I think modern OBD2 scanners have made us lazy troubleshooters

Been at this since the early 90s and I can tell the difference from 2010 onward - guys plug in a $500 scanner, get a code, and throw parts at it without ever looking at the engine with their own eyes. I watched a kid spend 3 hours swapping sensors on a Cummins ISX in Nashville last week when it was just a chafed wire hidden under the harness. Has anyone else noticed the younger guys skip the basics like checking oil pressure or doing a cylinder cutout test first?

3 comments

3 Comments

stella_scott9615d ago

That scanner is just a tool, not a mechanic's brain. Had a similar thing happen last month where a guy chased a cam sensor code for two days on a 6.7 Powerstroke. Turned out the wiring harness had rubbed through on a bracket right behind the intake manifold. A visual inspection and a continuity test would have found it in twenty minutes. The basics like checking oil pressure and doing a proper load test tell you way more than any code ever will.

richard_young8014d ago

Yeah but have you ever had a guy argue with you for ten minutes that the code can't be wrong? I mean I watched a kid pull a transmission on a F-150 once because the scanner said "torque converter clutch circuit". Ended up being a bad brake light switch throwing everything off. Three days. Three days of his life gone. I swear sometimes I think these guys are afraid to get their hands dirty and actually look at what's in front of them. Right there with you on the harness issue too, had an ISX last month that was doing the same thing and I found it in twenty minutes with a mirror and a flashlight.

baker.christopher14d ago

Saw a post from a fleet manager out of Ohio saying he got a kid on his crew who swapped two turbos chasing a code before someone noticed the intake boot was split. Made me wonder if these scanners are actually making us dumber or just more impatient lol.