Shop Experience

I have spent 25 hours at United Performance and they are filled with moments of learning that I wont forget. When I first thought about how I'm going to just approach this shop and ask to spend time there, it was kind of out of my comfort zone. I learned so much even in the super short time that I had spend watching Edmund do what he does on a daily basis. Edmund is a wonderful technician who makes sure everything is perfect before return. He always emphasized on double checking every job, from his experience, this is one of his greatest tips.
Day to day technicians diagnose and solve the car problems of other people. It can be exhausting because some people don't think about the mechanically soundness of their car. They just get in and drive till it needs to be fixed again. It makes the job unnecessarily harder for the technician. At one point the lady brought in an old car that has been sitting in a parking lot for three years, headlights smashed, hoses leaking, and all the bad things you could find in a car. It's jobs like these that make a technician wonder what some people are thinking.
Although I am quite enthusiastic about cars, I don't believe that being an automotive technician will be the right path for my career. It is a hobby, but from what my cousins have told me, the automotive technician job opportunities is quite low right now, since they switched to the medical field. When I first signed up for Universal Technical Institute, I was so stoked that I was going to learn, but going there costs just so much for a year of training. I believe that straying from this career path will save me a little bit of hardship in the future. The short experience in the shop is unforgettable and it has shown some light to me about my still somewhat hazy future. I hope to see them soon again.

Session 8 : Shocks

I walk in and I find Edmund working on an old Honda Civic, he tells me to use my observation skills to see what he's doing. It's really hard since i'm still learning, but what is learning without trial and error? I noticed that he's working on the civic's shock absorbers, shock absorbers are what keep your car from shattering when going over a pot hole or a bump in the middle of the road. I had a nose bleed in the middle of watching Edmund work. They ordered the wrong shocks and Edmund needed to finish this job so he left me at the shop and quickly went to get the part.




Time Contributed: 3 Hours
Total Time Logged: 22 Hours

Session 7 : Quick Jobs

I showed up today and some lady, some lady brings in some wrecked 1992 Honda accord. Steam coming out of the radiator, all the hoses were near broken and there was so much dirt and oil buildup from the leaky gasket that it looked like a tar field. Her story was that she had left it in the hospital parking lot for 3 years, and she brought it in for repair because they finally kicked it out. she told me that it runs great (SURE) and shes never gotten better mileage than this car (THEN WHY IS IT IN THE PARKING LOT). so i kinda went along with her, and she even said someone would give her $1800 for it as it is (SURE).

I was wondering why Edmund wasn't working on the car, but he told me that he didn't get the shop office's OK to go. So he worked on a bunch of other cars, quite quickly. He moved from one car to the next.

We came across a Nissan truck that had a misfiring spark plug. In order to get to the spark plug, a whole ton of things had to be removed to get to it, but AIN'T NOBODY GOT TIME FOR THAT. Edmund told me that you need to be flexible to avoid unnecessary work. So instead of removing everything, he reached over and under everything, it took a little more effort, but at least it saved him work in the long run. 

Edmund told me that you need to finish cars quick so you can move on to the next. Quick jobs bring efficiency and efficiency bring income and income bring money for his soon to be newborn.

Time Contributed: 3 Hours
Total Time Logged: 22 Hours

Session 6 : Brakes

I found Edmund working on a Buick, and he was working on the brakes. I learned that there are two types of brakes.
-Drum brake
-Disk brake

-A drum brake uses brake shoes that compress against the brake disk when the brake pedal is pressed and the brake fluid flows through.  ((-))  Basically the two inner parenthesis push against the outer parenthesis.

-A disk brake uses a brake caliper that has brake pads inside that squeeze on the brake disk in order to brake. This happens when brake fluid is used to push against the brake pads.

The brake disk was hard to get to because it was in the wheel well. Since we had to reach the back of it, we couldn't fit our heads in, Edmund told me to "see with your hands." Which makes sense, we had to feel for where the screw was supposed to be.

A car can have both drum and disk brakes.




Time Contributed: 3 Hours
Total Time Logged: 19 Hours

Session 5 : Oil Change

I walked in and the usual happened, more broken cars, more fixing. then this guy with a ford passenger van comes in and he wanted an overall checkup. This time Edmund showed me how to change the oil and let me do it. I already knew how to change oil but I've never done it on anything other than my car. When i changed the oil i noticed it was actually quite hot, but i mean what do you expect when changing the oil of a car that just rolled in recently. That was basically the highlight of the day, after that, it was back to more car fixing.










Time Contributed: 4 Hours
Total Time Logged: 16 Hours

Session 4 : Service Lights

I walk in today to find Edmund working on a car that's on the alignment lift. I asked him what he was doing and told me that he was aligning the car. Then he pulled out some sort of meter, I asked him what it was and he said it was to reset the car's maintenance light to off.
A few more cars came in and he explained lifting points to me. These are specific points under the car where the car must be lifted in order to lift safely. When you use a lift, it must be followed by jack stands under those points, because jack stands can hold a lot longer than the actual jack lift.
Later another car came in and we were fixing it up, the alternator was broken so we ordered a new one, but the new alternator was wrong. this showed that parts can always be ordered wrong and it stalls the job.
When we lowered the car off the lift i was told to be very careful and always check for improper things when lowering it, like unevenness or a loose part.





Time Contributed: 3 Hours
Total Time Logged: 12 Hours

Session 3 : Engine Head

This session was extremely boring. I showed up and i find Edmund and Victor working on one van. I approached them and Edmund said he didn't have time to explain things thoroughly to me so I just watched...for 3 hours... what I learned is that it takes A LOT of work just to get to the core of the engine. I saw that they needed to remove everything on top of the engine just so they can get to the valve cover screws. If I had to reassemble this, I'd have no idea where to start. I asked a couple of questions and then by the end of the day they barely finished.







Time Contributed: 3 Hours
Total Time Logged: 9 Hours