The Internet and Google has saved me hundreds of dollars, in car repair costs

[ssfc72]

Once again, I have found the Internet,Google and various web site Forums, has saved me probably hundreds, to thousands of dollars in the cost of car repairs, by providing the answers to my car problems.

My latest car problem was with my wife's 1988 Honda Accord Ltd (25,000 Km, original owner).
For the control of the car vent position, there are a number of push buttons that switch the venting from the floor, to the dash vents, to the defrost vents. Also, there are push buttons for the recirculation, air conditioning and the rear window heater.

All these push buttons have a small led light, to come on when the buttons are pushed on.
The problem was that non of these push buttons lit up and they did not operate the respective functions.
In others words the push button controls were dead.

I checked the probable fuse but it tested fine.  I also checked the voltage on the outside end of the fuse and it showed that there was 12 volts.

I was faced with having to tear apart the dash, to get the push button control panel out, so that I could check the wiring or take the car in to have the Honda dealer try to find and fix the problem ( big $$$$).

I then thought about doing a search for the problem, using Google. 
I came up with some different, likely web sites and one web site Forum had some useful answers to the problem by various other people, who had the same problem.

Of course the main answer was to check the fuse.
One other person, who had the problem and also found the fuse to be ok, said he thought the fuse might be loose in the fuse holder, and not making a good contact.
He bent the tabs on the fuse slightly and tried the fuse again and that fixed his problem.

So, I went ahead and bent the tabs on the fuse and viola!  the push buttons again lit up and are working perfectly! :-)

If I had to take the car to the Honda dealer to get this problem solved I am sure it would have cost me easily $300, just for the labour time, it would have taken.


I have also saved hundreds of dollars by solving wiring issues and irritating noise issues, etc, on my old 2007 Ford Focus wagon. I have found the answers to my car problems, using the Internet and Google, and web sites Forums, with people who had the same car problems and their solution to fix the problem.

Bill

[fox]

Wow; great story, Bill! I can't match that particular one for direct savings, but I couldn't recount all the times the internet saved my bacon with suggestions, how-to's, etc. OK, I will recount one story. I was renting a place in France during a research project; I rented the place from airbnb. It has a washer, and somehow it got frozen during a cycle; I couldn't even open the door to remove my clothes. I googled the problem and the brand, and found a youtube video made in England on how to deal with the problem. It worked, I got my clothes out, and I hadn't caused a problem that the apartment owner needed to deal with.

[muddled]

I do the same. It's another example of how the internet is an invaluable resource if people take the time to use it.

[bobf]

CONSTANTLY!!

Try getting *that* kind of functionality in an old-school encyclopaedia!! <^8# (For those who remember just what that is... Was...?! <^8#)

[buster]

"Try getting *that* kind of functionality in an old-school encyclopaedia!!"

As an 8 to 12 year old I spent many, many happy hours flipping thru the pages of the Book of Knowledge (20 volumes), finding odd articles about say Greek Mythology or how snakes move.

The delight of random discoveries is hard to duplicate - the Internet is surprisingly linear the way we use it. Extremely useful, but often just a tool for entertainment or practical needs.

[ssfc72]

Try clicking on "I am feeling lucky" on the Google search page. :-)


The delight of random discoveries is hard to duplicate - the Internet is surprisingly linear the way we use it. Extremely useful, but often just a tool for entertainment or practical needs.
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