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PetrolDave

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Coaching someone how to fault find and fix a problem is much more useful than just telling them what the fix is - one teaches a skill that can be reused time & time again, the other doesn't teach anything that's reusable.
 

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Coaching someone how to fault find and fix a problem is much more useful than just telling them what the fix is - one teaches a skill that can be reused time & time again, the other doesn't teach anything that's reusable.

Dave, I agree with you with one caveat: the person being coached has to be willing to accept and to respect the coaching given. Most are looking for the silver bullet. "Fix my problem right this moment. I have other things I need to do. I don't have time to learn all this. Just me give me the fix." Haven't we seen people write such? It is more the norm than the student who is willing to be coached.

Imagine going to your doctor with an attitude of "Give me the Fix". Why is it different with a doctor? Because the patient knows they cannot heal themselves. (and off topic - is this not how we have gotten to the drug dependencies? "Give me the Fix?")

In the case of autos, most think they can do anything an automotive professional can do. After all, they are nothing but "grease monkeys". Yeah... professionals who have been trained in combustion, mechanics, fluidics, electricity, and electronics are just "grease monkeys"! In my opinion, most who have learned what is needed to repair these machines are at the level of an engineer. One of the biggest problems I have witnessed working in the Automotive Aftermarket with repair professionals is the attitude of their customers demeaning the knowledge the professionals must gain to be successful. My exposure to the contempt most have for the automotive repair professional leaves me shaking my head. I don't know how the industry will improve its image but improvement is dearly needed.

As I am coming to the end of my career, I don't see my voice making an impact to changes needed. Others will have to make that impact. If a change is not made, who will keep these machines running? Who will want a career where the knowledge gained is scoffed at as if any could gain that knowledge? Want to know why so few enter the industry? Look at the image and listen to what people say about automotive professionals. Who wants to work in an industry where the customers do not respect your professionalism? How can one take pride in the work one performs when the customer does not respect the work done? I have listened to the professionals as they rail against this tide of negativity...

How can the industry promote value in service? That is what is needed.

[Monday Soapbox closed!]
 

PetrolDave

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Dave, I agree with you with one caveat: the person being coached has to be willing to accept and to respect the coaching given. Most are looking for the silver bullet. "Fix my problem right this moment. I have other things I need to do. I don't have time to learn all this. Just me give me the fix." Haven't we seen people write such? It is more the norm than the student who is willing to be coached.
Bruce, that is soooo annoyingly true :banghead:

For many years I have adopted the simple approach of "If you don't want to learn, the I don't want to waste my time telling you every fix to every problem you come to me with. If you want my help, the price is that you have to be willing to learn." Those that want a quick fix can go elsewhere and pay loads of money every time, those that are willing to learn save money and maybe even make money helping others in future.
 

Jack@European_Parts

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Problem for me is, I get such a great amount of enjoyment out of helping people, it's like an addictive drug for me and it is far more entertaining than the stupid TV.

This is sometimes why I reenter a thread even after setting an idiot to ignore & that even insults me, usually from lashing out in their stressful situation, sometimes it's to antagonize them too & depending on the vibe! :p but it is usually with good intentions.

You can't help people that don't want help, however, sometimes I try too still make them hear my questions.

This is why I gravitated to fixing things more or less + about learning systems of operation from being shear intrigued out of curiousness and being poor was indeed a factor.

It was the consistency I liked most about diagnostic trouble trees and mechanical testing, because when someone talks two directions, especially rationalizing a behavior or diagnostic pattern, oh I listen more and focus in on it.

The consistencies need to be checked and when they are all verified & you still have a problem, you than need to think outside the scope of those checks vicariously, but, but but, also relive & recheck or where you maybe omitted & made a mistake in your consistency check and it does often happen, even too me!

Now there is a lot to be said about the person that says, "I need help, I'm broke or in a bad way, but I don't understand and here is why!", that person I have a lot of respect for & because it's embarrassing to carry these type stresses among others.

I know stress more than people know and it will be most likely what kills me if I don't get it in check.
When my hands become untied and I'm released from my cage, we will have to see, I may get shot calling it an escape!

People often need a good kick in the ASS! or encouragement, wish I would of had that, I grew up "wild" & with superficial rules that changed on a moments whim, no one was there to enforce any of it anyway.
At least here Uwe, Bruce, Eric or all you guys here give me that kick in the ASS or in some cases encouragement! :)

Thanks everyone for understanding...........

 

Bruce

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Problem for me is, I get such a great amount of enjoyment out of helping people, it's like an addictive drug for me ....

You can't help people that don't want help, however, sometimes I try too still make them hear my questions.

I like helping also. Over the years I have come to a place where I recognize who wants help and who have no use for it. When faced with those who do not want help, I no longer try to get them to see my view. I simply disengage and walk from them. Who am I to impose my view, my ways, my values, my ethics on another? And why should I be offended when others reject my help and views? It is their right. I wish them good luck and move on. Life is too short to get my panties in a bunch over things I cannot control or change. Does walking away mean I don't care? No. Wasting my energy to convince others is no longer a part of who I am.

.... I gravitated to fixing things more or less + about learning systems of operation from being shear intrigued out of curiousness and being poor was indeed a factor.

I get it Jack. I can't say I was poor growing up. We never missed a meal. We always had clothes on our backs and a roof over our head. I was, however, from the poor side of town. Mom and Dad were not professionals. Blue color workers. They worked hard and we learned the value of hard work through them. Very German in their mind set, they taught us to work hard and always give 110% as nothing less was acceptable to them. I started work at age 10 and have not stopped for 54 years. I learned that learning is the single most important thing I can do to improve me. I learned to take things apart, put them back together, and to make them work. I watched others and learned from them. I asked questions until I drove these others crazy. I benefited from the experience of others.

It was the consistency I liked most about diagnostic trouble trees and mechanical testing, because when someone talks two directions, especially rationalizing a behavior or diagnostic pattern, oh I listen more and focus in on it.

The consistencies need to be checked and when they are all verified & you still have a problem, you than need to think outside the scope of those checks vicariously, but, but but, also relive & recheck or where you maybe omitted & made a mistake in your consistency check and it does often happen, even too me!

How many times did I think I followed my trouble path only to realize I skipped a step thinking, "It couldn't be that!" Sure.... Yes, I have been bitten by such and have learned it is my own ego that gets in my way.

Now there is a lot to be said about the person that says, "I need help, I'm broke or in a bad way, but I don't understand and here is why!", that person I have a lot of respect for & because it's embarrassing to carry these type stresses among others.

I know stress more than people know and it will be most likely what kills me if I don't get it in check.
When my hands become untied and I'm released from my cage, we will have to see, I may get shot calling it an escape!

I agree. I like helping those who know themselves and who are willing to share the story and the truth of the matter.

People often need a good kick in the ASS! or encouragement, wish I would of had that, I grew up "wild" & with superficial rules that changed on a moments whim, no one was there to enforce any of it anyway.
At least here Uwe, Bruce, Eric or all you guys here give me that kick in the ASS or in some cases encouragement! :)

Thanks everyone for understanding...........

I like to think people need encouragement and no one really likes the kick. I'd rather lead people to the solution than kick or push them. I've done both and I find the encouragement route far more pleasant/rewarding. I do believe in being direct but as I have turned into the old man I am, I have learned to be more sensitive to others feelings. While I may be right in my view of some detail, that does not give me the right to make another feel bad. Delivering a hard message that shows another how their action was less than desired without attacking the person is not an easy thing to accomplish. Too often I take the easy path and destroy the person to correct the action. That's why they call me da bear. Direct communication that is clear but without an attack is really difficult. I am still learning how to be better communicator. I am still learning how to interact with my peers. I am still learning how to act with those with whom I disagree. Someday, maybe I will have learned how to do these things. Until that day, I will screw up and hurt people. No one feels good when we hurt others.

Jack, you are always hard on yourself. Sure, there are times when we choose to correct your actions. There are many times when your help here is invaluable. Too often we fail to thank you for those efforts. You and others like Dave are instrumental in helping people around the world. Without your willingness to offer advice and help, how many car problems would be resolved through this forum? You both are here everyday helping. We thank you for your efforts even though we fail to say it often.

Ross-Tech VCDS is not just a product. It is a community of people who want to help each other keep the rides they love running at best performance. Uwe set that stage in the very early days of this business and he has never deviated from it. He could have chosen to set the stage for profit. He did not. From the first time he discussed his plans (at which I scoffed for I didn't see the value), he wanted to help people who loved VAG cars as much as he loved them. He has remained consistent. His reward? He has been blown away that the product he started has been so highly successful that it has been copied and marketed by so many parties in virtually every country. At one Automechanika, a person who works with Ross-Tech told Uwe (with a tear in his eye) that Ross-Tech and VCDS changed his life. He said without it, he would not have been able to work and feed his family.

A community of help is what Uwe built. It is that attitude that makes us all different here. Most on this forum are here day in and day out because of the community - the help. It is my hope that we never loose that sense of who we are.

Thanks to all in this community - from the staff who I am honored to work alongside - to the super-users like Jack and Dave who are helping so many - to the end users who come to learn. Thank you Uwe for building this community. Lives have been changed.
 

Jack@European_Parts

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https://finance.yahoo.com/news/volkswagen-records-record-full-sales-100651209.html

[h=1]Volkswagen hits record sales in bid to top auto industry[/h]
ade858f9fa259d8f9c54ef8cfdd045ac
 
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PetrolDave

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That's impossible, even for a BEV. There's still brake dust and tire dust.
.... and tyre "dust" & noise, and hydrocarbon vapours from the necessary lubricants, and ....
 
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Jack@European_Parts

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I still drive an ALH & I believe my reasoning is, well it's easily justified............. :rolleyes:

My concern is that "we" get locked out of the OBD or repair information & in spirit of it being proprietary and because now they claim it's ZEV.

I happen to agree with you Uwe, sure sounds like a control method to limit peoples overall mobility and break peoples free will to a degree, capping & trapping the class structure.
 

Jack@European_Parts

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[h=1]VW close to buying large stake in Chinese battery company[/h]https://www.ft.com/content/23713162-3926-11ea-a6d3-9a26f8c3cba4


Volkswagen is close to buying a large stake in the Chinese battery company Guoxuan as it seeks to take more control over the supply chain for electric vehicles.The German carmaker, which already has a strategic partnership with China’s biggest battery company Contemporary Amperex Technology (CATL), is in advanced talks to buy up to a fifth of Guoxuan, according to a person briefed on the matter.A decision is expected within weeks. The talks were first reported by Reuters.The world’s largest carmaker is embarking on a €33bn electric vehicles offensive, but has struggled to secure the raw materials for the batteries it needs to achieve its aim of selling 3m electric cars by 2025, underlining the importance of its move to buy a stake in Guoxuan.If VW’s longer-term plan to produce 26m electric vehicles by 2029 is to be realised, the company would have to secure more batteries than the total currently produced worldwide. Last year Volvo Cars, a niche carmaker that produces 600,000 vehicles a year, struck a deal to buy batteries from LG Chem and CATL until 2028, an agreement it estimated required “more or less the same amount of batteries as the whole of the global supply” during 2018.While many carmakers have reached long-term deals to buy batteries from suppliers, VW’s pending deal is the first time that a traditional manufacturer has proposed taking a stake in a cell maker directly.Guoxuan, which is listed in Shanghai, is based in Hefei, a city where VW’s joint venture with JAC already builds battery electric vehicles. China, which is the world’s largest electric car market, has targets that require carmakers to meet quotas for “new energy vehicles” that do not pollute. Tesla has already begun producing cars in the country at a new Shanghai facility.A 20 per cent stake in Guoxuan would be worth about $560m, and make the German group the company’s second-largest shareholder after its founder, Li Zhen, who controls a quarter of its shares through a holding company.The insertion into the supply chain is the latest unconventional move from VW, which has sought to rebuild its reputation since the 2015 diesel scandal.RecommendedLexAutomobilesGerman industry: car alarm PremiumThis week VW’s chief executive Herbert Diess said “the time of classic car manufacturers is over” as he laid out a radical strategy that would see the car goliath, which sold almost 11m vehicles in 2019, develop its own software and remake its relationship with suppliers.Traditionally, carmakers develop a small number of key parts — such as engines — themselves, relying on a web of supply groups to provide more commoditised items from windshields to gearboxes.When making electric cars, most carmakers plan to build battery packs, the equivalent of an electric car’s engine, themselves, with the thousands of cells that make up the packs purchased from a third party group, such as LG Chem or CATL.VW declined to comment on the talks with Guoxuan.Unlike other German carmakers, VW has invested in its own battery cell facilities, joining up with Swedish company Northvolt to build a factory in Salzgitter.
 
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^^^ Jack: Do you care to make a guess as to when we will no longer see the major car manufacturers producing petrol/diesel powered cars? Can't be that far into the future - I reckon

Don
 

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^^^ Jack: Do you care to make a guess as to when we will no longer see the major car manufacturers producing petrol/diesel powered cars? Can't be that far into the future - I reckon
I'm not Jack, but I would say that's at least ten years out, probably 20.

Roughly 90 million cars are produced each year world-wide. There is nowhere near the battery manufacturing capacity needed to make them all BEVs. Even if the battery factories were built, raw material production (cobalt, lithium, and so on) is an order of magnitude or more short of what would be needed. Then there's the rare earth metals needed for all those traction motors...

So what other alternatives exist? Hydrogen? There's no distribution or refueling infrastructure, and hydrogen distribution is notoriously difficult. Due to an H2 molecule's tiny size, hydrogen loves to leak away. It also has a nasty tendency to embrittle metals.

I'm confident these problems can be solved, but it won't happen overnight.

-Uwe-
 

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Uwe

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