You can get car and auto repair questions answered in many places around the Internet. Some are free services powered by a community of users.
Nevertheless, there are others of the paid variety. This is when the network of experts are freelancers and looking to trade expertise for dollars.
I myself make the rounds to different automobile forums trying to help answer some automotive inquiries. Often people are looking for quick answers to very complex problems.
When people have car problems and they plan on fixing it themselves they often start things off with a search on the Internet for some free answers. There is nothing wrong with doing such a search. Just be aware that a lot of times you get what you pay for. Or even worse, you can be sent in the wrong direction with some bad car repair advice.
Services like Yahoo answers for cars and multiple online automotive forums provide a valuable service, but you must remember the people answering questions may not be qualified to do so. If you post an auto repair questions to one of these services please take the time to investigate the answers that you received before you take action.
Car Repair Questions Answered
As a full-time mechanic my time to help others on the Internet for free is very limited. I have also found that when I post on automotive forums or Yahoo answers that my response is posted a long with sometimes 10 or 15 others.
This is no good way to tell my researched and experienced answer from the ones posted by the newbies looking for recognition. Therefore, it’s very hard for the person with the automotive question to pick the best answer to solve their car problems.
This is why I tend to lean towards automotive services that answer questions for a fee. The reason I feel this way is that money is a great motivator and quality answers lead to repeat customers. With that said, there is an alternate method you can try before you lay down your hard-earned cash on some car auto repair help.
Complete Professional Grade Service Manuals
Grabbing a copy of the official dealership service department manual for your specific automobile can help educate you or at least help you gain a deeper understanding of the specific problem you’re having. When a factory trained technician walks up to your vehicle they probably don’t know exactly what is wrong with it.
However, what they do know is where to find the information they need to fix the automobile efficiently. In most shops these mechanics are paid on a flat rate basis. The flat rate pay system compensates technicians for completed tasks. This motivates them to diagnose and repair the car or truck as quickly as possible.
Since the quickest route to a destination is a straight line they reach for the service manual created by the factory for your specific car. The engineers that put the car together have also designed tree charts and ladder diagrams to fix problems within the systems they created.
Following symptom charts and logical diagnostic steps will lead a professional technician to what is wrong with the vehicle in an efficient manner. Although the average driveway mechanic might not have the years of experience behind them as the factory trained employee there is still value in reading through the service manual.
The step-by-step diagnostic instructions coupled with high quality wiring diagrams and schematics can teach you more about an automotive system then you might have thought possible. With this high quality reference material you could surprise yourself and learn enough to uncover the root cause of the problem all by yourself.