Car technology has exploded in the last decade. Body repair in the past was more about sheet metal, grill and bumper replacement, now it requires a lot of very hi-tech electronics. Auto body shops must be prepared to fix a computer on wheels or they are literally endangering lives. With more complex parts and electronic components comes the ever-increasing need to incorporate pre and post-scanning of the computer systems into today’s auto body repair process.
The first electronic control units (ECU) showed up in the 70’s, to handle automatic transmission shifting, ignition timing etc. Now almost 50 years later, your vehicle has hundreds of computer functions in your car like, airbags, Inflatable seat belts, adaptive steering, remote-control parking, rear view mirrors with streaming HD video. These are just a few of the computerized safety and convenience items found on today’s cars. While advanced systems might be making life easier for drivers, they’re making things much harder for collision repair shops. It has never been so critical to pick a body shop that knows what they are doing and stays up to date on the latest OEM specifications and procedures. After an accident all cars must be scanned to validate all the computers are operational.
As recently quoted in an article in Body Shop Business, “New high-end vehicles have up to 100 million lines of code,” said Jake Rodenroth, director of client services for AsTech. “There are only 60 million lines of code in all of Facebook. So these are very complex machines that we’re working on.”
Simply stated, there are very few newer cars that do not require scanning to assure that the systems are reset and will perform like they did pre-accident. Scanning will reset these items but may require you to reset things like Bluetooth or automatic seat and mirror memory. Once reset these items preference settings may be lost. Almost every auto manufacturer is now stating that their cars must be scanned after an accident.
You must find a shop that understand scanning and is doing it on a daily basis. Do not assume that a body shop has the expensive scanners to verify that all codes are clear. You’d be surprised at how few, even dealer body shops, have the required equipment.
Every Collision Pros shop is equipped with an aftermarket scanner for easy resets as well as an AsTech scanner for any vehicle requiring a factory scan tool or recalibration of essential programs. You can be assured that when you get your car back, it will have no codes or malfunctioning safety items.
