Old school timing light vs my new digital scanner, night and day

I remember 10 years ago in my first garage in Dayton, I would fight with a timing light for an hour just to get a rough idle set on an old Chevy. Now I plug in my Autel scanner and get live data on every cylinder within 2 minutes. The funny part is my old mentor swore by the light and called the scanner a crutch, but last week that same light led me to check a worn distributor gear I would have missed. Anyone else still keep their old tools around even when the new stuff does the job faster?

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chen.jade1mo ago

Man, I feel this in my bones. I've got a whole drawer of stuff that the scanner made obsolete, vacuum gauge, dwell meter, the works, but I still grab them when something feels off. Had a rough idle last month that the live data showed as "fine" but my old vacuum gauge told me I had a leak at the intake gasket. Scanner would've had me chasing sensors all day. Those old tools teach you how things actually work instead of just telling you what's broken. Your mentor wasn't wrong about the light, he just didn't know the scanner could save you an hour too. Keep both, that's the move.

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