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Remember when you had to guess a misfire?
I was working on a 2002 Civic in my uncle's garage back in 2010, and the old scan tool just gave me a generic P0300 code... I spent hours swapping plugs and coils. Then a buddy brought over his new scanner that could show me the exact cylinder misfire count live. How many of you still keep an old code reader around, or is that tech totally gone now?
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fisher.diana3mo ago
Forget the code reader, I miss the old sound. My dad could walk past a running V8 and just hear which cylinder was lazy. He'd put a long screwdriver on each injector and feel the click. Now it's all graphs and numbers, which is cool, but that raw feel for the engine is gone.
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the_dylan19d agoMost Upvoted
Man, that's spot on. I had an old 5.0 in a Foxbody that I swear I could diagnose with my hand on the intake. My dad taught me the screwdriver trick too, it's wild how much you can feel through the metal. I've got a modern car now with all the sensors and I still pop the hood and just listen first. Your mileage may vary but I honestly think that hands-on ear training made me a better mechanic in the long run. There's something about trusting your gut over a graph that just can't be beat, even if the scanner has its place.
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