Professional_Tool_And_Equipment_News_October_2020 - 54

Delivering professional
automotive repair and service
Navigating today's voluminous data sets.
By Scott Brown,
Technical Editor

utomobiles are one of the most sophisticated devices most humans
will ever interact with." That comment came from Dr. John Heywood,
a mechanical engineering professor at the Massachusetts Institute
of Technology. Heywood has been an instrumental figure in the
development of the modern engine design technology that we see in vehicles
today. If you think about the statement above and let it sink in, you'll realize
how critical your job is at solving problems when these sophisticated products
experience failures.

DROWNING IN DATA

If you're going to utilize the volumes of
information needed to accurately address
a vehicle's problem, access to digital service information is paramount. Knowing
how to search through a database like this
is the first part of the challenge. Being
able to also accurately reference and
scrutinize that information, and apply
the effective repair methods to vehicles,
is equally challenging. Additionally,
scan tools and other diagnostic devices
are needed to communicate with these
complex machines.
While we have many choices of equipment options, several tool companies are
continuously developing products that
are never 100 percent complete when
they hit the market. For many of these
companies, when they embark on developing a tool, they need to make significant investments in a number of areas to
provide a viable tool for the marketplace.
For the most part, software development
for these tools is continuously advancing, and when these companies decide
to enter the market with their product

PTEN

OCTOBER 2020

or service, they usually have to figure out
how they're going to fund the continuous
development of these products. In most
cases, a software subscription model is
usually chosen. We'll go more in depth
on this topic later in this article.

SERVICE INFORMATION

While there are numerous aftermarket
service information platforms out there,
one needs to really analyze and challenge
the information offered when using it to
apply a repair to a vehicle. In my shop,
we have access to multiple information
resources, including aftermarket and
OEM information services. It would be
nice if there was a single location that had
all of the most up-to-date and comprehensive information available, but that
simply does not exist due to the complexities involved in our field.
In most cases, aftermarket service
information platforms source their information directly from the vehicle manufacturers. This information is usually
licensed from the OEM. For the most
part, the information is gathered, parsed,

www.VehicleServicePros.com

and then re-published. However, you may
realize that there are many potential failure points along the way. Even the OEM
at times can have a mistake or the wrong
information published with service literature. Fortunately, we're all living in a
digital world today which means updates
can occur at any time. Now, this could
be a good thing but could also mean that
there might be some latency in accuracy
with that service information depending
on your source.
For example, I recently discovered
where Toyota made an update to the
requirements calling for a lane camera
calibration. Prior to July 2020, the service
literature stated that if a toe-in adjustment had occurred on the vehicle, then
a lane camera calibration process would
be required. If you're accessing the factory service information that's included
with the Toyota Techstream subscription,
you'll have access to the latest information available. However, if you access this
information in an aftermarket resource,
you may be reading the old information.

CASE STUDY

On July 27, 2020, a 2014 Toyota
Highlander Hybrid arrived in my shop
for new tires and a wheel alignment.
I advised one of my service writers
to research the post wheel alignment
requirements since this vehicle was
equipped with all of the advanced driver
assistance features available for that

http://www.VehicleServicePros.com

Professional_Tool_And_Equipment_News_October_2020

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