Fault-finding and cambelts

Servicing is certainly the backbone of the regular workload in any workshop, but fault-finding and diagnostics also play an important part.

I often take calls along the lines of, “My heater stopped working, what’s gone wrong?” The short answer is likely to be, “Sorry, I don’t have a clue.” You see, I will need a bit more information to have the slightest chance of diagnosing a fault by phone.

I need to know exactly which heater system we’re talking about, too; likely faults in a Truma S series are going to be completely different to those that crop up in an Eberspächer diesel-fired unit, for just one example.

I’ve had some interesting faults to deal with recently; thankfully for the customers involved, none of them was major or expensive to fix. In fact, many of the faults that I see could be fixed by the owners, with little more than a screwdriver and some fine emery tape!

Potential problems with lights and water

First up is lighting faults. We’re talking vehicle road lights,