Chapter Seventeen
Expensive DIY fix!
As I sat working on some paperwork, in drove the car from well you know the place, it’s a little warmer then southern Utah, but not by much lately. At this point, I had no way of knowing this was going to be the nightmare of the day. The car was towed in, so it was obvious that there was a major problem.
As I was pushing the car in to the bay, the customer asked "Can you have it done by 5:00?" A lot was going through my mind at the time so I unthinkingly answered "Sure." That was my first mistake.
Years of experience has taught me that I should never promise a vehicle at a specific time, due to the many systems a mechanic needs to check. Countless hours can be spent on one single electrical problem.
The nightmare began 60 minutes later, when the customer called to ask whether or not the car was finished. This calling continued the rest of the day every sixty minutes. "A watched pot never boils," certainly applied here. Not to mention the time it took every 60 minutes to answer the same phone call.
Understanding that my customer was in need of his vehicle, I calmly explained that the troubleshooting takes time, with the car in the service bay I checked out the basics " fuel, spark and compression. The spark was missing in this vehicle. The spark causes a small explosion in the combustion chamber creating power to make you engine run. On older cars this would not be so complicated. On this modern car, it was more complex.
The computer runs the spark/ignition system. With the ignition system being run by the computer a whole new diagnostic procedure takes place. Ignition is simple by itself, but throw in a computer, crank sensor, control module, coil packs, knock sensor, spark plugs and miles of wiring and the mechanic has his work cut out for him.
At this point, I turned to my trusty web driven information systems, which consist of tens of millions of pages of information. Yes that’s right, tens of millions of pages. A lawyer may have a lot of books and information to go through, but I venture to estimate we go through a lot more. I've been told these systems can update over 300,000 pages quarterly. Good information means a quicker and better fix for our customers, but it costs us. The systems I use contain OEM information intermingling with hundreds of thousands of mechanics across the world and can cost close to $500 per month.
As I started to look up TSB's (Technical Service Bulletins) on the car I found nothing from the OEM that related to the problem at hand. This is in important aspect many mechanics forget or don’t do. GM stated that 30% of problems can be found by looking at TSB's.
Next I pulled up the wiring schematics of the ignition system. These diagrams look like an old Atlas road map. You might find it interesting to look at one of these the next time you have your car repaired. As I pulled the wiring diagrams and ground areas along with splices, junctions and related components the phone rang again.
The customer wanted to know what was taking so long. I again explained that this process takes time. Of course now he also wanted to know what it was going to cost him. As with any "timed" troubleshooting service the cost can be unknown until the mechanic gets into the problem. I personally always sell blocks of time to give the customer a cost estimate. If I find the problem quicker than the block of time given to the customer I give them a break on the price.
With information in hand and my lab scope I started to repair the car. To make a long story short after two hours of testing, probing and referencing the electrical schematic I found the problem.
One very important piece of information my customer forgot to tell me was that the "No start" problem happened after he had been under the dash installing his own stereo.
Information is what fixes cars today, more than ever. Don’t be afraid to share what you know about the things that have been done to your car by you or someone else. It will save you money, and the mechanic time.
After a number of hours involved in the repair of this car the easy part of the nightmare was over. I now had to explain to the customer that he was the reason the car would not start, and I would have to charge him for all the work I had done.
Repairing today’s vehicles is more complex than ever. Even the simplest things can create major problems. It’s good to remember this when performing a DIY function.
“When in doubt, mumble.”