Yes, 99% of cases.

However, certain imports, primarily from Asian markets such as Japan, that were not originally intended for the European market may not be equipped with the necessary communication ports, but this is very rare.

Also, for newer vehicles, certain manufacturers will delay releasing information for as long as possible to prevent all but their own dealers from being able to diagnose and repair their vehicles. As such, there may also be instances where, while we can connect to the vehicle, it may not allow us to scan it, or we may be able to scan it but not perform certain operations needed to complete a repair.

The system that our scanning tools use to communicate with the vehicle was adopted as the standard in 1996 for all American vehicles and in 2001 and 2007 for all petrol and diesel vehicles manufactured in or intended for sale in EU, including the UK.

As such, we can connect our specialist scanning tool to any vehicle that adopted the standard from that point.

However, that doesn’t mean we cannot diagnose faults in older vehicles. Should you book a car diagnostic test for an older vehicle, you will still get 30 minutes of diagnosis and investigation work by one of our technicians, it just will not involve the use of a scanning tool.

Much like diagnosing human illness, diagnosing vehicle faults is not a guaranteed first-time fix. Within the 30-minutes provided by our car diagnostic test, our technician will be able to either;

• Provide a run-down of the most likely causes of the fault, making recommendations of which solutions to try first, or
• Provide an estimate for the additional time that will be needed to further pinpoint the fault by performing additional diagnosis work, such as isolated component testing.

Where there is more than one possible issue that could be causing the fault, our recommendations of which solutions to try first will usually be based on the most likely cause. However, sometimes, we may recommend addressing a slightly less likely cause of the fault, where this is a much cheaper and quicker fix than the most likely cause.

In all instances, we will discuss our findings with you and explain the various options so you can make an informed decision.

Covered in the price of the diagnostic test is 30 minutes of diagnosis and investigation work by one of our technicians.

The car diagnostic test begins with one of our technicians connecting a specialist scanning tool to the vehicle’s On-Board Diagnostics (OBD) system to search for any diagnostic trouble codes (DTCs) stored within the vehicle memory.

Each diagnostic trouble code relates to a system or component that the vehicle has detected to be operating outside of expected limits and therefore helps to point our technicians towards the cause of the fault.

For many diagnostic trouble codes that have caused a dashboard warning light to illuminate, the initial 30-minute diagnostic test is sufficient time to pinpoint the cause of the fault.

However, the test is not a guarantee of finding and fixing the error, and sometime additional time may be needed for further investigation, which will be chargeable.

Whenever a light comes on your dashboard you should refer to your vehicle handbook as your first port of call to ensure that you follow any manufacturer’s recommendations and guidance.

However, as a general rule of thumb, if the warning light is red, you need to take immediate action and stop driving as soon as it’s safe to do so. If the warning light is yellow, the vehicle is safe to drive with extra care but should be driven as little as possible until a diagnostic check is undertaken by one of our branches. Ideally, once a yellow light illuminates, your next journey would be to one of our branches.