Professional_Tool_And_Equipment_News_September_2020 - 40

As far as Tesla product knowledge
goes, one can gain a ton of intelligence
by simply spending time online reading
about the manufacturer. Rich's Rebuilds
is one good source of information. This
guy purchases wrecked Teslas and either
rebuilds them or transplants propulsion
systems into other vehicles. Quite a bit
of service knowledge can be obtained by
watching his video library.
Jack Rickard with EVTV Motor
Werks is another resource. Rickard is an
engineer and an electric vehicle junkie.
He can help technicians wanting to learn
more about electric vehicles get up to
speed. See sidebar for links.

FINDING A COMMUNITY

As a technician, seek out regionally based
online forums where electrified vehicle
owners communicate. Tuning in can
help reveal common complaints and
symptoms exhibited by various carlines.
I've participated in many, and it's amazing to learn some of the stuff taking place
in the market, even at the OEM level. I've
heard horror stories describing repeated
trips to the manufacturer dealership to
get problems resolved.
I am in no way trying to disrespect
the OEMs and their service dealer network, as there are a lot of cases out there
where these folks are on the front lines
and they are seeing failure modes for the

PTEN

SEPTEMBER 2020

first time. Oftentimes, the OEMs have
poor test plans or documentation within
their service information. In fact, there
is great benefit to virtually live through
these experiences.
Moreover, the demand placed on
today's technician is very high, and these
technicians will disappear into other
industries if they're not provided with
the proper tools and knowledge to thrive
in this environment.

CASE STUDY

In 2012 I purchased a 2013 Chevrolet
Volt and still own the vehicle today. It's
been fairly trouble-free through its first
105,000 miles of operation, but I did have
an interesting issue early on. Within the
first 7,000 miles I began to experience a
dead zone with the electric power steering (EPS) system.
When the vehicle was in its warm
up period (0-10 minutes) and I was on
the freeway at 50-70 mph, I found that
the EPS was unresponsive to minor corrections with steering input and I had
to apply a lot more torque to the wheel
in order to get the steering to react. As
any technician would, I began to monitor this behavior and quickly established a pattern where I could duplicate
the condition.
I was hesitant to head straight to the
dealer since frankly, I didn't have much

www.VehicleServicePros.com

The EV1 full battery electric vehicle (BEV) by
General Motors made its debut in 1996 and
ran through 2002 with just over 1,100 units
produced. At the time, General Motors viewed
electric vehicles as an unprofitable niche of the
automobile market.

faith that they would be able to address
the issue properly. Instead, I searched the
GM Volt forums for similar complaints
and found discussion on the subject. I
came across a GM employee who was
tasked with sourcing vehicle operators
with this complaint. I contacted this
individual and provided my VIN. He
connected me with a "Volt Liaison" who
would provide communication support
for the service dealer.
I wrote a detailed letter explaining
how and when this problem occurred
and how service personnel can increase
their odds of duplicating the complaint.
Armed with all that intel and my Volt
liaison, I contacted my selling dealer and
scheduled an appointment.
Five days after dropping off my
vehicle I hadn't heard from the dealer,
so I called and placed an inquiry. Prior
to placing the call, I looked at my GM
Volt phone app and noted the miles. The
conversation quickly went to an update
about how the service technician had
driven the car numerous times and was
unable to duplicate the complaint.
I decided not to let the service advi-

http://www.VehicleServicePros.com

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