Welcome to the IHoP v.2

[Impious 1,476]

Okay, now I have a coat, know what I want to go with for wool base layer....would like to get a couple fleece pullovers or quarter zips. Anyone have any recommendations?

[dem beats 1,223]

I love all things smartwool.

:-)

Sean probably has better recommendations, or at least something better priced. I know they can get crazy with cost.

[nem 2,019]

Seth based on what I know of you, I agree with your coworker.

Much appreciated, but honestly when you get into the top 10%, that is a big fuckin' deal, and it is hard for people outside the industry to understand exactly what that means. When we see stuff that comes from dealerships that were not able to be repaired with engineer's help and we fix it, that is huge.

I had a 2003 4Runner with a 4L today that was at 2 local dealerships with P0136 and P0156 (both O2 sensor downstream circuit error codes). There is a factory TSB that has an update for the downstream O2s, and all 4 O2s were replaced. The O2s dropped to dead 0V after running for ~2 minutes. The dealerships replaced the MAF sensor, CTS, all 4O2s, both upstream cats, intake gaskets, and the PCM. This vehicle went through tech support (Toyota factory engineers) at 2 different dealerships. Within 1 hour of it in my stall I made a call. I replaced the brand new updated downstream O2s that were replaced at the dealer last week. I fixed the car. She spent 4 grand at the dealer, and $600 with me.

Those of us at that level are 6 figure earners, and it is hard to set yourself above the pack. I am a natural leader, which makes my job easier. I do lean on others for input, which at a high level you don't see a lot of. We are arrogant, and cocky... but I do remember where I came from. Years of experience with brilliant techs taught me what I know, and how to think outside of the box.

Awesome find, but it makes me wonder why they would not have checked the new sensors before installing them. I have had bad denso sensors out of the box.

[nem 2,019]

Springfield makes a 9 and 45 in the 1911 I want, but they are the same price. So to me it makes no sense to buy the 9. If I want a 9 I will go with the XD line for 400 less.

Ammo prices not that big of a difference. Yes the 45 is a little more, but I will not be shooting this like we do our 22's.

If I was buying a 1911, it would be a Kimber.

They are very nice, he'll I even priced them too. A former cop friend has all Kimber and national has them in stock. The Kimber 45 that I like is $895.00 with a 5" barrel.

I have an old Colt 1911, and it is a great gun. It fits well in my hand as well, but I like the M&P for carry. It is also not fatiguing, which is surprising. If it is a carry gun, I might suggest that the 1911 is a big piece. Just keep that in mind, bud.

No plan on carrying at this point. If I do down the road I will buy something much smaller.

[Impious 1,476]

You can never go wrong with getting more education....Knowledge is everything in life!

Experience trumps knowledge every timr.

No offense, but in my experience that's something people with no degree say to justify their lack of higher education. Your statement is definitely true in many cases, but also very wrong in many others. I have hired several people who have absolutely proven that statement wrong many times over. One of them still works for me...not enough to justify firing her yet...but should have all the experience needed to excel, and absolutely does not. Performance is average on her best day.

I went to what was ranked as the 2nd best college in the nation, have a Physics degree and no one has ever yet cared about my education. My experience, absolutely. I also ignore degrees pretty much when I hire.

I should clarify, my ONLY expectation of anyone with a degree is that in college they learned ONE and only one thing.

Yep. I agree 200%.

I don't have a college education and you will find very few technicians in this nation who can, and do, perform at the level that I do. Without blowing smoke up my own ass, I feel I am in the top 5% of techs in this country, my coworker said he feels I am in the top 2-3%. I work hard, and work very well. I worked while cancer was destroying my body, I went to work puking from chemo, I went to work when I was unable to walk across my shop. Even being that ill I performed at a greater level than 2 of 4 other techs at my shop.

I have worked with techs who have engineering degrees, and in fact I work with a guy with his engineering degree. His drive to work is no where near my level. He is quick to leave when he has no work or if he has to go hunting. He feels he is so smart that his time is best spent elsewhere if he is not seeing the hours he wants.

I have found that people who hide behind "those without a degree are lazy" are hiding their laziness behind their degree.

But what do I know? I am a long haired druggie, alcoholic who doesn't have to scrape up a few pennies for a POS car... in mmy early 40s I had enough money to retire comfortably... but I don't have a degree, all I have is a little experience; so I must not work hard.

I am glad a dude like Sean can see past a piece of paper. It is leaders like him, with vision, who realizes that a degree means very little compared to drive and experience.

I don't think anyone ever said or implied a piece of paper is the only thing that matters. My point was experience is great IF it's the right experience, or the person can apply that experience...but "experience" in general is about as useful as that piece of paper if they can't properly apply it, or that experience wasn't as strong as it might appear on the surface, etc. Someone with the right skill set can successfully turn knowledge into performance with limited experience. Someone with limited formal education can take their experience and turn it into performance.

Like you my dad is a mechanic. Self taught for the most part. He was putting motors on bikes before he was a teenager. Started when he was 16 and is 58 now so has 42 years under the hood, much of which didn't have scanners and other test tools so he can troubleshoot and fix a lot of problems without many devices when a lot of younger techs can't figure it out if some device doesn't tell them the problem. He's probably one of the best in the state. no degree. No formal school. No certifications even. Yet I guaranty he can run circles at almost 60 around just about every ASE certified tech in the state. That's meaningful experience.

However, there are techs out there...and you've probably met some, who have as much job time as you do and yet can't match your performance. They either simply aren't as bright and mechanically minded, haven't had as good of a mentor, maybe they worked in a more niche market or general market and haven't ran across the same problems you have, etc. It looks like you two have pretty equal experience on paper, but in reality you can probably run circles around those other techs.

My point was, it has as much to do with the PERSON as it does either their experience or education. Strong minds and strong people can take knowledge and quickly transfer it to performance. Strong minds and strong people can take experience and quickly transfer it to performance. But on the flip side, people with what looks like good knowledge or what looks like strong experience can also suck ass....because it depends on the PERSON.

Like Sean I have always looked more at experience than education, and those bets have NOT paid off as much as they've failed. My two best performance employees was one who was straight out of college with no experience and the other came over with no education or any real experience. I'm clearly not good at judging those character evaluations yet, as that is clearly where the difference lies. What I see in common there are two people who were green who I could mold and shape and who were also bright, caught on quickly and worked hard. It's figuring out those important character traits about a person more than anything else. Those are the traits that have helped those employees succeed, and those are the areas where the less than stellar employees lacked. It had little to do with either their education or experience.

[Impious 1,476]

I love all things smartwool.

:-)

Sean probably has better recommendations, or at least something better priced. I know they can get crazy with cost.

Yeah, not sure they fit my budget. When I was looking at base layers they were about 2x the cost of some other places

[Impious 1,476]

I have an employee now who, based on experience, should be way overqualified for the job. No higher education. She was a no-brainer to hire based on experience. My God is she dumb. Works hard, tries hard...but it's just not there. If she is working on something and anything deviates from normal or from how it was explained, she is dumbfounded and absolutely can not figure out on her own how to resolve it. Even if the answer is painfully obvious and simple. Annoys the shit out of me.

Employee she replaced I had fired for unsatisfactory performance. Same situation, based on experience should have been a perfect match. Nope. Lazy, unmotivated, wouldn't do shit all day, fucked everything up.

Leaves a bitter taste in my mouth. Fuck experience. Fuck education. Show me you are smart, quick and willing to work hard. That's all. The rest I can train you to do. But I can't train intelligence or motivation/willpower where there is none. I need to learn how to judge in an interview that someone is smart, quick and hard working. that I haven't figured out yet.

[sandt38 448]

 

 

Seth based on what I know of you, I agree with your coworker.

Much appreciated, but honestly when you get into the top 10%, that is a big fuckin' deal, and it is hard for people outside the industry to understand exactly what that means. When we see stuff that comes from dealerships that were not able to be repaired with engineer's help and we fix it, that is huge.

I had a 2003 4Runner with a 4L today that was at 2 local dealerships with P0136 and P0156 (both O2 sensor downstream circuit error codes). There is a factory TSB that has an update for the downstream O2s, and all 4 O2s were replaced. The O2s dropped to dead 0V after running for ~2 minutes. The dealerships replaced the MAF sensor, CTS, all 4O2s, both upstream cats, intake gaskets, and the PCM. This vehicle went through tech support (Toyota factory engineers) at 2 different dealerships. Within 1 hour of it in my stall I made a call. I replaced the brand new updated downstream O2s that were replaced at the dealer last week. I fixed the car. She spent 4 grand at the dealer, and $600 with me.

Those of us at that level are 6 figure earners, and it is hard to set yourself above the pack. I am a natural leader, which makes my job easier. I do lean on others for input, which at a high level you don't see a lot of. We are arrogant, and cocky... but I do remember where I came from. Years of experience with brilliant techs taught me what I know, and how to think outside of the box.

Awesome find, but it makes me wonder why they would not have checked the new sensors before installing them. I have had bad denso sensors out of the box.

 

It's hard to condemn new parts out of the box. I am certain that if I had done resistance tests it would have passed. The sensors were stuck at no voltage, which is indicative of being very lean. Basically 1 volt on an O2 indicates full rich and 0V is full lean. O2s are voltage generators, so they can be tricky. When they dumped to 0 volts, the upstream AF sensors (wideband O2 sensors) indicated~3 volts. This is indicative of a lean mixture (generally 2.5 on a wideband is stoich, higher is lean, lower is rich). My total fuel trims were ~+12, which means the system was "supposedly" adding fuel to reach stoich. But this is not terribly high... generally I give ~+/- 12% as a given. I added propane to the intake and saw the upstreams drop heavily, and saw the downstreams stay still. So I shot the intake with carb cleaner, and saw the upstreams go mad rich (~.6) and the downstreams went to .465. No matter what I did they downstreams would not go above .465. So I checked all grounds and found nominal voltage drop, and decided to try new O2s. I dropped them in and my downstreams started to climb immediately to .65, which is near perfect. The upstreams stayed the same, but the fuel trims dropped to ~3-4%.

 

I saw this in a Chrysler 2.7L some years back. The aft cat sensors saw a condition (lean) and the ECM tried to compensate for the issue by taking away fuel. O2 sensors don't care about fuel, they only read oxygen. If you have a misfire, weather mechanical, electrical, or whatever, not only is fuel not being burned, but oxygen is not being consumed. The sensors do not read the excess fuel, but they do read the unburned oxygen, so they show lean. When the ECM sees a possible misfire (high oxygen levels after the cat), it pulls fuel out of the cylinder making it lean, so the cat is not destroyed by a misfire. Ford effectively does this with a misfire. If it sees a misfire based on crankshaft revolution speed variances, it will determine the misfiring cylinder with the cam sensor, and shut the injector down on that hole. This makes the cylinder into an air pump and Ford does not have to turn on the light as it is not catalyst damaging saving them warranty dollars.

 

So while it is not specified, I had to assume that Toyota used the strategy of leaning the system down to protect the cats. Driving the system full rich and only seeing a post cat voltage of .465v (still just a cunt hair below lean) I felt it had to be the sensors, as they MUST react to a fuel saturated cat. While it is uncommon for most manufacturers to use post cat sensors to set fuel trims (the pre-cat or upstreams, tell the ECM how efficiently the cylinders are burning before the cat cleans it up), it does happen. This is the first time I have ever seen anything outside of the Chrysler 2.7L use this strategy, but it was the only thing that made sense.

 

So this wasn't an issue of taking a simple measurement. I had to base my decisions on my experiences with other manufacturers and make a gut call. I had to assume that since the TSB was only based on the 2003 and 2004 model years, and it was the first year of the new body style and the new 4.0L motor, that this system might use a rare strategy that Toyota dealer techs were not familiar with.

 

This is no knock on the technicians at the dealership, or the engineers that are paid to guide them through diagnosis. But these techs are highly trained graduates of Toyota's schooling (which is fantastic schooling, I might add) and the engineers are obviously college grads as well. Look how experience and dedication trumped education in this case.

 

It was a good gut call, and a lucky gut call that I was forced to make.

[nem 2,019]

That is what sets you apart from others Seth. You have had the years of exposure to learn these techniques which will always trump book knowledge. Old school still kick ass!

[nem 2,019]

So the wife thinks I am turning into a prepper. Guess I might as well start building a bunker to prove her right.

[nem 2,019]

I have literally not slept in 52 hours. Even the sleeping pills have not worked.

[///M5 2,833]

Seth - I guarantee your colleague is right.

....because it depends on the PERSON.

I consider the person part of the experience. What they can relate out of it is a strong deciding factor. So then this ties education exactly to experience. Those who did, did, those who learned, excelled and that is who I want. The latter are much easier to lead.

[///M5 2,833]

Show me you are smart, quick and willing to work hard. That's all.

Indeed, but then each experience will help that person grow.

I know we are saying the same thing, just highlighting where I think its critical.

[j-roadtatts 1,129]

There are many good reasons to attend college. My opinion is 90 percent of the people that do are there for the wrong reason though. Or are going for a job they could obtain without a degree. It can be a great confidence builder and motivator. Unfortunately no guarantee to a job.

My wife finished 2 years of college this spring. During her internship, she worked with people that had completed 3x the schooling and others that had simply hired on and received on the job training. They all preformed the same tasks, for relatively the same pay. Not to say all jobs are that way, but worth looking into.

A lot of others get a degree but end up working in a completely unrelated field. Either because they didn't enjoy the daily job tasks or because they find a better paying job along the way. This is why I suggest doing something you would already do as a hobby. Maybe not the exact trade, but that daily tasks are something you enjoy performing.

There are many great minds throughout history that created the modern world without college. They had the tenacity to go for whatever they set their minds too.

Whatever the choice, make sure it is a well thought out one.

[j-roadtatts 1,129]

I have literally not slept in 52 hours. Even the sleeping pills have not worked.

I use cognitive behavior treatment when I am having long spells of insomnia and sleeping pills aren't working.

[ssh 924]

I have literally not slept in 52 hours. Even the sleeping pills have not worked.

 

Try taking some melatonin. Or buy some weed somewhere. In all seriousness though I'd give melatonin a shot, it should be at CVS, Walgreens, or any natural health store.

[ssh 924]

You guys make everything sound so black and white, education OR experience.

 

I'm biased though because what interests me requires school.

[Adrian_D 520]

 

Yesterday I almost broke down, seeing how my dog is. She can't get up anymore, she can barely walk and when she wants to get up she barks to let me know. Taking her to the vet today to see what we can do

Sorry to hear Adrian. How old is she? What breed?

Hope the vet gets her fixed up for ya.

J

 

 

10 years old, she's a mix but looks like a border collie. Vet said she had a fever and it's not clear what causes her problems at least until the inflammation goes down. 

[nem 2,019]

Hope the pup gets better.

[nem 2,019]

One trait that helps people be successful is to be adaptable.

 

I have seen many educated people as well as experienced people come and go because they could not adapt to the FQ culture.  

[///M5 2,833]

There are many good reasons to attend college.

Just to clarify, I was not knocking education. I am a huge proponent. Biggest problem is that most people forget to learn the one thing they were supposed to in college which basically makes it useless. If you don't learn how to learn then don't bother

[///M5 2,833]

You guys make everything sound so black and white, education OR experience.

 

I'm biased though because what interests me requires school.

Never. Need both, discussion was over my (and others) hiring practices. See post right above this one.

[dem beats 1,223]

Springfield makes a 9 and 45 in the 1911 I want, but they are the same price. So to me it makes no sense to buy the 9. If I want a 9 I will go with the XD line for 400 less.

Ammo prices not that big of a difference. Yes the 45 is a little more, but I will not be shooting this like we do our 22's.

If I was buying a 1911, it would be a Kimber.

They are very nice, he'll I even priced them too. A former cop friend has all Kimber and national has them in stock. The Kimber 45 that I like is $895.00 with a 5" barrel.

I have an old Colt 1911, and it is a great gun. It fits well in my hand as well, but I like the M&P for carry. It is also not fatiguing, which is surprising. If it is a carry gun, I might suggest that the 1911 is a big piece. Just keep that in mind, bud.

No plan on carrying at this point. If I do down the road I will buy something much smaller.

I find the 1911 really easy to carry. Single stack and think profile is nice. If you are a shorter person with a smaller frame body, it might be more difficult.

I'm fat also, and that actually makes CC tougher IMHO, as my beltline is more strained than the average person.

[Aaron Clinton 2,372]

 

 

 

Experience is often more valuable, but often those with experience are still lazy.

Education is useful because people in debt are motivated!

:-)

I have never met anyone that meets that criteria.

 

 

That was me up until three months ago.

 

That was me before Arthur was born.

[dem beats 1,223]

You guys make everything sound so black and white, education OR experience.

I'm biased though because what interests me requires school.

What do you want to do that cannot be learned somewhere else? Unless it's a niche trade like medicine......