**The Art of Diagnosing Electrical Problems in Modern Vehicles**

In today's era of advanced technology, diagnosing electrical problems in modern vehicles can be a daunting task. With so many computers and circuits involved, it's easy to get overwhelmed by the sheer complexity of the issue. However, with the right tools and a bit of knowledge, even the most seasoned mechanics can tackle even the toughest electrical issues.

One of the key tools that has revolutionized the way we diagnose electrical problems is the digital storage oscilloscope (DSO). This incredible device takes 400 million samples per second, making it one of the fastest sampling rates available. Its speed and accuracy make it an indispensable tool for any mechanic looking to get to the bottom of complex electrical issues.

But what really sets a DSO apart from other diagnostic tools is its ability to provide detailed waveforms that can help identify even the slightest anomalies in the electrical system. By analyzing these waveforms, mechanics can pinpoint specific components or systems that are causing the problem and make targeted repairs.

**The Challenges of Modern Vehicle Diagnostics**

One of the biggest challenges facing modern vehicle diagnostics is understanding wave patterns. A waveform is a graphical representation of an electrical signal over time, and in modern vehicles, there are countless signals to track and analyze. With so many variables at play, it's easy to get lost in the noise and not know where to start.

To overcome this challenge, many mechanics rely on "storied" waveforms - that is, waveforms that they've seen before on other cars or models. By comparing these familiar waveforms to the waveform of the car in question, they can identify potential problems and narrow down their diagnosis.

**The Psychology of Diagnosis**

Diagnosing electrical problems in modern vehicles also requires a healthy dose of psychology. Mechanics must use their knowledge and experience to interpret data from the DSO or other diagnostic tools, taking into account factors such as component lifespan, temperature, and environmental conditions.

This process can be mentally taxing, requiring mechanics to think critically and make connections between seemingly unrelated pieces of information. It's not uncommon for a mechanic to spend hours studying waveforms, trying to identify patterns that simply aren't there - until the solution finally clicks into place.

**The Importance of Common Knowledge**

Despite the complexity of modern vehicle diagnostics, there are still many mechanics who rely on common knowledge and shared experiences to guide their diagnosis. In fact, one of the most effective tools in a mechanic's arsenal is often simply knowing what waveforms look like on different components or systems - such as fuel injectors, fuel pressure regulators, or engine computers.

By having a deep understanding of these waveforms and how they relate to specific issues, mechanics can quickly identify problems and develop targeted repairs. It's this shared knowledge that makes the automotive repair community such a powerful force for diagnosis and problem-solving.

**Living Free: Scotty's Take**

When it comes to living free, many people might think in terms of literal freedom - escaping the constraints of daily life or financial burdens. For Scotty, however, freedom means something different altogether. With 53 years of marriage under his belt, Scotty knows what it means to truly be free.

For Scotty, freedom is about not having to worry about the little things - like car payments or electric bills. It's about being able to live life on his own terms and pursue his passions without financial constraint. And while some might view this as a luxury, Scotty sees it as a fundamental right - one that allows him to focus on what truly matters in life.

**The Mosquito Problem**

One of the downsides of living free is also one of its greatest joys: the freedom from pesky mosquitoes and other annoying insects. For Scotty, who's spent years traveling to new destinations and experiencing different climates, this can be a significant challenge. "I don't like being eaten alive by mosquitoes," he admits - it's a tiny price to pay for living life on his own terms.

**The Mustang Dilemma**

For Kevin C, the problem is a bit more mundane: his trusty Mustang has developed a mysterious fuel pressure issue that refuses to go away. After replacing the fuel pump, Kevin is stumped - and unsure of where to turn next.

One potential solution is starting fluid, which can help flush out excess fuel from the system when it's hot outside or after an engine has been left running for too long. But if this doesn't solve the problem, Kevin will need to dig deeper - potentially tracing down wiring issues or looking for signs of a faulty fuel pressure regulator.

**Digital Graphs and Color Codes**

In diagnosing electrical problems, one of the key tools is often a digital graph or color code. By analyzing these graphical representations, mechanics can identify specific patterns that indicate what's going wrong in the system - from faulty spark plugs to clogged air filters.

Take the example of a Mustang with a mysterious fuel pressure issue: by looking at the digital graph of the fuel system, Kevin might see a distinct "wave pattern" that indicates flooding - or perhaps a color code that points to a specific component as the source of the problem. With these tools and techniques at his disposal, Kevin is well-equipped to tackle even the toughest electrical issues.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enrev up your engines if you watch this youtube video by ford boss me he found a low mileage ford diesel and saw how corroded it was inside when he took it apart that's why if you're going to buy a diesel you got to read about idling time how long did it sit there idling like the police cars that sit a long time now this was a 2016 ford f550 which had a six point leader power stroke engine very common engine right and it only had 27 000 miles on it but it was completely sludged up inside from not being driven enough idling maybe it had 27 000 miles who knows maybe it idled for 5 000 hours who knows you know people generally don't keep a record of that stuff these days that idling time not only wears the engine but the fluids just start to wear out from idling and sitting buildup of corrosion now according to statistics i've read one hour of idling is equivalent to about 26 miles of driving and driving at slow speeds not high speeds and so let's say you got a diesel vehicle or even a gasoline vehicle for that matter if you use them for working at idles all the time like you're at a work site or something if you idle a vehicle six hours a day it suggested that you have to change your oil every 30 days because it's going to clog up they're not made for idling and if you saw that video you'll see there's all kinds of sludge the oil pickup that sucks the oil into the oil pump to pump the pressure up it's almost completely blocked up and that's when the turbocharger was destroyed because it didn't get lubricated spins real fast right this turbocharger is super fast spinning turbine blades and what's it lubricated by the engine oil so if you've got a turbocharged car i don't care what anybody says there's no way i'd ever go ten twelve thousand mile oil change if i had a turbocharged cars i would change that every five thousand miles religiously with pure synthetic oil big reason you don't wanna idle your car or truck a really long time i mean if you are sitting in ireland are you gonna change your oil every 30 days hardly anybody does anything like that so it's a lesson to be learned and if you're going to buy a used diesel that's got low mileage demand to see a meter that's hours run a lot of the big trucks come with those meters built in and if you're looking at one that doesn't have a meter they don't give you the information my advice is don't buy the thing you want to know the hours run just like a boat the boat motors some of these boat motors only last three four hundred hours of operating time so you definitely would want the log now the modern boat motors of course it's all computerized and it's in the computer record which you can access and if you're ever buying a boat you want to have that checked out same thing if you're buying a vehicle there idle the lot you'd want a record of how long at least tag rain 95 email says is a used honda crv a goodbye well they are excellent cars if taken care of if you watched the news a little while back there was a man in florida i think it was tallahassee he had a crv that had over a million miles on it one with six zeroes after it that's a lot of mileage so i gotta say they must be pretty good cars they can last that long buying a new one all the new ones cost too much but you find a good used one probably annex says scotty your at205 recommendation work wonders am i leaking acura what's your experience with mali product it's a german company now the idea behind mali is molybdenum by sulfate it is a compound that is a very good lubricant used in world war ii in their fighter planes so that they give it as much power as possible and maybe the engine wouldn't blow up it could spin a little faster and i guess if somebody's shooting at you with uh 850 calibers and a mustang i'm assuming that you would probably want to get away as fast as you could it's a very good lubricant molybdenum by sulfate there's one problem with it it's black and then people have liquid moly oil the oil is black they think oh it needs to be changed because it's black then you have to go strictly by mouth they make good products i i can't say i've had people have problems with them they you know they make excellent liquid products i don't know how far any of these additives actually do to improve gas mileage and all that crap they're not bad products they're not going to damage anything and a lot of people swear by them joseph garcia says i got an 08 automatic transmission honda civic it's a bad slip mechanic's charging a thousand bucks what do you think you say it's slipping bad if he fixes it for a thousand dollars and it's really fixed next year it's still going fine you got one heck of a deal a true professional mechanic that rebuilds honda automatic transmissions can charge anywhere from 25 to 3 500 bucks to rebuild that thing let's hope the guy knows what he's doing and if he does fix it for a thousand you're getting one heck of a deal just ask him what he did so you can tell me what he did you know and i know exactly what the guy did look at the bill having you want an invoice of all the parts and everything you use brandon does gaming says grandpa gave me a 1981 dodge d250 with only 80 000 miles thoughts back in 81 dodge made a lot better products than what they make today they make some pretty good products back then and if it's really only got 80 000 miles let's say your grandpa was the original owner yeah great he gave it to you nice take care of it fix it up those things can last a really long time master cases my 2000 camera he had very minor damage at the back of the frame after i got rear-ended what should i do well make the person who rear-ended you pay for it all let their insurance company pay for the damage take it to a reputable body shop and have them go at it now if it wasn't that bad realize the back of the camry just rolls down the road right it's front-wheel drive transmission engine the drive shafts are all in the front the back wheels just roll along as long as they fix it straight so it tracks good and the rear tires track down the road good have an alignment shop jacket because there's front wheel alignment there's also back wheel alignment before you sign any papers if it's insurance road tested say i'm road testing your testing shakes or pulls take it right back and say i'm not signing a check until you fix it right because once you sign that insurance check and they got their money good luck getting any more work out of people i've seen that over the years guys oh yeah don't worry we'll take care of that problem just give us a check after that oh well we're busy we'll leave it with us and then two months later they haven't even touched it so don't sign off until you're happy and that's law you're allowed to road test it derrick mouser says scotty what do you think makes a squeaky noise rear differential or transmission depends where the squeaky noise is coming from i bought one of these chinese-made noise detector machines it's got i believe it's got eight sensors with real long wires and clips like battery cable clips you clip it on different parts of the vehicle drive down the road you have the headphones on let somebody else drive while you're doing it and you can go one two three four five six seven eight and you can look it got digital graph green yellow red that you can see on the machine you can also have the headphones turned so you can hear the noise louder you can pinpoint the noise then put one on a transmission one in a differential and you can find out what the noise is don't just guess guessing is foolhardy scotty how hard is it to learn how to diagnose electrical problems since there are so many computers now and circuits what's the hardest thing to learn now yeah you know used to drive me nuts but if you watch it in my later videos i got this insane six thousand dollar scan tool that uh think tool makes out oh man it takes all the data on a road test then you can graph four different data points in color graphs or each a different color line and look at it the hardest thing is to understand what a wave pattern is supposed to look like that machine i was telling you about is also a digital storage oscilloscope dso if you have a really glitchy problem the machine that i'm using that takes like 15 000 samples per second you think great that'll find all the problems well i use that same tool but then i put on the digital oscilloscope they came with because a digital storage oscilloscope can take 400 million samples a second i'm not making this up i thought it was something that you know 15 000 samples a second dsl can do 400 million samples a second it is insane how fast those machines are and the real hassle is getting once you get the data is seeing how does it make sense what's good what's bad that's what takes the time a lot of studying but there's a lot of psychology that we mechanics use that have storages of good known waveforms so we'll check one and then we'll look at that we'll go to the website and we'll say okay what does a corolla fuel injector look like on deceleration and see if our pattern is the same that's the part that takes the most time liberty lovin says scotty do you live free live free or die of course that's the state motto of new hampshire should be the state model of everything but new hampshire got it first the revolutionary war and i attempt to live for a die but then on the other hand i've been married to the same woman for 53 years so how free am i well it's free she lets me be she just lets me be pretty free though so i can't complain elite mohammed says of course scotty lives free he doesn't pay for anything well you know electric bills water bills insurance bills i never have car payment bills because i just pay cash for cars you know but everybody's got bills and we live in a capitalist society you want to be comfortable you have to pay some bills you want to be a hobo live on the street well you know no thanks there's a lot of mosquitoes all the places i've lived i don't like being eaten alive by mosquitoes and it's either too hot or too cold yes this isn't hawaii i guess you know why you could live on a beach all the time as long as you can catch fish and get food and get some drinking water you can't drink the ocean water kevin c says my mustang is losing fuel pressure it doesn't start up right after the engine's hot or if it's hot outside in florida since this fuel pump has been replaced all right your car doesn't start after it's hot one or two problems generally either the engine is being flooded out or it's not getting any fuel at all so first thing get yourself a little can of spray starting fluid right take the air filter off spray a little in see if the car stocks if it starts up could it be a fuel pump relay you said you changed the fuel pump could be a restricted fuel filter could be that but let's say you're starting fluid it still doesn't stop well odds are it's flooded out with too much fuel it's often a leaking fuel pressure regulator or fuel injectors themselves that when you shut it off they're old and their pintles don't shut so the drips gas and when you stop a car and it's hot gas drips in the engine it will flood it out so let's say your car's hard to start put the pedal to the floor that's the on flood mode put it on the floor turn it off if it starts then it's flood nut then you got to find a wire is it a fuel injector leaking something like that has to be wrong so if you never want to miss another one of my new car repair videos remember to ring that bell you\n"