Another day another chance to repair cheap repair work.
This week I had some opportunities to repair someone elses poor workmanship again. It gets more and more common as the cars get more and more complicated electronically speaking.
Someones car stalled while they were driving along and a tow truck was required to get it to our facility. Also we had just had the car in a week or two earlier for some repairs. Oh No!
When it gets to our shop I find the battery completely dead. Was this what happened? Okay I hook up the battery charger and let the battery get completely charged while I do something else. I come back to it and turn the key and it starts right up. Okay, so far so good, but wait.... It idles but when any throttle was applied it stalls out. The dreaded "CHECK ENGINE" light is on too.
I hook up the starting/charging system test tool and verify that the alternator is charging properly and that the battery is up to proper specifications as well. All is well there so it is time to move on.
Next I hook up the laptop and extract the diagnostic trouble codes and find 3 Faults:
18613 (P2181)- Performance Malfunction in Cooling System
17978 (P1570)- Engine Start Blocked by Immobilizer (Intermittent)
16486 - Mass Air Flow Sensor (G70): Signal too Low
Hmmmmm, two of those can cause the symptoms, the 17978 and the 16486. I clear the faults and rescan it and bingo, the 16486 comes back immediately. I may be onto something here. I start looking more closely under the hood and there is the problem, the intake air boot is no longer connected to the throttle body. What the heck?@%#*^?
I reconnect the intake air hose, clear the diagnostic trouble codes, readapt the throttle unit (fly by wire stuff) and take it out for a spin. Kewl, all is well now.
Next I research what we did on the last visit. Was this somehow our fault? No, none of what we did had anything to do with the air boot. Wait a minute, we had recommended an oil & filter service and a new air filter but it was declined. So I go back to the car and lo and behold there was an oil change sticker from the worlds largest retailer. It all makes sense now. They didn't want to pay the extra few bucks for our standard oil service with a synthetic blend oil and master technicians performing the service. Instead they paid for a tow, diagnostics, repair and readaptation of their cars computer. What a savings!
Now I know that that retailer will probably reimburse them for the monetary costs involved. What about the hassle factor? The client assumed they we were just higher for no apparant reason. If they had asked they would have found out that we can use regular SAE motor oil like everyone else (when the manufacturer allows it.)
We don't have any unsupervised, poorly trained workers though, so I am pretty certain we won't be quite as cheap as the ones who have nothing else to offer but price.
Remember that in my little neck of the world what appears to be apples to apples may sometimes have hidden worms. I hope you, dear readers, won't have to go through this type of hassle and have nothing but happy trekking.
Thanks again for letting me take the wheel for a moment...
Robert