Just a story:

As I walked in the front door, waving at the owner who was busy with a customer, I proceeded to the shop and briefly talked to the top drive-ability guy.  He is a very smart and intelligent tech and we get along extremely well.  I asked him if he had some interesting scope patterns to share and he responded that he had no need for a scope lately…!

I knew very well that business was slow so that there was no reason that he ran out of time. I wondered why?  What was the reason:  not interested to learn something new?  Lag of interest to explore new ways?

So, our conversation did lead to the new guy in the far bay doing an oil change.  I was told that he was hired 3 weeks ago and was a graduate of the local skill center.

I walked over, introduced myself and asked him how he liked the job.  He shucked his shoulders and replied OK.

After prying a little more he confessed “It’s boring”. The routine was always the same, Oil/Lube/Filter, rotate or fix tires, sweeping floor, etc.

It was lunch time, and I asked him if he ever tested the total Starting and Charging system in 5 seconds and get 5 times more information than the VAT-40 with carbon pile sitting in the corner collecting dust?

He stared at me in unbelief and I handed him the Amp- probe and Voltage leads.  I asked him to hook it up to the car he just finished and showed him how I programmed the scope on the laptop for 5 seconds for single sweep. I got in the car, started the engine and turn the key off. 

I said (pointed at the scope) “That scope pattern says it all, from Starter to Battery to Alternator and Regulator functions. He got so exited that I showed him how to store every pattern and promised to be back next week to interpret Good and Fail. I informed the front office of my intention.

One week later we explored 18 captures and found 4 minor problems and one major where the scope identified a voltage drop between alternator output and battery.  I explained the difference between a bad connection at the battery terminal verses somewhere towards alternator output connection.

This intrigued management and it opened the door to the next step of making printouts for every customer. This gave me time to develop an informative text on the template leaving room for printing the scope capture of the actual test results in color.

To make a long story short:  Within two months, the shop had purchased the B.A.S.Training course and our trainee became a PRO. He was allowed to explain the failure test results of the scope analysis to the customer. While it did not produce much additional major repair work from the test results itself, the printout did increase more traffic from word of mouth promotion. The whole objective was to get the word out that this was a technical skilled shop, very concerned about its customers, by offering this service free of charge.

The ironic part is that we are so accustomed telling car owners what is wrong with their car, that we seldom mention all the good and positive test results.  Therefore to hear that something is in excellent condition is music in their ears, and the printout (with the shops name on it) becomes something to brag about at the water cooler.

  

What did it cost?  It takes very little time to hang an amp-probe and voltage leads on the vehicle since programming is preset for the entire day. To store the data is performed while the oil is draining. The cost of a color cartridge and a ream of paper, last at least 2 months for under $50.00.  Considering that a periodic flyer, promoting specials and discounts, is by far more costly, not only in distribution but also in giving your profit margin away, this program is a Win-Win alternative. 

More details about the training course including promotion material with a custom made heading, can be found on the following web-site:  datec.us  -  then click on Products and scroll to the bottom of the list.

I had a good day

I received the following e-mail:

Hello Mac,
Recently you posted a message in the iATN forums that was rated very highly by other members, located here:
http://members.iatn.net/forums/read/msg.aspx?fv=4&f=forum13&m=32629
We have decided to feature it in the quarterly newsletter for iATN members called the iATN Review. The issue will be emailed very soon, keep an eye out for it! Of the thousands posted to iATN each quarter, we only feature a handful, so you should feel proud!
As a thank-you for this contribution to iATN, we have extended your sponsorship 3 months.
Thanks again and congratulations!
Regards,
Scott BrowniATN Administratorscott@iatn.nethttp://www.iatn.net

For those not acquainted with iATN: This is a network for automotive Technicians, trainers. managers etc. Here the tech. can get help from fellow members when someone is stuck with a car repair problem. But it also serves to keep in touch with each other or exchange ideas and share experiences. Worldwide membership is over 40.000.

English is not my native language, so my spelling errors are apparent if the spell checker does not catch it. Therefore, getting this honor to be picked for the review is pretty exiting. Sometimes I wonder if anyone really reads the comments or painfully written articles I write (with 2 fingers). My wife always proof reads, except when I am on iATN at 2:00 AM. So, she was pretty upset when I wrote "believe" instead of "belief" and "where" instead of "were".

I could not speak English when I arrived in Canada as an immigrant from The Netherlands. I could reply YES or NO when I understood what they were talking about. If I had no clue what they were saying, my answer was SURE. Needles to say I used that word often and that is how I became a plumber. Looking back that was a hilarious experience. More about that later. For now I have to get ready for a seminar at VISION - Kansas City.

DSCF9358.JPG (image)

DSCF9358.JPG (image)

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Mac VandenBrink

Scoping DIS Ignition

A well known and respected instructor made one day the following statement: "With the introduction of DIS ignition, scope analysis has lost its flavor"!

Sure, it is true that the KV spikes are unstable and jump all over the place and the firing time duration is a product of two cylinders, and not one.

In addition, when we have positive and negative, waste and compression, different time base, capacitive and inductive coupled signals all mixed together in one adapter box, it is not easy to decipher a paraded pattern.

The solution is described in detail at the DATEC Website

However, we have to consider that there are also many features that makes DIS a class by itself. Compared to any other ignition system, with DIS you have the unique opportunity to look at a spark plug firing before it fires under compression, and before fuel or the absence of fuel effects the reading. The waste spark has so long been overlooked as a diagnostic feature.

This is where we can determine a fouled plug, a worn plug or wide plug gap and get a far more accurate concept of a defective plug wire. When a plug wire is defective, you don't have to wait until it is bad enough to exceed the KV demand under compression. Thanks to the waste spark, the evidence of even the smallest break in the wire is present at its infant beginning. You also don't have to wonder if that high KV could be caused by a wide plug gap or a lean fuel-mixture, because in waste there is no fuel to consider. Even a worn spark plug or fouled plug can be conclusively identified at the waste rather than under compression. In fact, we can make the dicstinction between carbon foul and fuel foul.

So then, we have to ask the question, is there any reason why we want to measure the voltage required to fire the plug on a KV scale? If you have a lab-scope, without KV scaling, you have the perfect tool to do total diagnosis on engine performance. All you want to establish is that at idle the KV on the power stroke is about three times more than waste. Any voltage scale on a lab-scope provides that information. The only benefit that jumping KV spike offers is to verify compression and timing advance when we increase engine speed (in park) to about 2000 RPM. The compression KV becomes almost equal to waste, evidence that there was compression and that the timing advance is working. Everything else can be diagnosed in the firing time.
Like voltage is required to make current flow, and current is the objective to do the work, so KV is required to ionize the gap to start the spark, and the firing time is the objective to complete combustion. Firing time is all about combustion efficiency. Any resistance will not only affects the duration, but also limits current flow and reduces the temperature of the spark. The objective of ignition is to keep the spark firing for as long as there is fuel mixture present in the combustion chamber. A short firing time could be caused by several abnormalities, like excessive KV demand, low coil output, or high resistance due to absence of hydro-carbon during firing. Now then, if the waste KV shows nothing abnormal about spark gap, and the firing time is smooth and not disturbed by resistance, we can conclude low coil output when the firing time is short. How short is short? Well, DIS has more than one coil – just compare! That leaves us with resistance! Hydrocarbon is the conductor in the combustion chamber. At 2000 RPM, picture the firing line as a path for electrons to travel, and if all the hydrocarbons combine with all the oxygen, and there are no free floating high resistance O2 molecules left over, the electrical discharge makes good conductivity until the combustion chamber runs out of oxygen. The computer gets the signal and reduces the fuel accordingly. This reduced HC results in an increase in resistance and the firing line slopes up into a nose, which verifies that the computer is in control. At this point, there is still some energy left in the coil, but not enough to maintain the spark. This residual energy dissipates into oscillation. This is an ideal capture.

There is another opportunity that DIS offers, and that is the ability to peek at a complete same ignition system next door to compare the difference under the same input conditions.
The first step to logical analysis is to understand the above description of what a good or normal pattern should look like. With that knowledge we quickly skim through all the cylinders in pairs of two per coil from IDLE in Drive, to 2000 RPM in Park, to Full load in Drive, while comparing cylinders from behind the wheel.

The whole process takes less than four minutes, hunting for any odd ball that does not match the “good profile”.

If no deviation from the normal is detected, we can give the engine a clean bill of health and we are done. From experience I have learned that before getting focused on what is bad, spend first a few minutes to verify and determine what is good. By performing this routine we may observe and record at what condition the malfunction occurred. In many cases it is a misfire, but in order to do logical analysis we need to know:

Is it LOAD related – SPEED related - or is it at low RPM in drive.

The second observation is:

Does it effect ONE cylinder, ONE bank, MULTIPLE or ALL cylinders.

The third important factor is:

Is the occurrence “ONCE IN A WHILE”, comes and goes, or SWITCHES

from cylinder to cylinder.
All these observations play a role in conclusive diagnosis and are easily pinpointed taking the time to follow this procedure. But most importantly, by doing the total test sequence we can determine what cylinder is next in line, or is close to becoming a future misfire. It may prevent an unhappy customer when the same problem occurs a month or so later. If you have to do the hookup, you might as well spend the extra few minutes.

Al it takes is an adapter to convert a 2-channel scope into an 8 cylinder diagnostic capability. But the most important mind set is "ANALYZE, DON'T MEMORIZE"

Mac VandenBrink – www.datec.us

Go to the above website for an illustrated PowerPoint presentation