© TA Hooper 2016 copyright all materials
Auto Electrics & vehicle Diagnostics in Tunbridge Wells
and Surrounding Area
A11 REPAIRS
Servicing & general repairs.
I will do just anything which is related to a broken or misbehaving car, if its brake pads to
suspension joints, noisy engine, rattly suspension or just a basic service, now the most
important thing you can do to maintain your engine and car is a regular oil change which wont
actually cost you much average price is oil filter £4 to £8, most cars hold around 5 litres of
engine oil around £30 depending on oil specifications. roughly ½ labour so £30 so approx £50
to £70 i would recommend every 5000 miles and if you want to do the job thoroughly then we
can use flushing oil for a full clean out an extra £15 and another ¼ hr. i don’t just change filters
for the sake of it so if air filter is good then leave, fuel filters well they can be expensive & its
rare to have a blocked fuel filter unless you have been filling your car with cans a lot. pollen
filter perhaps now and again
MOT Testing
Although i am not an MOT garage i can arrange MOT tests to be done and all work completed
to MOT standards, my rule of thumb for MOT tests is if your car is on the older end of the scale
and you often are left with large repair bills then it would be worth allowing me to arrange the
MOT test and do any work need prior to the test and any subsequent work after if needed.
being in the motor industry i have a working arrangement with various garages with garages
who know me and wont try and fleece me, if your car is newer and don’t get large bills then by
all means take it for MOT yourself and see what happens we can then arrange for repairs to be
done at your leisure.
Commercial Fleet Care
I have worked on large HGV and LCV vehicles and know the ins and outs of repairs and test
standards for these types of vehicles and can do diagnostics on various commercial vehicles
including MAN , Volvo ,Iveco please ask if your is not on the list. many of my customers are
owners of large horse-boxes, i can supply and fit reversing cameras and reversing/parking
sensors all done on site at a time that suits you.
Vehicle Diagnostics & electronics
I have been purchasing and dealing much more with vehicle diagnostics and have devices
which can communicate with various manufacturers but the list is not endless and although
manufacturers were made to conform to ISO standards they still found ways of shutting out
small garages e.g. purchased a Volvo device , turns i have full access to the vehicle systems
but to make any changes Volvo made it so only the Volvo garages can make changes by
downloading apps from there internal website thus making it impossible for small garages to do
most repairs. i have devices which will connect with
•
Renault/Vauxhall CAN CLIP
•
Volvo VIDA
•
TopDon Generic with excellent coverage
•
Autocom 2020 Generic system
•
General cars Delphi ds150e Autocom cdp+
•
Mercedes benz MB Star system
•
Honda HDS japanese models covered
•
Toyota & Lexus all types
Diagnostics & investigative work 95%
I often find myself in receipt of cars no one has found the fault or have given up with, i have a
take it apart and understand how each individual system works and using my knowledge of
mechanics, electrics, fluids i can usually sort any problem i would give myself a 95% success
rate, which means i have given up on some cars eventually when i can no longer find a path a
recent example was a Jaguar with a battery drain i believe its was one of the control modules
staying active after switch of but without accurate wiring diagrams and detailed information
about components sometimes you just have to give up the modules were expensive and had to
be programmed by Jaguar main dealer. so sometimes i can fix it.
oil or fluid leaks have always been a source of my work and recently had a Benford roller with a
strange oil and diesel leak which was sorted after much investigation.
Common rail diesel High pressure diesel injection
The new industry standard injection system in the older conventional system fuel injection
pressure would be around 250 to 300 bar to increase power output from the diesel injection
pressures increased dramatically to around 2000 + bar with multiple openings of the injectors,
with this much pressure you just know things are going to go wrong eventually, Poor starting
uneven running, no power or complete non runner. test on these system cant be done
conventionally , laptop will give you access to the fuel rail pressures, if it is to low the injectors
wont open and no firing will happen. dont mess around with the high pressures can easily
penetrate you skin. cracking injector pipes open wont help as if there is insufficient pressure
ECU wont fire the injectors. i have tool for simulating fuel pressure issues in the rail which can
be due to damaged high pressure fuel pump. non functioning rail pressure valve or injectors
leaking to much fuel back from there return lines, use of noid lights will enable you to check for
injection pulses from the ECU.