Car Automotive

At this stage it is important to emphasize the need to be methodical. A simple,but effective approach to diagnostic work is known as the ‘six-steps’ approach.This six-step approach may be recognized as an organized approach to problem solving, in general. As quoted here it may be seen that certain steps are recursive.
That is to say that it may be necessary to refer back to previous steps as one proceeds to a solution. Nevertheless, it does provide a proven method of ensuring that vital steps are not omitted in the fault tracing and rectification process. The six steps are:

• collect evidence
• analyze evidence
• locate the fault
• find the cause of the fault and remedy it
• rectify the fault
• test the system to verify that repair is correct

Collecting evidence means looking for all the symptoms that relate to the fault and not jumping to conclusions, e.g. because the system is controlled by an ECU it must be the ECU that is at fault. In order to collect the evidence it is necessary to know  which components on the vehicle actually form part of the faulty system. This is where sound basic skills comes in. If an engine control system is malfunctioning because one cylinder has poor compression it is important to discover this at an early stage of the diagnostic process.

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