Don't be afraid of your car

Technology can be scary, but fear not.

I cant tell you the number of times I've heard the complaint from car owners that modern cars are too high tech these days and that it's too complicated for the average home mechanic to effectively fix things.  I disagree to an extent.  First lets review the historical perspective of the technological advances of cars.  When I was in high-school (late 1980's) I took several years of auto shop.  At that time computers were beginning to be more common in cars but we were trained to tune and maintain cars that were truly without computers.  That is to say we adjusted points, timing, carburetors, and a variety of other analog adjustments.  However even then, there were things that were just out-of-scope for the average mechanic.  For example if you spun a bearing, it would have been very unlikely that the average mechanic would have the equipment and knowledge to repair that themselves.

Fast forward a few years and in the early 1990's I started working on cars that had actual computers in them.  That's when I discovered the wonders of the diagnostic trouble codes (DTC).  The earliest versions of these required the home-mechanic to jumper the diagnostic port and record the number of times the "check engine" light flashed.  It would translate to any stored error codes that the car recorded (most likely a sensor of some sort).

Well things have gotten much easier these days, and I would argue even better than before computerization.  This has a lot to do with the OBD2 standard that all modern cars now comply with and governs how computer error codes are communicated to the mechanic.  It is possible to plug in a code reader or computer to your car and not only view all the trouble codes, but also see in real time dozens of individual sensor measurements in real time.  The reality is that you cant set timing or dwell on a modern car and that's a good thing.  Let the computer figure out the best operating parameters.  I'm not saying that every thing that goes wrong with your car can be understood by your computer interface, but diagnosing a car problem is much different today that in used to be... but it still requires diagnostic skills.  For example when I look at a error code generated by my car, I also reference the factory service manual and in fact online discussions of the same issues... experience still matters.

The car companies sure don't make it easy.  Most of the time when you pop the hood of your car the first thing that you see is usually a large plastic engine cover.  Its there mostly to keep the owner from seeing and fiddling with the engine.  That said don't be afraid of plugging in and figuring out what's going on.  There still will be a time and place for bringing it to your mechanic.  I have no problem taking my car in for an alignment, recalls, and plenty of other things that I don't have the equipment or knowledge to do myself... however jumping in and working with technology doesn't scare me and it shouldn't deter you either.