lewis.finley•1mo agoMost Upvoted

Stopped at that old diesel shop outside Flagstaff last week

I was heading back from a job in Phoenix and my check engine light came on just past the Arizona line. Pulled into a place called High Desert Diesel, looked like it had been there since the 70s. The guy who came out, must have been 70 years old, walked over with a screwdriver and a stethoscope. He put that stethoscope on the injector lines and listened for maybe 30 seconds. Said I had a sticky injector on cylinder 4, popped the line, tapped it with a wrench, and the idle smoothed right out. Charged me 20 bucks and told me to run some cleaner through it when I got home. Made me wonder how much time I waste chasing codes with a scanner when the old guys just listen and know. Has anyone else run into a mechanic like that who still works without a computer?

3 comments

3 Comments

the_harper1mo ago

Oh yeah, @anderson.piper, calling it a "party trick" is rich coming from someone who probably plugs in a $5,000 scanner to tell you your gas cap is loose. 😂 I bet that old guy could hear a loose alternator belt from across the parking lot while most of us are still fumbling with a code reader. Sure, it's not gonna work on a modern diesel with 27 computers, but if you're driving something from the 90s or earlier, that stethoscope thing actually works. Plus, twenty bucks for a fix that saves you a tow bill? That's not a trick, that's a steal.

anderson.piper1mo ago

Stethoscope on injector lines sounds like a party trick, not a diagnosis. A sticky injector can cause knock or misfire, but it's usually not that simple to find and fix without a scanner to check for other issues.

karenh561mo ago

Wait wait wait... he charged you TWENTY bucks?? I about fell out of my chair reading that part. You cannot even get a tire patched for that around here anymore. @the_harper is spot on, that's not a party trick, that's a miracle worker with a stethoscope. And tapping it with a wrench? That's the kind of thing you only do if you know exactly what you're hearing and feeling. Most shops would have told you to leave it and come back in three days for a full diagnostic that runs you three hundred minimum. That old guy probably learned on equipment where you had to listen to every little noise because there wasn't any other way. It makes you wonder how many perfectly good trucks get parts thrown at them because nobody takes the time to just listen anymore.