- I don't care how it, how it happens.
I just want to be a car.
(upbeat music)
Hi, my name is Malachite Perry
and I'm an automotive technician.
So I've been working on cars ever since I was about 13,
14 years old.
My grandfather taught my mom and then my mom taught me.
And then I just kind of learned everything from her
and my uncles.
I'm AAC certified right now.
I hold two AAC certifications
in breaks and Syrian suspension.
- [Speaker] Do you mind telling the anecdote about
how you wanted to be a car when you grew up?
- So I was young.
I was probably like five
and I was watching this one movie that was made back
in the eighties and it was "Moonwalker"
with Michael Jackson in it.
And he wished upon a star.
And then all of a sudden he started making all
these mechanical noises and he turns into a car.
As soon as I saw that, from that point on,
I wanted to be a car.
I don't care how, how it happens.
I just want to be a car.
All right, so it looks like today we're gonna be
playing "Car Mechanic Simulator 2021."
(upbeat music)
Have you ever heard of a car wash dude?
Like if you take care of the car
the car will take care of you.
Thank God the customer's not around.
(laughs)
I've had cars where it had, as soon
as you popped the hood, there's like an animal in there.
I'm like, okay, really?
Like snakes, possums, cats.
It's just not okay.
When I was working at Honda,
a customer came in because they kept having
like a foul smell coming through their vents,
me and all the technicians,
we all looked at each other.
We were like, okay.
So we already know what's gonna happen.
We're just like expecting like the shredded remains of it.
But as soon as we pop the hood, we just see like this long
like rattlesnake, just all the way across the engine.
And it was dead.
I just took like a gasket scraper.
I was just scraping it off the engine.
That's one of many animal versus car stories.
Just check your cars before you take off, especially
in the wintertime because after you drive
and you're, you go in the house and everything,
your car is still warm.
It's still hot.
Now you have a stray animal that's outside in the,
in the cold.
They're looking for a nice warm place to stay.
And they burrow inside your car
because of the heat from the engine and transmission.
So then they're asleep in the morning.
When you get ready to go to work
you start the engine and well.
That's it, story over.
You can roll the credits after that.
Like that's it.
Parts to fix.
We got the brakes.
We got the fuel pump, oil filter, round air filter two carb,
and four tires.
Let's just, ah it does that.
If only it was this easy in real life,
just the lift automatically does it for you.
I would love that.
You have no idea.
This is actually very detailed.
This is pretty cool.
Yeah, I usually don't really work on cars this rusty,
'cause I live in Southern California.
Like I'm in the middle of like south orange county.
So it's like, there's no snow here.
Thank God.
Oh no.
Is that one rusted?
I knew it.
I was counting it.
I'm like, there's no way
that this car is not gonna have anything
that's not rust on here that I'm gonna have to take off.
I just knew it.
Where's the peanut butter blaster?
At least that's what I call it.
It's called PB blaster.
It's like rust penetrant spray.
Ah, there we go.
Once again, if only things were that easy.
I am dismounting the tire
so I can put on new tires on these wheels.
At least that's what I think I did.
I'm not sure what happened right now.
We'll find out eventually.
Three different ways to balance this tire?
It should only be two ways
but it's all right.
This is a good simulator so far.
I like this.
This is fun.
So now I'm gonna change the oil, use equipment.
There we go.
Okay, figured it out.
Yeah.
Like it's really never actually that easy.
I'll say this, like on some cars, it's easier.
Like, you know, on your Japanese cars
it's easier to do an oil change versus
on like a European car or even some American cars or okay.
I gotta tell y'all this one.
Hang on.
So this person, like they made an enemy because
it came in for a simple oil change and I'm trying
to unscrew the drain plug just to change the oil.
And for some reason it's not loosening, like for,
I can't loosen it for the life of me.
And we had like three other technicians come
over and we're like, dude, there's something wrong
that's going on here.
We're looking at the old oil pan and
we're trying to get the drain plug out.
And it turns out that whoever did his last oil change
put on lock tight on his drain plug.
And I'm like, yo,
you made an enemy or something like that.
And we're like, yo, like somebody hates this dude.
We ended up finding out
he ended up being cheated on by somebody
or something like that.
Like this whole love triangle thing.
I don't remember all the details.
Cause I don't know this dude.
He ended up going into that auto shop that guy worked at.
And so he put gasket sealer on his oil pan
and lock tight on the screws.
And I'm like, dude, like, that's why I always say never
piss off the people who fix your food or fix your car.
Cause we're vindictive.
I'm not vindictive.
Like I've been working on that.
Actually really does look like real life.
Okay, here we go.
Drum break cylinder.
There it is.
Okay, so we're gonna need two of those.
2, 15, 75, 15.
Okay.
$4,000 for these.
Geez, this piece of crap.
Sorry.
Confessions of an automotive technician.
Oh Lord, forgive me.
Oh Lord.
See, uh-uh, see, when I open my own auto shop
it ain't gonna look like this.
It's gonna be nice, clean, calm, cool, and collected.
Like uh-uh, it ain't gonna be looking like this.
This drives me nuts.
I can't.
So this is a tire mounting machine.
So what I'm doing here is taking the rubber off the wheel.
So when you're dismounting a tire
what you should really do is make sure that the shovel,
which is that part right there,
is not gonna close in on the sensor.
If you do, then you just damage the sensor.
Well actually you didn't really damage it.
You more like destroy it.
Ask me how I know.
Hey there they go.
There's the new tires.
I just wanna get this guy outta my shop.
I think I did all the tires.
So that's a thing now.
Oh yeah.
The oil filter.
All right.
I hope this is the new part.
Let's see.
Yes.
Okay.
There we go.
Back in its place.
Oh my God.
It said back in its place,
that is something that people need to do.
Put things back in their place.
I cannot tell you how many times I'm like looking for
something and I'm looking for, in it's proper place, right?
Where it should be at.
And guess what?
It's not there because somebody moved it someplace else.
So now nobody can find it.
See when I open my auto shop
it ain't gonna look like this.
It's gonna be nice, clean, calm, cool, and collected.
Like uh-uh, it ain't gonna be looking like this.
I'm like venting as I go along.
Whenever you're putting on a wheel, you always want to do it
in a star pattern because that's kind of like
you're making sure it's even force
all along the side of the wheel.
So that way your wheel goes on straight
and it doesn't go on crooked or anything like that.
The issues are usually wheel offs.
It's a very, very serious thing because it's like,
what if you work on someone's car
and you take their wheel off and you put it back on
but you didn't put it back on correctly
or you didn't even torque it down to manufacturer spec.
And now that person is behind the wheel of that car
and they get on the freeway
and they're traveling at 70 miles an hour, right?
Their wheel flies off at 70 miles an hour.
Whenever it's something that's this serious.
I always think of an extreme case scenario.
So that way it covers whatever I do.
And it makes sure that whatever I put on is gonna be a-okay.
I meant to click on that one or not that one,
but it's all right.
It's a simulator.
It's all good.
All right.
So the fuel pump and the round air filter two carb
I cannot for the life of me find this fuel pump, dude.
Trying to look in the back here
'cause usually the fuel pump is over by the gas tank
which is in the back.
So I'm clicking really where the fuel tank should be at.
But nothing's happening, we went to what's called
examination mode to figure out where the parts are at.
They found it through examination mode.
I mean normally the way you take off a fuel pump, again
depending on your make and model is you go inside the car,
you remove the rear seats,
and you access the fuel tank that way.
So like right here and right here essentially
are where the fuel pump or fuel pumps would be located at.
Oh wait, we're getting somewhere.
We're getting somewhere.
There we go.
Hey.
Sweets, perfect fit.
I just also remembered that I have to add oil to it.
So I'm just gonna do that before I forget.
Dude, I'm working on cars,
I be dropping on people's conversations.
I'll be hearing some juicy stuff.
Like I remember I was working at this one auto shop.
This lady, I guess she was like working like on
like her laptop or something like that.
She was in like some kind of like meeting or whatever.
So she has her laptop in her passenger seat.
She's sitting in the driver's seat.
I'm like underneath her hood, like,
you know doing an inspection.
And I guess she forgot her,
that her window was slightly cracked.
And I'm hearing that like,
I guess one of her friends ended up leaving another friend
because they got drunk at the club
and they ended up like cheating on somebody.
And I was like, ooh, talk slow.
Like I want to hear this.
I forget I'm working on the car at this point.
I'm like, yo, I'm invested in this conversation.
This is why I love working on cars.
Like I just hear and see everything.
Okay, so I think this car is done essentially.
Other tasks, change break fluid.
Oh see, see, thank God I clicked on other tasks.
'Cause I would've missed this.
Take that off.
Ay.
Oh yeah, so here's an important thing.
If your break fluid level is low
then usually that's a tell tale sign
that you need your break pads changed
or you need some kind of break service.
So in this case, since we already did the breaks
and the break fluid is so low.
Then that means there's some kind
of hydraulic leak somewhere potentially
because it didn't go all the way back
up to its normal level.
So we'll just add fluid and then, you know,
we'll pump the brakes in real life.
That's what you're supposed to do.
But yeah, I don't see.
I'm not even going over there
'cause that side of the shop just makes me mad.
I'm not even going over there.
Hey, there we go.
Okay, I did it, sweet.
Okay, so honestly this is a pretty cool game.
If you wanna figure out how to work on cars
but you just don't have the means to just yet.
Like if you don't have the money to go back to school
or no one that is close to you really
knows how to work on cars or what have you.
I think this would be a good option for you.
I think anybody in the automotive field
would benefit from this game.
On a scale of one to 10,
10 being the most accurate, one being like not
accurate at all by any stretch of the imagination,
I would probably give this game
like a good like seven outta 10,
eight outta 10, around there.
There are some things in it to where it's like,
I feel like it's kind of missing a step or you know
something kind of just disappears and you're like, okay
where did it go?
And you don't really know where you left off at.
But other than that though, I mean
with my first time playing this game, this is very,
very accurate of what it's like to work on a car.
I really wanna buy this game.
Like this is really cool.
I like it.
(laughs)