On 23/06/2005 16:34 Dave Plowman (News) wrote:

I'd not necessarily expect a main dealer to have the equipment for other
maker's cars. But an independant should. For a start they can charge for
using it, and it makes diagnostics so much easier.

BTW, in the US - the land of free enterprise - *all* cars have to have a
common diagnostic socket that can be read by just one instrument. Called
OBC, IIRC. It's basically for checking emissions, but any engine fault
will effect those, so it will diagnose pretty well all. Not sure about
auto gearbox codes, though.


That makes sense. Since emissions are a legislative thing
checking/adjusting must be 'open' so can't be restricted to the
manufacturers' dealers. Someone else said they are standard over here
now too so I guess a main dealer could use their equipment on other
manufacturers' cars (depending on age).

[snip]

To me it's unfair practice trying to keep such things to themselves. And
it's fairly recent. At one time anyone could buy a maker's workshop manual
for virtually any car - now it's near impossible. So dealers get a licence
to print money - mine is some 110 quid an hour for rubbish service coupled
to shoddy work and downright dishonesty.


Yes, some of them are better at printing money than fixing cars :-(
When I took the Fiesta in, the first thing they did was have a
technician go out for a test drive. As we were walking to the car I
explained the problem and he said, without hesitating, "It'll be the MAF
sensor". After driving only a couple of hundred metres he said "Yeah,
it's the MAF sensor" - this is what makes me suspect it's a common
problem - yet they still (allegedly) hooked it up to the diagnostic
station, probably more as a excuse for charging an extra 20 mins labour
(for 5 mins work).

Someone once told me, many years ago, that BMW wouldn't sell parts to
Joe Public. Dunno whether that is/was the case or whether he was just
avoiding ridicule for taking it to a dealer for a simple job.

Parish