AI as a repair tool

[JZLAJeep]

With the challenges I've run into while working on my CJ-7 in the past week I've discovered that AI, specifically Google Gemini, is a particularly helpful tool in pointing me in the right direction. The AI scours various forums and YouTube videos and synthesizes the information. After a few positive experiences I'm quickly finding myself going there first when I get stuck. What has been the experience of others?

 

[Smokeyyank]

I've used it more than a few times with jeep stuff. Does help me get info quickly or at least headed in the right direction at times. I mainly use gpt and claude but have used them all. 

[White_Comanche]

I've used it nearly exclusively on my ongoing Replicating MJ Bumper Caps project.

 

...its helped a lot on abstract math.

 

If you know how to feed and guide it, these tools can be quite nice.

[AeroNautical]

I used it to diagnose a high RPM engine roughness issue on a Piper Twin Comanche (still a Comanche, it counts). I knew my own troubleshooting would get me there, but I was surprised at how effective its answers were. I've also seen cases where it may feed bad information, and it convinces itself its correct when its not. Just be careful with it. 

[Porquer]

6 hours ago, AeroNautical said:

I used it to diagnose a high RPM engine roughness issue on a Piper Twin Comanche (still a Comanche, it counts). I knew my own troubleshooting would get me there, but I was surprised at how effective its answers were. I've also seen cases where it may feed bad information, and it convinces itself its correct when its not. Just be careful with it. 

I’ve used it on aircraft to help me track down service bulletins that I know exist, but can’t find. I like using it to locate original sources of info.

[AeroNautical]

20 hours ago, Porquer said:

I’ve used it on aircraft to help me track down service bulletins that I know exist, but can’t find. I like using it to locate original sources of info.

That's a great use I hadn't thought of. It's getting harder to track down information on these aging airframes, for sure. 

[ComancheX2]

On 10/25/2026 at 10:48 AM, AeroNautical said:

I used it to diagnose a high RPM engine roughness issue on a Piper Twin Comanche (still a Comanche, it counts).

Another (former) Twinkie owner...  

[AeroNautical]

5 hours ago, ComancheX2 said:

Another (former) Twinkie owner...  

Oh, I wish I owned a Twinkie, but I did almost buy a Comanche 250. In fact, I was planning a photo shoot with the Piper and the MJ. Would have been kinda cool. Why did you sell?

[ComancheX2]

Didn't sell it.  Long story, I'll just say Garmin, their dealers, & A&P's aren't what they used to be.

[derf]

My dad owned a share of a Comanche way back in the day.  We flew all over the Midwest in that plane.  He let me do a few basic maneuvers one afternoon when he was doing touch-and-gos to stay current.  I learned a lot about avionics and even went into designing cockpit electronics after college.  But never got the bug to get my license.

[Sarah Walker]

Interesting that the avionics path came out of those Midwest flights rather than the stick time. I've always thought the panel is where the real learning curve lives, so it makes sense that tinkering alongside your dad stuck with you more than the maneuvers did. The comment about Garmin and dealers is a common refrain too—seems like the support side has gotten harder to navigate for a lot of owners. Was there a particular avionics project that pushed you toward cockpit electronics, or did it build up gradually over those years?

[derf]

So, dad was an engineer working on avionics too.  He was fully instrument rated.  I remember a flight one day taking off into the clouds with zero visibility the whole way.  He used the NAV radios with DME and charts, knowing exactly where we were the whole time.  I had learned enough to follow along.  This was back well before civilian GPS.  We did a full instrument approach and dropped out of the clouds with the runway right in front of us.  The technology was what I got interested in.

[Sarah Walker]

The detail about following along on the NAV radios and DME is what stands out to me. That sense of knowing exactly where you are without GPS, just from the instruments and the chart, sounds like the kind of thing that would make a lasting impression on a kid. It also explains why the technology pulled you in more than the flying itself. My question is whether that early exposure made modern glass panels feel like a big leap, or whether the underlying logic of the instruments felt familiar once you got into designing them.

[derf]

I spent a good portion of my career working on glass panels for several aircraft.  And, for what it's worth, my father worked on the first civilian digital cockpit systems starting in the late 70s.

 

So not a big leap for me.

[ComancheX2]

Sorry if I hijacked this thread! 

 

And Derf, sounds like you worked on 121 category aircraft?

 

I got into aviation flying with my Dad as well.  I soloed at 16, (I was at the World Boy Scout Jamboree on my birthday so I had to wait until I got back to solo) and got my private at 17.  Took my instrument checkride with a dual Nav, single glideslope, and ADF.  (And with the ADF you could still listen to the ball games enroute!)  Much different than today's 'children of the blue line'.  Somewhat of a tangent being we're talking IFR here, but the last private student I had was fixated on looking inside to determine the attitude of the aircraft.  After trying a couple other things, eventually I had to take a towel to completely cover the panel and say 'pitch the airplane to Best Rate of Climb and tell me when you think you're there'. A couple of times doing that brought some balance into his scan. 

 

But to keep it MJ related, the PA-30 is similar.  Not the best at one specific thing, but good at most things.  The Ford Lightning is faster (Barron), the F-250/2500 will haul more (Aztec), but the MJ (PA-30) is very useful and good at just about anything. My Twin Comanche was almost as fast and could haul 4 people and luggage while still having 6 hours worth of fuel at 15 gallons per hour.

[derf]

I did work on commercial airline cockpit systems.  And a couple of military planes.

[ComancheX2]

Ah, no 121 for me, but I worked on a few DoD systems as well.  So I share the proud of what I worked on.

[Chico]

On 10/21/2026 at 12:02 PM, JZLAJeep said:

With the challenges I've run into while working on my CJ-7 in the past week I've discovered that AI, specifically Google Gemini, is a particularly helpful tool in pointing me in the right direction. The AI scours various forums and YouTube videos and synthesizes the information. After a few positive experiences I'm quickly finding myself going there first when I get stuck. What has been the experience of others?

 

 

For me, pretty much the same situations and experience. For the last 6 years I've had very little issues with car maintenance and repair. The last 6 months has been a completely different story. I'm not  a mechanic or even mechanically inclined in any way but I'm not dumb either. Give some type of direction I could always figure something out eventually. Before these last 6 months and before the pandemic, I'd always opt to seek the advice and know how of a  trained professional on whatever I need to work on. Didn't matter if I had to pay "extra". Car, house, whatever... I would rather have always had whatever job needed done , correctly, the first time.  I'd always try to watch and learn, so next time a similar problem arose, I'd do it myself. I enjoyed "fixing" broken things since it's not something I did for my job. Lately, I've been disappointed, over and over again. At least in my area, it doesn't seem like anyone knows how to do anything anymore. That's where AI has come in, or the growing version we have seen over the last few years. By using it I've at least diagnosed problems before  the actual person doing the job. Sometimes even used it to correct their mistakes and even teach them how to do it. It just seems strange to me. Most of them ask  or rather get mad at me, like one time a mechanic told me, "if you know how to do it yourself, why don't you." My issue is I sometimes lack the correct tools or ability to actually perform the repair physically due to fibromyalgia.

It's funny because since I was away for almost 20 years, it reminds me of when I ended up with my first MJ and on this site. I had no idea about anything. Every time an issue would arise, I'd just get on here and go, "Truck made noise, heard semi loud bang, truck is on fire, fire is now out. Won't idle correctly for some reason." Then someone like Hornbrod would respond at midnight and go "Do 1,2,3, drink a beer, and then 4." Then I'd drive off perfectly fine the next day with scorch marks across the hood but with a perfect idle. 

 

AI has been kinda the same way for me now. The other day, issue arose. Asked AI. Gave me somewhat of a reason for the problem and the solution.

Bought the parts needed. Had them in less than 24 hours.  Called the mechanic. He drove over on a Saturday morning. Changed the part in the driveway. Issue fixed in about 20 minutes. Gave him $60.

Just kinda speeds up the process for me.

Dealer wanted basically $700 and 3-5 days.

 

Same thing with my kid's Corolla yesterday, CIL came on, even though nothing was physically noticeably wrong. Plugged in a friend's scanner. Pulled the code. Asked AI for possible issues and solutions. Ordered the parts today. Coming tomorrow. By Monday morning issue should be resolved hopefully. Costing me less than $200 and I can actually do this one myself. Called dealer this morning. First appointment was over 10 days away. $200 to diagnose. A lot more money for the parts and labor. And who knows if the tech would even do the job correctly since I can't find one that does.  At least I know I have everything torqued down correctly, which no one seems to know how to do anymore.

 

AI's solutions haven't always been "perfect" but like you said,  do point me in the correct direction. Just honestly has made my life easier in some aspects to answer your original question.

I'm in the food business so it's helped with that.

And home repairs too.

In conclusion, for me, it's filled the gap left vacant left by industries where there seems to be a lack of educated and qualified professionals left to do the correct job.

Main thing is after 10 years I'm finally almost done cleaning out the garage to make working on my own things easier and, I'm little by little getting the tools I actually need, and tools that make doing some of these jobs a lot easier.

But I wouldn't have bothered if it wasn't for this group and AI.