Diagnosing the Aftermarket A to Z

Thanks to our Partners, Pico Technology, and Autel Watch Full Video Episode In this episode, Matt digs into a question that sits underneath a lot of shop economics, technician frustration, and industry culture: who should be responsible for buying the tools and equipment required to do the work a shop advertises? The discussion starts with a real-world example involving a dealership service depart...

Thanks to our Partners, Pico Technology, and Autel Watch Full Video Episode A Dodge Durango came into the shop for a second opinion after being suspected of needing a transmission. The symptoms sounded convincing at first: harsh shifts, apparent slipping, no diagnostic trouble codes, and a vehicle that felt completely wrong on the road. But the actual problem was much simpler. The Durango was stuc...

Thanks to our Partners, Pico Technology, and Autel Watch Full Video Episode In this episode of Diagnosing the Aftermarket A to Z, Matt Fanslow starts with a case study on a 2000 Ford Excursion with a 7.3L Power Stroke that came in with a severe lack of power. What began as a fuel delivery problem turned into a more interesting diagnostic puzzle involving a P1280 injection control pressure sensor c...

Thanks to our Partners, Pico Technology, and Autel Watch Full Video Episode Matt Fanslow continues his exploration of game theory by examining the difference between a shop’s official game and its shadow game . The official game is what ownership and management say the shop values: quality work, safety, fairness, employee support, customer care, and doing things the right way. The shadow game is w...

Thanks to our Partners, Pico Technology, and Autel Watch Full Video Episode In this episode, Matt Fanslow continues the conversation around game theory and economics in the automotive repair industry, focusing on one of the biggest invisible forces affecting customer trust: information asymmetry. Auto repair is a credence good service, meaning most customers cannot fully judge the quality of the w...

Thanks to our Partners, Pico Technology, and Autel Watch Full Video Episode In this episode, Matt starts on the golf course and ends up right back in the service bay, because apparently, even a decent round of golf can turn into a cognitive psychology lesson. After shooting a personally strong nine-hole score, Matt catches himself doing what many technical and mechanical specialists do every day:...

Thanks to our Partners, Pico Technology, and Autel Watch Full Video Episode In this episode, Matt begins laying the groundwork for a larger discussion on game theory and how it applies far beyond poker tables, chessboards, casinos, or movie references. What starts with John von Neumann, poker strategy, bluffing, and imperfect information quickly becomes a broader conversation about how people, bus...

Thanks to our Partners, Pico Technology and Autel Watch Full Video Episode In this episode, Matt Fanslow uses Game of Thrones, specifically the arc of Daenerys Targaryen, as a metaphor for what can happen when a mechanical or technical specialist moves from employee to shop owner. The comparison is not that former technicians suddenly “burn everything to the ground,” but that people can start with...

Thanks to our Partners, Pico Technology, Autel, and Independent Wrench Jobs Watch Full Video Episode Matt Fanslow revisits the Challenger disaster, not just as a historical tragedy, but as a case study in how standards, tolerances, and risk perception can shift over time. The common simplified story is that management ignored engineers, pushed the launch forward, and disaster followed. While that...

Thanks to our Partners, Pico Technology, Autel, and Independent Wrench Jobs Watch Full Video Episode In this episode of Diagnosing the Aftermarket A to Z, Matt Fanslow tells the story of a modified 1994 Corvette that came in with a hesitation, backfire, and cut-out concern under light-load highway driving. The vehicle had already been looked at elsewhere, and the customer believed the problem was...

Thanks to our Partners, Pico Technology, Autel, and Independent Wrench Jobs Watch Full Video Episode In this wide-ranging "mailbag" style episode, Matt Fanslow dives into a mix of technical, professional, and lifestyle questions from listeners. The conversation moves from the intimidating complexity of quantum physics and why it makes discussing "basic" electricity difficult, to practical advice o...

Thanks to our Partners, Pico Technology, Autel, and Independent Wrench Jobs Watch Full Video Episode In this episode, Matt Fanslow starts in an unexpected place, music, vocal styles, and Smashing Pumpkins, before using a series of stories from the music and sports worlds to make a bigger point about mentorship. The central idea is simple but important: mentorship has to come from both directions....

Thanks to our Partners, Pico Technology, Autel, and Independent Wrench Jobs Watch Full Video Episode In this episode, Matt Fanslow reflects on what it really means to be strong. Prompted by the story of a young mother navigating grief, single parenthood, and overwhelming responsibility after the loss of her children’s father to overdose, the conversation explores relapse, recovery, endurance, and...

Thanks to our Partners, NAPA Auto Care and NAPA TRACS Watch Full Video Episode Recorded live at VISION 2026, host Carm Capriotto and Matt Fanslow explore how lessons from marriage counseling can improve communication in auto repair shops. The core discussion centers on Matt’s article for NAPA Auto Care's Insight Magazine, “Your Shop Might Need Marriage Counseling,” and the industry’s gap in soft s...

Thanks to our Partners, Pico Technology, Autel, and Independent Wrench Jobs Watch Full Video Episode In this episode, Matt Fanslow tackles a highly requested topic from listeners: the "Mount Rushmore" of automotive trainers and educators. Wrestling with the definition of a Mount Rushmore—whether it represents the "Best of the Best" or the "Foundational Forefathers"—Matt takes a deep dive into the...

Thanks to our Partners, Pico Technology, Autel, and Independent Wrench Jobs Watch Full Video Episode Matt Fanslow reflects on overhearing a conversation between shop owners about spending more time with family, and it sparks a bigger question: if family time is so important for ownership, what does that mean for employees? This episode looks at the tension between the real financial demands of run...

Thanks to our Partners, Pico Technology, Autel, and Independent Wrench Jobs Watch Full Video Episode Matt opens with a run of classic Chuck Norris jokes, partly as a tribute and partly to explain the inspiration behind the now-familiar Scot Manna Facts. What starts as a funny origin story turns into something more meaningful: a reflection on Scot Manna’s influence, the odd mix of ego and generosit...

Thanks to our Partners, Pico Technology, Autel, and Independent Wrench Jobs Watch Full Video Episode Show Notes In this episode, Matt builds on a thought that has been bothering him for a while: the automotive repair industry has done a pretty terrible job defining what we mean by diagnosis, diagnostic, analysis, and even something as simple as a code scan. The spark for the conversation comes fro...

Thanks to our Partners, Pico Technology, Autel, and Independent Wrench Jobs Watch Full Video Episode In this episode, Matt recaps his trip to VISION 2026 in Kansas City. What starts as a simple event recap turns into a reflection on why conferences like VISION matter so much: the training, the conversations, the hallway discussions, the tools, the friendships, and the people pushing the industry f...

Thanks to our Partners, Pico Technology, Autel, and Independent Wrench Jobs Watch Full Video Episode In this episode, Matt takes on a question that listeners have apparently been enjoying asking: what’s on his “Mount Rushmore” of various categories? Before getting there, though, he gives a quick follow-up to the No Good Deed Goes Unpunished home-plumbing saga, where a simple bathroom fix turned in...

Thanks to our Partners, Pico Technology, Autel, and Independent Wrench Jobs Watch Full Video Episode Matt opens with a home-repair “birthday gift” project that spirals from a simple bathroom refresh into a full-blown floor/toilet/subfloor/plumbing/trim/electrical ordeal. What starts as a kind gesture turns into a week-long marathon of improvisation, problem-solving, and unexpected complications. F...

Thanks to our Partners, Pico Technology, Autel, and Independent Wrench Jobs Watch Full Video Episode Minnesota’s been a pressure cooker lately—and watching people process the same event in completely opposite ways has been… a lot. Matt sits down again with Margaret Light (LMFT, Equilibrium Therapy Services) to talk about why we’re so reactive, how cognitive distortions hijack conversations, and wh...

Thanks to our Partners, Pico Technology and Autel Watch Full Video Episode Matt answers listener emails about oscilloscope aliasing—what it is, whether all scopes can do it, and how it can trick you into diagnosing failures that aren’t real. Using a “pegboard and golf tees” mental model, he explains how a digital storage oscilloscope samples voltage, stores it in memory, and then reconstructs what...

Thanks to our Partners, Pico Technology and Autel Watch Full Video Episode A random YouTube Shorts interview turns into a surprisingly sharp lesson in leadership. Matt shares a story from Rob McElhenney about working with Danny DeVito—and how DeVito’s humility and audience-awareness reveal something shop owners and managers can use immediately: collaboration beats ego, and if you want to reach a d...

Thanks to our Partner, Pico Technology Watch Full Video Episode Matt uses the movie Mr. Baseball (Tom Selleck as Jack, an aging Yankees player traded to Japan) as an analogy for life in the automotive repair world—especially for veteran mechanical/technical specialists whose bodies start breaking down and whose production (and pay) can drop as a result. The core theme: your role can evolve from “h...