OVERVIEW

From the earliest days of the commercial sale of the automobile, it has been obvious that maintenance is required to keep automobiles operating properly. Of course, automobile dealerships have provided this service for years, as have independent repair shops and service stations. But until the early 1970s, a great deal of the routine maintenance and repair was done by car owners themselves, using inexpensive tools and equipment. However, the Clean Air Act affected not only the emissions produced by automobiles but also the complexity of the engine control systems and, as a result, the complexity of automobile maintenance and repair. Car owners can no longer, as a matter of course, do their own maintenance and repairs on certain automotive subsystems (particularly the engine). In fact, the traditional shop manual used for years by technicians for repairing cars is rapidly becoming obsolete and is being replaced by electronic technician aids.

As will be shown later in this chapter, the trend in automotive maintenance is for the automobile manufacturer to distribute all required documentation, including parts lists (with figures) as well as repair procedures in electronic format via a dedicated communication link (e.g., via satellite) or via CD supplied to the mechanic. The repair information is then available to the technician at the repair site by use of a PC-like workstation.

The development of electronic engine control has increased the complexity of diagnosis and maintenance.

On-board digital systems can also store diagnostic information wherever a failure or partial failure occurs in...