Car question

[BigV]

Have you ever read "Shop class as Soul craft" tw? You might benefit from it. It's about an ivy league college graduate (probably an mba to boot) who's taken up motorcycle repair. He finds a sublime pleasure in diagnosing the trouble in a poorly running machine, kind of like glatt's situation.

I ask if you've read it because there's a thought expressed in the book I think you'd appreciate. The author says that there's an absoluteness to the machine. That despite the theoretical, the documented, the machine doesn't really care. That it is up to the mechanic to observe, to listen to what the machine is telling him, and then respond accordingly, even if it is contrary to "the book".

When you say things like "spark plugs and wires and caps and rotors never need replacement" I just roll my eyes. I don't know anybody who has any actual wrench time that would say such a thing. No one who has spent time actually working on cars would ever entertain such a ridiculous notion in a situation like this. Maybe, maybe in a theoretical discussion of what a perfect world would be like, etc. But come on. That's not what glatt's dealing with. His car's running roughly in some conditions and it is completely reasonable to think that a misfiring cylinder because of a bad spark plug could cause this, as an example.

If you're just ranting, rant on brother. But you're not giving much practical help here with proclamations like that.