Motor diagnostics with Carpenters Garage.

The complexity and levels of standard equipment fitted to a modern family car has changed dramatically. Back in 1979, only a luxury motor vehicle would be fitted with air conditioning, electric windows and fuel injection. Now, every modern car has a whole range of electronic equipment such as airbags, anti-lock brakes, air conditioning, electric power steering, electric windows, immobiliser, fuel injection and traction control, all fitted as standard.


As these systems have continued to become more and more complex so has the need to invest in the equipment and training to be able to repair them. There are times however when after-market independent diagnostic tools will either not communicate with the desired system or be able to programme a new part. In these instances, we would refer the vehicle to the local main agent.
 

Many customers are under the impression that all a garage has to do is to connect the scan tool up to the vehicle and the fault will be diagnosed in a matter of minutes. In reality, the codes extracted from a code read are a guide to help the technician in diagnosing the fault. Rarely is a defect cured by just clearing codes from the modules memory. A code read is just the first step, with further labour diagnostic time spent after. It is also possible for a component to be reading incorrectly, but as the signal is still in range not give a fault code.

 
We would normally start with a code read and then spend a maximum of two hours investigation time. If the fault has not been identified within that time, we would report to the customer our findings and recommendations before incurring any further labour costs. No parts would be fitted without customer consent.