Posted by Matt Seabrook on April 15, 2013, 8:23 pm
Year of Manufacture *: 2006 Engine Size and Code *: 3300cc 3MZ-FE Hybrid ( Optional ) ECU Type: ABS/VSC ( Optional ) Scanner Used: G-Scan ( Optional) Fault Codes: C1345
The car was brought in to us to have an OSF wishbone replaced and wheel alignment after the wish bone was replaced. The wish bone fitting went well and all done in about 1.5 hours. The car was then put on to the wheel aligner and the wheel alignment was corrected only a front toe adjustment was required. Now here is where the problems start. The steering angle sensor needed resetting as it was 8 degrees out when the wheels are pointing straight ahead. The wheel aligner was talking me through the process of correcting the alignment of the sensor. As I had not reset the steering sensor on a Lexus before I was following the instructions to the letter. Part of the procedure is to disconnect the battery to reset the sensor to zero. On reconnection I could see the wheel aligner show that the sensor is now set to zero happy days I thought. The only problem was the wheel aligner showed a fault with the VSC on checking the dash the instrument cluster read VSC fault. I checked on the wheel aligner for the fault codes and it came up with C1345 (non-learning linear valve branch is abnormal) but could not clear it. So I removed the car from the lift and connected the our KTS up to it only to find the same code and the Bosch system would not clear it either. On checking the Snap-On Verus it would not do Lexus so I contacted the customer to keep them in the loop. Thankfully the customer is a long standing regular customer of mine and was happy for us to keep the car over night. So before leaving work that evening I disconnected the battery again and left it over night in the hope that a ECU reset may help. I came in the next morning and reconnected the battery only to find the VSC still on. A last resort was to road test the car to see if this helped, again no joy. I was now starting to worry a little bit as I had been doing some research on this problem only to find it happening to Toyota as well as Lexus, so looked like it may be not common but also not unheard of. The other thing is I was seeing scary stories about the cars having to go back to the dealer and the dealer quoting for new ABS modules at between £3k-4k, ouch.
So I thought I would give the rep of where I buy a lot of parts and also who we now buy our diagnostic equipment from a call to see if he knew anybody locally that had a Carman Scan tool or something more Jap focused. I was prepared to book the car in to another garage to get it looked at if there was anybody local to me. My heart sank when he told me that he did not know anybody that could help. But he said I have a demon G-Scan tool that he would loan me to see if it would help. The only problem was it was 60 miles away and Friday afternoon. The best he could do was get it over to us on Monday (today). The tool landed at about 1pm and I got struck straight in to the fault. The G-Scan confirmed the same fault c1345 non-learning linear valve branch is abnormal. One of the menus allowed a reset of the linear valve and after about 10mins of playing the VSC light was out and no further fault codes present. I road tested the car and no further problems to report.
So a big thumbs up for the G-Scan and also my tool supplier although I am borrowing the tool for the rest of the week to see if it is likely to be of use on other Asian cars. It could still be an expensive wish bone job if I end up buying it.
I'm sure there are other tools out there that could have done the job but the G-Scan gets the thumbs up from me. Also sorry this is a little long winded I just hope it stops someone else having to send a car back to a dealer at great expense. Not that I'm dissing dealers of course.
So, How many £1000.00 worth of equipment do you have to purchase to not be able to complete a job and end up having to buy more equipment or farm the job out to someone that might just possibly be able to finish the job.
These types of cases are all too common when using so called after market tools that cost fortunes where the manufacturer of the tool decides which bits of the software they feel like giving us access to. The Stress caused and the time wasted in these cases where you have to guess whats wrong and try to find a tool that might do the job or find another way of fixing the job is more than the job is worth and usually caused by suppliers of equipment selling tools that are "NOT FIT FOR PURPOSE"
Product knowledge and good technical information is also a key issue but its difficult to have this type of information for every make and model of vehicle that comes through our doors. ??
Do we close the doors and do something else or only repair cars that know everything about and buy dealer kit to fix. Or do we only do jobs that don't involve anything that is going to give us a headache. I don't think there is a right answer to this but I know I'm not going to give up on this. It would be great if one bit of kit would do everything to dealer level but its not likely to happen and if it did how much would it cost or more to the point how much would people be prepared to pay for such a tool.
Matt, I think the day is rapidly approaching when the independent repairer is going to have to concentrate on one or two brands and buy the appropriate tooling to deal with them, whether that be something like Autologic or dealer kit.
I certainly wouldn't buy another all makes tool after being very frustrated with so called high end stuff letting me down.
I see your point Steve but in Cornwall we would be knackered as we just would not see enough of any one/two makes to keep us going. It's rough when just doing a wheel alignment is going to cause these problems. I'm not ready to shut the doors yet though.