[Fat Charlie]

The main problem is trying to indirectly diagnose the car. A Subaru tech is going to start at the same place as everyone else, he'll just be more likely to troubleshoot it faster and have whatever the needed part is. Since he's charging for the diag time, he'll spend the time actually testing things instead of selling you a guess.

Just yesterday I talked to a guy who has a check engine light. The forums tell him he needs a short running valve actuator- a $200 part that probably won't fix his problem. I've got it, but I also know that it's quite likely he's going to need a $700 plenum instead, as well as assorted gaskets and hardware. Now, we can't make a bad situation less bad, but at least I could stop the guy from slapping in a $200 part that wouldn't fix it or get him any closer to knowing what will.