Brian Garcia is a Tinker expert with decades of experience as an automotive mechanic. He has an ASE master certification, plus ASE certifications for light-duty diesel and hybrid/electrified repair. After completing the GM Automotive Service Educational Program (ASEP), he spent eight years as a technician at GM dealerships. For the last fifteen years he has owned Global Performance Automotive, an independent mobile repair business in, Florida, in addition to being a claims manager at an insurance company, working with repair facilities all over the country.
I’m Brian Garcia, Tinker Expert. Need a hand with your next project? Find me on Tinker.
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I became a Tinker expert mechanic because I really enjoy helping automotive DIYers with their projects, both big and small. When I discovered Tinker I was, like, “whoa, this is exactly what I do every day as a certified mechanic with my mobile service business in Florida, but now with the Tinker app I can help people fix their cars all over the country.”
Fixing cars is my passion, seven days a week. Every weekend I’m in my garage, door open, working on either my Harley motorcycle or my heavily modified 2002 Subaru WRX. I can’t tell you how many times a teenager walks in and starts asking me questions. I’m always happy to show off what I’m doing, and get them hooked, because that’s exactly how I got into this. I was 7 or 8 years old, watching my father and grandfather work on cars, handing them tools and helping out however I could.
Tinker enables me to pass the torch to people nationwide, but not just kids walking by my garage. I get great personal satisfaction when I can help a Tinker caller understand an issue and fix their vehicle themselves the right way, and safely. It’s fun for me, and more importantly it saves them time and money.
Many of my Tinker calls are from regular people where a little bit of guidance is all they need to handle the issue themselves with some basic hand tools. That’s where I come in. Since Tinker is a live video app I can see their actual car, see what they’re seeing, and offer real-time personalized expert advice.
The other day I answered a Tinker call from a young woman, maybe 18 or 19. Her horn wasn’t working and she was excited to fix it herself. “I’m gonna fix my own car,” she told me.
I told her, “Yeah, go for it, I’m here to help, let’s get it figured out together.” First we checked the fuse and the relay. Then we went into the actual horn assembly, took the connector off and I explained how to hook up the meter she had. The problem turned out to be a loose connection. In just a few minutes it was fixed. She could not have been happier to do the job herself.
Some of my Tinker calls are far more complicated. One that stands out was a call from another mechanic at an independent repair facility who was stuck on a programming issue and wanted to get another viewpoint on the problem. This was technician talking to technician, trying to come up with a solution he wasn’t thinking of on his own. Together, we figured it out pretty quickly.
For the more complicated calls it’s extremely helpful that I have access to electrical schematics and removal replacement procedures for a majority of vehicles. As a certified mechanic I have a library full of that stuff and it comes in handy when I need more in depth information to help my Tinker caller figure out a complex problem on their vehicle.
At the end of my Tinker calls, I always send a quick little note to the caller for reference that restates everything we did, and to let them know that if they have any other questions, I’m still available to help them out. I leave my contact information so they can contact me on Tinker whenever they want with whatever they need.
I want people to know my “garage door” is always open.
I’m Brian Garcia, Tinker Expert. Need a hand with your next project? Find me on Tinker.
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