paige166•1d agoProlific Poster

That one guy at the auto shop who laughed at my AI diagnostic tool

So I was showing off my new AI diagnostic scanner to a customer last Thursday, and he just smirked and said "that thing can't replace a good ear." He told me about a 1997 F-150 he fixed by listening to the idle for 10 minutes. It stuck with me because I spent $3,200 on the tool and it still missed a bad lifter tick he caught without any screen. Has anyone else had a pro just blow off AI help like that?

3 comments

3 Comments

ray_sullivan1d ago

I mean not to nitpick here but that 1997 Ford had a 5.4 Triton right? Those things had a known issue with the cam phasers that sounded like a lifter tick but was actually way worse. I don't doubt the guy has a good ear I've been doing this 22 years myself but those old modular motors had so many quirks you could chase a noise for days. The AI tools are getting better at pattern recognition stuff though, once they get enough data on those specific engines they'll catch stuff the human ear misses too. I still use my stethoscope on the tricky ones.

anthonynelson1d ago

Hard disagree on the AI thing. You're right they're getting better, but those pattern recognition tools are only as good as the data they've got. A 97 Triton with 200k and a backyard rebuild? That data set is practically nonexistent. The computer has no clue what that motor sounds like with a cracked exhaust manifold and a misfire at the same time.

evan_davis1d ago

Nah, I'm gonna push back on that a bit. AI pattern recognition is a long way from catching the weird stuff a human ear picks up, like that slight change in pitch when an engine is hot versus cold. I've seen those "smart" diagnostic tools throw out wild guesses that wasted hours, and a guy with a screwdriver to the block would've nailed it in ten minutes. You can't train a computer on every single weird rattle or thump from a 25 year old motor that's been half-assed rebuilt twice. Those Triton issues are a good example, even experienced guys sometimes misdiagnose them, so I'd rather trust a guy who's heard a thousand of them than a database that's never gotten greasy.