01/10/2026
Can AI really fix your truck?
Story Time
A few weeks ago, we received a message from a customer asking if they could return a set of injectors. We sent a nice email back inquiring why they would like to return them. The customer responded that they were defective. Of course this instantly raised a red flag since the possibility of eight injectors being defective is somewhere near zero.
We inquired a little further about what was going on and the customer described the symptoms that were occurring with the vehicle. Having specialized in the type of engine he was working on for more than a quarter century, we quickly recognized that the problems the customer was experiencing were not likely to be caused by the fuel injectors.
After explaining this, we inquired how the customer had come to the conclusion that the injectors should be replaced to correct the problems he was experiencing.
That is the point where things got interesting.
The customer proceeded to explain that AI had told him to replace the fuel injectors after he had told it what the vehicle was doing.
Things got even more interesting when the customer explained that ours was not the first set of injectors he had installed to correct this issue. After receiving instructions from AI to replace the injectors, the customer proceeded to purchase a brand NEW set of genuine OEM fuel injectors from another reputable vendor. After installing the injectors, the truck's symptoms were unchanged. The customer explained this situation to the AI, to which the AI responded that the new injectors were bad and that the customer should replace them again.
Interestingly, the AI told the customer that this time around he should purchase a remanufactured injector set from AccurateDiesel.com ! (At least that part was good information!)
So the customer obediently complied and purchased and installed our injectors, only to still have the exact same symptoms.
The customer told AI about this - and of course the AI responded that our injectors were bad as well - which brings us back to where we started the story.
As we proceeded to chat with the customer he revealed that he had had the injectors in and out of the truck 4 or 5 times now trying to get to the bottom of the issue. Keep in mind that the injectors in this truck are not particularly fun to change - it is at least a 1/2 day job to change the set.
We explained to the customer that there was almost no chance the injectors were at fault at this point and also explained what he should check and what the most likely actual cause(s) of the problems were.
The customer dutifully reported this back to the AI, which responded in a very forceful and unkind manner that our injectors were bad and that the only reason we were trying to tell the customer the problem was something else is that we did not want to warranty our product (which of course was not the case).
By this time, we had established a pretty good rapport with the customer and we think he was starting to believe us over the AI. We responded that maybe he should ask the AI exactly how many times it was going to make him replace the injectors before it finally admitted that it was wrong.
No word on the AI's response on that.
What is the moral of the story?
Our take is that maybe someday AI will be able to replace a highly trained technician with decades of experience - but that day definitely is not here yet.
In this case, the AI cost the customer well over $1,000 in parts he did not need, plus at least 20 hours in labor. The reality was that a simple adjustment likely would have fixed the original issue.
One of the problems with AI is that it is a generalist. Across other diesel platforms, could the AI's answer have been correct? Possibly. But when repairing specific platforms, you need product specific knowledge and experience.
One of the other big issues we see with the AI here (and we have also seen this in other cases) is that AI tends to be vastly overconfident. Our customer stated that one of the reasons he believed the AI was that it "seemed so confident". If you present a set of symptoms to us, we will tell you what we think the problem is - we might tell you we are almost positive we know what it is in some cases or that we are "pretty sure" it is this or that - and then describe testing steps to verify the diagnosis where possible. Rarely if ever are we going to be like the AI and tell you 100% we know what the problem is - especially on a remote diagnosis! Those with experience know that vehicle diagnosis can be a complex process with many compounding variables, so being 100% sure of anything is rarely possible in the real world. As humans, the more we learn and the more experience we get, the more we find out that the real world is nuanced and that we don't know everything and need to stay humble.
Also concerning is how confrontational the AI was when it told the customer in no uncertain terms that the reason we were trying to help him solve the real problem was that we didn't want to stand behind our product. The AI was escalating a situation unnecessarily. Where reasonable humans know we need to listen to each other and hear each other out, and get multiple opinions, and work together to solve a problem, the AI was 100% "my way or the highway". One starts to worry how this could play out if AI starts to be in control of geo-political situations.
Is there a place for AI? Possibly. But it certainly is not ready to replace your trusted mechanic - or your own God-given logic yet.
AI may possibly be helpful for brainstorming the cause of a vehicle problem - it might be useful to give you a list of ideas, or tell you about a pattern failure. But at that point it is time to use your human knowledge, logic, and experience to decide if the information being provided by the AI is factual and reasonable.
In this case, the AI cost the customer far more than if he would have just taken the vehicle to a professional in the first place.
The moral of the story? Don't put all of your eggs in the AI basket - if you put any of them there! AI might be a tool or an aid, but it needs to be treated with a good-deal of mistrust at this point - for vehicle diagnosis or anything else (especially medical or personal issues).
We share this in hopes that it will prevent someone else from suffering the same fate and going down an expensive AI rabbit hole!
We welcome any thoughts or discussion. Have you found AI to be useful, helpful, or detrimental as relating to vehicle diagnosis or repair?
If you need to contact us, we assure you that you will get a AI-free response at AccurateDiesel.com!
Accurate Diesel Performance Parts & Accessories includes injectors, glow plugs, and turbo components for Powerstroke, Duramax, and Cummins engines.
