Eventually we found a broken coil spring on the front of the car! I am sure there are much worse stories than this but it really gets me mad sometimes?

A customer brought in a Nissan Frontier with issue of car unable to shift into reverse gear. Diagnostic Scan result shows 13 error code for engine and 3 for Transmission. Wiring harness of all components and testing of the components shows everything is OK. Car idles at above 1000RPM with realtime TP Sensor showing between 0.8% - 1.2%.

Of concern is the U1001 error code. Could the ECM be the culprit?

Right now, car shift into reverse when car is restarted. There is also hard shift into forward gears. What are my options?

The idea is to use OBD 24V to 12V converter adapter (as photo shown) where the adapter to be plugged to truck DLC and the diagnostic scanner will be inserted into the adapter.

Are there any considerations of doing so?
What else could be the other usage of OBD 24V to 12V converter adapter?

Any advise would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.

Comments? Really interested to know your thoughts. 

Matthew Lee
"The Car Count Fixer"
 

PS: Join me on YouTube and check out this totally FREE on-line course I'm offers- "How to Double your Car Count in 89 Days!"

We charge $16.00 for a rotation and a general brakes check for .50hr or $48.00

Let's say a car comes in and you sell some diagnostics, by the hour, or from a menu. After you complete that work, and you still don't have an answer, do you go back to the customer and sell some more? Do you continue at your expense? If you do go back to the customer, and you have nothing conclusive after that, then what? Do you keep going back and selling more diagnostic work until you solve the problem? If you continue to go back and sell more, how many times can you do that? We've all had that car that we've worked on for weeks to find some strange problem. I doubt many customers are willing to pay for the 40 hours you spent on the car.

Now lets say after 5 hours of work that the customer agreed to, you are no closer to finding the issue than when the car came in. Do you charge them for the 5 hours and send them down the road even though you have not provided them with a diagnoses? Do you start spending your time trying to solve the issue because you have a hard time charging for 5 hours and are unable to provide any answers?

I'm asking these questions as I am rethinking my business strategy on diagnostics a little. Our shop is known for its abilities to diagnose problems. We have other shops bringing cars to us on a regular basis because of these abilities. I actually get several calls and emails weekly from across the county for help diagnosing problems. There are times, a lot of times, when I think this is more of a curse, than a blessing. I know we are in the business of fixing cars, and we need to be able to find problems if customers are going to keep coming back. But after my lead tech and I spent a considerable amount of time over the last 15 days diagnosing the strangest intermittent no start issue on an Audi, and watching his frustration grow everyday, not because of the difficulty of the issue as we both love the challenge, but because it held him back from addressing the other work that was coming in the shop. 

So, as rewarding as it was to solve that mystery, I can't help but look back at what it cost me financially, and the frustration to the technician, and realize we have to come up with a way to try to avoid going down those rabbit holes. Right now my idea is to give it 1 hour. If after an hour, we are not relatively certain that we will find the issue, with another hour or two, then let the car go. Let the customer know that it's not that we can't fix the car, but that we cannot fix it efficiently. If I lose that customer, it would probably still be cheaper that working on his car for 2 weeks.

Love to hear your thoughts.

Scott   

I took over from my dad about 3 years ago and I added oil changes and focused more on the alignment and front end suspension work, which has been great.  I have a great alignment and suspension guy.  My background is more finance and the business side of things as opposed to the mechanical side of things.

I would like to get into doing more for our customers.  I want to get some opinions on what types of services we should offer, and how I can find a decent general maintenance tech.  I don't think that we should jump full on into engine and transmission work, but I could see doing things like master cylinders, ac work, fuel filters, general maintenance, etc.   

I am going to have a pretty steep learning curve on this, so any pointers you guys could provide will be appreciated.

test strips? voltage? other?

thanks!

Does anyone have any good contacts or know of any forums that would be of benefit to me to get some mentoring and some advice from the pros?

Thanks in advance!

How many Tenths of an Hour do you give your technicians on oil changes? 

Thanks.

I've seen a few rollbacks on craigslist for about $8000. Older but all I want to spend right now, especially this being my first one. I see a one that isn't a rollback but a wheel lift type. Would I regret it? seems like rollbacks are much safter and versatile. I know little to nothing about towing so any advice would be helpful

So I'm curious, what is everyone else doing and what are you charging? What kind of warranty are you offering on the service? I'm to the point that today I told the guys we are not selling the service anymore until we find a better way.

I just drop by to share with you this little bit of info:

THINK TWICE BEFORE PULLING THAT CAR INTO YOUR BAY FOR A CHEAP OIL CHANGE!

This is how I see it:

Pros of specializing:

-People trust techs that work over and over on their type of car

-Easier for techs to become masters of their work
-No more spending on tools/manuals that are specific to other cars

Cons of specializing:

-It would close the door to a lot of potential customers

-We find that the variety keeps day to day interesting

Thoughts?

I've posted a new blog post about an opportunity to increase your sales & profits

by focusing on selling scheduled maintenance services. Click here for the blog post.

So how do I start to make recommendations for replacing coolant, spark plugs, brake fluid, etc? Does anyone out there have any input/experience with these cars and when to make the recommendations? Or do I just wing it and come up with my own schedule?

If you've been thinking about adding fleet work to your current business model,

please see my latest blog post:
http://www.autoshopowner.com/blog/16/entry-195-have-you-been-thinking-that-adding-fleet-work-would-be-a-good-addition-to-your-business/

The services we're seeking to sell more of:

Cooling System Flush

Air/Induction Decarbonization (Top Engine Cleaning)

Brake Fluid Flush

Power Steering System Flush

Transmission Fluid Drain & Fill / Flush (Advice?)

- also -

We're seeking a line of retail additives worth selling in our lobby, or to be used during any/all of the services above, including:

Engine Oil Stop Leak

Oil Stabilizer (High Mileage Detergent Additive)

Power Steering Pump Conditioner

ATF Fluid / Gasket Conditioner

Cooling System Flush / Chemical Additive

Fuel System Additive

Your thoughts on these matters would be appreciated. Currently, maintenance services only represent about 10% of our sales. With the possible addition of new equipment, we're in need of developing a program to encourage the sales of more manufacturer's maintenance items, and fluid exchange service.

Thanks in advance!

Many times we get confused on what to charge. Diagnostic fee or inspection of a certain area.

How do you and your guys approach this?

Sent from my SM-N900P using Tapatalk

Just to give a little background, I am now part owner of the family business with my Dad who started the business. My dad while a great businessman, give way to much away and has his own old school ways of doing things and his own way of pricing, which means giving way to much away. After having a sit down talk with him, and letting me make some changes to the fundamentals of our pricing and billing structure after reading many articles on this great site. I Setup a pricing matrix for our parts and tires, so our margin has gone up, along with making sure we are getting enough labor and not giving away all our diagnostic time and such. In the first three months I have been making these changes and now are gross profit is up 45% over the last three month compared to the last few previous years and doing better with each and every change I have made. Now I am moving on to the smaller things that we are doing wrong or as they come up.

The weather is getting warm, and It's becoming A/C season. The way he currently handles A/C is we do a free inspection, which includes checking all the standard stuff like, compressor operating, belts, visual check for leaks, system pressure etc. Then he charges a flat rate of $100 for Servicing the system including freon. And then many times i get stuck diagnosing a electrical problem with the fans or compressor operation after we service the system as he will just throw it in with the service since the system was low and was not cycling. How does everyone else price there repairs and handle the process of A/C service, I know they way he is doing it now is totally wrong and shorting ourselves far to often, and then also not charging by the ounce/pound for freon also needs to be done.

My second thing is oil changes, currently he has two set prices for oil changes, $30 flat for a filter, regular oil, labor, and a multi point inspection. Then we also have a synthetic oil option for $50 dollars including all of the above. I know this is a horrible way of doing it but he has been doing it like with for 10+ years and I know we lose money on oil changes that take six or seven quarts and have an expensive oil filter. We also only offer one brand of oil, and we get a lot of request for like a mid level Castrol GTX oil change, or a more premium Mobil One. I know there is many ways to fix this and price it but I wanted to get opinions of what you charge and how you bill it out, along with what options have worked for you.

Thanks

-Donny

Wondering if anyone has suggestions. I have looked at huth. I am wondering about vogue exhaust. It is a program with a bender and starting inventory. It also gives access to name brand exhaust a extremely good prices. Thanks

Sometimes I feel that I shouldn't give this service away. Then I go to bed and wake up and think that performing an oil change for slightly over cost is a good way to get cars into the shop. After all, every car needs an oil change several times a year.

Then after lunch I feel that if I advertise a cheap oil service then I will only attract cheap people who only want the cheap oil change.

After my afternoon cup of coffee I decide that I can not offer a cheap oil service. But wait, What about the check list. If I have a lube tech dedicated to oil changes and he was good with my checklist then I could up sell all the other services the car needs. It's the old throw enough crap against the wall and some will stick routine.

YES NO YES NO YES NO YES NO YES NO.... I can't take all the flip flopping!!

The only resolution I can seem to come up with that I haven't tried yes is: A value added Oil Service.

Has anyone done or is doing this successfully?

If so what works best?

Free wipers with an oil service?

1. Do you have an alignment machine? What kind of alignment system do you have (please be specific)?Do you sublet your alignments? If you sublet your alignments what is the price you pay and the price you charge? If you perform in house alignments how much do you charge? How many hours do you pay your technician?

2. How efficient and productive are your alignments? How long does it take your technician to perform alignments? Are you doing predominantly 2 wheel or 4 wheel alignments? What are the times for both? Do you have to redo any comeback alignments? If so what are the return rates?

3. What percentage of your car count do you offer alignments to? What percentage do you actually align? What percentage do you also perform suspension work with alignments? What percentage do you perform tire work?

4. What is your sales process for alignments? Do you perform an alignment check with your machine? How long does it take for you check the alignment and give a print out to your customer? Do you find this method effective? What percentage do you close alignments with this method? If you have another method or sales process please explain.

5. If you have an alignment machine and rack, what was your ROI on the equipment? How long did it take you to pay it back? Did you finance? lease? pay outright?

6. How much do you advertise/market your alignment services? What have you found to be effective?

7. Do you do pre alignment inspections to check the steering/suspension? Do you charge for this if the person opts not perform an alignment?

8. Do you perform wholesale alignments for other shops? What price do you charge them? What is your retail price? How many cars do you see for this service?

Please be as specific as possible. Unless you a serious micro manager I am guessing you may not have the figures for the alignment percentages. If you have a guesstimate PLEASE note that it is a guess opposed to actual figures you are tracking. I think this will be a great topic of discussion!

I would like some input from other automotive repair shops in regards to alignment procedures. When a customer requests an alignment how do you handle it? Do you ask questions such as "is it veering/pulling/shaking, how are the tires,etc? or have them fill out a questionaire of what their primary complaint is.

Would it be a good idead to test drive the vehicle before and after an alignment?

Do you also do a suspension/steering inspection prior to the alignment? If you were to find something wrong, ie tie rods bad do you charge for a diagnostic or just proceed with the alignment and make the necessary recommendation service notes?

Any input would be much appreciated it as we are trying to expand our business with alignment services.

Thank you and happy holidays!

I would just like some feedback from current shop/lube owners who offer windshield chip repair services. We are thinking of introducing this service at our auto repair facility this coming year. Do you have any particular brands to recommend or any kits to be used?? How do you go about determing charges? Do you offer any sort of warranty?

Thanks in advance for your thoughts and opinions.

Would you have a diagnostic charge for the following or just the 1.2 hours of labor and parts required to replace the alternator:

Customer comes in and states that there was a large popping noise heard this morning and now she hears a constant smaller popping noise. Our tech figures out that it is the coupler attached to the alternator. He performs an alternator test to verify that the alternator does in fact work properly. The CSA presents this information to the customer and he chooses to replace the entire alternator versus just the coupler.

This got me thinking a bit ... a ton of customers do this. We see them in our shops all the time with competitor's stickers on their windows and invoices in their glove boxes. They use us for the tough stuff but give the easy (and profitable!) work to the chain stores. Why? Convenience. Look at what most of these oil change shops do ... you drive in, stay in your car, they do the work and bring a credit card terminal to your window, and you are out of there in 10 minutes. Look at what we do ... they park, come in, talk to the service adviser, take a seat, wait .... wait some more ... wait some more. Maybe, they will be out of there in 30 minutes, but that's pretty optimistic. Many will be waiting there 45 minutes to an hour.

This got me thinking ... could I setup a couple bays in the shop to do just this? Has anyone in here had any luck with setting up some express lanes on the side of their shop? ...or even dug a pit underneath a few bays to allow the customer to stay in their vehicle?

Any thoughts on getting this work back into our shop would be much appreciated.