John Bean V2280 wheel aligner
Published: 14 April, 2020
The new John Bean V2280 is designed to be robust, and features an automatic tracking beam, while its cameras move automatically up and down following the targets. The Compensate, Warn and Alert system detects problems with suspension stress and damage, lift, clamps, environment and more. Wheel rims from 11inches to 22inches can be worked on without adaptors and without removing hubcaps thanks to new lightweight wheel clamps. Work can be quickly started from the home screen, and the vehicle selection process has also been improved with a model search capability. As a result, a vehicle’s alignment history can be easily stored and recovered.
www.johnbean.com
- John Bean V1200 Elite Wheel Aligner
The new John Bean V1200 Elite wheel aligner from Snap-on offers advanced yet user-friendly software and a unique space-saving design to workshops. With no moving parts and a robust but compact design, the V1200 Elite takes up minimal room in the workshop, and requires no space at all in front of a lift. It is built to work flexibly with any alignment lift style and enhance performance in any layout. All communication happens wirelessly with no beams or cables taking up valuable space in a working area, while 3D vehicle measurement provides accurate and live adjustment along with full vehicle dimensions. It is cordless, with Wi-Fi both for alignment components and for connection to the internet, and has a mobile control terminal with 22-inch monitor, printer and battery chargers for pod batteries. The new information preview provides critical data before work begins, while the live alignment error checking system notifies the user of errors as they happen without slowing the process. Visual indicators on the pods also guide the technician through the measuring process.
www.johnbean.com/en-gb/v1200-elite
- GSPR – Is it a four-letter word?
The Americans love acronyms. They even have an acronym for acronyms – ‘TLA’ is a ‘three letter acronym’. Well, there is now a new acronym to remember, but this one is from the EU and has four letters (should that then be a ‘FLA’?) – ‘GSPR’, or more correctly known as the ‘General Safety Protection Regulation’. The official title is the ‘REGULATION (EU) 2019/2144 OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND OF THE COUNCIL of 27 November 2019 on type-approval requirements for motor vehicles and their trailers, and systems, components and separate technical units intended for such vehicles, as regards their general safety and the protection of vehicle occupants and vulnerable road users’, a snappy little title that does not roll off your lips as easily as ‘GSPR’. This new Regulation has now passed into EU vehicle type approval law and will impose changes to vehicle design for all new vehicle models that are entering the market (i.e. new vehicle type approvals) from 6 July 2022.
Motivation
Let’s look at what this new Regulation is all about, and what relevance does it have to independent workshops.
The motivation behind this Regulation is to address the problem of 25,300 people dying on Europe’s roads in 2017; a figure that has remained constant in the previous four years. Moreover, 135,000 people are seriously injured. In addition to the safety measures to protect vehicle occupants, there are also specific measures to prevent fatalities and injuries of vulnerable road users, such as cyclists and pedestrians to protect road users outside of the vehicle.
By mandating these new safety systems, there should be a reduction in these figures, but equally, these vehicle systems will need diagnostics, repair and re-calibration, so there is a welcome potential for independent workshops.
In simple terms, the legislator has imposed new safety related systems for new vehicles, but these systems are mainly Advanced Driver Assist Systems, or ‘ADAS’ as a better-known acronym. The list of these new systems is:
- Changes in tech and training covered by IAAF Industry Briefing
The impact of technology on the garage sector and the changing face of training were just some of the topics covered at the first Independent Automotive Aftermarket Federation (IAAF) Industry Briefing of 2019.
- IMI launches new international EV training solution
Launching today (Tuesday 11 September) at Automechanika Frankfurt, the IMI is showcasing its new Electric Vehicle eLearning modules designed to transform the way people undertake training within the workplace.
With full-electric car sales in the EU set to reach 200,000 this year, the IMI has connected with Germany’s training academy, Lucas Nülle, to make continual learning convenient and interactive for individuals of all abilities.
Steve Nash, Chief Executive at the IMI, said: “Making sure that an employer and its employees are ready for the increased number of ultra-low emission vehicles is paramount to future-proofing a business. Being able to service and maintain these vehicles safely should be the key focus, especially when the industry is experiencing the biggest growth in automotive technology that we’ve ever seen.
“Advances in new technology are creating hundreds of thousands of new jobs across the world, and individuals working in the industry should be adopting this new training to make themselves leaders in their area of expertise. It’s an exciting time for the motor industry and the IMI is committed to making sure we’re ready to embrace the changes that are set to transform the sector.”
- Issues of rotation
I received a phone call from another garage: 'We've seen you in the Top Technician magazine and are wondering if you would be interested in looking at an ABS fault for us?' The call went along the usual lines, can the symptoms be recreated? What is the repair history? The vehicle was booked in for me to take a look.
The car in question was a 2011 Honda
CR-V, which had been taken as a trade in at a local garage, the fault only occurred after around 50-70 miles of driving, at which point the dash lights up with various warning lights. The vehicle had been prepped and sold to its new owner unaware a fault was present.
Fault-finding
After only a few days the fault occurred and the vehicle returned to the garage. They had scan checked the vehicle and the fault code ‘14-1- Left Front Wheel Speed Sensor Failure’ was retrieved. On their visual inspection, it was obvious a new ABS sensor had already been fitted to the N/S/F and clearly not fixed the fault. Was this the reason the vehicle had been traded in? They fitted another ABS sensor to the N/S/F and an extended road test was carried out. The fault reoccurred. This is when I received the phone call; the garage was now suspecting a control unit fault.
My first job was to carry out a visual inspection for anything that was obviously wrong and had possibly been over looked: correct tyre sizes, tyre pressures, tyre tread and excessive wheel bearing play. All appeared ok. The ABS sensors fitted to this vehicle are termed 'Active' meaning they have integrated electronic and are supplied with a voltage from the ABS control unit to operate. The pulse wheel is integrated into the wheel bearing, which on this vehicle makes it not possible to carry out a visual inspection without stripping the hub.
Endurance testing
With the vehicle scan checked, all codes recorded and cleared, it was time for the road test. Viewing the live data from all the sensors, they were showing the correct wheel speed readings with no error visible on the N/S/F. The road test was always going to be a long one, fortunately at around 30 miles, the dash lit up with the ABS light and lights for other associated systems; the fault had occurred. On returning to the workshop, the vehicle was rescanned, fault code '14-4 - Left Front Wheel Speed Sensor Failure’ was again present. Again using the live data the sensor was still showing the wheel speed the same as the other three, so whatever was causing the fault was either occurring intermittently or there was not enough detail in the scan tool live data graph display to see the fault. It was time to test the wiring and the sensor output signal for any clues.
Using the oscilloscope, the voltage supply and the ground wire were tested and were good at the time of test. I connected the test lead to the power supply wire and using the AC voltage set to 1V revealed the sensors square wave signal. Then rotating the wheel by hand and comparing the sensors output to one of the other ABS Sensors, again all appeared to be fine. A closer look at the signal was required, zooming in on the signal capture to reveal more detail; it became easier to see something was not quite right with the signal generated by the sensor when the wheel was rotated. With the voltage of the signal remaining constant, a good earth wire and the wheel rotated at a constant speed the signal width became smaller, effectively reporting a faster speed at that instant, not consistent with the actual rotational speed of the wheel. It was difficult to see the error, zooming out of the capture to show more time across the screen it could be seen that this appeared in the signal at regular intervals, although not visible all the time because it was such a slight difference. Using the cursors to measure between the irregular output and counting the oscillations, it was clear that it occurred at exactly the same interval every time. It had to be a physical fault on the pulse wheel.
This meant a new wheel bearing was required. The vehicle was returned to the garage as they wanted to complete the repair, a new wheel bearing was fitted and extended road testing confirmed the vehicle was now fixed.
