by Gary Hixson

4 Ways to Use Your Repair Information as a Valuable Training Tool

Change is a certainty in the automotive industry. With technologies like driverless cars, pedestrian detection and driver state assessment systems (just to name a few) all coming in our future, lifelong learning will be a reality for everyone in our industry. Shops are already facing increasingly complex vehicles in their bays, but shop owners and technicians are not the only ones who have to keep up. Information providers like Mitchell 1 are also continuously updating data to reflect the latest and greatest innovations that auto manufacturers are introducing to the market.

Clearly this trend isn’t going to change any time soon. One of the most important ways that techs can stay current with the industry is by having the latest repair information available quickly. This is the driving force behind ProDemand. The editorial team at Mitchell 1 is continuously updating and adding to the millions of pages of OEM repair data that power the ProDemand engine, so users always have up-to-date vehicle content available.

Another way to keep pace is to understand what vehicle repair issues other techs are dealing with in their shops. This is what SureTrack, the diagnostic module in ProDemand, is all about. SureTrack is constantly delivering new real-world information based on the latest repair experiences of thousands of professional technicians. The database currently contains tens of millions of these “Real Fixes,” and new content is being added at the rate of about 200,000 new Real Fixes per month.

ProDemand with SureTrack also delivers component tests, a vast database of “known good” values and waveforms, plus component failure graphs. These features add to the core OEM and real-world insight to help technicians not only diagnose problems more effectively, but also to understand how the systems in the vehicle function.

For techs who want a more interactive experience, the SureTrack community provides an opportunity to ask questions and share information with their peers. This resource offers some of the very best learning a technician could ask for – it’s like on-the-job training from professionals who have faced the very same vehicle problems in their bays.

Here are four of the newest features in ProDemand that help you stay on top of your game:

1. Top 10 Repair Lists – With every vehicle search in ProDemand, techs get a jumpstart toward the correct diagnosis and repair with detailed information about the top 10 most common component failures, diagnostic trouble codes (DTCs), symptoms and lookups for the vehicle selected.
2. Quick Links – This is the fastest route to the most commonly accessed information in ProDemand: technical bulletins, common specifications and procedures, a DTC index, electrical component locations, fluid capacities, tire fitment and wiring diagrams. 
3. Smarter Searches – Type in a symptom, trouble code or component and ProDemand’s 1Search feature delivers a list of verified fixes that have resolved the same symptom for other technicians. It’s an excellent starting point to direct technicians quickly to an accurate diagnosis and repair.
4. ProView – Once a code or symptom is selected in ProDemand, the ProView feature provides all of the known fixed components for that code or symptom, or multiple codes and symptoms, based on real-world content. This allows technicians to quickly see the most commonly repaired components and plan a diagnosis strategy to resolve the problem.

You might not have thought about your repair information resource as a training tool. But along with formal training and certifications verifying your knowledge, it’s good to think about other ways to stay current with the industry. Isn’t it nice to know that the tools you’re already using to repair vehicles can also help you keep your skills honed and ready for the advanced vehicles that will be arriving in your bays?

• Read more about the Top 10 Repair Lists
• Read more about Quick Links
• Read more about 1Search
• Read more about ProView