Bright idea that will save you £50 !

[fletch8]

Car has been randomly cutting out as I'm slowing down at junctions/lights etc.
Wasn't sure what it was, rang Renault who wanted £50 to plug it into their fandabydozy machine an tell me. Not paying £50 for someone's 5minutes work!

I had an idea, I rang the rac and told them the truth really and that I was at home and wasn't sure how safe my car was to drive.

Guy came out, plugged it in to his machine "oh you've got a speed sensor fault", cheers mate thanks, wa my response. So now I know what it is and didnt pay a penny for the privelage!

Question now is, where do I get a speed sensor and how hard are they to fit?

 

[mickstoke]

Theres the tdc sensor and you can buy them on ebay

 

[fletch8]

Tdc sensor the same as speed sensor?

 

[mickstoke]

thats the only 1 i can think of as it reads the flywheel! the only other speed sensors are on the wheels

 

[fletch8]

Speed sensor as well. eBay £20.

 

[jenic]

Top idea mate.

Who wants to pay Renault to just get a proper diagnosis and an actual part number of what actually needs replacing? This idea of getting your breakdown to plug in their generic code reader and give you a clue to the problem for you to have to decipher sounds so much more fun!

 

[fletch8]

Lowest form of wit is sarcasm. People on here slate renault when it comes to prices/quality of both parts and work so I thought I'd try it another way. And if I took it to any other garage I'd imagine they'd have a generic diagnostic machine, same as the rac would have at a guess. Sorry I fail to see what's so crazy about what I've done?

 

[montana]

Winner on the cheap fix , you have to make that cover work for you

 

[Gavin J]

Done this many a time, helps avoid paying a garage an hours labour to diagnose something.

 

[daveyboy]

Genius idea! Pay for a years breakdown. & im sure with renaults reliability this little spin will pay for its self... Thanks !

 

[Alastair.]

cool story bro

 

[MicKPM]

So this car of yours has been coming to a stop/stalling out when you approach junctions and it has been "Diagnosed" by the RAC as a "Speed Sensor" which you trust?

Now I've not seen your car so haven't seen the codes or the live data BUT that to me sounds more like an idle air control fault rather than crank position sesnor fault. I've had so many cars in my workshop with electrical faults from those morons before that are totally wrong over the years; one of which was a Megane Coupe which apparently had a "Transmission Selector Switch fault" despite it being a manual gearbox which doesn't even have this so called switch! That turned out to be a fuel pressure regulator issue but they're the experts!

Not all specialists and garages use crappy "Generic" Diagnostic equipment - Some of us understand that there's not one machine out there that can do everything 100% perfectly and some bits of kit will be strong on a few marques but will be totally useless on another hence are unreliable. Its for this reason I personally use several pieces of kit all by SPX who are the people that make dealer equipment for the majority manufacturers such as Ford, Toyota, Renault, VAG that cost more than £11k. In addition to these I also use genuine UK dealer level equipment for French vehicles. This stuff isn't cheap to buy and more importantly keep up to date with patches, technical fixes and software updates on an annual basis and as you need them to work with new cars I personally think its fair that you have to pay £25-30 to find out what's wrong with your car.

Its very easy to plug in, read codes and say "yep, that's the problem part, change it" and in a perfect world that's how it would be... in the real world however its not always that simple or clear cut and anyone that changes parts based purely on what a code reader say's is a lunatic IMO. Its all about interprutation of the fault codes Vs understanding what's actually happening with the engine, engine management and the elctrical infastructure itself and its that experience and ability to correctly "diagnose" what makes the difference and what you're really paying for.

Mick

 

[jamesd1263]

Rac picked up no faults on my 172

Snap-on bloke used his and it picked up 10 (pulling sensors out when engine was running to find a fault caused them)

 

[olliewebbuk]

The RAC diagnostic system is utter rubbish.

I remember a few years back when I had a 1.4 16v I had a pencil coil go. I was stuck really since I was somewhere unfamiliar and didn't know of any local motorfactors. I rang my RAC cover and told him which cylinder the faulty code was on. He didn't believe me, the mong, so he plugged in his diagnostic computer to which I started laughing at him because it couldn't tell which cylinder wasn't firing.

I did the unplug the faulty one and then one that is working trick to prove it to him, be he "wasn't sure" so he then went to swap the coil to another cylinder. f**king MURRRR! The RAC are only good for getting to petrol or towing you home tbh.

 

[montana]

Lots of speculation on this thread - however there is always a chance the RAC could have been right and he did infact save himself money - we will have to await an update.

 

[fletch8]

i understand all of your views to be honest, and input as well, thats why i posted because some will agree and disagree, suppose thats what a forum is all about.

im not saying its 100% the fault, my understanding was that whatevers wrong with the car will through up a code which said machine then reads and tells you what part that code relates to (my understanding being very limited)

after this "stalling" happens the trip computer etc all reset itself too, so i think its slightly more than a speed sensor myself but not sure if the speed sensor would cause this also.


if i just took it to renault who fleeced me for £x when i hadnt tried another way id constantly be wondering if they fixed just the problem or indeed "found" other faults.

 

[daveyboy]

Sounds like a faulty power connection!

 

[Rob]

I'd put it at 90% crank (TDC) sensor.

 

[jon_r]

I'd put it at 90% crank (TDC) sensor.

Remove, blow on it. Replace.

 

[jack_davey]

Just because you get a fault code for a certain sensor, it doesnt necessarily mean that sensor is broken and needs replacing.
All it tells you is that is where the fault has been detected.

I've worked for breakdown organisations like the RAC, and I've lost count of how many times I've had customers moaning because they've replaced a part based upon a fault code read by one of my colleagues at the roadside.

Diagnostics costs money for a good reason.

 

[MicKPM]

Remove, blow on it. Replace.

Is that your best chat-up line?

 

[Blue Mez]

Lowest form of wit is sarcasm. People on here slate renault when it comes to prices/quality of both parts and work so I thought I'd try it another way. And if I took it to any other garage I'd imagine they'd have a generic diagnostic machine, same as the rac would have at a guess. Sorry I fail to see what's so crazy about what I've done?

But he highest form of intelligence!

 

[Russ_16v]

People often wonder why we charge for fault finding at work (VW) but as Mick says we have paid out near £9k each for our test computers,(we have 4) plus the licences for updates etc - we find the fault first time but we need to pay for these machines some how

 

[jack_davey]

we need to pay for these machines some how

Too f*cking right mate, if every workshop used a mickey mouse code reader and performed what I like to call "lottery diagnostics" people would kick off big time when you replace tonnes of unnecessary parts without/before rectifying the fault...

 

[Russ_16v]

We get this alot, people coming in asking us to replace air mass meters then complaining when it doesn't fix the fault - 'well thats what the fault code reader said' - oh that makes my working life such a pain lol, you imply cannot explain to a retail customer that something else may be bringing up the error.Good example is on mk4 Golfs, the oil light can be a bonnet switch fault, but because the light didnt go out when the lady topped the oil up, she kept topping it up until it literally was running out the filler cap lol

 

[MicKPM]

I've pulled 11litres of oil from a smoking Focus 1.6 6v before due to that - One garage diagnosed it as a head gasket failure

Some people shouldn't be allowed access to under the bonet of a car.

 

[olliewebbuk]

I've pulled 11litres of oil from a smoking Focus 1.6 6v before due to that.

Ahaha really?!

That is actually mental.