drunken, depressed, miserable guys that have not had a psychotic break?

I’m not the least mechanically inclined guy out there.
I have a decent amount of tools.  A lift.  I can cool or heat my garage.  
I have replaced relays or fuses on modern cars or recharged AC and saved people from getting a new compressor they were told they needed.  I have put better discs and pads on modern cars for people for less than they would have paid for just worse parts.  Or time for new shocks and struts.  Now, this is pretty much limited to just immediate family.  And I am not way versed modern stuff.

My set up is more for me maintaining older vehicles.  Which have their own quirks.  Have you ever tried to connect the wiper motor to the arms on, say a 71-74 Javelin, or the extensions need to do spark plugs on an ‘85 Z28.  Let alone how to get to the fuel pump on one.  But for the most part throwing a new rotor in the distributor, rebuilding a carburetor, new wiper motor, repack wheel hubs, convert drums to discs, new starter, throw some relays in the wiring harness, new transmission, etc. is pretty straightforward and easy.

One of my adult kids got the check charging system light on their 11 year old mid sized, Japanese AWD CUV.  They had just put in a new battery a few years ago, whipped out their multimeter, it’s the alternator, and the belt has proper tension.
They asked if I could show them how to change it.  I said should be easy.  Give me a minute.  I looked it up.
This is going to involve like 18 inch extensions and 18 inch shaft wrench, both longer than what I have, and require several hard to get connectors to move part of the wiring harness out of the way, then shifting an AC line out of the way, then moving fluid reservoirs, then you can get belt out of the way and start removing the alternator.  Which also has a bushing likely to shift requiring messing around just to get the new one back in.  Plus, it wouldn’t hurt to have child sized hands on the ends of extra long, extra skinny arms.

Now, open up the hood of a ‘70 Chevelle or ‘68 GTO, ar just about any SBC truck of yesteryear, and you can have a decent alternator plus new voltage regulator for about 100 bucks and have it replaced in 15 minutes without a single curse word or bruised knuckle.  And you could have hands like Hodor on arms the length of Tyrion arms.  Plus the modern CUV alternator will cost two to three times as much.

I would go mad working on stuff like that all day.

The ones that are not work at the dealership and love the engineered job security.

I don’t like being hung over, so I pretty much quit drinking. Otherwise, yeah.

Who says they’re not?

The price of having vehicles that are not all gigantic overweight land yachts is that stuff will be crammed in tighter and harder to work on.  And I say that as someone with an affinity for gigantic overweight land yachts.

Still I'll take working on the car over working plumbing.

What got smaller or lighter?

Well your wrong, soo. Every time I say I can’t drink during this week I get to smash my head against a wall for 9 hours and am ready for wiskey by lunch

Sounds like you are doing the repair based on "the book" procedure.  After you do one or two jobs you learn shortcuts.

Worst cars I've ever had to work on were a 300ZX twin turbo and a Celica All-Trac.  Horry Sheet.

They absolutely are.  It's a miserable occupation and everyone hates them too.  That's why there is very few good ones and the majority are, are not talented.  Pay is the worst of all trades as well.

The days of "flat rating" a job are long gone.  Very rarely are there gravy shortcuts anymore.  Cars are insanely complex now.  Much better to go pour concrete.

I'd say I'm pretty mechanically inclined. Since I was a teenager, I've paid a shop to fix my vehicles two, maybe three times ever. I've done entire frame off restos, rebuild engines and transmissions, body work, paint, lift kits, all sorts of general maintenance. I had to do a water pump on my wife's turbo Malibu a few years back. By the time I was done I was bleeding from both arms and ready to burn that car to the ground. I can sympathize. I did beat the dealers flat rate book time though.

Water pumps on those (or the same generation truck) are pretty damn easy too.    I think removing the plastic fan shroud eats most of the time (technically you don't have to do that, but it makes access a lot easier).

On the other hand, the fuel pumps were always a real bitch in GMC trucks...

I think that your concerns are misplaced.

If all you've ever worked on were small engine bays then you wouldn't know any better.

Be better op.

300zxtt suck fat wiener to work on but worse are Audi all roads or the s4 with the 2.7tt. Good lord I hate those stupid cars.

Yeah, the 300ZX TT was definitely a tight engine bay.

I'd have taken both of those to Henry, over at Ace Foreign Auto back when they were behind teh old K-Mart over on Admiral, between Yale & Sheridan, long time gone...

should have asked for a short, scruffy mechanic named "ed". He hated 300z's but he was damn good with them
he looked like his brother might have been "Earl" from John Wick series

Many are really skilled and knock jobs out easily and quickly. Regardless how it's made.  Others not so much.

I dunno, when I look at shop rates and book time I have a hard time not just DIY 99% of the time.

Newer cars can be annoying but they can also be really simple, they basically tell you what's wrong, and youtube almost always has a walkthrough.

I was really worried when my wife's starter failed on her V6 minivan in a parking lot, figured I'd have to tow it, but it turned out to be a 10m job.

My 1960 Studebaker truck was east as was my 1985 Plymouth Grand Voyager.

The worn out Honda and Toyota shit boxes my daughter drove to HS were a tangle of vacuum lines on to of an engine with a half inch clearance on all sides.

Have I got some nightmare fuel for you…

Take an All-Trac, the awd, turbo, air conditioning and all, and shove it into a real Mini Cooper.

Project Binky on YouTube.

I remember back in the day.... When shopping for new vehicles, the man in the family would always ask the new car/truck salesman to look under the hood.  The prospective new car/truck buyer would look at how easy it was to access things for anticipated maintenance and repairs.
Things like:
1. How easy is it to change the oil and access the oil filter?
2. Changing drive belts, spark plugs, etc.
3. Changing a battery.  No way people back in the day would have bought the need for a special computerized tool to get your car to accept a new battery.
4. How easy will it be to access and remove major components?
5. How much un-necessary/undesired stuff did they add to the car? (for .gov mandates).
6. Jack and spare tire.

Nowadays, people buy vehicles without ever looking under the hood.

Mechanics are one of the most underpaid professions. That and machining.

Buy all your own tools. Deal with garbage ass cars that they manufacturer can’t even figure out how to fix. Then the dealers pay flat rate which outside of some good weeks, fucks the tech more often than not. Otherwise they would never use that system.

“Can you pull this in quick and look at her window that squeaks?” Oh it was only 30 seconds to clean and lube the upper track? I’ll get you on the next one bro.

I steal every good dealer tech I can find and offer them 30+ an hour to start, working in aerospace assembly.

The dealerships hate this one simple trick

Mechanic is such a boomer term, please OP, technician is the preferred nomenclature.

Gotta have a computer to work on vehicles now.

I also used to enjoy turning wrenches and maintaining my vehicles, yes I’m a boomer.

One of the funniest things I ever heard regarding those is you can pour a can of coke over the engine and not a drop will hit the ground.

I had a similar experience as you did OP. My neighbor had a Ford fusion and the alternator crapped out. I told her I’d change it for her, no sweat.


There was sweat, and much sweating, but I got it done.

Manufacturer specific,  monthly subscription service

My peev with automotive is fasteners/parts intended to snap together once.  

So much is designed around initial automated assembly with little thought in servicing stuff years later.  

I was a Motorcycle Tech for 15 years, got burned out and changer careers at 35. I'm much happier staying clean.
I couldn't survive competing for work with a master technician and four other "B" technician's  on flat rate, Kissing the service writers/managers ass for gravy jobs, F no you get the brake job on a 87 GL1500 with 90k miles and stored outside it's whole life, every fastener rusted and rounded off from 35 years of every  cavemen  with a wrench working on it.
Then when you're done with that you get a "make run" Honda CB350  

Some enjoy it

It isn't to save weight - it is to build things as assemblies that get integrated on the assembly line with little to no regard for servicability afterwards.

Very rewarding to take something broken and fix it or improve it

It’s the in between part that sucks

Just changed a headlight bulb passenger side Gen 2 Prius.  Oh, my lord ....

That is mostly a myth. Of course there are always exceptions, but in general, you will spend MORE time experimenting with "shortcuts" than you will just following the procedure shown in the service manual.

Mechanics are an underpaid and undervalued professionals.

.....Interior work, panel gaps Never quite line up like new and Always vibrate or rattle

Most of the experienced techs I know do occasionally drink but not to excess. These are all good techs.

The new hires are another story, that is if you can find one.

Generally speaking the public has no idea how complicated vehicles are today and how one system can affect others.

We are underpaid, exposed to hazardous chemicals, dirty environment, high orthopedic wear, bad backs, and general injuries.

Tool expense is another consideration. There is NO WAY I would go into auto repair today.

You don't like having to remove the wiper cowl to change out the battery?

And I'm guessing the vehicle in the OP is a Rav4 and it's the coolant reservoir that needs moved to get to the upper engine mount so he can lift the engine to get to the belt tensioner because Toyota hires idiots to engineer their vehicles. If I'm correct, it's honestly not that bad of a job... More of a pain than it needs to be, but I've done a lot worse.

The funnest repair jobs are when there is no book and you have to figure everything out, like when given a box full of parts you’ve never seen before and figure it out, like a puzzle

I made the mistake of looking under the hood of the new Ford Bronco.

what makes you think they aren't? and were back then too?

I heard that working on Kia's will give you the gay.

I thought they wuz!

I turned wrenches for a few years in the eighties, worked in a few small independent shops right when everything was transitioning to computer controls.

Soon decided that I needed a new career.

Yep, the battery being up underneath the Cowl is definitely a bummer. Had to replace the battery on my wife's 2014 Escape the next day after we bought it. Low life used car lot put it on a charger as they knew we were coming to look at it. Bought it and as we signed the paperwork(paid cash) they said once it's off their lot it's on us. Didn't dawn on me until the next morning what the salesman meant by that

Another myth.

For example, I helped a family member with a Low Fuel Pressure code. Actual fuel pressure checked out fine. Failed sensor is a know issue on the car. Wasn't the sensor. Wasn't the wiring. Rebuilt the in-tank fuel pump by replacing the two individual pumps.

Each time I worked on it, the car would be fine for a month or so then throw the code again. Car ran fine the entire time. No starting issues, no performance issues.

Ended up replacing the entire fuel pump assembly to resolve the reoccurring code.

I've troubleshooted plenty of codes like that when the car tells you there is a perceived problem with xyz system but it does NOT tell you WHY. You have to spend hours over a long period of time figuring it out.

and when headlight assemblies now cost $1000+ they are doing something fucking wrong.

Thats true

Interesting how much difference there is between a “modern” mech and an old one, both hard in there own ways

Nowadays it's scary as heck as the little PM is done to vehicles...lack of oil changes and brakes for a couple of points.