I am not sure that he was confident about anything he changed. Even when he replaced the AMM he still worried until the next morning. He has taken a beaten in stress of the inspection looming I think.

I tried to locate the "original" post. If I found it, just you and Art were in it and you both spoke of the AMM as a possibility and Art said the ECU has a rich fuel map. I did not see any of my posts so I am lost to explain anything I may have said.

On this post he wanted to pick on the ECU or anything that would help him pass smog.

I troubleshoot from the cheapest item to replace or the most failure prone item.
The AMM is like changing a tuner inside the T.V. to make sure the T.V. station is off the air when it might be a blow down antenna or broken lead-in.

In that last post I made reference to what RICH could mean in a couple different ways and to be humorous, as this is just fun for me.
I agree I have a different way of saying things and might lose you if you are only following for pure content relevance.

It is my method communication and it is probably not 100 percent audience proof that I have by trait I suppose. It is a wide spectrum method to cover those in a classroom or working in the field. There are as many lagers as there are gifted students. To keep their attention you cannot talk monotone and you have to break up the curriculums presentation with real life parables. It keeps you and others more interested.

Trust me; I have had a share of tough minimally trained students. Then again I worked with coworkers that covered several different trades and their perspectives. We all shared information to run the plant.

We all should learn things while at the same time learning to respect our elder tradesmen over the years. I required the same from my students the few years I taught. Most of the time those suckers wanted to find the tit and using some peer pressure works wonders from time to time.

Hey, in reality there is no other way to get motivation than to create some challenge.

In case you have not noticed, I stress people to jump in with a voltmeter, as it has “leads” that go somewhere!
See a point with twist, from the twisted?

My expertise is not automotive. I do not pretend to express that I ever was an automotive wizard. The areas I have covered in my life are very closely related and my logic works for me on “my” Volvos. I have not had near the problems with my cars as other I read about. I do not live or drives in places and in ways other do either.
As Clint Eastwood said as Dirty Harry "one has to know ones limitations" I use my cars according to their design. No 500 pound loads on top of the roof of the wagon but I have put a large gun safe inside mine once. I hauled it over two states and it was very close to the same weight!

I work on other vehicles mostly for relatives and some friends for free. That, I keep close to the chest, as it can get out of your hands quickly. The Brick Board is on my terms all the time.

I started answering the owner of this thread to express logic of how the ECU is tied to the outside world.
I will hope that others might understand this.

Imagine a comparison scene of a power plant operator in a small room controlling something with only gauges and electric valves while his reactor is a half mile away. Might still vague for some I know but that is why illustrations, diagrams and pictures of parts work wonders.

You can tell that works for Art, as he is the champion in that department. He has enthusiasm and better computer tools in his garage!

We all might be some great grease monkeys in a community college garage.

Phil