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Last month Adam Robertson posted an article entitled "The Cranky Outputs of P0172 on a 2002 Chrysler PT Cruiser" in which he described the process he followed to diagnos a problem that left behind very few obvious clues.

In response to that article, Phil Fournier asks, why a "high tech diag is so undervalued" and how to overcome that.

Adam,
I love the logical diagnostic process you followed to identify the crank sensor (with no corresponding P0336 or any other typical code) as being the source of the problem.  Here is my issue, not with your diagnosis at all, but with the low value placed on the ability to do just this sort of difficult diagnosis; few people are willing to pay for it.

Example #1: 2011 Nissan Cube, won’t start.
Car was in three different shops, including Nissan.  Nissan got rid of the problem by quoting $13k for the repair.  I have no idea what they intended to do for the price but it seemed obvious that they didn’t want the job.  The third shop that looked at the vehicle requested my assistance.  I told him that since it was a difficult problem, I would charge 4 hours labor ($380 at my $95 an hour rate) for the diagnosis.  Then the vehicle owner came and spoke with me but did not bring the vehicle in.  To my knowledge, the vehicle continues to be inoperable.

Example #2: 2002 Ford Ranger 4.0 liter, won’t start, new engine. 
Sent to me on the tow truck from a trans shop who had apparently installed the engine.  We started with a one hour diagnosis, going over the basics of compression, spark, and fuel, and determine the vehicle was shutting down spark as soon as the engine lit off under cranking conditions.  Having exhausted more than the allotted one hour doing the baseline testing, I asked for 4 hours, knowing several things: 
- First, this was going to be hard core, PICO diagnosis. 
- Two, no credit would result to me or my shop because this was a sublet and the other shop would not want the customer to know they had been unable to fix it. 
- Three, since the vehicle was from another shop already, I would not even be able to hope for future business other than yet another difficult diagnosis.  
A few days later the vehicle was towed out.

Example #3: 2005 Ford F150 5.4l, lack of power at high rpm. 
410,000 miles on the vehicle, engine has been replaced.  Sublet from another shop.  Vehicle feels lean under hard acceleration.  VE testing shows fairly good VE of 81% but O2 sensors continue to switch at WOT rather than going full rich.  Downstream sensors reflect mixture is slightly lean.  Fuel pump has been replaced, fuel pressure does not drop at WOT.  Fuel trim before WOT is slightly high at about +15LTFT and +10 STFT.   There are no misfires in Mode 6 and there is no feel of a misfire.  Exhaust had been previously dropped to rule out cat converter blockage by the other shop.  Once again, I asked for extra time beyond the one hour due to the complexity of the diagnosis.  Once again the extra charge was declined and the vehicle left my shop undiagnosed.

The bottom line:  Your diagnosis on your PT Cruiser should have been worth hundreds of dollars. 

When I do the difficult jobs, I expect to be paid for them and paid well.  Yet, few people or other repair shops are willing to step up to the plate and pay the value.  It is highly frustrating to me that it doesn’t work that way.  I expect I would have been able to solve each of the three aforementioned vehicles.  But, to do so, I would have had to content myself with “job satisfaction” and not monetary  value.  Perhaps I would have ended up with a valuable case history for a training class.  Still, it isn’t right that the high tech diag is so undervalued.  It makes me despair for the future of this industry.  Someone might have stumbled on the fix for your PT by randomly replacing parts.  Had they guessed the CKP sensor, they would have been considered a hero, just as much as you who actually found the problem. 

Do you have any suggestions as to how to overcome this reluctance to pay for value?

Phil.

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