Remember when we used to set timing by ear with a vacuum gauge?

Back in the late 90s at a shop in Cleveland, I spent a good 15 minutes on every tune-up fiddling with a timing light and vacuum gauge to get that sweet spot. Now I just plug in a scan tool and it tells me exactly where to set it. The change really hit around 2010 when domestic cars started moving to coil-on-plug systems. I miss the feel of getting it right by the engine sound, but I save about 10 minutes per job now. Has anyone else switched over to full digital diag for older cars too?

3 comments

3 Comments

torres.thea26d ago

Is it really that deep though? I mean you're still getting the same result at the end of the day.

miller.rowan26d ago

My buddy jake tried to do this with fixing his old truck. He cut corners on the wiring just to get it running fast, used cheap connectors instead of the proper ones. Truck ran for like two weeks then the whole dash caught fire on the highway. Sure he got the "same result" temporarily but his result was a burned out cab and a grand in repairs.

markh8526d ago

Miller, that's rough about your buddy Jake's truck. Seeing all that work go up in smoke (literally) just from cutting a few corners has to sting.