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PSA: Spent 4 hours chasing a coolant leak that was just a bad radiator cap
The car kept overheating and I saw coolant under it, so I replaced hoses and checked the water pump. The whole time, my old pressure tester was giving a false reading on the cap. Anyone else have a tool fail them like that?
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victor_jones991mo ago
What if we marked tools with the last date we checked them?
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laura_allen1mo ago
Old tools can really trick you. My neighbor had a vacuum gauge that read fine on his truck but was totally wrong on his wife's smaller engine. We wasted a weekend looking for a carb issue that wasn't there. It's easy to trust a tool you've had for years, but they do wear out in ways you don't see. Now I test my testers against a known good part before I start a big job.
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sarah_mason1mo ago
That's such a good point... it's so easy to just grab the old faithful tool from the box without a second thought. I've been burned by a multimeter giving weird readings that sent me down a rabbit hole. Your idea to check the tester first is really smart, saves so much time and headache in the long run. Makes you wonder what else in the toolbox is quietly going bad without us noticing.
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