Diagnostic Software

[Guest Stephen345]

Hello,

 

My c3 (diesel) has become very sluggish and the engine management light has come on. I called one dealer who wanted £40 just to plug it into his computer; another dealer wanted almost £80 to do the same. I think these charges are insulting. How can they justify £80 just to plug in their computer?

 

Anyway, I see that various diagnostic software and devices are available on ebay. Has anyone ever tried any of them? Are they compatible with Citroens and are they any good? Will they tell you what the error is?

 

Thanks.

[kfk]

Just plugging the computer into your car isnt going to tell you whats wrong, what it will do however is provide the first clues as to where to start looking for the fault........£80 for a diagnostic check.....about an hours labour and someone interpreting the information to provide a diagnosis....not a bad price, but to those that dont understand whats involved it can appear excessive.

[Guest Stephen345]

Just plugging the computer into your car isnt going to tell you whats wrong, what it will do however is provide the first clues as to where to start looking for the fault........£80 for a diagnostic check.....about an hours labour and someone interpreting the information to provide a diagnosis....not a bad price, but to those that dont understand whats involved it can appear excessive.

 

 

IIRC you are a Citroen dealer, so I am not surprised you are defending these high charges. How can one Citroen dealer charge £40 and another justify charging twice that? IMHO even £40 is forty pounds too much.

 

I read your similar reply to another post and I know you will argue that you are paying for someone's time to hook up the computer. However, surely the point is that the dealer should hook the car up free of charge and say you have a problem with your turbocharger, then make a handsome profit charging £200 per hour to replace the turbo charger, more than compensating for the five minutes it took to hook up the computer.

 

You are correct that I don't know what's involved behind the scenes and perhaps if I did I would change my mind, however I have a very dim view of Citroen dealers (long story) and I do not believe it is an hour's labour nor that it involves someone interpreting the data. If it takes one hour to interpret what the computer says then someone hasn't written the software right. Surely the point of computers is to do the interpreting of data in milliseconds? I don't even want an analysis; just to be told what the error code was that triggered the lamp.

 

The car is booked to go to an independent garage that has bought the diagnostic equipment and they will diagnose free of charge, recouping their investment when they do the work (as described above). However, I do wonder of the value of these ebay items, provided they work, in helping the DIY mechanic that doesn't want to be robbed by his local franchise.

[kfk]

I'll give you a scenario that has occured this week

 

A customer bought his car in because it was smoking & the diagnostic light was on, the charge for initial inspection was limited to £60, a decode was carried out and it was established within 5 minutes that there was a fault with the air flow sensor readings/circuit.

 

From that point tests were carried out to find out why the air flow sensor had experienced a fault. It was decided after several electrical checks that the fault was going to be related to the smoking issue.....and, upon removal of the turbo intake pipe we found the nut for the turbo spindle had been playing roulette with the turbo vanes, suprisingly the turbo wasnt noisy and was still working.....however it had suffered a partial seizure due to oil starvation caused by a blocked filter in the turbo feed pipe.

 

Now if we had done a quick decode free of charge and sent the owner on his way, based on a quick check of the system he would have gone to our parts department and bought an air flow meter.....because we did it properly he didnt buy bits he didnt need, and in the process stopped the 10mm nut dissapearing down the inlet valve tract........as a further point, the customer has decided he doesnt want us to do the turbo because he has a mate who will do it for him......so at least i have earnt £60.......doing things for nothing cost you money in the long run......if they cant commit to £60 diagnosis maybe they dont want it fixed with us....so why do it for nothing?

[Guest Stephen345]

I'll give you a scenario that has occured this week

 

A customer bought his car in because it was smoking & the diagnostic light was on, the charge for initial inspection was limited to £60, a decode was carried out and it was established within 5 minutes that there was a fault with the air flow sensor readings/circuit.

 

From that point tests were carried out to find out why the air flow sensor had experienced a fault. It was decided after several electrical checks that the fault was going to be related to the smoking issue.....and, upon removal of the turbo intake pipe we found the nut for the turbo spindle had been playing roulette with the turbo vanes, suprisingly the turbo wasnt noisy and was still working.....however it had suffered a partial seizure due to oil starvation caused by a blocked filter in the turbo feed pipe.

 

Now if we had done a quick decode free of charge and sent the owner on his way, based on a quick check of the system he would have gone to our parts department and bought an air flow meter.....because we did it properly he didnt buy bits he didnt need, and in the process stopped the 10mm nut dissapearing down the inlet valve tract........as a further point, the customer has decided he doesnt want us to do the turbo because he has a mate who will do it for him......so at least i have earnt £60.......doing things for nothing cost you money in the long run......if they cant commit to £60 diagnosis maybe they dont want it fixed with us....so why do it for nothing?

 

Sorry for the late reply. If someone takes their car elsewhere once you have done the diagnosis, then it's only fair you charge for the diagnosis but if they let you work on the car, I think the diagnosis should be free because you recoup the cost of the diagnosis from the work done. However, if the dealerships' rates were not so high, people would not want to go elsewhere. I only go elsewhere because I cannot afford the prices at the citroen franchise! In your example the chap got more than just a computer reading for £60 and that sounds a fair price, sadly my local dealer is not as generous 75+VAT just to hook up to the computer.

[Cupcake]

Hello,

 

My c3 (diesel) has become very sluggish and the engine management light has come on. I called one dealer who wanted £40 just to plug it into his computer; another dealer wanted almost £80 to do the same. I think these charges are insulting. How can they justify £80 just to plug in their computer?

 

Anyway, I see that various diagnostic software and devices are available on ebay. Has anyone ever tried any of them? Are they compatible with Citroens and are they any good? Will they tell you what the error is?

 

Thanks.

 

 

I took my car to the Citroen garage today as my C3 Hdi seems a bit sluggish and the cruise when set, loses speed. They wanted to charge 40+VAT for 30 mins, to give it a diagnostics test. I too think this is expensive and they cannot fit it in until 17th November! It may well be off the road by then, so I will have to take it elsewhere. What was your fault in the end?

[techbod]

normally its about £80 is but worthless because they only tell you the fault and don't fix it so invest in a diagnostic tool and boot them buggers out :o ps lexia3 is crap on the newer cars ( dealer promotion ) as most diagnostics work and are cheap

[CE08LDB]

The Computers the Dealers use arn't cheap And they are constantly being updated. Like My Dealer had one 2 years ago which costs £30,000 then recently had to be updated again so I suppose they need to make a charge.

 

I do agree that all Dealers should charge the same.

[techbod]

I must admit I prefered it when no car had computers things were easier to repair but technology has to move on I suppose but the dealers use it as a cash cow just like the government and the motorist is keeping this country because the car needs repairs so the we are going round in circle's trying to keep out of debt and they do their best to put you in it :D the never ending storey ;)

[CE08LDB]

I must admit I prefered it when no car had computers things were easier to repair but technology has to move on I suppose but the dealers use it as a cash cow just like the government and the motorist is keeping this country because the car needs repairs so the we are going round in circle's trying to keep out of debt and they do their best to put you in it :D the never ending storey ;)

[/quote

 

Some Citroen staff I have spoken to have said that these cars has too many computers in them. But thats the way its going and hopefully in the future computers will be more advanced and will run well.

 

Look at the SensoDrive Gearbox. I know its not everyone's cup of tea but its giving people like myself who can't drive a fully Manual car the benifits a manual driver has. Thats down to new Technology.

 

Ok and it had its niggles on the earlier cars but everything does. Like I will admit my Brothers C3 is awfull and the dam computer can't find a fault but my 2 cars has been great and not once have they had to go on the computer. Touch Wood.lol :)

[mrrigga]

Can anyone tell me where I find the diagnostic socket on the C5 is it somewhere in the ECU compartment

Thank You

[Johndouglas]

Open the glove box. At the back there's a little flap that pulls off. The OBD socket is over to the left

[mrrigga]

Hi John

Thanks for the prompt reply :unsure:

[iannez]

The thing is when cars did not have computers you would never get 110bhp from a family sized diesel car that would do 60mpg would you. said all i have to say about the cost of diag checks in previous posts. take your cars where you want and let the bulk of backstreet garages take them to a dealer for you.