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by bonesss18 hours ago |
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upvoteby smileysteve17 hours ago|
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This is definitely ¾ of what you pay a mechanic to do; 1 publisher writes a maintenance manual for a car; mechanics all around the globe can use that to work on that specific car.

It's the mechanics that don't reference Google or the Haynes manual that are more likely to get it incorrect.

As a kicker, mechanics also have a pricing book for the task, they know how many hours a task will take on a certain car (rounded up for the most part).

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upvoteby voxl16 hours ago|
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You are not responding faithfully to the comment. A mechanic looking up the schematics in a manual understands them. Just because they haven't memorized the material does not make it the same. This is more analogous to looking up a function in the documentation that you forgot about.

This is clearly not what the post was referring to, which is instead like googling how to fix a pipe in your home when you've never done any plumbing before in your life. Can it work out? Sure, depends on the issue, can you cause your pipes to freeze, your house to flood, or sediment build up to completely block a pipe? Yes.

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upvoteby franktankbank21 minutes ago|
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> mechanics also have a pricing book for the task, they know how many hours a task will take on a certain car

I do want to point out that this is used to suppress mechanic salary. Certain jobs are absolutely fucked how its time calibrated. Doesn't matter to business owner they can charge $$$ how they want.

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upvoteby 20after417 hours ago|
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> We don’t pay mechanics to Google “how to fix car”.

No, instead of google they just look it up on alldata.

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upvoteby tyyyy318 hours ago|
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The more difficult it is to trace one’s labour to output.. expect more theatrics ;)
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upvoteby IAmBroom17 hours ago|
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With you up until the last sentence.

When I get my car fixed, I could not care less if they googled, used a service manual, or did it by "these old 2023's always had this problem right here...". I care if it is fixed.

And as I'm currently trying to fix something on my own, for financial reasons, I assure you a mechanic with training AND google can do a better job in 1/4th the time. Because I don't have the training.

Nor do the worst people using LLMs.

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upvoteby switchbak13 hours ago|
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But do you expect to pay top dollar to have someone pretend they know how to fix a car? That's the point here.

Granted, the trades is a bad example because it's chock full of fakers too.

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upvoteby jcgrillo16 hours ago|
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Speaking not as a professional mechanic, but as someone who maintains a car, two trucks, a tractor, a couple boats, and has googled quite a lot of torque specs in my time... If you're googling torque specs in 2026 you're gonna have a bad time. They're frequently just flat out wrong, especially the AI summaries ;). Use the authoritative source of truth--the shop manual published by the equipment manufacturer. Accept no substitutes.
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upvoteby mountain_peak14 hours ago|
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Absolutely - factory repair guides/apps are the only source of truth for official specs, although 3rd-party manuals are very good as well. That being said, I've often turned 3-hour estimated repairs into 15-minute jobs through clever shortcuts. For example, rotating an alternator to replace the run clutch through the gap in in the intake manifold as opposed to removing the complete intake manifold. I think that's where using experienced (and resourceful) developers pays off.

Also, for sale: BMW E60/61 Bentley 2-volume set. Barely used.

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upvoteby jcgrillo14 hours ago|
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Yeah Bentley (and in some cases Haynes) make good aftermarket manuals too. And you can find good information on some forums. But you can also find a lot of bad information. Reliably sifting the good from bad only comes with experience--much like in software.
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