Car Smarts: Describing Symptoms

The following excerpt from Mary Jackson's best-selling book, Car Smarts, will help you successfully communicate with your mechanic.

Studies show that millions of dollars are lost every year because of misdiagnosed car problems. But you can keep this from happening to you.

Just as technicians are not fairy godmothers, they are also not magicians or psychics or even private detectives. Before your technician can diagnose or fix the problem, he or she needs to know what symptoms have brought you and your car to the repair shop.

You can save time, money, and frustration by taking the time to clearly explain the symptoms or conditions that brought you to the service facility. Make sure the repair shop has all the information that you have. After all, who knows your car better than you do? You may not know what's wrong with it, but you do know when something is wrong with it.

Using your five senses — hearing, touch, smell, sight, and taste — is the key to explaining your car's troubles to the technician and getting them solved...

Hearing:
Noise is one of the more common ways your car will let you know it's not happy. Clicks, clunks, hisses, squeaks, squeals, rumbles, roars — yes, cars in pain do complain, but in their own language. Any of these sounds (or other unusual noises your car may create) could mean your car is heading for a breakdown or a repair. If the sound persists, you need to get the car inspected. Isolate the sound. Is it coming from the front, rear, left, right, under the hood, inside the dash, in a wheel well, from the engine?

Touch:
Does the car vibrate, shimmy, shake, sputter, surge, hesitate, stall, or continue running after you turn off the ignition? Is the car hard to steer or does the steering feel loose or sloppy?
When you press the brake pedal, does it feel spongy or too hard? Does the pedal slowly sink to the floor after you've stopped?

Smell:
If you have a leak, you might want to touch your finger to the spot on the ground and sniff the fluid. Most people can recognize the smell of gasoline. Coolant smells sweet. The smell of burning rubber may indicate overheated brakes or clutch. A sick catalytic converter often announces itself with the smell of rotten eggs.

Sight:
Are your dashboard warning lights illuminated or flickering? Is the needle of any gauge out of its normal range? If so, you may have a problem with your battery, alternator, brakes, engine temperature, or oil pressure.
Watch, too, for other signs of a problem, such as a leak. To identify where a leak is coming from, slide a piece of cardboard under the car and check it after a few hours. Note the source of the leak — front, rear, middle, left, right, a nearby garage shelf? Keep in mind that many leaks only occur under pressure at highway speeds. What color is the leaking fluid? Brownish-black oil is either engine oil or steering fluid. A thick black ooze might be manualtransmission fluid. A reddish, oily film is probably automatic transmission fluid. Coolant is generally green, pink, or yellow. Air conditioning discharge is clear.

Taste:
If you have licked, nibbled, or eaten any part of your car for any reason, you probably need more help than a technician will be able to give you. All right, all right, so we've taken a little poetic license on the fifth sense. Do not taste any automotive fluids or let any fluid touch an open sore or cut.

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