Best tech support question of the day.

So, I'm working with a customer and trying to figure why his car is sitting a bit high with a set of our coilovers. I got measurements and asked if the car was significantly lighter for racing. Nope, it was stock.

So we kept going for a while. I was puzzled. Then the customer mentioned that he was going to be reinstalling the engine soon. Would that make a difference to the ride height?

He's going to call back once he's installed his engine so we can check the ride height then.

I was hoping for replacement of the shocks by coilover units with the stock springs still in place, but that's pretty darn awesome.

How long did the call take?

I was going to guess he left it on the jack stands and spaced on it.

ask for the coilovers back?

It was probably a 10-15 minute call. Once I found out the engine was out of the car, it ended fairly quickly.

A big part of this job is trying to figure out just what question to ask. You have to assume that no information is volunteered. Any question should have a yes or no answer. Asking if the car was lighter than stock doesn't always work, but asking if the car has an engine in it would have! And some customers wonder why I ask very fundamental questions...

Working phone support is soooo much fun sometimes.

You know, I talked to you the other year about an issue with mine. (gauge not showing oil pressure when below freezing)

Really have to thank you again for your help!

"So... it IS lightened..."

Knurled wrote: "So... it IS lightened..."

Not for racing....

The big question is... Was it someone on here?

If it was, they didn't volunteer the information Although it might have been Knurled, as that's pretty much what I said!

I had a similar one a while back, where I asked the customer if they'd done any recent work on the car. Nope. A bit later, it came out that he had just changed the engine. But other than that, no recent work.

now that is something i would do..lol

Some times you have to be very specific even if it seems obvious. Pretend the person is only 3 years old(without talking to them like a child).

Best example I can think of is actually with my three year old son. I'm helping him brush his teeth. I tell him to spit. I assumed he'd spit into the sink. Nope, he did exactly what I said and spat, hitting the bathroom mirror and wall. I know realize when I help him that I have to say "spit in the sink".

That's a part of why I no longer have a business phone. I do business strictly via email now.

Sometimes dealing with the public just makes you shake your head....and want to move to a cave in the mountains. I was doing training and tech support for the biggest sunroof manufacturer and I had a dealer call me asking what sunroof I'd recommend for his customers Cadillac XLR. I verified that he was indeed talking about the hardtop convertible car. He said yes. The customer wanted to be able to open a sunroof on days he didn't want to put the top down. I don't know who is stoopider, the customer for asking for it or the trained "professional" for not pimp-smacking him/her on the spot.

Hey keith, I have a tech support question: I bought a door mirror off of you about a year and a half ago and never installed it. Planning on getting that done tomorrow. How do I take off the old one? Turn it, unscrew the screw, and then how do I unhook the power cord? Do I have to take the door card off?

FYI, this is for an NB, and I haven't tried it before.

Some of these almost cost me a keyboard and cleaning the monitor. Yeah, been there trying to help diagnose and I can certainly relate.

I have a good one. I worked as a co-op as an engineer at a company making OEM tire pressure monitors. New for whatever model year in Acuras.

Acura was having a press day of some sort.

They started up the new cars, day of the press event, and all of the TPM lights were going off like crazy. They called, we flew in engineers. We had extra parts, no matter what we swapped in or out, the lights were all going off like everything was flat.

It took the better part of a week to figure out.

Some goomba decided to fill each and every tire used for this press event with Helium. A TINY molecule that flows right through most rubber. Kind of like the stuff in our diaphragms... oops! Not sure what they thought the benefit of helium was...

mtn wrote: Hey keith, I have a tech support question: I bought a door mirror off of you about a year and a half ago and never installed it. Planning on getting that done tomorrow. How do I take off the old one? Turn it, unscrew the screw, and then how do I unhook the power cord? Do I have to take the door card off? FYI, this is for an NB, and I haven't tried it before.

If I remember correctly (none of my own cars have power mirrors, so it's not something I deal with often), you just unscrew the mirror using the two Big Obvious Screws, then fish the connector out through the hole in the door as you pull the mirror away. Don't drop the connector down the hole after you unplug it or you get to pull the door card off.

Oh man, tech support... I have been asked so many stupid questions over the years that I literally do not know where to start.

Not a tech support type thing, but a good joke which shows how some people just have no clue: back in da day, it was common for people to ask for a 'half race', 'three quarter race' or 'full race' cam. We had an old SBC cam with four lobes (1/4 of it) cut off and we had cleaned it all up nice, sometimes when someone would ask for a 'three quarter' cam we'd plop it on the counter. The funniest part was every so often someone would actually reach for their wallet...

tuna55 wrote: I have a good one. I worked as a co-op as an engineer at a company making OEM tire pressure monitors. New for whatever model year in Acuras. Acura was having a press day of some sort. They started up the new cars, day of the press event, and all of the TPM lights were going off like crazy. They called, we flew in engineers. We had extra parts, no matter what we swapped in or out, the lights were all going off like everything was flat. It took the better part of a week to figure out. Some goomba decided to fill each and every tire used for this press event with Helium. A TINY molecule that flows right through most rubber. Kind of like the stuff in our diaphragms... oops! Not sure what they thought the benefit of helium was...

Make the car lighter, maybe even float off the ground if you put in enough helium. I keed!

Curmudgeon wrote: We had an old SBC cam with four lobes (1/4 of it) cut off and we had cleaned it all up nice, sometimes when someone would ask for a 'three quarter' cam we'd plop it on the counter. The funniest part was every so often someone would actually reach for their wallet...

I would have cut a square channel through the corner of the cam, so if you look at the end it looks like Pac-Man

Keith wrote: If it was, they didn't volunteer the information Although it might have been Knurled, as that's pretty much what I said!

Oh hell no it wasn't me. I'm in YOUR shoes, man.

It seems like it's a given that people will not volunteer critical information. Like, for instance, today, a traveling salesman from far out-of-state brought us his IS300 because of a ticking noise coming out of the rear when applying the brakes on the highway.

Half hour later, after driving and driving and looking and looking and finding nothing... "Oh, it hasn't made the noise for two weeks."

Keith wrote: If it was, they didn't volunteer the information Although it might have been Knurled, as that's pretty much what I said! I had a similar one a while back, where I asked the customer if they'd done any recent work on the car. Nope. A bit later, it came out that he had just changed the engine. But other than that, no recent work.

Engines come in, engines go out. You can't explain that.