Deceptive Diagnosis
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DECEPTIVE DIAGNOSIS Disclaimer of Warranties: This manual contains test procedures and test information obtained by an ASE Master Technician with known good test equipment on real vehicles. Your tests may vary due to your test equipment or procedures. No warranty can be made from the ideas presented due to personal testing procedures, nor does the author or anyone connected with him or her assume any responsibilities or liabilities. The use of this manual is conditional on the acceptance of this disclaimer. If the terms of this disclaimer are not acceptable, please return this manual. Automotive Video 6280 Arc Way Ft. Myers, FL 33966 1-800-71-TRAIN (1-800-718-7246) www.auto-video.com ! ÉÇ Ñçê ! " sáÇÉç $ eÉêáí~ÖÉ qÉÅÜåáÅ~ä ii`I `çÅÜê~åîáääÉI m^K $ % OMNP $ ! " sáÇÉçK kç çÑ ã~åì~ä $ ÄÉ ÅçéáÉÇI ÉÇI çê êÉéê! # ! # éÉêãáëëáçå çÑ ! K 41202 DECEPTIVE DIAGNOSIS DECEPTIVE DIAGNOSIS Presented by Dave Hobbs TABLE OF CONTENTS INTRODUCTION . .2 CASE STUDY 2: 2010 CHEVROLET AVEO . .8 INFORMATION SOURCES . .2 CASE STUDY 3: 2008 CHEVROLET SILVERADO . .10 CASE STUDY 1: 2005 DODGE MAGNUM WAGON CASE STUDY 4: 2007 CHEVROLET AVALANCHE . .12 5.7L HEMI . .5 IN CONCLUSION . .24 1 DECEPTIVE DIAGNOSIS Presented by Dave Hobbs INTRODUCTION During this presentation we will be looking at four interesting case studies and discuss the fact that sometimes the books and charts do not lead you down the correct diagnostic path. This course will hammer home the fact that sometimes it is more important what the books don’t tell us than what they do tell us. We will also be covering where to get information that goes beyond what we normally use such as Alldata, Motor and Mitchell as well as the OEM service websites. All of this combined with the case studies should give a great example on how to diagnose problem vehicles “outside of the box” and help you eliminate deceptive diagnosis problems on vehicles that show up in your service bay. INFORMATION SOURCES As you know, there are a variety of technical information sources that we as technicians can draw knowledge from. The question that really needs to be answered is can we really have too much technical information? Obviously, the answer is absolutely not. The list of aftermarket repair information can include Motologic, Alldata, Motor, Identifix and the list goes on. One thing these sites and the others as well, have in common is the vast amount of valid diagnostic and repair information. Other websites such as the International Automotive Technicians Network (iATN) are mainly focused around groups of technicians banded together to help one another solve automotive technical problems. Lastly are the less conventional sources of automotive information such as YouTube Linked In and vehicle specialty forums such as nationalcorvetteowners.com where they specialize in the Chevrolet Corvette. Even with all of these sources of information available the best source still remains the OEM information. For the most part, aftermarket websites are harvesting the information from the OEM websites and offering it together with other information from other manufacturers at a reduced cost. One of the advantages of this concept is the user will get multiple makes and models for a large amount of year coverage at a low cost. The main disadvantage is the timeliness of the information. OEM websites have the latest and greatest information available at any given time. 2 DECEPTIVE DIAGNOSIS Presented by Dave Hobbs INFORMATION SOURCES The best place to access the OEM information from the internet is http://oem1stop.com/. This site has links to all of the major manufacturers and the navigation could not be easier. As you can see in the illustration above, we have chosen Chevrolet from the main menu and a sub menu pops up giving us the ability to choose Mechanical, Collision or Hybrid & Electric information. Tech Tip! If you have spent more than four hours diagnosing a problem vehicle using the aftermarket information, do yourself a favor and subscribe to the OEM information. The OEM source of information is more up to date and accurate and will save you time if you become mired in a vehicle you cannot figure out a hard to diagnose problem on the vehicle you are working on. Even with the OEM information being the best you can get, there will still be errors and omissions within the vehicle information. This information will then disseminate down to the aftermarket information and be wrong within their product as well. The reasons for these errors vary due to human error and computer and systems errors as well. A prime example of this is a 2008 Chevrolet Malibu with an A/C odor problem. The problem stems from moisture on the A/C evaporator core that does not dry. This causes a mold to grow on the evaporator and an odor to be ventilated into the passenger area of the car. There are several ways to combat this problem such as coating the evaporator with a substance that won’t allow mold to grow but there is also a process that can be enabled within the vehicles body control module called Afterblow. 3 DECEPTIVE DIAGNOSIS Presented by Dave Hobbs INFORMATION SOURCES The interesting point about this process is that within the service information, it is described vastly different as illustrated in the example below. EXAMPLE 1: The afterblow function is not enabled from the factory. To enable this function the following must occur. As soon as the ignition is turned off, and all active process is complete, the controller is put into low power mode. A high voltage wakeup is generated on the low speed GMLAN by the BCM and the HVAC virtual network is activated. Embedded in the GMLAN message is afterblow control logic bit (Aftrblw_active). The above example is nice if you want to know how the system works from a description and operation standpoint but doesn’t really tell us HOW to make it happen. Nowhere do we see any type of procedure or even the word scan tool. Within the HVAC section of the service manual we see something totally different as illustrated by example 2 listed below Example2: Afterblow is a feature that dries the evaporator core by operating the blower motor after the engine is turned off. This reduces the amount of microbial growth that can create undesirable odors. The vehicle does not come equipped with the afterblow feature turned on. If the afterblow feature is required due to an odor concern, it must be turned on by using the scan tool. This enable option of this feature can be found in the body control module. 4 DECEPTIVE DIAGNOSIS Presented by Dave Hobbs CASE STUDY 1: 2005 DODGE MAGNUM WAGON 5.7L HEMI Our first case study involves a 2005 Dodge Magnum with a 5.7L Hemi engine. The original customer complaint when the vehicle arrived at the service center was it had a severe misfire. Upon further inspection the technician found there were misfires on cylinders 1 & 7 and DTCs P0300, P0301 & P0307 were present. As any good technician would do, the technician performed a compression test. The compression test revealed there was NO compression on the two cylinders with the misfire problem. Without performing a cylinder leak down test, the technician concludes there must be a leaking cylinder head gasket causing the fault. To confirm this diagnosis the technician used a piece of diagnostic equipment that detected carbon monoxide within the radiator and cooling system. The technician removes the cylinder head, cleans the surfaces, replaces the cylinder head gasket and replaces the cylinder head. Once the repair has been completed the technician attempts to verify the repair but finds the original problem of the misfire was still present. The technician then removes the valve cover and cranks the engine and observes the rocker arms on cylinders 1 and 7 are not functioning. When the technician dug a little bit further into the problem using the OEM service information he found the vehicle he was working on was equipped with a Multi Displacement System (MDS). Chrysler's Multi- Displacement System (MDS) is an automobile engine variable displacement technology. It debuted in 2004 on the 5.7 L modern Hemi V8. Like Mercedes-Benz's Active Cylinder Control, General Motors' Active Fuel Management, and Honda's Variable Cylinder Management, it deactivates four of the V8's cylinders when the throttle is closed or at steady speeds. The 5.7L HEMI system utilizes a latching lifter, such that when the control system signals for a cylinder to become deactivated a solenoid opens and sends high pressure engine oil through a control gallery in the block that acts on a pin in the lifter to "un-latch" the lifter. Also packaged inside this special lifter is an extra spring called a lost motion spring, it's purpose is to keep the roller part of the lifter in contact with the cam and the push rod in place in the rocker arm. A common failure of these systems is if the oil is not changed regularly, the oil control solenoids can become loaded with sludge or even break the screens. The technician changed the engine oil and filter and replaces all four control solenoids. Unfortunately, this did not fix the problem either. We now have the MDS system working fine but the original complaint of a severe misfire is still present. After a lengthy test drive with the vehicle connected to a lab scope, the technician found the high side drivers controlling the MDS were staying intermittently ON when they should have been off.