Fleet Maintenance - 52

POWERTRAIN
» Fault code action plans collect data
from fault codes and evaluate them
collectively - not just as an individual code
or codes - to identify potential issues, their
severity, and the best course of action.
Photo courtesy of Eaton

fault codes based on severity.
Fleets are often inundated with information
from remote diagnostic service portals that
ultimately may not lead to specific actions to
resolve problems identified by the fault codes
from their vehicles. Because the commercial
vehicle industry is a specification market
where the buyer can select the engine, transmission, and other components for the truck,
the information from these service portals
and fault codes can be overwhelming and
complex. There are many reasons for the
information overload, including system-level
problems that may not be as simple as replacing a component or a lack of interaction with
an expert to answer technical questions and
help find a solution.

Align the information

What are fault code
action plans?

Fault code action plans can help improve the
vehicle diagnostic process, but they require
collaboration between suppliers and OEMs
to ensure optimized vehicle uptime.
Suppliers want to do what's best for their
fleet customers. Sometimes that means collaborating with competitors.
When it comes to remote diagnostic service
portals, which are designed to provide
web-based information from fault codes to help
identify and address component-related prob-

When suppliers and OEMs are not collaborating to align fault code information, fleets may
have to use multiple service portals to gather information and piece it together to begin
troubleshooting the issue with the vehicle.
Considering a fleet may have hundreds or thousands of vehicles, which likely are not specified the same, it is easy to see how it quickly
becomes a cumbersome task to track, assess,
and address issues with each truck.
The complexity of today's truck and the
ever-increasing introduction of new technologies only compounds the challenge of
diagnosing issues. Yet those complexities
and new technologies - and the increasing

lems with vehicles, it is critical that suppliers
work together. Oftentimes, suppliers will join
up with the OEMs and the fleets themselves
to provide the most accurate and actionable
insights to help customers keep their trucks
on the road.
Beyond the fact that OEMs are requiring
more collaboration, suppliers working together - even if it may be uncomfortable - is simply
the right thing to do.

By Kevin Snow

SERVICE ENGINEERING SOLUTIONS MANAGER,
EATON VEHICLE GROUP
Eaton Vehicle Group provides commercial vehicle manufacturers with products and systems designed to improve
a vehicle's overall efficiency, performance, and power
- such as emissions control components, engine valves,
valvetrain systems, and superchargers - as well as driveline expertise through transmission, clutch, and torque
management products and systems. Snow is a service
engineering solutions manager at Eaton Vehicle Group.
Snow has more than 20 years of experience delivering
new technology to the commercial truck industry. He has
earned six U.S. patents, including the convertible model
transmission and a diagnostic update system.

52 Fleet Maintenance | October 2019

Gather the information

The main purpose of remote diagnostic service
portals is to gather information from the vehicle's fault codes to alert fleets of issues, identify
the likely source, and provide the recommended course of action.
Vehicles produce a lot of fault codes, often
as many as five or six per week. Because of the
sheer volume, these alerts are often ignored.
Remote diagnostics help track and prioritize

» The complexity of today's truck and
the ever-increasing introduction of
new technologies only compounds the
challenge of diagnosing issues.
Photo courtesy of Eaton

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