Electronic safety systems on today’s vehicles are very important for occupant safety and must be checked after a repair for proper functionality. The pre-scan is now necessary for the repair facility to be able to help scope and estimate the repair processes required for a safe and complete repair.
The Equipment and Tool Institute (ETI) reports that the organization fully agrees with the process of the pre- and post-systems scan position many in the industry are taking.
This is an important concern for collision repair providers as the vast majority are not OEM dealership facilities. The need for affordable access to the tools that are essential to perform safe, complete and accurate repairs is extremely important, says ETI. It is unlikely most shops will be able to justify the purchase cost of multiple OEM scan tools for this procedure since independent repair and body shops work on a great variety of vehicles, thus, the importance of having accurate, timely and affordable OEM scan tool data provided to the aftermarket to ensure ETI members have the information necessary to fully emulate the factory tool functions.
“While we understand that many of the manufacturers do not know the capabilities of all the aftermarket scan tools, we know that many of the higher quality aftermarket tools provide the needed and necessary functions to complete a pre- and post-scan properly for a majority of the vehicles they currently service,” says the organization.
Data for the development of aftermarket scan tools is provided directly to scan tool manufacturers as agreed by previous contracts in the U.S. so as to be able to fully emulate the factory tool. Many OEMs provide this information in an affordable, accurate and timely manner. Yet some OEMs are less forthcoming and either restrict access to important data or price it at unaffordable levels. These access issues continue to plague the industry, says ETI.
The organization notes that it has no concern with repairers utilizing OEM tools when they are available and endorses their use in situations where they may be needed, e.g., vehicles in their early years of service, where coverage may not be implemented in the current aftermarket tool release.
For more information, contact Greg Potter, ETI executive manager, at [email protected] or 248-656-5080.
