crimp or solder?

[Ubique]

We are doing water ingress repairs to PCM/BCM modules here - not just the harneseses.

Are you still getting Ford screenwash pumps leaking into BCM's? - I think it was >MY16 Focus

 

[premmington]

Are you still getting Ford screenwash pumps leaking into BCM's? - I think it was >MY16 Focus

Yes... Lots of them thru there service life.

 

[premmington]

The manufacturer only has to get them past the warranty endpoint, that's why engineering design is now a subset of accounting. And it pays me well to sort out their cut corners.

Average age of a car on the UK roads in 8.4 years.

That is not 3 years (the design life).

----------------------------


Shocking really when you see the numbers...

The real lifespan of an average car. Horrific is is not.

 

[Ubique]

The dealer fix was to fit two 'blocking' crimps just before the pump, these had a solid slug in the middle, the idea was to stop the capillary action, in reality, it just delayed it as it took longer to go around and form micro-paths under the heatshrink, so they fitted 'em at the BCM end as well.... to get it out of warranty period.

 

[premmington]

The dealer fix was to fit two 'blocking' crimps just before the pump, these had a solid slug in the middle, the idea was to stop the capillary action, in reality, it just delayed it as it took longer to go around and form micro-paths under the heatshrink, so they fitted 'em at the BCM end as well.... to get it out of warranty period.

Quality product with quality after service....

 

[Ubique]

Built to a price, not a standard, all they do is shift the engineering onto the dealer network, the trouble is, there are few engineers left, mainly technicians and filter-spinners.

 

[premmington]

Built to a price, not a standard, all they do is shift the engineering onto the dealer network, the trouble is, there are few engineers left, mainly technicians and filter-spinners.

From what I have seen of the inside of many dealer workshops - the filter spinners get the best deal.

The other option of trying to solve and rectify poor design with very little support while having every minute of your time measured - don't look a nice way to earn your living to me.

Plus I don't think I got the patience to answer to a collection of car salesmen on a regular basis... I really don't think I could keep my "big mouth" shut.

I do think anybody who makes a lasting career of the tech side of these dealer networks - has a skill set not related to actually fixing cars - but is really good a workplace politics. Has the patience of saint.

Just dealing with manufacturers warranty proceedures - would be enough to push me over the edge with frustration.

 

[Ubique]

Once you accept 'that's just the way it is' and stop fighting it Canute-like, it gets easier - the sales reptiles don't come near me at all after their chief liar got a rinsing for attempting to take a car out of my bay that was still work in progress because someone wanted a test drive....
The warranty process is easy, whats the reported concern, what did you find, what did you have to do to rectify it, how did you confirm it was resolved and how long did it take. As long as you can produce a narrative along those lines, its fine.

 

[daleyd]

Sales reptiles

 

[m_c]

Warranty work isn't that bad.

It's all the other nonsense that goes in dealers that puts me off working in them.
Generally run by bean counters who are only interested in numbers, be that financial or customer satisfaction, with no thought about the stress they put technicians under in order to hit targets and keep customers 'satisfied'.

 

[premmington]

"Sales reptiles"

That made me smile as well! Made an old man giggle

 

[Ubique]

Warranty work isn't that bad.

It's all the other nonsense that goes in dealers that puts me off working in them.
Generally run by bean counters who are only interested in numbers, be that financial or customer satisfaction, with no thought about the stress they put technicians under in order to hit targets and keep customers 'satisfied'.

I find some dealers are better than others, Vertu/Bristol Street Motors are horrendous at pushing targets, they reckon you should be identifying over £120 of 'red' work per vehicle on PSA stuff, £220 on Volvo, now that's fine if you're servicing a 3 or 4 year old snotter but when it's a six-month old car in warranty.... The head bloke at Vertu is obsessed with numbers and micro-manages the business, which is why they have a high turnover of staff, when I worked for them one of their internal targets was staff retention >2 years... Pendragon are similar and push targets all the time, Sytner come across as a 'family business' but are owned by an obnoxious yank and the whole atmosphere behind the shiny-shiny is just toxic.
Inchcape are the best I've worked for, although that may be down to good local management shielding us from a lot of the crap, there are still targets but I think they look at each department rather than individuals, as long as the targets are being hit and you're consistent, they let you get on with it. Inchcape are also unique in that they pay your basic rate on other brand qualifications with a small-ish uplift if you get the equivalent brand-specific qualification (Merc. systems tech is £1k above a non-Merc qualified systems tech (Diag. tech everywhere else).
When I worked at Sytners, I was looking for a move due to the atmosphere in the company, I looked at a few independents, most were below the going rate money-wise and I didn't get much confidence that they'd still be in business once the owner decided he was going to retire, most of the work seemed to be on much older cars and there wasn't the training opportunities - most of the learning seemed to be from Youtube or from mates in dealerships.
I did my apprenticeship in the late 80's as a Vehicle Electrician in a Ford dealer, left the trade mid 90's and only came back to it ten years or so ago, from people I know in dealers and independents, there are benefits to both and I think the dealer side suits me best, despite a good few years being self-employed.

ETA, it's the service receptionists ( I refuse to call them 'advisors') that get the grief for customer satisfaction, not the tech's, although as usual, one of the reason s**t is round is so that it can roll downhill easily. TBH, most of the complaints we get are to do with 'vehicle characteristics' (i.e. not a defect but not working the way the driver thinks it should), EV range or intermittent concerns not being able to be identified ('it's done it twice in the last three months' with no DTC's stored type of thing) again, I think it depends how good the management is and personally, I find that if I go and talk to the driver it can go some way to heading off a social media whinge-fest.

 

[premmington]

I find some dealers are better than others, Vertu/Bristol Street Motors are horrendous at pushing targets, they reckon you should be identifying over £120 of 'red' work per vehicle on PSA stuff, £220 on Volvo, now that's fine if you're servicing a 3 or 4 year old snotter but when it's a six-month old car in warranty.... The head bloke at Vertu is obsessed with numbers and micro-manages the business, which is why they have a high turnover of staff, when I worked for them one of their internal targets was staff retention >2 years... Pendragon are similar and push targets all the time, Sytner come across as a 'family business' but are owned by an obnoxious yank and the whole atmosphere behind the shiny-shiny is just toxic.
Inchcape are the best I've worked for, although that may be down to good local management shielding us from a lot of the crap, there are still targets but I think they look at each department rather than individuals, as long as the targets are being hit and you're consistent, they let you get on with it. Inchcape are also unique in that they pay your basic rate on other brand qualifications with a small-ish uplift if you get the equivalent brand-specific qualification (Merc. systems tech is £1k above a non-Merc qualified systems tech (Diag. tech everywhere else).
When I worked at Sytners, I was looking for a move due to the atmosphere in the company, I looked at a few independents, most were below the going rate money-wise and I didn't get much confidence that they'd still be in business once the owner decided he was going to retire, most of the work seemed to be on much older cars and there wasn't the training opportunities - most of the learning seemed to be from Youtube or from mates in dealerships.
I did my apprenticeship in the late 80's as a Vehicle Electrician in a Ford dealer, left the trade mid 90's and only came back to it ten years or so ago, from people I know in dealers and independents, there are benefits to both and I think the dealer side suits me best, despite a good few years being self-employed.

ETA, it's the service receptionists ( I refuse to call them 'advisors') that get the grief for customer satisfaction, not the tech's, although as usual, one of the reason s**t is round is so that it can roll downhill easily. TBH, most of the complaints we get are to do with 'vehicle characteristics' (i.e. not a defect but not working the way the driver thinks it should), EV range or intermittent concerns not being able to be identified ('it's done it twice in the last three months' with no DTC's stored type of thing) again, I think it depends how good the management is and personally, I find that if I go and talk to the driver it can go some way to heading off a social media whinge-fest.

Thanks for the above.

I have owned a garage in the indie trade for 36years - I have had a good living at it.

I would not want your job for all the "tea in China".....

 

[Ubique]

I know mate, we've discussed it before - it either suits or it doesn't. I think given the last couple of years, I've certainly been less concerned about job security than I would have been if I was at an independent or self employed, that alone makes some of the downsides worthwhile.

 

[smashweld]

thanks for all the replies, thought I'd update this...

due to the uncertainty of which method was best (the replies in the thread were great but didn't help on making a decision ), plus the lack of proper tooling for crimping I ended up getting an auto electrician to do the job - he used solder/heatshrink on the joins and crimped the terminals on the shortened leads to the 12v/output battery