Overheard a shop foreman say he'd never use a scan tool on a 12-valve Cummins

I was grabbing parts at the local NAPA and two guys were arguing about old engines. The foreman from a big fleet shop said, 'A real mechanic can fix a 12-valve with a multimeter and a screwdriver, a scan tool is just a crutch.' It got me thinking about how much we rely on computers now. Do you think there's still value in learning the old-school diagnostic methods for mechanical engines?

2 comments

2 Comments

jakep2413d ago

That foreman is mostly right, but a multimeter alone won't get you far on a 12-valve. You still need a timing light and a mechanical tach to set the pump correctly. The real skill is knowing which simple tool to use for each step. Relying only on a scan tool is a problem, but so is pretending one tool does everything. The middle ground is knowing how to use both the old methods and the new ones when they actually help.

irisb2614d ago

Honestly that foreman has a point, but it's bigger than just engines. Feels like we're losing the skill of just figuring things out by looking at them and listening. My dad could tell what was wrong with our old truck by the sound it made, and half the time he was right. Now if an app doesn't spell it out for us, we're stuck. There's a real value in that kind of basic problem solving that applies to way more than just fixing a diesel.