Technician discussion & training
I don't know if this post comes out of frustration, or concern. I have been a member of iATN since April of 1998 and I must say, if it were not for iATN, I would not be the technician that I am today. Last night I was reading in the TTF and I read this post members.iatn.net/forums/read/ms…
The poster gave a tip about cleaning a throttle body which fixed a misfire on the engine. On the surface, that seems impossible, although as technicians, we must deal with strategies that are built into the vehicles. I along with others asked some questions to the poster about how and why he was able to fix this problem by cleaning the throttle body, and the poster seemed to get his feathers ruffled.
Now, in my experience, ruffling feathers can be a good thing, and it can be a bad thing. How can this problem be taken care of on this new network adventure? Now personally, I see nothing wrong with asking questions, and please believe me, over the years, if some of the great minds in this industry had NOT asked me some questions, I would still be filing points and adjusting them with a feeler gauge.
Second thought. On the Chrysler product that was mentioned in that post, cleaning the throttle body seemed to fix the misfire. Now, on a daily basis, we as technicians work with strategies that are designed into the vehicles and are not aware of them working behind the scenes. Case in point, Ford disabling a fuel injector when a misfire is detected. (Yes, I know that is pretty old stuff and most all manufacturers do that one way or the other), but where can this information be found? I know where I found it on Fords, it was in my front yard, on a Crown Vic at one of the July 4th campouts. Some of us techs were fiddling with the car and happened to notice the injector pulse went away when an ignition misfire was induced.
I would love to see this industry have information and training available where these sort of things can be learned. I am reaching,,,, or have already reached the point, where I could get along without knowing this sort of stuff, although, some kid is going to be replacing me on down the road, and I would sure like for them to have a desire to know this seemingly,, "insignificant stuff".
I agree Albin. Joining iATN in 1998 re-vitalized and motivated my interest in the field through many of the discussions, debates and cases argued by a group of people passionate about being the best and raising the bar. Since those times, iATN has grown immensely and continues to endure growing pains and perhaps a shift from the original focus of a relatively small active group of participants…
Hi Albin, In my opinion, gaining a deeper understanding of anything will generally prove to be beneficial for anyone. However, professionally articulated dialogue is not always easy to come by and is an art we hope to promote (moderate) through the use of message ratings. In the future we plan on gathering info from those who downrate messages so that we can help guide the author and allow them
Message rating sounds like a great idea. I find myself posting with little thought, just to start conversation. Knowing that I would be rated on messages holds me more accountable and will make me think more before typing mindlessly.
Hi Albin, Hope you are doing well! After reading this last night I took some time to jot down some notes on this subject. I hope they can help everyone. I want to start off by stating that I am younger than most as many of you already know. I can remember the nights of everyone straightening me out in the chat room on IATN when I thought I knew everything. The varying ages of technicians is a
Hey Albin, I appreciate your post. It will be difficult to impossible to keep everyone happy. Some are just too sensitive while others could use working on their soft skills. I'm glad to hear that Scott and the Team at DN have already put some thought into this and are considering and working toward some possible solutions. I wonder if DN will have official statements with examples of how
I would like to thank all the guys here already for their comments. I really feel Tanners comments are some of the best for this subject. I know Personally how it feels to be shouted down when I am unaware of what I don't know. I can assure you nothing positive came from those experiences and only made me want to stay away and not participate. Tanner is absolutely right when he says that we
After reading the thread, I'd like to add my .02. To have discussion requires questions. If silver bullet seekers come asking with little to no data and the bullet is shared, this helps nobody and hurts everyone. I see too many people looking to be the smart guy or the helper guy and hand out bullets. Handing out free information that we work for on Facebook, YouTube, iATN or DN does not
Excellent point Bob. I've always found that the best and brightest techs are among the most absurdly generous individuals with their time and knowledge. There is immense fulfillment in helping solve a truly complex problem for someone. We've all felt that. At the end of the day however... if we cannot be paid well to do this fine work... we will continue to fail to attract the best
Writing is a more difficult form of communication than verbal. In writing there is no body language, tone of voice an other cues. I learned many years ago that meeting a person made me read in their voice. Any previous misconception evaporated. On the topic of items like default strategies or cues in systems I think one key will be enforcing the concept of READING data and not SCANNING it…
I read this post, and it’s replies, and the phrase (proverb?) that comes to mind, is, give a man a fish, and you feed him for a day. TEACH him to fish, and feed him for a lifetime. Tanner raised some very good points, but, I don’t agree with him 100%. If someone posts incorrect, misguided, or downright wrong information they need to be called on it. Not in an insulting manner, but with