Good morning everyone. Well, we've all braved the conditions and walked into work today but that doesn't mean that you have to risk it. If you have a car booked in please feel free to phone up and rearrange it . We have plenty here to carry on with so really don't mind . Please don't risk yourself or your car if it can wait . Stay safe people :-) Dean .

2008 vauxhall vivaro . Immobilised and no communication with the engine by direct ECU selection or with dealer tools. However , we could communicate via EOBD ( a generic communication protocol ) . This only gave us engine, emission related codes . We quickly proved that we were looking for a can communication fault , and that it was between the engine ECU and a multiplug behind the passenger headlight. This left us only 2 wires and 1 foot of wire to investigate. The fault was found , the lovely green dot of dust giving the game away , within the golden hour. The wire was cut out and replaced and the van runs. I love chasing the green dust of doom . :-)

This Nissan Pathfinder was recovered into the local dealer recently barely starting and undriveable. They did their diagnosis and gave the customer a quote for close to £4000 . At this point the garage that had recently sold the car contacted us after a recommendation. The EGR valve had failed and subsequently blocked the DPF filter in the exhaust . A thorough check was done to ensure that there were no further faults and the valve replaced with a new , genuine replacement . The blocked DPF was then subjected to our specialist clean followed by a forced regeneration with our computers and an oil and filter change. An extended road test was then carried out to confirm a fix . This bill was under £1000 . A saving of £3000 . Needless to say , firstly the garage that had sold the car are very happy and secondly , the main dealer is not your only option. Regardless of age of the car . :-)

Just a quick heads up people , from may this year there are some new MOT legislations coming in . Front fog lights are now part of the test ( although for 2018 on cars as I understand it so no worries for a few years yet ) . Reverse lights must work for 2009 on cars . An engine management light being on will now fail ! There are tighter rules for diesel emissions for euro 5 and 6 cars , 2008 on . Cars with dpfs removed will very likely fail the MOT . Exhausts , heat shields , HID lights etc all have new rules. From what I understand , any car with aftermarket HIDs and no headlight washers will fail . There are more which I will update as I read them . Apologies if your car passed last year on something that is now a failure. We don't make the rules , we just uphold them .

The local taxi company recently bought a 2010 Mondeo trade in from the dealer . It was a non start , no crank etc . Lots of fault codes but the one that stood out was for battery voltage at the ECU . Live data confirmed that the engine ECU wasn't seeing one of the 12volt supplies . Accessing the ECU in the passenger wheel arch confirmed a missing supply . Bypassing the supply with a temporary one saw the engine fire into life for the first time in a while . The front end was then stripped in order to open the wiring loom and play ' hunt the green dust ' .... A sure sign of a corroded wire . It didn't take too long to find it along with 3 other broken wires and a multitide of previously repaired ones . The wiring was repaired , protected and the car put back together . A new wiring loom will be the only long lasting repair for this one . Possibly why the dealer passed it on rather than sell it to the public themselves.

Another relatively simple one from this week, A 2006 astra automatic was booked in for a gearbox fault . The car wouldn't change gear properly and wouldn't drive above 30mph . The only fault code in the gearbox was for ' torque Signal - out of range ' . We tested various sensors around the engine looking for something that would cause a significant drop in power and soon found that the mass air flow sensor was underperforming. Once replaced the gearbox behaved as expected . Changing gear at the correct times and performance was restored . This could easily have had the gearbox replaced only for the fault to still be there .

We had a 2013 Vw Golf in this week . The bulb failure warning was on but all of the bulbs were fine . By accessing the dealer TPI information we found that this fault could be fixed by updating the software on one of the cars computers with our genuine dealer tool . ODIS . We used our security access to link the car with the database in Germany and the software was updated fixing the fault . This fault would have been impossible to repair without dealer info and tooling.

It's been a while since I had the time to show some of our more interesting jobs up so I'll post a couple today as I'm child free for a change :-) Anyway , this is a BSI from a 2006 Peugeot 206 . Lighting faults are a regular occurrence with these and a new replacement is around £500 fitted . We were able to source a 2nd hand one for the customer but these are a once only part and are coded to the car . We have the ability to read the security chip , extract the vehicles security code , reset the donor to a factory state and then , using dealer equipment , reprogramme it to our car . This saves the customer over £300 .

DPF - DIESEL PARTICULATE FILTER ISSUES ??? WE CAN HELP !!!! We get a lot of work where the customer has been told that the DPF ( Particulate filter in the exhaust ) is blocked and is beyond being cleaned ( regenerated ) by the car or computers . The quotes are then for replacement genuine filters , which cost in excess of £1000 and can sometimes take 9 hours plus to change, or for cheap aftermarket filters for around £150 to £200 which simply aren't up to standard and cause more problems than they solve. We are also still hearing of the filters being removed and programmed out of the car making the car 100 Percent illegal to drive . We use a specialist 3 stage on car cleaner to completely clear your original and hopefully genuine filter in situ . This saves you hundreds of pounds and keeps the high quality , original fit filter on your car , albeit revived and as good as new ! We also have the necessary computers to reset and reprogramme any parameters that might be required within the cars ECU's. Unfortunately , clogged DPF's almost always have an underlying cause , sticking EGR valves , air leaks , faulty fuel vaporisers , injectors , split intercoolers and turbo components etc . We endeavour to find and fix the cause as well as the symptom ensuring a long lasting repair for the customer . If you're having DPF issues give us a call BEFORE your filter is replaced for an inferior quality one or removed completely rendering the car illegal . The pictures in the slide show show a few common issues that we see which lead to DPF faults but are rarely picked up resulting in recurring issues , even once the filter had been replaced . Clogged and sticking EGR valves , inferior aftermarket DPFs made incorrectly and damaging other components, temperature sensors etc . Clogged fuel vaporisers preventing the natural regeneration usually done by the car without you knowing . The list goes on . Don't let DPF faults worry you . They don't worry us

V8 4.2 Audi S4 in this morning for a a quantum tuning remap ...... Because 344 bhp just isn't enough !!!!

With the future of modern vehicles at the biggest turning point in the history of the automobile we have incorporated hybrid and electric vehicle qualifications into our training programme . This means that we now have two technicians with IMI hybrid and electric vehicle accreditation . According to this article from the IMI , there are currently only 1000 technicians in the UK with the accreditation to work on these vehicles . We have two of them . Trust us to professionally and safely work on your vehicle . https://www.theimi.org.uk/electric-hybrid-campaign

Today we used our genuine dealer tool , ODIS, on a 2012 seat Leon . This car had a flashing glow plug light on the dash . Having used the dealer tool to carry out a fault code read we found an unusual and worrying code which stated that the engine ECU needed replacing . Repairing by fault code alone , as so many garages do , would have resulted in a £1000 bill for a new ECU ...... And the fault wouldn't have been fixed . By exploring this code with dealer information we find that it is possible that a number of associated computers could throw this fault code if they weren't correctly programmed to the car . We then set the computer off checking the coding of all modules . ODIS connected to the VAG computers in Germany and compared the coding to what they should be . The steering column module was incorrectly programmed to the car . As we have full security access we then coded the vehicle correctly on line . The ' replace engine ECU ' code immediately cleared and the glow light went off . A test drive confirmed a full fix . Without dealer tooling this fault could not have been fixed and would have been virtually impossible to pinpoint .