It is among the most common life mysteries that affect typical car owner. Intermittent problems could occur, but unfortunately, they can’t be recreated by the mechanic. These problems don’t appear prominently, such as engine that immediately stalls when we drove at high speeds on the highway. However, intermittent problems could be indicated by stuttering engine, although most of the time, it works smoothly. This situation can be really aggravating, because mechanic still can’t find the problem, no matter how often we bring the car to the shop.
It can be mysterious enough that some car owners think that their cars are haunted by nasty ghosts that seek to make their lives more difficult. We have elusive car problems; it may not be a good idea to spend too much money on auto diagnostic tools that don’t directly address the problem. On the other hand, many car owners don’t have the money and time to take their car to the repair shop repeatedly. The best thing to do is to keep a record to document when, where and how these problems usually occur. This should help us to define patterns that can be used to diagnose the problem.
Also, we could use the help of mobile mechanics that can quickly arrive to our location with portable diagnostic equipments. They could examine our car on the side of the road, on the driveway at home and at our office’s parking lot. There are many advantages of seeking the help of mobile mechanics. They can check the car directly when the problem occurs. These mechanics are probably already on the road and with mobile phones, they can communicate with us while we are at work. We should be aware that the seemingly random problems may not be as random as we think.
Those problems may not be as elusive as we may think. When creating a log about car problems, there are some details we need to include. We should describe the driving conditions, whether it is a high-speed driving or whether it is a heavy traffic with frequent starts and stops. Also, what we are doing when the problem occurs, such as cold starting the car, driving downhill, swerving hard to left, etc. Time of the day could also determine why the problem occurs. The weather can be blazing hot or it is freezing cold. We should identify what kind of noise our car makes when the problem occurs. We need to write down things that we do to overcome the problem temporarily.
When trying to accurately determine problems, we should be aware that thoroughness counts. We should also be familiar with all basic components of our car and how they work properly. Keeping a log can be rather tedious for many people, but we should be able to establish a patter quickly to identify sources of the problem. As an example, we could find out that the car is more likely to stall when we drive on a curve above 40 miles an hour when it is freezing cold.
