Vehicle interlock
I am just trying to get at feel for what shops are doing with vehicles that have interlock"blow and go" devices . We are getting about 3 to 5 a week. They require extra time to start the car and can be difficult if the vehicle is a cranking not start. Do we need a Disclaimer signed before working on the car? Do we charge extra? If we do, are we responsible for any fees if we miss a retest (blow) while vehicle is running and we are diagnosing something else. Thanks
Those system are a royal PITA, some systems allow you to enter a code as a mechanic bypass, others make you blow suck blow etc just like the customer, then if you want to leave the car running you have to blow every few minutes. You can try calling the vendor before working on the car, but sometimes the system reports a fault and the customer gets a fine. I would like to start charging a
Charge out your time for the extra work. The last one I had in, the vehicle had a camera in it that required the vehicle owner to be in the front seat before the engine would start. I had the owner wait while I did the repair, and every time I needed to start the engine, I had her come and do it.
We do Not offer service for these vehicles at the shop. If I did they would have to be double the normal rate what a PIA and often vehicle driver does not even have spare tips for your mouth either... The few times I have run into them on mobile calls I tell the shop owner they are required to suck and blow...lol
When we encounter this situation,we call the people that installed,maintain and report when system is or is not functioning. They usually fax a waiver and tell you how to bypass system. We deal a lot with this with body shops we service. HTH,Charlie
First of all- why do you have such an extreme volume of them? Have you developed a special client base because you accept them? Second- absolutely charge for it somehow. Many of them now can be disabled by contacting the vendor, to allow vehicle service. When I worked on them in the past, I would sometimes just blow using a new mouth piece. However, they have gotten more complex since then, and
In Ontario we call a 1 800 number submit some Info and get a service bypass for 24 hours. Luckey for us theres an installer in the same building. They tend to only cut a starter signal up here