Slight change of career

depends on your basic level of literacy/numeracy(sorry the Liverpool fan in me keeps getting out)but if its up to A level sorta standard and you have the relevant nvqs one suggestion would be perhaps teaching at college or similar,ive planned a similar career path in case anything else seizes up...

goes with the badge unfortunately,come on you hammers!joking aside I don't particularly wanna stand in front of a useless bunch of herberts either but now ive sorted my papers out it is at least an option and an easy skill transference,whatever part of my body starts complaining next I still gotta pay the rent....

A good way to go if staying involved in the motor trade is to train up in auto electrical systems, it's the future of the trade, the longer term, and I mean longer term the mot trade might not always be here.  

auto electrics / diagnostics is the future i do a lot of it and i am turning away work as cant handle what i have in go on some courses on it you will have to pay for them but are well worth it in the long run

Sorry for gatecrashing the thread with this one, but as you do auto electrics maybe you could shed a bit of light on this one

I am currently working on a T5 on a 55 plate, the customer advised that the engine was difficult to start most days, and that his central locking by remote was not working, although he could put the key(s) in the door locks and the van would lock and unlock OK.

I tested the signals from the keys and found there were no signals, I opened the keys with a view to testing flat batteries, they were 3.0 V approx but the PCB boards were heavily corroded on visual inspection. I bought two new keys from VW, programmed the keys to the immobilizer and both new keys work OK except that the remote central locking still does not work!

I scanned the central locking control unit for a code, which it gave me one but when I checked the DTC's the code 01044 control module incorrectly coded was present, so I wondered about this then the customer told me that somebody has changed the central door lock control module for a replacement one, so at the moment not having the correct code to enter into the control module, what would be my options! 

All done, quite an easy job with VCDS and Ross - Tech, the dealers tried telling me that the control unit could not be coded because it is ROM only, I knew that was a load of crockery immediately, then when I asked about the code they said their equipment only shows stars in place of the code. The dealers wanted to sell me a module for £295 + VAT and at that point I asked what if that does not work, are you going to charge me for coding it, the reply came coding costs £65 + VAT, so I said they can be coded then, he then said let me have a word with our master tech, who then advised the module can only be coded online from Germany in their workshop, but the manufacturer will not tell anyone the code.   

Hopefully there will be sufficient mass of production to ensure that the dealers cannot cope with the work load and specialists will manufacturer equipment that is able to read the codes before changing parts. If on the other hand GB (UK) pulls out of Europe then it won't matter because Europe tell us what goes anyway, so we will have block exemption all over again and out of Europe so no say in the matter. You can trade with the world, but the world might not want to trade with you? 

I've been looking into this for the past year or two. It looks like another way the manufacturers are trying to keep independants out of their systems and preventing us from fixing our customers vehicles. This is taken from one manufacturers technical website which I already have technical access to...


You need to have access to the website - any downloads chargeable.

You'll need to have a passthrough enabled OBD2 to USB cable with the correct protocols for each manufacturer which will be connected to a laptop or something similar. This will need permenant internet access whilst connected to the vehicle. Any updates/downloads will happen in real time - you will not be able to download a file once, save it and use it on several vehicles.

It's certainly not easy, perhaps impossible at the moment, if you're an independant repairer so I'm not really sure if it's an option for future-proof training for inviduals outside of the manufacturers dealer networks.

Is there an echo in here? Isn't that precicely (although mine was based on Etis) what I typed in the preceding post?