In this video I bring you along as I have a look at a customers 2010 Honda Pilot that has an issue with the battery going dead over night. It doesn't take long to find what circuit the drain is on but then I cheat a little by using Identifix to lead me right to the cause of the draw.
-Enjoy!
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Due to factors beyond the control of South Main Auto Repair, it cannot guarantee against unauthorized modifications of this information, or improper use of this information. South Main Auto Repair assumes no liability for property damage or injury incurred as a result of any of the information contained in this video. South Main Auto Repair recommends safe practices when working with power tools, automotive lifts, lifting tools, jack stands, electrical equipment, blunt instruments, chemicals, lubricants, or any other tools or equipment seen or implied in this video. Due to factors beyond the control of South Main Auto Repair, no information contained in this video shall create any express or implied warranty or guarantee of any particular result. Any injury, damage or loss that may result from improper use of these tools, equipment, or the information contained.
-Enjoy!
If an SMA Video has helped you out please consider giving using "Patreon" to help support us. The videos take real time to create and pull us away from real work that pays our bills. CLICK HERE: https://www.patreon.com/southmainauto
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Thank you for all the continuing support!
--Eric & Vanessa O.
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47 S. Main St
PO Box 471
Avoca, NY 14809
Disclaimer:
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All right folks, we got the High new pilot here. It's the Uh 2011 right? He's got the Big Three Five. This is one that's got the Triple A install battery. Well, fine job there.
Triple A Um, if you haven't seen that short, check it out. I'll put a link there. At any rate, the AAA had to come to this guy's house and put his battery twice because you know they said the first battery's defective and then you know two days later it died again and then you know died again of course. So there's a problem with the vehicle, not the battery so we need to check to see if this battery has to draw.
So I grabbed our meter here and it's been sitting overnight in the shop. but I had a power supply on it so it wouldn't be dead this morning when I came in. At least in theory it shouldn't be dead I put it on a power supply as opposed to a charger. but I say that with a mouthful of metal.
Um, because my charger 's that I have are automatic and they kick off at a certain point. I didn't want to kick off and then you know battery's half dead when we get here. So we're gonna go right to Digital Meter. We're gonna make sure our battery is in good shape for the shape it's in.
Let's get things hooked up the correct way here. Let's see what we have for voltage over the limit right now. Come up to a 20 volt scale and you can see we're at 13.22 so it has a big surface charge on it. Not a big deal.
Uh, we're gonna take and unhook this. We're going to just, uh, go right for the old Ampy plant. Of course the vehicle's been shut off for hours and hours and hours. at this point.
we're gonna pop out of here and we're going to go to Uh Low amps and we'll see if we have any current draw. We are far past the wait time I'm letting modules time out so we're gonna go down here. Oh, you guys can see that. hopefully we can get everything zeroed out here.
Let's see. put on the 20 amp scale. All right. So 2.1 3 milliamps for try to get this thing where it's going to level out.
We're not looking for draw that low anyways. this is just an initial oops. Oh, it's over 500 milliamps. This is a big one.
We got a big one. 556, 557, 500 Over 500 million. So this is a half amp draw. This is the big Honker Um I wonder I bet my thermal imager is better than a door nail because I never use it.
so it's probably something with a dead battery. Uh, plus the first has been blowing on this sink. Uh, so we're looking for a 500 amp draw. That's a big one.
That's like two uh 194 bulbs. Say like two dome lights being on. That's about the equivalent of that. So that's pretty interesting.
Um, well let's come up with our next part of our plan. That was correct. The thermal imager is dead. Of course.
you know it's one of those tools you buy where you're like, oh, it's going to be great. I'm going to use it every day. It's going to be a game changer and then you get it and it just really sits around. the battery goes dead. Let's be honest. Uh, we just use it to show our buddies like how bad your windows leak. It is useful, don't get me wrong. but um I wish the battery wasn't dead in it.
So what we're going to do is what we would typically do is we're going to measure voltage drop across the fuses that are accessible. If there's current flow through a circuit, there will be a other amount of voltage drop across that fuse. A perfectly good fuse would read zero, zero point, Zero zero or you know, 0.1 millivolts. So it's going to be our Baseline is what we expect to see.
Um so I'm just gonna angle get my glasses so I can see and then we're going to go across all those little guys the ones that we can get to. Um I don't know what these views have run. It's quicker to do a test across them than it is to see if it's even I like these cars. so we'll just Zippy zap across these touching both ends of the fuse.
Probably should get some different probes 0.1 and then just go to the next one and just work our way down the line until we see a reading other than 0.1 if if there is, there may not be here. Hey, look at that. We're lucky and it was actually the last fuse we checked, so that's handy. Let me just double check here.
It's always the last one to check, but this is actually the last one and actually physically the last one here. So we have 3.3 millivolts of voltage drop across this fuse. which happens to be. Let me figure out how this little thing goes here.
Let's go like this and that. this and that and the other thing. It's a 10 amp and I'm here. it says backup.
Let me show you where we're at, Back it up. Uh, let's see, we are right here. Uh, number 23 Backup. So what the heck's that mean? What's that power? So that has uh, 3.3 millivolts now? Uh, On the Power Probe website, they have a handy dandy chart where you can actually look up to see.
Okay, this is a 10 amp fuse and I got 3.3 millivolts. A voltage drop across the fuse. What does that equate to in amps? We can look that up or we can put our amp, clamp back on and pull the fuse and see if it equals oh, you've been without your phone all night. Are you in there like this? Did you make it through the night I Woke up with a nosebleed.
Could be yeah or the Facebook All right, let's see your funny real Miss Though let's see here folks, we're gonna back at it here. Uh, we're gonna go back to the low Amps I'll see if I can remember if I'm editing this video and I hear myself talking I'll put a link to that Power Probe uh chart their fuse voltage drop chart and it depends on fuse type. he holds it, a maxi fuse, a mini fuse A J case fuse What the voltage drop should be or it, what it equates to. this isn't going to be very accurate because my jaws don't clamp on here.
Very good. There we go. So there's that. Let me grab a pair of pliers here and we're going to go over to this backup use. We're steadied out there about 484. we're gonna pull this little guy out. Do we fix the car? Pretty much? I would say at this point I Don't like the accuracy of of current clamps if we're down below 100 millivolts I Would rather have my meter in line, but clearly we found the big one. The massive draw: These things tend to drift and like I said, once you're down in the uh, low milliamps range, they're not highly accurate, but we can clearly see that this fuse is the offender or the circuit is the offender.
Let's put it back in boom and our draws back and it's not really any higher than it was so it doesn't turn on a module and wake it up and go through a whole rigmarole. Uh, next thing. uh. power distribution diagram.
we'll see. We'll find that backup fuse and see see what we see. We'll see where the powers. Um, we're not looking for a short.
We're not looking for an open. Uh, if we hadn't open, what would happen? Let's think about that for a minute. Wires back there runs off this. it's caught.
It's hanging in outer space. We would see this. We'd see absolutely nothing because it's the same as taking the fuse out. If it was shorted, what would we see for current draw? You'd see this right here.
Absolutely nothing. Why? Because it below the fuse so no shorts, no opens. That's not what we're looking for. we're probably looking for.
You know, a failed component that that thing powers Or a component and it's not turning off for some other reason. But instead of sitting here talking about it, let's get after it boys. She's grinding up in here. What are you doing? I'm gonna use a computer.
see when you're grinding up with your camera, it's a man. Hmm. So here we go folks. Uh.
Fuse 23 in the under hood fuse box comes down. Pink wire goes to the under dash fuse relay box with the MCU and this is not back up like back it up. This is a backup that keeps the power going. Um, and we go some multiple units which stinks.
Uh, Mobilizer Keyless control unit power window master switch power mirror control unit However, if it only has this DPMS which is uh I had to Google search it driving position memory system so it's your memory seats I don't know if it has that. not always familiar with all the acronyms. Uh, this one does not have navigation. I'll double check I don't believe it does.
so it goes to audio HVAC display unit goes to DLC so maybe he's got something plugged into that gauge control module and then to page 1018 number n Let's see what's on page 1018 number M Letter m that comes down here not used without AC Inverter Power Tailgate controller unit Power seat control unit called DPMS Power Tailgate so I don't know if this applies rear controller and screen and then not used. Awesome! So it only feeds like you know a few things. so let's print this out. Uh, before we come out. I'm going to look for a silver bullet here on the Identifix to see if somebody else has come across this. and if they have, hooray, it might shortcut our process. We'll just check here real quick. We'll type in Fuse 23.
We're always in the market for silver bullets. Whether it's a parasite drawn fuse 23, look at this. This might shortcut our case here. Check that all the door locks work this guy right? It's blah blah blah.
Okay, let's go see what the fix was. Unplug door lock switch draw immediately drops. okay. Driver's door lock switch would stick.
Okay, so this might be a good tip. Um, this guy had a problem. Couple guys had problems with rear hatch glass switches, rear tailgate latches uh, would only drawing Security system was arm. Spent a full day tracking down everything from Fuse 23 ended up being the rear glass release button was inoperative throwing 450 milliamps.
So these are all things that once we've identified our problem on Fuse 23 of a 0.3 amp draw, which is what we have. A lot of people don't like to admit this, but we're going to use this program because sometimes it's really helpful. See you later. So the way that program can become a problem though let me tell you is when you don't do anything when you go up there and you get on the Identifix and you say what's wrong with my car and then you just start fling at Parts at this thing.
So let's just take some of their advice is our door lock switch stuck that appears to function to all the door locks function. They appear to see if this one's working, that one's working. They seem they seem to function and then let's just make sure by fiddling with this stuff that we haven't uh you know, inadvertently repaired it. Anybody who says they have Identifix and doesn't use it for a silver bullet here and there is a liar liar pants on fire so let's just see where we're at here.
Let's get this flick back around. I guess I flicked around too many times. Let's see. so we're still at our 450.
So okay, let's come up with our plan here and see what we can do. Curious. One thing. grab the keys here I got him.
Let's see if the horn blows when we unlock it because it's going to tell us how the door switches work. Okay, so that likely means all of the door switches function as they should. Uh, if it was missing an input saying hey, I'm closed typically it won't blow the horn. The other thing I got to look is I never checked I don't think I don't think these kind of dudes have a hood switch I'd swim make sure I'm not burning myself here no I don't see wires coming out of the latch and uh I don't see any you know push down doggies say hey, I'm the hood I'm open um one guy commented on there that his rear glass did not function.
Let's make sure our doors are locked and they are gate is unlocked. Let's see if our Glass Works ew no no functioning and I believe he stated that he unplugged the rear switch and his draw went away. Oh what do we do folks? We chased that down I Think it only takes a second to pull these panels off. It might save us a lot of time or it might waste us some time I Believe that's it I Believe through the magic modern television. Ew let me get in here. You got some nasty nasty spray over there. Uh, let's see I don't know who's who but all these wires they all go out to that little guy. So let's just unplug everything and then uh, let's see here.
unplug that one little fingers ain't working. No good this morning. I'm gonna plug that one in. That's everything that goes out there.
so that's probably the backup camera too. Let's go have a look see if anything changed. Uh, let's just send our stuff here and close the gate and wait a minute. So I shut it off and then I hit the door lock button just to make sure that it you know what we unplugged wasn't any anything to do with that circuit and it's only been like 45 seconds.
but we'll see if uh boom we fixed it. We don't even have to trace it. Huh? Look at that. How's that for a silver bullet for you? Let's see.
so we are zero it out and at this point we would check it with going in line but it looks like about 50 milliamps. we can make sure our meter is accurate by just turn it on some marker lights. Boom! Yep! so our meter is accurate and anytime you put a big draw on your current probe, always take it off or reset it because it'll always make it drift a certain amount. It's probably not the correct terminology, but when you're dealing with low current draws, they're not very accurate.
However, what is accurate is the fact that we're missing our you know, half an after all that we had. Hooray! Let's find out which one of those wires actually goes to the glass button and see if we can just disable that single wire. So not gonna lie I Feel cheap I Feel dirty I Feel like I've sinned because we just took a silver bullet. We didn't use our brain at all.
uh-oh yeah, just kind of feel cheap. Not gonna lie. Wow yeah no no I just feel like this I gotta go rinse my mouth out or something. Looks like there's a couple components to this system so there look appears to be a hatch glass latch switch.
So this is going to be a confirmation switch in my opener, my clothes hatch glass opener switch. So I assume that's going to be our push button and that comes back up here to the MCU under the dash. So this is the the brain box and then it looks like driver's door hatch glass opener switch. so there might be a switch there.
Also, let me call a customer first see if he wants any of this functioning or if he just wants it disabled. Yeah unfortunately folks. the guy uh doesn't want us going further. just watch the draw fixed and that's it.
So we're going to plug this one back in which is for the backup camera which I don't think worked anyways I think it says and then this one here with two black wires. they're green and light blue. That's for the hatch switch button and then for the hatch latch confirmation which is going to come from. You know this up here. so so I guess shows over folks. Gosh I Feel dirty. It's a really great platform, but boy it it's probably the most abused platform. We're going to give this a little bit of time here.
Um, there it goes. It just went down. I'm gonna switch over to our regular leads and then we're gonna fix. Or yeah, we're gonna fix.
We're going to measure where our battery current draw is. I'm not going to try to sit here and make excuses for myself, but when you have a parking lot full of cars and you just want to kind of get on with your day sometimes, it's pretty helpful that once you've identified your problem to have somebody posts a fix, especially in a case like this working. yeah, it can take some time. We're going to go to Amps Internal.
Let's grab a 10 mil. it's 10. I'm gonna loosen that little fella up without disconnecting it. We're going to try to weasel it up here a little bit.
We're gonna hook our negative lead to the battery post and then we're gonna hook our other negatively or our positive lead here to the battery cable and we're gonna see how much current is going through it. So now this is a perfectly accurate measurement. So 60 milliamps I'm going to give this some time, make sure everything uh Powers off and everybody's happy inside the car. and then we'll check and see what it is here in about 20 minutes, half hour.
It's been a while, folks look at that pattern coming across the screen. Kind of neat, huh? Oh, we're averaging out about 33 millivolts, but you'll watch that pattern with a high current draw another one and it's going to start separated into a high current draw on a low current. But I say hi I mean I'm just using that phrase loosely. but what you have there is you have a couple LED lights coming on inside the vehicle that are not perfectly in sync.
So when both lights turn on simultaneously, which they will here shortly, you start getting a you know, big spike per se. you'll see here when they all come together and I'll go inside and show you kind of what's happening. So there you go there they are combined together. This is a very typical normal pattern as you'll see, but as we look inside the vehicle we're gonna see an LED light flashing there and then we have also I have one over here on the radio and if we sit back we can watch them you know as a synchronizer as they're out of sync, blinking away there and then just those LEDs turning on is also reflected.
you know, in our scope here. but being that we're you know, sitting around 30 milliamps I'm totally fine with it. Um, usually anything under 50. I'm pretty happy with most cars sit in the low 20s but without having a known good. I'm happy with this thing sitting in a 30 milliamp range I don't know what they Reserve capacity. our Reserve capacity is 120 on this battery. So this thing's gonna go for an awful long time with a 30 milliamp draw. I Feel like I have to explain myself again.
You caught me. We cheated, but it worked. However, we had a little different process other than just going in there to load up silver bullets into our parts Cannon and start unloading. We identified a draw and then we identified the exact branch that the draw was on.
Then we looked for somebody else who has already paved the way for us and somebody else did. They took the paving machine, they loaded it up with yellow bricks and they made us a path right back to the answer. which was great because it saved us a bunch of time. Had that Network we would have lost 10 minutes of time and we would have just had gone back to our roots and start breaking that system down.
We would have probably got a scan tool. We would have looked at door switch inputs, gate inputs. you know is anybody that we can see quick and easy staying on. If all that looks okay, we're going on to the next module.
You know what's going on with the mirrors? Is there anything we can unplug? You know if we start disabling things and that's the approach we would have had until we got to the answer, which eventually we would have, but we might have had several hours into it depending on at what point we came across the problem. So use those programs sparingly. use them wisely. I Guess I would say we work for a host of other shops.
As you guys see, they bring us cars all the time and several little shops have Identifix and you can always tell because the car comes in with. you know X Symptom you know, fill in the blank you know runs are off whatever parasitic draw. And here's their list of parts: A B C D E they just, you know they got checklist. Here's everything we changed.
this car still broke 95 time. You can take that checklist, you hold it up next to Identifix under their symptom. Part One, Part Two, Part three, Part four. And then they got to the part where this guy down here Parts you know, five.
He replaced the computer so they brought it to us to put a computer in it. We see it day after day after day. It's just super super common. Lots of time, lots of money wasted just guessing based off somebody else's repairs.
So look at it. Use it wisely. It can be a very valuable tool. I'll leave it at that and don't you be a tool and you go in.
That comment section Questions, comments, concerns insta Facebook And just for my viewers, if I can do it, you can do it. Thanks for watching. Thank you.
Excellent.
A workmate has a Toyota Mark X, and they drive around with a battery booster in the car, even after spending over $1500.00 to have the auto-electrician sort it out.
They were charged $700.00 for a "scan" – I've seen the invoice.
Apparently, it's now even worse, so I will try Eric's dirty, shameful, filthy behavior!!!
I'm surprised that you don't have an Ice cream machine.
You have a juicer. Get yourself a little Ninja Creami Ice cream machine.. Live the ice cream dream. 😊
Ya need an Ice Cream Cannon.. Summer is approaching.
As always another great video from Eric o, there’s nothing wrong with using outside resources that helps cut down on labor cost and you can pass that savings on to your customer as always another great video. God bless you guys and stay safe.
Does anyone recognize the tools used in this diagnostics?? Cant seem to find what he is using brave wise
I would definitely use the silver bullet saves time and agravation
Last fuse naturally. All is well in the Universe.
You fixed it and that’s what matters, enjoy that win! You deserve it.
Eric O is The Lone Ranger with his silver bullets and his sidekick Mrs. O!
I was at a local thrift store in Casper Wyoming and I say a guy wearing one of your hoodies.
i don't know what you are going on about, you saved the customer a few hundred dollars in labor cost and freed yourself up so you could move on quicker to the next job which helps another customer besides when it comes to utilizing a source like that what differentiates you from everybody else is you have enough knowledge and experience to evaluate the validity of the information without needing to shoot a bunch of parts at the problem…..
hang on a minute here.If you are concerned about being a 'silver bullet cheating machine' ? Let's just review AAA battery fitment technique and then decide who is cheating. Any Information found is worthwhile,however, it's still down to "you" and how "you" use it
Input code 23 & enter Cheat Mode.
"There's your problem lady"
Like you said, for the sake of 10 minutes you found the problem whereas you could've wasted a couple of hours chasing every wire in the car for a short.
If it gets the job done, then I'm all for it.
Plus, if that wasn't the problem and you investigated further and found what was causing the draw, you could then go on that website and add a comment with your findings, thus helping the Silver Bullet community!
Einstein said that you should never memorize something that you can look up. lol GOOGLE IT
Hi Eric,
Wow, what a fantastic website you guys have to support you guys with your diagnosis. Specially a dream is very labour intensive, what costs the costumer a big amount of money. As you said; identify your problem and keep the website with the silver bullits in the back of your mind.
I think it is a very big help for these complex systems and their complex faults.
Keep up the good work my man! Always love to see you videos and you did help me to improve my skills and level as a mechanic!
Kind regards from Amsterdam
Great job Eric as always, sometimes a little help goes a long way 👍
I consider any help regardless of the source as long as it’s been verified a win, especially if it saves time. Granted there’s a few that I would just track down and do the process with but on those vehicles where they’ve got a dozen or so things on a single circuit I’ll take a silver bullet anyday!
How does a switch to ground for a module control input draw 500mA? Let's assume that the switch is defective and is always on, that is, connected to ground. A switch contact wetting current feed from the module should be at max around 20mA. I think the MICU may have a fault which is producing the high current draw, is the module trying to actuate a load?
You are the man !!! Love always haha .
Eric explains exactly what I kind of hated Identafix. Not that it isn't useful as it is, but because too many people I've seen take it as the gospel and get burned thinking their solution is going to be on there. The way it's shown and used on here is perfect and an excellent example of how it's useful, it's just a shame other's use it as parts cannon, or as means to skip out on crucial diagnostics they should be performing.
Bobs your uncle little fella. Good analysis.
I have a Suburban that killed two brand new batteries in a row after each new battery was installed in the vehicle and the vehicle sat parked for several days after each install. On the the third new battery I happened to drop down the sun visor on the the front passenger side and noticed the vanity mirror had a bright light bulb on either side of the mirror. The mirror lights would not come on until the plastic cover over the mirror was pivoted open in order to use the mirror. The latch on this plastic mirror cover was not working properly and the cover would not stay latched. Therefore, the lights would stay on with the visor up and not be visible because the visor covered them. I did what the average person would do and ripped all those worthless lights out of the visor. No more dead batteries.
Mr. O, I see you as being resourceful AND responsible… Trust but verity. I have worked in IT for almost 30 years. You are rarely the first person to have the same problem. Knowledge Bases are priceless. Couldn't ALL of the ammo in that parts cannon explosion have been tested??? Lazy and borderline fraudulent IMHO… The service being provided is to fix a problem, not replace a bunch of parts so it cost the consumer a fortune and you never did diagnose the problem…
Is mrs.o making strawberry daiquiris at work?
You pay for that data and know how to interpret it. 🤷🏻♂️
It's called clamp saturation..
They're for VAMPIRES!!
And very accurate at low mA too…
Fluke mA Clamp. They work Great!
But kinda pricey, but worth their weight!
Utilizing shared information to fix a problem is not dirty, it is smart! Don't feel dirty, enjoy looking REALLY smart to your satisfied customer forever! Thank you Dr. O.
2010 or 2011?
I think you're being too hard on yourself. You made use of a diagnostic aid that's all. You routinely fix the unfixable and solve mysteries other shops can't figure out. For once there was a case on Identifix that matched your situation, and you feel bad using it? I say there's no need to. Identifix paid for its subscription a little bit today. That's all.
silver bullets fixing pattern failures are fine if you verify. a lot of times a poorly designed part rears its ugly head like a werewolf or vampire.
Confession on Sunday. Lol
Nothing wrong with using information passed on by other mechanics. That's what your youtube channel is all about, you're passing on your experience and knowledge to others. The world would be a better place is we all shared what we know with each other.
Sometimes you get lucky with the cheap way out.
Troubleshooting RV refrigerators, I would troubleshoot a circuit board like if there was 12 volts going in and no 12 volts coming out, then it's the circuit board and I would just replace it even though there was a manufacturer's manual that showed how to troubleshoot each individual circuit.
But the bottom line was that even if you know what circuit was bad, you couldn't repair the board.
So, if there wasn't any current where there was supposed to be it's a no brainer, replace the board.
The problem is when they use the guide to just parts shooting instead of trouble shooting.
"Hatch glass latch switch"! And he said he couldn't talk.
Good job Eric I don't care if you did use one of the tools available to you as you know how to use them, keep up the good work, I love watching you work on electrical problems that other people could not fix, keep them coming.
“At least in theory”
Theory has 2 definitions today.
1) a solid scientific study
2) it’s just a theory
(Well, I’ll be a monkey’s uncle)
They do have a hood switch. Very common for causing issues with alarm randomly going off.
Good one Eric !….time is money and using a logical approach and some research the work is complete.who can argue with that .
i hope you added a post to identifix . helping each other. thats what its all about . your videos help me(thanks for that). maybe you could post a link to your video in your repair post in identifix?cheers for your videos..
It's always cool that you share electrical diagnostics.. very cool
Nothing wrong with sourcing out some possible causes. Nice to see that the respondents were truthful.
Ever ask a question on the internet, and 2 posts later it’s way off topic on when grandma used to raise pigs .. lol
I'm guilty too! I don't like those battery clamps with the two bolts that clamp on the cables. i know battery cables on modern vehicles can be a bitch to replace though. Just another place to corrode! Good job cheating or not! haha!
My neighbor asked me to troubleshoot her clothes washer as it wouldn't run. My son was at home so I had him accompany me so he could learn how to troubleshoot controls. We opened the washer lid and I was connecting the leads to my voltmeter when I heard the washer relays clicking and saw the operating panel was lit up. I asked my son what he did and he said he googled the washer model number and "won't run" and google told him to hold down two buttons on the control panel. The moral to this story is – don't call an old guy with a voltmeter to fix your washing machine when a young guy with a smart phone is available.
Great advice and entertaining as well!! Great video!
You showed us MS O a few times so we'll forgive you this time 😉 I repair computers and cheat sheets help when you have time restraints.
Those werewolf killers are fine!!! I work in IT…….reboot and check for/install patches fixes an amazing amount of things!!
Nothing wrong there, you used experience (other peoples experience accessed through the internet, but still) of that same symptom, to go straight to a few suspects, rather than diagnose it from the ground up yourself through all the possible causes. Worst case you would waste a few minutes finding out the problem wasn't in those places, and compared to the potential in saving time that's fine.
As said, the problem with silver bullets is when people turn to the parts cannon rather than actually confirming what the problem is before changing any parts. It's a way to know what to test first, not a way to avoid doing tests.
Great demonstration of using the info available and having good judgement.
Whatever works to expedite work orders!
Down south the "silver bullet" programs are referred to as a "little winder to look through", not a complete answer – just a peek at "what could be". Great diag Eric O.
Yes sir cause he's honest that way ! Keep em coming Mr and Mrs. O , we'll keep watching and 👍👍'ing !
I fix most of my own,that's the first thing I do,look to see who else has had the same problem.NOT CHEATING,ITS CALLED USING YOUR HEAD
How many times people use YOUR videos to fix issues? Too many to count, I'm sure. You have not sinned.
A question if I may… If fuse 23 goes to an under dash fuse/ relay box, wouldn't the next step be to pull the fuses or relays in that box to find which circuit was at fault?
I use to find draws with a test light,hook it up like you did at the end,if bulb lights up you got a draw,then I'd start pulling fuses till it went out,then I'd know where to look!!Great Video Brother
Nothing wrong with using what others have found, the tech community should help each other. One day someone will use your experience to fix an issue. You're paying for a program, use it
Re thermal imaging tool… your implication is you could use it to optically scan around the vehicle looking for 'warm' spots that would indicate a 500mA draw? I haven't seen you use it, would be interesting (get the battery charged! 🙂
I used it for verifying liquid level in tanks and drums vs gauge. That was old-days with a LN2 detector, a big clunky thing with over-shoulder belts. Nowadays, the imagers are smaller and better (thermoelectric cooled), attached to cellphone.
I enjoy watching you troubleshoot electrical problems Tks for the video
Nothing wrong with silver bullets! Nothing at all. Thanks for another awesome vidja!
You still learned stuff.
Great job man
Im with u eric. Ever since deregulation of airlines the race to cheaper bottom lines has underfunded maintenance and repairs the world over. I wouldnt fly either.
I’m guessing the AAA person that installed that battery got their training at Subway or maybe went all out and trained at Starbucks
The whole point of the Identifix search repairs is to congregate all of our repairs. It's like a mechanic convention at your fingertips. Nothing wrong with helping others or helping yourself, right?
had the same on a Subaru. Also "back up fuse" and all kind of interior lights connected to it. In my case the indicator light in the right door was the culprit. Took me ages to identify the problem. You are professional, i am not.
Those diagnostic programs Mr. O uses are expensive subscriptions, likely for all he uses over $1K a month. They are worth it if can find and fix a problem. I am quite sure he notes in those 'silver bullet' programs his success from using them.
I always use SMAfix LOL!
Auto shop class with Mr. And Mrs O, happy st Patrick’s day
I worked as a photocopier repair guy from 2000 to 2010. So much of what you do is not unlike the stuff we did. 5 minutes after starting out I figured out that the troubleshooting diagram in the manual was useless, because it just told you to replace every part from the source of the fault to the main PCB and then replace that.
You had to go by the symptoms, error codes and a basic understanding how the thing worked and figure it out for yourself. In the end out company even had an online faults database, where techs would describe unusual faults they found and how they fixed it.
The worst techs were the ones who would follow the manual and the online database, because it would almost never fix the fault.
I've been working on my own cars (and anything else broken I can get my hands on) since forever and found that fault analysis and faultfinding is a universal process. You just need to understand how the thing works and what could be broken to cause the fault you're seeing.
I now work in tech support for large customer networks and it's still the same.
If you have an understanding of how something works, you can also understand why it doesn't work.
I just suck donkey balls at Linux. 😂
I thought you were referring to the movie, circa 1985, Gary Busey, Everett McGill, Corey Haim. Written by Stephen King.
so if a shop is throwing parts at a car and the parts they are taking off are still good.. and the owner says keep the parts i want to inspect them… and you can do ohm tests or whatever on them and prove they are good… ……………… I am just saying throw a part at a car and it doesn't fix it .. the shop should eat it..
Working on a new Detroit Diesel Series 60 a long time a go with a problem I wasnt going any wheres with so I called the engineer at Detroit Diesel he asked me if I googled it I said no so he did then told me to check what he found there and yep that was it Dam it the engineer looks it up on google
There you go
You and Mrs. O are so wholesome, you make the Waltons look like Boyz n the Hood.
Using “silver bullets” is a perfectly acceptable form of diagnostics. As a founding member of iATN, which was bought out by Identifix years ago mainly for its vast searchable database of repairs allowing for techs to search a problem and see what others have done to fix them was a game changer in the auto repair field, I used silver bullet diagnosis many times. Properly used it can save you lots of time diagnosing a problem. While it shouldn’t be used to load a parts cannon it can guide you down a path that along with critical thinking skills can help you find the problem quicker. We called them “pattern failures” and every good tech uses them daily. Case in point was the Grand Marquis with a code for EGR flow issues, everyone knew the most likely cause was clogged passages and jumped right to pulling the intake elbow and cleaning the passages. Pattern failures or silver bullets are nothing more then another tool in your arsenal and properly used will save you time and help you fix problems better. Kinda like calling the dealer and asking about a part and being told they have never stocked or sold that part before will make you triple think your diagnostic finding. On the other hand if they stock tons of the part chances are your on the right track. Good techs use every available piece of info possible to determine what is needed to fix a problem.
Not only is it not cheating, it is how society progresses. Most science and engineering is built on the work of those who preceded us. No reason it should be any different for auto diagnostics.
No need to feel dirty for using your brain. It's our years of experience that lead us to these "cheats" that make us invaluable to our customers for expert repairs at acceptable prices.
Awesome explanation! I feel like I'm back in school Good Job Young Man.
Eric, you forgot the drawdown link, lol
What ever happened to Mrs O's standing desk?
Not cheating. It would be un-business like to waste time trying to fix manually. You have tools, outside support. Like you mentioned, you have a parking lot full of other cars that need work.
Every good service tech deserves a cheat vehicle every now and then.
Is it cheating if you use an impact instead of a wrench? A tool is a tool. Live long and prosper. ✌
Will you go on line and post that it worked for you?
I’ve always said that if someone can show me a quicker solution and still accurate then why wouldn’t I use it, great post Eric
Shared knowledge is a good thing, but must be confirmed through observation.
I hear Alldata has a tech assist hotline that helps techs with diagnosing issues rather than throwing parts at it and that they also have a Community section full of previous common fixes to entertain.
You know what we need, feature on the scan tool that disable module. Like we should be able to go to the gateway module and disrupt neighboring modules
You're fixing a fault, not teaching a class in repair theory. Send it.
All great stuff keep it coming.
The "back up" fuse is removed by Honda during shipment, as you see it controls a few circuits. I have seen where a theft attempt, i.e. a screwdriver to the drivers door lock cylinder has caused a draw on this circuit as well. I always start by looking at the door cylinder now on battery draw complaints.
You Are the silver bullet🔧
No cheating there, Eric O! Based on the customer's choice to not replace simple (and likely inexpensive) components, it's likely they'd have chosen the silver bullet route anyway given the choice.
Yet another great SMA video–parasitic draw videos never get old and we can never learn enough from you.
Eric O you’re my hero🙃
I have pro-demand but not identa -fix. The selective google search is sometimes as useful.Your channel is a first stop in that process. Your thought process is very linear and I enjoy watching.
You used your brain, didn’t cheat. You narrowed it down via the ‘silver bullet’, then evaluated that, found the busted thing….bravo