James Dillon
My letter to the Editor of the magazine will read
"Dear Mr Johns
It was with much dismay that I read the above article in the most recent issue of your magazine.
It seems that your staff writer, Mr Jack Rix, has grossly underestimated the complexity of the problems faced by technicians, both independent and franchised, further perpetuating the misconception that diagnosing the modern motor vehicle is as simple as to “connect a computer to the ECU and download the code.”
There may indeed be 2434 fault codes within the Volkswagen Golf but the fact remains that even this large number of fault codes does not cover all of the faults which can affect the vehicle. This means that a vehicle may exhibit a symptom which the driver complains about, but for which there will be no fault code stored. This is particularly true of intermittent drivability faults. So, faced with this common situation, technicians must perform a battery of tests in order to attempt to discover the root cause of the problem. Many hours can be spent measuring and analyzing the various components, systems and sub-systems. Technicians can’t simply plug into a computer for the answer.
The other all too common scenario is that the technician is lucky enough to be presented with a fault code, but the definition of the stored code may simply add to the confusion. By way of example; a vehicle is presented to the garage with a customer complaint of intermittent rough running. The technician retrieves the fault code with his computer of P1336. The manufacturer’s description of this code is Engine Torque Monitoring Adaptation at limit. Simple eh?
Please be assured that this diagnostic conundrum faces both the independent repairer and the franchised dealer in equal measures."
Any comments before I send it would be much appreciated.
Regards
James.
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