Professional Distributor - 42

DIAGNOSTIC TECH

Find out what
shop owners are
reading about in this
month's pages of

Electronic services,
modules, programming, and security
With such a wide range of vehicle platforms and modules
requiring reprogramming, consider alternative solutions
when it comes to module replacement.
BY SCOTT BROWN
Scott Brown is an ASE Master Certified L1 Technician and has over 37
years of professional service industry experience. He is an independent
shop owner in Southern California
and is engaged at various levels
within our complex industry. He has
a deep understanding of the challenges technicians experience at the
service level and is continuously
striving to move the industry forward
through education and networking.
Brown founded Diagnostic Network
(diag.net) after 22 years of service
at iATN, where he retired as
company president in 2018.

he average age of vehicles on the road
today is approaching 12 years, which
means there's a good chance that a portion of the vehicles passing through your bays
are often 15 to 20 years old. If you're operating
outside of the rust belt regions, then you're likely
to encounter much older vehicles at times. My
shop is in Southern California and we encounter
30+ year-old vehicles populated with electronics
quite often.
While electronic control modules have inhabited vehicles for over four decades or so, I believe
most technicians have a basic understanding of
how electronic circuits work. This article will
discuss options for module board level repairs
versus replacement.
According to my research, there are no federal
regulations that require automakers to provide parts
support for a specific period of time. I reached out
to my good friend and retired General Motors colleague, Dan Dryke, for any information to support
my findings, and this is what he shared with me:
"During my time with GM, I recall that in
many cases GM chose to own the tooling required
to build parts, regardless of who the supplier was.
Therefore, they had the ability to build parts as
needed. Regarding the policies dictating how long
they would support replacement parts, GM used
several metrics collected through various studies
in order to estimate the replacement parts market
timelines. Often, these timelines would be adjusted
as a result of updated studies of market demands."
As a technician, it is likely that you will begin
to see (or have already witnessed) reduced electronic
control module availability through the original
vehicle manufacturer. Given that scenario, the
next step would be to attempt to source a rebuilt
or salvaged module through one of their suppliers. However, some used modules cannot simply be
refitted to another vehicle due to security challenges.

42 Professional Distributor I August 2020 I VehicleServicePros.com

While electronic control modules have inhabited vehicles for
decades, many technicians have only a basic understanding of
how electronic circuits work.

With such a wide range of vehicle platforms and
modules requiring reprogramming, one might
want to look to alternative solutions regarding
module replacement.
During my conversation with Dryke, he commented that back when he was an instructor for GM
he would often remind the technicians that they're
selling labor; why would they give away labor to a
rebuilder when they could take apart that "fill in
the blank" unit and rebuild it to like-new condition?
At that time, many technicians felt there was less
risk installing a replacement part.

CASE STUDY
Your diagnostic process may take you inside the
module to have a look to see if there are any clues to
support your hypothesis. I know that when I suspect
a fault within the module, I like to take it apart for
inspection. There is always a possibility that you
may be able to identify the failure and possess the
ability to repair the deficiency. Just think about how
this might benefit your shop and increase profits.
About 30 years ago we had an early 80's Volvo
in for a replacement engine harness. My technician informed me that after replacing the harness the engine idle speed was running at about
1,700 rpm. In the beginning of my investigation, I
noticed the throttle position (TP switch) and

http://www.diag.net http://www.VehicleServicePros.com

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