Free Vehicle Diagnostics Blaine, MN
Do you have a car or pickup truck in need of repairs around the Blaine, MN area? Clark Automotive Clinic can help! We offer a range of vehicle services, such as Brake Repair and Replacement, Ignition and Starter Replacement and Repairs, Tire Services and a variety of other helpful types of auto work. Many times a light will turn on in the dashboard of your vehicle if something isn’t working properly. When that happens it’s best to take your car or truck in to a certified vehicle technician for a Diagnostic Check. An experienced and well educated auto repair professional will be able to quickly tell what is wrong by running a test of the operation computers located in your vehicle.
What is the Computer in a Vehicle?
The modern vehicle has three or more computers. The computer operating the ignition and fuel systems, relative to the tune-up, is called the Electronic Control Module (ECM) or the Power Control Module (PCM). The computer is where the fault codes from the check engine light are recorded and stored. We at Clark Automotive do recall the codes free of charge and offer some guidance as to what it means.
Protect Vehicle from Possible Risks
Because these are in fact computers, we technicians are always warned about protecting them from voltage spikes during repairs. That is why Jump Starting your neighbor’s car is less popular, due to the risks of voltage spikes. Battery chargers and jump start boxes are much preferred. The PCM or ECM is the controller of the Ignition and Fuel Systems and turn the check engine light on when there is a problem detected.
Automotive professionals Access the Computer through a data port. The structure of the data port has been regulated for many years (all cars use the same data port) called OBDII. Data ports prior to the early 90’s varied with every manufacture and or model car. Repair shops are hard pressed to hook up the cars prior to OBDII, because they no longer have those cables or scanners.
What is Diagnostics or Trouble Shooting?
The question is – can knowing what the fault code is tell you allow you to distinguish what is wrong with your vehicle? At Clark Automotive Clinic we will scan your automobiles computer codes free. We will give you some recommendations about an organized way to proceed with the repair of your vehicle. But alas, just knowing the code generally will not identify exactly what to do. That is when you need to be able to trust your mechanic because that takes us to the trouble shooting process, which is the process of specific diagnostic tests to the ignition and fuel system to identify what repair is needed.
We take this process very seriously, and don’t charge as much as most, you may ask why? This is the process by which we meet most of our new customers. This is something we don’t do for free because we are good at it. Because we are good at it, we want to have as many challenging and new experiences as possible, to even get better. In most cases, our trouble shooting charge is $60.00 or less. Yes, we have had occasions when this charge is larger, but then it is an opportunity/challenge for us at Clark Automotive because other shops have failed at the repair.
Look for our next blog about the more in-depth process of specific diagnostic tests. If you have any questions or would like to schedule a repair please contact our knowledgeable repair professionals today at 763-784-7944!
