Truly frightening overheard conversation

 The guy in line in front of me in the auto parts store was planning to
change his front brake pads.

He wanted to know what to use to remove the fasteners.

The parts guy had to explain "wrench" to him, and "socket", and
"metric" and had to argue with him for a while before the guy would tell
him what brand and model of vehicle it was, then the parts guy pulled a
set of brake calipers out of the back and showed him which fasteners he
had to remove and what socket fit them.  The guy argued with him about
that and finally left in anger.

And we're all going to be on the road with this guy's brake job.

 
What makes you think that he's likely to get as far as a road?

 wrote:

It is truly frightening on a couple of levels.

First, it is unwise to proceed to do anything to a vehicle related to
structure, steering, restraints, or braking without a shop manual from
the manufacturer.

Second, clearly this guy was at a level of skill where he needed some
professional training.  He really should be doing his brake job under
the supervision of a mechanic.

I'm a total idiot and I'm the first one to admit it.  But I have the
shop manual for my motorcycle, and I follow Mr. Honda's instructions
carefully.  If I have any doubt, I simply replace the part in question
and/or get professional opinions from the dealership or from this
newsgroup.

And I'd do the same for a car.  If I wasn't sure, I'd replace anything
suspicious and/or ask for help.

I frankly would not touch the brakes on any car without the shop
manual.  Even if I've seen many similar cars, I still could miss
something.

DFC

 On Mon, 9 May 2011 15:53:44 -0700 (PDT), BryanUT

I personally am a bit anal retentive (surprise there), so I would want
to know what the manufacturer says about sequence of operations,
things to look for, parts to be replaced every time such and such is
done, cautions, torque values, etc.

I don't let the monkeys at Midas or Tuffy tackle brakes.  I just let
them do exhausts.  I leave brakes to the dealership.  I have seen
evidence that the folks at the dealership can read and write and do
arithmetic.

DFC

 
If you had grown up doing brake jobs and working on your own vehicles
for 40 years or so, you could be anal retentive and obsessive
compulsive about doing it right, even when you hardly ever have a
factory shop manual for a given specific vehicle..

When you've raced for years and years on motorcycles that you have
built yourself, and your life depends on building them right, you
could be anal retentive and obsessive compulsive about doing it right,
even wrt those things for which you have never so much as glanced at
your factory shop manual.

As far as anal retentive is concerned, you're the guy who doesn't mind
lending your motorcycle to a new rider, knowing that the odds are that
it will be crashed, and then laughing it off when it *is* crashed.

No, I wouldn't call you anal retentive.  I'd say "differently enabled"
is a better description.