13 replies to this topic

[Steam]

Daughter has not long passed her driving test and bought a second hand i30.

She rang me yesterday driving to work to say she could hear a rattling clunking sound from rear of car.

At home yesterday evening, went for a drive , noise coming from rear passenger wheel area. Back home jack car, pull wheel and start checking hub etc. Trying to see if anything is loose and I pulled the brake caliper straight off the hub. It has new pads in it so whichever Numpty replaced the pads failed to put the caliper retaining bolts back in.

Honestly its not hard, remove caliper, change pads replace bolts and tighten. its not rocket science.

[68+86auto]

Most people can't even select the correct screwdriver to use, they don't even know that there's set sizes not just random ones.

 

 

As far as I'm concerned, training such as TAFE or even university means almost nothing. It's way too easy for someone who has no idea to pass.

 

I know that a large local dealership only employs the cheapest mechanics which means the freshly qualified or people who have just arrived in the country. I laugh when I hear/read people saying that dealers have the best mechanics who are trained etc.

[68Deluxe]

Most people can't even select the correct screwdriver to use, they don't even know that there's set sizes not just random ones.

 

 

As far as I'm concerned, training such as TAFE or even university means almost nothing. It's way too easy for someone who has no idea to pass.

 

I know that a large local dealership only employs the cheapest mechanics which means the freshly qualified or people who have just arrived in the country. I laugh when I hear/read people saying that dealers have the best mechanics who are trained etc.

There are hardly any good ones left to train the new blood sadly.
The calibre of the common man leaves a lot to be desired.  

[mab01uk]

My local independent garage is based in some units on a modern industrial estate. On a recent visit for an MOT I noticed he had gone from renting 3 units down to 2 to reduce the size of the workshops. When I asked him if business was quiet, he said no he is as busy as ever but the problem is it is proving almost impossible to get any good skilled mechanics as so many older ones have retired or left in the pandemic and have not been replaced. He said he has tried many times over recent years to recruit apprentice mechanics with good wages, conditions and day release to college but few youngsters turn up for work on time after a couple of weeks or just want to scroll on there smart phone all day or have main ambitions to become an online 'influencer' ! Meanwhile many other potential recruits to the essential trades now go straight to University from school to study 'Mickey mouse' degrees and end up with no useful real life work skills.....as was strongly promoted many years ago by Tony Blair's government....and now people wonder why we have to rely on skilled trades people brought in from other countries. However as a result we do also have a good local 'mobile' mechanic who is from Bulgaria and works out the back of an old BMW Estate car in all weathers on peoples driveways.

Edited by mab01uk, 25 October 2024 - 08:40 AM.

[viz139]

I see it in the electrical industry were you need to study lots of theory rather than look at a problem and figure how to solve it. Some of these guys are better on a keyboard than using tools. Its gone too much the academic way, guys with natural ability can't get qualified.

[slidehammer]

That could have been so dangerous if your daughter had braked hard in an emergency.

My father always use to say you can't teach common sense and he was very right.

We have the same problem in the print trade, we are paying the price for lack of training in the 1990's and 2000's and now can't get trained staff and have an aging workforce. 

Edited by slidehammer, 26 October 2024 - 08:26 AM.

[mab01uk]

Same in the Mechanical Engineering world that I have recently retired from.....a shortage of 'hands on' experienced Engineers and most of the new recruits come straight out of university with a degree in theory but little practical experience or commonsense and just want to be 'Project Managers' whose main skill seems to be creating endless spread sheets and arranging pointless progress meetings. In the old days they were just called 'Progress Chasers' and were paid less than the Engineers who did the real work....

[MatthewsDad]

I work in engineering and we have some brilliant, motivated apprentices and graduates who are hungry to learn stuff. Just saying.

[PoolGuy]

I work in engineering and we have some brilliant, motivated apprentices and graduates who are hungry to learn stuff. Just saying.

Smart kids, they'll be able to demand good money in a few years as their skills will be in demand. The jobs that are currently very well paid will be threatened by the AI revolution in the not too distant future.

[Shooter63]

I think the main problem is that now we don't have mechanics we now have technicians and fitters, who's sole purpose is to plug something into your car, look for a fault code and fit a new part, fixing and repairing items is now a thing of the past due to the stupidly high hourly rates main dealers charge. Only the old school independents have the skills and they are getting thin on the ground.

Shooter

[PoolGuy]

Fitters are fine, they do as described, they make stuff fit and have been around for years. Unfortunately too many people in the classic car world expect to bolt stuff on rather than making it fit. ‘Technicians’ well they’re another story.

[coopertaz]

is this really a new thing? there have been rubbish garages around for years. I have just retired from an engineering background and whilst we had apprentices who's main aim was to be in an office we did have some with good abilities comming through.

[Spider]

Daughter has not long passed her driving test and bought a second hand i30.

She rang me yesterday driving to work to say she could hear a rattling clunking sound from rear of car.

At home yesterday evening, went for a drive , noise coming from rear passenger wheel area. Back home jack car, pull wheel and start checking hub etc. Trying to see if anything is loose and I pulled the brake caliper straight off the hub. It has new pads in it so whichever Numpty replaced the pads failed to put the caliper retaining bolts back in.

Honestly its not hard, remove caliper, change pads replace bolts and tighten. its not rocket science.

 

That's just negligent.

 

Sure, we are all human (well, most of us !) and we make mistakes, but here it seems no one inspected the work and no one tested it.

 

You'd think the person who did the job at the end of the day would look at the caliper bolts on their bench and wonder where they came from.

[Steam]

Daughter has not long passed her driving test and bought a second hand i30.
She rang me yesterday driving to work to say she could hear a rattling clunking sound from rear of car.
At home yesterday evening, went for a drive , noise coming from rear passenger wheel area. Back home jack car, pull wheel and start checking hub etc. Trying to see if anything is loose and I pulled the brake caliper straight off the hub. It has new pads in it so whichever Numpty replaced the pads failed to put the caliper retaining bolts back in.
Honestly its not hard, remove caliper, change pads replace bolts and tighten. its not rocket science.

 
That's just negligent.
 
Sure, we are all human (well, most of us !) and we make mistakes, but here it seems no one inspected the work and no one tested it.
 
You'd think the person who did the job at the end of the day would look at the caliper bolts on their bench and wonder where they came from.

Even more worryIng is that it came with a RWC.