[BRAKE AND LAMP] ADJUSTER STUDY GUIDE (CALIFORNIA)

Okay, you guys ready to get started? Yeah. So, what's the point of a parachute? To save your ass. To save your ass. I love that one. Never heard that one. I love it. Right? What happens if you jump out of an airplane and you don't open the ******* parachute? Like we say in Spanish, saca el corrido, right? You're done. Alright? You're done. You know your mind is just like a parachute? The way you describe it. Because if you close your mind off to knowledge, you're not going to learn ----. So what I'm asking you is open up your parachute. Open up your mind. Okay? Give me some time to kind of shove some stuff in there for you guys. Alright? Just for a little bit. Some stupid jokes in between. And hopefully we'll learn some stuff. You guys good with that? Cool. Let's get cracking. Alright. Your textbook. This book. This book, we put together based off of the PowerPoints that we created. Okay? In between chapters, there's going to be some worksheets you guys need to create. Or, not create. Do. Okay? Why do I want you to do the worksheets? Very simple. What's on the worksheet is on the state test. Why not do the worksheet? Alright? You're going to learn what's on the state test. Does that make sense? Okay? How am I going to know if you didn't do the worksheet? You're not going to pass the test. And I'm going to get a message on the group. I failed my brake test. I failed my lamp test. Huh. Somebody didn't do the worksheet. Does that make sense? Okay. So. Let's get going. What's the purpose of a braking system within a vehicle? It's kind of common sense, right? To stop the car. Okay? So, braking systems allow the vehicle to either slow or bring the vehicle to a complete stop. Is that true? Yes. So, what would happen if the vehicle comes into the shop, and when you go take it out to test drive it, it's really not stopping? Is there a problem? Yeah. Okay. Is that the reason why the car is at the braking lamp center? Probably. Absolutely. Right? Okay. So, our job as braking lamp adjusters is to make sure that the vehicle is road worthy. Is that true? Yeah. Okay. Except for the 15 minute guy. Right? Or the 40 minute guy. Right? Those guys don't give a ----. Right? Okay. But, keep in mind, if you certify it and something happens to that vehicle within a certain amount of time, can they assume that you misadjusted it? Or misinspected it? Yeah. Okay. So, brakes have been around for a while. Right? I don't know about you guys, but I've never gone to the Dodge dealer and bought me a wagon. Right? But wagons used to have brakes on them. They used to have a friction block. Made of wood. And that would slow the wheels down and bring it to a stop. Right? Then, how many of you guys have been around where we had band style brakes that were external? No. Great. Me neither. Okay? So, back in the day, we used to have brakes that used to have shoes on the outside of the drum. Okay? I don't know about you guys, but that doesn't seem like a good idea to me. Right? I mean, it rains in California like for 30 minutes, like once a year. Right? And then, boom. What happens? Rust. All that fun stuff. Right? So, then we went to something like you guys see here. Right? Normal brake and drums. Then, from there, what did we go to? Discs. Okay? We're going to cover all that. Right? We're not going to cover wagons and outside bands, but we're going to cover discs and drums. Okay? How many of you guys have ever worked on anything with an ABS system? What is ABS? Antilock brakes. What does it do? Key words. What's the key word that Travis just said? What? It prevents locking up. Right? That one. Well, what was the other one? Besides attraction, under what circumstances? Emergency braking. Okay? You just got one right on the state test. How many of you guys have ever used a micrometer before today? Okay. A couple. Alright. It's not uncommon that a lot of technicians don't do this. And the reason being is because we weren't taught to do it. Those of you guys that know me, I didn't have formal education in automotive. I learned the hard way, which was I got thrown in a shop and fucked some ---- up and learned along the way. Right? I was never taught to use a micrometer. Were you guys? Yeah. Alright. Some of you guys were lucky enough to get taught to use a micrometer. For us, it was kind of fill it with your fingers and how does it look? Okay? To me, it looks like I need to replace it. Right? And I just saw new rotors and new pads. But we're going to show you guys how to measure them like you're supposed to be doing. One. Then two. So this way, you guys know how to do the measurements when it comes time to do an actual brake inspection. Alright? Let's get cracking. Disc brakes. Rotors. What do you guys know about rotors? What are some things you guys should keep in mind about rotors? And just anything in general about rotors. What do you guys know about them? Easier replacing drums. I agree with that. Anybody disagree? I'd have to disagree if it's a Toyota, a Honda Accord. 91. 91, 92, Preston. At that point, it's like, **** rotors. Right? Alright. Just hit it with your purse, huh? What else do you guys know about brake drums? Brake rotors. Fuck. I'm changing already. You gotta resurface them. Okay? Even if they're new. Is that true? You don't know how that rotor got treated. Okay? A lot of times what happens is if a rotor's not stored properly, can that cause a problem to the rotor. Yeah. Okay? You think the guy or gal that works at AutoZone or any auto parts in general really cares about how they're storing and how they treat the rotor? No, right? It applies to brand names. It applies to all of them because, I mean, who handles them? Right? When it gets made, it gets put in a box. From there, I don't know how the hell they transport it to wherever it's going. Then it gets to that store. I don't know if they dropped it before they put it on the shelf. And then they pick it up. I don't know if they dropped it again. Put it in a basket. Put it in a truck. Brought it to me. And I don't know the condition of it. When you guys get new spark plugs, do you guys still have the habit of checking the gap? Yeah. Why? All right. Well, why wouldn't you do that with the rotor? Right? Because some rotors, you know, when they come from Parkway, they're like, you know, they come already, like, the kind of paint or something that... So you're talking European. When they have that gray anti-squeak already on them, right? Because that's a great additive. But how many of you guys know European? You do a brand new brake job on a Euro, follow all procedures, use all OEM parts, and it still sounds like a ******* freight train. Have you guys seen that? And it sounds better, right? Oh, yeah. Yeah. I've done a couple, and they just keep on coming back, right? Jaguar. Jaguar had it with Mercedes, okay? These things sound like a train going down the lane, right? Okay. So when we're talking about disc brakes, one of the cool things about them is they're easy to work with. One of the downsides to them is they can overheat really quickly, right? Especially if you don't know how to drive and you're just riding your brakes, you're going to overheat the ---- out of them. When we're talking about a rotor, if it has these types of fins inside, what are those fins for? Ventilation. Ventilation, right? We're going to have air going through them, and that's going to help us dissipate the heat, right? Heat transfer. That should sound similar to air conditioning, right? Or a radiator of some sort, okay? What are some of the problems you guys can see whenever we're talking about rotors? What are some common problems you guys see? A seized caliper. Okay? How does this caliper become seized? Lack of lubricant, okay? How many of you guys are in the habit of lubricating and cleaning slides before you reassemble brakes? Okay? If you're not, you got to add that, okay? That should be part of what you're already doing, right? If you guys look up a brake job, most books say one hour. Is that true? Yes. Okay. Have you guys ever been taught that you should always add at least half an hour to whatever labor time gets posted? Yes. Okay. Why? Some ---- might come up. Some ---- might come up, right? Okay. Good practice would be if a brake job comes up on Mitchell all day out of one hour, charge them two. Why? Because then you're going to go through, one, if you pull the rotor to machine it, you're going to clean the mating surface. Is that true? Yeah. Right? If you're not doing that, you know you could put one thousandth of rust on there and is that going to deflect the rotor? Huh. Is that going to give you vibration? Huh. Okay. You could change all kinds of rotors and that ---- will still be vibrating. That's why a lot, if you guys look up a procedure of doing brakes on any car, a lot of the newer cars, manufacturers are telling you to either use on-vehicle brake lathes or they're not serviceable. All right. Wheel speed sensors. How many of you guys ever replaced an axle, didn't check if it had the reluctor wheel, you put the car back together, it leaves and it comes back with the ABS light on? Wheel bearing. All right. Or wheel bearing. The pickup on the bearing. Mm-hmm. We had a student in one of our diagnostic classes, he replaced the wheel bearing on a Chevy Malibu. Brand new. Brand ******* new out of the box from GM. Okay. Because that day before I drilled it into him, the aftermarket parts sucked. All right. So he went straight to the dealer. Then for that class, he brought the car in because he said, I did what you said. I put it from the OEM and he still gave me the same ******* code. Okay. So, cool. Bring it in. First thing we did, we threw in our lab scope. Why? That's the only way I can verify integrity of that particular cylinder. Wrong class. Okay. So, that sensor. How many of you guys scope them? Or most of you guys do scan tool and go drive it, right? Why is that not a good test? Delay. Not live data. Intermediate. Not live data. You know how long it takes that data from the time I asked for it with the scanner, from the time it gets sent back to the scanner, converted and displayed? It's roughly between 10 to 15 seconds. So, the data you're seeing on your screen is 10 to 15 seconds old. If there was a dropout in one of these sensors, would you be able to see it? You guys know how many people argue with me and tell me that's not true? And how many people argue with me and tell me that using a scope is a waste of time? You guys know how we figured out that Malibu? With a scope. Okay. They drove it here with a scan tool and they had the data because they were recording it. They're like, there's nothing wrong with it. It's working. Really? Put it on the scope. Let's see what the scope has to say. The moment we spun the wheel, we started noticing that every third tooth was elongated. So, the computer is seeing an elongated tooth as, damn, this revolution doesn't stop. It just keeps going. Oh, ----, another tooth. So, we pulled everything apart and there was nothing wrong. Nothing wrong with the reluctor wheel. Okay. Sensor tested out fine because they tested the resistance on it. There was nothing wrong with the sensor. What ended up happening was that bearing was bad. It didn't have noise. It didn't have vibration. Nothing. Okay. It was a bad part right out of the box. Okay. I bring that up because most technicians will be like, well, I put a new part in it. It's not that. Order me a sensor. They throw a sensor on it. Fuck. That's not it either. Wiring harness. They throw a wiring harness on it. Shit. That didn't fix it either. It's got to be the ******* computer. Order me a computer and call a programmer and put it up. Right. $5,000 in the hole to come to find out you had a bad hub. Okay. Now, you guys see the importance of a scope, right? Hopefully. Yeah. Okay. I love scopes. I've been using them ever since I started automotive and all the old parts I used to work with would make fun of me. I worked in a fully, most fully Hispanic shops. So they always tell me, let me look at it. See what's wrong with it. Right. Bring a little toy. Let's find out what's wrong with this car. They're mocking me. Right. Now, guess who fixed all their **** ups. Okay. So you got to learn how to use a scope. A lot of people are going to tell you scopes is old technology. You don't need to use it. Okay. Cool. So go ahead and tell me how swapping parts is working for you. Right. Okay. Now, let's talk about ABS braking. What's the number one thing you guys need to remember when it comes to ABS? When is it going to work? Under extreme braking conditions. That's a huge chunk of your state test. You're going to get questions that ask you about when does ABS activate. When? Extreme or emergency braking. Okay. All right, guys. So we're going to start off with something a little bit different. Yesterday, we did one specific test. Well, yeah. We did an electrical test yesterday. And I wanted to kind of go over that test because I know some of you guys had some questions on it. We're going to talk more about it during electrical, but I figured it's fresh, so let's talk about it. Right. For shits and giggles, does anybody know what kind of circuit this is? Parallel or series? Series. How do you guys know it's a series circuit? It's connected parallel. It starts at the battery and goes where? Back to the battery, right? So we know it's a series circuit, okay? The next thing we know, we have a battery that has 12.6 volts. Do you guys agree? Yeah. Okay. I have one load that takes up 10 ohms of resistance, okay? Anytime you hear the term load in automotive electrical and automotive in general, it's something that's using electricity, right? So that could be a motor, that could be a fuel pump, window regulator, starter motor. Anything that's using up current is what? A load. A load, okay? From the load, we go back to ground, okay? Yesterday, we did a test called a voltage drop test. Any of you guys ever run that test before, been taught how to do that test? Yeah. Okay, voltage drop test is one of the most efficient ways for you guys to determine if you have unwanted resistance in an electrical circuit, right? If you guys take any of my classes, I'm going to be the first one to tell you that you do not disassemble a circuit to test it, okay? If you take any of my classes, you know that I'm going to show you how to do dynamic testing. Why? Because why the hell am I going to take it apart with possibly fixing or correcting the issue to test it? When that circuit runs, connect it. So why am I going to take it apart to test it, okay? It's like going to the doctor. They pull your liver out and say, all right, we're going to ship it out to get tested. Hang on tight, and then when we get it back, we'll shove it right back in, right? It doesn't make sense, okay? So that's one of the reasons why I love voltage drop testing. Because one, you're going to be able to determine circuit integrity, and you're testing the circuit in its normal configuration. Wouldn't that be one of the best ways to test something? Yeah. Yeah, right? For those of you guys that hung out last night, what did we do? What did we test yesterday with the scope? We did relative compression test, right? Then I showed you guys how to use that same one connection across the battery to test the battery, alternator, and charging system. Is that true? Yep. Okay? So we could do that simply. A lot of people bust out this $2,000 battery tester that gives you a receipt like if it came out of the cash register, right? Okay? How is that testing it when the vehicle is off? When do you use the battery? When you crank it. I don't know about you guys, but having a $2,000 apparatus connected to a battery telling me that it's good doesn't fit with me. Because I don't know about you guys, but I usually have to crank my engine over for it to start, right? So why not test the engine in its normal configuration with the battery starter and the engine car right there connected to a scope and crank it? So that's why dynamic testing is so much more important, which is known as voltage drop testing. Okay? So I have these circuits up here real quick. I have a volt meter and I have a current meter. We're going to see this one first, and then I'm going to show you guys the difference between testing it off, on, to be able to see if there's a problem. Okay? I know of a lot of instructors that are going to tell you to do a voltage drop test in this configuration. What's wrong with this configuration? Open. Open circuit. How do we know we have an open circuit? The switch is open. Okay? Do I have any flow of current? No. What does my volt meter say? Zero. So if I'm a technician that got trained that I test it off, that's good. Fuck yeah. That's good. Move on. But then, when you give it to a tech who knows you have to turn on the circuit, he's going to have some voltage drop there. Okay? So let me turn it on for you guys so you guys can see it. All right. So right there. Current's active. We have current flow. Do you guys agree? Yes. Okay, so now I have 1.26 amps. I have 12.6 volts going through 10 zones of resistance, and that's going to give me a 1.26 amp drop. Okay? Do I have any voltage drop on that circuit? No. So is it safe to say that that ground circuit is okay? Yes. Okay? All right. So now, let me show you guys a problem circuit. Okay? So let's look at this circuit and tell me if it's any different. I got one battery. It's 12.6 volts. Is that the same? Yeah. Okay. What's my load? 10 ohms. Is that the same? Yeah. Okay. And do I have a switch? Yeah. Is this a series circuit? Yeah. All right. So now, what's my voltage drop? I don't know. It's not energized, so it's not closed. It's not energized, so I have zero voltage drop, right? Do I have any current flow? No. Okay. So I don't have any current flow. Is that circuit active? No. So now, if I take my voltmeter and connect here, am I going to see 12.6 volts? Okay? That's voltage potential. Remember I told you guys that you could test voltage all day long until you turn blue in the face, but it's not going to tell you anything? Why? Because right now, we just proved it. If I go across here, I'm going to see 12.6. I have the potential of doing something, but it's not happening. Does that make sense? Okay. So now, let me turn it on. The key thing here is I added one ohm of resistance. Okay? One ohm. One ohm could be as small as a little bit of corrosion on your battery terminal. Okay? Or a loose connection. Now, looking at it, what changed between this one and the previous one? Look at my current. Did the current drop? Yeah. Huh. What does this say? If resistance goes up, what happens to average? It goes down. I have a one ohm of unwanted resistance. Right? Okay? I saw it right away with my current clamp. Current dropped. If I have a drop in current, what happens? I have resistance. Right? This is how you remember current. How many of you guys have been down the 91 freeway at 5 p.m. on a Friday? Okay? How fast can you go? If you can move at all. A mile an hour. So, on Friday at 5 o'clock on the 91 freeway coming from L.A. back to Riverside, can you hit 100 miles an hour? No. Not safely. Right? And not legally. Okay? So, my point is because we have so many cars on the freeway or resistance, my current drops, which is my speed. Is that true? What happens if I go down the 91 freeway at 2 in the morning? Can I hit 100 miles an hour? Why? I have no resistance. Okay? So, you see how resistance impedes the flow of current. Does that make sense? Okay? So, now, if we look at this, I have 1.15 volts loss. I'm losing 1.15 volts from the ground side of the battery to the boat. Is that a good reading? No. What's the max you should see? 0.33. 200 millivolts. On a ground circuit, it's 200. On a power feed, it's 300. Okay? Here's where we're going to get into the nitty-gritty. If this was a test question, how would you guys detect this? The question is, are these lights on? And you guys get a bunch of those. No. How many of you guys say on? I'll give you guys a couple seconds. Look it over. Just keep in mind, during the state test, you've got a minute and 30 seconds to read the question, look at the diagram, four answers, and answer it. So, the clock starts. Let's go. Off. Does everybody agree? Off? Yes. How do we know that? 87A, 87A. Beautiful. Are the relays energized? No. So, that means both lights are off. Okay? It should be, in theory. Right? Okay? So, if a question says anything, all this bunch of bullshit, and then at the end it says, are these lights on? What's your answer? No. And you guys figured that out in what, 20 seconds? 30 seconds? Okay. As soon as you land on it, first thing you've got to do is look at the question. Read the question. What are they asking me? Process it. Look at your diagram, and then look at your four answers. What are the possible four answers? The four that are in front of you. That's it. So, stop thinking of anything else. Only focus on the four answers they're giving you. Why? Because they can only be those four answers. Does that make sense? Okay? So, right there, you can tell it's off because the relay is connected. Relay's open. So, that means that I have no power, because look at the relay. What's constant? Ground. So, these are power-controlled relays. Okay? Where's power coming from? From the switch. Switch. High beam switch or low beam switch. That would be my multifunction switch, my headlight switch. Okay? So, if they give you this diagram and they tell you that why aren't these things turning on, what are some of your possible answers? There's no beams. But they're only talking about low beams. They said low beams don't come on. Do you give a ---- about anything on the high beams? No. Why? They only ask for what? Low beams. You guys see how we're narrowing it down? Okay? If you get a question and it has nothing to do with high beams, don't look at them. Don't look at them, because you're going to waste your time. It has nothing to do with what you're doing. They're telling you it's on the low beams. So, what's my low beam? Fuse is here. That fuse is going to supply what? Power to the coil side of the relay. Right? Then I have a circuit breaker that supplies power to pin 30. Once the relay closes, 87 turns it right on. True? Okay? So, if I get a question on here that says that my low beams aren't coming on, one of the answers is blown fuse, trip breaker, open here, or open here. So, find that relay. What would it be? If the relay is not turning on, that would be from the fuse, right? So, it would be a low beam fuse. Okay? Because I told you guys it's not coming on, so that means this relay is not turning on. If that relay is not closing, what controls it? The low beam fuse. If one of your answers is that fuse is blown, isn't that your right answer? Yeah. Okay? Any questions on this one before I move on? Yeah, obviously. Yeah, the fuse thing, of course, yeah, obviously. Yeah. This fuse is waiting here. Yeah. Right? This potential is right here chilling. It's waiting until this energizes to close it to then go into the light bulb. Right? But they wouldn't mention that driver turns there. Nope. They're going to tell you which position it's in. Okay? So, the questions are going to be worded so stupidly that you've got to read through them. Okay? So, they're not going to tell you the customer turned the headlight switch on, nothing like that. They're just going to say that circuit's active. The question that comes up on the test, and they ask you that you have a light, a composite light you're testing, and it has a stamp on it that says E4. Those of you guys that took the test, do you guys remember that question? Yeah. All right. Lamps that are made here in the United States will have a DOT, or Society of Automotive Engineers number, okay? And in some cases, an ECE number stamped on the outside of the housing, like this one right here. Okay? E4. DOT indicates it's approved by the U.S. Department of Transportation. SAE means that it's designed and approved by Society of Automotive Engineers. ECE is the Economic Commission for Europe. That means that the light was designed for use in Europe. Okay? If you have a light that has an E and then any number after it, the number represents the country for which that light was made for. Okay? So the state question is, you get a vehicle that comes in for a brake and lamp inspection, and when you look at it, you have a light that has an E4 on it. Does that pass or fail? It passes. It was certified by ECE, Commission of Europe. They're the DOT of Europe. So if they approved it, it's allowed here. Okay? So that means that that light was approved by the ECE of Europe for the Netherlands. So it still has to have that stamp of ECE on it? It's either going to have the DOT, SAE, or the E stamp. One of the three. If it doesn't have any of those three stamps. So the ECE number is the E with the number on it? Okay. And that's the question I'm going to ask. What lights don't matter? The cheap ones. The ones you get on eBay that come from China. Or the ones you order on Wish. So those stamps right there, if you see it on the headlights, that would all pass, right? Yeah, it passes. It passes. Those light bulbs that are sold on Amazon that have the little fans that are brighter, are those legal? LED, those are legal. I got them on my truck. We're not testing intensity. So that's one of the kickers. If you put an LED light, an LED bulb in a pair can put up to 12,000 lumens. So that's excessively bright. In California, we believe the law is 3,000. So 12,000 is four times the allowed limit. But we don't test for intensity. So it doesn't matter. Just blind the ---- out of people as you drive by. Any questions on this one? Because this is on a test. So that's for taillamps or headlamps? Okay. Any lamp. Okay, but the question would be about like, if you see that E4. They're not going to say E4. Yeah, they do say E4. They say the vehicle comes in with a lamp and the lamp has an E4 stamp on it. Does that pass? The answer is yes. It's approved by ECE. No, they do it in the Netherlands, but they're not going to ask you. Next one. They're going to ask you about a D1 and a D2 style bulb. Okay. So what they're referring to here is those are Zeon headlights. They have a glass or quartz tube filled with a special in their gas. With the electrodes sealed in each end of the tube, when current is passed through the tube, the gas becomes hot and emits light. That means it has a ballast that's going to step up voltage in order to get that bad boy to ignite. Zeon gas in a HID emits a virtually full spectrum white light. So objects illuminate and appear almost the same color as they do in daylight. Zeon bulbs operate on a high voltage and alternating current. Each light assembly includes a light, ballast, starter, and sometimes an ignition unit. They will also be called D1 or D2 bulbs, gas discharge bulbs. Okay. Normal to hear humming or buzzing coming from the ballast since it's a step-up transformer. You're going to get those are two questions on the state test. Car comes in with a D1 or D2 bulb. What is it? It's a gas discharge bulb. That means it's a Zeon bulb. As long as it doesn't emit blue in color, it passes. Okay. You're also going to get a question that says that you got a car that has a D1 or a D2 bulb and it's humming. You hear a buzzing humming sound coming from the bulb. What does that mean? Normal. It has a ballast. Have any of you guys ever been standing next to those green Edison boxes? Transformer. As you're like... That's the sound of electricity. Okay. That's a transformer. All right. Beam indicator. When was it required? 1940. They're going to ask you how many candle power must that light be? Two. How do you measure that? That's a good question. I have the same question, so that's why I'm asking. Okay. I'm pretty sure the one I have doesn't go that low. And mine's an intensity meter. It's not even candle power, so I have no idea where the **** they get a candle power meter. I think that law hasn't been changed since 1940. All right. Single beam headlamp is prohibited after 9-19 or September 19th of 1940. That's a very specific date. Very specific date, right? You got to love ******* California. Is that like just low beam? Just low beam, no high beam. Yeah. Vehicles are required to have two tail lamps on vehicles made or registered after January 1st of 1958. Okay. Everything that we're covering right now, I've seen on the test in any way, shape, or form. So that's why I'm going it over with you guys. All right. Trailers, that's in 30 inches wide. Do you guys remember this from yesterday? Yes. Okay. First thing you should come to mind, 30 inches wide should be one brake light. Is that true? Yes. Okay. That's the first thing that I always remember when I see 30 inches on this test. I know what they're referring to. That means it's a short trailer, one center mounted tail light. True? Yes. Okay. July 23rd, 1973 would be the date. After, if the trailer was made before that, it's a little different. 30 inches wide made after, it may use one. So before, it might be two. Don't know. They're not telling you before. They're just telling you after. Okay. It's crazy. A tail lamp must be visible from 500 feet before January 1st of 1969. After January 1st of 1969, it's 1,000 feet. Same year. Okay. So if your car was 1968, then it's 500. If it's a 69, it's 1,000. Okay. I don't know about you guys, but I'm not very good at telling the difference between 500 and 1,000 feet. A tail lamp mounting height must be between 15 to 72 inches from the ground. Okay. So that means we can stop at 1572, right? And tail lamps must be equal height. You guys remember that from yesterday? Okay.