The problem with telling a mechanic what you think is the problem, is, he will "fix" that making you feel smarter than you really are, and, in addition, he will fix the real problem, getting you for two jobs instead of one.

The main problem with mechanics is, and always has been, that they simply dont know how to diagnose a problem. They just keep throwing expensive parts at it until the problem goes away.

Just the other day a good friend told me about a noise in his pickup. He had driven it about two miles and it made a funny noise and quit. After a while, he started it again and made it home, another two or three miles. He thought it was a u-joint makinf the noise, but, I told him that couldn't kill the engine. It turned out to be a leak in the radiator. When the engine heated up and built a little pressure, it spurted coolant all over the spark plugs, and the noise was the coolant hitting the fan. His mechanic, my brother, installed a new radiator and cured both problems.

This would have been a gold mine for a crook.