People give "experienced mechanics" far too much credit. Sure, many of them are great and have fantastic diagnostic skills, but many of them have also been fixi

People give "experienced mechanics" far too much credit. Sure, many of them are great and have fantastic diagnostic skills, but many of them have also been fixing the same 10 problems for 20 years. Case in point: years ago I took my (modified) pickup truck to a transmission shop because it was leaking gear oil. I had the Factory Service Manual and knew exactly what the problem was, but didn't have the tools or interest in doing this particular repair (required dropping the transmission and I knew from experience what a pain in the ass it was without the right tools). The transmission shop refused to believe me when I told them what the problem was: "in all my years, I've never seen that happen" etc. They even made me sign a document to guarantee that I'd pay them after they pulled the transmission and I turned out to be wrong. Result? The shop manager came out shaking his head, "sonofabitch, you were right. I have never seen that before. It's an easy fix, but we need to keep the truck overnight so we can order the part." There are many, many cases of an untrained individual whose self-interest leads them to research and become deeply educated on something important to them that the so-called experts have only a passing familiarity with. Usually it's something medical-related, in this case it was automotive.