Most motorists know someone who is handy with a spanner, and for decades a weekend under the bonnet at home with a brother in law or a neighbour was how many South African families handled their car repairs. Justin, who manages Car Care Clinic at The Square in Sunninghill, sees the habit regularly land cars in his workshop in worse shape than when the problem first appeared.
“These days it’s really important to get your vehicle to a qualified electrician or mechanic due to the advancing stages of electronics in vehicles,” he said. “We get a lot of vehicles that’s basically been to my uncle or my friend and they bug it up.”
Why car repairs at home go wrong on modern cars
The modern car is as much a network of computers as it is an engine and a gearbox. Electronic control modules manage fuel injection, ignition timing, gear changes, braking, stability control, central locking, lighting and the dashboard itself, and the modules talk to one another constantly. Replacing a part on many newer cars is no longer just a matter of bolting it in; components such as steering angle sensors, keys and some control modules have to be coded to the car with diagnostic equipment before they work properly.
When an amateur repair goes wrong, the original fault is often buried under new ones, and Justin said unpicking that takes longer than the job would have taken in the first place. “For us to get to the solution and the fixing of your problem, it’s more difficult than to just start afresh when you get a service light, an engine light, a warning light,” he said.
A car brought in when the first warning appears, before anyone has had a go at it, lets technicians read the fault codes the car has stored and work from a clean starting point.
Coding, diagnostics and auto electrical work
Car Care Clinic’s auto electrical work at the Sunninghill branch covers ECU repair and coding, key coding, steering angle sensor replacement and coding, control and body control module repairs, wiring and harness repairs, alternators and starters, central locking, alarms and dashboard rewiring, alongside diagnostic scans that clear and resolve error codes and reset service indicators. The group says its technicians are trained on the latest diagnostic equipment, and its workshops are MIWA and RMI approved.
The branch is at Sunninghill Square, on the corner of Leeukop Street and Naivasha Road, and can be reached on 011 202 5244 or sunninghill@carcareclinic.co.za.
