Big Thompson Diesel And Automotive

09/08/2026

We are looking for someone to join our expanding team.
Automotive / Diesel Technician (Diagnostics & Repair) – 4-Day Work Week
Big Thompson Diesel And Automotive
We are looking for an honest, dependable, and motivated technician to join our crew. Whether you already have strong troubleshooting skills or you're a sharp, driven mechanic ready to master high-level diagnostics, we are looking for someone with the right mindset—not a parts changer who just pulls a code and guesses.

We provide the tools, support, and ongoing training to help the right person hone their diagnostic and mechanical craft.
What We Offer
4-Day Work Week: Enjoy a consistent schedule with 3-day weekends every week.
Stable Compensation: Competitive hourly wage (no flat-rate stress) plus quarterly bonuses tied directly to overall shop profit.
Hands-On Training: We actively invest in our team and are willing to train the right candidate in advanced electrical, drivability, and diesel diagnostics.
Modern Shop Equipment: Up-to-date scan tools, software, alignment equipment, and dedicated lifts.
No-BS Culture: A straightforward, clean, and organized shop environment that values craftsmanship and integrity over cutting corners.

What You’ll Do
Handle the full spectrum of vehicle service—from routine maintenance, fluid services, and alignments to heavy line work.
Perform major and minor repairs, including engine overhauls, transmission swaps/repairs, differential builds, steering, and suspension.
Troubleshoot complex drivability, electrical, and powertrain issues using scan data, wiring schematics, and component testing.
Clearly document vehicle inspections, diagnostic steps, and repair recommendations.
Maintain a clean, organized bay and take pride in quality workmanship.

What We’re Looking For
Work Ethic & Integrity: Honest, self-motivated, and committed to doing the job right the first time.
Mechanical Capability: Solid mechanical foundation with the ability and willingness to tackle everything from oil changes to major powertrain teardowns.
Diagnostic Aptitude: Either existing diagnostic ability or a sharp, analytical mindset with a strong desire to learn advanced troubleshooting.
Tools: Complete set of professional hand, air, and power tools appropriate for general repair work.
Driver’s License: Valid, current driver’s license with a clean, insurable driving record (required).
Certifications: ASE certifications are a plus, but verified hands-on experience and a great attitude carry serious weight.
How to Apply
Stop by the shop, call us, or email your resume and a brief rundown of your experience to [email protected] / 970-541-0629/ 604 8th St SE unit A. Loveland Colorado 80537

09/05/2026

Happy Labor Day from all of us at Big Thompson Diesel & Automotive! 🛠️🇺🇸
To all of our hardworking customers, friends, and neighbors: thank you for grinding hard all summer long. Your effort powers our community.
Now it’s time to kick back, fire up the grill, and enjoy a well-deserved, safe, long holiday weekend with family and friends!
Friendly reminder: Our shop will be closed on Monday so our crew can get some rest and recharge with their families. We’ll be back turning wrenches and ready to serve you bright and early Tuesday morning!
Have a great weekend, stay safe on the roads, and Happy Labor Day!

08/28/2026

Random photo dump and late summer update. Sorry it has been a while since I have posted. it has been an absolutely busy summer. I assure you even though I have not had frequent posts it doesn't mean I have forgotten about you all. It just means we have been so busy at the shop and away from the shop that I have not taken much time for any social media presence. So at the shop we have been extremely busy with some really big jobs. Seems like even some of the newer vehicles we work on are almost turning into restoration projects instead of normal repairs. Some of that is because people are holding onto these vehicles longer then ever. I would have never imagined in the early 2000's that I would be still working on 5.9 cummins, 7.3 powerstrokes, and the earliest Duramax engines 26 years later. Not to mention random 6.5 engines, idi Ford engines and mid 90's gas powered vehicles on a weekly basis. On top of that we have been staying in the forefront of technology and diagnostic ability with the new vehicles. We get at least 5 calls a day saying how disappointed someone is with the repairs that have been done in their vehicles elsewhere. Most have been to 2 , 3 , or even 5 different shops before they find us. We wish everyone could see the benefit of just waiting a little bit and come see us the first time. Sometimes it is actually harder to diagnose a vehicle after countless monkeys have thrown countless thousands of dollars worth of wrong parts at a vehicle. It is much easier if we are able to see the problem when it first starts and get it fixed right on the first go at the problem. So for anyone new reading this or hearing about us for the first time. I assure you your time and money are better spent if you can just wait a couple weeks for us to get your vehicle in as compared to getting it into the quickest shop today. You will spend a small fortune and it will not be fixed right and your vehicle will likely end up at Thompson Diesel And Automotive anyway
So what have we been up to this summer? Well my nephew and I are still continuing to work on his 69 mustang project. I've gotten in way over my head in body type repairs. Lol. Actually couldn't find a body shop that wanted to tackle this project in the first place so me and him got out the sawzall, chopped the 69 mustang in half, and have been learning how to put all the pieces back together ourselves. It is been an amazingly fun project. So no. Big Thompson diesel is not looking at getting into body work anytime soon. But it is a fun project with my 13 year old nephew and I have learned a ton about welding, I'm lining body panels, old metal versus new metal, and this car is going to be pretty amazing by the time we get done with it. As for the old guys in the shop Kevin and jim. They just keep killing it every day. For a couple older guys they work harder than anybody around. Some of the jobs like I mentioned earlier have almost become more like restoration projects within the general repairs. So it's been very nice to have couple older guys in the shop that are completely capable of working on every single thing of vehicle has to offer from bumper to bumper. Whether it's overhauling differentials, overhauling engines, overhauling transmissions, but in components, you name it. These two are way more than capable. Julie and Ethan are still doing an amazing job up front. There has been a few technology changes with our software which have been a few little hurdles to overcome but they have taken those hurdles with grace. I feel they have taken some of the technology given to us and ran with it. With our new digital inspection system that has been a great tool between what we're telling the customer and what the customer can actually see. We were able to bring full color digital timestamped pictures, videos, and notations directly to the customer. Customer gets to see exactly what we see, gets to understand why we're telling them what we are telling them. I believe overall just brings an extra layer of confidence in what we are telling them is wrong with their vehicle. As for the two younger mechanics in the shop Katie and ryan. They still continue to amaze me everyday. They are young and energetic. But their mentality is I don't want to say old but it's definitely experienced. They know when to stop, no one to keep going, no one to ask questions, Katie like she has for the last several years can perform alignments at a higher level than most of the guys in any shop within many miles of us. We get vehicles all the time that have been aligned at multiple other locations. Katie is able to figure out what's wrong, calculate correctly and get the vehicle going straight down the road. Ryan has been amazing since he's got back from the military. Learning everyday. As well we're starting to be able to toss him into some of the really big jobs that we've been getting. Both Katie and Ryan have passed multiple ASE tests earlier this summer. So that puts them both in the realm of being ASE certified mechanics. I've got them both working on learning enough to become ASE certified Master mechanics here within the next year or so. And as far as ASE certifications have gone I've kept this one kind of quiet. I've been waiting for the official piece of paper in the mail. But trying to push Katie and Ryan into their ASE tests I discovered there was an ASE certification that I thought was pretty cool. Oddly enough I already had more ASE certifications than it took to achieve this goal but I didn't have some of the right ASE certifications. So you've all probably heard of ASE certified it is a technician's way or I would say the industry's way of trying to give us some sort of certification. Most other industries you have to be certified through a national board. Like HVAC technicians have to be certified before they can become an apprentice before they can technically work on HVAC systems by themselves. Electricians are the same way, plumbers are the same way. In the automotive world we kind of self-regulate ourselves and unfortunately a lot of that regulation goes out the window. I feel that is why there is a lot of shops out there that are simply doing a bad job. The shop owners don't care about ASE certifications, the mechanics don't care about becoming ASE certified. Everybody looks at it as kind of a joke. Unfortunately ASC is trying to change that and make it to where the top tier and top level mechanics are able to become ASE certified. Some of these ASE certification tests are amazing and truly separate them in from the boys when it comes down to understanding vehicle technology and how to properly repair and diagnose them. So I already had my ASE certification Master mechanic meaning I've passed A1 through A8 tests for automobile technology. I also had the a9 test which is automotive diesel technology. On top of that having been a heavy truck technician for many years I also had all of my truck master certifications. Meaning I passed t1 through t8 tests. Becoming a truck master technician. We've had many advanced level ASE certifications. So I didn't have all of them I did not have my hybrid ASE certification advance level test or my adas advanced level certification tests. Truly those aren't areas of the vehicle we normally deal with being a diesel shop we don't deal with a lot of hybrid vehicles so I never really thought of it. The other ones I hadn't thought of were mechanical and structural tests. But I found out about this cool ASE certification that the more research I did the more I found out it's very rare territory. It's ASE certified world class technician certification. That means the technician is an ASE certified Master Automotive technician, ASE certified master truck technician, ASE certified Master body technician and an ASC certified advanced level technician meaning all four categories they have passed all of the tests and become Master certified in all areas. I thought had quite a cool challenge that sounds like. I'm only really four to five tests away and I've never even heard of that certification. So I was able to go in pretty much not studying too much and pass all of the required tests that I need. ASE has sent me a letter of completion basically stating that they're congratulating me for becoming an ASE world class technician. The next step of the process is they're going to once a year and announce the ASE world class technicians. When they do this week get some very cool swag, obviously some of the awesome ASE hardware that they're always handing out like plaques, and several other things to announce the world class technician status. But another cool thing I found out is that we get our names put in the history books at the Automotive History museum. Basically this is been going on since ASE came out with this certification back in the '90s. Up to this point since the early 90s there are only a thousand names in that book. Looking into it a little deeper there's only four ASE certified world class technicians in colorado. Two of which retired last year. That's kind of very rare category to be in and it's kind of a neat experience. So I will send pictures when I get some of the hardware.
So where's Big Thompson diesel heading in the future. Well looking forward to this fall and winter. I expect since it has been such a hot summer. That first cold snap is going to be very busy. See cold weather typically does not ruin vehicles. Hot weather ruins vehicles. Things break in the heat but they don't necessarily show up until it gets really cold outside. This summer has been one of the hottest Summers on records. We have seen some crazy failures that we normally don't see even in the hottest summer days. And I got a feeling once that first cold snap habits a lot of these things that are broken are going to show up like you would not believe. So I'm looking forward to a very busy fall and winter season for us. That said I also know many of you are coming up on your fall hunting and camping trips. I advise to get your truck checked out before it's an emergency. Knowing that we've been busy but keeping up all summer. But knowing that seems like closer and closer we get to The Fall season the further behind we're getting. So get on the schedule now, get your trucks cars, whatever else you got going looked into before it's an emergency. Before you have to rely on it on those cold winter months. Before you go to haul a trailer up the mountain and realize your check engine light's been on for the last several months. Give us a call and get it in early. On top of that we have been maintaining all of our current technologies. Keeping up with scan tools has been an ongoing fun challenge. These Automotive manufacturers are changing technology on a daily basis. Having pretty much most of the OEM scan tools in our building. We have the most up-to-date diagnostic tools available to anybody in Northern Colorado right in our building. We do not mess around with aftermarket scan tools like most places do. I have found over the years that most aftermarket scandals are simply lying to you. Most of these people are pulling a code and throwing apart at vehicles. Half the time the codes are lying to you. The codes are only meant to give you a direction. If they do pull up any scandal to look at it it is likely that the aftermarket scan tool is giving false data which might make it seem like there's a different part that needs to be replaced and what actually needs to be replaced. So we believe in having all of the right information and diagnosing your vehicle correctly the first time. So we will continue to maintain our fleet of OEM factory level scan tools. We obviously have a few aftermarket scan tools just for a quick scan that we may need to do here and there. But that is not our bread and butter.
So for now at Big Thompson Diesel and Automotive it is business as usual. Not a lot has changed this year. At the same time it has been a long, busy, challenging, and funnier. We hope you've all had a great summer. We appreciate all of you loyal customers that have stuck with us in and out throughout the years. Oh yeah and by the way come November 1st. We are coming up on our 15th year anniversary. Holy crap did I start this business 15 years ago?

07/02/2026

We will be closed today to. Give our hard working employees an extra day off to celebrate the 4th of July. We hoe you all have a great holiday weekend and enjoy celebrating America's birthday. Please be safe. We will see you all next week!

07/02/2026

07/02/2026

We are going to close an extra day this week so our hard working employees can spend an extra day with their friends and families. We will see you all next week. We wish you all a happy 4th of July and hope everyone is able to celebrate safely.

06/19/2026

This post is a little bit different than what we normally post. But I just wanted to pass some of these savings onto our customers. As many of you know we are avid Amsoil lovers. I recently had the opportunity to purchase another Amsoil dealers business from them. This came with a lot of extra Amsoil products that we normally do not stock and do not use here at the shop. We did get a lot of the stuff we can use and we were helping pass some of those savings onto the customers when we're servicing the vehicles. But we have a ton of oddball products that we thought you guys might be interested in. So if you guys and girls are interested in boats, motorcycles, ATVs, UTVs. We have tons of extra oil that we would like to get rid of. We're offering all of these extra oils at 30% off of normal pricing. There are tons of two-stroke oils for snowmobiles, dirt bikes, boats and marine applications. There's a lot of four stroke oil for ATVs, UTVs, there is multiple different grades of a four-stroke dirt bike oil here. Have multiple cases of that. There's also marine outdrive oils, Harley-Davidson transmission fluids and engine oils, and overall just a lot of oddball things that like I said we normally don't stock or don't have on hand at the shop. So if you have a need give us a call. You can also message us here on this page to see if it's something we have in stock. But we're getting it to you guysand gals for 30% off of normal pricing. As always we have all of the gas and diesel oils, fuel additives, transmission fluids, gear oils, and most of the normal automotive and truck application oils in stock all the time. So if you're seeing this and mention this Post we will give you a break on some of the stuff we normally stock as well. But for all this oddball stuff I'm just blowing it out to get it out the door. Ended up with approximately $10,000 worth of extra inventory that we normally do not stock. So we would just like to get it out of our way, and give you guys the best deal you can possibly get on the best oil that is made.

06/12/2026

This is some kind of cool recognition for Caitlin. It started with an email a couple months ago. Napa corporate wanted to know if we had any rockstar mechanics. I said everyone we have is a rockstar. This turned into a phone conversation where we talked about all of them a little bit and they were particularly interested in Caity. Fast forward to yesterday. She got recognized as one of NAPA Auto parts top technicians in the nation for national Automotive technicians month. This kind of a cool little honor for her. So if any of you ladies out there would like to get your vehicle serviced by Caity. She is here. Works very hard, and does an amazing job. We know it is important for many of you ladies to support other ladies in everything that you do. She is Way more than capable of doing everything on your vehicle. From minor services and maintenances all the way up to major engine overhauls. She has pretty much done it all and proved that it's way more than capable of performing me top level repairs. For anyone else out there who is sick and tired of getting their vehicle aligned at some of these other places that are attempting to do alignments. Come see Caity and let's get it done correctly. Over the last several years she has learned a ton about alignments. She is excelled in many ways. We get vehicles all the time that have been at multiple other shops trying to be aligned correctly. Between her and I, we have uncovered some of the idiosyncrasies of the alignment processes that most places drastically overlooked which is causing it not to give you proper alignments. Even if they think they look good. They're missing a few steps and we've got the process. You will feel like you have a new vehicle after letting Caity align it for you. Congratulations Caitlin. You deserve it

06/05/2026

This is a special day for anyone that still has one of these on the road still. I love that ai says it is reliable and dependable. Lol. I had to keep that on there. But it makes me miss the early days of Diesel truck repair.