Why are mechanics such a lazy rabble?

Mechanic here. You're not wrong, but the issue isn't usually that we're lazy. Not always, anyway. It's often flat-rate that fucks us, and by extension, you.

If you're not familiar, flat-rate payscale says that a given job, say a valve-lash adjustment on a given engine should take .8 hours. We are paid for .8 hours, no matter how fast or slow we do the job. We do it in 20 minutes, we get paid for .8. We do it in an hour and a half because of a mistake or something fucky with your valve cover gasket or something, we get paid just for .8.

Now, the idea is that a good mechanic can crank out most jobs well under time, and wind up accruing pay for say...10, 12, 14 hours worth of work in 8 hours. Do that day after day, and you get paid like crazy. This also works against them. If a mechanic doesn't know how to do a job, or thinks it's going to be a shitshow because it's an old car and shit will break if they touch it, they'll just flat-out wave it off and refuse to touch it. It also leads to a sort of gambling culture where techs will turn down low-pay jobs to keep themselves clear for the high-paying ones, usually seen in dealerships.

This is one of the reasons I don't work in large shops or dealerships anymore. Like the user further up the page said, find a shop that's recommended by other car guys/girls. That's your best bet.

mechanics are retards who failed to do better things.
Look at mrcummy he used to be a mechanic

Thanks, I have come to an understanding, but I think I'm going to give up in the long run on mechanics.
Simply I don't have the nerves to deal with idiots anymore. Attribute it to my luck or whatever but I have a streak of coming in contact with them.
I my grandfathers garage with some of the sickest shit tools, problem is, he was a craftsman, and such were his tools so not all of it is about cars. I can weld well and shit, but I never sanded or bondoed a car.
I will learn. By the time im 40, I hope I can be a match for a mediocre mechanic (that doesn't solely rely on a machine to do his job).
Otherwise, I'm going to hate them all, for doing a shit job, what kind of attitude is it not to accept any job?
What if I decided to tell that off into the newspaper, got them a bad rep and no one serviced there anymore? They'd go under and they would pay the price for their attitude.

Honestly, it probably wouldn't do much. Most shops have a few bad reviews from customers, some per week, some per month, some per year, depending on how good or bad they are. Even the best shops have someone grumbling in the past, so it's kind of a regular thing. And if it's a big shop? You probably won't make a dent. Small shop, you might wind up getting a free oil change as a "payoff".

But you're right, far too many wrenches are stuck in the new way of computer diag, instead of mechanical. On older cars, especially, they're hesitant to touch them, because if something goes wrong, now they have to fix it, and they're worried they'll see the real gravy jobs go to someone else. It's the adage "time is money" carried to an extreme.

However, I fully endorse you learning to wrench on your own cars. Here in the US, we have something called Chiltons manuals. They cover everything about a given model and year-range of a particular car. There are others, but that's the name that springs to mind. They do a full tear-down and rebuilt, and list how to take apart and put together everything. Internet forums for your car exist, too. If you can't figure it out, ask them. SOMEONE will know, and if they don't, google it. There are also online services you can subscribe to, like Alldata Pro, which is what a lot of shops I've worked in to aid in diagnosis, and they cover almost every conceivable repair you might have to do to a vehicle, all sorted by year, make, model, submodel, etc.

Get your hands on something like that, or get the dealer service manual. Ask a dealership where you could find one, or order one online. All of these will help you learn faster, make fewer mistakes, and give you a lot more confidence to start breaking bolts and throwing tools when everything goes to hell.

They'll help you fix the car, too. Because everything I listed is exactly what mechanics use, right down to google. No bullshit.

Good luck, man.

because a job like that makes people bitter and jaded

Imagine someone bringing in a complete piece of shit 1992 Corolla that's half-broken and asking you to fix the check engine light. Now, you know for a fact that the suspension is just about blown and that they've been ignoring the oil change for 20k miles but you have to fix that CEL regardless of how pointless and stupid it all is, and people are going to get mad at you if you fix anything they don't specifically tell you to deal with. On top of that, have a boss that wants you to do these jobs as fast as possible and get people mad by pushing simple service jobs and other replacements even if they aren't necessary. On top of that, you're undertrained as fuck because you're the guy dealing with this shit and the guy who actually mastered his stuff is buddy buddy with the boss and could care less about good service.
Now deal with that 1992 Corolla and 1000 cars like it for years of your life. Is it good that they get complacent, see a thrown O2 sensor code and just swap out the sensor? No, not one bit but it's at least understandable.

>On top of that, you're undertrained as fuck because you're the guy dealing with this shit and the guy who actually mastered his stuff is buddy buddy with the boss and could care less about good service.

I could look at this post and say that I understand on the premise that I allow whining.

But what the fuck, its your job, learn it. Have free weekends? Better yourself, for christs sake, you don't want to be a lube monkey forever.
If you master this stuff you can be buddy buddy with the boss too. Maybe you could get snatched by the actually good places that value skills and great work ethic and reward it accordingly.

Also, If a customer comes in with a half broken 1992 Corolla and is willing to pay, why don't you fucking do the job? Its not like they expect you to do it for free, they just want you the actual mechanic to do what you were supposed to. Otherwise what is the purpose to your shitty job?

People will eventually learn to wrench themselves because of retards like these. Or immediately trade in for a new car because they don't want the hassle of going through diagnosing if it may just be a clogged air filter, or fucked up engine because the one who is actually supposed to do it is a dick.

I've seen videos where a mechanic starts working on an old car and he touches one thing, it breaks something else. He fixes that but it breaks something else. He fixes that and it just keeps going.

Old cars are often more trouble than they're worth to those guys and you may very well be better off fixing it yourself.

he is right tho

go do your brake pads again and tell us how you "know a guy" at your fucking gas station garage lmfao

Do any of mechanics on Veeky Forums even have any aspiration to move up and improve on job?

Stay assmad fuccboi.
Chances are I've touched more "JDM tyte" shit than you ever will in your life because I lived there and worked as a mechanic.

Maybe because technicians get paid like shit so it's not worth spending time figuring shit out and ending up getting paid less when you could do gravy work all day and actually make a living?

Sounds like someone doesn't know how flag hours work.