My Blog: The Diagnostician
The Diagnostician (08/13/2026)
I have been programming and using computers since the late 1900’s. I started with programming and databases and moved onto system administration. For many years I have been the last point in escalation when dealing with IT support. There have been some issues that were outside my comfort zone but those were upper management issues. I am good at diagnosing IT issues.
My diagnostic skills have been reaching well beyond the IT realm over the last few years.
My wife’s car began to misfire several months ago. I dug in and did my usual diagnostics and decided to replace the spark plugs as cars need air, spark, fuel and combustion. Air was fine, fuel was good but added some cleaners to help with any build up, and combustion was great, so it had to be spark. The easiest was to replace the plugs.
The car was smooth for a month but then the misfire came back. I was back to the drawing board. A car error reader claimed another misfire with the 2nd chamber. I moved the boot coils around and checked the tool again. Misfire with the 3rd chamber. I went to the auto parts store and purchased a new boot coil for $8 bucks, and the car has been great ever since. It cost about $75 bucks to fix (boot coil, reader tool and the plugs) and would have been much more at the shop.
My clothes washer door lock stopped working 100% when putting clothes in the washer and was a pain until the locking mechanism would finally engage. I did some research and diagnostics and found that the mechanism itself needed replacement. I took the washer apart so I could barely reach the part. Popped in the new lock and the washer was back up and running without issues for the cost of $20 bucks. It would have been much more if someone else fixed it.
My dishwasher then started to fail with its locking mechanism and wouldn’t stay closed. This one was silly as the lock is just a tiny piece of sheet metal with a slight bow. The piece went flat, so I added the bend back to it and it locks without issue now. Simple fix but more if someone else was to do it.
My clothes dryer stopped drying the clothes and I found myself back into diagnostic mode and found the dryer was activating the igniter, but it would turn off as the gas flame wouldn’t ignite. I replaces the gas valve coils and the igniter for $25 bucks and voila, the dryer still isn’t running. There is one more piece to check, the heat sensor, but I would have to take the entire dryer apart to reach this component. I am not cut out for this part.
There are times with diagnostics when the issue might be outside of my comfort zone but since this piece of equipment is covered under insurance, I’ll let the repair person figure out the rest. You can’t win them all but understanding the issue and why it failed is very important.
