A guy at the truck stop near Toledo told me I was wasting my time with a manual gauge

I was checking fuel pressure on a 6.7 Powerstroke in the lot, using my old reliable mechanical gauge. This older mechanic walked over, saw what I was doing, and said, 'You're still using that thing? The scan tool data is good enough, you're just making extra work.' I told him I've seen the sensor data lie before, and the needle doesn't. He just shook his head and walked off. Has anyone else had a shop try to phase out physical gauges completely?

3 comments

3 Comments

river3201mo ago

My 2012 F-350's sensor lied last month.

bennett.vera1mo ago

Totally get it, that guy is just wrong lol. Watched a shop replace a perfectly good turbo on a Duramax because the sensor data said it was bad. Hooked up a mechanical boost gauge and it was fine, turned out to be a wiring chafe. They'd have saved hours and a ton of money just looking at the real pressure first. Some people just trust the screen too much.

elliot9501mo ago

Hold up, gotta disagree a bit here. Sensors give you a data point you can't ignore, they're the first clue something's wrong. I get what you're saying, @bennett.vera, about checking the real pressure, but that wiring chafe still showed up as bad sensor data. The problem was stopping at the code without doing the next logical test. The screen isn't the enemy, it's just the starting point. You need both the tech and the old school checks to actually fix things right.