I had a customer bring me a 08 chevy 2500. They had no heat. They had replaced both blend door actuators. I scanned it for codes and came up with a few in hvac module. I found a TSB that listed exact codes I had. It said to reprogram HVAC module. I did that and still no heat. I should have done more testing before I did it. Well I found the blend doors had no power. Traced it back to fuse box. Customer had his neighbor install a "fass fuel pump" which had a piggyback fuse for the pump relay. They only had 1 fuse installed in the piggyback which powered the pump relay but not the fuse they removed to install the piggyback.
I do not understand why there is so many parts cannon supposedly technicians out there. Proper testing is a must in any situation. Love your videos and how you would go about diagnosing in the same manner as I go about. I tip my hat off to you sir
I know in shops I've been in the front end management really pushes quick and easy solutions becasue they are all so sales related. I always fought them on that and took my time to make the best diag i could, but eventually it wasnt worth it and I left. A lot of techs just go with it to make life easier. The sad part is that when it doesnt work out the tech is blamed for the "mis-diagnosis."
@curtisroberts9137 yes and that is the sad part. Techs hands are being forced to make quick inaccurate repairs even though the service advisor and management know the tech is not going to be able to fix it due to needing a proper diagnosis. As you stated then they want to blame the tech because they forced his hand to make an inaccurate repair.
I think it’s 2 issues, one is speed and sales pushing techs to miss things or not properly test, two is a lot of mechanics just want to be that, a mechanic, they want to turn wrenches and don’t care about how to figure out what’s wrong with the car. When you walk into a lot of shops with a “electrical” problem I’d say half the time you’ll get turned away because they don’t want to learn it.
I have the x431 pro and it’s super slow and crashes most of the time. I’ve thought about buying this one but I haven’t pulled the trigger on it yet. This video definitely sheds some positive light on the product for me. Thanks Jake!
I remember on some of the older Buicks and Cadillacs if the AC compressor cycled too much, the ecm would flag a dtc 22 and inhibit the compressor clutch relay. People and techs were replacing ECMs, thinking the ecm was faulty. Of course it worked by replacing the ECM not knowing all you had to do was clear the code by disconnecting the battery.
After reading the comments I can see how frustration can chase techs away. First there's the vehicle then management, who don't know or understand the complexities of today's vehicles. It's a shame too. Some techs just leave and go to other types of work. I'm glad to see you got this one fixed, using "Diagnostics" not parts swapping!
I have the earlier version of that launch tool. It is nice but I agree with you that the user interface needs to be worked on. It isn't intuitive. I have recorded live data but haven't yet figured out how to look at it. Also, I wish you could purchase it without all those connectors as an option. The crazy part is they want $600+ for updating it. $300 more you get a new unit with 2 years updates.
Yes your lower priced scan tools are “throw aways” but that’s the nice thing with this one is it’s 2 years of updates so it’s really costing you $500 a year. After that you just get a new hardware and 2 fresh years lol.
I bought an Icon T8 from HarborFreight. I watched allot of icon sema videos of the scanner and thought it was going to be a decent scanner. After buying it, i found that it does not have topology. I then emailed icon to see if they were going to have an update that installs topology and they said no. I really wish looking back that I had bought the topdon. The icon T8 with tax, cost almost $1,000.00 bucks. Anyways, thanks for sharing another great diagnose and your review of your new scanner. 👊
I liked autel but they moved a lot of special functions a year or two ago and now it’s not as streamlined as it was. If I’m in a pcm doing testing and need to do a relearn why do I have to back out of diagnosing and go to special functions. It used to be right there in the pcm with active testing and live data.
Just got that tool, because of the AutoAuth. Going to play around with it, and update the bugs to the manufacture if I run into bugs etc. I do agree with you on the verbiage they use, its little bit confusing. Anyways thank you as always!
Nice diag! Real shops should be able to figure this stuff out. Oh well, one good thing is you know your stuff so you get the work! Could you not have remotely powered the blend door actuator to move to heat on the pass side, and at least they would have had full uncontrollable heat on that side? (They didnt want to pay the extra time?) Either way, hope your able to get that module one day soon and get him going for all seasons. Thanks for posting!
@@autodiagyt Nice! It is too bad for customers that there is so much electronic stuff to break. But we all live the comfort and convenience plus options of multi zone controls etc. Stay safe and busy!
Love my TopDon Phoenix Plus. Has the same software as that Launch with the different UI. I find if I remove the dongle and wait for the exit/reconnect popup it will go all the way home. Otherwise it acts like that Launch.
My smart goes to that screen also but it seems that how the ui is laid out a little bit different it’s more intuitive to back out the correct way to fully exit the vehicle.
It would have been nice if you could have used the scope and test light on the driver side actuator just to see the activity on the scope when you change the temperature 😊 not just checking the ohms of the motor on the driver side.... Just for curiosity😊... As always great job Jake
I'm interested in an infrared camera to identify hot spots on electronic boards. I see you have the Topdon. How good is it at the close view you might want for electronics diagnosis?
I use a Thinktool and it works just like the Topdon . BTW I am planning to add a Otofix ultra to my arsenal , I wonder if you could give me an idea whether it is worth it or not? And thank you for your great great videos!
I have the new Launch X431 ProS3+ Elite (bought it before the current sale price) and I like it a lot EXCEPT for the report formatting. The report formatting is the same as my previous Launch. I hate that all of the shop details is crammed (no spaces) after the “:” and you can’t add any blank spaces because it’ll give an error for the email field. To move screen recordings to a PC, when you plug the tablet into your PC, drag down from the top of the tablet screen and change the USB connection from “charging” to “file transfer” (I just made a video the other day on how to do this). The PC will then see the tablet as an external storage device and you can move screen recordings using Windows File Explorer. You can also just use Google Drive, which doesn’t require plugging the tablet into a PC.
Does the newest Launch have a fault code counter? It would be nice to know how many times an error is occurring. Also, does it list the P code fault number as well? That's been frustrating with the older Launch, to have to exit and go into OBD mode to get the P codes the majority of the time. But, it's an awesome tool for the money!
Fault counter would be on the vehicle manufacturer side. Not many of them keep track of how many times a fault happens. The P code thing is also on the manufacturer. Sometimes there is no regulated p code for a fault so they use there code system. You could actually in some cases have a code in the OE side but not in OBD.
@@autodiagyt I've noticed on some occasions wit the Launch, as I'm exiting the fault code screen, it'll ask if I'd like to see the P-codes before I exit. We primarily work on German cars, and I haven't paid attention to what specific cars it asks that. With BMW, frequently when looking at some factory codes, there might be three different fault descriptions depending on what specific P-code is associated with it... I'm spoiled with our old $10k Autologic, but it's really tired and slow which is why I grab the Launch, but I know that's part of the difference between a $1k scanner and a $10k scanner... I'm really enjoying your content, and am working on improving my CAN skills!
@@pj4534 for the most part on Euro cars I do think autel does a better job with code descriptions and in some cases even have more information on what the causes could be and things to check.
Jake, what is your test light connected to. Was it a substituted load or in line with the actuator. . I was also wondering about determining it was the module versus the actuator. I must have missed that. I rewatched it twice. I agree, I have a ThinktoolProS. I have to send myself an email to transfer files.
2018+ CHRY SGW Module access? I understand if the tool is a real LAUNCH Brand, no problems, have you tried a new CHRY yet? Thanks for the DIAG, cheers.
Wonder how the module is checking motor circuit integrity? Does it attempt to send power and ground to the motor and expects to see the position sensor voltage change or is it actually expecting to see current flow using a current shunt?
I didn’t really check the output to the other temp motor but I think they send power all the time and sees the voltage on the other side of the motor when it’s not commanding it to move.
It is here in the south lol. We had some Michigan friends come to Florida for a race and we told them it will be 40 at night bring some warm clothes. They didn’t thinking “it’s just 40 lol”, they froze that night. Humidity is a bitch in the summer and winter.
@@autodiagyt I'm heading up there for a friend's 50th birthday next month, but he is in Alabaster, south of Birmingham. Not quite on the way from Florida.
Had a 16 dodge ram where the actuators wouldnt calibrate ( all would fail sweep test ) until I unplugged the hvac control head and used only the uconnect screen during sweep test, weird stuff.
Awesome, brother, another great video! I like your common sense approach on your diagnostic testing. The moral of the video is test dont guess, very well done. I have the Topdon Phoenix plus i really like it alot. Have you used the Phoenix plus at all? And if so how do you like it?
Had a customer siad his mother in law was the only one that rode in the passenger seat, it was his wifes car, hesistantly he said fix it, cuz he'd never hear the end of it if he didn't :O) Good diag thanks! Any chance an intermittent short in the actuator motor could takeout the control panel?
That depends on the manufacturer. Some actually program them as they are being assembled and some are preprogrammed and in a vehicle learn state so that when they get told what the vin is every is learned. There is alot of ways it can be done.
oh the joys of hvac systems. ones i work on lin based and if one motor goes down they all go down 🤣🤣🤣🤣 makes diagnosing a dodgy motor great fun . new ones we use are much better they identify by motor number so much easier to do . however what buffoon designed the unit was not a tech to get to the motors you need to be me fantastic because they bury them deep in the distribution block oh the joy there is 7 of the little darlings on a artura
if people were to use the brain in their head and DO NOT ORDER dual climate control then this problem would not exist. I wish i could buy a new one without a radio,without electric windows and door locks and had a throttle cable life would be so simple OH i forgot i have one my 1994 Ram 2500 4 wd so simple life is good
When you try to say "coil", it comes out with some Southern accent as "coal" and speech-to-text engine of youTube outputs it as "hole". "It needs a new Hole" , "it needs a better Hole" is your usual diagnosis. I thought it was Australian accent, but I aint no seeing no kangaroos jumping around.
