Editorial policy
This page explains how every guide and trouble-code page on Mechronic is written, checked, and kept current.
Last updated September 25, 2026
How a page is written
- We start from real questions. Topics come from what US drivers actually search for and ask our AI mechanic.
- We look at what's already out there, for structure only. We check which questions the top results answer and what they leave out. We never copy or rewrite another site's text.
- Every page carries at least one fact you can verify. Usually that's the count of NHTSA owner complaints that mention a code and the models they come from, a manufacturer service bulletin, or a federal standard. It's shown in a "What the data says" box near the top, and the source is linked at the bottom of the page.
- Drafts are written with AI assistance in the voice of a working mechanic, following a written style guide: answer first, causes ranked by how often they turn out to be the problem, a clear safe-to-drive answer, and a price range.
How a page is reviewed
Pages are published in two tiers, and every page says which tier it is in, under its title.
- Data pages, not yet mechanic-reviewed. Trouble-code pages and repair-cost pages are built from public data: NHTSA complaint counts, manufacturer bulletin counts, federal standards, and shop price ranges that the page labels as estimates. They are checked by our team against the source data and against real shop quotes, but a certified mechanic has not yet signed them off. The byline says so in plain words. Treat cost figures as a starting point for your own quotes.
- Mechanic-reviewed. An ASE-certified mechanic works through a checklist of every repair cost and every mechanical claim on the page. Anything they can't confirm is changed or removed. The reviewer's name and the review date appear under the title.
Symptom guides, the pages that answer "is it safe to drive", are held back until a mechanic has reviewed them. We would rather publish nothing on that question than publish it unchecked.
How we price repairs
Cost ranges are for a US independent shop, parts and labor, for mainstream cars, in 2026. Trucks, large SUVs and European models usually cost more; dealers are typically higher. The same repair carries the same range on every page, from one price book. Until a mechanic has signed that price book off, every range is an estimate, and the page says so. Every range is a range on purpose: the same job on the same car can differ by $150 between two shops a few miles apart.
How we handle data
Complaint counts come from NHTSA's public consumer complaint file; we count every complaint whose text names the code. Bulletin counts come from the manufacturer communications file NHTSA publishes. Both are snapshots, dated on each page, and refreshed periodically. Service-campaign numbers that happen to look like a trouble code are filtered out.
NHTSA complaint counts show what owners reported, not a confirmed cause. When we say "85 complaints mention P0420 on the Kia Soul", that's a count, not a claim that the car has a defect. We only say a model has a known problem when a manufacturer bulletin or recall says so.
Corrections
If something on a page is wrong, email hello@mechronic.com. We review every report, fix confirmed errors, and update the page's review date.
Independence
We may earn a commission when you buy a part through a link, or a referral fee when you request a quote from a shop. That never changes the diagnosis, the ranking of causes, or the price ranges.