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Heh - anyone else use Youtube to learn how to fix things around the house?

I am not mechanically inclined what so ever.

And my washing machine has been basically soaking wet clothes after it was done...

Which isn't right. So off to youtube...

So first I thought it was the agitator... which I didn't know what it was till I saw this...





Having replaced those (which were destroyed in mine, they were smashed to literal atoms!) I thought I had done it.

But still having an issue spinning, so this is what I am gonna try next...







What have you used Youtube to learn to fix?

Good luck, Tawm. I saw the title of this thread and immediately thought of this (which still makes me laugh, even now).

I haven't used YouTube to learn to fix anything, but I learned a lot from it about sword-fighting, blacksmithing, and cooking. I can now make several mean pastas and curries.

Good luck, looks complicated!

If we have to repair something, my dad always tells me and my brother to "look it up on YouTube": more than likely SOMEONE ELSE has had to fix what you're trying to repair, and you can use their hints & tips, as well as visualize/see/prepare yourself for what you're setting yourself into...

Two years ago, my wife went out of town on a trip about 3 hours away with her sister and mother. When they got to the hotel, the trunk wouldn't open. The fuse had blown (likely when they loaded the in-law's luggage), and on her Impala, there's no manual key/lock mechanism to open it; it's an electric motor (called an "actuator") that opens the latch from a button below the dashboard or remotely from the key fob.

(Bad news: dead battery = no trunk opening, either)

She had to lower the backseat and pull the luggage through. When the were ready to leave, they asked a hotel employee to reach through the backseat and pull the emergency latch to get the trunk open. That way, they could load the luggage back in and let me pull it out when they got back home.

When I put in a new fuse, the trunk opened just fine but THAT fuse blew in the process, as did a third one.

I read online that continually blowing fuses means that there's something wrong with the truck latch actuator itself. Looking on YouTube later that night, I was lucky enough to find the following video about replacing that part specifically matching her model year (2015, but really for any final Generation 10 Impala [2014-2020]), and what to be aware of when replacing it.

After watching it a couple of times (visualizing what to expect), I bought a new actuator the next morning and installed it in less than 10 minutes... and it's worked fine for the last 23 months. While the part was ~$125 (a little more than what the guy in the video paid a year earlier), it's got a lifetime warranty and saved me at least a hundred bucks in mechanic's labor.