Five steps to solving the most difficult electrical system riddles

Sept. 1, 2017
Successfully verifying that all these systems are back to working condition following a repair should be the goal for every shop. Use the following five steps and guidelines to better prepare your shop to handle these chores.

Muscle car fans can be forgiven if they still feel a sense of childhood glee every time Dodge releases a new iteration of the Challenger. The technology under the skin might be modern, but the muscular, throwback appearance is the closest most classic fans will get to a true return to early 1970’s greatness, unless leisure suits and bell-bottom jeans come back into style that is (just kidding—everyone hated them). 

The Challenger isn’t without its critics. Some motorists complain that, like many other sport cars and some larger vehicles, rear visibility can be limited. Fortunately, today’s technology has come to the rescue with backup cameras that can not only give a clear view of what lies beyond the tail of the beefy retro-coupe, but can also help direct it safely out of harm’s way when moving in reverse. That is, unless the sensitive calibration of the camera unit has been damaged in an accident and overlooked during the repair. In these cases, the vehicle is just begging for another collision and trip back to a shop.

(Photo courtesy of GM Media) Motorists rely on sophisticated electronic systems like back up cameras to drive safely, but repairing these systems can be a difficult matter based on how prepared the shop is.

If your shop was responsible for the previous repair, you might be on the hook for this one.

Plenty of repairers openly worry about working on these and other sophisticated electrical systems. Chasing down and diagnosing problems can be a chore for any shop. Successfully verifying that all these systems are back to working condition following a repair should be the goal for every shop. Use the following five steps and guidelines to better prepare your shop to handle these chores.

Step 1: Find a specialist. Rick Zirbes is a regional I-Car Instructor for Advanced Electronics and Future Technology. He is also CEO and President of Smart Express Inc. (formerly Dick and Rick Auto Upholstery) in Minneapolis, Minn., which offers a number of services typically available mainly from dealers, including:

- Complete Computer Diagnostics

- Complex wire repair

- Wire harness repair

- Electrical connector replacement

- Module programming and coding

- Airbag system analysis and repair, and

- OEM level Diagnostic systems.

It’s his business to know how to untangle difficult electronic problems. Zirbes says the issues shops have addressing electronic challenges begin with staffing. “A lot of shops either don’t have people working on the mechanical side or trained to handle these problems,” he declares. “Sometimes you have techs doing work they aren’t used to and are missing key repair steps or working on new systems they have no familiarity with.”

If your shop does offer mechanical repairs (past ABRN surveys indicate that 50 percent of repairers do), most of the answer here lies in investing more in training, especially diagnostics. If your shop does not, sourcing other solutions can get tricky. You can either bring a specialist aboard, train one of your current employees to do the work, find an electronic specialist business like Zirbes (which can be rare in many areas) or create a shared work plan with a dealer.

None of these solutions is, of course, ideal. You’re either adding more staffing and hoping the investment pays for itself or working out arrangements with other repairers and hoping doing so doesn’t negatively affect cycle times. At the same time, doing nothing is the worst possible action. Keep in mind that adding a mechanical tech can add other value to your shop and bring in alternative revenue for other services. By making at least one of your current staff members a specialist, it can offer similar benefits as previously stated.

(Photo courtesy of Infiniti Media) Popular Lane Departure Warning systems often require complex repairs where every step is critical for a proper post-accident re-calibration.

If your best path here is forming a relationship with another shop, take the time necessary to find a business that best complements your schedule while offering top tier services. Also, don’t simply push electronic work off to them without keeping your shop up to date with current electronic issues and repairs. You might be sharing work with someone else, but the repair is still your business.

Calibration Confusion

How adept is your staff at performing calibration and other work on electronic systems following a repair? According to Rick Zirbes, many body techs just don’t receive sufficient training in this area. Moving from structural work to mechanical tasks isn’t always a smooth transition, can sometimes be confusing and involves a different “mind set.”

The following repair steps for calibrating the Lane Departure Warning System (LDWS) for the 2012-2014 Hyundai Genesis sedan provide some insight into these difficulties. Review this repair from ALLDATA and note the challenges your staff may need to prepare for, including:

-          Ensuring the vehicle is parked on an even surface.

-          Setting the Target Jig on the hood at the appropriate distance away from the grill.

-          Ensuring re-calibration is successful.

-          Sufficiently testing the vehicle post-repair to verify the calibration was correct.

Calibration must be performed for the following items:

-          New LDWS module installed

-          Diagnostic Trouble Code (DTC) C1364 – Not Found Reference Point Code

-          After repairing the roof panel

-          When repairing the LDWS module mounting bracket

-          After a vehicle repair resulting from an accident

NOTE: Vehicle must be parked on a flat and level surface

Step 1: Install the calibration Target Jig on the hood approximately 3.5 inches (9.9 cm) away from the grill.

Step 2: Ensure the windshield is free of any debris, dirt/blemishes and/or aftermarket windshield tinting that can obstruct the line of sight between the LDWS camera and the Target Jig.

Step 3: Connect the VCI DLC cable to the data link connector located underneath the driver crash pad.

Step 4: From the System Screen, select LDWS and click OK.

Step 5: Under Vehicle S/W Management, select the Option Treatment icon.

Step 6: Under Data Treatment, select LDWS Reference Point Calibration.

Step 7: Select C2 calibration.

Step 8: If calibration was successful, the Calibration Completed screen will display.

Note: The X Point and Y Point coordinates will also display. The Specification range for X and Y Points is: X Point: 183-199

Y Point: 145-189

If calibration was unsuccessful (the Calibration Completed screen does not display), adjust the location of the Target Jig accordingly and recalibrate. Continue repeating these steps until the Calibration Completed screen displays.

Step 9: Clear any DTCs in history.

Step 10: Test the LDWS on the road with well-painted lane lines to validate successful calibration. The lane line must be crossed without the use of the turn signal for a warning to be generated.

Caution: Only perform this step when safe to do so. This test should not be performed if other vehicles are in the proximity of the vehicle.

Step 2: Don’t rely completely on scanning. Upon first look, solving electronic riddles may seem to be a relatively simple matter of performing thorough pre- and post-scans, which you should be doing anyhow, providing an accurate diagnosis and sticking to the repair steps. Zirbes notes that electronic problems sometimes don’t trigger a trouble code, meaning no diagnosis or repair may take place since no problem is initially found.

“There are plenty of times where a sensor may simply be misaligned and go undetected,” he says. “This is where vehicle requirements and position statements do need to be followed.”

Step 3: Ramp up your quality checks. Essentially, your best hope in detecting these problems is raising your quality check standards. Simply examining a vehicle’s repair area and taking it for a test drive won’t do.

Shops need to be far more extensive in checking vehicles for damage. This means testing all sophisticated electronic systems. For example, to determine if the backup camera is accurately measuring the vehicle’s path, back the vehicle up in your lot. Check proximity detectors, lane departure systems, and any other active safety system.

Adding these activities translates into additional service time, and should become part of your standard operating procedures (SOP), but it also gives a shop a far greater opportunity to return a vehicle to true pre-accident condition while keeping customers as safe as possible.

Step 4: Question the repair steps. Regardless of which direction shops take to add specialization, they need to inquire where the technician is sourcing repair steps — since, in some cases according to Zirbes, the steps don’t always work.

Since the OEMs can change and update the information in their documents at will, these adjustments can take time to be reflected in the data from information providers, Zirbes says. “Information is king in the world of automotive repair. What is correct as we know it today can change a year from now and in some cases retro backward to future repairs,” he said.

This is where having a specialist who understands and tracks these discrepancies is critical. It is also another reason to be more thorough when performing quality checks. Electronic systems that have been repaired deserve a good second look to determine if they have been accurately re-calibrated and returned to full operating condition.

(Photo courtesy of Ford Media) Scanning doesn’t always turn up all electronic damage. Thorough quality checks are necessary to determine if all electronic systems are operating correctly.

Step 5: Buckle up for a bumpy ride. If it sounds like a large section of the collision repair industry is going to have its hands full while dealing with electronic repair issues, you are simply seeing just one level of this matter. The larger issue is more vast and complicated. Indeed, Zirbes says most of the industry will need time to evolve to handle this work effectively.

Zirbes notes that when it comes to addressing changing technology, the collision repair industry has usually been reactive, but still choosing to wait to respond instead of getting out in front of repair challenges. For years, shops complained that automakers designed vehicles with little thought as to how they could be repaired. That only changed after a concerted effort by industry leadership was able to convince OEMs the value of offering customers a product that could be efficiently repaired after it was damaged. Today, many shops struggle with certification and attaining the necessary training to work on expanding technology that has been part of the industry for years.

Because of its nature, electronic technology could be the toughest repair challenge yet. “It’s a moving target,” explains Zirbes. “Even as shops are coming up to speed on how to perform some of these repairs, new developments can change all that.”

Zirbes goes on: “As the technology incorporated into the current line of automobiles can make a leap, just when shops begin to get more involved, it changes. What you will have is one-year changes that are not going to be the same the next. Requirements and recommendations will change and be modified as safety systems develop and grow” 

Recognizing this, some OEMs have become reluctant to allow shops to work on their products, Zirbes says. 

(Photo courtesy of Auburn Collision Center) Post repair test drives also are critical. Use this time to test active safety systems—with caution.

“As technology expands beyond the vehicle as a single unit and then starts communicating with other vehicles, infrastructure and enlisting remote updates, you will see an increase of who is allowed inside which might be called the ‘firewall’ of the electronics,” Zirbes declares. “This may include the safety features of the vehicle since many systems are becoming intertwined. Simply put, it is a 3000-pound network on wheels.”

Certainly, that stance doesn’t bode well for the repair industry, particularly if OEMs begin looking at electronic repairs the same way they do at structural work involving alternative material or hybrid material parts. It’s too early in the game to call this approach a trend, but it can be a wake-up call for shops: Start adapting now or pay a larger price later.

Ultimately, inside the issue of tackling tough electronic repairs is the task shops face in taking account of all the different components and parts that can be damaged in a collision. When it comes to correctly diagnosing and repairing this damage, numerous scenarios can play out and there are certainly way too many than can be described in just a few pages. More important is the matter of recognizing that this issue only grows in complexity with each passing year and that the response to it created today must itself evolve and account for a host of new challenges sure to come tomorrow.

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