I was reading your column regarding the fellow who waited so long to get his 2021 Nissan Sentra back from the dealer, and I’m wondering what gives, especially your comment regarding swapping parts until you find the problem.
Are we training people to just swap parts or are we teaching them how systems work and how to troubleshoot? I started out as an electronics tech when we troubleshooted down to individual components and left when it was just replacing entire boards or modules. The flow charts we used tested everything around the suspect electronic component ensuring that adequate voltage was being supplied and controlling switches and sensors were also functioning properly. Because there was sometimes no specific test for the unit in question, the flow chart made sure everything else was working, thus leading to a process-of-elimination conclusion worded with something like this – replace the suspect part with a known good unit and retest.