I'm sorry you're offended and it's not a flame war or anything like that. Some of you take all of this WAY too seriously and miss the overall big picture. Most mechanics refer to the manual for D&A procedures, specific specs or general information.
We mechanics are just as offended or bruised when DIY'ers tell us that we're ripping people off by not following everything to the letter. My customers who pay me aren't as concerned as you good folks seem to be if I follow all these procedures. They're interested in results and fairly priced repairs or service. I often go way out of my way to fix things right while not charging all the extra hours it takes to find some annoying problem. Until you do this for a living you really won't know how much effort it takes to restore a car and make a living trying to do it. I work on very old cars that require a lot of extra effort and every car has to be repaired in a different way. Even two similar cars with the same problem might need two very different approaches as far as repairs go. Only a great deal of experience will tell you which way to go and which method to use. Sometimes this requires that you might have to be satisfied with less than perfect idle on a 190SL or a bit higher idle speed. The book may say what this speed is but the customer may not have the money for a professional repair. I post all the time on 113 pagoda.com, 107.com and 113sl.org. where members come to me for answers. I'm sure there are many others around here who know more than me on certain models - guys like Jim Cathy come to mind as someone who can fix almost anything using his own abilities and common sense, book or no book. Procedure is one thing but technique is another. Everyone has a little bit different way they like to do things and not everyone makes love in the same exact way. Relax , will ya.
