A day in the life of a Mobile Mechanic.

welcome back to the roadside rescue youtube channel i'm ernest and today we're going to do a day in the life of a mobile mechanic so this is my work truck here where i uh do roadside assistance mobile mechanics people with no starts or uh typically we're a bit cheaper than a normal shop because of less overhead so we're gonna kind of go through a day what a normal day's like as a mobile mechanic i did one of these videos in the past which was pretty popular um so i'm doing another one to kind of just uh get a different perspective on a new day so we'll talk a little bit about how much everything's costing today how much i'm making here's a look it's going to be pretty unedited real life i'm a pretty honest guy this is a look i've had a pretty busy week so far and uh just to look at kind of how everything gets thrown around in the truck obviously people who are ocd about their own tools may get upset that stuff just laying around but it works for me i know where everything is most stuff still put up but these are some of my more commonly used tools and uh there's here's a quick little look at the inside of the truck where i keep tools gloves supplies stuff like that we're gonna stop by the auto parts store this morning grab a few things i always make sure before i drive off the toolboxes get locked because these drawers will slide open they can fall over push all these doors closed and we'll head off to the parts store now and grab a few supplies and parts that we need for today and i anticipate probably one or two emergency calls to come through we'll probably do one or both of those and uh we've got a couple of other things scheduled so may turn into a busy day it's pretty typical on on the slow days if i want a day to be real slow by choice like if i have classes which i'm still in college out here or anything like that then i can pick and choose because this is my own business so sometimes i'll refer people to other shops if i just can't take on any more jobs or don't have the time or don't want to but this is going to be a full day and we'll get we'll hit the road here and get going [Music] [Music] all right so i've been here for a minute at autozone this is my favorite place to get stuff and i just got an emergency call but actually for a no start in the north side of town this other vehicle that i was gonna do is a fuel pump i just picked up the fuel pump for it and um we're gonna postpone that one for about an hour go do this emergency no start i grab my breakfast at autozone sometimes i grab a snickers if i'm hungry um so i'll snack on that in a little bit and we'll run over here and see what's going on with this no star i have no information on it uh the guy said the battery's fine it's not starting i don't even know what kind of car it is i don't even know if the battery is good so well yeah we'll run over there check it out i just got the address and we'll see if we can get it started or figured out [Music] what year is this okay [Music] [Music] all right so it's not getting fuel i'll figure out why but i've i just put a little bit of carb cleaner in there to see if it would hit and it did so i'm gonna look now see if there's any sort of relays that aren't working or if it's the fuel pump or something so but uh it's narrowed down to fuel right now so all right so this is a nice old cadillac hill 1991 so computers aren't helping me here it is fuel injected and i've just determined that it's a fuel issue um i couldn't hear the fuel pump go so to go ahead and establish that i just gave it a little bit of carb cleaner down inside the throttle body and it kicked over which it wasn't before i cranked it and there was nothing so it kicked over some carb cleaners so i know it's getting spark it just doesn't have fuel i can't hear the fuel pump so we're gonna start determining why that's not why that's not running if it's burned out or if it's got a bad relay or something like that so we'll supply some power to it and uh and swap out some relays if we have to or just straight up give it some power and see if we can get that to turn on i've unhooked one of the fuel return lines up there so i'm going to prime it a few times and see if we get anything coming out of that return line to indicate that that fuel pump's doing any sort of work yeah i can hear that dash coming on it almost sounds like a fuel pump all those electronics kind of hum in when they turn on but nothing from the fuel pump and just crank it over a few times just to be sure but i don't hear that fuel pump so we're going to go ahead and swap out a relay up there or figure out what kind of wiring that has and get it figured out okay no fuel here that's what i expected let's see here [Music] all right so just tested the horn relay it's right up above the fuel pump relay here the horn works so i know that relay is good and i'm just going to go ahead and switch these two relays right here it's just hard to see because for some reason they tucked it way up underneath the dash here but that's okay all right let me put this one in the horn spot you can see that this is the relay for the fuel pump i'm gonna put it in the horn spot and if the horn works and this relay's fine and we'll supply power to that pump and see if it kicks over or not okay in theory the horn should work now if that relay's fine and it does so most likely a fuel pump issue [Music] all right so i've got my tool boxes locked up i actually uh went ahead and just gave some power to that relay no fuel pump kicking on uh no fuel pressure i pulled that line again so it's most likely the fuel pump i talked to him about it i'm gonna have to do some research but to you know do a diagnosing of the wires is gonna be the same amount of labor as getting down to that fuel pump so we're gonna plan on coming back with a fuel pump and doing that all at once that way we save them the extra labor and call out fee and everything so that's a job all down to diagnosis well done it's it's most likely the fuel pump and uh i'd be very surprised if something went horizon that wiring uh he lets it sit around you know every day except for maybe one or two days out of the year undercover so not you know unlikely that that just i mean there could have been a squirrel that got up under there and shoot some wires as well but again i'm gonna have to pull the tank and everything to look at that and it's going to be the same amount of labor so we're going to come back with a fuel pump later that's a diagnosis well done we're going to head over to this other one which is a fuel pump and uh we'll replace this fuel pump this morning and we've got a few more jobs after that so we'll get going [Music] all right here we are here is the vehicle in question it's a dodge something some people can probably tell by looking at it i don't remember i did the diagnosis on this vehicle like months ago and uh i was i was just assuming i'm like i guess she got it fixed somewhere else but uh called me up the other day and was like hey you still have time to fix that vehicle so i was like sure of course so i've got the fuel pump here and uh we've got the vehicle out there i don't even remember if that fuel pump's accessible under the seat or through the trunk i just don't remember so we may be dropping the fuel tank i know that fuel tank is empty i know she hasn't driven it since then because there's no way it would run it's still parked in the same spot and it's all dusty and i asked her because i always ask if the fuel tank is empty she said it's pretty much empty which it's more common for a fuel tank to be empty than full i found uh so that's good we've got an empty tank and i may push it off that curb just a bit that tank's probably right there where that tire is and you can see the curb it's going to be tough to land there but i should be able to pop it in neutral scoot it forward just a bit jack it up real high get it all safe and if i need to drop that tank we'll do it here we go oh also it's fun to drive a big old mail truck like this because everybody like fedex ups anybody else who drives a mail delivery truck they all wave to each other so that's kind of fun every time i see somebody pass we always wave so a little bit off topic that was just a funny little thing that occurred to me since i passed two of them on the way here yeah this battery was dead months ago when i tested it so she's probably gonna need a new battery after this i doubt it's gonna stay dead that long and be okay all right got that pushed out away from the curb i've got the big truck park beside it so it's nice and uh protected but this is a pretty calm little parking lot over here i know it's calm because my brother used to live in these apartments but you can see just how long it's been sitting if you can see all that dust on the windshields um we will i'm gonna look it up real quick see how to replace this fuel pump i think i might have to drop the tank but i i remember i think i remember looking under the seat and thinking like there wasn't an access there but i didn't check the trunk so i'll look it up i'll let you know and we'll get started [Music] i installed some pretty cool lights on this truck a while back if i'm working on the side of the street which i could have done in that other neighborhood that was a really quiet neighborhood though but you can see the strobes there they flash on each side it's kind of warning people i'm here i'm not going to do that in the parking lot this is a i'm parked in a reserve spot for somebody else there's a not reserved spot opened up over there so hopefully they don't have an issue with it that's kind of the deal though is working in residential areas and stuff sometimes people get upset but i'm more than happy to move out of people's way but i've only ever had one person really get upset and be like get out of my driveway or whatever most people are understanding like yeah sure no worries i'll park down the block or whatever and they just let me work and do my thing so people are nice out here at least and i never really have an issue with that i'll look that up though i still haven't looked it up i'll let you know again get started right now i did forget to grab a fuel pump removal kit so i may have to run across town and grab one of those i was sitting in there for a minute trying to remember what i was forgetting because i felt like i was forgetting something but uh sometimes those will come off without it no guarantees though so if i'm not gonna break anything if i have a little bit of issues then i'll run grab that all right so i've got that jacked up pretty good i've got a jack stand on this side holding it up one under there for safety same deal on the other side but with the jack just under there barely touching for safety just in case those jacksons do anything weird but i've been using these ones a while they're pretty good especially on the slight vehicle i don't expect anything so we'll get that fuel tank dropped fill our neck stuff like that and one of the reasons i love autozone i buy almost everything there you'll know that if you've seen my channel hey autozone if you want to sponsor me work out a deal but uh i'm out here and i forgot to pick up a fuel pump removal kit i have a lot of tool kits but that's one of the ones i've yet to acquire and i just remembered i was like dang it i forgot that so i called up my buddies at autozone over there and uh they're gonna go ahead and just deliver it to me out here since i don't have a shop by mobile they'll deliver parts to shops on their parts runs and uh i just told them hey look i'm over here at this apartment place and they're gonna bring that by for me so uh tools tool delivery at the at the job site and i i hardly ever do that but in this case while i'm doing that they don't mind at all to bring it over here so thanks again autozone and uh we'll get that tank going now we've got it jacked up here's the fuel pump and it should be smooth as ice now all right i'm on my creeper here we're gonna go ahead and slide under the vehicle and uh that tank's empty a little slide under here oh wow metal filler neck that's interesting see what needs to be removed looks like just a few straps i'll probably you can see what i'm talking about here laying under here i'll probably drop the tank down from the nose end out uh but i'll pro i'll probably just drop the whole tank out to help remove that it's going to be easiest and uh it looks like there's quite a bit of room actually under here because i jacked it up enough but also to reach around the sides and loosen everything particularly the filler neck and that vent line right there but we'll go ahead and get going oh man it's starting to feel nice once that sun's coming out which it has just i think the height it is like 60 something so it's going to be a very nice day normally i would put a jack on here to catch the tank but it feels really light before i drop that all the way i'm going to remove that filler neck so i don't yank on it it is metal it's not rusty but if it were then it could bend so i don't want to do that [Applause] there goes the special delivery car just dropped off my fuel pump removal kit it's been about five minutes since i called so great customer service autozone just all right so i just dropped it down but i'm holding it up with this hand so i don't put too much tension on those lines there fuel return and evap and everything so i'm going to disconnect those lines and then i'll be able to drop it down all the way without pulling on those we'll slide it out and get that fuel pump replaced all right man it's killing me from the head up but i got those fuel lines disconnected i've just gotta disconnect the uh electrical connectors here and it's ready to slide out from under the vehicle let's see let's push that out all right it's free ish caught up on one more all line just caught up here we're free so it's good to check things as you're pulling them out as well that's it there's the fuel pump hill here we'll go ahead and get this one out i'm going to disconnect a few of these lines that are being held on still i'm going to need to dust off really well after this job because i'm nice and dusty from rolling around on that ground all right that's all out of the way we'll clean this off and uh if you can see that we'll clean that off because it's nice and dusty and uh get this ready to go back together all right i'm gonna use this super clean this is a new spray bottle they have on there typically they just have it in a squirt bottle you can get this at autozone or wherever but uh this should clean this up pretty nicely and i like this because it's going to foam up and trap all that dirt that you see in there six six six six the most important area to clean is the outside here where when you pull that fuel pump out dirt can fall in so just make sure you get all the little nooks and crannies there you want to keep this fuel tank clean okay i'm going to pop this ring loose and then i'll finish cleaning up around that ring and i i like this removal kit because some of them have those plastic rings you need this that's what i thought was going to be under there so in this case i didn't actually need them to deliver this kit only i have a punch and a rubber mallet so that's all you need to get this kind out all right and you can see i kind of deflected some of those tabs there so i'll make sure to bend those back before i install it and before we knock that seal goose again i'm going to go ahead and just get all that dirt that was under that ring cleaned up all right i've got the new fuel pump here i like to move quickly in this process to keep stuff out of that fuel tank i got it all cleaned up well but again we're parked under trees here and dirt can fall in there so i'm gonna go quickly and just reinstall this new fuel pump all right we got the nice new fuel pump here with a good warranty so i'll knock that off there good new gasket and we'll go put this back in real fast okay so it's spring-loaded just make sure it's centered there the tab goes right here it fits perfectly between this one just remember where it came out from which direction and you can always line up your fuel lines if you don't remember and we'll get this ring bent back out here like so [Music] all right now we'll get this going back in all right so i gave it one tap just make sure all these little tabs are starting at the same time and all we've got to do now is tap that around and uh it's going to be a bit a bit more difficult because the uh gasket under there is new so it's nice and thick which is where that silicone helps a bit just to lubricate things get them spinning around a bit easier but there you can see it's going just be careful not to punch through the plastic fuel tank and there it is it's all tight and it's ready to go back together okay so we'll pull these little caps off we've got to switch over the retaining clips here this one fuel bumps are my favorite thing to do but this one's gone smoothly at least all right we can move that out of the way there's that old pump and we can put this back together here we go all right i've been wrestling with this fuel tank for a minute just got it up i'm gonna pull everything down i'm gonna wait on this bracket because i need to put that charcoal canister or whatever part that is to that underneath that bolt as well but up here let's see [Music] it's good i'm tightening all those down by hand afterwards all right put that put that bracket on there and then i'll show you what it looks like when it's done all right i've got all the bracket bolts tightened by hand that one's got its little thing up there with it and i've gotta tighten up the hose clamp on that filler neck you wanna make sure you put it right back on exactly how it came off so you don't get evap leaks and uh we'll be done all right that filler neck clamps tightened on there everything's good to go we're gonna drop this down get everything out of the way there's just two more tools under here that's all we needed to do this fuel tank that's pretty nice and uh yeah put it back down slide her down slowly we got her jacked up so high on that other side i don't want to drop it off those jack stands all right that'll do it pack them up all right that's the job well done i'll show you the clip of it running here real quick all right there it is having a little bit of flickering on that dash light there but i'm suspecting it's probably got a few little issues going on since that battery was dead for so long so i'm gonna let this run kind of warm up and i doubt that battery's gonna hold any charge but we'll see what it does all right there she is nice and running that's a job well done we've got a couple more calls for today and uh it's getting in the afternoon it's getting kind of warm so the nice thing about having a truck like this is there's a bit of privacy in the back i'm gonna go take off my uh i've got some sweats and a thermal top here underneath it so underneath my suit uh people often ask where i wear this red one that's probably gonna be one of the most common comments down below it's like why i look like a prisoner there's just higher visibility um i didn't get an orange one but i didn't want to wear black or blue working on the side of the road so i got this red one instead plus it matches the color my logo which is one of the main deciding factors but we'll head on to the next job and i'm going to get out of these clothes real quick all right so i just got home i'm gonna eat some lunch it's let me see what time it is it's about 12 o'clock so i've been out working about three hours so far i got those two jobs done there's a job that i had there's two more jobs i had scheduled for this afternoon close together about 25 minutes away from here and one of them had to cancel the other wasn't urgent and the person was understanding so we're going to plan on doing those a different day and i had another call come through to do it's not really an emergency but it's a fellow who's suburban i've worked on before his door handle's broken which is common on those old suburbans and we're going to replace his door handle so that's the rest of what we have lined up today is that door handle and then i've got a class that's technically today but it's recorded so i can watch it whenever but i'll probably log in to be on that class since i'm going to be here the majority this afternoon which i thought i wasn't going to be so uh we'll i'm going to grab some lunch and then we'll head out and do that door handle all right so i'm going to go ahead and return that fuel pump uh replacement kit since i'm just going to order my own later probably on amazon and then typically what i would do is just i got paid in cash both times today which isn't typical i normally get paid on venmo but i would deposit the money but it's a banking holiday so i'm going to hold on to that for today and then i'm gonna go get some windshield wiper fluid because i like to use a lot of that in my vehicles and they're all out so my wife sand mine because i used it all so i'm gonna get that when i return that fuel pump replacement kit as for how much i've made today the first diagnosis was eighty dollars to do that diagnosis the second job was about 350 dollars and that was beating any other shops price close around by about a hundred dollars so we got a good part in there it's got warranty which is why i buy most of my parts at autozone and this last job is just going to be simple it's a neighbor basically he lives in my neighborhood and i met him doing uh mobile mechanics i've worked on his car a few times so i'm going to charge him probably uh 50 or 60 to replace that just because uh i've worked from a few times for sure i'd charge somebody like at least 60 to do a job like that maybe up to 100 depending on how long it takes but it's just a door handle so it would probably be pretty fast it probably ended up being about a 60 job regardless and it's not a typical to have a day like today where things get rescheduled and moved around i'd say probably two or three days out of the week something like that happens where it just works out better to reschedule for a different day uh so no harm no foul we're just gonna do those a different day and then uh i get to hang out with my family a bit more i've got two small kids one's a one just three months old and you probably saw them in a little time lapse i organized the truck a little bit after lunch and uh it's about probably about one o'clock now and i'm just gonna run i can grab some windshield wiper fluid return that tool kit and maybe grab a few more supplies i'm out of like silicone spray probably a few little things like that i'll grab one at autozone and i live pretty close to autozone so we're actually already here and this transmission doesn't sound too hot in this truck it's always had a hard time going into first gear so i thought it was a synchro but kind of sounds a little wanky good how are you good i'll find it thank you though hey white [Music] i don't know how i like in my head i have i'm like i'm going autozone to return something and i always leave it in the car like every time like that's the reason i came i know every time about due for a tune-up on this crv that i've kind of rebuilt for my wife it was in a crash if you haven't seen those videos check them out just probably click on the channel there may be one on the side there dropped off a package at the ups store i ordered some car parts online this one in particular wasn't needed i actually had a pretty difficult time getting it back to the company but um that's it i think that's the last errand i have to run now we'll head back and do that door handle and then i think we'll be done for the day i pretty much missed my class at this point well maybe just now just about now it's probably two but i don't know if i'll actually log on or just watch it later in the evening after my kids are asleep which is what i usually do all right so i had just a few errands oh by the way i have merchandise check it out down below if you want to support the channel or check out becoming a channel member there's a link at the top of the description of the little join button next to the subscribe button and uh that'd be great greatly appreciated um this is i just had a few errands to do um again i was gonna go to the bank but uh there's a banking holiday so that's closed and there was like one other thing i was gonna do but just didn't work out for today uh regardless we've got the last thing to do for today and this is more like a typical day where i'm home for an hour or two and then out again for a couple hours in the afternoon and then i'm home in the evening i get to spend time with my family so the good thing about being you know my own boss i can send my schedule to whatever so if there's a day i just really don't want to work or i want to spend you know a week with my family i can take off a whole week if i wanted to some people have emergencies and uh you know in that case maybe i'll i'll charge a little bit extra to go out and do an emergency call or uh just refer them to somebody else but we're gonna go over to that door handle and call it a day i'll probably just uh hang out with my my kid i've got two but one of them is actually enough to play with for the rest of the afternoon this should be a quick 30 minute job here we go all right here we are ready to replace this door handle and that key must have fallen and uh this is one of those circumstances where it's kind of hard to know exactly where i need to park i do not need to but probably figure out the best place to park and uh i actually just ended up parking on the corner kind of where you're not supposed to so i have my flashlights on but the street behind me is quite busy so that's why i chose to park on this street instead it's less busy but a little bit more where i'm not supposed to be well we'll see what happens yeah this guy really likes suburbans i guess he's got a new one now this is the one i've worked on the most here yeah this is the one that needs a new handle yeah i'm just going to pull in behind this one then and just park on the side of the street that's a bit busier but i can park with my door side over here and not have to be on the street too much and here we are here i wonder if the keys in here or if i can pop this in neutral real fast scoot it back so it's not opening up in that fence it's probably fine i got enough room there so first thing i'll do is just look at this see exactly what needs to be done i replaced one of these like 10 years ago on my mom's suburban where i helped or i'm completely wrong and i didn't but i feel like i did do this but maybe my mom did it anyways uh this is exactly what hers was like that handle gets all loose and i think i think all i have to do then is let's pop this cover off so it's actually pretty simple okay here we are i've got my got my caution lights on and let me grab my trim trim tool here so if you just slide in between here where those clips are at that opens that up enough for that to come off so you can see what kind of clips there you got to get something down in between them here push down no that whole panel is going to have to come off but it's not that big of a deal um should be just a few screws holding it in like a couple of six or seven millimeters there and a few plastic pieces there's one probably a screw under here nope that's a clip and some screws down there all right i'll let you know how it goes all right there's those two screws and let's check the bottom if there's any screws if not then there's gonna be some clips that we just gotta yank on okay so there's no screws down here check inside there in this case there's a lot of those body clips holding the door on we just got to get behind them oh no there's that last clip that door handle out of the way should be able to pull up on this and there's that those wires from this control panel are going to hold this in but all we need to do is just get enough room back here to reach our door handle and that's it and that slides forward you can see that all you got to do is slide the handle forward pull it out let me give you a better look there i'll show you as well when it goes in but basically these all just have little retaining hooks and it sides like that so there out two little bars for the door lock and for the the lock and the handle and we'll just pop those out pop the new ones in and it's good to go so okay you just want to make sure just want to make sure that all those hooks go in that's in everything's connected it's grabbing there's i mean this this handles metal but there's a little plastic piece connecting the two that's what breaks i'll show you i better look at that old handle here in a second but all i've got to do now is smack this old uh door handle back on and put those two screws from right here in and we're done [Music] and that's what i call a nice little service call out which isn't an emergency it's just a call out to come fix your car which is one of the most commonly asked questions how much i charge for one of these forty to sixty dollars typically and i don't travel that far anymore i've had this business for about two years i'll tell you in the truck let's hop up in there and i'll tell you how everything goes here all right so here's what happens um oh i guess it's not even plastic the piece right here is pretty weak this is where it breaks again i know it's a super common issue back in the day when we fixed my mom's suburban a few times with the same issue it was such a common problem that they had these in stock all the time at the auto parts stores just on the shelf so that's it another job all done i'm ernest thanks for watching there's a day in life of a mobile mechanic hope you enjoyed check out other videos on the channel consider becoming a channel member and we'll see on the next episode all right so before we drive off here um just a quick rundown of kind of who i how i got into this um i've had this business for about two years i have a pretty good customer base now i try and stay around the area i used to travel a lot more a lot farther than i do now i just try and stick around town because i keep myself busy around town it took about a year to get to that point the best thing for growing my business was google ads and just paying for them because they're expensive but they really helped and then just being nice to people treating them right and they spread the word quickly uh today i made probably around 450 500 maybe about 450 of my math is right and that's pretty typical for what i i'll make in a full day up to a thousand dollars sometimes depends on the day maybe more but uh 500 is pretty good 200 is like my goal for the days so if i'm making about 200 a day throughout the week then i'll try and just take it easy a few days and spend some more time with the family i made a lot of videos if this interests you check out some videos on my channel about what you should know before you become a mobile mechanic and among the topic like that there's a few videos turn off my caution lights here um let me know in the comments down below if you have any additional questions i'll try and answer everybody if this video goes big like the last one did i probably won't be able to answer every comment thank you all for the support and for watching consider supporting the channel and let me know if you have any any questions or any suggestions or video ideas in the comments down below the things that you want to see and we'll see on the next episode [Music] you

Channel: Roadside Rescue

Views: 392,584

Keywords: Roadside rescue, mechanic, diy, automotive mechanic, automotive tecnician, roadside mechanic, mobile mechanic, mobile mechanic truck, mobile mechanic toolbox, auto mechanic, roadside assistance business, mobile mechanic business, box truck business, how to automotive, Roadsiderescue, Mobilemechanic

Id: J3hAKe9fGBI

Length: 43min 58sec (2638 seconds)

Published: Fri Nov 06 2020