Experience
A wise person will never bet against my dad, when it comes to diagnosing the probable cause of a car's mechanical problem. Every single time I have done this in my life, I have lost. I am not a very wise man when it comes to car problems. Never will I forget 10 years ago, when both lights on my Jeep went out at the same time, I mean both! Everyone told me it HAD to be the dimmer switch in the steering column. Dad said likely both lights had just blown. But everyone (45 people) said it had to be the dimmer switch. So I changed out the dimmer switch - a six hour laborious, cuss-worthy, difficult and expensive job. When finished I had a new dimmer switched install but still no headlights. Yes, you know it, both headlamps had burned out at the same time. About 35 minutes of work and easy as pie, and cheap too.
This week my antique truck started to whistle. It wasn't whistling Dixie, but it was definitely whistling - in a loud and alarming manner. From within the cab of the truck while rolling down the road, it definitely sounded like the throw-out bearing was failing. We listened to it over and over and I would have bet $1000 that the whistle was coming from under my feet, definitely the throw-out bearing. But dad had his doubts, and we tested over and over. He would not let me yank that transmission and replace that bearing because it is a butt-ugly amount of work, and he had his doubts. He was fairly certain that it was the alternator. The alternator?? Finally after a week long stand-off I suggested we go ahead and change the alternator and eliminate that as a possible whistler, and then we could get on to the real work of changing the bearing, and the worst that could happen is that I had a new alternator in the old truck.
Yes, you know it, it was the alternator.
It's a little spooky what 60 years of experience can teach you. Be wise. Listen to the guy with the experience.
