For apprentice and junior techs
Run the test first.
The cause comes after.
Type the vehicle and the symptom. AI Mechanic asks the two or three questions that narrow it, then names the next test. It withholds the cause until you record a result.
You build method instead of a habit of asking. Every Case you close lands in a Logbook that is yours to show.
The first Case is free and complete. No account, no card.
- 01
Symptom
The vehicle and the complaint, in the words you would say out loud.
- 02
Possible causes
Listed plainly and unranked, each with one line on why it is there.
- 03
Test
One thing you go and do to the car, starting with a verb.
- 04
Expected result
The number or the reading that tells you which way to go.
- 05
Next test
Revealed after you record what you actually measured.
The trade already thinks in this order. Nothing here is invented vocabulary.
The moment
It changes its mind because of something you measured.
Record the reading and the causes re-rank. One is struck through with the reason written next to it. The next test lights up in amber.
No cause is named before you have been to the car. That is the whole design, and it is why the method sticks.
On a recorded noise it says: rhythmic tick, scaling with RPM, loudest at the timing end. That narrows it, it doesn’t prove it.
We name uncertainty out loud, because a bluff costs you a part.
2012 VW Golf 1.6 TDI
Cranks but doesn’t start. No immobilizer light. Fuel pressure looks normal.
Possible causes
- Low rail pressure while cranking
No smoke while cranking means no fuel is being injected.
- Failed crankshaft position sensor
The engine turns, but the ECU may not see it turning.
- Air drawn in on the suction side
Common on this engine after a filter change.
- Timing belt jumped a tooth
Even, fast cranking fits low compression.
- Restricted fuel filter or gelled diesel
A restriction reads normal at rest and low while cranking.
Test 1 · do this now
Read actual rail pressure while cranking.
Record the measured result and the causes re-rank in front of you.
What it costs
Priced for the person holding the spanner.
The professional repair databases are sold to a shop owner and live on the office desktop. An apprentice wage does not stretch to them.
Competitor figures are the vendors’ published list prices per seat. The Bay Pass has a daily Case ceiling, stated openly before you pay.
What endures
Two years in, you have fixed hundreds of cars and can prove none of it.
A closed Case keeps the vehicle, the tests you ran, the results you measured, your evidence photos, and the fix that actually worked.
That is the Logbook. A pilot has one. A mechanic never has. When a pass ends the Logbook stays readable, forever.
Evidence · photo
Point the camera at the connector instead of describing it.
Your evidence, attached to your own Case.
cranks, no start · 3 tests
Fuel filter housing lid seal, drawing air
misfire under load · 4 tests
Cracked charge pipe, boost leak at 1.2 bar
battery flat overnight · 5 tests
Boot lid microswitch, 340 mA parasitic draw
An example Logbook. Yours starts with the first Case you close.
The Bay Pass
$12.00 · 90 days
- Unlimited Cases for 90 days, paid once. Nothing renews on its own.
- A fair-use ceiling on Cases per day, shown before you pay.
- Your first Case is free and complete, camera evidence included.
Status
Cases are open. Start with the free one, and only pay once you have seen the method work on your own car.
Open your first CaseNo account and no email address. The pass lives on your phone.