Troubleshooting car problems

Troubleshooting car problems should be approached in an organized and logical fashion, as opposed to just guessing, or even educated guessing. Many times when I am working on a car, I might get lazy and take an educated guess at what the cause of the problem may be.

I know it is wrong, but I will start diagnosing a system and see that I have three choices of what the failure may be. Instead of following the proper procedure of testing each component and continuing to diagnose the problem thoroughly, I will try to take a shortcut known as an educated guess.

In most cases, when I guess, I pay the ultimate price. My educated guess will be wrong nearly 50% of the time or more. This means I have just increased my diagnosis time, and wound up replacing a part that was not required.

I do not consider myself very lucky, and even when it comes to a 50-50 chance, I am wrong most of the time. In fact, I could flip a coin and take heads, and it will come up tails 10 times in a row.

Troubleshooting car problems correctly

When you feel like you have found the problem take the extra step and test the individual component.

For example, if you believe the relay has failed, all relays can be tested and confirmed to be good or bad. Another example of troubleshooting car problems is if you believe a switch has failed, a switch can be easily tested as well.

Why do you need a multimeter?

All multimeters come with instructions on how to use the device. Become familiar with the operation of this meter before you begin troubleshooting car problems or performing Diy car repairs.

Another reason to have a multimeter on hand is that if your diagnostic steps in the repair manual require you to take a voltage reading, a test light should not be used in this situation.

If you are looking for a 5 V reference signal from the ECM, A test light will not be good enough. Also if measuring resistance is required only one tool can do this (yes a multi-meter).

Below are some examples of multimeter tools aranged from good to best. I own the fluke but this may be overkill for diy car repair. The fluke operators manual is so good I use it to study for my ASE Electrical Certification tests!

Diy car repair

Instead, let's properly diagnose and test the individual components we believe have failed. Take the extra time, and you will save extra money as well as learn a valuable lesson about troubleshooting car problems.

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More car troubleshooting help

I purchased the Mitchell’s powered car repair program for my own vehicle. I also made a video for you so you can see how this program works. This is no award winning film but the 4-minute demo does show you the key features of this online automotive repair manual.

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