Lean conditions

Your engine running  lean can  cause real problems in your engine
No1 being  overheating and destruction of pistons,well your  ecu can compensate to a degree

Cooling systems

Your car s engine cooling system is  vital  one wrong component and bang it wil do just one thing overheat.
Once your engine as overheated  its very likely that your cylinder head will have warped blowing your head gasket maybe not straight away but sooner  or  later.
A cooling system needs maintenance  check your coolant level twice a week and make sure  all your hoses are checked for perishing or splitting each year
In fact all your cooling systems hoses should be replaced   after 3 years,otherwise they can fail under pressure when you are on the motorway just when you don't need it.

Tel:07891903013

Testing a coil on plug

Ignition leads on most cars  have now  been replaced by coil on plug eliminating rotor arms distributor caps and  all the  associated problems  damp weather ignition lead deterioration etc
So have all the  problems gone and we live in an ideal world...........   big no.
COP  as its own set of problems  that even up to date OBD2  doesn't always report correctly if it all in  most cases.
The usual way to  scope or use an oscilloscope on this arrangement is  in the image that tends to be very hit and miss

Tel:07891903013

 Our approach is to use an adapter between  the COP and plug allowing full ignition wave form analysis
as below

lunar auto diagnostics

A lovely capture

Here is a text book waveform from A MAF sensor.
A MAF uses the hot wire technique to measure airflow into your engine we wont go into how this works exactly at the moment  other than to say it is now the most common method of airflow measurement.
It is many advantages accuracy sped of response everything a conventional vane unit does have.
MAF units can gather dirt  and   paper fibres from air cleaner elements,so a regular check of their   function is  need to  ensure  correct function.Normally just a visual check.
MAF units can be cleaned but this needs great care otherwise you will wreck them

Tel:078791903013

l

our workhorse

Our work horse or one of them
Hameg 407 semi  digital unit that allows control by a laptop
40mhz bandwidth   and a fast sample rate allowing  capture of certain hard  to  trace events
remember an oscilloscope  is a basically an advanced voltmeter graphing  volts over time
An oscilloscope can capture an event measured nano seconds,a typical cylinder  spark lasts 2 milliseconds so  the oscilloscope allows you to   delve into that  2 millisecond event


Tel:07891903013

We cant find anything wrong with it!!!!!!!!

The classic  phrase from your local spanner monkeys.
Clearly they are wrong since you drive the  car and know it like the back of your hand.
Adding to the above driving a car is a complex experience and your perceptions of how it feels and runs are affected by your mood stress and other manner of factors.
A more rational  approach is how the car performs  ie its behaviour in different gears.
You communicate with  the car through the car through the engine,in fact the  car is simply a box with an engine.
So if the  engine is corrupting that communication then the whole  experience of driving the car is corrupted


Tel:07891903013

lunar auto diagnostics

Full range of engine fault diagnostic services Contact us for help

125,east bawtry road
Rotherham
south Yorkshire
s60 4lq

Is the mixture correct

Air fuel mixture  ratio in a petrol engine  is 14:1 or 14 parts air to 1 part petrol.
Is this an absolute rule yes and no.Sometimes  say under load your engine needs a richer mixture say under full throttle but overall it needs 14:1
An oscilloscope  connected to the secondary ignition can see the  mixture by  the amount of voltage in KV needed to fire the  cylinder
Remember this  is independent of   sensors and ecus or live data making  it a very powerful tool
here comes the rub  effort is needed to put an interpretation  on the waveform it wont tell you

Tel:07891903013

lunar auto diagnostics

Full range of engine fault diagnostic services Contact us for help

125,east bawtry road
Rotherham
south Yorkshire
s60 4lq

Oscillocope channels

The shot below  is showing two oscilloscope channels allowing the outputs of two sensors to be compared,especially useful in the case of cam and crankshaft sensors

Tel:07891903013

Engine fault diagnostics sheffield

We cover all of south Yorkshire and will  go further  afield if work  or a particular job warrants it.
We prefer to work in Sheffield the place we know
Remember if your car isn't feeling  right or not running correctly you are the best  person as the driver to make a judgement,don't let some tell  you  your imagining it,this  is akin to another person telling the pain you have from hitting your thumb with that big hammer is nothing.......... just bite your tongue

Tel:07891903013

lunar auto diagnostics

Full range of engine fault diagnostic services Contact us for help

125,east bawtry road
Rotherham
south Yorkshire
s60 4lq

well thats stupid

running out of petrol and wondering why the car wont start
This sounds ridiculous but we have had just that.An injection   systems needs a certain amount of fuel in the tank to maintain pressure.
Back in the days of carburettor cars   a  third full float chamber would you that extra  fraction of a mile,not so so injection systems.
Always keep your tank at least  quarter full with an injection system

Tel:07891903013