[Vwdiesel] Age, Diesel History and BONUS TDI Tragedy

[LBaird119 at aol.com]

> >Not all dealers are frightfully incompetent, but enough are that it
> >throws a
> >bad light on the lot of them.
> 

   There was some mention of VW dealers not sending people to 
schools.   Schools?  VW has training schools?  When I worked 
for the local VW dealer, there was never a mention of a training 
school.  We got product circulars tossed at us at the lunch table 
occasionally.  Once in a while we'd sit around and have some sort 
of discussion but that was rare.  Our references were a bunch of 
pieces of Bentley manuals that did seem to have more data than 
the ones we buy, if you could find that half you wanted!
  As for flubadoos.  I once set the air mix on a Vanagon when it 
came in.  They headed up a canyon hill a few miles out and fried 
a cylinder.  I know I did it right (at least if the 20 year old CO/HC 
meters were reading right) but still it looked like I'd sabatoged 
the van.  Then when I rebuilt it, the dealer had a fit because I 
ground the valves while doing a new piston, rings and cylinders!
  Other times you do minimal and got yelled at for not doing the 
full job.  You just never knew.  When a new recall came through, 
there was no training, just a PC to read and then wonder how on 
earth you're supposed to get it done in less than half the normal 
time?  (When I had my heater core done in the Jetta, the Seattle 
dealer managed to do what books as about a 4 hour job, in 45 
minutes!)
  The worst was when a different brand of car would come in.  We 
had no data, no special tools, nothing, yet we were supposed to 
do the proper job with sometimes no way to even find out the 
procedure!  I got used to that kind of thing on my own, a little, but 
I NEVER worked on things as ignorantly as we were required to at 
times!
  I don't think it's a lot different at other brands of dealers but some 
DO have more training as routine, which should help.
  We were always told the service dept. was where the profit came 
from.  Just think what it'd have made if we were allowed to do every
thing right!!
  Oh yeah, one time I worked on a Kermit green Rabbit, did a few 
things.  I heard that over the weekend, a fuel hose split and it 
burst into flames!  They tried to blame me for that one but I didn't 
TOUCH the fuel lines.  Then I was supposed to have inspected them 
and FOUND it when it was in.  They weren't leaking!  Ugh.  Crap 
does happen.
     Loren