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Ever had a vehicle with a fault you couldn’t fix ?

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  • #487803
    Matthew StrangeMatthew Strange
    Participant

      I hand an Alfa 155 years ago with a high RPM miss-fire, turned out to be a faulty ECU (PCM)
      The car was sent on to an Alfa Dealer as I had no clue as to what the issue was 🙁

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    • #488426
      EricTheCarGuy 1EricTheCarGuy
      Keymaster

        It happens. Many times it’s a result of a lack of specific tools or knowledge. Even at the dealerships they have a ‘tech line’ that is there to assist should something like that crop up. I’ve also seen engineers from the factory come out to lend a hand. In fact I remember when they came out to help the best diagnostic tech in the shop diagnose a faulty crank sensor on a vehicle. It was before the days of lab scopes and the engineers came out with an EKG machine which they used to monitor the crank sensor signal to do the diagnosis. To be honest this happens to everyone at some point that does any volume of diagnostic work. The more diagnostic work you do or are involved with the better you get. Diagnosis is not an easy thing that’s why there are few that do it and even fewer that are good at it.

        #488669
        SamSam
        Participant

          Well I haven’t been doing this stuff long, and these I did eventually fix after pretty much crying or giving up haha…as lame as they maybe

          I had a 05 gmc pick up in, door locks went crazy only when the radio was cycled on and off…basically after looking for some after market alarm or speaker mods I came up with nothing. Checked voltage, communication, grounds, fuses, back feeding…etc….I realize someone took an intense amount of timing hard wiring a viper remote start/security system into the car, why it took so long….the box was wired in behind the pass side air bag never thought to look there!

          When I first go going into this I had a early 90’s chevy pick up in with no brakes lights. I messed with it for a loooooooooooooong time, without ever looking at the other brake fuse….label STOP

          I felt so dumb.

          #488698
          Jared ThomsonJared Thomson
          Participant

            I have those problems all the time in upstate NY. We commonly refer to it as rust! Its always fun to crawl under a car and find out that every line, brakes, power steering, and fuel, are leaking, and you cant get a floor jack under the car without going through the floor, even at the designated jack points! Fun stuff!

            #491114
            Jake RiesserJake Riesser
            Participant

              1995 chevy diesel vin-s if memory serves. Came in and out of the shop where I worked about 18 times for ECU’s in 3 years (I was there for a little over a year, then went to Detroit for work, heard about the rest of the “visits” from this truck later from a friend of mine). For those who haven’t had the … err … pleasure of working on a Detroit 6.5L, the ECU, which is highly thermally-sensitive, uses the engine block as a “heat sink” to (you guessed it) keep it cool. Doesn’t really work. You’d think the engineers and corporates at GM would’ve figured that one out. Either way, it was there enough that most customers thought it was one of the tech’s vehicles, not a customer’s broken down truck. One time (in August) it broke down while towing a trailer, owner left the trailer at the back of the lot, limped the truck up to the garage, and it took 3 months for parts. When they picked up the truck, they literally made it as far as the trailer, hitched up, and made it about a hundred yards before the new ECU bit the dust. Yes, fyi, I hate the 6.5L diesel with a passion.

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