#astech

Let’s face it: delays in repairs cost you money. Your customers want their cars back in a reasonable amount of time. If your shop doesn’t get the job done quickly—and done right—your customers certainly won’t refer you to their friends.

Their insurers, too, don’t want added labor costs and have to pay for more days on a rental vehicle. It’s up to you, then, to find a quick, efficient way to target every problem on every vehicle your customers bring in.

That way certainly isn’t the old-fashioned way—relying on the MILs (Malfunction Indicator Lights) to find problems. MILs only show that there’s a problem. What you need is all of the trouble codes that identify precisely what problems the vehicle has.

Diagnostic scans uncover hidden problems

With a diagnostic scan, however, such as the one you can perform with an asTech™ device, you receive a complete report from each scan. These reports identifies each DTC (Diagnostic Trouble Code) that has been triggered. That way, you can begin the repairs immediately with no guesswork.

Pre-repair scans can discover fault codes

Because of the way vehicles process fault codes, a pre-repair scan can discover all of the fault codes on the vehicle. If the car has a system in which the DTC is stored in its onboard computer’s memory, the scan can bring up the code. If it has a system that regenerates the code when put under a scan, the diagnostic scan will regenerate and report that code to your technicians. 

If you can’t identify all of the DTCs, your repairs will not be complete. That means you’ll have to delay returning the car to its owner until you discover all of the problems. That can take days.

Instead, with a diagnostic scan with the asTech™ device, your technicians will have a full report with each of the fault codes listed on it. They can then order parts, if needed, and begin repairs right away.  

Trim time off repairs with a post-repair scan

MILs usually stay lit until the problem that triggers the DTC has been repaired. They may remain lit for a few minutes after a problem has been repaired, but go off after a few minutes of driving. To ensure that the MIL isn’t lit due to a problem your techs forgot to repair, do a quick post-repair scan to make sure that your customer’s car has been repaired completely.