Stories from the Road 8

Stories from the Road 8
(A Narrative About Modern Automotive Diagnostics)
An Automotive Case Studies Series
By Mandy Concepcion

This book, "Stories from the Road - Automotive Case Studies" is a real work in action about the intricacies of modern automotive diagnostics. It is based on actual real life situations. From this book you may extract real-life lessons, which will help you as an automotive aficionado, DIY mechanic and professional technician. The work is divided into narrated stories representing real-life applications of diagnostic technology, equipment usage, repair techniques and knowledge based information.

Here, you'll get input on how to use the automotive scan-tool, OBD-2 ECM/PCM readers, oscilloscope, graphing multi-meter, signal tone injector and many other diagnostic tools. You'll also get deep insights on testing all kinds of sensors and actuators, such as injectors, solenoids, transmission components, motors, fuel pumps, CAM and crank sensors, TPS, MAF, Knock and pretty much every component seen today. All the content is presented on a narrated, story like format to make the knowledge easy and fun to comprehend. With that in mind, enjoy your readings.

Table of contents

Stories from the Road 8

* - Starter with Teeth Issues
A Nissan Maxima with sequential fuel-injection and a COP ignition system with no spark. This was a nightmare of a diagnostic. Lots of parts had been replaced and to no avail. Was it the entire wiring harness? That wasn't logical. Se what happened next.

* - Suffocating Eclipse from Inside
An Eclipse that had an EVAP system issue that wouldn't go away. See how in this diagnostic case various equipment was used, from the smoke machine, scan tool to the water manometer (electronic). Also learn how this system operates on the inside.

* - Technician Crankshaft Horror
See the issue with this Rodeo after an engine swap and a no spark condition. The injectors were not triggering and the whole wiring harness was checked, but nothing panned out. The engine swap was done superbly. See this diagnostic path from beginning to end and coving lots of CAM and CRK waveform analysis. Finally the issue was solved. See how...

* - The Exploding VW Golf
A VW with serious acceleration issues. Apart from the lack of power the engine would backfire every few seconds or so. This car was a turbo, but all turbo components checked fine. See how a pressure transducer connected to the intake manifold was used to solve this issue.

* - The Flight Recorder
A Chevy Blazer with a buck on sudden acceleration problem and also intermittent cut out and hard restart. See how this lean running vehicle was diagnose with the help of a multi-channel scope. See what it means when we say a lack of current buildup when voltage goes low. See how it was done here...

* - The Hard Starting Cherokee
A Jeep Cherokee with a common rail Diesel that would not start. Get the scoop on this modern electronic Diesel injection system from state of the art animation diagrams and testing techniques. See what happened...

* - The Italian Stallion Timing Issues
Fiat is now sold in America as well as most of the world. This Fiat had issues with hard starting half the time. An intermittent issue with a tough solution to find. A CAN networked issue was suggested since all dash communication went out during cranking, but was it a CAN issue? See what happened next...