Auto Repair Online Course?

[ab_slack]

And I should know. I did two years of web training in conjunction with my actual classroom course work for Ford. Now I go to work, come home, spend a little time with my family, then get on here and try to teach a very disorganized version of on-line auto tech 101. I've gotten both ends of that statement.

First I have to say adsm08 that what you bring here, despite limitations of format, is great and I for one greatly appreciate it. For all the questions I post, for each one there been a dozen others I have found answers here.

I try to post a little of my knowledge but I hope people take what I say with a grain or three of salt cause my experience is quite limited by comparison.

I do think as a group there are quite a bit of people with some fairly advanced skills here to pull off the sorts of builds I see going on here. I've been tempted to make a thread for my BII, but it isn't a build, maybe a restore, but even that is more advanced, just rehab for it, but it just seem like a granny just trying to keep her car going "and today I pulled the instrument cluster out and replaced the light bulbs so I can actually see my speed when it is dark out".

 

[alwaysFlOoReD]

^^^ And that is exactly why you need to write about what you did...so the next person has it a little easier. When the question comes up, and it will, you (or I) can point to that thread for the answer. It's also nice to look back at your work and see what you have accomplished over the years, especially when you are a little depressed about working on the "piece of shiznet" again.

Richard

 

[cammeddrz]

Auto-tech is hard to learn or teach online. Too much hands-on stuff.

^^likewise why it is also hard to learn, or teach in a classroom

my suggestion is start working sweeping floors/changing oil in a shop. work your way up. once you are around a "B"-tech level start your schooling/certifications. at that point most dealers will certify you at literally zero expense to you. (at least for me that's how Honda, and Suzuki were)

in my experience, if you get your education before you have worked hands-on in a shop.....you rarely amount to much.

but if you get a working knowledge of how a shop (not your garage, or driveway) works, and the things you will encounter. and then get certified. as you are learning you will have a real-world perspective to learn it under.

 

[naford]

To make a living you need to go to a real school with a lot of hands on with the products. If you want to know more to fix what you own then TRS is a good resource. If you have basic knowledge then maybe an online course would be helpful. I recently heard of a guy learning electronics online. I still haven't figured out how he going to learn troubleshooting. Maybe that is why there are so many bad network engineers? Almost all is done online.

 

[adsm08]

Haven't found anything yet that adsm08 has posted that didn't work, or that was not right.

I can think of quite a few times I have been wrong on here. A big part of my high percentage is that before I post replies and tests to questions about problems I go take some time to research the issue and systems a bit. A lot of it is greater access rather than greater intelligence.

"and today I pulled the instrument cluster out and replaced the light bulbs so I can actually see my speed when it is dark out".

That reminds me, I need to replace the bulbs behind my speedo and tach in the truck.

in my experience, if you get your education before you have worked hands-on in a shop.....you rarely amount to much.

I have known quite a few good A techs who have started out by going to school. The program I went through had us in class for two months, then back at the dealership working for two months, over a course of two years. I did little except change oil and radiators in that first two years, then took two more where I barely touched a wrench to go finish my bachelor's degree.

I will agree though that hands-on is the best way to learn though. I didn't get good until I started working at a small dealership with only 7 guys in the shop, and only 4 of us were line techs. The other three were the shop-foreman who worked on nothing but huge and/or screwball issues (my first two weeks there he spent all his time re-wiring a 75 Vette), a dedicated trans tech who only ever fixed things by asking the foreman to do it for him, and a diesel tech who did nothing but 6.0 head gaskets.

4 years later I am now one of our top 3 techs, and then shop has grown to 11 guys.

To make a living you need to go to a real school with a lot of hands on with the products.

If you want to make a living you need to find something else to do besides work on cars. Selling cars for example.