Hello from a long time Mechanic.

[chevy13]

Hello all.

I own a 1972 Impala, 1970 Nova & a 1969 C/10 Pickup & now a 2013 Subaru Outback.

I entered the shop in 1972 & worked as a Motorcycle & Automotive Mechanic until retiring in the 90s.

You may have guessed that I am much more comfortable with points & carbs than with Computers.

However with our new/used Subaru it's time to learn some new tricks in Automotive repair.

So I'm here to learn & share what I have learned over the many years in the shop.

The title of your forum implies it is for Mechanics & that is who I want to talk with I

will never ask questions that I can search or find the answers in my Workshop manuals.

Glad to be here,to learn & hope I can bring some good info into the conversation

[Deleted]

Hello Chevvy13 and welcome to the forum. 

Much has changed in the motor-trade since the 1990's. Back in those days we used to moan when we had three foot of room inside the engine bay to swing an inch drive socket set round in just to change spark plugs, you understand what I mean, but nowadays we need scopes with cameras on just to look around the engine bays to see what we think we are looking for  , everything is really tightly packed in these days. 

Diagnostics is absolutely something else in a different world today compared to back then. In the late 80's I bought a star tester type electronic tool for adjusting the exhaust emissions on a Rover Fast Back, and back then I said that was the most expensive screw driver I'd ever bought, and yes it was an electronic push button screw driver to adjust emissions on some of the first fuel injected engines becoming freely available in the market place. As I remember it cost me £180 second hand at that time. Today we pay thousands for diagnostic equipment that does not really cover most of what we need, yesterday I put my latest scanner on a Peugeot 308 to wind back the electronic brake calipers, yes "Electronic" and the scanner would not communicate with the car brakes!

There is a real lot of investment nowadays in modern vehicles and much of the profit is going into equipment purchases, software updates and subscriptions for technical information that most of the time is less than useless.

So in reality, a problem shared can be a problem fixed hopefully these days