There's A problem with your car and you're not sure what to do
You have suddenly experienced something that seems very out of the ordinary on your vehicle, and you’re not quite sure what it is or how to fix it. Where do you begin?
Knowing where to start is the number one issue everyone struggles with when it comes to DIY auto repairs. You may not know much about cars, but you definitely know that the sound, smell, or what you see is just not right. This guide is designed to help you establish a foundation for effective critical thinking when determining a car’s repair needs.
Always start out with your 5 senses to determine where to go next.
You can ask yourself these questions.
1. What can I see that doesn’t seem normal? Smoke from the engine, colored smoke from the exhaust, damaged wires, missing parts.
2. What sound would I compare this to? A whine, growl, knock, grind.
3. Is there a smell you don’t recognize? Does it smell like burning plastic, exhaust, fuel, burning rubber
4. Does something feel unusual? Vibration while driving, hesitation when accelerating, jerking when braking.
Take these observations along with the year, make, and model of your car and perform a quick search using Google and I also recommend describing the problem to an AI chatbot like ChatGPT.
Forums
When using Google, look for your keywords appearing in the links on the webpage. Oftentimes the make of a vehicle will have the same issue across several of the models.
For example, a BMW 5 series may have the exact same acceleration issue with other models that share the same engine/transmission.
Just because the vehicle doesn’t exactly match yours, doesn’t mean that the forum will be unable to provide any useful information.
Scanning through these forums and determining what information is useful versus what information is irrelevant takes time.
Feel free to join a forum to call on the community for help with your specific issue. It’s important to remember the proper etiquette when using a forum, DO YOUR OWN SEARCH FIRST.
If you fail to put in any effort to determine your issue on your own, others will simply point you to the search function. This is especially true if there are several threads with information on possible solutions for your exact problem.
Some great forums with strong helpful committees.
Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/MechanicAdvice/ – Great community, fast response, and not restrictive to make or model of car
BMW: https://www.bimmerfest.com/ – 790k members. Tons of great resources.
Chevy: https://www.corvetteforum.com/ – All things Corvette
Honda: https://honda-tech.com/ – 720k members with a pretty easy layout for thread navigation.
Jeep: https://www.jeeps.net/ – Wranglers, Grand Cherokee, Cherokee, CJ
Porsche: https://rennlist.com/ – 337k dedicated members that are happy to help new Porsche owners
Toyota: https://www.tacomaworld.com/ – All things Tacoma related as well some information on other models (4Runner, FJ Cruiser, Hilux, Tundra)
Volkswagen: https://www.vwvortex.com/ – With 1.5M members, it’s a great source of information
Volvo: https://www.swedespeed.com/forums/ – 180k members with lots of technical information
