Car Repair’s First Step Is Complete Information | Joe & Tony’s Service Inc.
Don’t be stingy with information about your car’s problems. There is a lot of detective work that goes into the correct and efficient diagnosis of an under performing car or truck. The technician and auto repair facility staff need to know all that you know about what is happening to your vehicle. When you consider that you are paying the bill for the diagnosis time, it is certainly in your best interests to share all you know about the symptoms you are experiencing.
What this means is that you need to take special note of when the problem occurs in terms of each driving episode. Is the problem in the first start of the morning and then after the vehicle sits all day in the parking lot at work or does it happen only after restarting the car after a short trip? Do you hear that noise only once the engine is hot or only when the AC is turned on? Where do you see the leaking fluid in relationship to the vehicle – by the left front wheel or under the center of the engine compartment back by the firewall? And what color is the fluid that is leaking and did you notice a smell or texture to it? The answers to these types of questions are what you should be telling the shop.
Oh yes! You also have a responsibility to come clean about any effort you have tried to fix the problem yourself, this could be crucial in detecting the root cause of your problem. This happened recently, when a SUV was in for an intermittent driveability issue. After extensive investigation and research it was found that the owner was repeatedly disconnecting the battery in an effort to reset the check engine light, a practice that causes the vehicle’s computer to reset to the default settings it was born with and necessitating that the ECM (computer) be relearned.
As they say, stuff happens!
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