Made an embarassing mistake. I try to take car of my car as well as possible. Last Friday evening leaving the office for work, my car wouldn’t start. It wouldn’t crank or make a clicking sound, but the lights would come on. The connections looked fine. I even tried to jump it using a jump starter with a built-in supercapaciter. I was convinced it was a bad starter, or perhaps faulty wiring.
I called for a tow this moring. The tow truck wouldn’t fit in the parking garage, and the guy said, let’s try jumping it. I said fine, I guess it doesn’t hurt to try. He hooked up his portable jump starter and it read 12.2 volts and said this doesn’t look good. Lo and behold, with his jumper connected to the battery, the car started. I took it to my mechanic, and he said it was just a loose connection to the positive battery terminal and charged me only $60. That was the end of it. The car is fine.
How do I learn how to avoid these mistakes in the future, and do a better job diagnosing issues?
Everyone makes mistakes. You just learn from them. (I'll bet you won't overlook the possibility of a loose battery terminal again.)
As far as learning to diagnose problems, today you have an advantage that we didn't have over 50 years ago when I first started learning - there is plenty of instructional material at your fingertips freely available via the internet.
How do I learn how to avoid these mistakes in the future, and do a better job diagnosing issues?
experience and the odd Scotty video.
Also, pick up a Haynes repair manual and put it in your glove box. It contains troubleshooting steps for common situations.
