Curious to hear from some experienced Techs what jobs and tools have made them the good money. Sorry if this is really vague. Just trying to start to make in the business of auto repair and am curious what kind of jobs and tools help make some of you successful techs good money.
money making tools / jobs
- Thread starter 92integra
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Subyroo651
Well-known member
Cordless Impact and impact swivel sockets.
streamlight sylus pro, 1/4" air ratchet with inlet swivel. Stubby wrenches, and crows feet. Die grinders, rolock disks, every power tool you can afford. If you have an hourly job lined up, you will be fine for a while....If you are jumping into the wonderfull world of flat rate, get ready to arm yourself with a lot of tools..and I do mean a LOT. Flat rate is awesome when you have more work than you can do..but in lean times, you will suffer. If you have to borrow something..buy it.
toomanytoyzz
Well-known member
+1
The cordless impact will pay itself off ten fold if you work in a busy shop where most techs rely on air.
I forgot to mention the obvious..good 3/8" air ratchet..and 1/2" air impact...air hammer . Experience will make you money, as you will get faster, and gain knowlege. Hit it hard, and you will find your way, you will discover what you need.
Basic impact sockets (HF), Light-Weight Impact (IR 2115TiMax), a good torque wrench (CDI), a pair of Knipex Cobras, a Craftsman/WF adjustable wrench, and a set of deep-offset wrenches (Hazet) and regular metric wrenches (Snappy) are all I need to make good, easy 'bulk' hours.
Four tires + Alignment = Two hours every time. And most car alignments these days are just front toe. Easy money. Busy evenings = me racking up hours doing tires and alignments.
Four tires + Alignment = Two hours every time. And most car alignments these days are just front toe. Easy money. Busy evenings = me racking up hours doing tires and alignments.
jfcasey
Well-known member
Tarheelgarage
Well-known member
Yeah, except no one wants to pay for it....
What usually happens is that the car owners have spent all their money at some part changers shop and the problem is still not repaired.
After they come to me, they are flat *** broke and wanting to get off cheap....
Hell no, it aint gonna happen......My car runs.....
kiatech
Well-known member
I remember hearing when I was in school that diag paid good. Then I got into shops and realized nobody wants to pay it. Tarheel hit the nail on the head.
fxgmech
Well-known member
You hit that nail... Same thing happens with trucks. The dealers here offer flat rate diagnosis again, usually 2 hours max. When I started out wrenching diag time was unpaid. Make your best guess but it had to be rolled into the labor charge. That was not a good deal for the customer because all they got was a hunch, a profitable procedure, and then tried another shop or gave up. He's going to pay an hr or 2 just for the mechanic's time to ask around for other's experience on the same complaint, parts availability, and, if parts far away, considering the possibility of a temporary repair that keeps the unit roadworthy (w/o biting a chunk out of my ****). The result is to throw all the most "likely cause" parts in it first.Yeah, except no one wants to pay for it....
What usually happens is that the car owners have spent all their money at some part changers shop and the problem is still not repaired.
After they come to me, they are flat *** broke and wanting to get off cheap....
Hell no, it aint gonna happen......My car runs.....
Now if we can just get us all to throw the cheapest parts in first (instead of a new set of injectors) owners will be still able to pay for skilled labor to find the cause.
Ask what the gravy jobs are, there lies the qucker cash. Tools depend on what you do, and then differ from person to person wildy.
I got by without air or electric tools for the most part as a heavy equiptment mechanic, going back to basics and a lighter tool kit was more efficient than dragging 5 tons of stuff out on site. Search time was eating work time up, going simple and double duty tools when possible got jobs out faster.
Some comfort and speed was lost on harder to reach stuff though.
Shop techs think very differently and try to fill a box the size of the Queen Mary with everything imaginable in the name of speed and capability. For some it works, for others it slows them down some.
The used market is dripping with new in package stuff purchased years back but never used to make money. To avoid this figure out what you need to do your work rather than speculate and buy on the promise of a dream.
I got by without air or electric tools for the most part as a heavy equiptment mechanic, going back to basics and a lighter tool kit was more efficient than dragging 5 tons of stuff out on site. Search time was eating work time up, going simple and double duty tools when possible got jobs out faster.
Some comfort and speed was lost on harder to reach stuff though.
Shop techs think very differently and try to fill a box the size of the Queen Mary with everything imaginable in the name of speed and capability. For some it works, for others it slows them down some.
The used market is dripping with new in package stuff purchased years back but never used to make money. To avoid this figure out what you need to do your work rather than speculate and buy on the promise of a dream.
exophyusical
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- Aug 11, 2013
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IMO the money is in HD and industrial work rather than automotive. We get paid by the hour (of which there are generaly plenty of), no flat rate BS. While you can sometimes make good money on a flat rate IMO the company always seems to find a way to get things stacked in their favor. I don't cut deals, I don't flat rate, give me a fair hourly rate and I'll get er' done.
chrisa7164
Well-known member
a good diagnostic system..All-Data. Mitchell On-Demand or something along the lines. it's true no one wants to pay for diag even the factory is cutting down on the time. but the faster you can figure out the problem the faster you can get it fixed and on to a gravy job.
exophyusical
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This is so true, at my last job doing mobile service and repairs on pumpjack drivers there were a few tool nerd type guys, their numbers were usualy dismal, often in the hot seat, the company was having to eat hours to keep the customer happy on a regular basis. A guy that can trouble shoot quickly and accurately, and do a job with a few basic tools rather than running back to his truck for something every 10 minuits almost always does better than a tool nerd, at least in this type of work.
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devoncoolman
Well-known member
Ball joints on e series ford vans. Theres gravey work baby. Ball joints on a blazer/4wd s10 also gravey. In my opinion buy a balljoint press you are comfortable with and buy the adaptors for it. If u can get good bj jobs it will pay for it self over and over again. The otc set is nice.
ken w.
Well-known member
I like to do brakes and suspension at home for extra cash. I have a brake lathe to turn drums and a really nice ball joint set.It's fast easy and I can make out.
Classes, learn all you can, learn to use a scope. if you can diag in .5, you can dive into the repair, and get the job out the door. Another tool you must have, is a cart or two. I have a bluepoint toolcart that is great for rolling my most used tools to the job. I also have a cheap clarke two shelf cart that i use for teardown, I use it to store parts from my current project.
tjmonsen5
Well-known member
I do about 2 brake jobs a month at home for coworkers, friends or whoevers car. I charge 50 per axle, easy money. My rear caliper turn in tool from lisle and front dual piston compressor have paid off big time. My tools of choice, ct6850, ratcheting wrenches, and fhlf80.
The last car I did, a neglected 05 Kia optima, the caliper bracket bolt snapped. Spent an hour drilling it out, hate when that happens!
The last car I did, a neglected 05 Kia optima, the caliper bracket bolt snapped. Spent an hour drilling it out, hate when that happens!
For me working on heavy equipment, small impact wrenches, air ratchets, and owning my own bigger or specialty tools would speed up the process instead of wasting time searching for the shop set...but I was paid hourly, so the faster I did things the faster my boss expected them done and I ended up busting my **** for no extra money...so if the shop your going to is flat rate then its worth buying what ever makes your job easier. If your are hourly paid, then no need for the extra stuff. A tool has to pay for itself in order to justify the expense, for me spending money on the handy stuff didn't make me extra money.
It really depends on the shop you are working at, if for example you work at a shop that does a lot of Honda products you need any and every 10-12-14-17 mm tool they make, or another example is if you are doing mostly LOFs and flushes your tooling is very different.
Just to give you a real world example, last shop I worked at we did a lot a fleet vehicles, with TPMS systems, on LOFs we had to do a free rotate with a TPMS reset, no choice as the pressure were different front to rear, so every time I did one I had to go get the tool to reset, after I bought my own tool, it saved me a bunch of time, and as we know time is money, I also made money with the tool as I would find dead sensors quick, walk around car with tool scan every sensor, boom .6 to change each bad sensor and relearn. At the shop I am at now, I have pulled the tool twice we do not change tires so resets are it.
For me, Airlift for coolant systems make refilling coolant systems 5mins with no bleeding needed. My quick Autel code reader, no I do not use it for diag work, I use it to determine my direction on diag work, evap code pull into bay, lean code FRTD with Verus pro. My 3 drawer MAC service cart is very handy for the shop I am in now as I have 3 dedicated bays and me and the other tech share a truck lift. MY rechargeable tools including 1/2 Ingersoll Rand, matco nut driver, 3/8 Milwaukee impact, and 1/4 ratchet. Most shops will have a junior tech doing mostly LOF work and will the let you start doing brake work, So if I were you I would start there, a good set of caliper turn in tool along with a dual piston compressor tool.
Just to give you a real world example, last shop I worked at we did a lot a fleet vehicles, with TPMS systems, on LOFs we had to do a free rotate with a TPMS reset, no choice as the pressure were different front to rear, so every time I did one I had to go get the tool to reset, after I bought my own tool, it saved me a bunch of time, and as we know time is money, I also made money with the tool as I would find dead sensors quick, walk around car with tool scan every sensor, boom .6 to change each bad sensor and relearn. At the shop I am at now, I have pulled the tool twice we do not change tires so resets are it.
For me, Airlift for coolant systems make refilling coolant systems 5mins with no bleeding needed. My quick Autel code reader, no I do not use it for diag work, I use it to determine my direction on diag work, evap code pull into bay, lean code FRTD with Verus pro. My 3 drawer MAC service cart is very handy for the shop I am in now as I have 3 dedicated bays and me and the other tech share a truck lift. MY rechargeable tools including 1/2 Ingersoll Rand, matco nut driver, 3/8 Milwaukee impact, and 1/4 ratchet. Most shops will have a junior tech doing mostly LOF work and will the let you start doing brake work, So if I were you I would start there, a good set of caliper turn in tool along with a dual piston compressor tool.
dfreeman616
Well-known member
ratcheting wrenches and rechargeable impacts, good ones not cheap ones. also swivel sockets
Wow all really good advice hear guys I guess I should see what would be a good tool from where im at I have milwaukee 1/2 3/8ths brushless impacts a smaller m12 hex impact large ir air ratchet hf 1/2 impact sockets gp duo sets 3/8 and 1/4 gear wrench x beam flex sets a buch of different extensions and pliers. And thats mostly what I keep in my 4 drawer cart. And im starting to fill my box with specialty tools I have almost every brake tool. So from hear im looking to get some swivle sockets pry go with gp cuase there products have been really good to me and a mac mini 3/8th impacting air ratchet and a mac 3/8 air impact for the times my milwaukee cant cut the cheese. O and to let u all know im half hourly half flate rate but when I step up to a mechanic hopefully soon ill be 100% flate rate
wafrederick
Well-known member
Alignments don't bring money at all.Most alignment shops like to throw parts at a vehicle that don't need to be replaced and I see this a lot.Ball joints are one of them.Diagnostics,can be a pain sometime finding the problem taking way too much time.
Alignments you make money from replacing parts, balljoints, control arms etc. Most shops "alignment" techs do not know what they are doing just getting the numbers in the green is all they care about. Depending on how the shops pays you can make money doing the alignment, last shop I worked at paid 1.2 for any alignment took at most .7 including set up and test drive. FYI I have never replaced any front end part that was not needed.
Diagnostics are fun for me, I would rather have a scan tool or Scope in my hand over a wrench any day
Average Diag time for me is less than .5 in most cases unless teardown in required for access for testing. If it is really taking you much more time that that on average better stick with doing brakes and tbelts or get more training. Friday I diagnosed a bad vent valve in a Chevy, and a bad Fuel pump in a ford both took .5 or less. Yes sometimes it can take way longer mostly on intermittents, but you can lose your but on intermitten noises too.Seeing a Ford with the cab lifted just to do an oil change in your avatar, yeah, I agree fully.
One of the dumbest ideas out there was to design for assembly line speed and put the mechanic a distant 2nd in importance.
Diagnosis can be easier when it it clear it is a specific sensor or valve, unfortunately that part could be 4 levels deep under the intake manifold or actually require removing the motor to get at it.
I once spent two days under a 22 year old work truck diagnosing and eliminating noises. There were well over a dozen distinct areas to get to.
And the owner found another the next day........ grrr......
The seat frame was broken and rubbing.....
One of the dumbest ideas out there was to design for assembly line speed and put the mechanic a distant 2nd in importance.
Diagnosis can be easier when it it clear it is a specific sensor or valve, unfortunately that part could be 4 levels deep under the intake manifold or actually require removing the motor to get at it.
I once spent two days under a 22 year old work truck diagnosing and eliminating noises. There were well over a dozen distinct areas to get to.
And the owner found another the next day........ grrr......
The seat frame was broken and rubbing.....
justanengineer
Well-known member
When I worked on heavy equipment, I thought remachining oval bores for pinned joints with the homemade, portable line boring setup and making bushings was pretty easy but big $$$.
wafrederick
Well-known member
One was a 1996 Olds Cutlass Supreme,customer took it to an alignment shop to get aligned and got screwed.Said it needed front struts and major front end suspension work which it did not need.Cost was $1,600.00 and did not need all of it.Sent it to my father's shop,all it needed was ball joints on both sides and two front tires and the customer was glad it was the ball joints and tires.Then there are the Ford computer systems from hell and sent the last one to the dealer.A 2001 Ford Explorer Sport Trac was the last one.Would not start,security came on and it was the computer that took a dump.
rival904
Well-known member
Inner tie rods are EASY $$$$. VW Beetle pays like 2.3hrs for an inner tie rod, plus an alignment ontop of that. So at my shop thats 3.3hrs for an inner tie rod, with the right tool takes no more than 20min.
Struts are $$$ also but only if you are using quick struts. You can still make out decent if you know what you are doing with the spring compressor.
Struts are $$$ also but only if you are using quick struts. You can still make out decent if you know what you are doing with the spring compressor.
+1.
Learning structured problem solving technique is the single best tool there is and will be good for the rest of your life.
wafrederick
Well-known member
Fullsize Chevy/GMC 4x4 trucks including 4x4 suburban,tahoes and yukons,the steering box comes out just to replace the pitman arm which is a common problem with them if it has the steering box.This started in 1988 in the fullsize trucks and 1992 in the suburbans,tahoes and yukons.The quick struts are the way to go if you can get them for the certain vehicle.Don't need to do the job again replacing the strut mount and the spring might be bad.The quick struts are cheaper than buying the strut,spring and strut plate seperatly.I hate replacing the rack and pinions in Buick Rondevous and Pontiac Aztecs,a pain in the *** to do.The shaft which the couple goes into is way too long and the ******* engineer should be called an idiot.
Thieves are thieves no matter how you look at it just because one shop is filled with them doesn't make everyone a thief.
Ford's are gravy to me I will take them all day long, never called one a nightmare.
Engine was locked up, Cab off on Fords is easy, makes that kind of work gravy, ford got it right make the cab easy to lift off to make major repairs soo easy!
Testing a specific sensor, can be done at ECM, simple wiring diagram find the correct pin number on ECM, TCM ABS module etc or with Datastream. no need to tear down an engine to test anything in most cases.
Hope you got well paid for that BS, I hate noise complaints
When I was working on used cars at a dealership my routine was either a 2 wheel or 4 wheel brake job. 2 to 4 hours it paid. Turn rotors replace pads. Did an alignment on almost all of them which was an hour for front adjust only. A rotate and balance for .8 and oil change .3. Then it paid 1.1 to inspect the car so I would cash out on usually 2 of these a day. On a good day it was 7.2 before lunch and 7.2 after lunch. But it never was like that every day. I'd do all kinds of different stuff if the mileage was high and they approved it but If it was between 30,000 - 50,000 I could get away with doing my usual stuff. Tools for that stuff was really your basic tools. Air tools and swivel sockets saved me some serioius time.
Hephaestus29
Well-known member
The "Chainsaw" is one of the most valuable tools for the money you can buy.
foreverfalcon40
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- Feb 12, 2013
- Messages
- 856
Agree, I made the switch from Cars to HD and it is AWESOME!
Half my tools are useless in HD as a tech one I have the biggest box set-up there. I love that I punch in and punch out with no customer B.S. and people crying and complaining about money and they have to be some where FAST! I came from Sears aka (retail repair) and where my co-workers are crying and complaining about working on holidays I am home getting paid usually doing side work. Honestly it was life changing event and the best thing that I ever happened to me. I had to kind of beg to get to the job where I am in now, but all my co-workers and bosses can't believe how efficient I am with no HD schooling or prior knowledge. I could not be an happier and I am 8 months into my job and I love it just as much as I did the first day I walked in!
A lot of the guys I work are so close to retirement that they barrow tools from me
My 3/4 Drive stuff (shop supplies all the 3/4 stuff we need but good luck finding it when you need it) and my M12 3/8ths impact and driver. These are the biggest time savers and have paid for themselves over and over again!G.L. in whatever you do.
IMO all the tools you need are money makers. The one time you use that tool to save you frustration which gives you satisfaction is priceless!
wafrederick
Well-known member
Try figuring out a misfire on a Ford with no check engine light on,had one this way.It was in a Ford minivan.Customer brought it in for a miss.Switched the coils to other cylinders including spark plugs.Miss was still there.Even did a compression check,looked good here too.Ford,does not turn the check engine light on if the computer does not see 14,000 misfires.Had the customer take it to the dealer and it took them 3 days to figure it out.Was a bad computer,computer was not telling the spark plug when to fire at the right time.Ford's electronic automatic transmissions,won't get inside of these.Tell the customer to call a transmission repair shop whom helps my father out on transmission problems.Nothing but a horrible pain in the *** to diagnose and fix.
GTA Matt
Well-known member
Man I don't know where you came up with any of the stuff you posted in this thread. Front end work and alignments are nothing but gravy moneymakers. Working on fords is as simple as it gets. Identifying what cylinder is misfiring is as easy as it gets. Figuring out if a cylinder isn't firing at the right time takes 2 minutes from setup to final diagnosis. It would be pretty darn easy to see if the pcm wasn't grounding a coil
