Professional_Tool_And_Equipment_News_October_2019 - 82

Are you

prepared to program?
To keep current with manufacturer software subscriptions and updates,
begin by ensuring your intel and hardware are up to the task.

W

By Scott Weaver and PTEN staff,
Contributing Editor gonzosae@aol.com

hen it comes to programming, coding, and reflashing, there's a bit
more to it than just having access to the manufacturer's information;
your equipment has to be able to process the information provided. I'm
referring to your PC, your laptop, your smartphone, or, for that matter,
your scan tool. Are they up-to-date and able to handle the next job that comes in
the door? The last thing you want is to find out your software or hardware isn't up
to the challenge when you need it the most.

ANOMALIES IN THE SHOP

Several years ago, a 2003 Hummer came
into my shop with a battery drain issue.
The drain was found to be in the instrument cluster. Usually I would either do
an in-house repair or have the cluster
sent out, but this one was a bit too far
gone. The lens was cracked and the faded
fuel gauge looked like it had seen better
days, so a new replacement cluster was
in order.
In those days, when I ordered a
replacement cluster, I could rattle off the
VIN and mileage for the parts person at
the dealership and they would have them
downloaded onto the cluster. Once in a
while I might have to do the old "10-minute security relearn procedure," but for
the most part, all GM cluster installations were basically the same. A few days
later the cluster showed up, and low and
behold the mileage wasn't entered. I did
a little research and found that this particular cluster could only have the VIN
and mileage entered after the cluster
was installed.
To make things even stranger, in the
instance above I found the engine has to
be running the whole time during the
installation and download. This was a
first for me. Normally, you will have a
battery tender on to keep the battery
charged while performing a program or
reflash. In fact, this was the only car I've

82

PTEN

OCTOBER 2019

run across where the engine had to be
running in order to do the reflash.
In this case, the usual concern of having the battery charge level up to full
during the procedure wasn't as important as how much gas was in the tank. I
also had to consider that the gas gauge
is part of the cluster, and couldn't be
sure of its accuracy until the programming had been completed. Note to self:
Add fuel to the customer's invoice for
cluster replacement.

TIME TO REPAIR

Now it was time to get down to the repair.
The scan tool was warmed up and ready
to go. It was a late Wednesday afternoon
by the time I was able to get everything
lined up to do the download. Rather than
close up shop and head home, I figured
I'd pop onto the GM website and get
it done.
This is where I encountered my first
problem. I found out (after buying the
three-day pass) that my cable adapter
wasn't 'adapting.' I needed a different
adapter which I didn't have, and it took
me three days to find one. By this point
my subscription had run its course, so
I'd have to set this whole thing up one
more time ... this time with the proper
cable and adapter.
But wait ... there's more to this story.
I also found the laptop configuration

www.VehicleServicePros.com

wasn't quite up to snuff. I could only
go so far before I got an error message
that brought everything to a screeching
halt. By now, I had resorted to making
the call to technical support, and thankfully a fabulous team of experts walked
me through the final steps to toggling the
correct 'yes' and 'no' tabs in my settings.
Once all this was done, it was just
a matter of waiting for the computer
to move the completion bar across the
screen to indicate all was well with the
digital world, and the VIN and mileage would miraculously appear on the
replacement cluster, all while the engine
was running.
Was the experience frustrating? You
could say that. Did I learn something?
I always do in these situations. The lesson I learned on this cluster swap was
this: Never underestimate your hardware
needs or your software limitations when
performing a relearn or reflash procedure, even though you've done countless
reflashes in the past. In a nutshell, the
real issue is that what you did the last
time may not be the same the next time.

LISTENING AND LEARNING

How can you avoid some of these pitfalls and 'uh-oh moments' when you're
getting ready to reflash or reprogram a
vehicle? To start out, consider that you
might think you've got something all figured out, but there's a good chance you
may need to a bit more instructions, or
at least a step back to follow up on every
detail of the procedure, before blindly
diving head-first into the repair.
There's no shame in saying you need
to do more research or attend another
refresher course, because change in this
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