Summer season is here

With the weather getting warmer we are starting to see more cars with A/C issues.

Here is a Peugeot RCZ that had a regas last year but come to this year and it didn’t work.

leak detection dye was in the system so we quickly examined the system and found the leak on the condenser.

Access not too bad with bumper off. New condenser fitted, system checked for leaks, all good so regassed and tested.

Another happy customer able to keep their cool on these hot days

This 2013 Peugeot 208 came from another garage with stop/start issues. Car drove fine but the stop/start was unavailable.

The codes were read showing there was a capacitor charge issue.

The stop/start system on this vehicle uses a special alternator which restarts engine and a large capacitor which discharges its voltage when needed.

This system is complex, expensive and dangerous if not careful.

We used the official manufacturer tool to run tests. We checked the wiring between all relevant parts and found all OK. The voltage coming out of the module to charge capacitor should be around 5 volts, we were getting about 1.5volts. The capacitor was checked and found to be good.

The only part we couldn’t check was the control module but with all the wiring to it confirmed OK we were confident of our diagnosis. As a new part was over £1000 we sourced a 2nd hand, coded it in and rerun the tests.

The capacitor was now charging at 5volts and all warning lights went off.

Customer happy to have saved alot of money. A complex problem sorted without having to wait weeks for the dealer.

2014 Mercedes E-Class.

Intermittent issues with instrument cluster. Warning lights would flash on,rev counter would drop off and warning buzzers sound, but car would drive fine.

A code read of the vehicle would bring up a lot of communication errors in all systems. An extensive investigation into the canbus network was required. This network is used by many modules to talk to each other . If this network is corrupted in any way it would log codes in many places as we were seeing. An accurate list of all modules is acquired and we proceed to unplug each of these to see if signal is affected. At this point we don’t know if it’s a module fault or wiring. If wiring is the issue this could be very labour intensive as it runs all round the vehicle.

We at last found a module with an issue. As you can see by our short clip, with the module plugged in the canbus signal was being slowed down, something that we haven’t seen before usually the signal is distorted. With it unplugged the information speeds up as normal.

This Golf was recently in our workshop with aircon issues. It had previously been regassed but had stopped working some weeks later.

We confirmed it was a gas issue and not electrical and performed some tests to discover where the leak was.

It was discovered to be a leaking condenser which is situated at the front of the engine in front of the coolant radiator. We rang customer with prices and got the go-ahead to repair. VW cars usually require quite a bit of dismantling to change condenser and this was no different

With the condenser we always fit new seals to guarantee a good fix ( you don’t want to be stripping this down again!).

With everything fitted we tested system ( high pressure and vacuum) confirmed system was secure and then regassed.

Then returned vehicle to a happy customer

This Fiesta came in with various warning lights illuminated on dash and dash staying on after car switched off.

Various checks performed showed the gauges to be at fault.

New gauges were expensive. We offer a service where we can fit and program a 2nd hand set.

with the cluster in and programmed the car started and ran fine, saving the customer alot of money and time on new parts.

DS3 with airbag light on brought into us from a car sales dealer. Car sold going out and Airbag light is on.

Code read and found several codes for various airbags deployed.

Car may have previously been an accident damaged repair and as such has crash data stored in ecu.

With the correct equipment we can remove the airbag module, strip down and access the eeprom that has the crash data stored. We remove chip from board and read and repair data.

Refit to car and test. Job done quickly and at a fraction of the cost of replacing with new parts.

This vehicle was towed in to us as a non start. With accurate wiring diagrams it became clear that the problems lay with the wiring to the underhood fuse box.

We removed the battery and tray to reveal the engine wiring loom, to find at some point the battery must have leaked and damaged loom.

With all the bad wiring removed and replaced with improved protection from future damage, the vehicle started first time and ran great.

Another happy customer.

2015 Citroen Battery going flat even after journey. Tested at another garage and told it has a discharge, so brought to us.

We performed our tests and found the fault to actually be a non charging fault. The Alternator and wiring were both tested and proved to be good.

As with all PSA group cars this fault can be related to a software issue. With our PSA dealer tool and battery support unit on the vehicle we can scan the car and see if any software updates were available, which there were.

With the download complete the car started charging fine. The customer also stated that the running of the car was much smoother since update.

Another happy customer.

This fairly new Peugeot 2008 came in to our workshop with a charging problem.

Voltage across the battery was measured at 12.3volts when it should be more like 14.5volts. The wiring was checked, the positive lead was load tested and found to be ok, as was the earth. This is a smart Alternator and is controlled via a Lin signal from the engine ecu, this was tested and found to be good.

At this point most garages would have fitted a new Alternator, not cheap on theses cars, only to find the problem persists. We go further to prove a fault.

We have equipment that we can plug into the Alternator to simulate the control signals from engine ecu to the Alternator.

When we did this, the Alternator worked perfectly.

So, if the wiring is good and the Alternator is good what could the fault be?

Through experience we knew that some cars especially Peugeot can need a update on the software in the engine ecu.

Using the official dealer tool we can safely update control units without doing costly damage.

With the update completed the car was checked again. The charging checked and showed 14.4volts, perfect!

The customer was happy to avoid unwanted expense in the fitment of unneeded parts and went away happy!