]

Do it. Age doesn’t matter. Hell there was a 70 year old man in my class. Go for it. If nothing else it’s a great way to pass time

 

[JulianMorrow]

Do it. Age doesn’t matter. Hell there was a 70 year old man in my class. Go for it. If nothing else it’s a great way to pass time

Thanks, I appreciate that encouragement. I could always take another job in IT. But I've stared at a computer screen for 30 years, not sure I want to do more of that.

 

[Wamsutta]

JulianMorrow, from my short experience as an A&P, the new guys getting into the business weren't allowed to do airframe repairs; only the senior guys were allowed to change rivets or repair the airframe. I mention this because you might be buying all these structural airframe tools earlier than needed. You might not use any of them for a couple of years; however, your experience may be ENTIRELY different.

E D I T

I think I may have gotten this thread confused with the A&P thread.

E D I T

 

[Skin]

Sound like a decent program, cost wise. I think the tools lists are pretty basic and both years could be combined into one year. Inch tools could be deleted for the most part (1/4dr sets are kinda needed IMO).

They should add multi meter in addition to the test light. Torx screwdrivers & sockets should be added too, along with a basic set of hex bit sockets. Swap out the 1/2 drive sockets for impact sockets and add an impact. 3/8 & 1/2 torque wrenches.

All together, you could do a lot with the tools listed. It might run more then 300$ though for decent tools.

You still need standard. A lot of trucks out there with a mix still. Nothing really recent comes to mind but they were definitely still mixing sizes up to around 2010. Plus there are things like hitches, bull bars, and plows (my area anyway) where you'll need them occasionally. At a minimum still need a comprehensive set of combos and impacts up to 1-1/4.