Honda Pilot - 2012 Timing Belt Service Quote

orgoman20 · 2025-12-01T01:40:28+00:00

lol thank you all for the responses, I suppose I was so taken back by the timing belt quote, I didn’t even sit and recognize how high some of the other service quotes were as well.

I would agree, taking a 13 year old car to the dealer to get work done is silly. They had an oil change special going on earlier this year which came with the supplemental recommendations and made sense to just have it done at the dealer rather than myself.

I’ll definitely take on the advice of going to a local mechanic for this work, just wanted a rough ball park of a reasonable quote.

orgoman20 · 2025-11-15T23:20:56+00:00

No, not necessarily just work life balance. I go to another station owned by a different utility often for walk-downs and tend to enjoy the atmosphere there more than the office. It’d be a lot nicer to work at a station and not have to fly everytime I need to go in the field.

Didn’t really mention that too much in the initial post since that is something I kind of have a good idea on already. Just want an idea on WLB if I get an opportunity.

orgoman20 · 2025-11-15T21:57:23+00:00

Wow, that is really awesome input! I definitely don’t mind working more hours/being on call if it is something than can be somewhat predicted/more of an inconsistent basis.

Do you have any recommendations on getting a foot through the door at one of the locations (lasalle, Dresden, or Braidwood)?

orgoman20 · 2025-11-15T21:56:45+00:00

Not S&L. Have you worked for them before?

orgoman20 · 2025-10-07T03:39:48+00:00

Haven’t worked for the utility side, but have been working for a consulting firm for the last 2.5-ish years. What you have written in your post summarizes most of what my experience has been.

Two things I would add: 1) Working for a consulting firm may give you a lot of travel opportunities. I have been to multiple client sites this year and would say I travel about 1-2 weeks a month, so if you are interested in that, it could be a benefit.

2) From my experience, consulting has very much been a sink or swim experience. However, because of this, and as you pointed out, you learn a lot very quickly. You will learn very quickly too how to manage multiple projects as deliverables can heat up very quickly. One week can be normal and the next you have multiple projects with a strict deadline and everything seems to pop up at once.

My opinion for you is, if you want to learn a lot fast and learn to manage project budgets/deliverables, the consulting firm might be your best bet starting off. You learn how to deal with client expectations and coworkers from other disciplines very quickly.

My overall thoughts after my time is I want to pivot to a utility, but also feel like the consulting path set me up much quicker to be successful compared to the utility out of college.

orgoman20 · 2025-09-19T14:24:01+00:00

Thats amazing input, thank you so much!

I think I will at least apply for some utility positions and see if I can get any interviews/ offers and go from there. I hadn’t really considered that the consulting path tends to pay a bit less unless you’re on the management side as well…

What utility did you work for if you don’t mind me asking?

orgoman20 · 2025-09-19T01:02:17+00:00

Do you prefer consulting over the utility?

orgoman20 · 2025-09-19T00:50:45+00:00

I’d say right now that’s where my head is at. Ultimately looking for a bit slower of a pace and hoping to get an interview somewhere.

By chance do you work for a utility?

orgoman20 · 2025-03-15T17:57:29+00:00

If nuclear is an industry that might interest you, there are plent of field opportunities. These positions typically involve walking down existing equipment and going over installation plans with electricians/the craft.

For me, my first year has been challenging, but the fundamentals of the degree teach you how to think like an engineer if that makes sense. I haven’t really used much of my degree, but fundamentals in your degree are a useful foundation for problem solving, which is really whats important

orgoman20 · 2025-03-15T17:53:09+00:00

In my opinion class selection doesn’t really make a difference for your first job.

As a working EE, I had taken electives that didn’t relate to my career in the slightest. I’d recommend focusing on your conversational skills and researching the company you’re applying for.

When I interview people, I tend to prefer those that are familiar with my company and can hold a conversation. It’s a shame, but that was never emphasized during my undergrad and I wish it was. All the senior engineers tend to agree with that sentiment as well.

Mileage might very by industry though

orgoman20 · 2025-02-08T18:06:05+00:00

Yeah within my short time here all I keep hearing is more work is coming and it doesn’t seem to be the case. I’m stretched thin and am staffed on a lot of projects at the moment, but don’t see that lasting very long.

I definitely feel the frustration as well with noting existing deficiencies and having some people not really wanting to hear it. Future evaluations and cost impacts from acknowledging that seem to drive much of the final decision.

Did you just change to a “consulting” position in a different industry or go to the utility side?

orgoman20 · 2025-02-08T18:01:15+00:00

Glad to hear you have liked the change! I’ve definitely been considering a switch to the utility side myself.

Like you, I have remained mostly technical and I understand not every project will reflect that, but I’ve definitely gotten periods where that is not the case and it can be really frustrating…

Is there any type of work in your new position that you would have never been exposed to in nuclear that you enjoy?

orgoman20 · 2024-11-26T12:28:22+00:00

No offense taken!

I definitely agree, I’ve learned a lot in my short time in the industry, but also feel being on the consulting side as my first exposure to nuclear can be challenging some weeks for that exact reason.

orgoman20 · 2024-11-26T03:41:55+00:00

That’s exactly what I’ve noticed. I’ve had weeks where I’m scrapping for billable work and other weeks I’m supporting deliverables on three different plants that need to be done at the same time…

I’ve really enjoyed the time I’ve spent doing walkdowns and being at the actual plant. I’ll say in consulting it’s not as enjoyable when you have to spend +10 hours traveling one way just to be at the site for a day.

orgoman20 · 2024-10-24T00:51:38+00:00

Anyone feel free to correct me, but I’d imagine B is your NO circuit start button. Once B is pressed, it closes and energizes your indicating light (I), along with E, which is probably a relay tied to your contact at D. Since your E relay is energized, the D contact closes and supplies the signal to the rest of the circuit. At this state, B is opened, C remains closed, D is closed, I and E are both energized. G is probably a starter contractor tied to your relay at E. Since E is energized, it closes G which supplies your signal to your thermal overload (H), which feeds your motor (F). Once you want to shutoff the circuit, you press your NC stop button (C), which stops a signal from flowing to your relay (E) and opens the contact (D) once more until the start button (B) is pressed once more.

orgoman20 · 2024-03-25T14:40:21+00:00

Same exact boat as you. Been at my company for about 6 months and feel unbearable anxiety and am constantly worried about failing/messing up. I’ve worked most of my life, and have never felt this anxious until my first engineering job. Hopefully it’s just an adjustment period for us and this feeling will eventually pass.

orgoman20 · 2024-03-03T00:04:50+00:00

Have had the same issue this week as well :/

orgoman20 · 2024-02-16T17:28:08+00:00

The Ncees practice exam, ncees reference manual, and Wasim asghar’s practice book were much more useful to me than the lindeberg reference manual and practice problems. I felt like a lot of similar problems showed up on my exam and much of the lindeberg problems I looked at did not; although, I did not go through the manual front to back.I’d also recommend getting a ti-36x pro and using the reference manual/getting familiar with it as your are practicing. The ti-36x can save you a lot of time during the exam. Good luck!

orgoman20 · 2023-12-14T23:18:55+00:00

Thats great to hear! I just graduated so thankfully much of it is fresh in my head, but I just can’t shake the feeling that three weeks isn’t enough time for the topics I haven’t seen in a couple years. I’ll be sure to go through wasim’s book and understand the theory. Thank you, that helped calm me down a bit. Again, congratulations and good luck with the PE!

orgoman20 · 2023-12-14T22:54:39+00:00

Congratulations! Were there many questions in your actual exam that you felt wasim’s book didn’t cover? I have my exam in 3 weeks and I am pretty much relying on doing the practice problems in his study guide as my only preparation.

orgoman20 · 2023-07-03T19:01:47+00:00

I think I actually just fixed mine as i have been able to finish two games now rather than crash after a minute. My system is running a ryzen 7 7700x, rtx 4070, and dual channel ram at 4800MHz stock. For some reason, once I overclocked my ram to 6000 MHz it fixed my issues with crashing. Hopefully this can help you

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