Hi Chris, are you still following these posts????

Here is a story for you...... A lady was booked in to us yesterday with a 2002 Honda CRV 2.0 petrol for a diagnostic check relating to a sporadic misfire and illuminated MIL. The car had a level 2 (full) service at the local Honda main dealer last month costing £356 and the misfire developed the day after the service.
The car had been back into Honda for diagnostic work and I saw the report stating that they had checked the cam lobes, tested the fuel injectors and adjusted the valve clearances. They said the next step was to replace the throttle body and had quoted £1100 for the work, but also commented that there was no promise that would be the cure.

The owner came to us on recommendation but was very wary as if everyone was out to rip her off!
The car seemed to be running well for me so I first checked the emissions and they were fine. A fault scan of the engine controller showed P0301 - misfire cyl 1. I thought I would first look at the coils and plugs before a compression test and soon found the no. 1 spark plug like this.........



Now I know that no one is perfect and we are all potentially venerable to making mistakes but surely this is the most basic of basic checks to be done relating to a misfire. After an explanation and confirming that the fault was most noticeable in cold and damp conditions, the customer agreed to a new set of plugs and was pleased that the repair was straight forward, quick and not expensive.

Needless to say I checked the Motor Industry Codes web site and the Honda garage mentioned are of course members. How do they get away with operating like this?? when the majority of us technically capable independents are frowned upon for not signing up to motor codes.

Chris, Now I must explain that I do not intend to start another witch hunt against you or motor codes but if you are serious about motor codes sponsoring Top Technician 2010 this needs to be addressed. I also do not promote slagging off the work of other garages but I have advised the owner of the Honda CRV to complain about the way she was treated in this case to the highest level.

I just thought this might interest some of you.
Regards Mark