If you’re like the majority of people in the U.S., you use a car to get from Point A to Point B and rely on all the parts working properly. None of us expects to break down on the side of the road, and when it happens it’s extremely inconvenient and stressful. Worse still, we rarely see it coming.

We assume our car is going to work – until it doesn’t. Either there weren’t any warning signs or you didn’t see them. Or maybe there were signs and you didn’t even know. OK, maybe you even neglected some things you now recognize as “signs!”

Most of the time, you don’t need to know anything about what goes on underneath the hood, but when something goes wrong you start to wish you knew a little bit more about the mechanics of it all. There’s an odd clunking noise coming when you drive over a bump but, other than that, you can’t really say what’s going on with your usually trusty car.

Here at YourMechanic, we know that very few car owners are expert diagnosticians and oftentimes you don’t even know which service you need to book.

This is a very common situation and it’s why we have hundreds of diagnostic jobs – our mechanics are great at figuring out what’s going on with your car. You don’t even have to pick a specific job when you book an appointment if you can’t identify any symptoms at all, but the more information you are able to share before the mechanic comes on-site, the better.

When trying to decide which service to book, consider what you see, smell, hear, and feel. Once you’ve identified the sense your issue applies to, focus on the qualities of each sensation. For example, if there’s an odd feeling to your car, think about if it’s vibrating or if it’s pulling to one side.