This week is the Detroit Motor Show, and it seems clear from the vehicles on show that many major car manufacturers are releasing Hybrid vehicles in the next year or two: Ford, Honda, Volvo, Mercedes, and of course Toyota/Lexus. In the UK, we will see Hybrids from Peugeot, Citroen, Volvo and Ford within the next few months.

In other words – most cars will end up being Hybrid or Electric within the next few years, as car manufacturers strive to meet emissions targets and fuel prices continue to rise. Currently, your garage may be happy to let one or two of those funny-looking Hybrid cars go to the main dealer instead of you having the problem of servicing them, but if you continue to do that for much longer you won’t have many customers left!

The solution? We offer a choice of 2 or 3-day training courses which gives you the skills needed to work on these Hybrid-Electric Vehicles safely and with confidence. The courses run Tuesday-Thursday on alternate weeks throughout the year, and are available to book immediately.

Another new course for 2012 is our new Diagnostics Training Course. For some time now, we have been supporting a number of aftermarket tool manufacturers with their training courses. These courses tend to be designed to show off the tool to the best of its abilities, but don’t necessarily give you the grounding you need to know what to look for in the first place.

The difference with this new course is that we have written the structure in a way which leads you through the years with the advances in vehicle technology. We explain the way to use your existing diagnostic equipment to maximum effect, how to confirm faults with the use of an oscilloscope, how to interpret scope patterns, and how you can perform Dealer-Level diagnostic functions such as ECU updates using new technology such as Pass-thru. Again, these courses run Tuesday-Thursday on alternate weeks throughout the year, and are available to book immediately.

Our Air Conditioning F-Gas Handling Qualification is also available, either at our new Training Centre, or on-site at your garage. Please contact us to book your place. We can run this one-day course on most dates to suit your requirements.

We also now have an online training calendar, so you can check for course dates to suit your needs.

Please note our new telephone number – 01535 658663.

Miles Roberts, Training Manager of ICT Workshop Solutions said “the opening of a dedicated training facility is the result of growing demand for our learning products. There was a need to find a permanent home for our expanding range of courses, and we are delighted to have secured such a high quality facility, ideally situated with great transport links for ease of access for all visitors”.

“A great deal of thought went into the design of the spaces to ensure they were accessible to as wide an audience as possible. We are able to deliver both classroom-based and workshop-based training, and our understanding of the industry and its requirements means we are able to offer a unique level of service to partners and customers.”

The training centre, which will also become the company’s new Head Office, offers two dedicated training suites, a bank of computers for use with online internet testing, and a workshop area with space for up to four vehicles.

The centre opened its doors in December 2011, and there was an opening event held on 20th December where garage owners and technicians had the opportunity to visit the new facilities, and to see demonstrations of products from companies such as Hofmann.

“There was a need for quality training premises, and we are delighted to be able to provide our customers and learning partners with access to these facilities” said Ian Tetlow, Managing Director of ICT Workshop Solutions.

ICT Workshop Solutions are offering their full syllabus of IMI Approved courses from the centre, including their acclaimed Diagnostics programme as well as the latest Hybrid Vehicle qualifications.

At ICT Workshop Solutions, we know how frustrating this can be, so we have come up with some fantastic deals on Air Conditioning Service Machines, together with on-site F-Gas Training, Electronic Leak Detectors, Sealant Detectors, and all the PPE kit you need to get started.

We have three packages – Bronze, Silver, and Gold. These packages represent amazing value for money, and will give you the equipment you need to be able to do Air Conditioning Servicing successfully and profitably.

If you recently purchased an Air Conditioning Service Machine, then please contact us for great deals on the other equipment that you may need.

• Professionally printed report in Less Than 5 Minutes, with minimal set up
• Repeatable results every time, ensuring customer satisfaction.
• All required angles checked and displayed with just one setup
• How to adjust – help-screens, with full colour vehicle graphical displays
• Fully updateable, both manually or with periodic update
• Far more profitable than Mechanical or Laser Gauges

All Hofmann Equipment does come with a standard 2 year warranty, carried out by Snap-on’s own engineers. Full training provided on-site.

Special Offers until 31st January 2012!

V3D Geolite usually has a retail price of £11,499.00. Special Offer £8,395.00

WAL4P Wheel Alignment 4-Post Lift usually has a retail price of £8,995.00. Special Offer £6,749.00

Package Offer!

Buy V3D Geoliner plus the WAL 4P lift, for only £14,299.00. This offer also includes both front turn plates and In-Fill Paddles – saving over a further £745.00

Please note this special offer is only available until 31st January 2012

On finance this could equate to £75.07 (+VAT) weekly equivalent. This would only mean that 1 or possibly 2 alignment jobs per week would need to be carried out in order to cover the cost.

Many garages are earning over £3000 a month, just from alignment with this package! Ask for a demo and a Return on Investment calculation.

For a long time now Parts manufacturers have been monitoring component performance and specification within EOBD on all cars, in many cases the parts may be different shapes and sizes, but work in similar ways.

Finally it has been announced there is to be a standardisation of components fitted to vehicles. The Vauxhall Insignia is using what has been announced as standard components, these are the components that are to be fitted to all vehicles as time goes on.

This will provide a number of advantages, once you get over the initial shock. You will no longer have to look for specific components, you will just purchase an Injector, Idle Speed Control etc. Then you will register the component onto the system and configure to that particular vehicle. Diagnosing faults on multi make vehicles will due to the nature of the vehicles should become simplified, just as long as we try to keep jargon and abbreviations to a minimum.

Whilst this has been announced, it will take some time before we start to see the full implications and hopefully advantages this may bring.

Many mechanics are wary of working on hybrid vehicles, due to the perceived problems that they might encounter with something which would normally be easy, such as a standard oil and filter service. There is a fear of the unknown, and with the potential for damaging the customer’s car unwittingly, or electrocuting the technician, many garages are reluctantly turning away hybrid vehicles rather than take risks. But with over 60,000 hybrid vehicles registered in the UK in the past 3 years, and with increasing numbers of customers hitting the showrooms in the search for a more economical vehicle, wouldn’t it be preferable to learn how to service them safely?

Here’s a list of some of the basics that every service technician should know:

1. Identifying a vehicle as a hybrid
2. Is the vehicle really turned off?
3. Protecting yourself from high voltage
4. Protecting yourself from corrosive liquids
5. Disposing of high-voltage batteries
6. Towing and workshop vehicle movement
7. What to do in case of fire
8. Getting trained

ICT Workshop Solutions are currently preparing a Hybrid-Electric Vehicle Operation and Maintenance course, which would be certified via IMI Awards. This qualification is designed for technicians who maintain and repair hybrid technology vehicles, but not the hybrid system itself. It contains the knowledge required to work safely around a vehicle’s hybrid system whilst carrying out repairs or maintenance.

To get further details on this course, please click here to be put on our Hybrid-Electric Vehicles mailing list, and we will let you know as soon as the course is available.

All motor vehicles since 1995 have been designed to use R134a as the refrigerant in their Air Conditioning systems.

The problem is that not all people are refilling their vehicle’s Air Conditioning system with R134a. The even bigger problem is that often these people don’t actually know what they are filling it with, or the dangers it can cause.

You may have seen products for sale online, or at flea-markets and car boot sales, often around the £30 to £40 mark, which are cans of “Air Con Top Up” gas. What these cans don’t tell you is that the contents are not R134a. Often, they are a blend of different gases, including gases like Propane and Butane, which are flammable.

One such eBay seller has sold over 3000 cans like this to members of the public since July 2010. Not only is this dangerous to the customer who installs the flammable product in their (potentially leaky) air conditioning system, but it also causes a major headache for those of us in the Aftermarket who are trying to make a living by servicing Air Conditioning properly.

The implications of the use of these Hydrocarbon refrigerants are numerous:

• If there is a leak of refrigerant under the bonnet, and it meets with a hot exhaust manifold, or an electrical spark from somewhere, it can cause a fire or explosion. If as little as 5% of the vehicle’s refrigerant is a Hydrocarbon, it can make the entire contents flammable.
• If there is a leak of refrigerant from the evaporator in the dashboard, then it could cause an explosion inside the vehicle cabin. As little as 100 grams of Hydrocarbon refrigerant within the vehicle cabin can ignite due to sparks from lighting a cigarette.
• If you recover this blended refrigerant into your expensive service machine, it will contaminate all of the refrigerant in your machine, possibly also requiring a full overhaul of the equipment, at a high cost to the garage.
• If you are working on a vehicle which has been filled with one of these products, then you could inadvertently cause a fire or explosion whilst working within the engine bay, particularly during bodywork repairs, or during the investigation of a refrigerant leak.
• The vehicle’s air conditioning system was designed specifically for use with R134a, using a different product can make the system inefficient, or cause damage to the compressor or other components in the air conditioning system.
• As no vehicle manufacturer has endorsed or authorised the use of Hydrocarbon refrigerants, the use of such a refrigerant will void the warranty.
• The use of Hydrocarbon refrigerants can degrade gaskets and hoses designed for R134a, making leaks more likely.
• Customers which are installing this refrigerant in the vehicle do not perform any sort of leak test prior to installation, meaning that often the contents of the system will leak out very quickly, meaning not only is it dangerous, it also doesn’t actually fix their original problem.

There will be no obvious outward signs if the vehicle has been filled with one of these products. Nobody fits a sticker under the bonnet to say they’ve filled the air conditioning system with Propane! The only sure-fire way of making sure is to use a refrigerant identifier. This way, you can be confident that the refrigerant in your machine remains pure, and you can avoid working on dangerous vehicles.

ICT Workshop Solutions offer a range of Refrigerant Identification tools, for more information please click here.

Where does the money go……?

It is often remarked by garages that wheel alignment equipment is expensive, or else garage owners will say people will not pay for wheel alignment checking on their cars (or vans).

They then convince themselves that buying mechanical gauges such as Dunlop gauges will provide all the answers they need.

All you will really do with those pieces of equipment is show that the two wheels are parallel with each other. You may invest a substantial amount of further money only to tell you the same, whilst taking a reference to the rear wheels. This is not performing wheel alignment checks in the true spirit to which the statement is made, by either the customer or the garage if we are being honest with ourselves.

If you have not noticed, running a vehicle is an expensive operation in today’s world! Spending money on cars is very easy to do, the cost of tyres are far more now than they used to be. Legislation on the supply of tyres is becoming more complex day by day, with the law making ever greater demands with things such as sell by dates, silent running approvals and even the disposal of the old carcases. Measures such as mentioned do produce extra costs for everyone, so making the tyres last as long as possible as well as keeping them in as good a condition as possible for safety’s sake has to be a priority as far as the customer is concerned.

For many years the structure of tyres has been evolving and changing from what was common place, not only tyres have changed. Cars and light vans structurally have changed in many ways, with suspension systems leading the way. Things have changed since Ford Anglias and Vauxhall Vivas were on the road, tyres then were just moving from Crossply to Radials. Tyres then also had far deeper sidewalls which we able to flex, with narrower wheels there was not as much in-line traction. Today’s vehicles have a lower profile as well as being considerably wider. It only takes a small amount of misalignment to cause substantial strain on the vehicles running gear. More traction means more pull.

As said previously tyres today are generally wider, particularly with wider treads. This along with lower profiles does change dramatically the driving effect of the vehicles. Smaller amounts of misalignment from any wheel, does have a detrimental effect on the ride, stability and most importantly the safety of the car.

Once a garage buys a modern wheel alignment system, they are then able to check adjust any or all vehicles with confidence. The time taken to perform a full alignment check with mechanical/laser type equipment correctly is a number of hours, whilst also making some complex calculations. Using computerised equipment (particularly 3D) it is possible to have a full set of printed results for the whole vehicle in less than 5 minutes.

If you would like to find out more on this please contact us.

It is also ideal as an entry level tool or as an addition to your existing diagnostic kit.
Fully upgradable to OmiCheck Professional and never switches off!

Applications include:

• ABS – Reads and clear ABS faults
• Airbag – Enables a technician to read and clear faults, and also reset airbag and SRS warning lights
• Climate Control – Allows a technician to read and clear faults in climate control systems of a large variety of vehicles
• Electronic Park Brake (EPB) – This application has been designed to release the brake callipers to replace brake pads on selected vehicles with electronic handbrakes and allow you to re-calibrate systems where necessary
• EOBD – Reads EOBD data to clear fault codes, live data, and contains a comprehensive fault code library
• Service Reset – Allows setup and resetting procedure’s to be done which then allows any stability control electronics in the vehicle to work correctly.
• Steering Angle Sensors – Reset faults highlighted from the steering angle sensors
• Tyre Pressure Monitoring – A must have for fast fits. This tool is designed to programme the TPMS ECU and register new valves or re-registering valves if wheels have moved into different positions.

OmiCheckIt is worth remembering that TPMS (Tyre Pressure Monitoring System) is now a feature of all new cars, along with ABS, Air Bags, Seat Belt Tensioners……………… but some say it will not catch on!!

Calling the OmiCheck an entry tool, is probably a disservice but does make the point. Once you have gained experience of connecting to vehicles systems and performing normal servicing procedures, you are able to expand the tools capabilities to take that next step. Working this way ensures that you are not wasting money buying equipment with features you will never use, or more importantly damage a vehicle system or make an expensive incorrect diagnosis.

Should you wish to find out more about these systems, or information on understanding equipment or training please contact us today.