Grease The Wheels Podcast

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On this week’s episode of Grease the Wheels, Uncle Jimmy goes into what the internet thinks is the top 10 causes of cars breaking down. Some of these haven’t been relevant in almost 30 years, while some of these we have never seen once in our wrenching careers - this is a bit dated so we have a fair bit of fun with it. In a weird semantic sort of argument, a lot of these are more “reasons why your car isn’t working in the first place” rather than the cause of mid-trip breakdowns. We also get into some of the incredible advancements in user friendliness that cars have baked into themselves over the past 50 years, as well as Uncle Jimmy’s own personal “I wasn’t home yet!” experience. Coolant, charging systems, and tires are more the culprit to modern breakdowns, but you already knew that! This is a jam-packed, double-barrelled episode that you are not going to want to miss even though you probably won’t learn anything! Wait, we lied! Tune in for how to easily diagnose starter motor batteries on some of your various high voltage, mild hybrid vehicles.

Also Uncle Jimmy lists his favorite repair manuals. 

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In this week’s heavily delayed episode of Grease the Wheels, Uncle Jimmy talks about the people who think the world revolves around them. We also do a seriously deep dive on the differences between being confident and being arrogant - turns out it's a pretty fine line dictated entirely by how you treat people! You can have tons of knowledge and use it for all the right reasons, but the minute you can’t back it up, or problems are suddenly not you daily - you’ve made the switch. Confidence isn’t a bad thing, and can go a seriously long way towards advancing your career, but when it traverses into arrogance, people are going to start rooting for you to fail! 

Also Uncle Jimmy wants your “Ego Check Moment” Stories!

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On this week’s episode of Grease the Wheels, Uncle Jimmy takes aim at the divide that exists in many dealerships between the sales and fixed ops departments. It has been noted by several sources that while many techs could sell a car in a pinch - almost no one in your sales department could do anything if they needed to prep a car for delivery, or fix something that was going wrong with it. With the way that the internet is going they really shouldn’t act too big for their britches, but we are a long way off from AI being able to swing a hammer or torch up suspension components. We also go back into the CDK SNAFU, because it is still making lives miserable. 

Also Uncle Jimmy goes 3 for 5 on “reasons no one takes you seriously!” 

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On this week’s episode of Grease the wheels, Uncle Jimmy ventures into pseudo actual journalism talking about the recent cyber attack and ransomware woes of CDK. This one was a big one- big ransome and big outage. This has completely crippled thousands of shops and dealerships across the country being locked out of the software that they use to run the business both front and back, as the articles seemed to have forgotten about the back of the house. Being a solutions oriented person like all of you are, we knew the answer was simple: go back to analogue! Even the fact that the sales manager is chain smoking Lucky Strikes out of pure stress is right out of 1977! Handwritten Repair Orders and sales documents are back, for now at least. This is an interesting opportunity for all of the Reynolds shops as well, because this could definitely happen to any cloud based customer resource software. The business opportunities for R&R just shot through the roof too, because no one wants to be without this technology for long. We just sincerely hope that it doesn’t result in payroll errors, which cause shops all around to hear the greasing of wheels.

Also Uncle Jimmy is fully prepped to work at “Kaczynski Chevrolet” and murders corporate press releases. 

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On this week’s episode of Grease the Wheels, we go into some easy ways to avoid a coronary - taking your vacation! Studies have proven that people who actually take their vacation tend to experience a myriad of positive effects when they are out of the office, and this is especially true when your office is a shop. Too many techs take their days off in the form of a check, and this isn’t always the best thing. Taking a day off here and a day off there is a good way to break up the monotony and avoid missing family milestones and memories. Or you can do it like Uncle Jimmy and use it all in one shot! Bottom line, if you have the time to take off - take it! If you don’t have the time to take off - grease your wheels to somewhere that understands basic human resources! 

Also Uncle Jimmy fixes Erik’s brakes on vacation. 

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On this week's episode of Grease the Wheels, we get into the “20 Most Common Automotive Scams”.  Right off the bat, “scams” is a relative term here because the author thinks we’re still using freon. Half of them are fixed with paperwork - which you should always do, and the other half can be covered easily by video. There is no doubt that the overall public image of mechanics is not good, but this level of ignorance seems to underscore the need for more intensive (often high-definition) documentation of problems with customers' vehicles. Sure, there is always the possibility of abuse when a customer doesn’t know anything about their car - but Thrust Bushings are real, we promise. This one is fun because it showcases the internal biases of people who don’t know anything about their cars, while being completely oblivious to some of the REAL scams and abuse going on. 

Also Uncle Jimmy chronicles his limited experience with scumbags. 

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On this week’s episode of Grease the Wheels, we get a little off topic with various developmental psychology articles. We’ve all heard the question, “what do you want to be when you grow up?” and we’re not sure how many people came right out and said, “mechanic!” Turns out even asking this question is actually not the best thing in the world, because it can put undue burden on developing brains that think that they have to live up to this expectation. Answering with “mechanic” might be a growing trend though, as Gen Z has started to turn the corner and get into the trades at a higher percentage than X-ers and Millennials. We’ve told them not to, but in typical fashion of a younger generation questioning an older one - they keep coming! We also delve into the concept of some people only being your friend when their stuff is broken, which is something everyone listening to this has experienced at one point or another and hit on the cyclical nature of “getting killed on the warranty at the dealership” to “making tons of money on the same job at an Indy once it’s out of warranty”. Uncle Jimmy rewrites the law of the hammer to his Snap-On guy, and talks about head injuries! 

Also Uncle Jimmy lives up to generational expectations and tells you exactly what’s on his mind! 

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On this week’s episode of Grease the Wheels, Uncle Jimmy goes full boomer and talks about some statistics involving cell phone use in the workplace. We get into just how much time we’re wasting, how we’re wasting it, and the incredible stats involving how likely we are to mess up after using our phones at work. There are some major streamlined processes in the automotive industry that have gotten incredibly advanced when it comes to workflows that directly involve the phone but Uncle Jimmy just wishes that he didn't have to keep it on his personal phone. Is the phone leading to the downfall of humanity? Maybe, but rest assured it is definitely a wiretap with a monthly payment to keep it running! 

Also Uncle Jimmy goes on one of the best rants about U-Haul since they “rented that mofo for $19.95!”

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On this episode of Grease the Wheels, Uncle Jimmy dissects the most shortchanged part of the entire automotive industry - Human Resources! Hiring anyone who has tools and can fog a mirror is one way to fill your shop with bodies, but not paying attention to the shop chemistry can be extremely detrimental to the bottom line. When you hire the right people, the right things happen. Productivity increases, friendly competition can cause even more profit, and the shop is overall a loud but harmonious place. The inverse is also 100% true. When you hire the wrong people, work doesn’t get done, techs snipe at one another, and your customers are going to suffer. The bottom line for this episode, which really is a must-listen for service managers whose teams need some finessing, you get out what you put into the hiring process - and another opinion with some technical skills is a valuable tool in the interview.  

Also Uncle Jimmy pitches the “Tech Combine” and outlines the HR Paradox: “The employees you wish would stay always leave, and the employees you wish would leave always stay (seemingly forever)”

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On this week’s Grease the Wheels, Uncle Jimmy gets introspective about some of the main thesis points of the podcast in contrast with industry trends in the six years we’ve been barking into a microphone. Not a lot of podcasts age well, and some of our certainly haven't. We still don't have talking tool boxes but there are more important things at play than S4B. The pay has definitely gone up, and it has to keep going up as people get more and more trained and certified to work on the crazy stuff manufacturers are rolling out with now. We knew hydrogen powered cars were coming when we started, but we didn’t know we’d most likely be seeing them by the end of this decade. We also get into some of the personal points of the job; the toll that it takes on the people who do it day in and day out. We also get into the relatively new and welcome phenomenon of gender equality in the shop, although all of the liberal arts in the world won’t help you lift a small-block chevy. While there have been many points where we have been wrong, on a whole and on the big issues - we have been consistently ahead of the curve. We need to continue the ethos of the show and continue to look for better opportunities as we better ourselves and our craft in pursuit of the American(or wherever you’re from!) Dream. When all else fails, move to Texas! 

Also Uncle Jimmy talks aftermarket time guides and shouts out our favorite non-North American audiences!