Advice for all you car people!
I'm not real active on this forum, so I don't respond to tech questions as much as I read and lurk. One thing I absolutely love about this forum is the tech section where so much applies to everything built by Chrysler.
I am active on FCBO though and a couple of these things really hit home.
1) When asking for help, please provide enough information to assist others in finding a fix. Starting a thread with My car runs bad. Is it the ignition or carburetor? while not even mentioning the type of car, engine, transmission, additional symptoms....What kind of help do you think you'll get?
OMG, yes! No one is a mind reader and they won't remember what car you have what the engine is etc. What amazes me then is people that start giving answers like they know, when it turns out that the answers aren't even for that car!
2) If responses come in that fix your problem, be sure to thank the member. If the responses don't help, thank them anyway. Some of us have LONG memories and may scroll by you the next time if we think that you are not decent enough to show some appreciation.
This is another pet peeve. Then I've seen when people have gotten annoyed because they just took well intentioned advice and it didn't work out.
Then there's this... and this just plain pisses me off... Some guys won't do any form of diagnostics, even when you give them a step by step procedure. Instead, they want an instant answer and buy the part and like magic, it's fixed. They've already changed a bunch of unrelated parts (ballast resistor comes to mind for everything wrong) and because they did, you now really have to explain that new doesn't mean it's good.
I've explained the simple procedure of checking fuel pump with a soda bottle countless times and I can't remember one guy that actually did it. Geez... Then use of a DMM or god forbid, doing a voltage drop test (I even have a great video I post on that) but it's too much and they don't want to be bothered.
One more thing... And I've seen this a lot lately. "My mechanic worked on the car and now it" and you can fill in the blank. There seems to be a lot of mechanics that can't handle drum brakes, ignition points or carburetors. The ones that can probably don't work in the tire shop in the back of Walmart.
Oh... and another.... Read the fricking FSM! Lot's of answers there...
