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Episode 10-Tyler Van Gaalen from North London Toyota talks life as a Toyota Technician!
490 Plays4 months ago
Brand new podcast hosted by a Shop owner and a Shop owner/Technician . Today we got to hang with Tyler Van Gaalen who is a Licensed mechanic at North London Toyota. (London Ontario Canada for yall on the other side of the border :p )
He lives and breathes Toyotas but also has a passion for Chevy trucks. He has one actually in his home garage in the background of the vid! Home garage setup is on point!
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Transcript
Introduction and Podcast Promotion
00:00:01
Aniz Lavji
All right, welcome everyone to another episode of the Shop and Tread Talk podcast. My name is Aniz. We've got Frank, our co-host, with us.
00:00:11
Frank Wiebe
Hello.
00:00:12
Aniz Lavji
Before we introduce our guests, i just want to make sure that we let you know we do have a Facebook page set up. So please like, share, follow this episode.
00:00:22
Aniz Lavji
If you go on Facebook, you can search for the Shop and Tread Talk podcast. And definitely add us on there. We'd love to have you as one of our followers.
Meet Tyler Van Galen
00:00:32
Aniz Lavji
Frank, I'll ah let you introduce our guest here.
00:00:33
Frank Wiebe
right.
00:00:36
Frank Wiebe
Okay. So today we have with us Tyler. He works. He's a Toyota tech. by trade, um I think a um snowmobile and quadding expert by fun.
00:00:51
Frank Wiebe
If you ever see his videos online, that's a bit of all you're doing in your spare time. And he loves his Chevy trucks. So I think today we're going to talk a little bit about what Tyler's been up to in the Toyota world and in the GM world. And ah see if we can get some new insight on, uh, on both of those worlds, I guess. So Tyler, welcome to the show. Real appreciate you having, and having taken the time to be with us here today.
00:01:15
Tyler Van Gaalen
Hey, thanks for having me.
00:01:16
Aniz Lavji
ah Tyler, let's ah let's start with kind of who you are, where you started from, where you are, and you know if you have any plans on
Tyler's Career Path
00:01:27
Aniz Lavji
the future. But main thing is we want to know how did you get to where you are now?
00:01:32
Tyler Van Gaalen
Well, my name is Tyler Van Galen. I grew up in London, Ontario, not England, if anybody's listening.
00:01:37
Aniz Lavji
Yeah.
00:01:40
Frank Wiebe
I don't know if we got listeners from London, England yet, but that'd be cool. So anyone's in England, sure you let us know because that'd be really cool.
00:01:44
Aniz Lavji
We have a couple from China, apparently.
00:01:44
Tyler Van Gaalen
yeah.
00:01:49
Tyler Van Gaalen
Yeah. ah So I went to high school in London at Beale Tech. i went, did the automotive program there. I did the Ontario Youth Apprenticeship Program, which I did that at a Chevy dealership in London.
00:02:02
Frank Wiebe
Oh, the OEF program?
00:02:04
Tyler Van Gaalen
Yep.
00:02:05
Frank Wiebe
Yeah, that's that's sick. We actually just got a new student starting in two weeks through that forum.
00:02:09
Tyler Van Gaalen
Oh, great.
00:02:10
Frank Wiebe
So I'm excited for that.
00:02:10
Aniz Lavji
excellent
00:02:10
Tyler Van Gaalen
It was new. I love it.
00:02:11
Frank Wiebe
Yeah.
00:02:11
Tyler Van Gaalen
It was ah all morning for, during co-op and I
00:02:16
Frank Wiebe
Yeah.
00:02:16
Tyler Van Gaalen
really exposed me and made me really want to get into this. When I finished the co-op, they were slow, so I didn't get hired on there. to I ended up putting a resume through the London Free Press, which is what we used to do back in the day.
00:02:31
Tyler Van Gaalen
ah
00:02:31
Frank Wiebe
Back in the day. Says the young guy here.
00:02:36
Tyler Van Gaalen
i I actually, when I applied for it I had no idea where it was and sent the email. And then like a month later, the email me said, hey, come in for an interview. So went in 19 years old when I went there and hired me on the spot.
00:02:52
Tyler Van Gaalen
So i worked there. i started there as a lube tech and then little over 16 years later now I'm master tech in there long time. Done pretty much everything you can do there.
00:03:03
Aniz Lavji
Wow.
00:03:05
Tyler Van Gaalen
And yeah.
00:03:05
Aniz Lavji
Nice.
00:03:08
Aniz Lavji
Which, which dealership are you at again?
00:03:11
Tyler Van Gaalen
North London Toyota.
00:03:12
Aniz Lavji
North London Toyota beauty. And um so there obviously you work on 99% Toyotas.
00:03:14
Tyler Van Gaalen
Yeah.
00:03:20
Aniz Lavji
Do you get a fair amount of other type of vehicles there?
Variety of Vehicles and Challenges
00:03:23
Tyler Van Gaalen
We actually do, yeah. um Actually, right now we have a Subaru Outback in for head gaskets, which I have done. i also love Subarus. I've had a WRX for 14 years now.
00:03:34
Aniz Lavji
Okay.
00:03:35
Tyler Van Gaalen
um I love building those engines. To me, they're really simple, easy. um I've done head gaskets on a Chevy Optra actually last week.
00:03:46
Aniz Lavji
Optra.
00:03:46
Tyler Van Gaalen
Yeah.
00:03:46
Aniz Lavji
An Optra.
00:03:47
Tyler Van Gaalen
but
00:03:48
Aniz Lavji
Man, I haven't seen one of those now i haven't seen one the those in ages.
00:03:48
Frank Wiebe
i
00:03:49
Tyler Van Gaalen
Nobody wanted to do it. Oh, yeah.
00:03:50
Frank Wiebe
that's That's an old car.
00:03:51
Aniz Lavji
a Daewoo.
00:03:52
Tyler Van Gaalen
oh yeah
00:03:52
Frank Wiebe
Goodness.
00:03:52
Aniz Lavji
that's a dewu it's a dewu
00:03:54
Tyler Van Gaalen
Yep. I, I'm not afraid of really anything. So like that I did that when I was at apprentice, nobody else wanted to do it. I said, well, jump in and do it. So I did that. And then, uh, that was the same time as actually building the engine from a WRX that, uh, blew up on me.
00:04:11
Frank Wiebe
Okay.
00:04:11
Tyler Van Gaalen
Shocker. yes
00:04:12
Aniz Lavji
As some engines do.
00:04:14
Tyler Van Gaalen
Yeah. And then, um, yeah, actually last week, cause I'm not a big high and dry and Kia fan, but, uh, I'll give
00:04:23
Aniz Lavji
You don't love KIAs? Come on.
00:04:25
Tyler Van Gaalen
I'll give credit to where credit's due. I did, it was an Optima 2018, came in for a draw. So I figured out the left rear your door actuator, the switch was sticking.
00:04:37
Tyler Van Gaalen
So took the door And don't know if you've ever taken one of those off, but I will say that is the absolute best door design i have ever seen in my life.
00:04:38
Frank Wiebe
Oh, cool.
00:04:46
Aniz Lavji
Wow.
00:04:46
Tyler Van Gaalen
It was it's 10 mil bolts all the way around and the entire
00:04:47
Frank Wiebe
Oh, so go ahead.
00:04:53
Tyler Van Gaalen
inside of the door comes off one big plastic piece, then everything's bolted to it. Yeah.
00:04:56
Frank Wiebe
Oh, yeah, that's nice.
00:04:56
Aniz Lavji
Wow.
00:04:58
Frank Wiebe
no Not like a Cadillac where it's it's it's an absolute nightmare to take some of those Cadillacs apart.
00:05:04
Tyler Van Gaalen
Oh yeah.
00:05:04
Frank Wiebe
remember years ago I took a Cadillac door apart and I'm like, I never want to own a Cadillac. This stupid.
00:05:10
Aniz Lavji
Oh, you're not supposed to work on that. You're supposed to trade it in buy a new one. Remember, isn't it that isn't there what they say?
00:05:14
Frank Wiebe
yeah Yeah, exactly.
00:05:14
Tyler Van Gaalen
Every five years, right? Yeah. Just out of warranty. but
00:05:17
Frank Wiebe
Yeah, i just had a word to you.
00:05:22
Aniz Lavji
Well, cool. It's nice that you you actually get a a different variety of vehicles because a lot of people that work at these dealerships, they're, you know, basically if you were Honda, Toyota, Lexus, you know, you're working on mostly those vehicles and, you know, you're not going to get the other makes in there very often, but it's kind of nice.
00:05:23
Frank Wiebe
So yeah.
00:05:41
Aniz Lavji
to You get to work on a different variety of cars sometimes. So.
00:05:44
Tyler Van Gaalen
Yeah, and i I like it. It's a nice challenge. And ah I'm probably one of the weird, don't know, it's not very common, but my buddy and I, we actually both, I bought a Snap on Veyrus Edge back 2015, right when they first came out.
00:05:57
Aniz Lavji
Yeah.
00:05:58
Tyler Van Gaalen
Because i don't I don't get to use it as much as I'd like to, but when I need it to have a scope and stuff like that, it's great. And like said I said, I don't drive Toyotas. i My wife does now, but for a long time, I've driven Chevy trucks and Subarus.
00:06:08
Aniz Lavji
Yeah.
00:06:11
Tyler Van Gaalen
So not having a scan tool that could, scan those wasn't very nice. So
00:06:17
Aniz Lavji
Oh yeah. You definitely have to make sure at least someone of the family drives a Toyota, you know, geez. After this much time.
00:06:26
Tyler Van Gaalen
I bought a 07 hybrid Camry few years ago, paid three grand for it.
00:06:26
Frank Wiebe
Yeah, a Toyota, first of all, a Camry, you go forever, and then you got a hybrid yet.
00:06:31
Tyler Van Gaalen
And they got 450 on it.
00:06:33
Aniz Lavji
Wow.
00:06:34
Tyler Van Gaalen
Thing is a tank.
00:06:39
Tyler Van Gaalen
Yep.
00:06:39
Frank Wiebe
Now you go forever for half the fuel mileage, so why the heck not?
00:06:43
Tyler Van Gaalen
Yep.
00:06:43
Aniz Lavji
Those hybrid batteries, I think ah the warranty on them, I think it was, is it 10 years or am I wrong?
00:06:48
Tyler Van Gaalen
It is, yep. It's 10 years. I think it's 240,000 or something like that, kilometers.
Hybrid Vehicle Maintenance
00:06:55
Tyler Van Gaalen
But you know what? Like I said, I've been there 16 years, and the only ones I've ever seen go was most of the time it is either exterior damage, like mice going in and destroying them, or a they have the they have blower motors in them that keep them cool.
00:07:05
Aniz Lavji
Yep.
00:07:11
Aniz Lavji
Blower motor's in the battery?
00:07:11
Tyler Van Gaalen
There's actually, yep. There's a filter on them, and a lot of people don't know that, so
00:07:16
Aniz Lavji
Wow.
00:07:18
Tyler Van Gaalen
you don't change that filter, it gets plugged up just like a furnace filter, your cabin filter. And yeah, we take it apart, take the bowler motor out and blow all the dust out.
00:07:24
Aniz Lavji
You don't just blow it out with something? Shh.
00:07:29
Tyler Van Gaalen
And then we put new filters on. And I had one last week, the entire thing was completely plugged solid. And
00:07:36
Frank Wiebe
so So is that something that is in your regular maintenance schedule? Like if you own a hybrid vehicle, that's something you should definitely be looking into?
00:07:43
Tyler Van Gaalen
hundred percent. Yeah. We, we say every three years, three years, 50 K kind of thing. And it's like, you can inspect it too and see.
00:07:51
Frank Wiebe
Okay, so so is this something on just ah just a Toyota or like in general, other hybrids that possibly might have a filter like that? Because I've never heard of that before.
00:08:00
Tyler Van Gaalen
I would imagine.
00:08:00
Frank Wiebe
So this is been kind of cool.
00:08:01
Aniz Lavji
Oh, that's a different name.
00:08:02
Tyler Van Gaalen
Yeah, I'm not sure i'm sure. I'm sure they do have the other the other brands have filters too. but Anything 2019 and up on the Toyota side is, especially the RAV4s, if you're looking in the backseat and the passenger rear, you'll see a little grate.
00:08:17
Tyler Van Gaalen
and a little Phillips head. And you can pull that panel off and there's actually the filter in there.
00:08:23
Aniz Lavji
I'm going to have to start ripping apart my next customer's car that...
00:08:23
Frank Wiebe
okay
00:08:27
Frank Wiebe
it
00:08:27
Aniz Lavji
i'm Hey, you know what?
00:08:28
Frank Wiebe
it
00:08:29
Aniz Lavji
Your car's not ready yet, bud. I need another hour. need to do some digging.
00:08:32
Frank Wiebe
next next dvi you do you say oh you need a battery filter and they're gonna be like what the heck are you talking all of sudden you're gonna start selling battery filters and be like okay i know this guy's ripping me off i'm not going to see him ever again
00:08:38
Tyler Van Gaalen
your
00:08:41
Aniz Lavji
And there goes the one. And there goes the one-star Google review.
00:08:46
Frank Wiebe
but
00:08:46
Aniz Lavji
They told me a battery's got a filter. This guy's full of crap.
00:08:50
Frank Wiebe
i you know what i that's I've never heard of that before.
00:08:50
Aniz Lavji
Yeah.
00:08:54
Frank Wiebe
This that this is really...
00:08:54
Tyler Van Gaalen
Yeah, it's a great thing to do because like i said, they obviously they rely ah heavily on cooling. The only ones actually in the plug-in hybrids, they have it as well, but they rely more on, they actually use AC, the refrigerant to cool the the big batteries and the plug-in hybrids.
00:09:00
Frank Wiebe
Well, yeah.
00:09:05
Frank Wiebe
Okay.
00:09:10
Tyler Van Gaalen
but
00:09:11
Frank Wiebe
Yeah, see, that's that's what I always thought, that they were either cooled with engine coolant or or air conditioning. But i I mean, okay.
00:09:16
Tyler Van Gaalen
Yeah, just the plug-in ones only.
00:09:19
Frank Wiebe
I guess that makes sense have. Hey, look at that. I'm ready to learn something today Let's go undone for the night. I'm out of here.
00:09:25
Tyler Van Gaalen
I'm glad I can help you.
00:09:26
Aniz Lavji
I have a i'm a really good customer that's got, I think it's a 17 or 18 RAV4 hybrid. So yeah, I'm definitely going to be taking a little closer look the next time he comes in for some service.
00:09:37
Tyler Van Gaalen
So actually those ones, um they have two blower motors.
00:09:40
Aniz Lavji
Oh my God.
00:09:42
Frank Wiebe
Oh, shit.
00:09:43
Tyler Van Gaalen
They're in the back.
00:09:43
Frank Wiebe
So...
00:09:43
Tyler Van Gaalen
If you look at the back panel up in the the back where the spare tire is, then you pull that little midsection apart, you'll see there's two blower motors in there and then They
00:09:47
Aniz Lavji
yeah
Brake Servicing Insights
00:09:54
Tyler Van Gaalen
actually don't have replaceable filters, but you can still take the blower motors out and clean them.
00:09:59
Tyler Van Gaalen
It was really only like 18 and up that they started putting the filters in.
00:10:02
Aniz Lavji
now i'm Now I'm curious, like ah Frank and I, we use TechMetric.
00:10:02
Frank Wiebe
okay
00:10:06
Aniz Lavji
don't know if you ever heard of that.
00:10:07
Tyler Van Gaalen
I have, I've been looking into it. I'm probably not going to to sway my big 20-day dealership to get it, but
00:10:15
Aniz Lavji
No, probably not. But
00:10:17
Frank Wiebe
ah Dealerships kind of have their own thing that they usually use.
00:10:21
Aniz Lavji
they're usually using like some heavy-duty old-school-ish programs, I think, right?
00:10:27
Tyler Van Gaalen
ah This one is. it's ah We used to use, it's called the blue screen, which is Reynolds.
00:10:32
Aniz Lavji
Yeah, Reynolds and Reynolds.
00:10:33
Tyler Van Gaalen
Yeah. And now we have Ignite, which is the the Windows XP version of Ignite. So it actually, you can click stuff now.
00:10:40
Aniz Lavji
Oh, yeah.
00:10:40
Frank Wiebe
Yeah.
00:10:41
Tyler Van Gaalen
But it's it works, but it's got a lot of, quite a few glitches. As far as like the DVIs and stuff, we don't really do the videos, but I'm very heavy on the pictures.
00:10:52
Aniz Lavji
Yeah.
00:10:52
Tyler Van Gaalen
We use an app called Kimobi.
00:10:54
Aniz Lavji
I've heard of that, yeah.
00:10:55
Tyler Van Gaalen
Yeah, and it it it works well, actually. there Some of the stuff you guys, I was listening your podcast the other day about what the TechMetric one does was very interesting.
00:11:06
Tyler Van Gaalen
And I talked to my boss about it and he said that Komobi is actually starting to update it, to get similar features.
00:11:07
Aniz Lavji
It's next level. it's In Techmetrics DVI, it's next level.
00:11:12
Tyler Van Gaalen
Yeah.
00:11:18
Tyler Van Gaalen
yeah
00:11:19
Aniz Lavji
I would say it's very refined. And I don't know if i mentioned Frank, they actually have canned findings now.
00:11:26
Frank Wiebe
Oh, really?
00:11:27
Aniz Lavji
so So when you're in there and you you know take a picture of a bald ass tire, you can click on canned findings and you can actually you know have stuff that you've you basically have it written out exactly how you want it.
00:11:42
Aniz Lavji
You can click and bam, it just puts it right in there.
00:11:45
Tyler Van Gaalen
Interesting.
00:11:45
Frank Wiebe
Oh, okay. So you could you could write a can finding that says bald ass tire?
00:11:47
Aniz Lavji
I didn't even...
00:11:47
Tyler Van Gaalen
That's right.
00:11:50
Tyler Van Gaalen
yeah
00:11:51
Aniz Lavji
um yeah Yeah, you could. But you know what? i didn't even I didn't even know about that part, which you know I thought I knew everything about it. I'm learning even today because were ah i think I told you where I'm training one of my guys to converting him to a service advisor.
00:12:06
Frank Wiebe
Yeah.
00:12:06
Aniz Lavji
So I had him on all the how-to training videos today. So he watched like 10 of them. So he actually told me, he's like, why didn't you tell me about this when I'm doing DVIs? I'm like, I didn't know.
00:12:17
Frank Wiebe
yeah Yeah. Well, how can you know?
00:12:18
Aniz Lavji
i'm just learning this right now.
00:12:19
Frank Wiebe
You're not in the trenches with the wrenches as those guys from down south would say.
00:12:24
Aniz Lavji
usually am but yeah yeah
00:12:25
Frank Wiebe
but
00:12:25
Tyler Van Gaalen
I was actually talking, I was listening to the, um, how was the other podcast? Changing the Industry podcast. And they were talking about the, uh, I think was Techmetrics DVI or one of them that, uh, uses AI. Oh,
00:12:38
Aniz Lavji
it wouldn't be they're uh they're a shop where i think they're mostly talking about shop where usually that's who they're supporting
00:12:39
Frank Wiebe
Well, yeah.
00:12:45
Tyler Van Gaalen
okay.
00:12:45
Frank Wiebe
ah So TechMetric doesn't use AI, but you can integrate AI into, basically what they're saying is you can integrate AI into your daily life, into your ah interaction with customers and all that kind of stuff.
00:12:58
Tyler Van Gaalen
Yeah.
00:12:59
Frank Wiebe
So that's kind of what they're talking about, yeah.
00:12:59
Aniz Lavji
Definitely. i mean, all these shop programs, whether it's shopware tech metric, I mean, the first step is having something that works, that makes your life easier.
00:13:06
Tyler Van Gaalen
Yeah.
00:13:09
Aniz Lavji
Like both of you being technicians, Frank also being a shop owner, like you guys have so much stuff going on that if the process of, you know, inspecting the vehicle can be simplified to where you can do a fairly comprehensive inspection within 15 minutes, then And when you fire it off to a customer that within two minutes, they're looking at it and they have a very good idea of the condition of their vehicle,
TechMetric DVI System Benefits
00:13:38
Aniz Lavji
you hit gold.
00:13:40
Tyler Van Gaalen
It has changed our place ever since we started using that.
00:13:40
Aniz Lavji
Yeah.
00:13:44
Tyler Van Gaalen
I think we've been using it for over two little over two years now.
00:13:47
Aniz Lavji
Yeah, and and you'll notice your, I'm sure your approvals have gone up, the clarity to the customer, transparency. There's a lot ah a lot less wishy-washy of, oh, well, you know, yeah, everything's black and white.
00:13:59
Tyler Van Gaalen
It's black and white.
00:14:01
Aniz Lavji
Well, color, if you got black and white, you better be switching a tech metric tomorrow.
00:14:03
Tyler Van Gaalen
Yeah. We're in the old days.
00:14:05
Frank Wiebe
No, you you just, if you got black and white, get off your iPhone and use an Android. So let's just put that out there.
00:14:09
Tyler Van Gaalen
Yeah, here we go.
00:14:10
Aniz Lavji
Oh, God, Frank, let's not get into this again.
00:14:11
Frank Wiebe
Okay. So, but not but on that note, so we had, we had a customer and and this is the post I made on the changing the podcast Facebook page that really pretty much tore me apart because apparently I was unprofessional and dirty shop and all that bullshit.
00:14:29
Frank Wiebe
But, oh my, let,
00:14:29
Aniz Lavji
Why didn't you mop and call the cleaning company in to clean the floors?
00:14:33
Frank Wiebe
And um I want to reply to that guy yet because we had, first of all, we had squeegeed the floor like five minutes before that video.
00:14:42
Aniz Lavji
It wasn't detailed, Frank. It was not detailed.
00:14:45
Frank Wiebe
Excuse me. Excuse me if we have...
00:14:47
Tyler Van Gaalen
We need the white rags to clean.
00:14:49
Frank Wiebe
big ass renovation going on and there's shit everywhere. But anyways, I'm still a little bit sorry about that. But that whole that vehicle, okay, so that vehicle um was booked in for, he wanted a he wanted to coolant flush because his coolant was low initially is what it was.
00:15:04
Frank Wiebe
Well, so we did the DVI, we found the the rear controllers, that like big holes rusted through it. And so we sent it to him and he's like, oh, wow, can I need that fixed. So, so,
00:15:17
Frank Wiebe
pause on the coolant, night you know, and and it was like, hey, I only got so much money, right? So pause on the coolant flash, just top it up for now. And we did the whole control arm job. Anyways, he picked it up today and he just said, honestly, guys, I can't believe this.
00:15:32
Tyler Van Gaalen
Mm-hmm.
00:15:32
Frank Wiebe
I've been at this other shop. And this one thing you hear about these ah other podcasts. They say, you know, but they come into your shop because all the other shops they've been to, they've already fired those shops.
00:15:42
Aniz Lavji
They suck.
00:15:42
Frank Wiebe
They fired those shops, right? So now they're with you. And he said,
00:15:45
Aniz Lavji
Frank, don't say they fired them. They suck.
00:15:47
Frank Wiebe
Oh, yeah. Well, they obviously suck.
00:15:48
Aniz Lavji
Let's just be real.
00:15:49
Frank Wiebe
Actually, the one shop he mentioned.
00:15:49
Aniz Lavji
Yeah.
00:15:53
Frank Wiebe
Yeah, I can see why he left there.
00:15:55
Aniz Lavji
Yeah.
00:15:55
Frank Wiebe
Anyways, we won't mention that name. um So but he said he said, like, thank you so much for finding this and for bringing this my attention. I would have never known.
00:16:07
Frank Wiebe
And it's like, so it was that job there was easily sold because of the DBI, because of the pictures and stuff like that. Right. i mean, we would have done it anyway. We would.
00:16:18
Frank Wiebe
But I told him, I said, because we're using the system now, we are actively working. doing this. He said, normally we wouldn't necessarily actively be doing, we would have looked a little bit, but not as in depth.
00:16:29
Aniz Lavji
Right.
00:16:31
Frank Wiebe
Right.
00:16:31
Aniz Lavji
Yeah.
00:16:31
Frank Wiebe
And we might not have found it. And he was just very thankful. So yeah, definitely. It definitely works. It's, it's, ah it's a great program and it's good for the customer. It's good for employees.
00:16:42
Frank Wiebe
Like it's good to cover your butt, all that kind of stuff.
00:16:42
Aniz Lavji
hundred percent
00:16:44
Frank Wiebe
So yeah, man, I'm liking it.
00:16:44
Tyler Van Gaalen
That's the biggest.
00:16:44
Aniz Lavji
100%. It's good all around.
00:16:45
Tyler Van Gaalen
use it for is cover your ass. Like, especially like do do a lot of warranty work, obviously.
00:16:48
Frank Wiebe
Yep.
00:16:50
Tyler Van Gaalen
So anytime I have warranty, I take a picture of the bin, the odometer, the picture, then the boss says, Hey, do you have pictures of this?
00:16:55
Frank Wiebe
Mm-hmm.
00:16:58
Tyler Van Gaalen
Here you go Done.
00:16:59
Frank Wiebe
Yep.
00:16:59
Aniz Lavji
yep. yep.
00:17:00
Frank Wiebe
Yep.
00:17:00
Tyler Van Gaalen
And, uh, yeah, especially today, like actually today, that's other thing wanted to talk about too, is, uh, taking pride in your work is a big thing that a lot of people don't do.
00:17:09
Frank Wiebe
Oh, yeah. Mm-hmm.
00:17:12
Tyler Van Gaalen
And I, like I see it all the time. I've shown it. I've trained a lot of apprentices. I got one beside me right now and I've shown them today that, uh, anybody can slap brakes on.
00:17:24
Tyler Van Gaalen
Uh, I had a RAV4 prime this morning, came in complaining of a brake noise. So I lifted up. Oh, look, he's got brand new aftermarket brake pads, which you know what?
00:17:37
Tyler Van Gaalen
For noise, OEM is always going to be quieter, but there are some, like, I, I don't have to work on my own cars. Um, I lift it up. There's no shims on the pads.
00:17:49
Frank Wiebe
Oh.
00:17:50
Tyler Van Gaalen
There's no lube on the brackets underneath the clips is all rusty.
00:17:52
Aniz Lavji
course not.
00:17:55
Tyler Van Gaalen
Pull the pins out. They've got any season one of the pins they've got.
00:17:59
Frank Wiebe
Both.
00:18:00
Tyler Van Gaalen
This is the worst, the wheel bearing grease on another pin, some other loop on a third pin.
00:18:01
Aniz Lavji
I'm not even.
00:18:03
Frank Wiebe
Really?
00:18:05
Tyler Van Gaalen
It was just literally everything. The only thing they did right was they put the clips in the right spot on the bracket, everything else was wrong.
00:18:13
Aniz Lavji
I'm not even. I'm not a mechanic. but doing this for 20 years, i mean, even when I walk by a customer's car that comes in that just got their brakes done for the case of beer and I look at it i'm like, what is that?
00:18:28
Tyler Van Gaalen
Well, the worst part is this was done at a, uh, an oil change supply chain. Apparently.
00:18:34
Frank Wiebe
Oh, really? Yeah, the one that started doing breaks now?
00:18:37
Tyler Van Gaalen
Yeah.
00:18:38
Frank Wiebe
Oh man, that's nasty.
00:18:39
Aniz Lavji
Oh, God. a
00:18:40
Frank Wiebe
i've been hearing I've been hearing stories already and it's like,
00:18:40
Tyler Van Gaalen
I'm, oh, it's like they have three people doing them one person per pin. It,
00:18:47
Frank Wiebe
ah no, no, we're using my loop today.
00:18:51
Tyler Van Gaalen
yeah, this is ridiculous.
00:18:51
Frank Wiebe
Forget that.
00:18:52
Tyler Van Gaalen
And then like, I showed them today too.
00:18:53
Aniz Lavji
Yeah.
00:18:54
Tyler Van Gaalen
I did some breaks on a Corolla and I told him, said, you know what? Do it right. And then do it fast. You always do it, figure out the way to do it right first.
00:19:04
Frank Wiebe
Yep.
00:19:04
Aniz Lavji
Yeah.
00:19:04
Tyler Van Gaalen
And I said, even, i said, a lot of guys, they don't take the pins out and they'll take the pins out, put a bit of lube on and slap them back in. But a lot of the cars, they build up rust underneath the boots and squeeze the pins and they don't slide.
00:19:15
Tyler Van Gaalen
So I, I said, here we boot kits are 10 bucks, take it out, clean it out, stand it out, fire wheel, whatever you need to do.
00:19:19
Aniz Lavji
yeah
00:19:23
Tyler Van Gaalen
And we use a worth silicone lube.
00:19:24
Frank Wiebe
Yeah,
00:19:28
Aniz Lavji
Yep.
00:19:28
Tyler Van Gaalen
That's the only thing we use in the whole shop for the pins, the brakes, everything, because we've tried the purple clean flow stuff.
00:19:31
Aniz Lavji
Yeah.
00:19:35
Tyler Van Gaalen
It just swells the boots, rubber.
00:19:37
Frank Wiebe
yeah that stuff's not good for boots at all.
00:19:40
Aniz Lavji
We've been using the, like for the, we use the orange lubricant.
00:19:40
Tyler Van Gaalen
Even the brakes.
00:19:44
Aniz Lavji
I think it's Permatex.
00:19:46
Frank Wiebe
that's That's the best aftermarket one there is, yeah.
00:19:49
Aniz Lavji
It's, it's expensive.
00:19:49
Frank Wiebe
But not for sliders, but don't use that in the slider lube.
00:19:51
Tyler Van Gaalen
No, don't use it on Snyder's.
00:19:52
Aniz Lavji
But generally like that, um
00:19:54
Frank Wiebe
Yeah.
00:19:55
Aniz Lavji
Again, I'm not a mechanic, but that Permatech stuff, I believe is what is going on the back of the brake pads.
00:20:00
Frank Wiebe
Yeah.
00:20:01
Aniz Lavji
Yeah.
00:20:02
Frank Wiebe
Yeah. No, for the slider lube, you gotta to use that white silicone stuff, but yeah.
00:20:05
Aniz Lavji
Oh, Silglide, Silglide, Silglide. That's what it is.
00:20:08
Frank Wiebe
Yeah. Yeah, that's the good stuff.
00:20:11
Aniz Lavji
um Tyler,
00:20:12
Frank Wiebe
Yeah, anything else, that just seize them up.
00:20:15
Aniz Lavji
for the amount of time you've been where you are, what is what's your favorite type of work there?
Heavy-Duty Work Preference
00:20:22
Tyler Van Gaalen
I like the heavy stuff. so we had a frame recall back in the day and that was my absolute favorite recall. It was, uh, yeah.
00:20:29
Aniz Lavji
Your flat rate, I'm assuming?
00:20:32
Tyler Van Gaalen
Um, Tacomas, Tundras and Sequoias, the frames have brought out Toyota.
00:20:37
Aniz Lavji
Yep.
00:20:37
Tyler Van Gaalen
This is, this is why i love Toyota and I will never work for another brand because
00:20:41
Frank Wiebe
Because the frames are auto? Yeah.
00:20:44
Tyler Van Gaalen
they actually stand behind their products. Like it's ridiculous how much money they pay out to stuff. Like right now our recall is the, uh, RAV4's Highlander hybrids, the traction cables, the big orange power cables going into the rear motors, they get corroded and it'll actually open the circuit.
00:21:02
Aniz Lavji
Yep. Oh,
00:21:05
Tyler Van Gaalen
Basically it'll shut down the hybrid system.
00:21:07
Aniz Lavji
oh well
00:21:08
Tyler Van Gaalen
It is just replacing, they were either sealing them up if they're still good or replacing the whole cable front to back and customer doesn't pay a cent. It's just stuff like that. It's just crazy. But, uh, the frame frame was my favorite because it was the best feeling in the world when you can take an entire truck apart, put it all back together and you drive down the road, it drives straight with no squeaks, no rattles. and The customer got an insane deal out of that.
00:21:33
Tyler Van Gaalen
They got brand new brake lines, cab mounts, upper control arms, lower control arms.
00:21:33
Frank Wiebe
Oh yeah.
00:21:37
Tyler Van Gaalen
like and it
00:21:38
Frank Wiebe
Wow.
00:21:39
Tyler Van Gaalen
And that's the thing I would tell them too. i'd I'd always bring the car in before the frame came and I'd say, like, give us, pay us for an inspection. I'll look over the truck. I'll tell you what's wrong. A lot of these trucks were eight, 10 years, almost 10 years old.
00:21:52
Aniz Lavji
Yep. Yep. Yep.
00:21:52
Tyler Van Gaalen
So the other stuff that was going, I said, lot of the time I'd say, put a rack in it while we're doing it because I'm not going charge any labor because it's already coming out. in new iraq and A lot of them would leak at the boots. And then I'd say do the rack, want to do the e-brake cables, i discount the labor, just stuff like that. And a lot of people did it.
00:22:13
Tyler Van Gaalen
It was, makes sense.
00:22:14
Frank Wiebe
Well, at the end of the day, you have almost a brand new truck.
00:22:18
Tyler Van Gaalen
Yeah. The craziest one ever did was that it was 2005. It was a blue 2005. The body was almost mint on it. This truck had 430,000 kilometers
00:22:29
Aniz Lavji
Only.
00:22:29
Frank Wiebe
Hold on.
00:22:30
Tyler Van Gaalen
And they came, they came in for the frame recall and they said, oh, we also want you to do the head gaskets while it's apart. was like, well, let me, well, why do you want to do the head gaskets? What's going on with it? And they said, oh, well, it's overheating.
00:22:44
Tyler Van Gaalen
So I said, let me just spend a couple like a little bit and diagnose it before do head gaskets. They ended up putting a stop leak in the radiator and it plugged it up.
00:22:53
Frank Wiebe
Yeah.
00:22:54
Tyler Van Gaalen
So it wasn't flowing. So I. So now let's put a new rad in it. I'll flush the engine out. And yeah, I think they're still driving it now. And that was probably eight years ago I did that job.
00:23:03
Aniz Lavji
Jeez.
00:23:05
Tyler Van Gaalen
sir And then it still would have overheated.
00:23:05
Aniz Lavji
that That just shows the integrity of who you are, right? Because, I mean, if they would went to, you know, another shop, wherever it is, I mean, they could have fallen into wrong hands and they would be like, yep, we'll go ahead and do that for you. That's what you want. Yeah.
00:23:23
Frank Wiebe
yep
00:23:23
Aniz Lavji
Yeah.
00:23:23
Frank Wiebe
So that that overheating, I carry very well into the last or well, recent TikTok video that I had where you you you messaged me on it and it was like that Toyota engine that I did.
00:23:35
Frank Wiebe
And the reason they brought it in was they thought, I mean, it was overheating.
00:23:36
Tyler Van Gaalen
Yeah.
00:23:40
Frank Wiebe
and And so they said, well, they when they first called, they said, hey, you know how much to put head gaskets in? So we quoted out a head gasket job and we're like, ah that's an awful lot of money. Why don't we look at maybe a used engine?
00:23:56
Frank Wiebe
And we quoted that and then we like, well, maybe a remand engine. And they're like, you know what? We like the idea of putting remand engine in. So instead of anything else, let's just put a remand engine in.
00:24:06
Frank Wiebe
Oh, am I thankful that they did. as you As you saw those videos, like there was an inch and a half of gunk at the bottom of the open.
00:24:11
Tyler Van Gaalen
Yeah.
00:24:15
Tyler Van Gaalen
That was just, yeah, that was insane that that thing still ran.
00:24:19
Frank Wiebe
and no rattling noise whatsoever.
00:24:19
Aniz Lavji
I'm assuming
00:24:23
Frank Wiebe
I think the only reason that it was overheating is because it was lack of oil lubricant on the top, not coolant.
00:24:28
Tyler Van Gaalen
Yeah.
00:24:28
Frank Wiebe
like And there was no, and the coolant system was perfect, but i don't know. I never even drove the thing. Like I never even drove it to verify it. They said they wanted an engine. I brought it in and and I am so thankful that they went for a remand because how about that?
00:24:44
Tyler Van Gaalen
Oh, trying to clean this
00:24:44
Aniz Lavji
um was school it i'mssuming assuming it ran like crap though, right?
00:24:47
Frank Wiebe
No, it ran perfect.
00:24:49
Aniz Lavji
Why would they want an engine?
00:24:51
Frank Wiebe
because it was overheating.
00:24:53
Aniz Lavji
Hmm.
00:24:54
Frank Wiebe
So it was overheating and we, and we quoted them what it would cost to do head gaskets, right?
00:24:58
Aniz Lavji
Yeah.
00:24:58
Frank Wiebe
Cause you know, pull the heads off, send the heads off, get machined, all that kind of stuff.
00:24:58
Aniz Lavji
Okay. Yeah.
00:25:02
Aniz Lavji
Yeah. By the time you do all that.
00:25:03
Frank Wiebe
And by the time I do all that, it was X amount of dollars.
00:25:04
Aniz Lavji
Yeah.
00:25:07
Frank Wiebe
Right. And then we're like, well, what about a used engine? Cause Toyota's never go bad. Like if you've got, there's something wrong with your engine, whatever.
00:25:13
Tyler Van Gaalen
Not the new Tundras.
00:25:15
Frank Wiebe
Right. Yeah.
00:25:17
Aniz Lavji
Well, luckily, it only took you few hours to drop the engine in, right, Frank?
00:25:17
Frank Wiebe
So then we're like, Yeah, it was only five hours. Yeah, five hours, yeah whatever. but so but anyway So then, and then of course the remand engine didn't come with an oil pan.
00:25:22
Aniz Lavji
Hour and a half. It's quick.
00:25:28
Frank Wiebe
I'm like, oh crap. So I pulled the oil pan off and I'm like, what the heck is this? like And the rest of the engine looked fine. Like the top of it looked fine. Everywhere they looked, looked fine.
00:25:40
Frank Wiebe
But the oil pan, it was just slodge sludge, sludge, sludge.
00:25:43
Tyler Van Gaalen
Yeah, I'll strive here.
00:25:45
Frank Wiebe
Yeah, and it's a good thing that the remand came with a new oil pump because otherwise i would ah I would have been putting a new pump on it for sure.
00:25:52
Tyler Van Gaalen
Oh, 100%.
00:25:52
Frank Wiebe
What a mess that was.
00:25:52
Tyler Van Gaalen
I did once.
00:25:53
Frank Wiebe
That was ridiculous. I'd never seen anything like that before.
00:25:56
Aniz Lavji
Frank, hopefully you didn't take any videos and post it in the other group after that message.
00:25:57
Tyler Van Gaalen
i one
00:26:00
Aniz Lavji
I mean, then you would have been done.
00:26:02
Frank Wiebe
No, not on that group. They would have crucified me there. TikTok was nice to me on that one, so it was good. Facebook's never been good to me over the years.
00:26:13
Aniz Lavji
Yeah, that's, that's one thing I, I haven't done a whole lot of posting on Facebook. I think that's the next thing, but yeah, But no, sometimes people don't understand the the story behind the post as well.
00:26:27
Aniz Lavji
So, you know, they're not focusing on the point that you did that job.
00:26:27
Frank Wiebe
exactly yeah and that's what it was yeah yeah that's exactly exactly yeah
00:26:28
Tyler Van Gaalen
just They always jump to conclusions before they actually watch the video.
00:26:36
Aniz Lavji
It's more, well, your floor is dirty and you got a dirty rag hanging up on the left and, you know, your nose hair is longer on the left than the right side. I mean, you know, who cares, man? Like the point the video is this.
00:26:47
Frank Wiebe
no no and and i agree the shop did not look very clean and but again
00:26:53
Aniz Lavji
You didn't detail it, Frank. that's You have to live with that. It's okay.
00:26:56
Frank Wiebe
Like, no one knows what's going on with the front. Like, as as these other podcasters always say, the front of the house and the back house. Well, the front of my house is in absolute shambles right now because
00:27:06
Aniz Lavji
Your front of the house is in the back of the house right now.
00:27:09
Frank Wiebe
it it is exactly. Our office is completely gutted.
00:27:11
Aniz Lavji
You have one house, Frank. You don't have a front back.
00:27:12
Frank Wiebe
We're...
00:27:13
Aniz Lavji
You have one house right now.
00:27:14
Frank Wiebe
yeah We have one house right now. Yeah. Well, the office is being renovated, right? So it's like everything is everywhere and it's just, and we're busy. It's not like we're slow.
00:27:25
Frank Wiebe
We did this renovation now because we were hoping to be slow, but you know, we're not.
00:27:28
Aniz Lavji
Yep.
00:27:31
Tyler Van Gaalen
It's the same with us. I can't, I cannot believe it.
00:27:32
Frank Wiebe
So
00:27:33
Tyler Van Gaalen
Honestly, like January, February, halfway through March typically is slow.
00:27:39
Frank Wiebe
yeah. Yeah. It's like, hey, everyone goes on vacation in those months because
00:27:43
Tyler Van Gaalen
Yeah.
00:27:43
Frank Wiebe
nothing to do.
00:27:45
Tyler Van Gaalen
It is, it has not slowed down at all since I, I got carpal tunnel surgery actually almost a year ago, February.
00:27:47
Frank Wiebe
Nope.
00:27:51
Tyler Van Gaalen
And since then it has not slowed down maybe for like a day or two here and there, but it's awesome.
00:27:56
Frank Wiebe
Yep. Yeah. and and it so i find it odd when shops...
00:27:58
Tyler Van Gaalen
And I think the,
00:28:03
Frank Wiebe
go and say, oh, you know what, you know, guys are going home early. don't really got nothing to do. We're not doing 40 hours. Like, I understand maybe if you got like 10 bay shop or something like that, I can understand it get a little slower.
00:28:15
Tyler Van Gaalen
Yeah. Yep.
00:28:16
Frank Wiebe
But for me, like we have three bays. if if If we were all operational, all three bays, we'd be full right now. And it's just, yeah, I'm very, I'm very thankful for it, but it's been tough.
00:28:30
Aniz Lavji
you know Frank, just, you know, you can tow them my way. i got some free time, man.
00:28:36
Frank Wiebe
Oh, I keep telling. Just have your texts drive down. Oh, I guess I don't have room for them right now. But yeah, just just send your texts down to me for a couple of weeks. I can keep them busy.
00:28:44
Tyler Van Gaalen
It's nice and warm outside. You can work outside, right?
00:28:46
Frank Wiebe
ye Yeah, I got a couple of parts cars that need to be dismantled out there.
00:28:51
Aniz Lavji
Okay, let's not talk about your Chevy Cruze. We already know. You and your Chevy Cruze.
00:28:55
Frank Wiebe
and I need a steering rack off of one right now, but it's buried in four feet of snow, so that ain't happening.
00:29:03
Aniz Lavji
ah
00:29:03
Frank Wiebe
I'm going to get a used one from the records.
00:29:05
Aniz Lavji
Tyler, new do you do any, i don't know if you can say or not, but do you do any work there in your shop for family or friends or?
00:29:14
Tyler Van Gaalen
Yeah. Once in a while, yeah. Like, i I've been fixing my family's car since before I started working there, so I typically...
00:29:22
Aniz Lavji
I know sometimes, obviously working at a big dealer, they sometimes frown upon that. So that's why I'm not sure if you can comment on it, but yeah.
00:29:27
Tyler Van Gaalen
Yeah. Yeah. i I've already told them. I said I've worked on family's and friends' cars since before I started there, so give me one second to turn my furnace off.
00:29:40
Tyler Van Gaalen
It's going be noisy. Oh!
00:29:43
Aniz Lavji
but I'd love to have a hoist right there. like um up That's pretty sweet.
00:29:50
Frank Wiebe
I wouldn't. If had a hoist at home, then I'd just always be working in and never have time for other stuff.
00:29:56
Tyler Van Gaalen
My friends love it for sure.
00:29:58
Frank Wiebe
Yeah, of course your friends love it.
00:29:59
Aniz Lavji
I'm sure your friends love it.
00:30:01
Frank Wiebe
Then they come open bar and everything.
00:30:01
Tyler Van Gaalen
Actually, yeah,
00:30:04
Frank Wiebe
Why not?
00:30:05
Tyler Van Gaalen
around the corner. So my S10, I put a, I've got a six liter LS in it and a six speed manual. And my buddy bought an S10. He's like, oh, I want to the same thing. So he's had his engine around the corner with transmission for about five years now.
00:30:21
Tyler Van Gaalen
So i said, you're going to get it done this year or I'm going to sell it because I want my room back
00:30:27
Aniz Lavji
Oh, yeah.
00:30:27
Frank Wiebe
if yeah so That's about as long as my my old Chrysler's been sitting in my yard. Five years, i got a 1940 Chrysler that I want to build one day.
00:30:36
Tyler Van Gaalen
Oh, nice.
00:30:37
Frank Wiebe
And it's been sitting there for five years.
00:30:38
Tyler Van Gaalen
I'd like to...
00:30:40
Tyler Van Gaalen
Yeah, I want to get a classic car at some point soon because I love... This thing is fun. It still makes me smile, but the kids can't really ride in It's got the suicide seats in the back, so...
00:30:51
Frank Wiebe
Oh yeah, those are horrible.
00:30:51
Tyler Van Gaalen
I want to get... Yeah, I want to get something that can go in with me.
00:30:55
Frank Wiebe
Well, just just extend the cab, just go go buy another truck and just extend a cab and extend the frame and make like this limo truck out of it.
00:30:57
Tyler Van Gaalen
Yeah, there we go.
00:31:05
Tyler Van Gaalen
There we go.
00:31:06
Frank Wiebe
That'd be a lot that'd be a lot of fun.
00:31:06
Aniz Lavji
mean You can take it to Brampton.
00:31:08
Tyler Van Gaalen
Oh yeah.
00:31:09
Aniz Lavji
They'll do that in a half a day for you, man.
00:31:11
Tyler Van Gaalen
Yeah. Might not make it did off the parking lot, but it'll be done.
00:31:16
Aniz Lavji
Oh, yeah. It'll look like brand new. Anything's possible there, man.
GMC Sierra Frame Issue
00:31:22
Frank Wiebe
So the other thing, Tyler, that I wanted to talk about is you you had mentioned about Chevy trucks. We were talking about frames in your Toyotas and all these Chevy truck frames that are rotting too. you're the You want to tell us about that? You got something in the works with those things. So why don't you tell us about that?
00:31:40
Tyler Van Gaalen
Yeah, i I bought my, so I have a 2014 GMC Sierra. I bought it when i was two years old. I am religiously crowning it every year.
00:31:53
Tyler Van Gaalen
The body has zero rust anywhere on it.
00:31:56
Aniz Lavji
Yeah.
00:31:56
Tyler Van Gaalen
Rockers, cab corners, everything. There's not a single rust bubble speck of rust. ah Go underneath, right by the gas tank where they always rot out, and my frame has a hole in it.
00:32:09
Tyler Van Gaalen
And the shitty part is back when I bought the truck, there was a TSB from GM saying that, uh, the wax coating peels off and the frame rests from brand new.
00:32:22
Tyler Van Gaalen
So I had that TSB done. And so they obviously knew about the problem, but now it's out of warranty and now it has a hole in it.
00:32:30
Aniz Lavji
Yep. Yep. Yeah.
00:32:31
Tyler Van Gaalen
Even though like, even though I sprayed crown inside religiously, it's unfortunately because it was the wax coating they put on a bare frame there's no way you can really get that out from the inside of the frame so yeah it rotted out and uh i've called gm multiple times commented on their facebook like oh yeah sorry you know you're out of warranty but uh hey we really hope you buy another truck from us like go yourself like um so then i called transport canada is i actually did it once and i was successful in my my subaru actually the
00:32:55
Frank Wiebe
definite Yeah, right.
00:33:07
Tyler Van Gaalen
the spot welds for the brake and clutch pedal bracket on the firewall were broke off.
00:33:14
Aniz Lavji
Yeah.
00:33:14
Tyler Van Gaalen
So the whole bracket was shifting around. Every time I pushed the brakes, the whole bracket would move. They said, Oh, well, we don't think it's a safety concern. So you'll have to pay for it. I said, well, it is obviously a safety concern. Like this whole, I got like two spot welds holding this thing on.
00:33:30
Aniz Lavji
Yeah.
00:33:30
Tyler Van Gaalen
So I called, I said, I'm going to call transport Canada. So I did talk to them and then, They gave me the whole process. I called Suru Canada back and I said, Hey, they're saying that you guys should be fixing this.
00:33:44
Tyler Van Gaalen
So they said, okay, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah we'll fix it. Don't make a big deal out of it. So yeah, they took my whole dash out, did all the welds again and that, but as far as the truck, I sent a request in last year.
00:34:01
Tyler Van Gaalen
Funny enough, my neighbor across the street has the exact same year of truck. I put his up on the hoist here. exact same spot rotted through.
00:34:09
Aniz Lavji
well
00:34:10
Tyler Van Gaalen
um I put a Facebook ad up with the link to the Transport Canada. I probably got like, I think i had four people go through with it. So I sent it into CBC, CTV and nobody's called me back, unfortunately. But yeah, GM, it's sad because I've been, a other than the frame, that truck has been amazing. I've got 300,000 kilometers on it.
00:34:32
Tyler Van Gaalen
I've done two lower ball joints and two sway bar links and one wheel bearings. That's the only thing I've done to that truck.
00:34:37
Aniz Lavji
No breaks?
00:34:39
Tyler Van Gaalen
ah Once the rear brakes lasted 170K, and now I'm halfway through the second set at 300K. And the front's for, I've done twice. But I'm ah i'm high. like I live in Glencoe, so I'm mostly highway.
00:34:52
Aniz Lavji
Do you ever put your foot on the brake pedal or what? Jeez.
00:34:55
Tyler Van Gaalen
No.
00:34:56
Frank Wiebe
No, it just don't shift.
00:34:57
Tyler Van Gaalen
touch any
00:34:58
Frank Wiebe
Just don't run into the guy in front of you. That's all you need to do.
00:35:00
Tyler Van Gaalen
That's right.
00:35:02
Aniz Lavji
geez
00:35:02
Frank Wiebe
Yeah. so
00:35:02
Tyler Van Gaalen
Identity ram pickup. No.
00:35:04
Frank Wiebe
yeah See, I think, I can't remember if I had posted because there was a, had a truck on the hoist too that had rotted out framing. I think you were, you commented on or you you messaged me about it.
00:35:14
Frank Wiebe
And that's when you said, told me about the issue or what you've been trying to do with Transfer Canada. And I'm like, man, this is, it's in its unreal. Cause there's, there's actually a real problem with these things. There's a, there's a guy that I follow on Tik TOK and I think is called Henry's fab or something like that. He's somewhere in the Northern States of the U S there.
00:35:35
Tyler Van Gaalen
I think I've seen, yeah.
00:35:36
Frank Wiebe
I think. Yeah. and And he I think I might have sent it to you, but he that's what he does is he builds frame repairs for these things.
00:35:44
Tyler Van Gaalen
Yeah.
00:35:44
Frank Wiebe
And and it's like every single one of these is rotted out.
00:35:45
Aniz Lavji
Okay.
00:35:48
Frank Wiebe
And it's always in it's because they, that the thing is they should have made a drain hole right there.
00:35:49
Tyler Van Gaalen
It's pathetic.
00:35:54
Tyler Van Gaalen
Mm-hmm.
00:35:54
Frank Wiebe
It just, when you, when you take them up, when you open them up, there's like that much rust in the whole bottom of the frame. And it's in, it's a closed in channel, right?
00:36:01
Tyler Van Gaalen
Yeah.
00:36:02
Frank Wiebe
And that's, that's a design flaw that they had hundred percent. There should be a recall on those frames because how many I have failed because those cars are just so right. I have one at the shop right now.
00:36:13
Frank Wiebe
It's an O six. It's got 123 it. I think. And the body looks immaculate on this truck. Again, undercoat like crazy, but the frame, it doesn't actually have any holes in it, but it's very rusty.
00:36:27
Frank Wiebe
And and like,
00:36:28
Tyler Van Gaalen
Oh yeah. It's sad because like Toyota did it. I think like they were a little, they were forced to a little bit, but they also did it because it's Toyota.
00:36:32
Frank Wiebe
yeah.
00:36:36
Tyler Van Gaalen
they They like to take care of the customers and they sold a lot less trucks than GM has.
00:36:37
Frank Wiebe
Yeah.
00:36:42
Tyler Van Gaalen
Like GM has sold probably, i don't know what the number would be, but probably double trucks.
00:36:46
Frank Wiebe
Yeah, what the... But the thing is, those guys that bought those Toyotas and got those frames replaced back then, they're still driving those they're still driving those trucks today.
00:36:53
Aniz Lavji
They'll never buy a different truck.
00:36:54
Tyler Van Gaalen
Yeah.
00:36:56
Frank Wiebe
The guys have Chevys that same time, they're not.
00:36:56
Aniz Lavji
And they'll never buy a different one. You're going to go back to a Toyota. Yeah.
00:36:59
Frank Wiebe
Yeah. Yeah, i've got I've got one customer as's a religious Toyota guy. I think they've got four in the family right now. And he just loves his Toyota.
00:37:10
Frank Wiebe
He just absolutely loves it. And he just says, I'll never buy another truck than that. That's all I'm ever going to drive. I'm like, good for you. Me personally, i I don't like them.
00:37:19
Tyler Van Gaalen
Well, those five sevens.
00:37:21
Frank Wiebe
i I don't like the way that they sit in the field and they drive whatever, but that's just me.
00:37:25
Tyler Van Gaalen
Yeah, the last generation, because they were a bit of a lumber wagon.
00:37:26
Frank Wiebe
Yeah.
00:37:30
Tyler Van Gaalen
But those five sevens are insanely bulletproof. Like guy I've seen two go bad. One was a snow plow, the same as your six-owner one. This guy who was a snow plow driver and never changed the oil on it.
00:37:44
Tyler Van Gaalen
And it had the exact same amount of sludge in it. And then The other one was a Sequoia a couple of years ago and it was just the the chain tensioner failed, which is rare as well.
00:37:55
Tyler Van Gaalen
But other than that,
00:37:56
Frank Wiebe
Aren't they like stupid hard on fuel, those 5.7s?
00:37:59
Tyler Van Gaalen
yeah, that's the other shitty part.
00:38:00
Frank Wiebe
Yeah. that's That's what I thought.
00:38:03
Tyler Van Gaalen
Yeah.
00:38:03
Frank Wiebe
had a customer years ago with one and they just said it was unbearable almost, but they had to have it so they kept driving it.
00:38:09
Tyler Van Gaalen
Yeah. What you're saving on repairs, you're spending on gas.
00:38:14
Frank Wiebe
I guess, well, you know what trade off for one for the other.
00:38:14
Aniz Lavji
Yeah, I know. Probably
00:38:18
Tyler Van Gaalen
Yeah, these new Tundras we're doing, think one or two of those engine, there's an engine recall on the new V6 twin turbos.
00:38:18
Aniz Lavji
average.
00:38:26
Frank Wiebe
Okay.
00:38:26
Tyler Van Gaalen
So we're doing one or two of those a week. They just ship us a crate with, ah it's from pan all the way up to even the intercooler and everything on top. And we just transfer the all the components over the alternator compressor belts and wiring harness and put the new one in.
00:38:40
Aniz Lavji
Yep.
00:38:43
Frank Wiebe
Wow.
00:38:44
Tyler Van Gaalen
There's no rebuilding, there's no tearing apart.
00:38:46
Frank Wiebe
Yeah. Yeah.
00:38:48
Tyler Van Gaalen
all the metal going through them, which they say it was metal machining debris, which I'm not really sure on,
Supportive Work Environment
00:38:56
Tyler Van Gaalen
but, uh, my department.
00:38:56
Frank Wiebe
Yeah.
00:38:59
Aniz Lavji
When ah at at the shop is, um how many texts do you guys have over there at Toyota?
00:38:59
Frank Wiebe
yeah
00:39:04
Tyler Van Gaalen
Uh, so we have two used car guys. One guy is 60. sixty So he just does all the PDIs. Now he, he was the heavy, he was basically what I took over for. He did all the heavy stuff before.
00:39:15
Tyler Van Gaalen
Um, and we have, I think we have four apprentices and seven guys.
00:39:20
Aniz Lavji
Okay.
00:39:22
Tyler Van Gaalen
So it's pretty full now. I had two bays up until about five months ago, four or five months ago.
00:39:29
Aniz Lavji
Okay.
00:39:30
Tyler Van Gaalen
And now I got an apprentice that I'm training up.
00:39:32
Aniz Lavji
But hours wise, no issues, you know, hitting your hours every week.
00:39:37
Tyler Van Gaalen
Yeah. i've I've never been below 50 hours since I went flat rate. There's it's, I was like, we got it really good there. We have a company match pension. uh, stuff like that.
00:39:48
Aniz Lavji
great. Of
00:39:49
Tyler Van Gaalen
It's actually ah it's a good place to work. There's some politics like everywhere, like the dealership, there's always stuff.
00:39:53
Aniz Lavji
course. Yeah. And the only reason I ask because you you mentioned on any group flat rate and then all of a sudden you got like 6,000 people waiting for the ah the bait to jump on that conversation, you know.
00:40:07
Tyler Van Gaalen
A hundred percent. Yep.
00:40:08
Aniz Lavji
But that's ah that's excellent that you're able to get your hours and, you know, you don't feel the pressure of, oh, you know, it's slow, bays are empty. And, you know, someone else is getting preferred work over you. But, I mean, you're hitting your 40, 50 hours. I mean, you know, you're tickled pig.
00:40:26
Tyler Van Gaalen
Well, that's the thing too, is I've showed my apprentices and I've talked to even at the other guys, a lot of guys will, they'll bring an oil change in and they'll try and get it out as fast as they can. They won't look at anything. They'll just dump the oil, kick it out.
00:40:37
Tyler Van Gaalen
I have no problem spending five minutes on a car, even 10 minutes on a car saying, looking at the brakes, looking at bushings and stuff like that, looking at the history, of seeing what services they might need.
00:40:47
Aniz Lavji
Yep.
00:40:47
Tyler Van Gaalen
And I'll spend five minutes and turn into like today, I sold front rotors on a car that were rotted. Just for spending five minutes.
00:40:58
Aniz Lavji
Front rotors?
00:40:59
Tyler Van Gaalen
Yep.
00:41:00
Aniz Lavji
would you
00:41:00
Frank Wiebe
No, go ahead.
00:41:03
Aniz Lavji
sorry sorry Would you just change rotors or with the pads as well?
00:41:06
Tyler Van Gaalen
so like this was a 19 Corolla. So the pads are still about seven mil on them.
00:41:12
Aniz Lavji
Okay.
00:41:12
Tyler Van Gaalen
So we just, I have no problem sanding them down and I'll flip them around. If there's a little bit more wear on the inside one versus the outside, flip them around and get the most wear on the ins or the thicker one on the inside.
00:41:24
Tyler Van Gaalen
And we do also turn rotors, which and now i know i know you do, Frank, if I remember correct.
00:41:28
Frank Wiebe
Yep.
00:41:29
Aniz Lavji
Oh, really?
00:41:29
Tyler Van Gaalen
We still do.
00:41:29
Frank Wiebe
Yep.
00:41:32
Tyler Van Gaalen
Toyotas are very thick.
00:41:32
Frank Wiebe
yeah
00:41:33
Tyler Van Gaalen
Yep.
00:41:35
Aniz Lavji
You wouldn't find any issues.
00:41:35
Frank Wiebe
see something similar similar to that i've seen on the dodge my my friend used to work well caleb that we had on the podcast a couple of weeks ago he used to work at a the oxford dodge i think it was oxford anyways whatever and and same thing too like he said there was vehicles that come in that are almost brand new but the rotors are just rotten on them but
00:41:43
Aniz Lavji
Oh, yeah.
00:41:55
Tyler Van Gaalen
Yeah, it's...
00:41:56
Frank Wiebe
they don't they don't cover them under any kind of warranty because it's called wear and tear. So you got like 10,000 kilometers on the sink, needs rotors, and you got to replace the rotors. So in he said in that case too, no pads, just new rotors, and off if you go.
00:42:05
Tyler Van Gaalen
Yeah, I hate
00:42:10
Aniz Lavji
we did a bunch 2017 Honda's 2017 to 2019 Honda Civics they'd come in with like 40k on them and their rotors are absolute garbagio I mean you could you could you could play an instrument on the amount of grooves that were on those rotors
00:42:10
Tyler Van Gaalen
Yeah, and I hate it.
00:42:24
Frank Wiebe
Yep.
00:42:24
Tyler Van Gaalen
Oh, 100%. And Corollas for a while were like...
00:42:30
Frank Wiebe
Oh, wow.
00:42:30
Tyler Van Gaalen
Yeah.
00:42:31
Aniz Lavji
And we were selling break jobs like crazy.
00:42:35
Tyler Van Gaalen
This thing here has the original rotors, at least when I bought it. And I'm pretty sure that the original rotors, they not even rotted. Like, I don't drive it in the winter anymore, obviously. I can't. But I drove it the first year. I owned it when I sold the V6. I drove it for the winter.
00:42:51
Aniz Lavji
Wow.
00:42:52
Tyler Van Gaalen
It never got the rust and crap that the all these newer rotors have. It's I hate it. It's I feel bad for saying, Hey, your car's three years old. It needs new rotors two or three years old.
00:43:03
Aniz Lavji
Oh, yeah. And we had customers, like, we we'd know send pictures to them, and then they'd go back to Honda, and they'd say, well, why are my roadways rusted? And they're like, well, this is just wear and tear. It'll be X amount of dollars to fix it. And they're like, this is ridiculous.
00:43:20
Tyler Van Gaalen
It's, it's every brand though. I think it's not just Toyota, Honda.
00:43:22
Frank Wiebe
Yeah.
00:43:22
Tyler Van Gaalen
it's
00:43:23
Aniz Lavji
You can't get away from it. it And again, these are customers that never do a brake service, never... you know, bring it in once or twice a year and have the brakes looked at, get them cleaned up.
00:43:35
Tyler Van Gaalen
Yeah, we do it once a year. We recommend brake services once a year.
00:43:37
Aniz Lavji
Yep.
00:43:38
Tyler Van Gaalen
And I actually even went up to the owner and said, Subaru, what Subaru does, is they actually do a brake service on the PDI when the car is brand new, they lube everything up.
00:43:39
Aniz Lavji
Yep.
00:43:48
Tyler Van Gaalen
I said, We should be doing that. We can charge an extra hour or whatever on the PDI, take the brakes part, put lube on it. And that way it keeps them moving instead of letting them seize up.
00:43:57
Frank Wiebe
yep
00:43:57
Aniz Lavji
Yeah, but if it seizes up, then he can sell the work. That's probably why he's like, yeah, no.
00:44:00
Tyler Van Gaalen
Oh, hundred percent.
00:44:00
Aniz Lavji
Oh,
00:44:02
Tyler Van Gaalen
But, uh, yeah, I actually had a, my massage therapist has 2021 Audi Q7, the bigger SUV.
00:44:10
Aniz Lavji
yeah. I had one.
00:44:11
Tyler Van Gaalen
And she said, oh, they said, they said I needed brakes and she only had 40,000 kilometers on it.
00:44:17
Aniz Lavji
course.
00:44:17
Tyler Van Gaalen
I said, What? So I they quoted her $2,700 for front brakes on this thing.
00:44:24
Aniz Lavji
Only.
00:44:25
Tyler Van Gaalen
And I said, let me, let me take a look.
00:44:25
Frank Wiebe
exactly
00:44:27
Tyler Van Gaalen
So I called my buddy who works at Napa and he has the, he had the fully coated rotors and I think they were 400 bucks each.
00:44:34
Aniz Lavji
Yep.
00:44:37
Tyler Van Gaalen
And then the pads were, i said, get Audi pads because of the noise. i don't want to deal with noise, but the even the pads were like 600 bucks or something like that.
00:44:41
Aniz Lavji
Yeah, yeah.
00:44:47
Aniz Lavji
You could get Zimmerman rotors, which are, you know, even the box, you can't even read it because it's in German. And even those rotors are not going to be more than like 200 bucks.
00:44:58
Tyler Van Gaalen
Yeah. Well, she, uh, Shannon wanting the Audi was oh, I just, it's an Audi. I want the OEM stuff. And I i was leading with her to buy the coded ones because they will, the Audi ones are not coded and I ended up getting the Audi ones.
00:45:05
Aniz Lavji
Yep.
00:45:12
Tyler Van Gaalen
There's no, they're the same as the Toyota rotors. The ones that I pulled off of this car that were three or four years old, we're just saying what you guys are saying. Absolutely horrendous. Like the amount of rot on these rotors was ridiculous.
00:45:21
Frank Wiebe
Yep.
00:45:25
Aniz Lavji
It's unfortunate because they spend $60,000, $80,000 on the vehicle brand new and
00:45:32
Tyler Van Gaalen
Yeah.
00:45:32
Aniz Lavji
and The quality of the parts, I mean, just put something on that will last them. Give them 60 out of them. mean, least... at least
00:45:42
Tyler Van Gaalen
Yeah. Well, the other thing I tell customers too, is and I try and do this a lot is especially with the hybrids. I said every day do a couple of hard stops because the hybrids, you don't actually use the brakes when you're doing light braking, it's regenerative braking.
00:45:59
Tyler Van Gaalen
So it,
00:45:59
Frank Wiebe
Yeah.
00:46:00
Tyler Van Gaalen
I said, do a couple of hard stops just to keep the rotors clean because the hybrids are worse because of that.
00:46:05
Aniz Lavji
Yeah.
00:46:05
Frank Wiebe
Yeah.
00:46:05
Tyler Van Gaalen
And these people that are really light foot breaking and they never clean the rotors off. And the other part is the Toyota pads are really soft. So even when they do break, they're not cleaning as much off as they could.
00:46:19
Aniz Lavji
yeah
00:46:20
Frank Wiebe
Yeah. Tesla owners run into that a lot.
00:46:22
Tyler Van Gaalen
Yeah.
00:46:23
Frank Wiebe
Um, The cars that used to be bad for that back in the day was the old Volkswagen Jetta Golf diesel manual transmission. We had one customer years ago and every year we put brakes on our car because they just rotted away. She never used it. she always She's like, well, I'm always downshifting. Get down the first gear and then at the very end, just lightly put on the brakes and stop.
00:46:46
Frank Wiebe
And
00:46:47
Tyler Van Gaalen
Yeah.
00:46:48
Frank Wiebe
And then all of a sudden she needed to use the brakes. just like, ah like, well, you need new pads and rotors. They just rotted away because they were never used. They were never heated up, never dried, know, that kind of stuff.
00:46:58
Frank Wiebe
so
00:46:58
Aniz Lavji
You should find that person, a friend that's always on their brakes and then they just switch their cars every, every two months to three months and one cancels out the other.
00:47:05
Frank Wiebe
Just, yeah, just, yeah, yeah. Just borrow you board my car for a week. Yeah, exactly. That's bad. Yeah. Like people always like, oh, I'm i'm gentle on my brakes. I'm easy. up No, no, don't be.
00:47:18
Frank Wiebe
you're you're You're hurting yourself more. Use the brakes that are meant to be used, and they'll wear out in their amount of time. But,
00:47:25
Tyler Van Gaalen
And beat the shit out of the car once in a while to clear the cat out and everything just.
00:47:28
Frank Wiebe
yeah, 100%.
00:47:29
Tyler Van Gaalen
Yep.
00:47:31
Frank Wiebe
I do it whenever there's winter outside. On my truck, it's a good ride. i I make sure that it's easy.
00:47:36
Tyler Van Gaalen
That's my Yep.
00:47:38
Frank Wiebe
The traction, advanced track off, four-wheel drive off, rear diff lock. Let's go.
00:47:45
Aniz Lavji
Yeah.
00:47:45
Frank Wiebe
Yeah, yeah that's that's when that's when driving's fun again.
00:47:49
Tyler Van Gaalen
Oh yeah. Yeah. The other thing too, is, uh, I know you guys do it. I would talk about advocating for customers. Um, one thing I've seen too many times is say you get a Corolla coming in with a couple hundred thousand kilometers, lift it up in the hoist.
00:48:09
Tyler Van Gaalen
Rockers are gone. Like stuff like that. They've at the counter, they sold them services like spark plugs and all this stuff. And go I go to them and said, this car is not worth the $200 you're putting in for like the spark plugs.
00:48:25
Tyler Van Gaalen
Oh, just they wanted the spark plugs.
00:48:26
Aniz Lavji
Yep.
00:48:28
Tyler Van Gaalen
Just do it. I said, oh, it's not worth it. Some guys, there's people there that will like, they'll put it in. right I can't do it.
00:48:37
Aniz Lavji
But, but you got to think about one thing is yes.
00:48:38
Tyler Van Gaalen
I say like, I'd rather you.
00:48:39
Frank Wiebe
Yeah.
00:48:43
Aniz Lavji
Like the guy wants to spend 200 or 500 bucks to get those plugs done. And, you know, I completely understand where you're coming from, but that vehicle may be the only vehicle they have and to keep it reliable enough to maybe hold them off till they can get the other vehicle.
00:49:04
Aniz Lavji
They may have to spend, they may have to spend that dough and it's hass happened at my shop too.
00:49:04
Tyler Van Gaalen
Yeah, a hundred percent. Yeah.
00:49:09
Aniz Lavji
I'll get somebody coming in and the car is like complete garbage. And the guy wants to draw drop 2,500 bucks on front rear suspension brakes rotors. And I'll tell them like,
00:49:23
Aniz Lavji
This car is not worth it because you have no frame, basically. But they can't buy a car for $20.
00:49:31
Frank Wiebe
Yeah, and that's where you got to talk a customer into like, what needs to be done?
00:49:33
Aniz Lavji
Yeah, yeah,
00:49:35
Frank Wiebe
Like what is absolutely necessary?
00:49:36
Tyler Van Gaalen
Yeah. Yeah.
00:49:37
Aniz Lavji
yeah.
00:49:37
Frank Wiebe
What? just just Just like that Volkswagen, I guess it was, T1. Like you don't need a cool and flush right now. You don't need it. You need to maybe top up your coolant, make sure it's good. Yeah, we'll talk about the coolant flush later and You need to get these control arms done.
00:49:54
Frank Wiebe
This way, this vehicle safe for your new wife and your baby. And that that way you can keep driving it. So thankful, right?
00:50:01
Aniz Lavji
Keep it safe. that's That's the main thing.
00:50:02
Frank Wiebe
Yeah, keep it safe, keep keep it safe, keep it affordable and you'll have customers for life.
00:50:03
Aniz Lavji
Just keep it safe.
00:50:08
Frank Wiebe
Like this this guy, and I'm sure that, you I'm pretty sure he was a first time customer to us.
00:50:09
Tyler Van Gaalen
Yep.
00:50:15
Frank Wiebe
and And hey, this is this is what it's all about. like i always you know i tell people that that ask and and say I say that my slogan is what I live by. Go further with integrity.
00:50:29
Frank Wiebe
I work with integrity. I live by integrity. and And I service your vehicles with integrity. and And I want you to understand that I'm not going to do something to say, you know what, I'm selling this to you just because I need to make more money.
00:50:41
Aniz Lavji
Yeah.
00:50:42
Frank Wiebe
i told I told this guy today, I said, I'm not ah looking for more work. I have lots of work right now. i don't need to I don't need to pick on this and say, hey, do this because I need to have more work.
00:50:54
Frank Wiebe
It's not what do. do this because this is what you need to have your car safe. And you know what, we're in the same we're in the same boat So that's good good to hear lot of guys at dealerships they just they don't care right they just nope got a bank got a flag there it's got a flag there's and then
00:51:11
Tyler Van Gaalen
That's what pisses me off because going back to the whole pride thing is like I will say I probably flag the most hours there but I do a good job first and that's the
00:51:12
Frank Wiebe
and it's a
00:51:17
Aniz Lavji
Yeah.
00:51:23
Aniz Lavji
But you do it ethically and that's the thing.
00:51:23
Tyler Van Gaalen
my number one priority.
00:51:25
Aniz Lavji
You do it ethically.
00:51:26
Tyler Van Gaalen
Yeah. And that I'll give example.
00:51:27
Frank Wiebe
yeah
00:51:28
Tyler Van Gaalen
There's one guy not there anymore.
00:51:32
Tyler Van Gaalen
The old Benza's RAV4s, they had a TSB, like the Fords where the cam gear phaser would rattle on startup.
00:51:40
Aniz Lavji
Yeah.
00:51:40
Tyler Van Gaalen
So the TSB was replaced the intake phaser. So he got one.
00:51:43
Frank Wiebe
Yeah.
00:51:44
Tyler Van Gaalen
He replaced the intake phaser. There's no check-in, nothing, no drivability issues with this s thing before he did the cam phaser. Starts it up, runs it. Oh, there's an engine light and a misfire, number one.
00:51:58
Tyler Van Gaalen
Oh, it's got to be the spark plugs and the coils. So he sells them spark plugs and coils. Oh, it's still not working. let's ah Let's do a fuel injection flush on it. And I said, check your cam timing. is that I said, guarantee your tooth off. No, no, no. No, it that it's an ejector, blah, blah, blah, blah. Yeah, it was the timing jumped the tooth when you put the gear in.
00:52:22
Aniz Lavji
He just basically uses the parts cannon.
00:52:24
Tyler Van Gaalen
Yeah, it just drives me nuts. like And same stupid little things like when you're taking wheels off, a lot of guys won't put any lube on the hub surface when they're putting an aluminum rim back on or even a steel rim. It takes two seconds. You're going to spend the time to clean it off.
00:52:42
Tyler Van Gaalen
Put lube on it. and It makes more sense for the customer. like Say your customer's on the side of the road trying to get the tire off and they can't get it off.
00:52:49
Aniz Lavji
Yep.
00:52:51
Tyler Van Gaalen
Well, they try and kick the tire off. The car falls off the jack. Just all because you didn't spend two seconds and leave it.
00:52:58
Aniz Lavji
Wait, you're not supposed to put any seeds there?
00:53:01
Tyler Van Gaalen
Yeah. Always sees.
00:53:03
Frank Wiebe
what what what what is your What is your preferred method ah or type of lube for that?
00:53:05
Aniz Lavji
Oh, yeah.
00:53:09
Tyler Van Gaalen
So we use, uh, it's called worth film and it's an oil based, that stuff I will say is the absolute best stuff for that, that I've ever used.
00:53:14
Frank Wiebe
ye
00:53:20
Tyler Van Gaalen
We've.
00:53:20
Frank Wiebe
hot Honey goo is a very similar product and fluid film, those those two.
00:53:23
Tyler Van Gaalen
Yeah.
00:53:26
Tyler Van Gaalen
I actually have a can on that cart back there.
00:53:28
Frank Wiebe
yeah Yep. Yep.
00:53:29
Tyler Van Gaalen
It's a hit.
00:53:29
Aniz Lavji
Honey goo sounds like something you get from the cannabis store, Frank.
00:53:32
Frank Wiebe
I mean, you could.
00:53:32
Tyler Van Gaalen
Yeah.
00:53:34
Frank Wiebe
you could.
00:53:34
Tyler Van Gaalen
That's later.
00:53:35
Frank Wiebe
You could use it as personal lubricant if you wanted to, especially the honey honey goo. That stuff smells good.
00:53:41
Tyler Van Gaalen
Yeah. The people putting ADCs on the, on aluminum rim and a steel rotor is like, now you're adding a third dissimilar metal to it.
00:53:42
Frank Wiebe
You take it.
00:53:50
Tyler Van Gaalen
and it's just,
00:53:51
Frank Wiebe
Yeah.
00:53:54
Aniz Lavji
what um What are your plans, Tyler, for the future, man? Where do you see yourself in five years?
Considering His Own Shop?
00:54:00
Tyler Van Gaalen
You know what? I toyed around with it for a long time about maybe opening my shop, my own shop. But, uh, then I had kids and I will say I started at seven 30 and I'm done at four 30 every day.
00:54:11
Frank Wiebe
You
00:54:11
Aniz Lavji
Yep.
00:54:11
Frank Wiebe
thank you commitment
00:54:17
Tyler Van Gaalen
Come home for the most part, leave it. I have a 45 minute drive so I can, any bullshit that I have at work, I can usually lose the time I get home.
00:54:24
Aniz Lavji
Yep. Yep, yep.
00:54:26
Tyler Van Gaalen
I know, I know you can, uh, you can turn your phones off and stuff like that for if you own your own shop and stuff like that. But I just like, yeah.
00:54:35
Aniz Lavji
Not the same. Sorry.
00:54:36
Tyler Van Gaalen
And like the benefits, the ah pension, everything else.
00:54:39
Aniz Lavji
i' said
00:54:39
Tyler Van Gaalen
Um, and the, so my, my mentor that trained me up when I was an apprentice, he, he came in at a good time. So my, my, my old man passed away when I was 22, he was 47 and I became a bit of an asshole for a little bit.
00:54:50
Aniz Lavji
so here
00:54:54
Tyler Van Gaalen
It just, it obviously got me a bit. So, uh, He straightened me out and what he told me back then, and it still sticks with me, he said, ah he owned his own shop for 17 years before.
00:55:07
Aniz Lavji
Yep.
00:55:08
Tyler Van Gaalen
He said he loved it, but you're always there either bookkeeping or you're always there taking care of customers late or getting that phone call.
00:55:16
Aniz Lavji
Yeah. I'm
00:55:17
Tyler Van Gaalen
Hey, can you do this for me? Stuff like that. And he said, the end of the day, he he made more money working at the dealership and less stress at the end of the day and So like i do stuff here once in a while, like friends and family, I have no problem doing stuff after hours to an extent.
00:55:30
Aniz Lavji
sure.
00:55:34
Aniz Lavji
sure
00:55:36
Tyler Van Gaalen
But yeah, I actually do crown oil sprays here too, once in a while in the fall.
00:55:41
Aniz Lavji
Oh, yeah. Well, you have a lot of perks where you are too, right? So, I mean, you're you're obviously being treated well. The culture, I'm assuming, at that dealership is is very good. and that's why you've been there for so long.
00:55:55
Tyler Van Gaalen
Yeah, we actually, that's one thing I will say is for a while it was pretty bad. Like typical dealer, like the stuff you hear about dealerships.
00:56:01
Aniz Lavji
Yeah, yeah.
00:56:02
Tyler Van Gaalen
It was like that for a while, about five years ago, six years ago.
00:56:02
Aniz Lavji
Yep.
00:56:06
Tyler Van Gaalen
but we got a really good group of guys there and we all worked together. There's nobody, nobody fighting, nobody like, I'm not going to help you. Like it does.
00:56:15
Aniz Lavji
And that makes all the difference. I mean, that makes all the difference going to work and leaving work.
00:56:17
Tyler Van Gaalen
It's a huge, yeah.
00:56:17
Frank Wiebe
Yeah.
00:56:19
Aniz Lavji
ah you know You walk in, you see your buddies there, or your colleagues, and it's not, there's no, oh man, you know, I better make sure I get this ticket before he gets it. Or he's always already going up there to grab another ticket.
00:56:30
Tyler Van Gaalen
Yeah.
00:56:33
Aniz Lavji
He's undone with the other car. And
00:56:35
Tyler Van Gaalen
Yeah. And I have actually one of my, my best friends works with me there. He came over about five years ago and it's just, so we bounce stuff off each other all the time and throw snowballs at me.
00:56:44
Frank Wiebe
Yeah, you gotta have that.
00:56:44
Aniz Lavji
No, that's wonderful.
00:56:46
Frank Wiebe
It's so nice to be able to have someone that you can work with that you can bounce ideas off of.
00:56:50
Tyler Van Gaalen
Oh yeah.
00:56:50
Aniz Lavji
What if someone would give you hand with something too, right?
00:56:50
Frank Wiebe
Sure helps to make diagnosing easier sometimes.
00:56:53
Aniz Lavji
Because I mean, a lot of places that I've heard that, you know, you may need a hand to hold this up or something. And, you know, another tech won't even walk over because they're too busy trying to get the next car and trying to get the next car.
00:57:06
Frank Wiebe
Mm-hmm, yeah.
00:57:06
Aniz Lavji
It's
00:57:07
Tyler Van Gaalen
Oh yeah. Yeah. It's definitely not like that there. It's I, I love that part of it. It's yeah.
00:57:12
Aniz Lavji
great.
00:57:12
Tyler Van Gaalen
Yeah.
00:57:13
Frank Wiebe
That's good to hear. Good stuff.
00:57:15
Aniz Lavji
That's fantastic. i'm i'm ah I'm glad we got a chance to get you on the the podcast today. um
00:57:22
Tyler Van Gaalen
I appreciate it
00:57:23
Aniz Lavji
And honestly, if I wanted a home shop, I think I'd probably make mine similar to yours because you got the bar right there.
00:57:29
Tyler Van Gaalen
it.
00:57:29
Frank Wiebe
but
00:57:31
Tyler Van Gaalen
I never thought in a million years I would have something like this because I grew up in a,
00:57:32
Aniz Lavji
That's that's really cool.
00:57:36
Tyler Van Gaalen
In London, my parents had a ton of money. my My first house was tiny. It was 600 square feet. And then started looking outside of the big city. And I'm glad I did because I came out here in 2018.
00:57:48
Tyler Van Gaalen
And it's, I'll never live in London again. It ridiculously busy.
00:57:54
Aniz Lavji
How far out from London are you?
00:57:54
Frank Wiebe
Yeah.
00:57:56
Tyler Van Gaalen
About 45 minutes west.
00:57:57
Aniz Lavji
Okay.
00:57:58
Tyler Van Gaalen
So right between London and Chatham.
00:58:00
Aniz Lavji
Nice, nice.
00:58:01
Tyler Van Gaalen
Yeah, nice and quiet out here.
00:58:02
Aniz Lavji
It looks like they nice setup there.
00:58:04
Tyler Van Gaalen
Yeah, I can just jump my ATV and ride to all the trails that are around here and it's great.
00:58:09
Aniz Lavji
Beauty. Oh, that's great, man. Thank you so much, Tyler. We really appreciate you coming on the podcast. And let's, you know, let's all, I know you and Frank have a contact information, but let's all keep in touch and hopefully we'll check back in with you sometime in the future and see how you're doing and see where you're at.
00:58:17
Tyler Van Gaalen
and Thanks for having me.
00:58:30
Tyler Van Gaalen
Yeah, I'll come stop by your shop soon, Frank, if you're there.
00:58:34
Frank Wiebe
Oh yeah, i'm I'm always there at least from eight to five, except, you know, I might be on vacation, you know, sometime soon. So two at least, two two that I've confirmed I'm going to.
00:58:41
Aniz Lavji
Frank has think has at least four conferences to go to this year, right, Frank?
00:58:41
Tyler Van Gaalen
Nice.
00:58:49
Frank Wiebe
So yeah.
00:58:49
Aniz Lavji
Yeah, four.
00:58:53
Tyler Van Gaalen
Yeah, I'd like to go to one of those, like, ASDA one time. Yep.
00:58:57
Aniz Lavji
Oh, man. Well, weve we got if you have a few minutes, I actually went to ASTA for the first time last year.
00:58:58
Frank Wiebe
Well, we're,
00:59:05
Aniz Lavji
Literally changed my life, man. If you've never been to a conference, it literally will change your life.
00:59:10
Frank Wiebe
Yeah, we're going to go to that one this year.
00:59:11
Tyler Van Gaalen
I gotta talk
00:59:12
Frank Wiebe
We're going to tools first.
00:59:12
Aniz Lavji
Yep.
00:59:13
Frank Wiebe
So that's in April. We're doing that one and then we're going to hope to do ASTA and in September.
00:59:19
Aniz Lavji
Yep.
00:59:20
Tyler Van Gaalen
What was the one you were talking about for that's in Toronto? was I think it was you were talking about it.
00:59:25
Frank Wiebe
I don't know if there was one.
00:59:25
Aniz Lavji
Was it the AA?
00:59:26
Tyler Van Gaalen
Or no.
00:59:28
Aniz Lavji
I don't know the abbreviation for the one.
00:59:30
Frank Wiebe
I don't know. I didn't know there was one in Toronto.
00:59:31
Tyler Van Gaalen
Hmm.
00:59:32
Frank Wiebe
Maybe.
00:59:33
Aniz Lavji
There was one
00:59:33
Tyler Van Gaalen
No, maybe it was Jeff. Jeff was talking about it, maybe. It was, uh, there's something in
00:59:36
Frank Wiebe
Maybe.
00:59:37
Aniz Lavji
AARO or A something. Yeah.
00:59:39
Frank Wiebe
Oh, yeah. Okay. Yeah, there is one. and I heard that it wasn't all it was cracked up to be.
00:59:47
Tyler Van Gaalen
Toronto. Okay.
00:59:47
Frank Wiebe
but You're right. It was AARO.
00:59:50
Aniz Lavji
Yeah.
00:59:50
Frank Wiebe
um And there's there's this group that I'm part of and this guy. Wait, was that supposed to be today? That meeting? No, that's next week.
01:00:02
Frank Wiebe
No, that was sweet today.
01:00:03
Tyler Van Gaalen
yeah
01:00:03
Aniz Lavji
Well, you're late anyways now.
01:00:05
Frank Wiebe
I guess I missed it. Oh, my gosh.
01:00:08
Tyler Van Gaalen
Nice.
01:00:08
Frank Wiebe
Anyways, ah but that's, he pushes for that all the time. And, and I'm like, ah from what I've heard that it's, it's a very unorganized.
01:00:19
Aniz Lavji
I've seen the trainings and stuff that they're offering, and from from what I can see, it's nothing yeah there's nothing that i'd I'd really take right now.
01:00:21
Frank Wiebe
Yeah. Not the trainings in the area. So I don't know I've never been, but we'll see how tools is going to be. I'm i'm really looking forward to tools.
01:00:32
Frank Wiebe
um And then, yeah, we're going to try ASTA in the fall and see.
01:00:37
Aniz Lavji
no trying No trying, Frank.
01:00:37
Frank Wiebe
But that's that's that's yep that's the the only two that's the only two that we're going to go to because it's just we will not be able to take the time to do more than that this year.
01:00:37
Tyler Van Gaalen
nice
01:00:39
Aniz Lavji
You got to go.
01:00:48
Frank Wiebe
But maybe maybe next year if we hire a tech, get ah get a licensed tech going in the shop as well, then we might be able to do a little bit more.
01:00:57
Aniz Lavji
Depending on how the podcast goes, maybe we'll we'll be recording from the actual expos one of these days, Frank.
01:00:57
Tyler Van Gaalen
Yeah, I've always loved, uh,
01:01:03
Frank Wiebe
Hey, I'll be okay with that.
01:01:06
Aniz Lavji
i'm I'm heading to – oh, my God, where am I going? I'm going to Vision in Kansas City in March.
01:01:11
Frank Wiebe
Yep.
01:01:14
Aniz Lavji
So I've never been – apparently that's supposed to be a lot of fun and a lot of good training there. So
Toyota Training Courses
01:01:20
Aniz Lavji
heading there and then – okay.
01:01:20
Tyler Van Gaalen
and i love the, love the training like Toyota puts on really good training courses. I haven't been to one since 2019. But I'm so the guy that trained me back in 2010, when I first started going there was he's actually the field warranty or the field tech.
01:01:27
Aniz Lavji
Okay.
01:01:36
Tyler Van Gaalen
So anytime we have a really big problem, Carla, nobody can figure out he comes and helps.
01:01:39
Aniz Lavji
Yep. Yep.
01:01:40
Tyler Van Gaalen
And so I talked to him
Updated Electrified Vehicle Course
01:01:42
Tyler Van Gaalen
fairly regular. And I said, Hey, they're offering the new there's a it was called the hybrid vehicle course originally, but now it's called electrified vehicle course. And I said,
01:01:52
Tyler Van Gaalen
Is there, I'm assuming there's a lot more new stuff in there. And he said, absolutely go. So I talked to the boss and I said, Hey, I want to, I want take this course because it's, it's been probably eight years since I've gone.
01:02:04
Tyler Van Gaalen
And a lot has changed in those eight years. So it's nice that they're, they're open to sending me, I get to stay in a hotel in Toronto or Scarborough and, uh, it's usually a couple of days.
01:02:14
Tyler Van Gaalen
So it's,
01:02:15
Aniz Lavji
It makes all the difference that when your employer supports training, right? Because you can never know everything.
01:02:20
Tyler Van Gaalen
Yeah, you never will. And that's i always learning. And yeah, Toyota, nice thing about the Toyota training too is there's only eight people in the class. So it's very easy to stop and ask a question and not feel pressured to keep
01:02:33
Aniz Lavji
Yeah.
Podcast and Event Mentions
01:02:35
Tyler Van Gaalen
going.
01:02:35
Tyler Van Gaalen
And
01:02:36
Frank Wiebe
Okay. Very impersonal.
01:02:37
Aniz Lavji
I know, um I know on, I don't know if you listen to Confessions of a Shop Owner with Mike Allen.
01:02:39
Tyler Van Gaalen
yeah.
01:02:39
Frank Wiebe
That's good.
01:02:45
Tyler Van Gaalen
No, I haven't listened to that one yet.
01:02:46
Aniz Lavji
<unk>re You're missing out, first of all. You definitely got to listen to that. He's absolutely hilarious.
01:02:50
Tyler Van Gaalen
Yeah.
01:02:51
Aniz Lavji
Really, really nice guy. So I met him when I was at ASTA. So he's actually doing a draw, I believe, and they're giving out a ticket to ASTA for first-time people going.
01:03:07
Aniz Lavji
So you may want to check that out.
01:03:07
Tyler Van Gaalen
Yeah. Yeah.
Ongoing Training Importance
01:03:10
Aniz Lavji
But yeah, there's ASTA and there's also a tectonic, which is in April. So and I'm planning on going to that as well. i'm already booked for that. So you can never have enough training, but obviously the the biggest issue is time, right?
01:03:22
Frank Wiebe
Nice.
01:03:26
Aniz Lavji
Got to make time to at least make it to something every year and expand your knowledge, right?
01:03:32
Tyler Van Gaalen
Yeah. I've done a couple of the, snap on and APC courses too. My buddy, used to, buddy that works with me now, he used to work at Meineke and stuff. So they get a little more access to that kind of stuff. So I tagged along with him a couple of times and it was, it was nice.
Encouraging Training Participation & Closing Remarks
01:03:46
Aniz Lavji
That's great.
01:03:46
Frank Wiebe
nice
01:03:48
Aniz Lavji
I'm dragging Frank to as many as I can this year one way or the other.
01:03:52
Frank Wiebe
We'll do our best.
01:03:54
Aniz Lavji
but But yeah, thanks, Tyler. We're pushing an hour here. I know it's getting late and everyone wants to go to bed soon. So I really appreciate it. And Frank, thanks for getting Tyler on here as usual.
01:04:07
Frank Wiebe
Yeah, absolutely.
01:04:07
Tyler Van Gaalen
Nice meeting you guys and nice chatting with you.
01:04:07
Aniz Lavji
Thanks.
01:04:10
Frank Wiebe
Indeed.
01:04:11
Aniz Lavji
You too. Just hang on the pod here for a second, but thank you so much for joining us tonight.
01:04:16
Tyler Van Gaalen
Thank you.