From: Mike Lorrey (mlorrey@yahoo.com)
Date: Mon Feb 10 2003 - 14:52:13 MST
--- J Corbally <icorb@indigo.ie> wrote:
>
> >Date: Sat, 08 Feb 2003 10:58:44 -0800
> >From: spike66 <spike66@attbi.com>
> >Subject: Re: I am the Google
> >Eliezer S. Yudkowsky wrote:
> > > Lately my car has been suffering from a few problems...
snip...
> Better yet, get a copy of the service manual (or the Haynes
> manual).
It is highly extropic to be one's own mechanic. Claiming that cars are
too computerized now is no excuse, because the computers actually make
it EASIER for the armchair mechanic to diagnose complex problems.
You can buy, at any AutoZone or other auto parts store (or Sears
Roebuck, or eBay) online or offline, a code reader that you can plug
into your car to read the diagnostics codes. These readers are
generally about $100-200 bucks, and can save you thousands in mechanics
fees over time.
If you have a Handspring Visor PDA, you can purchase Mac Tools' ODBII
scan tool kit, which plugs into the Visor slot and turns it into an
even more feature packed code scanner that works with just about any
car built since 1992. Retail price for this kit is $350 US (Handspring
Visor not included). Mac also produces an occilloscope kit for the
Visor ($450) that allows you to track two separate signal sources on
the screen up to +/- 50 VDC.
Both kits have their own software installed on the interface card, and
come with a CDROM for interfacing the Visor with a PC when using these
kits. The Visor is a bit dated for office use these days, so give it a
second life by making it part of your workshop tool kit...
All a person should need a professional mechanic for is changing whole
engines or transmissions. Before I started working as a mechanic again,
I'd done the following to my own Cherokee: replaced fenders, hoods,
radiators, brakes, fuel filters, oxygen sensors, rear view and side
view mirrors, installed stereos and cell phones, sway bar linkages,
steering dampeners. I only sent it to a garage when I was too busy with
my computer work to do it myself.
=====
Mike Lorrey
"Live Free or Die, Death is not the Worst of Evils."
- Gen. John Stark
"Pacifists are Objectively Pro-Fascist." - George Orwell
"Treason doth never Prosper. What is the Reason?
For if it Prosper, none Dare call it Treason..." - Ovid
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