How can I find out which brakes are damaged?

[nuttapillar]

The Job tells me to fix one set of brakes, and I even did the car testing, and it also tells me one set of brakes is damaged, and it seems to imply it's at the front. But can I find out which side as well? I don't want to waste time removing and replacing the wrong parts. Why can't it say the left brakes or the right brakes are damaged?

[Mardoin69]

The test drive will discover brake issues. But, it doesn't tell you which wheel the problem is at. However, sometimes there'll be a star icon next to the problem description in the job list. You can click that star and the problem part will get a blue highlight on it... making it easier to find. You'd prolly want the wheels taken off though... to make it easier to see stuff. Rust is also a good indicator of bad parts. Doing a visual inspection, you can determine condition of parts for a lot of them. Right click parts, choose inspection mode, click + hold on part to inspect.

[nuttapillar]

Originally posted by Mardoin69:

The test drive will discover brake issues. But, it doesn't tell you which wheel the problem is at. However, sometimes there'll be a star icon next to the problem description in the job list. You can click that star and the problem part will get a blue highlight on it... making it easier to find. You'd prolly want the wheels taken off though... to make it easier to see stuff. Rust is also a good indicator of bad parts. Doing a visual inspection, you can determine condition of parts for a lot of them. Right click parts, choose inspection mode, click + hold on part to inspect.

Thank you. I did recently notice the icons in the test screen help. I think top of the image indicates left side for example. left is rear of car. And I have started getting the hang of inspecting parts. The issue I'm having now is, say ive disassembled all 4 brake assemblies, and its time to reassemble anything, its hard to know which parts were in which places (like brake pads, could be in 4 different places on the car) and I don't want to waste new parts on a part that doesnt need replacing. so I have to keep checking the list of parts to replace, and swapping parts out until the green tick appears. if i put a new pad on, but the green tick doesnt appear, i have to take it off and try the next wheel and so on until it does appear, as i want to use the 60% condition pads if i can, instead of wasting. its hard to explain. It's hard to remember everything that needed replacing, especially when there's several parts with the same name, it gets very vague. Sometimes its easier to just put all new parts on, but thats a waste of money.

[Mardoin69]

Lol, I get what you mean / say. Yes, it's important you are putting the new part in same place as the broken part for the job order. It won't matter that you put a 'decent' condition part in same place as the broken part used to be... if the job order wanted a new 100% part in that spot. You put the new brake pad on wrong side and a 'good enough' one the other side. Job order won't count it as complete. This is especially true with the 'story' orders. So, yeah... have to be careful taking apart and replacing parts. Best bet would be to only do one wheel at a time... this way the same parts go back in same place. BUT... sometimes, that's where that little star in the job order list comes in handy. You can select it in the job order details next to the part description of part in question and presto... a blue highlight appears around the part (or where part is supposed to be) so you know which one was suppose to get that brand new part.

Now, having said all that... sometimes that little star / blue highlight trick won't be helpful enough. This is especially true when it comes to pistons and rings. Can't see inside the engine block to see rings. This is where it might be helpful to you to either use pen n paper to write down which cylinder the bad part came out of. Or, just do them one at a time... again, this is a good technique to ensure your not wasting money on buying extra parts you didn't need to. Ofc, sometimes... if the parts are super dirt cheap... I'll just buy all new ones anyway and say eff it. Like spark plugs are pretty cheap and I won't bother trying to remember which one needed replaced if I'm doing a complete tear-down of an engine. If I'm just fixing one or two things on the engine then sure... but, not when it's a complete tear-down. Same with bushings... I just throw out (sell off) the junky ones and replace new. But, I also have a ton of money saved up so, you might not want to do it that way.

[nuttapillar]

thank you, I was wondering what the star was for. I shall use that next time. Yeah you're right about sparkplugs and bushings. There's quite a few bushings, in various places, and they're often super vague about which ones need fixing. and i think there's a few for each wheel.

[Mardoin69]

Np, yvw. Some aspects of the game were fairly common questions for most newer players and you can usually find common topics already answered here in discussions. But, if you need help, don't hesitate to ask. There's still some veteran players who can help that frequent this forum.

[Minie1000k]

to see better which parts are highlighted in blue, for example on the wheels, it is important not to select the rims and tyres, because it makes like a block and you don't see the other parts. the same on the engine, with the cylinder heads and covers.

also for example to know which piston is damaged, or the spark plug, sometimes you have to move the camera, and at some point it shows it clearly enough for you to see what it is.

[nuttapillar]

Originally posted by Minie1000k:

to see better which parts are highlighted in blue, for example on the wheels, it is important not to select the rims and tyres, because it makes like a block and you don't see the other parts. the same on the engine, with the cylinder heads and covers.

also for example to know which piston is damaged, or the spark plug, sometimes you have to move the camera, and at some point it shows it clearly enough for you to see what it is.

Thank You.

[bolero3232]

Excellent advice from Mardoin69, but in my experience it doesn't matter where you put parts in normal jobs as long as they all meet the condition requirements. With story jobs, yes, all replacement parts must be 100%.

When you have bad bushings, you might consider replacing all bushings. Mardoin69, please confirm this for us...I don't think you actually pay for the parts, the customer does, so it doesn't cost you anything and makes life so much easier. In fact, IRL a mechanic would probably do just that. For example, you would never replace a control arm and put old bushings back in.

[Mardoin69]

With job orders, the customer only pays for the parts required in the job list. So, any extra parts you buy, comes out of your pocket. So, yeah... if you want to save a few bucks here n there, it's best to only replace the part required.

I kind of touched on that before... where I do actually spend a little extra and just replace busings / spark plugs. But, I'm also uber rich in my save game so, it's not a problem. You do get a bonus on the jobs though when you complete them. So, a few bucks out of your pocket isn't going to put you in the negative on a job... within reason. You obviously don't want to go crazy spending on it or you will go into the negative.

Edit: @bolero
Lol, yeah... what I would do in Real life surely isn't the half-arse things you can get away with in the game... lol. Like, I'd never replace just one spark plug on someone's car... except in the case where one got broke on accident and the rest of the plugs were pretty good condition.

[bolero3232]

Oh, I wouldn't go crazy with extra parts, but with low value items like you mentioned I don't waste time worrying about. For example, which valve push rods need replacing, they're $5 each. We're on the same page.