Dodgey Dicky's Diesel Detanglers Ltd

[scooters]

Over the last 2 weeks I've been making a bit of dosh on the side by fixing poor running Fords - started with a 2004 Focus that had cold starting issues, chap had spent 1000 quids on EFI bits and injectors and no result - I diagnosed a knackered starter motor which I rebuilt for him and replaced the main positive lead - 2 days work £300 labour charge. Looked at a dodgey TDci on an S-Max for a neighbour - once again - independent garage had replaced 2 injectors and 2 glow plugs - didn't work, I spent a day on it and diagnosed and repaired a worn wiring loom causing a short - bridged the issue - job done £175 kerching...

Next week a mate is bringing me a 2002 Mondeo 2l TDci which smokes like a bastard with uncombusted diesel when cold - also drops into limp home mode all the time - he has spent over 2k on this and the problem keeps coming back - I suspect the ERG valve has which soots up and causes havoc especially when burning cheap oil..quote for labour - £350 as it will take a couple of days testing to trace the fault.

 

I was talking to a chap in who runs a diesel injector business and expressing horror at the approach many mechanics take - he said that the issue is becoming a real headache - many post 2000 oil burners are complex cars, in order to be sophisticated, economical and powerful AND emissions friendly many new technologies were bolted onto cars without releasing the impacts after 150k - as mist car manufacturers built cars to last 5 minutes these days they don't really care.

 

When a customer takes a car with a diesel EFI issue to a mechanic, the mechanic will typically plug in his computer to identify the issue - the ECU will point to the component that is playing up but that is were the investigations stop...there seems to be a generation of mechanics who have given up using their ears, eyes, nose and instincts for a problem and also how diesel engines actually work. Hence the symptom is treated but the underlying issue remains causing further expense. As testing the entire EFI system is very labour intensive, most owners would baulk at the cost, the mechanic makes an educated guess and starts replacing components one by one - this can really piss off the customer who sees money being spent for no result until the mechanic gets lucky.

 

He identified this as a business opportunity after fixing a few mate's cars a few years back - he now specialises and supplies diesel EFI components and he uses no diagnostic equipment - entirely relies on knowledge and experience when approaching the issue. Its the only way you can save the customer money.

 

The cars I've been fixing have all required extensive multimeter testing which had it been in a garage would have been extortionate.

 

feel a bit sorry for the mechanics - they are damned if they do and damned if they don't!

[dieselnutjob]

using no diagnostics equipment at all is a bit extreme

on modern common rail diesels the fastest way to an accurate diagnosis needs

• 
  1. an understanding of how it works, documentation is helpful
  2. diagnostic equipment
  3. a brain
  

[The Moog]

When I took my T25 to get serviced the older mechanic took charge. He reckoned that some of the new guys wouldnt know what to do if they could plug it in!

 

I think that customers do expect it to be plugged in and the computer to say this is the problem, therefore would baulk at the charges to diagnose things.

[Rod/b]

My mate Pete worked at a garage from leaving school until recently, having done his apprenticeship there and taken himself through many auto electronics, oscilloscope and testing courses. He's recently jacked it in to go full time on his new business, Oscillotech, which as well as doing all the usual mobile servicing stuff specialises in proper electronic diagnosis and repair; he won't replace something unless he's tested it regardless of what the fault code says.I believe he's quite busy too. And he's just a young'un. Good luck to him.

 

http://www.oscillotech.co.uk/

[Pillock]

Bloody computers. They're crap.

And I say that as someone who is employed purely because people like to have computers.

 

Computers have been sold to people since the 1980s as a wonder-machine that can fix everything. You want to do your home accounts? You need a Oric-1. You want to write a novel? Sinclair Spectrum. You want to write music? You, my friend, need a Commodore 64.

 

As they've progressed, an entire generation has grown up trusting whatever decision a computer spits out, failing to understand that a computer will output what a fleshy human being has told it to output given a series of conditions. If this, this and this are all true then say this. Car ECUs and diagnostic machines are no different, I could write an OBD2 tester function that says if there's a short on a glowplug connection, then display something relative to the gearbox. Engines on the other hand - they're fundamentally the same. Combustion hasn't changed recently and no matter what guff they bolt on in the name of emissions, user-friendliness or whatever, the same diagnostics still apply. If there's a chafed wire, sod the computer and repair the wire. If there's a grinding noise from the alternator, you need a new alternator - not £10k worth of diagnostics computer to rattle off some random charging fault.

 

/rant.

[Lacquer Peel]

Diesel engines with mechanically controlled injection pumps, FTW.

[scooters]

Dont get me wrong, I'm not poo pooing diagnostics only the over reliance on them. If your head is playing up the ecu will tell you there is a problem with your head...it might miss the cause of the anurism is high blood pressure. So they replace your head and 2 weeks later your new head pegs out.

 

Diagnostics are only as good as the person using them. I read the codes and then spend about as long researching the problem than I do fixing it. Only when I have written an action plan that makes sense do I start.

 

I'd recommend it as a way for the spanner ist shitter to make some beer money.. I turn away as many jobs as I do so far. But it is satisfying knowing that you have saved your mates a pile of cash