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My brother-in-law said we're making cars too hard to work on and it's our own fault
He's not a mechanic, he's an engineer, and we were talking about my 2019 F-150's coolant leak. I was complaining about the plastic thermostat housing buried under the intake. He looked at me and said, 'You guys keep buying the special tools and the factory scan tools, so why would they stop?' He pointed out that twenty years ago, a shop might have refused a job that needed a $5000 computer. Now we just get it. It made me think about the last time I turned down a BMW job because I didn't have ISTA. Maybe he's got a point about us just accepting it. Do you think there's a line we should have drawn, or is this just the way the trade goes now?
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miam111mo ago
Oh I know exactly what he means, and I feel called out because I just dropped $800 on a bidirectional scan tool last month. I tell myself it's an investment, but really it's just me accepting that I can't even diagnose a misfire on a 2020 Honda without plugging something in. My grandpa had a Snap-on timing light and a vacuum gauge and could fix anything, and here I am watching YouTube videos to find the hidden fuse box on my own truck. The worst part is, he's right about us being part of the problem. We grumble about it, but then we buy the special socket for the BMW water pump anyway because we want the job. I guess the line got drawn a long time ago and we just kept stepping over it.
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taylor_fox2mo ago
Consider how much safer and more reliable cars are now. Those complex systems need special tools to fix them right. Maybe we're not just accepting it, we're keeping up with progress.
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