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Yes I do. I'm the Euro specialist at my shop. I started about ten years ago in the industry. Got ASE master certified while in tech school, got emissions certified, and worked my way into engine diagnostics. I didn't pick up the Euro line until a couple years ago.
Prior to that, I worked on just about anything that rolled in the door. I still do, from time to time, but I spend most of my time fighting with BMWs and Land Rovers.
After getting my feet wet in Euro cars, I have found that anything else Domestic or Asian that I touch is too easy. Components are laid out better on non-euro cars, the wiring schematics are already in English, and they are much less complex.
Don't worry though, the industry is trending toward a Euro type of build and setup with newer cars. New cars use more advanced CAN networks, different types of comm busses, and more specialized engine management strategies. When OBD2 was first released, there were only P0XXX codes and P1XXX codes that would store and all were numeric valued, such as P0171 System Lean Bank1.
Now, there are P2XXX, P3XXX codes, as well as their variants. The P class codes are powertrain only, that doesn't include C, U, B, and other manufacture codes that get stored. My job is to find out why that evil yellow light comes on, and if necessary, apply a nice piece of black tape to cover it if needed
Ive been with toyota for 10 yrs, and their changing their builds due to them partnering up with different manufactures, like our scion Ai i believe is to be a mazda build same with the frs its a subura build but japanese i fell have been the easiest to work on lol
The FRS is 100% Subaru, except for the DS4 fuel injection system. That was all Toyota. A good friend of mine works for Toyota as well and he tells me all kinds of warranty stories. Usually it starts with an oil consumption ticket that turns into a full engine rebuild.
I personally have never worked in a dealership, but everyone else that I have worked with has at one point in their careers. It really is bizarre, but that's what I have encountered. I do not think that I would do well in a dealership. I tend to be abrasive and I don't care for office politics that some dealers seem to have, or so I'm told.
The benefit I have from working in independent shops is I have experience with almost any car on the road. I have worked with dealer techs that left a dealer to join a shop I was at. They all seem to struggle and many eventually go back. The worst offenders have been Ford techs. Every one of them bitches about how "non-Ford" other cars are. I may not know a specific model inside and out, like some dealer techs do, but I at least have been successful at applying different vehicle symptoms to different cars and coming up with an answer.
One guy I worked with loved me for this, but I had a Land Rover with a driveability issue that a few shops had tried to correct. I looked at the car and said, "It's simple. It's a Land Rover build, with a Jaguar engine, that was designed by Ford, that was once applied to the Thunderbird, that had this engine management setup, that used this emissions strategy that is shared with the Explorer Triton, that also can be tested like a Dodge.
A few leaps of logic, and the car was fixed.
It needed a genuine LR MAF sensor (other shop installed a NAPA unit), a fuel injector cleaning, and an EGR valve gasket. Simple, really.
I stand by the logic that almost all vehicles are inherently the same deep down, which they really are. Provided you know how it's supposed to operate, you should be able to fix anything, provided you have good service information available to you. This is the reason I hate Mercedes-Benz vehicles. There is so little information available. It really is a wonder that they can be fixed at all.
The FRS is 100% Subaru, except for the DS4 fuel injection system. That was all Toyota. A good friend of mine works for Toyota as well and he tells me all kinds of warranty stories. Usually it starts with an oil consumption ticket that turns into a full engine rebuild. I do not think that I would do well in a dealership. I tend to be abrasive and I don't care for office politics that some dealers seem to have, or so I'm told.
I stand by the logic that almost all vehicles are inherently the same deep down, which they really are. Provided you know how it's supposed to operate, you should be able to fix anything, provided you have good service information available to you. This is the reason I hate Mercedes-Benz vehicles. There is so little information available. It really is a wonder that they can be fixed at all.
i think the same thing! all cars follow the same laws of physics and such, they all use the same principles they just apply it differently. all you need is a understanding of a system and a manual, now a days they even give you a full description of how everything works. i have a few buddies that work at benz, and it literally is an R&R job, whatever code you get you pretty replace parts related to what ever code you get. but yea i started at a dealer and ive been to at least 5 dealers in my career, the office politics and the little whiners are always gonna be there, it gets old fast but im happy where im at not too much politics now.
now a days they even give you a full description of how everything works. i have a few buddies that work at benz, and it literally is an R&R job, whatever code you get you pretty replace parts related to what ever code you get.
Benz is the absolute worst at information availability. They give the bare minimum for what is required, and that is still below what they were commanded. Benz has been before the US Congress multiple times for being dicks about their parts and information ability. That all changes in a year or two, but expect Benz to be behind the curve.
Their opinion is that they are special and their vehicles should only be worked on by MB dealers. The US has a law that allows anyone to work on a car, not just the dealers, so Benz is actually breaking the law in many instances. A prime example is that the will flat out refuse to sell you a transmission. That's because the valve body is a theft device, so they think they can get away with it. I have had conversations with NASTF about these issues and they are working on getting it fixed, but it will take time.
I really do not care for the MB mentality of diagnostics. I was in Florida last year for an Autologic sponsored training event that was also put on in conjunction with WorldPac training. I went to dinner with some MB guys and their approach is pretty darn close to parts swapping. I live in a world where I have to test and check things before any recommendation. MB on the other hand, forces me to parts swap because of the ardent lack of information. I just had a C230 with an AC problem. MB's procedure is to just recharge the AC and see what happens. Turns out, the pressure sensor is at fault(I think), and is not reporting proper pressure. Only problem is, there is no test values for that sensor. It's a simple 5VRef sensor, but the output is not charted, so I have no idea if the 1.23V value I measured is good or bad.
Then again, almost every car I touch gets scoped with a Pico on whatever sensors I need to test, or I use the pressure transducers and do in-cylinder testing. Either way, if there is a problem. I will find it....usually....
Benz is the absolute worst at information availability. They give the bare minimum for what is required, and that is still below what they were commanded. Benz has been before the US Congress multiple times for being dicks about their parts and information ability. That all changes in a year or two, but expect Benz to be behind the curve.
yea, ahahah they told us the same thing at training, most manufacturers try so hard to cheat the aftermarket sector by giving little or no info on their vehicles so that only dealers can take them in, and im sure they have they dump so much money to be behind that curve its ridiculous. Being at Toyota for 10yrs i dont see any problem with a lack of customers/cars, the only big aftermarket impact for us is our scions mostly tc, fr, and the xb but other than that we stay afloat most of the year
I just had a C230 with an AC problem. MB's procedure is to just recharge the AC and see what happens. Turns out, the pressure sensor is at fault(I think), and is not reporting proper pressure. Only problem is, there is no test values for that sensor. It's a simple 5VRef sensor, but the output is not charted, so I have no idea if the 1.23V value I measured is good or bad.
I have a follow up on this car too, since I'm in the mood.
I got the new sensor installed and I was guessing that it was the sensor that should fix it. No dice. The damn AC was still reporting low pressure. It also was reporting a bus comm failure with the Humidity sensor. I'm thinking, what the hell is wrong with you?!?
I ended up calling Autologic, which is the company that made the scan tool I use on most Euro cars. They offer support, much like Toyota TAS does. We have WIFI in the shop, so does my tool. The guy remote sessioned in and had me on the phone going over the tests and what not.
I'll fast forward to the good part. The customer just bought the car from a dealer. The entire module network was not coded correctly. The car was set up as "Rest of World", instead of USA. The bus comms were all disabled, so this car had no idea what was fitted at all. It did not flag codes for this, because the modules were set to "Not Present", so it had no reason to flag a code. So we spent an hour recoding the whole car and setting it up.
Sweet! Now the AC works and everything is right in the land. Autologic support has access to MB factory info that I do not have, so that was why he was able to get it sorted. He also ONLY works with MB tech support, whereas I spend my time jumping from brand to brand. I work on all makes and models, not just one. Kinda puts me in an interesting spot.
The car leaves and I thought I did a good job. Rough about the sensor not fixing it, but I followed what TSBs and repair instructions I had. I only can do what I'm told. No where in the service info did it say to reprogram the car if you have an AC problem.
Now onward to today. The car is back.
The CEL is on, so I hook up my scanner. It didn't populate the VIN like it did the day before. That's odd, manually enter it in. Go to fault codes and it says "Error in code retrieval"
What the hell, now?
I checked the coding. All of it, and I mean ALL of it had reverted. Ok, so something is very wrong here. This was around the time my service writer tells me this gem:
"The dealer that sold her the car said that the previous owner had done something in the computer to make the car a hot rod."
That's where the story ends for now. basically, she was sold a tampered vehicle. She failed to tell me that she knew this information. ANNNNNND I'm not sure if I can fix it without expensive intervention. We shall see, but until it comes back know this.
If you every have a car and you want to mess with it, just don't do it like that. Don't mess with vehicle ID and VIN writing. Don't recode the whole damn car. Stay in your lane and program the module you intend ONLY.
Seriously. The car has also lost it's VIN. Since she bought it from a dealer, it probably never got emission tested. It probably will never pass, until it gets some new modules.
Looks like I have been severely lacking on updates, but I have made some minor progress.
I have made a battery tray, run all new battery cables from the passenger seat bin, and run wires to the passenger floor for the new fuse block. I also put the carpet back in. Some point a while ago, I had stripped down the subframes and cleaned and painted them. I have removed all of the bushings in the rear arms, the bearings from the knuckles, and cleaned them all up. It's been sporadic progress at best, but I am getting there.
I didn't take any pictures, as it has been documented, but I converted my PS rack to manual and welded the spool together to eliminate slop. I just need to get new inner and outer tie rods (old ones were loose) and reinstall it. I'll try and find pictures to post of more recent goings.
Looks like I have dozens of pictures and nothing has been uploaded, so I'll try and keep it all in order.
I got the carpet cleaned and installed. It took quite a bit of effort to get it to sit flat after having been rolled up in my attic for months. It looks really nice in the car and feels like new carpet. I did cut out a small piece around where the fuel door release is. Hopefully the plastic cover will mask my cuts. Worst case is I cut a patch out and sew it in.
I even got the body harness and heater case in, but this was addressed in an earlier post I think. Looking good so far.
The next documented things are the forward wiring harness and the relocation I did for the main harness. I did a pseudo wire tuck. I have the underhood block still in the standard place, but I relocated all of the relays and headlamp wiring through the fender. I wanted to make things a bit more neat and tidy, but I still am not convinced that it was the greatest idea in the whole world. I do not intend to drive the car during the rainy season, but I will address the harness location if there is any possibility of damage.
I started out by cutting some holes for the harness to go through.
I had already simplified the wires down to the bare essentials. Lights, horn, washer, and relays. The factory fans and ECU wiring was eliminated.
I sent one half of the harness down this hole I cut into the fender liner. I put some vacuum hose around the edges later on. The hole is exactly big enough to fit the connectors and harness through.
This is how I originally though it was going to run, but I figured out that this is where the top of the tire can/will hit under full compression and I didn't want that to happen. I have seen people run the harness through the inside of that frame, but there are little walls inside that inhibit the harness from going through unless I chopped it down to a handful of wires.
Still in the mockup phase. This was version 1.0 or the harness run
Version 2.0
This run is along the rail behind that brake pipe. It doesn't appear that the tire should rub there. I also am going to make a cover over the harness. I have seen vehicles from the factory run wires in a similar area, usually ABS wires and such, so I do not foresee it as an issue. The harness gets taped up and sealed with conduit and many layers of overlapping tape. The harness is waterproof as far as I'm concerned in this area.
Just for giggles, I dropped a spare engine in. I also needed to figure out the wire length for the main starter wire and the alternator wire.
Here is the harness all sealed up and bracketed into position. This too bloody ages to finish up. I learned the hard way that you can't tape something up on the bench and expect it to bend on the car. It took taping up the straight runs in the car, pulling it out to tape the runs fully, then back in the car to tape the bends. I probably went through three rolls of tape in the harness.
Hey, long time no see. I have been working on the car for awhile, but am still not to the point where the engine is running. I have most of the interior put together and the vehicle on its own wheels. I am working on getting pictures off my phone and other sources so I can make some updates. Since my last update, I have changed jobs and am in the midst of selling my house and moving just outside of town. Exciting things to come, but progress on the car is stalled.
07-19-16, 03:35 PM
That's odd, manually enter it in. Go to fault codes and it says "Error in code retrieval"
