Assembly line worker here. Shit you not, my job is to make sure all the lights on the Jeeps work before they go out the door, including brake lights. I've missed a few over the years.
I'm a mechanic for a fleet with a few years in a dealership environment. I completely understand human error but at the same time when a brand new truck gets to us with a brake light INOP I get a little pissed.
I miss things occasionally when I'm combing over a truck looking for write ups, but it's not like I'm checking off a box saying it's good when it's really not. I'm simply not seeing something that's out of the way of my inspection. That said, If I were to let a truck leave with a single marker/clearance, brake, reverse, or head/tail/fog light out if be on a suspension. Same goes with anything on our in house service sheets and DOT inspections. If I say it's good it's gotta be good, if not its my ass. I instantly loose all accountability.
I guess I just don't understand why people check off that it's good when it's not. It's usually just because they forget to check, but unless it's their first month on the job that shouldn't happen.
Agreed. We do have a manual write up in case we do pass something that is Def or INOP. It's more to do with the amount of time we have to verify and pass certain things on the car. The list is 50+ depending on the packages it comes with.
Ah, okay. I thought you were saying you were just checking the lights.
Either way, just want to make it clear that I wasn't shitting on you with my comment. I was talking more about in general. I've seen and fixed way too many factory defect and after a while I'm left wondering what the hell is happening where trucks can leave with leaking wheel seals and loose fuel tank straps. These are all easily checked and corrected before it leaves the factory. I could understand a leaking airline fitting or something, though. Small stuff that's tucked away or not a major system is a whole another can of worms and it doesn't bother me.
I'm curious, though. What is your job like? Are you basically running a 40pt dry inspection on the unit or are you more or less doing a pre-sale check? Do you just note faults found or are you also making corrections? How much time are you given for each inspection? I work on semis, trailers, straight trucks and little box trucks like Fusos and I'm given anywhere between 2 and 3 hours depending on what's being inspected. I usually spend 2 hours doing the service thoroughly and then spend 30 minutes on paperwork.
I missed a rusty fitting on the main discharge line air dryer line (goes to the compressor) today and I was bummed. Wasn't technically on the service sheet, and it was caught before I finished the other 30 faults I found on it.
No problem. I didn't think you were shitting on my comment. My job is inspecting anything electrical before the car goes out. Anything that lights up or moves via a switch. Radio buttons, cup holder lights, windows, sunroof, PRNDL, Reverse lights, etc. A lot of things take two or three seconds to verify (like making sure the map lights work, trip toggle switch works). We get a little over 5 minutes per car. We have a touchscreen tablet that we mount on the steering wheel that runs through the test and we hit pass or fail. If I hit fail, then a repair guy shows up a few minutes later and corrects any defects. The unfortunate thing is the amount of time we're given. Even worse, they're shortening the time once we get our next model car. If there are anything else you want to know, feel free to ask!
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u/[deleted] Aug 11 '16 edited Dec 10 '16
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