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Remember fixing cars with just a vacuum gauge and a timing light
Back in the mid 90s I could diagnose a misfire by reading spark plug colors and listening to the exhaust note. Now my shop has a $15,000 diagnostic scanner that tells me exactly which cylinder is down to the millisecond. Kinda miss when a problem took some head scratching instead of plugging in a cable.
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kimfisher1mo ago
My 68 year old dad swore by his timing light and a screwdriver for thirty years. I finally got him to try one of those cheap bluetooth OBD2 dongles last weekend and he actually admitted it was handy for a few things. Still thinks computers are ruining cars though haha.
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anna4911mo ago
My dad was the same way until I showed him how an OBD2 scanner could catch a failing oxygen sensor before it killed his catalytic converter. He still prefers his old analog timing light for setting the distributor though, says the electronics just get in the way. I keep a vacuum gauge in my toolbox too, it's amazing how much you can tell from watching that needle bounce around. The trick is using both modern and old school stuff together, not tossing one for the other.
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