Heard a kid say "just plug a scan tool in" and it got me thinking

I was grabbing parts at the local shop and overheard a younger tech say that. He was talking about how a scan tool will tell you everything, which is true to some point. But I remember spending hours tracing wires on an old 12-valve Cummins with just a test light and a multimeter. We learned the system by heart, not by reading codes. Has anyone else noticed newer guys skipping the basics because the computer does it?

4 comments

4 Comments

ryan_shah3826d ago

Man that hits home hard. I was just thinking the same thing the other day watching a kid pull a code reader out on a no-start. He didn't even check for fuel or spark first. Codes are great but they don't tell you the whole story, especially on older stuff. I learned more tracing a short in an old Ford with a test light than I did from any scan tool. It worries me a little that a whole generation might not know how to work through a circuit step by step when the computer can't help them.

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michael66926d ago

My first code reader just told me the car was angry and I should check all the wires myself.

marywilson26d ago

That car was angry" made me laugh but honestly I think that's exactly how my old Subaru felt half the time. I get what you mean about chasing codes that don't add up. The other day my reader said "ignition coil circuit" and I spent hours checking wires only to find out the battery terminals were loose. Sometimes the car just wants you to go back to basics. I remember my first code reader too. It gave me a code for something and I was so excited thinking it would just tell me the problem. But after a few times getting burned like that I learned to use it as a hint not a final answer. Still wish they would just say "hey check the wires" more often.

vera_johnson926d ago

My 1995 Volvo 940 taught me more than any class I ever took. That car had a basic OBD1 system that would just flash a check engine light if something was wrong, but the code was usually wrong or too vague to help. I spent three weekends chasing a misfire that the computer said was an oxygen sensor issue. Turned out it was a cracked vacuum line behind the intake manifold that only showed up when the engine got hot. If I had just thrown a sensor at it from the autoparts store like the code suggested, I would have been out $150 and still stuck. Sometimes the computer gives you a starting point, but you still gotta do the legwork yourself.