AUTOMOTIVE DIAGNOSTICS

Modern day cars can contain up to 100 individual computers known as ecu's(electronic control units). These ECU'S each control a specific electronic sysyem eg: engine managment, airbags, abs, traction control, climate control, immobiliser and entertainment systems. All these control units must communicate with each other and share certain information eg: the engine, abs, airbags and dashboard all need to know the speed of the vehicle or wether on not youre pressing the brakes or not. when one of these ecu's registers a fault it will usually request a warning light/message on the dashboard which is when a trip to your local garage is required for a diagnostic check.
During this proceedure our specialist diagnostic equipment will interrogate all the control units in the car to create a list of fault codes, these fault codes will indicate if a particular sensor/actuator is reading outside its parameters-that does not necessarily mean that sensor/actuator is at fault, sensors for emissions systems for example are so closely linked that a fault in one may have a knock on effect for 5 other sensors which will all register faults so unfortunately the diagnostic systems used by both main dealers and independent garages alike will point likely to a general system but rarely pinpoint a specific component.
This is where our combined decades of knowledge backed by regular training and state of the art diagnostic equiptment and Technical information systems(which gives us access to main dealer wiring diagrams, bulletins, recalls and test sequences) is required to accurately pinpoint the faulty component by reading specific data from one of our many diagnostic systems and lab scopes and analyzing the results to come to an accurate diagnosis to ensure a cost effective first time fix.