After reading many many threads I started to wonder how many people who post there advise here are "Real Mechanics" that actually do the job and are certified and have grease under there nails from doing it every day for a job. I am hoping to find the real ones not the guy that dose it in his garage and feels happy to do it but the guys who have a job wrenching....

 

Kinda promising on all the "mechanics" saying anything.... LOL

 

What do you do for a living?

 

Some of us are probably former mechanics and I thoroughly agree that if you don't or didn't wrench all day every day you are NOT a mechanic or never was one. Being certified doesn't make you automatically a GOOD mechanic either.

 

Do you have a specific question that needs to be answered? That's usually how people approach things. If not then it appears that you're just baiting arguments.

Personally, if I want free help then I post on this site and take the good with the bad. I usually get very good advice at some point because there are quite a few high caliber people on this site. Some are mechanics and many are not. If I want to be guaranteed professional help then I open my wallet and pay for it.

 

Although it might be nice or advantagis for some or most of us to be "certified" mechanics most of us are not. As EXv10 mentioned being "certified" doesn't make you an expert or even good.

FTE is for Enthusiasts which i believe most of us are. I think i can speak for several of us who have performed many of our own modifications, repairs, maintainence and upgrades.

Many of us do these in our backyards, driveways, garages and workshops. Some have basic tools and others have stocked garage's with every tool in the world.

Many of us may have experience in only specific area where others might be experienced in several.

The idea of being here is to get information from other owners of the same type vehicle, that being the SD. These are real world experiences, described by their owners, experienced or not, either asking real questions or giving their best advice thru experience.

It's obvious you seem to only want answers from "certified" mechanics. If so i think you will be waiting awhile. Maybe you got answers you didn't like or agree with!

I think you should go to or call your local dealer. Hopefully he will be able to answer your questions. I guess if it comes from the service manager it has to be the right answer, right?

 

I am truck mechanic... And will all the mechanic bashing I was just curious of who what real and who thought they were. So Dave sorry for asking. And you are right there are mechanics and professionals. Yes, there are the guys who just see dollar signs when people walk in giving those of us who do the job right a bad name.

 

There are some actual techs here. If you stick around awhile, you'll know who they are.

There are also a lot of owners here who have a total knowledge base on this particular truck that is probably unmatched anywhere.

I have yet to see someone ask a specific technical question that went unanswered. Usually, in all of the responses there is an actual solution to the problem addressed. There are also those who try to help by suggesting possibilities or asking more questions of the original poster to help narrow down the symptoms that will lead to an actual resolution.

There are people here who work or have worked in various automotive or truck specific aftermarket shops, tire shops, audio video shops etc. They are happy to share their knowledge and experience for free.

There are also those who have busted more than a few knuckles and have broken more tools than some of us will ever own. They have made more repairs and modifications on these specific trucks than most certified mechanics at a general repair shop or dealer will.

Stick around for a while and you will see for yourself.

 

Thank you JKBRAD. I guess because I am a mechanic and try to be a professional and not scew people over that the mechanic bashing gets to me. I know that if you are a mechanic dose not mean you are good or care about what is best for the person.

Like a teacher told me back in school "There are mechanics and than there are professionals"

 

I would say a real mechanic is someone that does it as a profession and that trully enjoys his job and like cole60 said; isn't just there to make a quick buck. As an example, someone who works on all his neighbors pipes is not a plumber. Also; I am sure there are some out there that do a lot of wrenching and are quite knowledgable in some areas.

 

This otta get interesting...Not everyone who works on cars or trucks and gains knowledge needs to be a certified mechanic. I would think that those of us who aren't, but still do a lot of our own work become more knowledgeable as we try new things and gain experience. Quite frankly... I look at most of the info I get from FTE as valuable. Some of I can use; some of it I can't. I don't really look at credentials of the person posting. Instead I consider the info in the posting.
BTW...I'm an electrician not a mechanic so don't pay any attention to what I write. So if I say something insulting to you....nevermind

 

Now now boys. Let's all put our six shooters away for a second and be grown ups.....lol

Cole has a point to a certain extent, although he could have voiced it a little better. He simply wants to know why we choose to bash our local mechanics.

Granted, Cole, there are a FEW good mechanics out there, but most want to run up your bill, charge you for things that you don't need, and as happened to me, choose to push the work through at a speedy pace to make the shop more money.......the publics safety be damned.

Don't take anything you read here personally. I have gotten a lot of good sound advice from these forums from both my fellow hillbilly, shadetree, bucktoothed, beer gut do it yourselfer as I have from the "certified mechanics". Please forgive us if we don't speak your specific technical jargon, share your love of Snap-On recycled tools or use white lithium grease as **** lube when the wife wants some good lovin.

In Cole's defense, I suppose we should all realize that not all mechanics want to reach out and touch our wallets. No, there are still some friendly, caring, knowledgeable and give a damn mechanics still around, and most of them are right here on this site. Guys that may take a bit extra time to figure out the problem, but do far better quality work than the guy at Fire Stone or Goodyear or Pep-Boys. I would rather bust my knuckles doing the job myself while constantly refering back to these forums than trust my truck, money and ultimately my family's life to the hacks in the greasy, my name is "Bob" Cintas shirts.

(Please pardon the lithium **** lube comparrison. It sounded funny when I typed it....)

 

One thing I learned when I was a building contractor was; if someone does something 8 hours a day everyday he probably knows what he is talking about. That's what a pro is but of course he or she couldn't have just started last week. Non pros usually don't last long either.

 

While a lot of the guys on here do know quite a bit, not everyone has to be a certified mechanic to give solid advice. Hell, I used to know a guy who never saw a lick of technical schooling in his life and was a complete genius with mechanical engineering. He could fabricate, fix, and diagnose almost anything.

 

I agree, there are a lot of success stories out there that have had very little schooling. A guy I grew up with was an orphan and got Fs and Ds in high school (I used to pick up his report cards), and with no college or further training he became a multi-millionare in the heavy equipment operating business. Being certified doesn't empress me much to be honest with you.