Subaru Legacy, po304, po325 po440, p1441 CEL

I pulled the following codes from my cousins 97 Subaru Legacy

po304      Cylinder #4 engine misfire detected
po325      knock sensor circuit malfunction
po440      Evaporative Emission Control System malfunction
p1441      Fuel tank pressure control system - voltage high

The symptom was lack of power, especially going up hills.

After doing some research we found that po304 and po325 was caused by a bad knock sensor.  When he replaced the knock sensor codes po304 and po325 went away. 

As for po440 and p1441 i would replace the gas cap, first because it is the cheapest and most obvious repair.   If the code returns then i would obviously look  a little deeper and the gas cap can be a common culprit with these codes.  I would hate to replace something expensive when the only problem was a bad gas cap. 
   I will try and give and update later about the last two emisions code

The Job Interview

So for the start of the new year i started to look for a new job.   I ended up doing a ton of interviews and I think I have learned a lot.  So I thought I'll pass on any tips that I have learned.  Before I begin, I would like to start with the basic info you need to know about my situation.  I used to be a line cook, restaurants are the worst places to work for because if you are going to get scammed,. its at a job interview for a restaurant.  So I like to think I know all the tricks. (but i still dont)
   I am now a licensed Truck / Trailer mechanic looking for a job in Toronto GTA, Ontario,  believe it or not the industry is actually really small and you will always come across people you know.   The second thing you need to know is that at the time I was not a licensed truck and coach mechanic and I was looking to get more truck experience which would help me pass the truck and coach test.  So at the time I was really interested in applying for  a mechanic at a truck dealership.

Job Interview #1  European Truck Dealership.

So I'll describe the shop, its dark and dirty and the shop looks like it hasnt changed since 1945,   I walk in and ask for the service manager, lets say his name is Anish,  So Anish is an older gentleman who smiles, and greets me with a handshake and invites me into his office.    I sit down and I hand him a copy of my resume,  he looks it over and calls the lead hand into the office Dony.  For those of you who are not familiar with the term lead hand, it means shift supervisor who is typically a mechanic and works on the floor too. This is actually a new trend that is happening at most Truck shops, when i first started interviewing for Truck and Coach jobs it would be just me and the service manager or shop manager.   Now its always the service manager and or the lead hand and or the assistant manager. 
      While Dony is looking over my resume,  Anish asks me the typical questions,  What experience do you have?  To which i answer very directly that  I am not very familiar with Engine work nor do i have experience with transmission work.   Anish seems pleasantly surprised that I am answering very honestly.    I continue talking by saying that the shop that im presently working at i do a lot of work on air brakes, wheel seals, welding etc, but at my current employer nobody does engine work or transmission work.
    There are actually benefits to admitting the skills you are weak in.  It can be really dangerous to do a job that you have not had the proper training, if you remove a transmission jack and you havent been trained properly it could fall on you or a co-worker.   You should never be ashamed in admitting you dont know something, if your a mechanic its impossible to know everything, the only unfortunate thing about this is there is always a mechanic who believes he does know everything and tell you that until he is blue in the face.  Ill deal with those people on another blog. 
  In this particular interview, I believe the service manager was happy i was telling him about my short comings because he therefore believes he wont have to pay me very much.
     This is when the interview starts to go South, While I'm explaining my lack of engine and transmission experience, another mechanic walks in  and leans against a table at the side of the office, and (while listening to the conversation) starts scowling at me, as if to say you have no experience! what are you doing here?     Anish tells me that he's happy I revealed to him my lack of experience because he has hired people in the past who have told him they can do everything and he only finds out later the truth and inevitably has to fire them.  He then asks me about my present employer and why I am leaving, the only answer that i typically give about a  previous employer and its almost always true is that "I'm looking for more diverse experience."  Even if its not true its still a good one to use, or another one is "I'm looking for something closer to home."  

     Just then the mechanic who was staring  and scowling at me  blurts out "do you know Gabe" ?  "He's Dony's best friend do you think he's a good mechanic."  I think a little and I realize that I do know Gabe. So to be sure we are talking about the same person I ask "Is he the guy with the huge Snap On tool box."?  They all say in unison "YES"  I do know Gabe and yes  hes a terrible mechanic but I'm not going to tell them that.  But I said to myself that this jackass mechanic that just walked in the room and scowls at me; just tried to set me up with that question.   Its a double edged question because he supposedly Dony's best friend so I cant say anything bad about him;  and if i do i just pissed off  Dony but if i say hes a great worker to which he is probably not, then I look like an idiot.   So my response was Gabe works on the day shift and I work on the evening shift, so  I have no idea how hard he works because I only see him for about 5 minutes during the shift change.

    Anish then asks the scowling mechanic to leave because we are about to discuss wages.    How much do you want to get paid? Anish ask's me.  I tell them obviously due to my lack of experience I am willing to take a pay cut.  What can you pay me I ask.   Firstly its important for people to realize that an employer will always try and ask the potential employee what he wants to make because there is a chance you will start out with a wage lower than what he was prepared to offer.  So if  I remember correctly he offered me something like 22 or 23 dollars.  This is definitely not acceptable because im a licensed trailer mechanic I can make 28.00 an hour without even trying.   And as a mobile trailer mechanic I  could make 80,000-100,000
But I hate mobile and I dont want to go that route.  
    So I tell Anish that im currently making 29.00 and that what he has offered me is too low.   Well when i say that Anish's personality totally changes he gets really angry and says theres no way we can pay that much and theres no way we can come close to what you want.    Dony is still looking at my resume and saying " I can't believe trailer mechanics make that much."   I said "Dony 28.00 and hour is pretty much standard for a licensed trailer mechanic. If you cant make that something is really wrong"   Anish is now really angry and I havent even told Dony what mobile mechanics make a year.  Anish starts yelling at Dony "Dony!! give him back his resume so he can leave."  Dony is still holding it looking at it and says i want to hang on to it.  Then Anish is even more perplexed and says "give it back i have it on the computer.


The take aways from this interview are:

Even though its hard to admit some of the skills you are lacking, a good shop, a reputable one will be  willing to train you. And its ultimately better to be honest.

You are not always going to get every job and that's a good thing.  This place gave me a really bad vibe so I wasnt upset when I didnt get the job.  I called a friend who had worked there and he said Dony was the reason he quit.  My friend had at least 10 years experience as a truck mechanic he quit the industry completely.

If they ask you "how much are you making now"  you tell them what you want to make.  So if your making 22.00 an hour and you want to make 29.00 tell them you are making 30.00 you can always say "I can come down in price if certain conditions are met."  It shows that you are a reasonable person.

Egr coolers, Diesel Engines, Natural gas engines, and Westport Innovations

One of my first jobs at a dealership in Ontario was to replace EGR coolers.   EGR coolers are found in pretty much every diesel engine.  They are there only to reduce emissions.   I'll try to explain it as best i can, EGR stands for exhaust gas recirculation.   It simply recirculates exhaust gas that has been cooled in order to reduce NO2's. ( Nitrous Oxides)  The EGR is controlled by the engine ECM which controls the EGR valve that determines how much recirculated exhaust gas can enter the air intake.   During this process the exhaust gas is cooled
Imagine and egr cooler as one tube containing  two seperate  pipes; one pipe carries coolant; and the other pipe carries hot exhaust gas. the coolant pipe will cool the hot exhaust gas.

   Now egr coolers are constantly failing and a sign of this is coolant in the air intake.  A common sympton is white smoke or missing coolant.  You really should not lose any coolant at all; especially a new truck; so small amounts missing daily could be a possibility.

So why am i mentioning all of this, well on top of an EGR valve and EGR cooler to reduce emmisions in North America new trucks also must have either DPF (diesel particulate filter) or DOC  and they can range from large ceramic filters to  a huge assembly hidden underneath the passenger side step.

here is a great illustration of how it works

 http://www.freightlinertrucks.com/TruckInnovation/Clean-Drive-Technologies/Emissions-Technology

What they don't really tell you is that egr coolers fail alot.  Moreover,  the apparatus  that the diesel particulate filters come in are huge.  some of them weigh up to at least 500 lbs.  Its pretty ridiculous all the crap that's underneath the truck just to reduce emissions.

This phenomenon would also explain why the used truck market for trucks old enough that dont have this crap is really high.  Ive seen old trucks which basically are garbage get sold for ridiculously high prices because the buyer doesn't want any of the  hassles that are with emissions.  You don't have to pull over to the side of the road and do a regeneration.  A regeneration is basically the truck heating of the diesel particulate filters so hot that it burns out all the soot (inside the filter ) and at the end of this time consuming ordeal your filter dpf (diesel particulate filter ) should be unplugged.



Which leads me to Natural gas engines, why are they coming back in popularity ? Basically as everybody knows natural gas is very cheap now so there is a cost benefit. A Canadian company called Westport Innovations re-designed the fuel system of a diesel engine to run on Natural Gas.   I've seen some trucks already at the dealership, its a cummins ISX engine with a revamped fuel system.   I think the most important thing that a lot of people dont realize is; its such a clean burning engine that it doesnt even have an emission filter of any kind.   So not only have you eliminated at least 500lbs of emission related crap, that hangs off the bottom of the truck.   you will not have to pull over to the side of the highway and do a regen.  Nor will you have to pull into a dealership and have the diesel particulate filters get changed because they are all plugged up.
   So what is the downside to these engines?  Ive heard that they require valve adjustment more frequently (big deal)  more importantly would be the lack of re-fuelling stations but i believe that has been changing albeit very slowly.
  Basically Natural Gas engines are here to stay and its because engine manufacturers cannot reduce the emissions of a diesel engine.

Caterpillar C10, C12 fuel injector replacement.

I was walking by one of my co-workers today who was replacing a fuel injector on a Caterpillar C10 engine.  And he told me the coolest thing.  He replaced one injector on the diesel engine and it was the #1 one injector at the front of the engine.
   I asked him how did he know that injector was the problem,  now traditionally when you have  a problem with an injector you will hook up the computer and do a cylinder cut out test.  This test will shut off each injector one at a time.  Each time it shuts off an injector you should hear  the engine vibrate excessively and generally run very rough.   When it cuts out an injector and there is no change in the engine rpm/ vibration; then you have isolated the problem injector.
   In this instance we did not have a computer that could perform a cylinder cut out test.  So my friend decided to run the engine for about thirty seconds and then go to the exhaust manifold and feel it with his hands.   The cold part of the exhaust manifold will reveal which injector is not firing.  I thought that this was a pretty ingenious way of troubleshooting and very creative.  He found that injector #1 was not firing properly and so he replaced it.
   Now the thing you must realize when you replace an injector on a Cat engine, each injector has a calibration code.  For this you do need a scan tool, or computer to change the calibration codes in the ecu.  What is the calibration code for? Basically its a number that represents how much fuel will be atomized in the cylinder and no injector is the same.  however if the ecu knows the calibration number it can account  for and adjust small discrepancies.

Job Review and Batteries

A truck dealership that I worked at gave everyone a job review once a month during the  probationary period.   A probationary period is the first three months of your job.  During this period, they can fire you at any time without cause.   I personally don't mind job reviews, done properly its supposed to offer you constructive criticism on how you can be a better mechanic.   Its rarely done properly, in fact depending on your supervisor ( lead hand), some people can be very uncomfortable offering criticism to others; for whatever reason.  My lead hand,  Mike was extremely uncomfortable offering up criticism; with good reason he didn't like hurting peoples feelings.   Prior to the job review he pulled me aside and told me that "whatever we say about you. don't take it personally." "Its just how the service manager is; hes pretty tough on people in the beginning."
   While were in his  office waiting for the service manager, whom ill refer to as Belly, Mike told me an interesting story.  A truck had kept coming in the shop for ecu problems, an ecu was replaced, wiring was repaired, even a harness was replaced and the truck still kept coming back.  It had been inspected by about 4 or 5 different mechanics, all with the same result. 
    Finally someone decided to replace the batteries and all the problems went away.  Mike told me that its very easy to overlook batteries but we shouldn't because they are a critical component of the electrical system and that if the voltages start to drop under 10 volts everything starts to go  haywire.    I always thought that its a great story because sometime the best way to repair a problem is start with the simple or easiest things to fix  first.  As a technician we often to try and tackle the complicated things first.

Introduction

This is my first Blog.  I'm a Truck and Trailer mechanic and I have a lot of interesting stories to tell, some have to do with truck and trailer repairs, and some stories will be about the social aspect of the industry .

But the main thing I want people to get from my blog is that anybody can be a mechanic, unlike what our parents say, I believe you do not need to be mechanically inclined.  I think you just have to have the right person show you how to do the repair.  And by right person, I mean someone who is patient and does not take shortcuts.  There have been so many jobs that a first glance seems too advanced or too technical; but once someone finally showed me how to do the repair, I found myself saying out loud how simple it was.

    I'm also doing this blog so if someone is interested in the trades and wants to become a mechanic, by reading my blog they might have a fair understanding about what the trade is all about. 

There, is a serious crisis in our industry, and that is a lack of young mechanics. Its very evident because every garage that I have worked at there is a preponderance of mechanics over the age of 50.  The last dealership I worked at they were having a really difficult time to get mechanics to do clutch jobs on tractors during the day shift,   older mechanics  felt that it was a job for a younger mechanic.  The same dealership did not like hiring young mechanics, or if they did it was at a pretty low wage.

   Another problem with the trade is that as an apprentice at a dealership you have to have thick skin and put up with some crap, from other mechanics.  for me in the beginning it was wearing latex gloves, i didn't mind getting my hands dirty i just didn't like having them dirty when i went out on a date; but the older mechanics would give me flack about that.  Now everyone seems to wear latex gloves.


http://www.theglobeandmail.com/life/looking-for-a-job-why-you-should-consider-a-trade/article9117896/