VEHICLE DIAGNOSTICS BOOKAZINE

 Just to let you know I received my copy of the CM Understanding Vehicle Diagnostics and that I’m really over the moon with the information and knowledge that it has given me. Thank you, everybody...

I think it is important to let you know that I’m 78 years old and starting reading Car Mechanics 61 years ago when it was printed on that sort of paper that when it got damp or wet it pulled apart easily. All our repairs/servicing were done outside at the time and my parents had just gone up from an Austin A35 to a Mini Seven. I took over most of the servicing. I remember well the squared brake adjuster and the handbrake quadrants that were supposed to swing. Huh…?

Believe it or not I took ONC & HVC Electrical qualifications but only heard about transistors, diodes and thyristors from my TV friends or industrial engineers. I learned about AC motors and DC motors but never seemed to come across many needing me. I did know, however, that poking about could only make things worse so tended not to bother (ECUS).

When motor vehicles starting going all black box/ecu, I decided that I was being left behind and had nobody who could teach me. I had built an electronic points/capacitor discharge add-on given in Practical Electronics and for a time this did most of what I wanted. ECUS were always regarded as past my abilities.

Now with this CM publication I feel I am at least back in the groove. All the contributions are great but Deeper Diagnostics by James Stanbury has really filled me in, building on Rob Marshall’s platform. Without CM it is really true that people (with vehicles) would be a lot worse off. Thanks to everybody who puts together the magazine each month and the Diagnostics special issue. Name supplied

Martyn Knowles responds: Many thanks for taking the time to hand-write your thoughts to us. So glad the Understanding Vehicle Diagnostics special issue was good value to you. It was clearly a popular choice for many, because we ran out of stock within a month. Hopefully we can reprint it in the future.