how to become a mechanic online Archives - Automotive For Beginners

When Will We Run Out Of Oil: What To Do About It

Is There a Cheaper Solution to Our Oil Crisis?

There’s a lot of discussion lately as to whether or not we’ll be running out of oil soon. Should we be concerned?

Learn here what you can do about the situation, and the steps you can take to maneuver these turbulent times.

Where Crude Oil All Began

But first, let’s take a brief look at the history of crude oil. Not long ago in Baku, Azerbaijan was the first oil refinery established in 1837.

Fast forward 185 years to today and now we’re all worked up about whether or not we’ll have enough oil to last us the next 50 years.

To put that into perspective, it took China 2,100 years to completely finish building the Great Wall.

How is that related? We are burning through and using resources quicker than it would take to build something like the Great Wall. And let’s not forget that it takes millions of years to produce the fossil fuel we use for our gasoline.

Surely we can reverse this whole mess we’re in, right?

assessing the current situation

Electric vehicles are on the rise and will likely become a solid alternative. But will they able to completely replace gasoline vehicles?

How about oil changes? Will we all have to shift to expensive synthetic oil changes from now on?

Things look dicey with gas prices back on the rise.

1) Newfoundland is the highest it’s ever been when compared to Canada’s national average for gasoline prices.

They’re sitting at 153.5 cents/litre.

as of August 03, 2021

2) California is the highest it’s ever been when compared to USA’s national average for gasoline prices.

They’re sitting at $4.38/gallon.

as of August 03, 2021

Will the World Run Out of Oil?

At this point in time no one knows how long this trend of inflation will last. And we don’t know whether or not we’ll reach depleted levels of oil soon.

In 1914, the U.S. Bureau of Mines claimed that we would run out of oil by 1924.

In 1950, the U.S. Department of the Interior stated that we’d be out of oil by 1963.

Looks like the experts prophesizing doomsday were wrong before, but that’s not slowing down the new experts today.

Now they’re claiming that all oil reserves will be depleted by 2050.

Bulk up while you can

So instead of staying stuck and being caught in an endless cycle of theoretical debate, we can do something about the situation today.

Here is some good news: When it comes to getting our oil changes done or refueling our vehicle, we can find ways to drastically reduce costs.

1.

3 Stack-Step to Save On Motor Oil/Fluids

The first option is to buy motor oil and oil filters in bulk. Your vehicle needs regular maintenance, and your oil change demands the most frequent amount of service. Here are 3 steps you can take to stack your savings the next time you need an oil change:

1) Buy oil and filters in bulk.

You could buy oil in bulk and do your own oil changes, which saves you the most amount of money. However, if you don’t want to do your own oil changes this method will still work for you. Just follow along in the 2nd part below.

We’ll use Walmart as an example.
They offer Mobil 1 High Mileage Synthetic Motor Oil:

It costs you $268.32 to buy 12 jugs of synthetic motor oil at Walmart.

So we got the oil. Next we need oil filters.

For oil filters I’ll use a 2011 KIA Sorento as an example (because that’s what I drive). 12 oil filters would cost me $116.76.

With FREE Shipping.

Combining the engine oil and oil filters together, that comes out to a total of $385.08 for 12 oil changes.

But if you went to Jiffy Lube, you’d be paying around $87 to do one synthetic oil change:

That means you could only do four synthetic oil changes at Jiffy Lube. And you would pay a total of $348 to get them to do it for you:

4 oil changes X $87 = $348

So which method is cheaper?

If you get more than 4 oil changes from Jiffy Lube, you’re now paying more than if you had gone to Walmart to get your own oil.

So, if you stayed with getting your own engine oil at Walmart, that means you could do eight more oil changes for your vehicle. Thus beating Jiffy Lube in value any day:

12 jugs – 4 jugs = 8 jugs left

Which saves you from spending an additional $696 by choosing not to go to Jiffy Lube for the remaining eight oil changes.

8 oil changes X $87 = $696

You could eat good for two months with that type of money saved.

2) Go to the dealer or lube shop with the oil you have in bulk.

This is for you people who don’t want to do their own oil changes.

Now that you’ve got your oil in bulk from STEP 1, you can bring that with you to a lube shop or dealership. Request that you need an oil change done using your own oil that you’ve brought.

This will reduce the cost from your final bill because you wont need to pay for the shop oil, since you’ve already brought that to do the oil change.

You’d only be paying for labor; which lube shops are willing to do for you. Dealers wont usually charge much for this either. But if they do, you can always go to a lube shop.

From my experience I’ve seen labor for this service as low as $25 working at Mr. Lube.

Since it cost you around $31 to bring your own oil and filter, now add $25 for the service at the lube shop. That’s about $51 total cost to you. Which is not too bad since it is better than paying $87 at Jiffy Lube. A savings of $16.

With 12 oil changes done that would save you $432.

$16 X 12 oil changes = $432

3) Use coupons that lube shops frequently offer.

Now here’s where I’ll give Jiffy Lube some credit. They’re always offering $10 discount coupons. You can download their coupon online and print it out for your next visit. Check them out here.

The savings are not as big. But if you were to do 12 oil changes at Jiffy Lube, that’s $120 you’d be saving using the coupons.

That’s like five Fatburger meals and five medium Dominoes pizza all paid for. Or you could get some groceries and cook up 10 solid dinners.

2.

Different Ways to Save Money on Gasoline

Here are several ways to cut prices next time you refuel on gasoline. Most of the methods listed here require a bit of work, but if you need the money you may consider using these options.

Swagbucks

If you’re looking for ways to save on gas, you might want to give Swagbucks a try.

Swagbucks offers rewards users for using their platform by completing a certain set of tasks. These tasks are things like completing surveys and playing video games.

It sounds silly but there are $50 Esso gas cards that you can collect as your reward. It usually requires 5000 Swagbucks to redeem.

They’ve got high reviews from other people online, which is pretty impressive. So if you’ve got some time to earn these kinds of rewards, consider signing up with Swagbucks.

Use GEICO to find cheaper gas

GEICO has a gas store locator that will show you where cheaper fuel stations are in your local area are. All you have to do is enter in your postal code / zip code and GEICO will show you the rest.

I see some stores are charging a bit less than the going rate in Alberta, Canada. A decent fill up of 40 litres of gas would save me $2.60 at DOMO. Not too bad at all.

Check out GEICO and see if you can save on gas today.

Carpool

You could share your ride with other friends or coworkers to reduce the cost of traveling. Either you could be the designated driver, or the passenger. And the more people sharing the ride, the better.

More people pitching in going in a similar direction, could add up in some decent savings over time.

Say you’re the driver and you usually spend $20 a day to commute to work and back. If four people each pitched in $5 a day, that would cover your daily gasoline costs. Over a 5 day work-week, that’s $100 saved.

If you went to work 20 days in the month, that would be $400 saved. Multiply that by 12 months and you’ve just saved yourself about $4,800 for the year.

Fuel savings that start to add up.

Take transit

Taking a bus or subway train is a viable option as well. It’s been available for the last two centuries, and the practical nature of it won’t change anytime soon.

Sure you’re packed into a more crowded transport, but you don’t have to pay gas money or car insurance. That saves you more money than carpooling for sure.

Ride a bike

Here is the cheapest solution of them all to save on gas (2nd after walking). You only need a one time purchase up front to have your very own bicycle. And that can last you for years no problem.

Maintenance is not too expensive either. You’d be saving even more than carpooling or taking a form of mass transportation (such as bus or subway train).

All you would need is a comfortable backpack to lug all the essential things around with you (i.e. groceries and/or other personal items). You would have to travel light, but your costs would be even lighter.

You don’t have to pay for gas, car insurance, or a monthly bus pas to use mass transportation. Just a one time fee up front to earn a mass pile of savings cycling your way to savings.

3.

Save Money with Government Seized Vehicles

This option wont directly reduce gas and oil costs for you, but it could smash the costs of purchasing another vehicle when you need your own ride.

Use the auction to find bargain deals

If you’re thinking about purchasing a vehicle soon but you want the best deals out there, try using an online auction. You can find government seized vehicles, which are a better option than purchasing salvage titles.

And some of the seized vehicles you find could start with bids as low as 90% off the retail price.

Some final thoughts.

Even though we’re going through some turbulent times right now, it is clear that there are ways we can navigate through this oil crisis.

As Sheikh Ahmed Zaki Yamani, former Saudi oil minister said, “The stone age did not end because the world ran out of stones, and the oil age will not end because we run out of oil.”

With electric vehicles on the rise, it’s only logical to assume that they’re the next step forward to answer our crude oil problem. Which means we’ll have some form of alternative transportation to keep moving us forward at the very least.

But as far as electric vehicles becoming superior to completely replace gasoline vehicles is still up for speculation. Check out this post to learn more.

But, at least now you have a roadmap to guide you on your journey to slash high oil prices in half.

This frees up a lot of extra cash you’ll need for other important essentials in your life. Essentials that could help you get past this slump into the next boom cycle.

August 03, 2021

Best Car Repair Videos For Auto Beginners

when learning from videos becomes better than books

Learning how to fix vehicles is a very rewarding feeling. There’s nothing like repairing an issue with your own vehicle and seeing it come back to life again.

Not only do you end up saving yourself a good chunk of money, but you also gain confidence to tackle the next job should it come your way.

So what is the best way to learn how to fix vehicles? And how do books stack up?

Today on the internet there are several great books geared towards automotive for beginners, like the ones listed below:

A time for more videos

I will say that books will always have their place for the beginner. The need to do away with them isn’t going to happen anytime soon.

However since YouTube’s come onto the spot, many people have posted tons of repair videos on their platform. This is a recent trend that began to sprout around the year 2005. Within 15 years, a lot has changed in the car repair and maintenance world online.

It’s becoming apparent that video is taking over as the superior format of learning when it comes to fixing vehicles.

What makes video superior to books

Comparing 2-5 still picture frames from a book VS over 3000 frames from a video to cover the topic of vehicles repairs, is a huge difference. Take a look at the comparison below.

I was only able to find 2 still pictures with my repair manual book (shown below) VS the huge amount of content from a video to do an oil change:

Play Video about learn car mechanics online free

With the video we can see much more of the moving parts, and we get a full picture how things work with the vehicle. This increases our visualization to dissemble components and reassemble them with better results when working on our own.

Best Videos For Automotive Beginners

So if you’re thinking of fixing vehicles and don’t know where to start, think about taking video courses online. The courses costs as much as a book would AND you get to see all the moving parts.

Learn how to take care of your vehicles for the long term; that’s what we want. And if you need mechanic training videos that will help you get into the field, there are professional videos for that as well.

Some courses are usually on sale which means you pay even less for video training instead of buying books at a higher price.

And if you plan on becoming a bit more advanced within a year or two, you have options to earn money on your own as a mechanic. This is where you might be interested in the world of flipping cars.

I would recommend learning to fix vehicles for at least two years before deciding to flip cars.

Doing fix and flips are a great way to take your mechanic skills to the next level. It’s a prerequisite to becoming self made mechanic or creating desirable talent people are willing to pay for.

Most states in the US don’t require you to have a license to flip vehicles.

And most provinces in Canada don’t require a license as well. Check out the video below to learn more:

So for 70% of North Americans, that means you can flip vehicles without a license. And flipping cars can bring you a decent profit if you do them right.

You can learn from the pros that offer online courses who will show you how to do your first flip:

The opportunities avaialble for beginners

The great thing about this field is that there are many paths to becoming a mechanic.

Now with video learning to repair vehicles, it becomes much easier for the beginner to get started.

You’re no longer stuck anymore with having to go to school and focus on mostly textbooks. Colleges will cost you money in the thousands (XX,XXX), while professional online video courses will cost you in the double digits (XX). And the training is similar, if not the same!

So check out some of the video courses I’ve posted above. It’s an investment worth a hundred books of value.

You’ll save yourself a trip from high student loan misery lane. And you’ll become just as good as the pros did when they first got started; as a beginner.

If you’re thinking of applying for a job soon, check out this post to learn about the auto employer vs employee mindset in this field. It might help take the pressure off you the next time you go searching for employment.

Kickstart Your Automotive Electrical Skills

As vehicles are becoming more electrified, it’s important to have electrical knowledge and skills to work on vehicles.

Learn the simple real life Formula that Runs All Electric Vehicles.

Get a head start if you’re thinking about getting into the automotive field.

July 28, 2021

Employer VS Employee: Automotive Expectations In Shop

When you’re first starting out in the automotive world, you can feel intimidated for interviews with shop managers.

You might feel underqualified walking into the shop to get a job.

Or maybe you’ve been hired for some time and now your boss is starting to act up. Maybe this is your 5th boss now, but for some reason you just seem to butt heads with your employers over time.

So, are employers really as good as you think they are?

Today we’ll look at how much smarter is the employer vs the employee.

Now we all know when we go to job interviews we can feel a little bit of stress. We walk into a brand new place. We see a new face and then we sit and wait to be called. Then we have to meet the manager or shop owner. We answer a bunch of questions and then we hope for the best. Sometimes we land the job, sometimes we don’t.

What happens if the manager doesn’t call you back after the interview? This happened to me a lot. And will that stop you from approaching multiple shops because one or two shops say ‘no’ to you?

You might even think to yourself, “These guys are smart. They know what they’re talking about. They must know I’m just not cut out for this.”

Realize that at the end of the day, these employers aren’t the brightest either. Some of the times they’re making mistakes too which ain’t so smart; sometimes grave mistakes.

two short stories I want to share.

The first employer I had was an owner of an independent shop. He is knowledgeable in fixing vehicles and I learned a lot from him over the course of my employment.

But on the first day I noticed he had a car running in his garage bay. I got a quick tour of the shop and maybe 10 minutes had gone by now.

Next thing I know I see the same car that was running earlier, spewing out hot coolant into the air like a high pressure fountain you see at a city park.

That fountain was probably reaching well over a meter high. Next thing, I see the owner rushing back to the car in haste to turn it off.

…2 Months Later

About 2 months working for him I get a car on the lift that needs a brake job. I noticed that the caliper pins are seized unto the caliper bracket. I quickly show the owner this problem and he immediately responds, “It’s okay, just throw everything back on with the new pads.”

So essentially I did just that. We didn’t order a new caliper or notify the customer. We just put everything back like nothing ever happened.

I realized then the rumors to be true about shop owners taking shortcuts, and here was one of them. Not only will the customer’s new brake pads wear out even faster, but this could cause a safety hazard down the road later on.

The owner just wanted to get another car into the bay and keep generating that cashflow as fast as possible. Not a smart idea if the customer gets into an accident. That can come back to bite the employer.

Second employer gambling with his shop.

The second example is when I worked for a different owner who had a good operations going. But, it had a very weak point that could easily be exploited.

This weak point could knock him back in heavy fines and possibly revoke his license to keep his shop open. Which here in Alberta, is a requirement to have a license to keep your shop open.

Some provinces in Canada don’t need a license. And in the States it seems you don’t need one as well. But here in Alberta and in some other provinces; if you don’t have at least 1 person with a license working on the floor in your shop, that can spell out trouble for you.

I discovered this through my coworker who told me he doesn’t have a journeyman license. He also mentioned that I ‘not say anything to anyone’ about it.

And whenever I saw regulations people walk into the shop, I would notice the owner running around frantically. Since it was just me and my coworker working at this shop, I knew the owner was trying to coo the regulations people because he had no licensed journeyman in his shop; including himself. And I realized he was just one step away from being shut down because of this.

Another shortcut an owner is willing to take so he doesn’t have to pay higher wages to a licensed mechanic. Not so smart.

After about two years I tried to call my former employer about setting up a business deal. The number was disconnected, and when I visited the shop everything was shut down. I looked online and saw confirmation that the place had emptied and was no longer open by looking at the reviews.

I learned alot from my employers

But to be fair these mechanics knew how to fix vehicles and impressed me some of the time. But that’s the thing, it’s only some of the time.

The other times it’s just neutral or they’re out there taking shortcuts and breaking regulations.

Which means you as the beginner shouldn’t worry when employers say ‘no’ to you when you ask for a job. Now you know they don’t know what they’re talking about.

You just head to the next shop and ask again until you land employment.

And for people thinking of starting their own business, competition from other shops shouldn’t stop you from doing your own thing if you think it’s going to work out.

So there you go. Employer vs employee. Are employers smarter? No. Not really. But if you ever do become an employer, now you know the pitfalls here so you can become a smarter one.

Learn how to become a mechanic with no experience or school.

Watch a quick video here to get started in the automotive field if you have no idea where to start. With people saying go to college or get experience, it can be frustrating when you don’t have either and you’re starting with less money. So check out the video to solve this issue:

Play Video about how to become a mechanic with no experience or without school easy learning repair cars

Kickstart Your Automotive Electrical Skills

As vehicles are becoming more electrified, it’s important to have electrical knowledge and skills to work on vehicles.

Learn the simple real life Formula that Runs All Electric Vehicles.

Get a head start if you’re thinking about getting into the automotive field.

Starting your own business

And if you’ve fixing care for about 2 years but can’t seem to level up, consider flipping cars.

Learning how to flip cars can earn you a decent amount of profits if done right. Not only that, but you can level up you automotive repair skills at the same time.

Which means if you’re getting sick of working for people, you can become your own boss.

Check out the link below to learn more:

July 28, 2021