Thanks to everyone who took the time to have a go at the mechanic.com.au diagnostic contest. It certainly created alot of interest at the Australian Automotive Aftermarket Expo this year and had alot of people scratching their heads!
It was fantastic to hear everyones pragmatic approach to working through the data aswell as the collaboration between strangers, both at our booth aswell as online!
It goes to show how passionate we are about problem-solving and our trade in general.
There is no better feeling than nailing a problem in a vehicle after investing a bit of time into troubleshooting and the 5 winners below know exactly how that feels!
The fault was infact 3x faulty ignition coils on bank 2!
The most accurate diagnosis and explanation was submitted by Daniel Priestley as below:
The diagnosis most of us jumped to was a vacuum leak, however as Daniel mentioned above, if this were the case we would generally see the results replicated on both banks.
The next most common guess was a a faulty throttle body because of the increased throttle angle. The higher throttle angle, as Daniel explained above, is a result of the engine trying to recover from the misfire and by opening up the throttle plate further, we are typically going to lower our manifold vacuum.
Alongside a faulty throttle body, the other common guess was a faulty air flow meter...
It's the old chicken and egg scenario. All too often we jump to blaming a sensor rather then take a systematic approach to a fault and taking into account causation.
A prime example that we hear echo'd time and time again over the years is:
"o2 sensor codes, typical, needs new sensors"
Hang on...?
On the flipside, as one of our members mentioned at the stand, we can spend 1 hour scoping a crank angle sensor on a Hyundai that is cutting out when it gets hot or we can make an educated guess and fit a crank angle sensor.
We have to be economical about how we spend our time and coincidently, our customers money.
There is a difference between this and throwing parts at a car based simply on fault codes without actually having a sound understanding of what these codes are telling us and how we should be interpreting this data.
Whether you guessed the problem correctly or not, just the fact that you took the time to do some "work" after hours says alot about your commitment to your craft. Well done!
1st Prize - DAT TE060 Oxygen Sensor Simulator & Tester - Daniel Priestley
2nd Prize - DAT TE056 Relay Tester Kit - Zac Clutchman
3rd Prize - 2x Monroe Shock Absorber Bar Stools - Corey Agosta
4th Prize - Ryco RST200 Oil Filter Tool Kit - Eion Flynn
5th Prize - Ryco RST200 Oil Filter Tool Kit - Peter Arnold
To claim your prize, simply message us on facebook (at fb.com/mechanic.com.au) from the same account you lodged your guess with and include your postal address and we will get your prizes on their way!
For simply joining mechanic.com.au, the following people have won a DAT TE064 Spark Checker Tool
Please contact us with your postal addresses to receive your prizes
Adam Murphy
Neil Bartlam
Craig Lee
Matthew Bouchier
Again, Thankyou to every one of you who took the time to have a go at our competition and coming and having a chat to us at the Australian Automotive Aftermarket Expo!
We had a great time hearing all of your diagnostic stories and finding out what some of the biggest challenges both technicians and workshops are currently facing. This will no doubt help steer where we invest our resources and time to develop and support our industry!
